Europe’s banks will be given details of this year’s health check of the industry next week, potentially including the capital level needed to pass, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. Get the full story »
Filed under: Banking
Visit our Filed page for categories. To browse by specific topic, see our Inside page. For a list of companies covered on this site, visit our Companies page.
FDIC: Attempt to save ShoreBank appropriate
During an attempt to rescue South Side lender ShoreBank last year, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair called Wall Street banks soliciting investments in the bank, but a new report by the FDIC’s inspector general concluded the intervention wasn’t inappropriate. The report, released Thursday, also disclosed that the estimated loss to the FDIC’s insurance fund from ShoreBank’s failure has grown substantially since its August failure, standing at $452 million. Get the full story>>
PNC boosts presence, adds name to 1 N. Franklin
PNC Bank, the Chicago area’s fourth-biggest bank, is stepping up its profile in downtown Chicago.
The Pittsburgh-based bank, which now occupies about 80,000 square feet at One North Franklin, has signed a new lease that will increase its presence at the Tishman Speyer property to 116,000-square-feet over the next two years, with a term extension until 2022. Get the full story »
Fed report: No wrongful foreclosures by banks
From The Huffington Post | A months-long investigation into abusive mortgage practices by the Federal Reserve found no wrongful foreclosures, members of the Fed’s Consumer Advisory Council said Thursday.
JPMorgan mulls $50 cap on debit card purchases
Your debit card may soon be denied for purchases greater than $100 — or even as little as $50.
JPMorgan Chase, one of the nation’s largest banks, is considering capping debit card transactions at $50 or $100, according to a source with knowledge of the proposal.
Why? Because of interchange fees. Get the full story »
Wintrust to build ‘community,’ network banks
Wintrust Financial Corp., which has long downplayed its corporate name in favor of touting its individual community banks, plans to give each of its 15 lending institutions the “sub-brand” of “A Wintrust Community Bank.”
The $14 billion-asset lender also disclosed on Monday that, for the first time, customers at one of its community banks will be able to conduct business at another one by late summer. Get the full story »
First Midwest plans downtown facility
First Midwest Bank, which has grown into one of the area’s biggest banks without a presence in downtown Chicago, confirmed that it plans to set up shop for the first time in the city’s central business district.
The bank told the Tribune that it plans to open an office in a LaSalle Street building in the Loop in early April. It’s not divulging the address until a lease for the property, which has 3,500 to 4,000 square feet, is signed, which should occur “shortly,” a bank spokesman said. The office will handle commercial banking, cash management and trust services, he said. Get the full story »
Banks boosting rates on long-term CDs
Attention, beleaguered savers: Banks across the nation, including Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and Northern Trust Corp., are bumping up rates on longer-term certificates of deposit.
In general, rates had fallen since the financial crisis. “Last week was the first broad-based move higher in quite some time,” says Greg McBride, senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com. Get the full story »
Urban Partnership moving Bellwood branch
Chicago-based Urban Partnership Bank, the successor to failed ShoreBank, is closing its Bellwood branch at 219 Mannheim Road in May, and opening a new one in the neighborhood this fall at 4310 St. Charles Road. Get the full story »
FDIC cites poor management in ShoreBank failure
The failure of Chicago-based ShoreBank was blamed Wednesday on poor risk management by its directors and officers, and its losses to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will be worse than originally expected.
Politically connected ShoreBank, which was known for lending in poorer neighborhoods, “failed due to insolvency brought on by the board and management not implementing adequate risk management practices,” according to a report issued Wednesday by the FDIC’s Office of Inspector General. Get the full story »
National Republic lists most profitable banks
A newly released list of the 25 most profitable banking companies in 2010 includes a $1.28 billion-asset lender in Chicago.
NRBC Holding Corp., the Chicago-based parent of National Republic Bank of Chicago, ranked 10th on a list of the U.S. bank holding companies with the highest return on average assets, according to trade publication SNL Financial. Its ROAA in 2010 was 2.46 percent, down from 3.11 percent in 2009. Get the full story »
Bank of America website suffers outage, again
Bank of America’s online banking system went on the fritz for some users Tuesday, the second such incident this year.
Customers attempting to access the bank’s online services were experiencing “intermittent service disruptions,” according to Tara Burke, a spokeswoman for the bank.
The bank is working to restore the system to normal as soon as possible, Burke said. The bank’s branches and ATM network are unaffected, she said. Get the full story »
Bank of Montreal says it cut 491 jobs since last fall
Employment in BMO Financial’s U.S. personal and commercial banking operations, which consists mainly of Harris Bank, fell to 3,965 in the first quarter, down from 4,456 jobs in the fourth quarter.
The Canadian bank released its first-quarter financial results on Tuesday. In an afternoon conference call with Wall Street, an analyst asked BMO about the cutting of 491 jobs, or 11 percent of its personal and commercial banking operations in the United States. Get the full story »
HSBC halts U.S. foreclosures pending review
HSBC Holdings PLC has suspended its foreclosure proceedings in the U.S. after a regulatory letter noted “certain deficiencies” in its processes.
The London-based bank became the latest to disclose that investigations by the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency into foreclosure practices will likely result in fines and costly changes to the way it runs its mortgage business. Get the full story »
Harris Bank parent sees profit rise 18%
Bank of Montreal’s first-quarter profit rose 18 percent due to stronger loan growth and investment banking fees, and the bank said it will issue less stock than previously expected to pay for its acquisition of Wisconsin bank Marshall & Ilsley Corp. Get the full story »
