US Banker back issues from March 2003:
Character, Not Charisma, Drives Reputation: Out-size egos, swashbuckling style and media savvy can't hide what lies beneath: The absence or low level of corporate character.
Mar 01, 2003 ... Rarely in bull markets do people talk about corporate character. Why bother when everyone is making money, right? It seems as if the search for what makes great companies stand out from rivals only occurs when things look grim. The secret of great leadership is that its foundation-in ...
Investment Banking: Brain Drain.
Mar 01, 2003 ... As brokerage and investment banking talent hits the bricks, is Wall Street losing its smarts? The downsizing of Wall Street has not been a simple exercise in trimming redundant back-office functions. Highly esteemed economists, dealmakers and research analysts have been among ...
Scene and Heard.(Brief Article)
Mar 01, 2003 ... "It's going to be a bloody one." Diane Swonk, chief economist for Bank One, on the seemingly unavoidable but dire consequences of a war between the U.S and Iraq. "There's almost a little bit of a tussle going on between the consumer ...
Policing Banks: A Not So 'Popular' Way to Get Off the Hook. For Now.: Banco Popular doles out $21 mil to settle with DoJ.
Mar 01, 2003 ... It could have been the cash deposits brought into the branches in gym bags. Or maybe it was the day that a Banco Popular branch called on every teller to count $1 million in small bills. Or even the time a branch manager ordered an extra armored car to transport the funds of one of its ...
Hits and Has-Beens.(Brief Article)
Mar 01, 2003 ... Although E*Trade says it was Christos Cotsakos' decision to leave his chairman and CEO spot to pursue teaching and writing-his publishing contract calls for two more books-an analyst says he was likely asked to leave given board and shareholder disappointment with the company's ...
Fresh Ink.
Mar 01, 2003 ... 1. BB&T is still on a spending spree. The Winston-Salem, NC-based banking organization plans to buy First Virginia Banks. BB&T will shell out $3.38 billion in an all-stock swap deal to acquire the Falls Church, VA-based bank. The deal would increase BB&T's assets to $91 billion. ...
Crisis in Latin America: Venezuela on the Brink: Analysts fear another Argentina; U.S. financial exposure not as great, but losses are losses.
Mar 01, 2003 ... As the standoff between President Hugo Chavez and striking Venezuelan state oil company workers grinds on, observers say the parties involved are fractured, a breakthrough is remote and long-term economic damage is assured. While what began as a general strike is winding down ...
Pipeline.
Mar 01, 2003 ... Branches in Bunches-for now Now Wachovia's throwing its hat into the ring and saying that it plans to expand its branch network into New York. BofA is likely not far behind, but it's busy building a branch network in Chicago for now. While not a new delivery channel, branches ...
Word Is...
Mar 01, 2003 ... Dial 'M' for My Lawyer There's nothing like the personal politics of marriage that show an executive's high-wire negotiating skills-in a deal, maybe it's that thin difference between the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. Charles Schwab co-CEO David Pottruck looks to ...
Noted and Noteworthy.(Brief Article)
Mar 01, 2003 ... Airline turbulence, redux. When U.S. Air went bankrupt last summer, banks took their place in the bread line, waiting for payback handouts. The newer breadline at United features a few banks, also. At the top of the dissed list is Bank of New York, which holds $1.6 billion ...
To Let: Stately, 100 Yrs. Old, 25k Sq. Ft.: State budgets are looking so bad this year that all bets are off-one idea to soak up the red ink goes so far as to cash in on the state capitol building. Financiers smell opportunity.
Mar 01, 2003; ... Powerpoint-wielding bankers are starting to beat a path to Ben Stein's door at the stately Colorado treasurer's office in downtown Denver. PaineWebber, Salomon Smith Barney, Piper Jaffray-that's just for starters. First Albany, Hanifen Imhoff and Dain Rauscher are also in ...
Security: Is California Asking for Too Much InformatYon?: A new law is aimed at protecting customers from identity theft. The disclosures finance companies make could be embarrassing. Not telling could hurt even more.
Mar 01, 2003; ... Early last year hackers broke into the California state comptroller's payroll database and sifted through 265,000 employee records, accessing everything from names and addresses to bank account information and social security numbers. Weeks passed before workers were notified. ...
Payments: Maple Leaf Connection: Canadian banks are starting to see some results from their personal on-line cash transfer venture, CertaPay.
Mar 01, 2003; ... Some Canadian pundits bemoan their nation's banking system as a sluggish oligopoly, where five national institutions control more than 80 percent of the market. But as a recent technology deal illustrates, concentration has its advantages. Last year the country's Big ...
Character is Foundation Of Firm's Reputation.
Mar 01, 2003; ... "The first thing is character ...before money or anything else ...Money cannot buy it ...because a man I do not trust could not get money from me on all the bonds in Christendom." J. Pierpont Morgan, 1912 The banking industry is in the midst of explosive opportunities ...
Dimension Scorecard.(Illustration)
Mar 01, 2003 ... (part 1 of 2) <Pre> Financial Customer MarketingEthical Stability Focus Effectiveness Behavior Bank of America 6 18 8 7 Bank of New York ...
Putting a 7-Eleven Spin On Branch Banking: Keeping branches open late may work for Commerce in New York, but would it work in Iowa? Bankers are asking customers to put a value on their time.
Mar 01, 2003; ... It used to be location, location, location. Today, customers are more concerned with how long banks are open than with where they're located. Commerce Bank has answered that call, rattling cages with its seven-day-a-week schedule that includes evenings. Suddenly, extending branch hours is ...
AD Beat: Inner City Style from OneUnited: The country's largest black-owned bank starts a push in Miami, Los Angeles and Boston in a bid to tap underserved communities.(OneUnited Bank)
Mar 01, 2003; ... OneUnited Bank's new print and radio campaign targeting inner-city communities plays on the confounding problem of the United States: the struggle of millions to rise above poverty. The poverty rate among black Americans is 22.7 percent, according to the U.S. Census, almost three times ...
Customer Service is Often Talked About, But Rarely Realized: A simple slip-up can be the only reason a customer needs to skate right out the door and take his money with them. Mobius' Michael Fee points to the thin ice.(excerpt of interview with Mobius Management Systems executive Michael Fee)
Mar 01, 2003; ... In working with Mobius Management Systems' 30 financial clients-ABN Amro North America, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Fleet, Oppenheimer, Sallie Mae and John Hancock among them-Michael Fee, director of banking and financial services, finds what matters most to customers is how they ...
Merrick's Squeeze Play: The Utah firm snapped up a couple hundred thousand accounts in the wake of NextBank's failure. Then they moved the numbers.(Merrick Bank)
Mar 01, 2003; ... Some former NextCard customers learned to read the fine print on their credit card agreements the hard way. After the card's parent NextBank fell apart last year, some of its accounts eventually wound up with subprime lender Merrick Bank. NextCard customers might have assumed ...
Inside Community Banking.
Mar 01, 2003 ... Community banks - those widely described as having $1 billion or less in assets - are quickly catching up with their larger counterparts in several business areas. In particular, implementation of new technology, targeted marketing, and sales of insurance and investments are areas where ...
Investments & Insurance Growth.(trends among community banks)
Mar 01, 2003 ... Also according to Grant Thorton, 33 percent of community banks offer insurance products, 43 percent offer mutual funds, and 45 percent offer brokerage services. But those percentages are expected to grow to 65, 66, and 69, respectively, in the next three years. Community banks ...
Getting it Right.(tips for banks on how to offer overdraft protection services)
Mar 01, 2003; ... Overdraft privilege products can provide a true win-win situation for both the bank and its customers: the bank is able to turn what could be a troublesome account into a profitable one, and the customer is able to manage special problems with cash flow conveniently, maintain good credit, ...
5 Ways to Protect Your Assets.(information management tips)
Mar 01, 2003 ... The business of moving data between locations, a.k.a. file transfer, is not new, but for many organizations, file transfer is fundamental to operations and always will be. This is particularly true in financial services, where file transfer operations are used with a wide variety of ...
Are You at Risk?
Mar 01, 2003 ... * Have you ever had a file transfer fail or miss a processing window? Yes No * Have you lost time, money or resources as a result of delayed or missed file transfers? Yes No * Can you effectively track and monitor file transfers? ...
Common Misperceptions About Credit Scoring In Small Business Lending.
Mar 01, 2003; ... As margins continue to tighten and competition increases, small business lending can be a difficult market to handle profitably. Credit scoring provides a method by which a bank can deliver small business loans in a more efficient manner. Yet many community and small regional banks resist ...
Steely Determination, Scrappy Fighting.
Mar 01, 2003 ... Things look to be just getting started in the war being waged between banks and credit unions. Utah has become the lightning rod for the debate, from bank-backed bills that would impose stiff taxes and "competitive equity" fees on credit unions to mudslinging TV ads and newspaper ...
Ranking the Top M&A Advisors 2002.
Mar 01, 2003; ... Consensus among investment bankers is that mergers and acquisitions among U.S. banks will pick up in the year ahead. It's hard to imagine the pace being any slower than 2002, when U.S. deal value was a paltry $17.4 billion and a galaxy away from the $289 billion notched in 1998. No ...
Leaders by Deal Value.
Mar 01, 2003 ... 2002 Bank & Thrift Mergers and Acquisitions thru December 31, 2002 (ranked by announced deal value*). <Pre> Rank Firm Announce Deal Number Value ($millions) of Deals 1 Goldman, Sachs ...
Last 3 Years at a Glance.
Mar 01, 2003 ... Bank & Thrift Mergers thru December 31, 2002 (excludes hostile/unsolicited and terminated transactions). (part 1 of 3) <Pre> 2002 Advisors position thru Dec. 31, 2002* Firm ...
Top Advisors' Fees.
Mar 01, 2003 ... Top 25 Bank & Thrift Mergers thru December 31, 2002 (ranked by deal price at completion). (part 1 of 3) <Pre> Rank BuyerTarget 1 CitigroupGolden State Bancorp 2 Washington MutualDime ...
Leaders by Number of Deals.(Brief Article)
Mar 01, 2003 ... 2002 Bank & Thrift Mergers and Acquisitions thru December 31, 2002 (ranked by announced deal value*). <Pre> RankFirmNumber Announce Deal of Deals Value ($millions) 1 Sandler O'Neill & ...
Big Dogs and Small Dogs Duking it Out: Community banks take it on the chin as last year saw the most bank busts in a decade; still, more growth nationwide is coming from local players and big banks are struggling with focus.
Mar 01, 2003 ... Rivalry is set to get even more intense between big and small in banking. Community banks drove most of the deposit growth in the industry last year. But large banks are turning around from merger slumps and cleaning up service issues to reclaim traditional retail banking for ...
MBNA Looks at New Lure For Depleted Waters: Looking to outflank banks armed with mortgage refis, companies like MBNA are getting into the debt consolidation market. One thing is for sure: It's a slippery slope.
Mar 01, 2003 ... Consumers hear debt consolidation services being hawked all day long on television and radio. It's no wonder: Personal bankruptcies are up, consumer spending is down and write-offs and reserves for bad credit card loans are on the rise. Debt consolidation, mostly through mortgage ...
Ten Percent Returns When Knee-Deep in Defaults?
Mar 01, 2003 ... Bond busts are winding down from historic highs, but investment-grade failures are making for a very cloudy view of the corporate debt markets. Nevertheless, some players push aside the question marks. While corporate debt markets continue to post healthy overall gains, a ...
Wealth Minding, Southern Style Calls on the Family: Y'all get ready. Chuck Ogilvie's after money. More precisely, the ex-banker-turned-technologist-turned-banker (well, sort of) is eyeing the family office, blending tax law, estate planning and money management.
Mar 01, 2003 ... StillPoint Advisors is the new venture of Atlanta's fast-talking charmer Chuck Ogilvie, as he moves from his past as one of the guiding lights of the forward-thinking Internet firm S1 Corp. and tries to put a charge into a business with its roots in aristocratic old Europe. ...
U.S. Banker Advertising Contacts.(Brief Article)
Mar 01, 2003 ... GROUP PUBLISHER Jay Berfas Thomson Media One State Street Plaza New York, NY 10004 Tel: 212.803.8690 Fax: 646.264.6800 U.S. BANKER ACCOUNT REPRESENTATIVES Southeast/Mid-Atlantic ...
Supporting President Bush's Dividend Tax Proposal Could Spur Economic Revitalization: Bolstering a free economy means overhauling a tax code that favors economic prosperity of the few over the many. It starts with diversification away from a concentration in public stocks.
Mar 01, 2003 ... President Bush's dividend tax proposal, if enacted, could trigger a radical and unanticipated change in our financial system. Most observers expect this proposed change to the tax code will increase demand for stocks. The theory is that tax advantages will make stocks, even if not the ...
Internet Caf,-ish or Not, Branches are In with the Rich.
Mar 01, 2003; ... Bank branches have not turned into the dinosaurs they were once predicted to become. On the contrary, the potential of the branch as a bank's core relationship center, especially in the world of wealth management, is greater than ever. Despite this opportunity, many branches ...