Inner City
        Press' Bank Beat Reporter

  

     Welcome to Inner City Press’ Bank Beat.  We aim to scrutinize the industry, from high to low. Our other Reporters cover Community Reinvestment, the Federal Reserve, and other beats.   ICP has published a (double) book about the Bank Beat-relevant topic of predatory lending - click here for sample chapters, an interactive map, and ordering information. The Washington Post of March 15, 2004, calls Predatory Bender: America in the Aughts "the first novel about predatory lending;" the London Times of April 15, 2004, "A Novel Approach," said it "has a cast of colorful characters." See also, "City Lit: Roman a Klepto [Review of 'Predatory Bender']," by Matt Pacenza, City Limits, Sept.-Oct. 2004. The Pittsburgh City Paper says the 100-page afterword makes the "indispensable point that predatory lending is now being aggressively exported to the rest of the globe." Click here for that review; click here to Search This Site. Click here for Inner City Press' weekday news reports, from the United Nations and elsewhere, which include bank-related topics.

Click here for Inner City Press' weekday news reports, from the United Nations and elsewhere. Click here for a recent BBC piece on Inner City Press' reporting from the United Nations. New: Follow us on TWITTER   BloggingHeads.tv  Click for March 1, 2011 BloggingHeads.tv re Libya, Sri Lanka, UN Corruption by Inner City Press.  Until next time, for or with more information, contact us.

January 30, 2012

First Niagara Financial Group President and CEO John Koelmel told SNL Financial that the company still plans on closing an additional 30 to 35 branches. We'll see about that...

January 23, 2012

Slowly, too slowly, some pigeons come home to roost.

General Electric, which engaged in predatory lending through WMC, is now reportedly under investigation -- just as it proposes to acquire $7.5 billion in deposits from Met Life.

Royal Bank of Scotland's former boss, Sir Fred "the Shred" Goodwin, faces the loss of his knighthood, after he helped enable predatory lending by securitizing and trading in the loans through RBS Greenwich Capital Markets. PM Cameron said, "There’s a forfeiture committee in terms of honors that exists and it will now examine this issue. I think it’s right that it does so."

Why isn't more being done in the US? Some now say that the time of AG Eric Holder and Lanny Breuer, head of the Justice Department's criminal division, at Covington & Burling that represented the Big Four and other predators plays a role in it - watch this site.

January 16, 2012

  As the biggest bank merger of 2012 so far was announced Wednesday, Morgan Keegan for sale to Raymond James for $930 million, Morgan Keegan's recent settlement of subprime related fraud charges was not lost on community activists. Would it be raised to regulator? Why not?

Nickeled and dimed, per even the WSJ: Next month, Toronto Dominion / TD Bank unit will start charging noncustomers a $5 fee to cash checks at any of its branches. PNC now charges $25 to close some accounts.

Customers at Citizens Bank, a unit of Royal Bank of Scotland, now have to pay $50 a month if they fall below minimum account balances on some money-market accounts.

Bank of America charges some of its banking customers a $25 fee if they dip below minimums on premium-checking accounts.

U.S. Bancorp already hits customers with a 99-cent fee to make a mobile deposit.

In December, Citigroup's Citibank unit raised fees on some of its checking accounts. Monthly maintenance fees on the lender's basic-checking accounts jumped to $10 from $8. Also, banking customers have to maintain at least a $1,500 balance, up from zero—or set up direct deposit and pay at least one bill online each month—in order to dodge the fees.

As IMF Spins on Greece & Hedge Funds, No Answers on Ukraine, Sri Lanka

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 13 -- The International Monetary Fund under Christine Lagarde has become even less transparent, answering fewer and fewer press questions.

  During the IMF briefing on January 12, the first one in four weeks, Inner City Press submitted four questions, including this: "On Greece, please describe the IMF's engagement with hedge funds asking them to accept a hair cut: are hedge funds reacting differently than banks and what is the IMF doing?"

  IMF spokesman Gerry Rice did not posed the hedge fund or the other questions. After the briefing, another IMF spokeswoman wrote to Inner City Press: "We will get back to you on your questions bilaterally Matthew. Gerry had already responded on Greece."

  But Gerry Rice had not responded, on Greece, about "private sector" hedge funds. On the afternoon of January 13, the IMF put this out:

"In response to press queries on the talks between Greece and its creditors on private sector involvement (PSI), we are issuing the following line. This is attributable to an IMF spokeswoman:

'We look forward to the resumption of talks between Greece and its creditors. It is important that this lead to a PSI agreement that, together with the efforts of the official sector, ensures debt sustainability.'"

  While bland, at least it's a response. Here are the other three questions Inner City Press submitted during the January 12 briefing, which more than 24 hours later have not been answered "bilaterally" or at all:

On Ukraine, what if the relation between that country's negotiations with Russia on gas prices and the IMF resuming talks, after Ukraine passed the bankruptcy legislation it said the IMF wanted? What else would the IMF like to see?

On Sri Lanka, what is the IMF's response to Central Bank Governor Ajit Nivad Cabraal statement on January 3 that Sri Lanka will seek a fresh “follow up or surveillance program” with the IMF as the $2.6 billion loan obtained in 2009 is reportedly due to expire early this year? What is the IMF's thinking on Sri Lanka's failure to fully meet the budget deficit targets and its refusal to devalue the rupee?

On Malawi, please describe the state of the IMF's relations with Malawi, and reviving a program with Malawi, in light of recent statements by President Bingu wa Mutharika against the IMF? (he said on national radio that "Malawian government officials should stop protecting the IMF at the cost of their own citizens.. 'protect the IMF but protect the people' and that of any officials who [a]re unwilling to do so had to resign from their public posts, 'I will be glad to receive your resignation'"?)

  During the IMF's briefing in mid December, Inner City Press has submitted another question about Malawi, which also went ignored. The IMF and Africa, under Christine Lagarde? We'll see. Watch this site.


January 9, 2012

Bad karma for the ex-CitiFinancial: talks to sell the bank's OneMain consumer-lending unit to private-equity buyers have ended without a deal in place. Private-equity firms Centerbridge Capital Partners LLC and Leucadia National Corp., along with Berkshire, had been in exclusive talks since the summer to purchase OneMain, which "makes mortgage and other loans to high-risk borrowers." (WSJ)

Yeah: the predatory lending unit...

January 2, 2012

Most coverage has focused on MetLife's reasons for moving to sell deposits. But what about GE's motives for buying, and how that process will go? We'll be there - watch this site.

December 26, 2011

Here is a just filed FOIA appeal:

This is a timely FOIA appeal to the Federal Reserve Board's partial denial of my FOIA request and letter of October 23, 2011 related to the proposed acquisition of US-based Bank of East Asia by the China Investment Corporation, and Central Huijin Investment Limited and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), owned by the Chinese government.

The Fed's response, regular mailed on December 9 -- this appeal is timely -- decides to limit ICP's FOIA request to only the portion related to the Community Reinvestment Act, because Inner City Press mentioned the CRA. And so the White & Case submission of October 17, which ICP was supposed to get under the Fed's rules against ex parte communication, has the responses to items 4, 5 and 6 withheld as "not responsive."

This makes a mockery both of FOIA and of the Fed's rules against ex parte communication. On October 23, Inner City Press submitted including to the Office of the Secretary of the FRB a letter stating in part that

"I filed a timely challenge to the applications involving Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (and its ultimate parent the Chinese government -- since the PRC government is the ultimate controlling shareholder, this letter timely questions why the PRC government is not an applicant here) to acquire 80% of Bank of East Asia. The FRB on October 6 asked ICBC three questions, including one CRA and consumer compliance, and told ICBC to send us a copy, under the rules against ex parte communications... We note that the signatory counsel for the Industrial and Commercial Bank of Bank is the former general counsel of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and believe that in this context it is particularly important that the information be provided and a public hearing held. Please send all of the improperly withheld information"

Because ICP gave the example of the withheld CRA response, the Fed decided to ignore ICP's right to the rest of the submission, despite the statement about "all of the improperly withheld information" -- that is, any part of the information ICP should have gotten under the rules against ex parte communication, minus that part explicitly exempt under FOIA.

The Fed is now trying to use "non-responsive" as a way about FOIA, to withhold without even citing a FOIA exemption. It is an outrage, and on appeal ALL of the applicants' October 17 submission should be released.

December 19, 2011

IMF Eyes Hungary, Has Adviser in South Sudan, Complaints on Lagarde Access

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 15 -- While the International Monetary Fund is often loath to speak about human rights situations in countries, Thursday when Inner City Press asked IMF spokesman David Hawley about Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban's move to assert control over the nation's central bank, Hawley was ready with an answer.

  "We are carefully examining recent legislative proposals with respect to the central bank," the IMF's Hawley said. "Any erosion of central bank independence would be of great concern." From the IMF transcript:

HAWLEY: "a question from Matthew Lee at Inner-City Press on Hungary. His question is How would relations and a program with the IMF be impacted by the prime minister's announced plan to assert control over the central bank and demote its president? I can answer that by saying that we are carefully examining the recent legislative proposals with respect to the central bank and erosion of central bank independence would be of great concern."

  It's worth noting that one proposal, to combine central bank functions with bank regulation, is already the case at the US Federal Reserve, which the IMF does not criticize.

  Inner City Press also asked, "now that the South Sudan National Legislative Assembly on Dec. 13 voted to join the IMF, what are the next steps and what can the IMF do for South Sudan?"

  While that vote only took place December 13, Hawley said that the work to make South Sudan a full member of the IMF is "well advanced," even that the IMF has a "resident adviser in the country." From the IMF transcript:

HAWLEY: "Matthew Lee of Inner-City Press notes that South Sudan intends to join the IMF and what are the next steps and what can the IMF do for South Sudan? Discussions or work on South Sudan becoming a full member of the IMF are well advanced. South Sudan's main challenges are maintaining economic stability, investing its oil resources wisely in social and infrastructure development and to build an environment and institutions to support sustained economic development. In terms of what we're doing to support these policy goals, we're stepping up on our technical policy advice in areas where the Fund has expertise and we have a resident adviser now in the country."

  The Director of the IMF's Africa Department IMF's Antoinette Monsio Sayeh was on the schedule December 14 at the International Engagement Conference for South Sudan, on topics including "Transparency."

  But at the December 15 IMF briefing, Hawley was asked when Managing Director Lagarde will make herself available for questions from those covering the IMF, with the complaint made that she has hardly been available since she took over in June. Hawley said this would be "taken on board." We'll see.

December 12, 2011

Bad karma: Bank of New York Mellon moved to evict Occupy Pittsburgh from "its" park. Will there be repercussions?

First Niagara's recent capital raise have been aimed at curtailing uncertainty around the stock as it continues to work on divesting some of the branches it is seeking approval to acquire from its branch deal with HSBC. FBR Capital Markets analyst Bob Ramsey told SNL Financial that, while the company will look to maximize the value of any deals, it will likely sell the branches in three transactions. The bidders could include larger companies, such as M&T Bank Corp. and KeyCorp, with upstate New York operations, Ramsey said. Smaller companies could potentially be the buyers, such as De Witt, N.Y.-based Community Bank System Inc., but he wondered whether they would have the capital to make the acquisitions. So do we...

December 5, 2011

On Yemen, IMF Welcomes GCC Immunity Deal, Ready to Support

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 1 -- On Yemen, the International Monetary Fund kept meeting with Ali Saleh officials even as his government killed protesters. On December 1, Inner City Press asked the IMF, "with Ali Saleh's signature of the deal, what is the IMF's thinking and plans for the country? Whom in Yemen has the IMF spoken with and when?"

  Later on December 1 the IMF sent this response:

"on your question on Yemen, the IMF welcomes the signing of the agreement, which we hope will bring the crisis to an end. The agreement involves a formation of a new government that we look forward to working with. We understand that the new government will put in place an economic stabilization plan as per the GCC agreement, and we stand ready to support such a plan with an IMF-supported program if the new government wishes to reengage with the IMF."

  Back on March 31, Inner City Press asked then-IMF spokesperson Caroline Atkinson (now with the Obama administration)

“On Yemen, please describe IMF's engagement with current gov't after Ghazi Shbeikat's talks earlier this month, and any impact its killing of protesters has had.”

Ms. Atkinson translated this to “I have a question online about Yemen: Please describe the IMF’s engagement with the current government after talks earlier this month and any impact the violence has had.”

The violence -- that is, the killing of protesters -- has been so bad even Yemen's Permanent Representative to the UN Abduallah Alsaidi, former head of the Group of 77 and China, has quit. Here was Ms. Atkinson's (first) answer:

“Of course, in Yemen, Syria, and other cases we deplore any violence and we hope for peaceful resolution of political issues–We have a program actually outstanding with Yemen and there have been contacts at a technical level with the central bank monitoring developments.

  Then on April 28, Inner City Press asked the IMF's David Hawley to “describe the IMF's interface with Syria and Yemen, and how the crackdowns there may impact that, and how they are viewed by the IMF.”

Hawley said that the IMF's program with Yemen are “on hold in the current situation,” and then referred to comments by IMF Middle East and Central Asia director Masood Ahmed -- who is the one who said, the previous day in Dubai, that the IMF is “ready to work with the Yemeni authorities... once the situation allows.”

  Did that mean a reduction in violence -- which could be brought about, at least theoretically, by MORE repression rather than less -- or the exit of Saleh? The IMF didn't say.

  And now, after what's called the immunity deal, the IMF stands ready. We'll continue on this - watch this site.

 Footnote: The IMF had not had a press briefing for four weeks, but still on the morning of December 1 its web page did not list any press briefing. Too late, despite monitoring the web page, Inner City Press found out about a briefing, submitted the question about and a request for "an explanation of the lack of IMF web page notice of this morning's briefing."

There was at least a response to the Yemen question, above. But nothing on the other. Watch this site.


Royal Bank of Scotland Group bragged on Dec 1 that the Reserve Bank of India would allow the transfer of its retail and commercial businesses in India to HSBC. "We continue to work closely with HSBC and the regulators to complete the transfer in a manner that is in the best interests of our clients and employees," a Royal Bank of Scotland spokesman said. The WSJ said The statement follows media reports flagging potential roadblocks to the deal from India's central bank. There OUGHT to be roadblocks...

November 28, 2011

A BankAtlantic Bancorp investor has filed a lawsuit to block the sale of BankAtlantic to BB&T. The suit, filed the complaint in Delaware's Chancery Court, claims the deal allows BB&T to "unlawfully cherry-pick" assets and that the two sides structured the deal with a "flagrant disregard" for BankAtlantic investors. There are CRA problems too...

November 21, 2011

This is the new one:

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Inc. and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, both of Tokyo, Japan Continue to increase their ownership interest to 9.9 percent of the voting shares of The Bank of East Asia, Limited, Hong Kong S.A.R., Peoples Republic of China, Continue

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Inc. and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, both of Tokyo, Japan and thereby indirectly increase their interest in The Bank of East Asia (U.S.A.), N.A., New York, New York 3 New York 12/09/2011

Watch this site.

November 14, 2011

Belatedly and not enough, First Niagara and the Department of Justice have come to a deal on the divestiture of branches acquired from HSBC. (First Niagara agreed July 31 to acquire 195 branches. Under the deal, First Niagara will divest 26 branches in Erie, Niagara and Orleans counties in upstate New York. Most of the branches that will be sold are in Erie County, in which Buffalo is located. First Niagara will sell 18 branches there, seven in Niagara County and one in Orleans.

Troublingly, First Niagara will not be divesting a majority of the branches and deposits that it is acquiring in the HSBC deal. In the three counties affected by the divestiture order, First Niagara is acquiring 59 branches and $5.30 billion in deposits. The company will keep 55.9% of the branches in those counties and 69.0% of deposits. We'll see -- watch this site.

November 7, 2011

Rabobank Admits Subprime Exposure & Purchase of Failed Banks, Desjardins on Citi Deal

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 31 -- When the UN scheduled a press conference Monday entitled "Financial Crisis and Cooperative Banks," it was expected that the two cooperative banks invited to speak would be akin to the credit unions being praised in the Occupy Wall Street movement, in opposition to big banks like JPMorgan Chase and Bank of  America.

  But on the UN podium was the chairman of Dutch multinational Rabobank, Mr. Piet Moerland. Inner City Press asked him about protests to Rabobank in the United States, complete with mariachi bands and complaints of discriminating against small borrowers, and also about Rabobank's statements that it was "exposed" to subprime lending in the US. Video here, from Minute 26:05.

  Moerland replied that Rabobank had to expand outside of The Netherlands because of its small population, and that the US is its most important non-Dutch market. He acknowledged the exposure to subprime lending, calling it "indirect," but bragged that Rabobank grew from 30 billion Euros in 2006 up to 40 billion Euros.

  He said in the US it's made purchases "at the request of the FDIC" - that is, of failed banks. Apparently, Rabobank has profited from the global financial crisis. Moerland said that in California, Rabobank is "about half way there." We'll see.

Why such a multinational bank would be presented at the UN as the poster child of the cooperative movement, a topic on which former UK prime minister Gordon Brown speechified to the General Assembly later on Monday, is not clear.

  Smaller but similarly mystifying was the presence of Canada's Desjardins Group. Its CEO Monique Leroux said that before growing outside of Canada -- it already has a presence in Florida in the US -- or making other expansions, it would speak with its people.

  Inner City Press asked about a recent Desjardins deal with Citigroup and Staples, to buy a credit card portfolio. Did Desjardins check with its depositors before that business transaction? Ms. Leroux referred back to a 2009 meeting at which business lines were agreed to. After that, it seems, it's just business.

October 31, 2011

   Old MF Global Holdings, having tried to suck up to JPMorgan and Barclays, is now rumored to be an acquisition target for not only Goldman Sachs but also State Street Corp. and Macquarie Group. Problematizing any soft landing might be target for Occupy Wall Street...

As Occupy Wall Street Reaches Banks in Midtown, Paper Planes & UN Response

By Matthew Russell Lee

TIMES SQUARE, October 28, updated with video -- Taking the Occupy Wall Street protest into Midtown to deliver victimized consumers' letters to Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and others, a march moved west on 42nd Street on Friday, surrounded by police. JPMorgan Chase protest video here.

  At Bank of America on Sixth Avenue, the letters were delivered in the form of paper airplanes addressed to "missing" CEO Brian Moynahan. Video here.

 Then the march, complete with two mock pirate ships, continued west to Times Square. Here on a recent Saturday night, riot cops and police horses kept protesters pinned down on either side of Broadway.

On Friday in broad daylight, the march moved north to Morgan Stanley where a song was sung. An invitation was extended to Morgan Stanley's honchos to come have lunch down near Liberty Square; jokes were made about Chase CEO Jaime Dimon. The east again to Park Avenue, where JPMorgan Chase sits on 48th Street (JPMC video here), and Citigroup nearby on Lexington.


#OccupyWallStreet on 42 St Oct 28, heading to BofA (c) MRLee

Back down in the park, generators used to heat the protesters have been seized, while in Bryant Park corporate gift shops can use them.

At the UN on October 27, Inner City Press asked for a comment on the police having fractured the skull of Iraq veteran Scott Olsen at Occupy Oakland. The spokesman for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Martin Nesirky, said that the authorities were investigating. President Obama, it's said, learns about Occupy Wall Street only through the newspapers. That might have to change. Watch this site.

October 24, 2011

At Occupy Wall Street, People's Trial of Goldman Sachs Set for Nov 3

By Matthew Russell Lee

WALL STREET, October 22 -- As it got colder in Lower Manhattan on October 22 the Occupy Wall Street meeting of the General Assembly considered a proposal for a people's tribunal against Goldman Sachs, for November 3. While other proposals were confronted by blocks, a form of quasi veto, this one passed by consensus.

  A block away JPMorgan Chase stood surrounded by fencing and police. It has been the subject of a number of marches from Zuccotti Park, but Goldman Sachs until now as escaped direct action. Goldman does not offer regular bank accounts or student loans, although it trades in both, and in the predatory subprime mortgages which triggered the global financial meltdown.

  At Occupy Wall Street solidarity events in Philadelphia, banks including the prospective fifth Too Big To Fail institution Capital One were denounced. But Goldman Sachs' will be the first people's tribunal. How will it proceed?

  Meanwhile the former CEO of Citibank blathered that the Occupiers should forget about the past and just look forward -- triggering responses that one should be this logic empty out the prisons.

   Bank of America was described as moving risky derivative into its FDIC-insured bank, putting the American people further at risk.

  Goldman itself defunded its previous fundee, the Lower East Side People's Federal Credit Union -- where Inner City Press has been a customer -- because it dared invited OWS to one of its events.

  But the indictment of Goldman will go well beyond being a so-called Indian giver. Its roll in securizing predatory loans make it a criminal, which until now has bought immunity. Watch this site.

October 17, 2011

Occupy Wall Street Visits JPMorgan Chase with Police, Goldman & Capital One Next?

By Matthew Russell Lee

WALL STREET, October 12 -- On a blustery Wednesday afternoon in Lower Manhattan, a crowd gathered in front of JPMorgan Chase, blocked off by police.

  At first it first no larger than past symbolic protests in front of Chase Manhattan Plaza. Then a phalanx of marchers came from Zuccotti Park out on Broadway, also contained by police. Occupy Wall Street had arrived. Click here for video by Inner City Press.

  When JP Morgan and Chase Manhattan merged, community groups challenged them for "redlining" poor neighborhoods like the South Bronx, and even sued. In the case by Inner City Press about the merger, Morgan Chase tried as a Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation (SLAPP) suit to get its extensive attorneys fees paid. It failed, but received a massive bailout.

  On October 12 it took police with a bullhorn to get the protesters to continue, on to Liberty Street and the Federal Reserve. The previous evening had seen a protest of Bank of America; around the corner is Capital One, seeking to become the fifth largest bank in the US by buying ING DIRECT.

  Still escape direct protest is Goldman Sachs. "How do you get your hands around them?" one protester asked Inner City Press. How indeed.

  Goldman underwrote many of the predatory mortgage bonds that led to the crisis, then got more bailout funds than anyone. But it gives campaign contributions to both parties, including through its executives to President Obama when he travels to New York. We will continue on this.

Footnote: amid the JPMorgan march, a TV crew from Fox 5 News approached Inner City Press. "Are you ready?" a man with a microphone said, thrusting it out. Well, no, not for that. But the news will get out.


October 10, 2011

Another example of big bank nepotism and sleaze: "Former Bank of America Corp. executive Sallie Krawcheck will receive $6 million after leaving the bank following a management reshuffle last month." Somewhere Sandy Weill is laughing....


October 3, 2011 --

As Police Arrest Occupy Wall Street Protesters, Focus on Banks, Benghazi Analogy?

By Matthew Russell Lee

BROOKLYN BRIDGE, October 1 -- As drizzle fell on the Brooklyn Bridge and the East River beneath it, the New York Police Department took protesters off the bridge, their hands restrained behind their backs, in busses with signs that said "Out of Service" and "Promotional Bus."

  The Occupy Wall Street protesters continue to gather steam, even as most of the media has ignored them, or mocked them for not having a single message.

  Signs clasped to the fence of Bloomberg's City Hall said, "No Bail Outs" and "Too Big Too Fail means Too Big To Allow."

   These references to the four American megabanks -- Citigroup, JPMorgan, Bank of America and Wells Fargo -- about to be joined by a fifth in Capital One seem focus enough.

  Despite the size of the bailouts and the lack of criminal prosecution for predatory lending, there has until now been little direct fightback. Now there is, and the police are out in force.

  "Obama's moved so far to the right," a protester complained, staring as if hyponotized into the swirling squad car lights.

At the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, Inner City Press was pushed back by a phalanx of police. A protester yelled, Are you all getting overtime? The answer was yes.

InnerCityPress YouTube videos sampling interviews: click here

 A young woman said she had come to the bridge "straight from Slut Walk," another event in Union Square. The talk in the crowd was that those arrested a second time weren't getting bail.

  The analogy to non-violent protests this year in Cairo and Tunis and Benghazi and Homs is dismissed by some staid foreign correspondents. But the energy is not dissimilar, and response is moving at least directionally toward similarity too. Watch this site.

Occupy Wall Street Target JPMorgan Paid Police Monitors, Paid Blair for Occupied Palestine

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 2 -- As over 700 Occupy Wall Street protesters were arrested Saturday by the New York City Police Department, in the scrum at the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge there was talk of mega-bank J.P. Morgan Chase having given money to the NYPD.

It's hardly hidden: the bank's web site brags that

"JPMorgan Chase recently donated an unprecedented $4.6 million to the New York City Police Foundation. The gift was the largest in the history of the foundation and will enable the New York City Police Department to strengthen security in the Big Apple. The money will pay for 1,000 new patrol car laptops, as well as security monitoring software in the NYPD's main data center."

Given that the protests are largely directed that bailouts to and abuse of the political system by JPMorgan, Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and prospectively Capital One, it is certainly relevant, and to many troubling, that the police take money from the very target of the protest.

The police will use the money for laptops and "security monitoring software" - would that target the anonymizer app Vibe that's emerged, created by Hazem "White Hat" Sayed?

Ray Kelly, widely touted as a candidate to replace Michael Bloomberg as Mayor, offered his "profound gratitude" to JPM Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. Will this relationship and the mass arrests be explained?

And what of the use of MTA busses to arrest protesters, as photographed by Inner City Press in its story last night? On Sunday morning, Inner City Press asked the Transit Workers Union Local 100 for its comment and what it will do. Watch this site.

JP Morgan Chase stands accused of improper involvement not only in New York City policing, but in corrupting the Middle East peace process through UN envoy Tony Blair, who is also a JP Morgan consultant.

For some time Inner City Press has asked the UN, and Blair himself after a New York City meeting of the Middle East Quartet, about his involvement in cell phone deals in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, without answer.

On Friday, September 30 Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky:

Inner City Press: I am sure you’ve seen these stories of late about Tony Blair. Often you’ll say, speak to Tony Blair. It’s not that easy to do, as you might imagine. So I wanted to ask the UN side of it. These articles are saying that increasing questions have arisen about the double service of Tony Blair for J.P.Morgan as a consultant and as the Middle East peace envoy. And they point to particular deals around cell phones... I don’t expect the UN to say anything anti-Blair, but what is the UN’s role in reviewing those conflicts of interest? Is there a kind of review that’s done for other UN officials to view whether the outside activities or other activities of Tony Blair conflict with what he does for the UN system?

Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: Well, as we have said before, Tony Blair is the Quartet envoy. He is the Representative of the Quartet. He is not the UN envoy in the Quartet. That is not his role, okay? And so, I think you’re knocking on the wrong door here.

Inner City Press: who does the review of whether there is a conflict of interest? Is it just up to Tony Blair himself or is there some, does the Quartet have some secretariat or administrative body to review these charges?

Spokesperson: Well, I think you’d need to check with, first of all, I think it’s right, you could certainly check with Tony Blair’s office in the first instance. But, also of course, you could check with the other participants in the Quartet, as well. But, just to be clear, it’s not a UN role.

  So JP Morgan Chase with its money can corrupt the UN Middle East process -- then say "it's not a UN role." And the bank can pay the New York police, which mass arrests those protesting its bailout. What's next? Watch this site.

September 26, 2011

So at UBS a "rogue" trader burned over $2 billion, and not much of a peep yet from the regulators including the Federal Reserve. Meanwhile, Bank of America look move to sell its correspondent banking business.

September 19, 2011

Now First Niagara says that "in September" it will announce to whom it would sell of HSBC branches, it's allowed to acquire them. What a Rube Goldberg of a transaction. It will be opposed.

September 12, 2011

So Bank of America denies it plans to close 600 branches. OK - how many does it plan to close?

In Lebanon, Société Générale de Banque au Liban, said Sept. 9 that it gained final approval from the Central Bank of Lebanon to acquire the assets and liabilities of Lebanese Canadian Bank. The acquisition will raise the unit's total assets to $11 billion, its deposits to $8.6 billion and its loans to $3 billion. The bank will also take over Lebanese Canadian Bank's 35 branches, which will come under the unit's signage. Consequently, the unit will operate a total of 101 branches....

September 5, 2011

Wells Fargo is moving to settle in Memphis just the type of racially discriminatory predatory lending and foreclosure charges that it has previously bragged about beating in court, for example in Baltimore. We'll be watching this -- and another big bank, next week. Watch this site.

August 29, 2011

What does the FDIC consider before selling off a bank? According to SNL Financial, "Evansville, Ind.-based Old National Bancorp on Aug. 26 revealed plans to close nine branches of failed Integra Bank NA and consolidate them into other branches of the failed bank as part of an ongoing assessment that could eventually lead to more consolidations. Old National acquired the Evansville-based bank July 29, after it was shuttered by the OCC. Effective Sept. 30, Old National will close nine of Integra Bank's 52 branches. Five of the failed bank's Evansville branches will be closed, along with one branch in Mt. Vernon, Ill. In Kentucky, Old National will shutter one branch in Madisonville and transfer the accounts to another Madisonville location. The company will also close one branch each in Clay and Poole in Kentucky, transferring the accounts to branches in Providence, Ky., and Sebree, Ky., respectively." These transaction are done without public comment. But what does the FDIC consider?

August 22, 2011

In a marriage of sleaze earlier this month, Spartanburg, S.C.-based Advance America Cash Advance Centers Inc. said it agreed to purchase for $45.6 million Atlanta-based CompuCredit Holdings Corp.'s retail storefront consumer finance business -- approximately 300 locations in nine states...

August 15, 2011

   The proposal from HSBC to transfer 195 branches to First Niagara is even worse that it first looked, based only on First Niagara's weak CRA program that led to its last acquisition, of NewAlliance in Connecticut, being protested from nearly all of First Niagara's communities. Now First Niagara says that of the 195, it would closed 33, and try to sell off 67. Can any regulator accept such a disruptive and cynical "middleman" transaction?  It will be opposed...

August 8, 2011

Beyond the fair lending violations at and consumer abuse by Capital One, ING is being investigated for violating sanctions and doing business in Sudan, Cuba and Iran. This is being raised - watch this site.

August 1, 2011

Serial acquirer First Niagara, opposed by community groups and local elected officials on its recent deal in for New Alliance in New Haven, now seeks to pay $1 billion to buy 195 Northeast branches from HSBC, mainly in Upstate New York, held approximately $15.0 billion in deposits and $15.0 billion in gross assets as of May 31. First Niagara will pick up 183 branches in Upstate New York, four branches in northern Westchester County, N.Y., two branches in Putnam County, N.Y., and six branches in Connecticut. HSBC said it will be consolidating approximately 13 branches located in Connecticut and New Jersey into nearby HSBC branches by the first quarter of 2012, subject to regulatory approval. We'll be there - watch this site.

July 25, 2011

Banco do Brasil projects to have a network of up to 20 branches and 400,000 new customers in the U.S. in five years, the executive told the news agency. The prospective EuroBank acquisition is subject to approval” - and yeah, not so fast...

July 18, 2011

HSBC is putting up for sale not only its credit cards -- Capital One and Wells are the touted bidders -- but also branches, with M&T, First Niagara and Key in competition. This would clearly close a lot of branches: they should (have to) compete on that. Watch this site.

July 11, 2011

When Christine Lagarde appeared on July 10 on the Amanpour show on ABC, she said that her ethics test is what her mother would say was okay. Amanpour then didn't ask her, what would maman say about l'affaire Bernard Tapie? Bad journalism.

Brazilian federal prosecutors based in Rio de Janeiro have initiated a lawsuit against three major banks for alleged irregularities in charging of client fees between 2008 and 2010, the prosecutors said in a statement last week. The three banks are HSBC, Santander and Itau-Unibanco, Brazil's largest bank by assets...

July 4, 2011

"We have a hard time seeing a settlement with fines in the $20 billion to $25 billion range, as originally discussed," the analysts said. "We think that it will have much lower penalties than originally proposed, if it happens at all." -- Bank of America's $8.5 billion settlement with 22 mortgage investors may sharply reduce or eliminate penalties against the largest U.S. mortgage servicers under investigation by the states' attorneys general, according to Amherst Securities Group. The size of the settlement with Bank of America, the largest servicer of U.S. mortgages, and mandates to improve how the institution treats loans in default will make it harder for the attorneys general to find consensus, according to a client note Thursday from Amherst.

Inner City Press: 1) it shouldn't buy BofA out of the other problems. 2) the AGs let their thunder be stolen...

June 27, 2011

A potential acquirer for BNP Paribas' Bank of the West has now been named: US Bancorp. We'll see. Consumers and analysis have heaped scorn on Capital One's proposal to buy ING Direct. Even from a purely financial point of view, it's said to only make sense if Capital One intends on another acquisition, for example of HSBC's credit card business, the kind HSBC acquired along with the predatory Household International. But there's a $270 million break-up fee in the Capital One deal, and ING will not want to pay it. Game on.

Distracted by DSK & Hacking, IMF Ignores Sudan & Afghan Banks

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 23 -- With the International Monetary Fund refusing to answer or even acknowledge questions about its consideration of programs from Afghanistan through Belarus to South Sudan, set for independence on July 9, it seems the arrest and resignation of Dominique Strauss Kahn, the two candidate race to replace him and a recent hacking scandal have distracted the IMF.

  When the IMF on Thursday morning held its first press briefing in two weeks, the questions largely related to the race between Christine Lagarde of France and Agustin Carstens of Mexico to replace DSK. Two questions, one online and the other in-person, concerned the IMF getting hacked. Deputy spokesman David Hawley said that “files were copied,” but deferred other answers.

  Inner City Press submitted as it has in the past four questions by the IMF's online briefing center. In the past at least some questions have been answered, about Sudan and less frequently Sri Lanka.

  But in his post-DSK era, these June 23 questions were entirely ignored:

With South Sudan set to declare independence on July 9, what is the status of the IMF's consideration of South Sudan, including in light of Sudanese president Omar al Bashir's threat to cut off the pipelines that takes South Sudan's oil to market?

Afghan authorities have complained about negotiations with IMF. On Afghanistan, can you state the status of and explain IMF's requirement that shareholders not have any management role in Afghan banks, given that this is allowed in the US, for example?

In terms of the IMF's research budget, some have questioned whether the IMF at times censors the conclusions of research. Is that true, and if so how does the IMF respond to the criticism?

In Belarus, will the new arrests of protesters in the last days have any impact on the IMF's consideration of Belarus' request for an IMF program?

  Nor in the half hour between Hawley saying “there are no more questions” -- which wasn't true -- and the expiration of the embargo were any of the four questions answered. Previously the IMF has been asked about gift filings by its top officials, and hasn't answered. Oh, transparency.


June 20, 2011

It's looking as of this writing on June 19 like PNC will be the applicant to buy Royal Bank of Canada's 400 US branches, the old Centura Bank. And the BNP Paribas will be under pressure, due to its exposure to Greece, to sell off its US operations.

  Meanwhile we can report: after the challenge to Comerica - Sterling, they have been unable to meet their goal of closing in the second quarter. Watch this site.

June 13, 2011

Amid Lagarde & DSK Scandals, IMF Won't Answer on Belarus or Jamaica

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 9 -- Without a managing director, without transparency and seemingly without regard to human rights, the International Monetary Fund is negotiating with Belarus about a loan larger than the $3 billion the Russians lent, conditioned on privatization to Russian firms.

During the IMF's bi-weekly briefing on June 9, Inner City Press submitted this question:

On Belarus, what is the IMF's thinking after Russia cut electrical supply this week, after crackdown on online protests and long sentences to political opponents, and what does the IMF say that to require privatization would be serving Russian buyers of Belarus assets?”

  IMF spokesperson Caroline Atkinson, facing in-person questions about Dominique Strauss Kahn, took three online questions -- about Pakistan, Argentina and Latvia -- but not this Inner City Press question about Belarus (nor another one, about Jamaica).

  After not acknowledging the timely submitted questions during the briefing, afterward Inner City Press received this email from the IMF about Belarus:

Subject: Your question on Belarus
From: [ ] @imf.org
Date: Thu, Jun 9, 2011 at 10:43 AM
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

Matthew, With regard to your question today on Belarus. As you probably know, a previously scheduled IMF mission is currently in Minsk (the dates are June 1-13) to conduct post-program monitoring. The standing policy has been that we don’t comment on specific country matters while missions are in the field and discussions are in progress. We will update the press on the mission’s outcome when it concludes.

The purpose of this mission is to discuss policies that would restore economic stability and put the economy on the path of strong and sustainable growth. The mission will use the opportunity to exchange views with the authorities on possible next steps in response to their request for the Fund-supported program.

Regards, [ ] IMF Press Office

  It's been reported that IMF Head of the mission Chris Jarvis has met Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Rumas. Inner City Press replied with a request to be informed of any IMF press conference call about any announcement with Belarus, but the IMF press person who had replied was listed as out of the office.

  On Jamaica, the IMF asked for more specifics, to which Inner City Press replied:

Jamaican Finance Secretary Wesley Hughes met with the IMF, now returns to Jamaica for talks with trade unions, in connection with which Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, Senator Arthur Williams, has spoken of the “Government’s inability to pay the $20 billion owed this year, and has proposed an extended payment period, to protect the gains made in the economy and to preserve its agreement with the IMF.”

So 1) does the IMF dispute that the Jamaican gov't can't pay, must extend the payment period “to preserve its agreement with the IMF”?

Separately, 2) what did the IMF tell Finance Secretary Hughes about this?

  After not taking this question during the briefing, then asking two rounds of counter questions about it, the IMF finally replied:

Subject: RE: FW: Question Received (6/9/2011 10:10:02 AM)
From: [ ] @imf.org
Date: Thu, Jun 9, 2011 at 1:14 PM
To: matthew.lee [at] innercitypress.com

Matthew, We are not going to make any comment on ongoing negotiations between the administration and the unions. I would refer your questions to the Jamaican authorities.

The government’s commitments related to the program are outlined in the documents of the second and third reviews of the stand-by arrangement, which you can consult online in the Jamaica page [of the IMF].

  So, after not acknowledging the timely submitted questions during the briefing, and even asking questions about the questions, the IMF declined to answer either of them. Some transparency. The IMF did not even respond to repeatedly emailed questions about its policies on gifts. To be continued.

* * *

The competition for ING Direct has heated up, with GE battling Capital One, while KKR tries for a minority stake. Capital One, some feel, some be the odd one out. We'll have more on this.

June 6, 2011

Another merger has been announced, with Bank United proposing to buy Herald National Bank, with a strange non-compete clause in which CEO John Kanas couldn't manage the bank he'd be buying. This should not be approved.

Also, Cincinnati-based First Financial Bank inked an agreement to acquire all 16 of the retail banking branches of Liberty Savings Bank located in Ohio. And on the seamier side, Gaddafi's favor bank Goldman Sachs Group is close to selling Litton Loan Servicing to Ocwen Financial, with an announcement possible within days.

May 30, 2011

So HSBC and Goldman Sachs are among banks that held funds for Muammar Gaddafi’s government investment fund -- HSBC held $292.7 million across 10 accounts and Goldman Sachs had almost $44 million in four accounts as of June 30, 2010, according to a document on the Libyan Investment Authority...

May 23, 2011

Amid DSK Case, Theory of Replacing Ban & US Taking IMF, China WB Revived

By Matthew Russell Lee, News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, May 18 -- The arrest for sex crimes of International Monetary Fund managing director Dominique Strauss Kahn, and his interim replacement by his American deputy John Lipsky, have together revived a story exclusively reported by Inner City Press in 2009.

Then, two senior advisers to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told Inner City Press of worries that the US would take over the top spot at the IMF and give the World Bank to China, which in turn would not insist that the UN Secretary General term beginning in 2012 go to an Asian.

Under that theory, if Europe lost the IMF -- as seems even more possible now -- and China got a top Bretton Woods institution spot, the Europeans could make a play for the 2012 UN term.

Until Strauss Kahn's arrest, and now US Treasury Secretary Geithner's call that a formal “interim” replacement be named, quite possibly Lipsky, those close to Ban like South Korea's Permanent Representative to the UN were bragging that a second term for Ban was in the bag.

Now, at least until the IMF situation is resolved, Team Ban's 2009 nightmare scenario is suddenly closer to coming into play.

Eastern Europeans candidates were already circling to succeed Ban, albeit in 2016, among them Srgjan Kerim, Jan Kubis and even Navi Pillay's deputy Ivan Simonovic.

Now Western Europeans may renew interest, if Europe loses the IMF. Staffan de Mistura is said by his staff to be interested. But surely there are others. Watch this site.

Per the WSJ, California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris is expected to announce Monday a new law-enforcement effort aimed at mortgage-industry practices. The effort will cover a range of activities, from loan origination to the packaging of mortgages into securities, and will include both civil and criminal prosecutions. Mr. Schneiderman has issued subpoenas to units of Ambac Financial Group Inc., Assured Guaranty Ltd., MBIA Inc. and Syncora Holdings Ltd.... Then what?


May 16, 2011:

As IMF Chief Strauss-Kahn Is Arrested, Denials of Rule-breaking Recalled, Immunity & Air France Arrangement Questioned

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 15 -- With Dominique Strauss-Kahn of the International Monetary Fund having been detained and then this morning arrested for sexual assault allegedly committed in the Sofitel near Times Square, attention has turned to the IMF's failure to discipline him for what its Executive Board called a “serious lapse of judgment” in 2008.

  In this case, IMF spokesman William Murray has been quoted that the IMF “has not immediate comment” on the arrest or charges.

  IMF staff, too, have been defensive about Strauss-Kahn and his compliance with rules. Inner City Press covers the IMF as well as the wider United Nations, and on March 17 Inner City Press asked the IMF to respond to what sources described as a pattern in which “DSK gets friends and family hired by IMF affiliates.”

  At that time, the IMF answer other of Inner City Press' questions, while ignoring this one. Two weeks later, Inner City Press asked:

Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2011 9:58:14 AM
To: IMF, Media Briefing Center

Again, Please state whether Dominique Strauss Kahn has any relatives working in the World Bank or other UN affiliated organizations, and if so why this does not run afoul of anti nepotism rules and principles? From: Matthew Russell Lee Media Outlet: Inner City Press

This time, the question drew a quick answer, albeit a dismissive one, from Mr. Murray:

From: Murray, William [at] mf.org
Date: Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 10:22 AM
Subject: FW: Question Received (3/31/2011 9:58:14 AM)
To: Matthew Russell Lee [at] InnerCityPress.com

Matthew,

He has no relatives on the staff of the IMF. Given the premise of your question, let me note that the Bank and UN are wholly separate institutions from the IMF, with no fiscal or managerial connections. At the IMF we certainly have nepotism rules, and they have not been violated in any way.

But does the IMF have rules, that they require not be violated?

 It's now reported that Strauss-Kahn “has an arrangement with Air France that allows him to get on any flight and sit in first class.” What kind of arrangement is that? Who paid for it, and how much did they pay? Inner City Press has asked three spokespeople of the IMF, including Mr. Murray. Watch this site.

Footnote:  Inner City Press has been asked how, if Strauss-Kahn as an IMF official has a form of immunity, he could be detained, questioned and arrested by the New York Police Department. (The IMF has a history of citing immunity, for example for Paul Ross in Pakistan, click here.)

  Earlier this year, Inner City Press (un) covered the case of a French diplomat who was arrested for attempted purchase of cocaine and resisting arrest, but was later allowed to flee the country before trial.

  The practice is to allow one such flight - but the person is not supposed to re-enter the United States -- which, in the cocaine case, has in fact happened, which neither the French government nor US State Department have yet explained, click here. Watch this site.


May 9, 2011

JPMorgan Chase & Co. was subpoenaed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over failed mortgages, it was reported last week, as the SEC probes banks sued for allegedly boosting their profits by failing to share refunds from sellers of faulty debt.

May 2, 2011

Now Citibank is accused of killing those who owe it money. In the past, Inner City Press has covered JPMorgan Chase investing in a Japanese finance company which told a borrower to sell his kidney. But this is killing:

In Indonesia, Citi on Hot Seat

Debt Collection Brought In-House After Outside Agents Accused in Man's Death

JAKARTA, Indonesia—Citigroup Inc. said it has hired more than 1,400 people and brought its debt-collection duties in Indonesia in-house, following accusations that outside debt collectors used by the bank may have caused the death of a credit-card debtor.

This month, police arrested three debt-collection agents used by Citibank after a customer died in one of the bank's branches. Police said Irzen Octa was found dead in a Citibank branch in Jakarta after he complained about his credit-card debt.

South Jakarta Police Chief Col. Gatot Edy Pramono said the suspects met with Mr. Octa in a small room and interrogated him, according to the Associated Press. He said an autopsy found a ruptured blood vessel in his head and wounds on his nose.

...The debt-collection hires came after Indonesia's central bank said recently that Citi had violated some collection rules. Bank Indonesia Gov. Darmin Nasution said Wednesday that the central bank is considering penalties against Citi. This month, the central bank ordered the company to stop recruiting new credit-card customers while it investigated whether the bank's collection practices had led to Mr. Octa's death.

The latest episode isn't the first time questions were raised over Citi's debt-collection tactics abroad. In India, a Citi customer in Mumbai alleged in 1999 that outside debt collectors put a knife to his throat and threatened to kill him if he didn't pay his $27,000 credit-card debt. The collectors were later arrested and charged with extortion because undercover officers had witnessed the episode. Citi said at the time that its debt collectors were well-trained and not permitted to use threats.

In 1995, another India customer accused the owner of the same outside Citi collection agency of threatening to have one of his kidneys removed and sold unless he paid an overdue bill of $765. Citi, then part of Citicorp, denied the customer's account at the time.

"These are isolated cases and we have the appropriate controls in place to operate in more than 100 countries," a Citi spokeswoman in New York said Thursday.

Last December, police in India arrested a Citi employee at a branch near New Delhi amid allegations the employee colluded with others to siphon off an estimated $67.2 million from wealth-management customers.

Separately, Indonesian lawmakers called for penalties against Citigroup after a hearing this month that examined allegations that a Citi employee embezzled millions of dollars from customers. Penalties could include being blocked from taking new credit-card customers to losing its license to operate in the world's fourth most populous country.

April 25, 2011

Declining interest, rising interest rates: at this year's Citigroup shareholders' meeting, only 400 people attended, fewer than in previous years. About 25% of shareholders voted for a proposal by the City of New York Comptroller's office demanding that the board launch an independent review of Citi's mortgage and foreclosure practices. But the sleaze just continues...

April 18, 2011

IMF Promotes Bank Mergers, Says Bigger is Better, Politics & Portugal Dodged

By Matthew Russell Lee

WASHINGTON DC, April 15 -- The International Monetary Fund is unabashedly promoting the takeover of small banks by large ones, claiming that its own work in “Emerging Europe” since the financial meltdown shows that communities are better served by large banks, even if based far away or in other countries.

  IMF European Department Director Antonio Borges told reporters on Friday that Belgium was smart to have pushed Fortis to being acquired by BNP Paribas. He urged more such mergers.

  Inner City Press asked Borges if the IMF proposed any safeguards at all, given that concerns exist that when a local bank is acquired by one based far away, there will be less reinvestment and accountability.

  Borges, while calling this an “interesting question,” bragged that the IMF organized a coordinated effort to get large banks to treat communities, particularly in Emerging Europe, fairly, and that this had worked. See IMF transcript, below.

  Inner City Press began to ask about attempts to encourage or require reinvestment, for example in the UK -- but moderator Simonetta Nardin said there was no time for follow up questions.

  Meanwhile, Borges took but refused to answer two questions about Portugal, citing an IMF policy against officials working on their own countries, and also claiming that the IMF does not get involved in politics. What -- encouraging bank mergers is not political? Watch this site.

From the IMF's transcript:

Inner City Press: you seem to be saying that bank mergers—small banks being bought by big ones sort of unqualifiedly may be a good thing. In some countries people think that local banks are more accountable, that if you move the assets to a faraway headquarters that there's less responsive. What do you say to that critique and is that something that the IMF takes any account of?

MR. BORGES: you ask a very interesting question, because this is a problem we were faced with over the last few years. In many of the countries of emerging Europe, you find banks that actually are owned by other banks elsewhere and there were concerns that, as there might be problems in the domestic countries of those banks that assets would be pulled out from emerging Europe and they might suffer. And the Fund, the IMF, invested quite a bit of effort to organize a coordinated effort on the part of all these banks to behave in the best possible interests of those economies, and I must say this was quite successful, because as a result, these countries are now recovering very well and their banks are operating well. So, if anything, the experience of emerging Europe demonstrates that having large, solid banks operate in your country may be an important source of stability if things are properly managed.

* * *

A U.S. appeals court ruled April 15 that Wells Fargo & Co. wrongly claimed $115 million in tax deductions for the 2002 tax year from transactions the court called "abusive tax shelters." The so-called SILO deals involve banks that bought railcars or other equipment from the public agencies, claimed millions in depreciation tax benefits, and then leased the equipment back to the agency. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that 26 SILO transactions involving Wells Fargo were "purely circular transactions" that were "abusive tax shelters." The appeals court said a trial judge in the case "permissibly found that the claimed tax deductions are for depreciation on property Wells Fargo never expected to own or operate, interest on debt that existed only on a balance sheet, and write-offs for the costs of transactions that amounted to nothing more than tax deduction arbitrage."

Sounds like Wells..

April 11, 2011

This, we like: JPMorgan Chase was unsuccessful in blocking from its annual shareholders' meeting a proposal to “prevent holding investments in companies that, in management’s judgment, substantially contribute to genocide or crimes against humanity, the most egregious violations of human rights,” targets J.P. Morgan Chase’s stock holdings in Chinese oil company PetroChina. It's said that the company’s work in Darfur supports ICC-charged genocide in the region....

  On Citigroup, a senior Indonesian lawmaker called for penalties against Citi amid allegations that a local employee embezzled millions of dollars from customers, as well as questions about its debt-collection practices. Speaking to reporters in Jakarta on Thursday, Emir Moeis, chairman of the parliamentary committee overseeing the financial sector in Southeast Asia's most populous country, said the central bank should impose "stern actions" on Citigroup, "ranging from freezing its credit-card business to revoking its entire license in the country depending on the degree of violations it has committed." Bank Indonesia has already ordered Citibank, the largest foreign bank by assets in the country, not to accept new clients for its Citigold wealth management unit after a staff member, Inong Malinda Dee, was detained by police on March 23 on charges of stealing at least $2 million from clients after obtaining signed blank checks from clients. Citi detected the problem in February, and the current investigation shows the fraud dates back to December. Police also seized expensive cars in Ms. Dee's possession.

April 4, 2011

Inner City Press / Fair Finance Watch last week put in to the Fed a comment in the extended comment period on Bank of Montreal / Harris - M&I, and a new timely comment on Comerica Sterling:

Using the 2010 HMDA data, Inner City Press has commented that Bank of Montreal's Harris confined African Americans to higher cost, rate spread loans 2.35 times more frequently than whites. M&I Federal Savings Bank confined African Americans to higher cost, rate spread loans 2.1 times more frequently than whites. Bank of Montreal's Harris denied the applications of African Americans 2.35 times, and Latinos two times more frequently than those of whites. The Fed extended the comment period on the merger once, but now seeks to close it with the fair lending information still outstanding.

Inner City Press has submitted another timely comment, that Comerica, which is seeking to acquire Houston-based Sterling, in 2010 confined African Americans 6.26 times more frequently than whites to higher cost, rate spread loans. At Comerica, 11.3 percent of loans to African Americans were over the rate spread, versus only 1.9 percent of loans to whites.

March 28, 2011

So Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and GMAC's Ally Financial have been “summoned” to Washington for a March 30 meeting with state attorneys general and at least three U.S. agencies. How will the public be represented?

March 21, 2011

After the disaster at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan, Deane Dray, a Citigroup analyst covering GE opined that “while it is still early in the unfolding nuclear facility crisis in Japan, we are getting many questions from investors as to what GE’s liability might potentially be,” Dray says that any potential GE liability in this incident appears limited by something called “Channelling law.”

Channeling law is the long-standing nuclear industry practice that assigns the liability for damages from a nuclear failure on plant operators, regardless of fault for an incident. Channeling law is applicable in Japan, and protects equipment suppliers and the designers of nuclear facilities from liability. According to Japan’s Law on Compensation for Nuclear Damage and Law on Contract for Liability Insurance for Nuclear Damage, power plant operators must provide 120 billion yen ($1.2 billion) of coverage and the government provides coverage beyond this level.

So GE will get off cheap, Citigroup predicts...

March 14, 2011

Citigroup, shopping its CitiFinancial unit, is willing to finance a deal or retain a stake in the company. News services list several potential bidder groups. One group reportedly includes Warburg Pincus LLC and KKR & Co. LP, aligned with Boadilla del Monte, Spain-based Banco Santander SA and BlackRock Inc.. Another includes Blackstone Group LP, Brysam Global Partners, Carlyle Group LLC, Thomas H. Lee Partners LP and WL Ross & Co. LLC. Good luck...

March 7, 2011

Inner City Press / Fair Finance Watch has filed a timely Community Reinvestment Act protest below with the Federal Reserve to Hancock Holding Co. of Gulfport MS to acquire Whitney Holding Corp. of New Orleans, LA.

As simply one example, in the Hattiesburg, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area in 2009, the most recent year for which Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data is available, Hancock Bank denied each and every conventional home purchase application from African Americans, while make 56 such loans to whites (and none to Hispanics).

In its headquarters Gulfport MSA, Hancock Bank denied conventional home purchase loan applications from African Americans and Hispanics twice as often as those of whites.

To impose this record on Whitney's service area, including New Orleans, would have adverse impacts, which militate for public hearings and the denial of Hancock's applications.

In the New Orleans MSA in 2009, Hancock Bank of Louisiana made 55 conventional home purchase loans to whites, bot only three to African Americans, and none to Hispanics.

In the Baton Rouge MSA in 2009, Hancock Bank of Louisiana denied conventional home purchase loan applications from African Americans 2.35 times more frequently, and of Hispanics 2.91 times more frequently, that those of whites.

In the Mobile MSA in 2009, Hancock Ban of Alabama made nine conventional home purchase loans to whites, and none to African Americans or Hispanics.

In the Tallahassee MSA in 2009, Hancock Bank of Florida denied the conventional home purchase loan applications of African American a whopping 8.6 times more frequently than those of whites.

To impose this record on Whitney's service area, including New Orleans, would have adverse impacts, which militate for public hearings and the denial of Hancock's applications.

In the New Orleans MSA in 2009, Hancock Bank of Louisiana made 55 conventional home purchase loans to whites, bot only three to African Americans, and none to Hispanics.

In the Baton Rouge MSA in 2009, Hancock Bank of Louisiana denied conventional home purchase loan applications from African Americans 2.35 times more frequently, and of Hispanics 2.91 times more frequently, that those of whites.

Again, this militates for public hearings and the denial of Hancock's applications.

ICP also alleges that the transaction would have anti-competitive and anti-consumer effects, and timely requests a public hearing on the branch closings and loss of service which would result. Full disclosure of all branches that would be closed for the next three years should be made before the comment period closed, to allow input. ICP has requested an extension of the comment period.

* * *

   In other news: not only did Gaddafi's Libyan Investment Authority have a stake in HSBC -- now HSBC makes money from this, by not having to pay out any divident on the frozen stake....

February 28, 2011

JPMorgan Chase's cover up of multi billion dollar fund transfers by Madoff is an outrage, sure - but what were the regulators doing?

February 21, 2011

What's in a name? Citigroup renamed its discredited predatory lending unit CitiFinancial as “OneMain Financial,” renaming NASCAR teams in the process and now trying to sell it. But who would buy it - Blackstone? Why?

February 14, 2011

Among the list of banks that the sharks at Keefe Bruyette & Woods pegged last week as takeover bait are KeyCorp, National Penn Bancshares (in which Warburg Pincas has just upped its stake), Synovus Financial Corp and Regions Financial Corporation, pegged by some to hook up with CIT....

Shareholders have filed 76 political contribution resolutions so far this year, according to ISS. The measures mainly seek semi-annual reports about direct and indirect corporate spending for candidates and referendums. The first 2011 vote is set for April 21 at Citigroup Inc.'s annual meeting. A similar proposal won 30.3% of votes cast last year.

February 7, 2011

As noted by SNL, Bruce Berkowitz of Fairholme Capital Management LLC, which is the largest shareholder of CIT and also one of Region's largest stakeholders, hinted at a merger between CIT Group Inc. and Regions Financial Corp. during an interview with CNBC on Feb. 2, SNL has noted. Asked about consolidation, he said Regions has a "great low cost deposit base." He continued: "We also have CIT. We're the largest owner. CIT is a great business. What a sweet spot they're in … The only thing CIT needs is a low cost deposit base. Gee, I'm going to have to think of some candidates on that one."

BB&T Corp. Chairman, President and CEO Kelly King said the company's intention to be "aggressive" in its Texas expansion does not mean paying high prices to buy franchises. King, speaking via telephone at a financial conference Feb. 2, said that while Texas is an important region for BB&T, "that does not mean we will run out and take over Texas tomorrow." Who thought they would?

January 31, 2011

With Susquehanna Bancshares Inc. agreeing to acquire Abington Bancorp in Pennsylvania for $273 million, it strikes ICP/Fair Finance Watch that Susquehanna makes a disproportionately large percentage of African American applicants NOT get loans, including by making them “withdraw” their applications. Watch this site.

Last week J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. admitted it had overcharged more than 4,000 family members and foreclosed on 14, problems it turned up after an internal review. Chase is facing a civil lawsuit in South Carolina from a service member who claims he was overcharged and is seeking punitive damages. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act caps interest rates for loans to active-duty military members at a 6% annual rate and shields them from foreclosure. The law applies to "any debt incurred" by a service member, including credit cards and car loans. The Delaware AG's office has demanded action from Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co., PNC Financial Services Group Inc., Ally Financial Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s Litton Loans.

January 24, 2011

Let's review: the "concentration limit" forbids big financial firms from merging or buying another bank or large company if it results in the firm having liabilities greater than 10% of total U.S. liabilities. The limit "could also have the beneficial effect of causing the largest financial companies to either shed risk or raise capital to reduce their liabilities so as to permit additional acquisitions," the regulators said in the study. They didn't indicate the need to break up the biggest banks, as some officials would like to see. Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Thomas Hoenig, for example, has spoken in favor of dismantling large banks. Regulators now have nine months to impose concentration limits on the banking industry. It will be up to the Federal Reserve to calculate banks' liabilities and implement the rule. Institutions that may be affected include J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America...

January 17, 2011

Citigroup in India claimed last week it is working out "fair compensation" for the customers affected by a scandal at its banking branch in the northern Indian town of Gurgaon. "We have been reconciling amounts involved with impacted customers...this process [of working out compensation] will happen over a period of time," the bank said in a statement. Police in Gurgaon are investigating a case in which an employee at the Citibank branch allegedly colluded with others to siphon off an estimated $67.2 million from wealth-management customers. The alleged scam included making false promises -- sort of like Citi's predatory lending...

Another predatory lenders, or at least servicer and forecloser -- Deutsche Bank -- is lurching toward the a sale to LGT Group of BHF-Bank, which it acquired as part of its purchase of Sal. Oppenheim jr. & Cie. SCA in March 2010. Handelsblatt reported Jan. 11 that the Liechtenstein-based bank and Deutsche Bank expect to close the deal within the next few weeks, having been in exclusive talks since December 2010. The deal is still subject to the approval of Germany's market regulator, Bafin...

January 10, 2011

India's capital markets regulator and the central bank are combining efforts in the investigation of a $70 million fraud, involving an employee of Citigroup Inc.'s Indian wealth management operations, even as the net is cast wider to get to the bottom of the scam. "There are a whole lot of investigations that are being conducted. We need to get a sense of what went wrong first...Co-ordination is happening very much now and the Reserve Bank of India and SEBI are working together to find out what went wrong.” The name is Citigroup....

January 3, 2011

J.P. Morgan Chase has been sued by the trustee attempting to recoup money for the companies of convicted Ponzi schemer Tom Petters. The money involved includes millions the bank took from Petters' accounts after his downfall and profits and fees it got from Petters' purchase of iconic camera company Polaroid. In a filing in federal court in Minnesota last week, Douglas A. Kelley, the court-appointed receiver for Petters' companies, alleged that J.P. Morgan knew, or should have known, that funds it seized from Petters' J.P. Morgan accounts after his arrest were fraudulently obtained. The suit also reiterated that J.P. Morgan and its One Equity Partners also knew, or should have known, the funds used by Petters to buy Polaroid were also from his Ponzi scheme....

December 27, 2010

Deutsche Bank AG said last week it is in talks to sell its BHF Bank unit to Liechtenstein's LGT Group. Deutsche Bank acquired BHF Bank when it took over private German bank Sal Oppenheim earlier this year with an aim of boosting its private-banking and wealth-management business. Can you say, money laundering and tax evasion?

December 20, 2010

Ah the revolving door -- Obama administration official Peter Orszag is going to work for Citigroup, as Clinton's Bob Rubin did. Any more predatory lending? Or was that “democratization of credit”?

December 13, 2010

HSBC's failure in the USA with Household Finance was profiled in a lengthy Reuters piece last week. Missing from the analysis was HSBC's era of buying near failing banks in Brazil and elsewhere. This is what gave them the over-confidence about Household. Now, they want to try more inroads in China. We'll see.

December 6, 2010

IMF Fudges on Ireland & Democracy, on Africa's Reduced Votes, Maldives Deferred

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 2 -- At the IMF's press briefing on December 2, spokesperson Caroline Atkinson took question after question about Ireland while deferring answers on the Maldives and East African Community and ignoring questions submitted about IMF chief Dominique Strauss Kahn's statement that his successor should come from outside the US or EU.

The IMF talks much about governance reform, but even under its much hyped recent changes, Africa as a continent will see its voting share drop from 5.9 per cent to 5.6 per cent. Inner City Press asked Thursday about this, and this was one question Ms. Atkinson took. She referred to “dynamic and emerging” economies -- apparently not in Africa -- but said that lower income countries would also have their voices amplified.

Inner City press had submitted this simple question: “In light of Mr Strauss Kahn's statement that next IMF chief should come from outside the US and EU, is he going to formally propose that to the Board or any other step?” The question was not taken or acknowledged. We'll see.

On Ireland, despite massive protests and statements by the opposition that they are not bound by the deal with the IMF, Ms. Atkinson said that the IMF had “discussions with the major, uh, the opposition parties” and was “satisfied” enough to present the deal to the IMF Executive Board.

But what does this mean? Are successive governments bound by IMF deals? Inner City Press had first submitted this question: “on Ireland, what is the IMF's position on approvals needed inside the country?” But the question was neither taken nor even acknowledged.
 
  Also on democracy, Ms. Atkinson was asked about Ukraine's President vetoing an IMF suggested tax increase due to protest. Ms. Atkinson said she hadn't heard of it, but would provide information later if she did. Inner City Press had asked it. So again, we'll see.

Forbes points out that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has said that he’s going to make a major U.S. bank the focus of a coming Wikileaks dump. And now writer Andy Greenberg also spotlights a previous interview in Computer World in which Assange said he’s sitting on a stockpile of data from Bank of America. Coincidence?

Update of December 6, 2010: Forbes points out that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has said that he’s going to make a major U.S. bank the focus of a coming Wikileaks dump. And now writer Andy Greenberg also spotlights a previous interview in Computer World in which Assange said he’s sitting on a stockpile of data from Bank of America. Coincidence?

November 29, 2010

The Journal: “Bank of America Corp. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. have hit snags in efforts to restart nearly 230,000 foreclosures across the U.S., meaning some cases are likely to remain in limbo until early next year. Several complications are slowing the process, ranging from the hiring of new law firms to handle foreclosure paperwork to making sure that correct procedures are being followed as new or revised files are submitted in the 23 states where court approval is required for foreclosures. The delays aren't a sign that documentation problems are worse than previously acknowledged by the nation's two largest banks by assets, according to the companies. And Bank of America, based in Charlotte, N.C., and J.P. Morgan, of New York, haven't backed down from their insistence that no one was wrongly foreclosed on as a result of errors in affidavits or other loan documents.” We'll see.

November 22, 2010

Citigroup says it is reviewing about 14,000 foreclosure cases for potential errors, making it the latest bank to acknowledge flaws in how it handled documents used to evict homeowners. In testimony prepared for delivery at a House subcommittee hearing Thursday, Harold Lewis, a managing director of the bank's CitiMortgage unit, is expected to say Citi is reviewing about 10,000 foreclosure documents to ensure they are correct. Another 4,000 are being reviewed because they may not have been signed with a notary public present, as required by state law.”

November 15, 2010

Also brewing is an application involving Spanish savings bank Caja Madrid, and an ownership stake in City National Bank of Florida. Regulators have slapped around the latter, while Caja Madrid's record hardly gives confidence. A showdown may be looming. The application has been requested from officials at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Watch this site.

November 8, 2010

   Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Bank of America face lawsuits over misstatements in their underwriting of residential mortgage-backed securities, the banks belatedly disclosed Friday in quarterly regulatory filings. BofA said in its filing that it faces suits over more than $375 billion in mortgage-backed securities.The Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago filed suit in state courts in Illinois and California against a total of 17 institutions, including units of H&R Block and Barclays last month. The Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis, using similar language, sued 10 institutions, including Citi, J.P. Morgan Chase and GMAC Mortgage Group, a unit of Ally Financial Inc., in Indiana state court last month. Cambridge Place Investment Management, a $3.1 billion manager of asset-backed debt, is suing a dozen banks including Citi, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan in federal court...

November 1, 2010

Citigroup Global Markets Ltd. has bought the Israeli government's entire 11.69% stake in Israel Discount Bank Ltd. (DSCT.TV) for 832 million shekels ($231 million) and will distribute those shares to other institutional investors, Discount Bank said Tuesday” of last week. Why isn't a Federal Reserve Board review required for this?

Inner City Press / Fair Finance Watch received an inquiry last week about HSBC and Household, and responded:

Yes, Household had a bad reputation well before HSBC decided to buy them. For example, when Household bought Beneficial Finance, Inner City Press / Fair Finance Watch received numerous complaints from consumers, and filed comments with regulators against the combination. As such, HSBC was on notice of these concerns.

While the regulators were considering HSBC's application to buy Household, Inner City Press / Fair Finance Watch made its views known not only to the regulators but also to board members of HSBC. The deal was structured so as to avoid Community Reinvestment Act review (Household's thrift was extinguished, its “non bank bank” (a credit card bank) did not trigger CRA review.

Inner City Press / Fair Finance Watch was called by whistleblowing employees of Household who said they were ordered to refinance all loans over a certain number of days delinquent - “putting lipstick on the pig,” they called it. Household's performance did not get better, more probably worse, in that it was ultimately managed from further away, and by management - including Mr. Flint - which was arrogant, wouldn't admit there were any problems.

Inner City Press / Fair Finance Watch had been aware of Household as a predatory lender since well before HSBC's application. HSBC battened down the hatches, tried to evade CRA review, never made improvements...

October 18, 2010

Why not impose a moratorium on foreclosures? The excuse given last week was that it would freeze up the economy. Several participants in a meeting with President Obama came back with the same sound byte, that in Nevada over 50% of home sales are on properties that have been foreclosed on.

Why was Nevada the example? Could it have to do with Harry Reid? Vice President Joe Biden is headed to Reno this week, to stump for Reid.

October 11, 2010

Bank of America Corp. is facing an Oct. 8 deadline to halt foreclosures in North Carolina, according to a letter to the bank from state Attorney General as reported by SNL. He noted in the letter, dated Oct. 5, that while BofA has halted foreclosure proceedings in 23 states across the country, North Carolina was not among them. "As soon as possible and by no later than the close of business on Oct. 8, 2010, please confirm that Bank of America has halted foreclosure proceedings in North Carolina,"he said. Additionally, he requests that the bank provide a description of how it verifies and documents information related to a foreclosure before an affidavit is submitted. He also sent letters to several other banks and mortgage lenders, among them Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. unit CitiMortgage Inc., SunTrust Banks Inc. unit SunTrust Mortgage Inc., PHH Corp. unit PHH Mortgage Corp., IMB Management Holdings LP unit OneWest Bank FSB, PNC Financial Services Group Inc., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. unit Aurora Bank FSB, U.S. Bancorp unit U.S. Bank NA, HSBC Holdings plc unit HSBC Mortgage Services, MetLife Inc. unit MetLife Bank NA, BB&T Corp. and Invesco Ltd. unit American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc. In those letters, Cooper asked the companies to provide information by Oct. 12 on how they are re-examining their foreclosure process in North Carolina and how foreclosure information is documented and verified. Watch this site.

October 4, 2010

So Bernanke last week said the media ten to “make the good times too hot and the bad times too cold.” This from a man who, like his predecessor, ignored timely comments that Citigroup et al were predatory lenders...

September 27, 2010

While much of the financial press puts out laudatory softball pieces about Doug Flint as new chief of HSBC -- a sample one is below -- Inner City Press remembers him from conference calls on HSBC's acquisition of Household International, dissembling and setting up a deal that hurt not only consumers but also HSBC's shareholders. Good job, Doug...

Sample puff piece: “Douglas Flint (left) may be the “compromise candidate” for the role of HSBC Holdings chairman following a power struggle, but the straight-talking chief financial officer of the U.K.’s largest bank is highly regarded by analysts and has a strong track record in regulation and corporate governance. The 55-year old Scotsman looks set to take over from Stephen Green as HSBC chairman once the appointment is rubber-stamped by the board in Shanghai next week, beating Michael Geoghegan to the post.... According to this Wall Street Journal article, the industry considers Flint “rigorous, shrewd and independent-minded.'”

September 20, 2010

From JPMorgan Chase: “We are sorry for the difficulties that recently affected Chase.com, and we apologize for not communicating better with you during this issue.” Yeah, right...

September 13, 2010

On Pakistan, IMF Won't Explain Lack of Debt Relief, Why & When Loans, MDG Games

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 9 -- Despite the flooding crisis in Pakistan, the International Monetary Fund is offering loans, which barely make up for the debt payments Pakistan is making. Inner City Press on September 9 asked IMF Spokesperson Caroline Atkinson the following question:

In Pakistan, given the scope of the flooding and that 60% of the population lives in poverty, why is the IMF not considering debt forgiveness, and grants instead of loans? Does IMF dispute that Pakistan's debt payments ($500 million) are larger than the $450 million loan?”

Ms. Atkinson paraphrased the first part of the question, and declined to read out the second part. She said there was a question from this reporter, that “talks about the scope of the flooding, which is indeed terrible... We are assessing, there is a damage assessment by the World Bank and ADB [Asia Development Bank], results in late October.”

But there is no dispute that Pakistan is deeply damaged. Why use the damage assessment as an excuse? Ms. Atkinson went on to say that Pakistan's financial minister was at the IMF last week, discussing an ENDA (emergency) loan that she said will be approved by the board on a date not even set yet.

But she did not read out, or answer, this: “Does IMF dispute that Pakistan's debt payments ($500 million) are larger than the $450 million loan?”

Nor did Ms. Atkinson acknowledge another question Inner City Press submitted, after in her introduction she presented the IMF's commitment to what she called the “Millennium Development Challenge Goals” -- seeming to conflate the MDGs with the U.S. Millennium Challenge.

Inner City Press submitted this question, in the same manner as the paraphrased Pakistan question, that NGOs have

criticized the IMF 'for appearing to retreat to its “traditional position" and not providing enough flexibility on unwinding deficits without harming development spending.' Your response?”

To this, no answer. Watch this site.

Footnote: The IMF's Ms. Atkinson did read out and provide a response to an Inner City Press question on Serbia. Given the vote later today in the UN General Assembly on Serbia's resolution about the International Court of Justice, the IMF's answer will be reported at that time.

* * *

UK disclosure: “BAE Systems Plc, a global company engaged in the development, delivery and support of advanced defense, security and aerospace systems announced Monday that it has engaged Wells Fargo and JP Morgan to advise on strategic options with regard to the Platform Solutions business, including a possible sale.” Ah, arms manufacturers...

September 6, 2010

The war over New York's Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village apartment complex has heated up as lenders including Bank of America and US Bancorp have moved to foreclose and for a public auction for the 56-building complex on Oct. 4...

August 30, 2010

From the Inner City Press department of No Honor Among Thieves: according to a complaint filed July 23 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Regions Bank and Wells Fargo equally backed a $95 million loan to Corporate Plaza Partners LLC to build the 19-story, 376,000-square-foot NASCAR office building in Charlotte. When Corporate Plaza Partners' parent company filed for bankruptcy, Regions said, Wells Fargo, the designated agent of the loan, failed to aggressively go after the company for the balance of the loan and protect itself and Regions from taking "potentially huge losses."

"Regions expected that Wells Fargo could be trusted to administer the CPP Loan even-handedly and in the best interests of both lenders," Regions said in its complaint. "As alleged herein, however, Wells Fargo repeatedly ignored loan defaults, rebuffed demands by Regions to exercise collection remedies, and allowed the collateral to diminish drastically in value." According to court files reviewed by SNL, a Wells Fargo officer said June 24 that the lenders faced a $30 million to $40 million loss on the loan.

"The loss suffered by Regions is a direct and proximate result of Wells Fargo's breach of express provisions of the CPP Loan agreement as well as the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing," Regions said in its complaint.

The NASCAR office building is essentially complete today, Regions said, but its market value fell in 2010 as vacancy rates across the Charlotte area increased. In June, Regions said, Wells Fargo proposed to buy Regions' share in the loan at about 42 cents on the dollar.

August 23, 2010

We note the proposed $1.5 billion merger of First Niagara and New Alliance, the Community Reinvestment Act implications of which should be explored in coming weeks....

August 16, 2010

On AIG's sale of 80% of American General to Fortress -- will AIG still have to file American General's HMDA data? Or is that subject to some sort of “control” test? We aim to find out.

August 9, 2010

From DJ: “Colombia's financial institutions posted a combined net profit of 3.08 trillion Colombian pesos ($1.70 billion) during the first half of the year, up 14% from the same period in 2009, the country's banking regulator said Friday. The increase was due to higher revenues from lending, the regulator said...Among foreign-owned banks, the local unit of Spain's Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (BBVA, BBVA.MC) earned COP232 billion, up from COP204 billion. The local unit of Spain's Banco Santander SA (STD, SAN.MC) reported its net profit rose 17% to COP53 billion from COP45 billion. The local unit of U.K. bank HSBC PLC (HBC, HSBA.LN) posted a net loss of COP20 billion. The loss compares with a net loss of COP7.4 billion in the first half of 2009. The local unit of Citigroup Inc. (C) reported a profit of COP73 billion, 43% lower than in the same period a year ago.”

And what about the FARC? What about Santos?

August 2, 2010

Much too little, much too late: “On Thursday, Citi agreed to pay $75 million to settle SEC civil charges that its officials vastly understated Citi's exposure, saying it had declined to just $13 billion in its second and third-quarter earnings releases of 2007, withholding the full extent of its risky assets. The SEC also charged two executives who played key roles in the preparation of Citi's quarterly earnings statements, former chief financial officer Gary Crittenden and former investor-relations chief Arthur Tildesley Jr., who agreed to pay $100,000 and $80,000 respectively to settle the charges.”

July 26, 2010

IMF Cuts Off Funds for Central Africa, Goes on Vacation, Ignores Guinea Bissau, Ukraine, Hungary and even Haiti Questions

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 24 -- The IMF, which positions itself as concerned about lower income countries and people, cut off funding to the central bank for six Central African states, and then went on vacation.

  The cut off was justified, based on corruption. But when will the problem be solved and the funding be restored?

   On July 22, Inner City Press submitted a series of questions to the IMF in connection with Spokesperson Caroline Atkinson's online briefing, which we can no longer call fortnightly.

  Of the questions, only one was read out loud, about the Central African bank. The other questions were neither read nor answered. And there will be no next briefing until late August, after the IMF Board's vacation under August 20. (In fairness to the IMF, the World Bank also followed with a cut-off.)

On July 22, Ms. Atkinson read out:

thanks to those of you who participated online. And I’ll get back to any of you that have further questions that we haven’t been able to take. Actually, I just see—sorry, there’s another one [from Inner City Press] that’s flashed up, asking about the status of the Fund’s review of the Bank of Central African States and 'when will the suspension and disbursements to countries—well, to the BEAC, which then on lends to countries be reconsidered?'

And just note that we have been closely engaged with the authorities at the BEAC and with the CEMAC member country authorities to help them to address the underlying issues that allowed it to take place. And we hope very much that we can reach satisfactory understandings that will provide assurance that money disbursed through the BEAC will be properly safeguarded and that, therefore, we can continue with the disbursements. And, of course, we’ll let you know when that happens. Okay, thank you very much.”

She also said, “the Executive Board will be on an informal recess from Monday, August 2, until Friday, August 20. We will also, by the way, be having our next press briefing probably late in August.”

So what will happen with BEAC, the central bank for the six states of the Economic Community of Central African States (CEMAC) -- Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Chad, Congo Republic and Central African Republic?  CAR for example is in chaos, with elections supposedly upcoming but rebels active in Birao and elsewhere.


In the interim, in Cameroon the Finance Ministry was robbed. The Minister of Finance, Essimi Menye said FCFA 700 million as reported by the media as having been stolen would have required a pickup vehicle to transport. He also said such a sum of money was not kept at the Ministry rather at the Bank of Central African States, BEAC. Hmm...

Inner City Press' other questions, which the IMF has yet to acknowledge much less respond to:

On Guinea-Bissau, does naming of coup leader to the top Army post have an impact on IMF re-scheduling consideration of HIPC & MDRI?

Also on Hungary, why is the IMF opposed to Orban's proposed bank tax?

Regarding Haiti, some have questioned why the IMF's new $60 million is not a grant but a loan. Can you please explain?

On Ukraine, will the Board on 7/28 be considering both a $3 billion loan & breaches of information disclosure requirements by Ukraine? What's the connection between the two?

Watch this site.

July 19, 2010

A securities arbitration panel ordered J.P. Morgan Securities to pay a customer more than $2 million, including sanctions... A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration panel in Richmond, Va., awarded $1.8 million, plus interest from May 2008. The Finra panel also made an additional--and rare--award of sanctions in the form of $218,000 in legal fees, $25,000 in expert witness fees, and $9,000 in costs, according to the award, dated July 8. It found that J.P. Morgan and its lawyer, Stephanie Karn of Richmond, Va., allegedly weren't "wholly forthcoming.”


Why are we not surprised?

At Citigroup, "I'm very pleased we have produced solid operating results for the second consecutive quarter," Chief Executive Vikram Pandit said during a conference call with investors. Growth will come from overseas, CFO John Gerspach told reporters during a conference call. The further away from the U.S., the better Citi's prospects are for making new loans, he said. Consumer banking revenue rose 9% in Latin America and gained 10% in Asia, which generated a combined 90% of Citi's second-quarter consumer banking income of $1.2 billion.

And on the conference call, there was no answer to an analyst's request to meet with Pandit or his bandits...

July 12, 2010

Bank of America was the world's largest private bank last year, topping Switzerland's UBS, with $1.74 trillion in assets, ahead of UBS' $1.59 trillion. Morgan Stanley, which jumped four places from last year after buying Citigroup's Smith Barney brokerage, held third place with $1.51 trillion in assets. Wells-Fargo and Credit Suisse rounded out the top five, while Switzerland's family-controlled Pictet & Cie. cracked the top-10 for the first time, with $243.21 billion in assets...

July 5, 2010

As Romanian Court Rules Against Pension Cuts, IMF Nods at 5% VAT Increase

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 1 -- Romania's Constitutional Court has struck down the pension cuts connected to the International Monetary Fund's facility to that country. On July 1 Inner City Press asked IMF Spokesperson Caroline Atkinson for the IMF's reaction to the decision, and if the government's move to boost the Value Added Tax from 19% to 24% would be enough for the IMF.

Two weeks earlier, Ms. Atkinson had responded to Inner City Press' question about the Constitutional Court in this way, as transcribed by the IMF itself:

I have a question online, which is a bunch of questions, but on Romania: 'The government’s measures are being challenged in the Constitutional Court. What does the IMF think of the suit? What impact might it have on the IMF facility for Romania?' And it’s absolutely right that the fiscal adjustment measures, which are prior actions for our program, have to be approved by the Constitutional Court, and of course we respect that process. That’s an entirely appropriate process. We don’t think that that will lead to any -- I mean, that’s not something that we’re concerned about.”

And so on July 1 Inner City Press asked, “the Constitutional Court has now rejected the pension cuts connected to the IMF facility. What is the IMF's reaction, since two weeks ago it was said that the IMF did not expect this result?”

Ms. Atkinson said, “I'm not sure about that.” But she'd said of the Court review, “That's not something that we're concerned about,” a lack of concern that can be equated with not expecting a negative court decision.

Now on July 1, Ms. Atkinson said “the Romanian authorities have identified other measures... What we look at is an overall package, not specifying one measure or another.”

June 28, 2010

Game on: Inner City Press / Fair Finance Watch has filed a timely challenge with the Federal Reserve to the pending applications of The Toronto-Dominion Bank to acquire The South Financial Group and its Carolina First Bank.

FFW obtained TD's 2009 HMDA-LAR, which has not been reviewed or taken into account in any regulatory review of TD. The data are troubling, showing for example that in 2009 Toronto Dominion denied fully 83% of mortgage loan applications from African Americans, versus only 42% of applications from whites. TD's denial rates for Latinos and Native Americans, both 68%, were also troubling. Public hearings should be held and the applications not approved.

TD in fact makes rate spread or subprime loans, but not in a fair manner. African Americans at TD are 1.93 times more likely to be confined to higher cost loans than whites.

While the FRB, despite the stated purpose of HMDA in helping to identify discrimination, has shifted to a dismissive approach to HMDA, it will be hearing different at its upcoming HMDA hearings, testimony at which should be considered by the FRB in connection with this application.

On a recent investors' conference call, TD bragged about its “FDIC-assisted transactions” -- which , significantly, were not reviewed for CRA, and on which there was no comment period. A public hearing is needed on this one. FFW's request in this letter for a complete copy of the applications includes also any and all information in the possession of the FRS concerning TD's “FDIC assisted transactions.”

Meanwhile, shareholders of South Financial have filed suit against the deal. See, e.g., Greenville (SC) News, June 22, 2010. TD has told its shareholders it will somehow convert fast food restaurants into bank branches. See, e.g., Globe & Mail, June 17, 2010. Before serving up its disparate lending, public hearings should be held. These issues must be explored, under managerial and financial factors, in connection with these applications. FFW has requested public hearings.

June 21, 2010

As Romania's Wage Cuts Challenged in Court, IMF Says Not Concerned, Lead Nowhere

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 17 -- A day after Romania's opposition filed a challenge to the government's cutbacks of public sector wages by 25%, International Monetary Fund spokesperson Caroline Atkinson said, we don't think it will lead to anything, it's not something we're concerned about. Video here, from Minute 30:04.

Inner City Press had asked, "What does the IMF think of the suit and what impact might it have on the IMF's facility for Romania?" Ms. Atkinson said this was "absolutely right, the fiscal adjustment measures which are prior actions for our program, have to be approved by the Constitutional Court."

This makes it sound like review by the Court is routine -- or "entirely appropriate," as Ms. Atkinson put it. But Reuters reported that the "government can start applying the austerity measures ahead of any court judgment, but if declared unconstitutional they would have to be revoked."

If Reuters is correct that the pending challenge in the Constitutional Court could result in the austerity -- or "fiscal adjustment" -- measures being revoked, why does the IMF so blithely predict it will lead to nothing, and say they are not concerned about it?

Ms. Atkinson began by saying, there is a question from Inner City Press online, "a bunch of questions, but on Romania." She then never read out or answered any of the other questions, about Hungary, Poland, Zimbabwe and Kyrgyzstan. There was, however, another question about Kyrgyzstan, the IMF's answer to which we will include in a forthcoming wider piece about the bloodshed there. Stay tuned.

Footnote:

From the Taylor Bean indictment -- ""[Farkas] and a TBW co-conspirator had in fact diverted that $25 million from an Ocala Funding bank account," the document said. "Further, [Farkas] and other co-conspirators supplied the 10% down payment on behalf of the two $50 million investors without the investors' knowledge or consent." The 30-page indictment included a forfeiture notice listing assets including a 1963 Rolls Royce, a 1958 Mercedes Benz Cabriolet 220 and a 1961 Porsche." Rev rev.


June 14, 2010

So while Citigroup is looking to sell its $50 billion portfolio of retailers' credit card loans, as with CitiFinancial it says it cannot find a buyer. Is Citigroup trying to become the unwilling but continuing predator? Among those not willing to buy: HSBC and GE Money. Those perhaps looking: Santander. Sears, Citi's "partner," is getting pissed.

June 7, 2010

So JP Morgan Chase was hit with the UK FSA's largest fine ever, for blending its own money with that of clients. Why are we not surprised?

May 31, 2010

Citigroup in cemetery scam: The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has hit Citigroup Inc. (C) with $1.5 million of sanctions for allegedly failing to supervise millions of dollars in trust funds belonging to cemeteries in Michigan and Tennessee. The agency accused the company of mishandling funds as broker Mark Singer and two of his customers were involved in a scheme to misappropriate more than $60 million in cemetery trust funds in 2004 through 2006. Citi, which neither admitted nor denied the allegations but consented to the entry of Finra's finding, will pay a $750,000 fine and $750,000 in commissions repayment

May 24, 2010

Amid Protests, IMF Says Wage Cuts Were Romania's Choice, IMF for Vulnerable

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 20 -- With Romania wracked by the most serious protests since its 1989 revolution, Inner City Press on May 20 asked International Monetary Fund spokesperson Caroline Atkinson if the IMF would consider re-negotiating the 25% pay cut to public sector employees portrayed by the government as a condition for receiving a Greece-like bailout.

   On May 6 when Inner City Press asked about Romania, Ms. Atkinson said there were negotiations going on. On May 20, Ms. Atkinson's lengthy answer denied IMF responsibility for the cuts, saying they were choices of the government.


  Ms. Atkinson of the IMF said:

"This gives me an opportunity to clarify that the IMF did not specify or insist on any wage cuts with Romania... we did agree with the Romanian government that some further fiscal tightening would be needed in order to put their program back on track .. the goal is to have sustainable public finances that will allow for a recovery and there are of course different combinations of expenditure cuts and tax increases..

"The government chose to focus on the expenditure side in particular on wage cuts. That was the government's decision. Of course there are no easy options when there are budget cuts. We have been clear that we want to protect the most vulnerable and to have measures that limit the impact on society and can get the most ownership within society."

Tell that to the tens of thousands protesting in Romania's streets. Watch this site.

Citi costs the public: Citigroup received a $45 billion investment under Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program. The bank repaid $20 billion and converted, with Treasury's approval, the remaining $25 billion to common stock giving taxpayers 27% of the New York bank. Treasury hired Morgan Stanley and gave it "discretionary authority" to sell the Citi shares at market prices, according to a prospectus filed in April. Selling the shares at market prices is in contrast to a follow-on offering of shares in which Treasury could have sold substantial blocks at once. That process gives the seller price certainty but often depresses the share price because of a surge in supply. Selling at the market, as Treasury has chosen to do, buffers the shares from a sudden change in volume. However, the recent 21% plunge in Citi's value will probably diminish returns for Treasury and raises the possibility some of the shares could be sold at a loss.


May 17, 2010

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Deutsche Bank have both removed themselves from the running for RBS Sempra's energy-trading and retail-energy-supplier businesses, largely because of expectations of a "Volcker Rule" that would force banks to exit from proprietary-trading businesses. Good.

May 10, 2010

Citigroup said a one-notch downgrade of its long-term debt and short-term commercial paper rating would likely mean the bank has to replace $10.8 billion in commercial paper, $2.5 billion in tender option bonds, and $1.1 billion in margin requirements. However, the bank said it has $82.3 billion in liquidity resources it could use as a contingency for such a downgrade, Citi said in its first-quarter earnings filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Congress is debating a financial reform bill that might end the concept of "too-big-to-fail," defining banks that would pose too big a systemic risk to the financial industry and the economy to be allowed to fail. If enacted, such legislation would result in rating downgrades, bond-rating agencies warned they might downgrade big banks.

May 3, 2010

Notable is the lawsuit against Wells Fargo for failure to maintain ten apartment buildings in the Bronx, New York that it is foreclosing on, including 3018 Heath Avenue. The case involves over 500 families, tenants of Millbank Real Estate before it defaulted on its $35 million mortgage. Then Wells Wargo and LNR Partners moved in.

April 26, 2010

FOIA, and Citigroup's cheapskatery, in the news: Citigroup Inc.'s unsuccessful bid for the teetering banking operations of Washington Mutual Inc. proposed that the U.S. government absorb a majority of the thrift's loan losses and limited Citigroup's financial exposure to $10 billion, according to a document released by regulators. Terms of the offer by the New York bank previously were kept secret by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which sold the failed banking units to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. for $1.88 billion in September 2008. The document was disclosed following a Freedom of Information Act request...

April 19, 2010

Three former JPM Chase executives Denis O'Leary, Stephen Rotella and Harry DiSimone have formed Encore Financial Partners, funds raised by Goldman Sachs, to "target" U.S. based banks...

Large loans from foreign banks, including Citigroup Inc. and Deutsche Bank AG, helped to feed "the buildup of risk" in Iceland's banking system, which collapsed spectacularly in 2008, a comprehensive report from a parliamentary commission concluded.

According to the report, Kjalar hf, an investment company controlled by Ólafur Ólafsson, borrowed from Citigroup's Citibank unit in 2007, using as collateral shares in Iceland's Kaupthing Bank held by a Kjalar subsidiary, Egla Invest. Mr. Ólafsson was a big Kaupthing shareholder.In January 2008, with Kaupthing's share price falling, Citibank made a margin call. So Kjalar turned to Kaupthing. Kaupthing granted a €120 million loan. In March, after Iceland's currency weakened, Kjalar borrowed more. The next month, Glitnir also made a loan to Kjalar.

Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson, an Icelandic mogul, received a €153 million ($208 million) loan from Landsbanki, in which he and his father had a 41% stake, to satisfy demands from Deutsche Bank. The report said the German bank lent him €800 million in July 2007 to finance the takeover of generic-drug company Actavis Group. Landsbanki's former chief executive described the deal in an interview with the commission: "Then it ends...with us lending Björgólfur Thor our own money so he can honor certain things in Actavis," an apparent reference to satisfying debt covenants. Such transactions between a bank and its major owners are out of step with banking rules elsewhere. "Here, we call it insider dealing," says Cornelius Hurley, director of the banking-law program at Boston University. Prof. Hurley notes that U.S. regulations put "Draconian" restrictions on the amount and terms of loans to insiders.A Deutsche Bank spokeswoman declined to comment.

April 12, 2010

In the first study of the just-released 2009 mortgage lending data, Inner City Press / Fair Finance Watch has found that U.S. Bancorp confined African Americans to higher-cost loans above the Federal defined subprime rate spread 1.72 times more frequently than whites. U.S. Bancorp confined Latinos to higher-cost loans above the rate spread 1.71 times more frequently than whites, the data show. 2009 is the sixth year in which the data distinguishes which loans are higher cost, over the federally-defined rate spread.

Regional bank BB&T in 2009 confined African Americans to higher-cost loans above the rate spread 1.90 times more frequently than whites, and confined Latinos to higher-cost loans above the rate spread 1.43 times more frequently than whites.

Regions in 2009 confined African Americans to higher-cost loans above the rate spread 1.68 times more frequently than whites, and confined Latinos to higher-cost loans above the rate spread 1.33 times more frequently than whites.

Several lenders, including a large credit union, exhibited disparities denial rate beween African and Latinos compared to whites in 2009. Citigroup, for example, denied applications by African Americans 1.45 times more frequently than whites, while denying Latinos 1.35 times more frequently than whites. JPMorgan Chase denied applications by African Americans 1.54 times more frequently than whites, while denying Latinos 1.41 times more frequently than whites. The Pentagon Federal Credit Union denied applications by African Americans 2.04 times more frequently than whites, while denying Latinos 1.84 times more frequently than whites. Further studies will follow.


April 5, 2010

JPM Chase's Dimon remains both arrogant and evasive. "'For JP Morgan Chase, it was not a question of access or need–to the extent we needed it, the markets were always open to us–but the program did save us money,' Dimon said. J.P. Morgan stopped using the guarantees in April 2009 because 'it just added to the argument that all banks had been bailed out and fueled the anger directed toward banks.' Dimon d idn’t say how much the bank saved from the FDIC’s lending program." Why not?

March 29, 2010

China and Boston: BofA's "Brian Moynihan said China Construction Bank is a key strategic partner for the U.S. lender. He made the comments at a media briefing during his first official visit to China since he took up the post at Bank of America. Moynihan said the bank is 'comfortable where we are,' in response to a question on whether the U.S. lender will raise its stake in the Chinese bank."

Some say that Moynihan still living in Boston, where activists visited him while he was painting his house, means he'll try to move BofA right out of Charlotte NC. We'll see.

March 22, 2010

More and more complains are pouring in about Citigroup, Citifinancial and Citi card services making repeated and abusive telephone calls. One complainants says she took out a personal loan from CitiFinancial, and since then has been mis-charged late fees that they refuse to explain, only call about. Citi does Radio Shack's private label calls, and has a robo-caller calling its customers. This is the new Citi?

With Euro Tanking On Reports of Greece Turning to IMF, of Half Answers, on Dodd Bill and Sri Lanka

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 18, updated -- As Angela Merkel speaks darkly about ejecting from the Euro zone non compliant countries like Greece, that country's renewed threat of turning for help to the International Monetary Fund has the market selling off the Euro.

  Near the end of the IMF's fortnightly press briefing on Thursday morning, spokesperson Caroline Atkinson, beyond saying the IMF has not had a request for financial assistance, declined to describe various aspects of Greece's relations with the IMF. Her boss, Dominique Strauss Kahn, previously bragged that the IMF would "intervene" in Greece upon request.

  France's finance minister Lagarde, belatedly added to the UN's climate finance group after Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was confronted with the fact he'd named men to all 19 positions on the panel, has said the EU can still be Greece's interlocutor and helper, not the IMF.

  Her president Sarkozy has a personal motive to oppose IMF help to Greece: Strauss Kahn is polling ahead of him for the next French election.

   Inner City Press submitted to the IMF during its briefing, but without answer yet, questions about financial reform and the Fund's apparently stalled consideration of a third tranche to Sri Lanka. It was mostly Greece on Thursday, with few answers from the IMF.

Update: later these two answers came in from the IMF:

Re Senator Dodd’s bill, overall, we support the thrust toward comprehensive reforms that would address the gaps in financial regulation illustrated by the crisis. Strong and prompt implementation would both help to secure financial stability going forward.

Re Sri Lanka, not much update. As you know, staff will visit Colombo after the parliamentary elections and the formation of the new cabinet, to discuss with the government its plan for a 2010 budget.

Best regards,
Yoshiko Kamata
Media Relations, IMF

March 15, 2010

The story goes that Barclays is interesting in another North American buy. Four institutions are mentioned as targets: Fifth Third, Comerica, SunTrust or PNC. In Washington last week, Inner City Press mentioned the last of these to a Pittburgher, who said such a deal would be "terrible" for the city. We'll see.

Citigroup, HSBC and JPMorgan Chase helped cause the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holding Inc. by demanding more collateral and changing guarantee agreements, the bankruptcy examiner said last week. “The demands for collateral by Lehman’s lenders had direct impact on Lehman’s liquidity pool,” said Anton Valukas, the U.S. Trustee-appointed examiner, in a 2,200-page report filed in Manhattan federal court. “Lehman’s available liquidity is central to the question of why Lehman failed.”

March 8, 2010

IMF Says "No Agreement" With Sri Lanka, Meets in Hungary, Omits Bulgaria, Angola and Chavez Questions

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 4, updated -- The International Monetary Fund's lack of transparency is matched by its claims to be transparent. Take for example the IMF's arrangement with Sri Lanka, where parliament has been suspended and the state of emergency extended.

  Two weeks ago, Inner City Press submitted three questions to the IMF's briefing. Spokesman David Hawley did not take any of the questions on camera. Afterwards, and after complains, two of the three questions were answered, but not the one on Sri Lanka: "With an IMF team in Sri Lanka, what is the IMF's thinking on the EU's suspension of the GSP Plus tariff treatment, and/or the arrest of opposition politician Sarath Fonseka?"

  On March 4, Inner City Press submitted five questions, some repeatedly. Spokesperson Caroline Atkinson read out her own summary of the question, about the third tranche of the IMF's loan, and then said that the IMF "mission returned from Sri Lanka," we don't have an agreement, we don't expect the third tranche to be released."

  Then Ms. Atkinson said, I understand we have more online questions, we'll wait for technology. See transcript below.

  But it appears that the delay is not technology related, but rather consists of IMF staff screening and editing the questions that are submitted. Of Inner City Press' four other questions, only one was mentioned by Ms. Aktinson. Inner City Press had submitted, "In Hungary, why did the IMF meet with opposition party Fidesz? What was discussed? Fidesz says the discussions concerned the deficit, and if Fidesz comes to power in the April elections -- is that true?"

  Ms. Atkinson read only part of the question, then said that such meetings are "common... an exchange of views." But the opposition party said it had an agreement with the IMF. Shouldn't the IMF respond?

  Inner City Press submitted for the IMF's response this quote last week from Hugo Chavez: ""When Venezuela used to get financing, the IMF would come here and impose conditions and rules, and sometimes it would even dismantle our laws. But now, with China and Venezuela, we're on equal footing." But they woudn't even acknowledge, much less respond to, the request for a reaction.
 
Update: after the expiration of the IMF's embargo and the publication of the above, an IMF spokesperson replied, "I have nothing for you on this. However, I can confirm that Venezuela and China are both members of the IMF. "

  Two of the submitted questions were either not passed on to Ms. Atkinson, or were omitted by her and she said there are no more questions:

On Angola, is the IMF any closer to assigning a resident representative to Luanda? What progress has Angola made to the transparency discussed by the IMF, particularly in the oil sector?

Bulgarian Finance Minister Simeon Djankov says he's asked the IMF to inform him whether Greek owned banks are "draining funds from their Bulgarian units" - can the IMF confirm the request, if so will it respond in the 3 weeks given, and separately what does it think of this "draining" issue?

  This Bulgaria / Greece question, Inner City Press submitted repeatedly. But it was not acknowledged.

Update: after the briefing was over, an IMF spokesman wrote to Inner City Press that "I’ve asked Olga to get back to you on this. Not familiar with this request. We’re checking." Olga would seen to be Olga Stankova, Senior Press Officer. Numerous publicly available article quote Bulgarian officials about their request to the IMF.

 Of those few journalists present in person at the IMF's briefing, many of the questions were about Greece: would there be a meeting is DC? No.

  There were questions about Iceland and Ukraine, an expression of condolance for Chile, dodging on gold. Mr. Strauss-Kahn will be in Kenya, with Bob Geldoff and Raila Odinga., then on to Zambia. What about Angola? Watch this site.

Update: Later on Thursday, the following on Angola:

Subject: Angola
From: Thomson, Alistair at IMF
To: Inner City Press
Date: Thu, Mar 4, 2010 at 5:15 PM

Matthew, Thanks for your question on Angola. We are in the process of considering possible candidates for the post of resident representative. On your second question, fiscal transparency is a key part of the authorities' economic program agreed with the Fund. A mission is currently in the field to conduct the first review of the stand-by agreement.

We will continue to follow all this. Watch this site.

From the IMF's transcript:

Ms. Atkinson: I have a question online about the IMF's third tranche to Sri Lanka due in March. I believe we have announced that the mission's return from Sri Lanka that we don't have an agreement with them so we don't expect that the third tranche will be released at least until we have an agreement with them.I understand there are more online questions so we have to wait for technology....

I wanted to go to a question that I'd had online about Hungary. He was asking if there was significance in the mission meeting with the opposition party when they were there. I wanted to note that it's common practice that we will meet with — and this has happened before — that we've met with the opposition party, and of course there were no negotiations with people who were not in the government, but an informal exchange of views.

InnerCityPress.org footnote: The banks that helped conceal Greece's debt bomb included not only Goldman Sachs but also, on an arms deal no less, Deutsche Bank....

March 1, 2010

Just asking: if a bank funds settlements illegal under international law, and comes before the Fed on an application subject to public comment where this is raised, what happens? Watch this site.

With Citigroup moving to put Ernesto Zedillo on its board of directors, questions are re-emerging about Zedillo's actions on the 1997 massacre at Acteal in Chiapas...

February 22, 2010

IMF on Zim, Backtracks on Greece, Rebuffs Questions About Sri Lanka, Terse on Pakistan and Gbagbo

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 18, updated -- The IMF board will vote tomorrow on Zimbabwe's request to regain voting rights, the IMF's David Hawley said at the organization's biweekly media briefing on February 18.

  While not taking any online questions, Hawley fielded repeated questions about Greece, essentially backing away from Dominique Strauss-Kahn's previous blustered about the IMF being ready to intervene. Pundits says the Europeans want to keep the IMF out -- Germany because it wants to retain the centrality of a European process it is about to head, France's Sarkozy because he does not want Strauss-Kahn to become any more prominent before the 2012 elections.

  While Strauss-Kahn's IMF preaches to developing and troubled countries, it cannot comply with its commitment to conduct an online media briefing every two weeks. On February 18, the IMF's David Hawley presided over an ill-attended session in the organization's new briefing room.

  His colleague Caroline Atkinson had inaugurated the room by saying it should make online participation easier and more seamless. But on February 18, despite online questions being submitted by Inner City Press and surely others, Mr. Hawley did not acknowledge or answer a single online question. Nor in the twenty minutes between the briefing and the expiration of the IMF's embargo did the IMF answer a request for an explanation of the freeze-out.

Here were the three questions Inner City Press submitted:

On Pakistan, does the IMF's recent announcement mean that the bank supervision and power tariff goals have been met?

Regarding Cote d'Ivoire, how does the IMF view the suspension of the government and further delay of elections by Laurent Gbagbo?

With an IMF team in Sri Lanka, what is the IMF's thinking on the EU's suspension of the GSP Plus tariff treatment, and/or the arrest of opposition politician Sarath Fonseka?

   On other matters, Hawley said he would not speculate or comment about the motivations of Central Banks. Fine -- but why can't the IMF, despite the spending on its new briefing room, manage to acknowledge and answer online questions about its operations? Watch this site.

Footnote: While the IMF took some online questions on February 4, after Ms. Atkinson said the IMF would provide an answer about Yemen, none has been provided in the fortnight since...

Update: after publication at embargo time of the report above, the IMF indirectly justified its refusal to even acknowledge the three online questions above:

Subject: Re: Three online questions ignored at 930 "online" briefing, please explain and answer, thanks
From: Murray, William
Date: Thu, Feb 18, 2010
To: Inner City Press, "Atkinson, Caroline, Hawley, David
Matthew,

I have asked the press officers to review your questions and get back to you where possible. Most of the questions contained stuff that fell far afield of the IMF's role or mandate. So where we can answer we will, but a big chunk of your questions could be better answered by institutions not focused on financial and macroeconomic issues.

Well, no. As linked to in the questions above, the IMF has a team in Sri Lanka, has opined on power tariffs and bank supervision in Pakistan -- in fact, Inner City Press got answers on those questions on a previous IMF conference call -- and is reviewing Cote d'Ivoire.

  The IMF's attempt to portray itself as divorced from politics, conditionality, and governance is ham-handed and illegitimate. It is not for the IMF to decide which questions to acknowledge or not. Or, who in the IMF makes these decisions, and on what basis? Watch this site.

Update -- after the IMF's embargo expired, and after the above was published, responses came in to two of the three above questions, which the IMF had tried to argue somehow where not relevant:

Mr. Lee: The following statement can be attributed to Adnan Mazarei, mission chief for Pakistan:

The reforms to strengthen the effectiveness of banking supervision in Pakistan are proceeding as envisaged. The parliament is discussing amendments to the banking law. The lower house has approved the amendments and they are being discussed by the upper house. Electricity reform is also proceeding, but somewhat slower than planned earlier due to delays in implementing certain tariff adjustments.

Kind Regards, Olga Stankova, Sr. Press Officer

and

Matthew, Further to your question on Côte d’Ivoire, I’m afraid it’s still too early to say. You can attribute the following to me if it’s helpful.

“The IMF, through its resident representative, continues to monitor the situation in Côte d’Ivoire. It is too early to assess any impact on the authorities’ IMF-supported economic program.”

Best regards, Alistair Thomson, Press Officer - External Relations Department

   Apparently the question about Sri Lanka, where the IMF current has a team on the ground, was deemed even less IMF relevant that this. Watch this site.

* * * *

Why are we not surprised, about JPM Chase? "A federal judge has rebuked J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. for taking part in an what he called an "end run, if not a down right sham" in the way it arranged a $225 million loan deal for Mexican telecom company Empresas Cablevisión SAB. In a ruling unveiled late last month in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Judge Jed Rakoff said the New York bank structured the deal so it would have allowed a major competitor of Cablevisión to gain confidential information about the company, which is Mexico's largest cable-television operator. That competitor, Telmex Internacional SAB, is owned by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim."


February 15, 2010

Fifth Third, from foreclosures to horse loans, scrutiny is needed

Fifth Third Bank is not only involved in foreclosing on families’ homes – it is also seeking to find a horse that it lent against, or actually 203 horses. From the Thoroughbred Times:
“Fifth Third Bancorp claims Ahmed Zayat concealed a mortality insurance claim for multiple Grade 1 winner Thorn Song last summer in order to hide $2,750,000 in proceeds that he should have paid to the bank. Zayat Stables owned Thorn Song, who was pulled up in the Eddie Read Handicap (G1) on July 25 at Del Mar after bolting to the outside rail in the first turn… Fifth Third said it made multiple inquiries into the whereabouts and well-being of the Unbridled’s Song horse… Fifth Third said the concealed insurance payment is evidence that a receiver should be appointed to oversee Zayat Stables' 203 horses, which are collateral for $34,265,970 in loans that he owes the bank.”
  So Fifth Third, still fueled with TARP bail out funds, has been lending tens of millions of dollars secured by horses. We first ran into Fifth Third when they bought Old Kent, coming into the Detroit market. Click here for a scan of a newspaper article about the Community Reinvestment Act challenge, complete with St. Patrick’s Day karaoke and happy hour ads, courtesy of Google.

After the Federal Reserve approved the Fifth Third’s Old Kent acquisition, in the Detroit MSA “at Fifth Third Mortgage, American Americans were over 10.3 times more likely to be confined to higher cost loans than whites, and Hispanics were over 6.3 times more likely to be confined to higher cost loans than non-Hispanic whites.”  And now, horses. Fifth Third deserves more scrutiny….

Who's that sleeping behind Geithner? Business press asks and finds out

A profile of the business press, Congress and Geithner, during the Snowmaggedon lull -- following a recent Geithner appearance on Capitol Hill, business reporters at a major Mayor-named publication spent countless hours trying to identify the person behind Geithner, nodding off. Who could they be?

Ultimately this press concluded it had been a Geithner staffer with narcolepsy. One opined that maybe Geithner brought this staffer on purpose, for sympathy. And still it won't save him. Nor should it....

Footnotes: annual reports say J.P. Morgan has $18.4 billion in exposure to Spain....

February 8, 2010

Missing from New.Citi.com are admission like, "Yes CitiFinancial trained its employees to hard sell unnecessary credit insurance, even on items like fishing rods which weren't collateral for loans. But what of it? We've produced a new video! We're here for you!"

Through the first nine months of 2009, about 54% of donations from Bank of America Corp.'s political action committee and employees went to Republicans, according to campaign-finance data compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. That was a switch from the 2008 campaign, when 56% of the company's donations went to Democrats..

  Click here for InnerCityPress.com's IMF's Strauss-Kahn Coy on Opposing Sarkozy and Intervening in Greece, IMF and Greek Denials, Yemen Deferrals

February 1, 2010

Trends and echoes: Bank of America repurchased nearly $4.5 billion of loans during the first nine months of 2009, according to data compiled by Barclays. That was triple the $1.5 billion repurchased in all of 2008. Along with the Countrywide acquisition, the sleaze is growing.

At J.P. Morgan Chase, total buyback demands from the GSEs surged to $5.3 billion in 2009 from $4 billion in 2008, according to Barclays Along with the WaMu acquisition, the sleaze is growing.

Citigroup jacked up its stake in the controlling shareholder of Banco de Chile, acquiring an additional 8.52% in LQ Inversiones Financieras for $511 million. Banco de Chile, the Andean nation's second largest bank, is controlled by the local Luksic family, which also controls U.K.-listed copper miner Antofagasta PLC (ANTO.LN) and U.S.-listed beverage company Compania Cervecerias Unidas SA (CCU), among other assets. In a 2007 deal Citigroup Inc. took a 10.44% stake in Banco de Chile, through LQ, and the Chilean bank acquired Citibank's local assets. Under the terms of the Banco de Chile-Citigroup deal, the Chilean bank took over all of Citibank's local clientele, while the U.S. bank retained control of Banco de Chile's operations on U.S. soil.

And where are Citigroup's home country regulators?

January 25, 2010

As the financial crisis commission claims to be zeroing in on Citigroup, so far interviewed were Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman, Brian Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America, James Dimon, CEO of J.P. Morgan, and John Mack, chairman of Morgan Stanley. Who will appear for Citi? And where will it all end?

January 18, 2010

As Obama's Bank Fees Under-Target Citigroup and AIG, Geithner Questioned

By Matthew R. Lee

NEW YORK, January 14 -- The night before President Barack Obama was scheduled to unveil a scheme of fees on the three or four dozen largest financial firms, the Administration held a then embargoed conference call with the press.

  Several questions centered around why the auto manufacturers which took TARP funds would not also be fined. Others wondered, if the fee regime yielded more than what the government and taxpayers lost through TARP before it expired in ten years, would the money still be collected and how would it be used?

  The Administration representative, who the press was told could only be called a "senior administration official," replied that once the basis of calculating the fee had been decided on, car companies didn't fit it.

  Before all questions were answered, the Administration signed off, noting that Obama would be making his announcement at 11:20 the next day. Among the questions not taken or answered was this, from Inner City Press: why assess all of the financial firms under the program at the same rate, fifteen basis points?

  Citigroup, for example, received much more TARP and other payouts than other covered banks. And as South Bronx based Fair Finance Watch and others showed at the time, the government tried to help Citigroup scoop up Wachovia, until another less subpsized offer won the day. Why benefit Citigroup again by treating it like other, less subprime heavy banks? The same holds for AIG.

  The "senior Administration official" went out of his way to portray the program as a matter of principle for not only Obama but also "his" Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner.

  To some, the timing is meant to blunt renewed bipartisan criticism of Geithner, this time only only for not paying his taxes to the IRS -- which would be collecting the fees from the financial firms -- but for having told AIG not to disclose the preferential basis of the bailouts it was receiving, while he was at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

  But it was hard to note that his seeming favorite, AIG, and the bank most benefited by his Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Citigroup, are benefited by the structure of this proposed Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee program.

  In fact, some say it has an aspect of a Tim Geithner bail out.

  And that's... a question that should be asked, and answered. Watch this site.


January 11, 2010

Too little, too late, Citigroup's ex-spook director John M. Deutch last week intoned that "directors that served on Citi's board during this financial crisis should rotate off in an orderly fashion." Mr. Deutch was among the deadwood directors targeted last year by Citigroup shareholders who contended that the directors should be removed. Also needing replacement are former AT&T Corp. Chief Executive Michael Armstrong, Alcoa Inc. Chairman Alain Belda, Dow Chemical Co. CEO Andrew Liveris, Xerox Corp. Chairman Anne Mulcahy, Rockefeller Foundation President Judith Rodin and Robert L. Ryan, retired finance chief of Medtronic.

January 4, 2010

Wells Fargo, already being sued by Baltimore for targeting people of color with high cost loans, has now been hit with a similar law suit in Memphis, Tennessee. "Ghetto loans," they call them.

December 28, 2009

As UN's Ban "Divides and Rules" G-77, Pachauri's Bank Links Unexamined

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 21 -- While most observers and even participants describe the Copenhagen global warming talks as a disappointment, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday told the Press that they "sealed the deal" and were a success.

  Inner City Press asked Mr. Ban about the scandal erupting around the undisclosed business interests of the chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Rajendra Pachauri, from the Tata Group through Deutsche Bank to Credit Suisse, and about the criticism by the chairman of the Group of 77 and its now 130 member states.

  Mr. Ban entirely dodged the first question, paradoxically using it as an opportunity to praise business. On the second, he asserted that the chairman of the Group of 77 was not, in fact, speaking for the Group, since others' of its members spoke more positively.

  Moments later, Inner City Press asked Sudan's Ambassador to the UN about Mr. Ban's comments. "Divide and rule," he answered, calling the Copenhagen process "climate apartheid." This phrase steps back from his counterpart in Copenhagen who analogized it to the Holocaust.

Pachauri's conflicts of interest are extensive and emblematic of the UN's lack of transparency and safeguards.


  As detailed in the Telegraph

In 2008 he was made an adviser on renewable and sustainable energy to the Credit Suisse bank and the Rockefeller Foundation. He joined the board of the Nordic Glitnir Bank... This year Dr Pachauri joined the New York investment fund Pegasus as a ‘strategic adviser’... He is on the climate change advisory board of Deutsche Bank... One subject the talkative Dr Pachauri remains silent on, however, is how much money he is paid for all these important posts, which must run into millions of dollars.

  So, notwithstanding the non-responsive answer Monday morning, does Mr. Ban believe that Pachauri should make public financial disclosure of these interests? Watch this site.


December 21, 2009

IMF Silent on Climate Change Proposal to Use Its Gold and SDR Interest

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 18 -- While world media reports that the International Monetary Fund might play a role in climate change adaptation funding, as proposed by among others George Soros, IMF spokesperson Caroline Atkinson told the Press on Thursday that how SDRs (special drawing rights) are used is "up to individual countries." Video here.

  But the proposal involves the IMF using the gold it holds, already ostensibly directed to less developed countries, for the purpose of adaptation. So shouldn't the IMF have a response?

  Sitting "idle" in the IMF's coffers are $150 billion for just 15 countries. But the IMF apparently doesn't have the funding or staff or commitment to prepare a transcript of its mere biweekly press briefing the same day it is held.

  Below are portions of the proposal.

Developed countries' governments are laboring under the misapprehension that funding has to come from their national budgets but that is not the case. They have it already. It is lying idle in their reserves accounts and in the vaults of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), available without adding to the national deficits of any one country. All they need to do is to tap into it.

In September 2009, the IMF distributed to its members $283 billion worth of SDRs, or Special Drawing Rights. SDRs are an arcane financial instrument but essentially they constitute additional foreign exchange. They can be used only by converting them into one of four currencies, at which point they begin to carry interest at the combined treasury bill rate of those currencies. At present the interest rate is less than one half of one percent. Of the $283 billion, more than $150 billion went to the 15 largest developed economies. These SDRs will sit largely untouched in the reserve accounts of these countries, which don't really need any additional reserves... The United Kingdom and France each recently lent $2 billion worth of SDRs to a special fund at the IMF to support concessionary lending to the poorest countries. At that point the IMF assumed responsibility for the principal and interest on the SDRs. The same could be done in this case.

The IMF owns a lot of gold, more than a hundred million ounces, and it is on the books at historical cost. At current market prices it is worth more than $100 billion over its book value. It has already been designated to be used for the benefit of the least developed countries. The proposed green fund would meet this requirement...it could make the difference between success and failure in Copenhagen.

  So shouldn't the IMF have had something to say about the proposals? Watch this site.

An arbitration claim by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority against Citigroup, seeking to rescind an agreement to invest a total of $7.5 billion in the U.S. lender or damages of over $4 billion has been filed, alleging that there were "fraudulent misrepresentations" in the investment agreement. Sort of like CitiFinancial's "fraudulent misrepresentations" to its lower income borrowers...

December 14, 2009

IMF Studies Congo Deals by India and China, Quid Pro Quo by Canada at Paris Club on Mining, UN's Kivu Spin

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 11 -- The Congo battles for and is embattled by its natural resources, the International Monetary Fund made plain on Friday, perhaps inadvertently. During a press conference call explaining the IMF's $550 million facility to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the IMF's Brian Ames put the DRC's external debt at $13 billion.

  Inner City Press asked about new debts to China and prospectively India, about conflict and mining in the East, and Canada's use in the Paris Club of debt relief to strong-arm for two of its mining firm.

  Ames, who traveled to Kinshasa to negotiate about what he called the "China deal," described how with IMF pressure the deal decreased in size from $9 billion to $6.2 billion, with "only" $3 billion guaranteed by the Congolese government.

  Even this guarantee, he emphasized, could only become due in 25 years. Still, the IMF urged the restructuring of the China deal. Inner City Press asked about a newly reported loan proposal by India to the Congo, for $263 million.

  Ames said that was just an announcement, when Congolese officials were in India. To Inner City Press, a connection with the Congo's loud demand that Indian peacekeepers leave the UN Mission in the Congo, MONUC, is inescapable. India is paid by the UN and makes money on these peacekeepers. How does this sum relate to whatever concessional rates India will offer to the Congo?

  Inner City Press asked what the IMF thinks of Canada's delay of a Paris Club vote on debt relief to the Congo based on contracts canceled to Canadian mining firms. Ames agreed that this had happened, saying it was really about 1st Quantum. But what about Toronto-based Lundin Mining, whose 24% stake in the Tenke Fungurume mine and its $1.8 billion contract are being "re-negotiated"?

  After Ames said that Canada had, after a week's delay in November, agreed on a conference call to go forward with debt relief, Inner City Press him if 1st Quantum's contract was restored. No, he answered, but the Congolese government, which already won a round of litigation in its own courts, has agreed to international arbitration.


Congo's Kabila and China's Hu Jintao, Indian UN peacekeepers and IMF and Canadian pressure not shown

  Ames' colleague, whom Ames instructed to "earn his paycheck," added the 1st Quantum has other mines in the Congo, that the dispute involves only one mine. Yes, but that is the $553 million Kolwezi copper and cobalt project.

  Inner City Press asked if the IMF has concerns, similar to those evidence on the China deal, about the prospects of an Indian infrastructure loan. It is just a proposal, Ames said, adding that it would be for two hydro electric projects and one water project. Actually, the third would be $50 million towards the rehabilitation of the rail system in Kinshasa.

  When Inner City Press asked about reports, including by the UN's Group of Experts, of illegal mining in the Kivus, Ames said that since this revenue stream has yet to go to the government, its diversion does not have an impact and is not considered. Actually, the UN Group's report shows that units of the Congolese army are involved in the illegal mining.

  Inner City Press asked the UN about reports its own Office of Legal Affairs advised MONUC not to work with units of the Congolese army involved in these and other crimes. The response:

Subj: your question on the DRC
From: unspokesperson-donotreply [at] un.org
To: Inner City Press
Sent: 12/10/2009 1:33:20 P.M. Eastern Standard Time

I. The tasks carried out by MONUC are determined by the Security Council. The mission has a mandate to provide support to the Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC) in disarming illegal armed groups while protecting the civilian population. MONUC continues to give the highest priority to protection of civilians.

II. In furtherance of this mandate, MONUC and DPKO requested advice from the Office of Legal Affairs regarding the conditions governing their collaboration with the FARDC. In full transparency, the Secretariat and the Mission advised the Security Council of the risks involved and potential consequences of cooperating with the FARDC. The Security Council has repeatedly expressed their unanimous support for MONUC and for the joint operations with the FARDC against the FDLR, with full respect for International Humanitarian, Human Rights and Refugee Law.

III. After extensive consultations between the Secretariat the Mission and OLA, a policy was developed, setting out the conditions under which the Mission would support FARDC. This policy was transmitted to the DRC Government in November. It specifies that all MONUC participation in FARDC operations must be jointly planned and must respect international humanitarian law, human rights and refugee law. The policy also includes measures designed to improve FARDC performance as well as to prevent and sanctioning violations. This 'conditionality' provision is why the Mission suspended support to a specific FARDC unit believed to have been involved in the targeted killing of civilians in the Lukweti area of North Kivu.

Let's remember that the IMF is ostensibly part of the UN system. We will continue to follow this -- watch this site.

Footnote revealed by the WSJ: "More than $2 billion allegedly held on behalf of Iran in Citigroup Inc. accounts were secretly ordered frozen last year by a federal court in Manhattan, in what appears to be the biggest seizure of Iranian assets abroad since the 1979 Islamic revolution. The legal order, executed 18 months ago by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, is under seal and hasn't been made public." Call it Citi's secret sleaze...

December 7, 2009

IMF Rebuffs Stanford Victims on Antigua Despite Iceland, and Romania, Ukraine and UN

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 3 -- As the victims of the Stanford scam petition the U.S. Congress to stop the flow of any funds from the International Monetary Fund to Stanford's home base of Antigua and Barbuda, the IMF says such considerations play no role in its decisions.

  On December 3, Inner City Press asked the IMF since, "there is a proposal in the U.S. Senate seeking to block IMF funds to Antigua until the victims of the Stanford scandal are compensated. Given the IMF's recent actions on Iceland, does the IMF acknowledge any link in Antigua between IMF funds and the compensation of banks' victims?"

  IMF spokesperson Jennifer Beckman responded that "it isn’t part of the IMF’s mandate to help private parties in their claims against our member governments."

  But in Iceland, the IMF held back its loan or stand by arrangement until the victims, in the UK and the Netherlands, of Icesave were made whole. The IMF is inconsistent, and refuses to forthrightly explain its policies.

Every two weeks, the IMF is supposed to hold a press briefing including online participation by accredited media like Inner City Press. There are been technical snafus, but those on December 3 reached a new low.

Inner City Press, with three or four questions to ask, logged in to the password protected IMF Media Briefing Center before the 9:30 a.m. start of the briefing. But the screen remained dark. This was no out of the normal, as Spokesperson Caroline Atkinson has several times started late.

At 9:58 a.m.., thinking that the briefing may have been delayed or canceled, Inner City Press called the IMF. The answer was that the briefing would be "rebroadcast" later in the day. But what about online participation by accredited media?

There have been technical issues, Inner City Press was told, and was advised to submit its questions in writing, they would be answered. At 10:04 a.m., Inner City Press submitted its questions, to Ms. Atkinson and the general inbox, with a cover note that

for some reason, the Webcast of this morning's IMF briefing didn't work. I waited, thinking the briefing was delayed as sometimes happens. Just now I called the IMF and was told there was a "technical issue," that the briefing would be re-broadcast. When I said I had questions to ask, I was told to send them here and they will be answered. Here they are, I am writing on these topics today:

There is a proposal in the U.S. Senate seeking to block IMF funds to Antigua until the victims of the Stanford scandal are compensated. Given the IMF's recent actions on Iceland, does the IMF acknowledge any link in Antigua between IMF funds and the compensation of banks' victims?

In Romania, the party of the presidential frontrunner has come out against what it calls IMF imposed layoffs in the public sector. Will the IMF confirm it is urging such layoffs, if so how many, and what ramifications if they are not implemented?

Yesterday 2 UN experts told the Press the IMF's Flexible Credit Line discriminates against poorer countries, & that rather than moving beyond conditionality, IMF simply imposes conditions later. Video here.

What is the IMF's response? And to allegation that health crisis in Ukraine is due to IMF imposed cuts? On deadline.

  Even twelve hours after these four questions were submitted, the IMF had answered only one of them.

Subj: On Antigua
From: JBeckman@imf.org
To: Innnr City Press
Sent: 12/3/2009 11:11:00 A.M. Eastern Standard Time

Although we are concerned about the Stanford Victims Coalition, it isn’t part of the IMF’s mandate to help private parties in their claims against our member governments.

What about the other answers? Watch this site.

The Kuwait Investment Authority's exit from Citigroup comes as another Gulf sovereign wealth fund, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, may have to overpay on about $7.5 billion worth of the Citi's shares it's committed to buy at $31.83 a piece in a deal struck two years ago. The UAE-based investment fund, also known as ADIA, committed in November 2007 to pump billions into Citi in return for an 11% dividend up to March next year when it has to start buying the bank's common stock.


November 30, 2009

IMF Murky on Angola's Oil, Bond and China Deals, Doles Out $1.4 Billion

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 25 -- Days after announcing a $1.4 billion arrangement with Angola, the International Monetary Fund held a press conference call to offer explanations. At the end, things were murkier than before. Inner City Press asked if the IMF had been able to fully assess the income and distribution of revenue from the state owned oil company Sonangol.

  The IMF's Lamine Leigh, who led the Fund's missions to Angola in August and September, replied that "in the context of our negotiations, Sonangol participated fairly well." Inner City Press asked, since Sonangol has accounts in off shore financial centers and tax havens, if the IMF had gotten to the bottom of these accounts.

  After a long pause, Lamine Leigh proffered another answer, that the government has "committed to steps in the more general area of resource revenue transparency." But what about the Sonangol accounts?

  Inner City Press asked about the statement by IMF Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair Takatoshi Kato that in Angola "measures will be taken to strengthen further the regulatory and supervisory framework." The IMF's Senior Advisor on Africa Sean Nolan replied that the IMF analyzed the effect of the exchange rate on borrowers and "on the banks."

  In fact, Angola's government has gotten billions in pre-export oil loans from, for example, BNP Paribas, Standard Chartered and Deutsche Bank. The latter has made similar loans in Turkmenistan, assailed by transparency and human rights advocates. How much of the IMF's new arrangement benefits these banks?

  In fact, the questioner after Inner City Press, cutting off follow up, was from Standard Bank. Other than Inner City Press, the only other media questioner was from Reuters.

  Before the call ended, Inner City Press was able to ask about Angola's reported $4 billion bond sale planned for December. Sean Nolan said that the IMF's "understanding" with Angola does involve a "fundraising effort," but that the timing was not agreed to, the IMF does not "micromanage" to that extent. Nolan added that there is an agreement on an "overall limit."

  "Is it four billion dollars?" Inner City Press asked.

  Nolan replied that the precise limit will be "clear in the documents," which have yet to be released. Why play hide the ball?

 Nolan praised the country for "appointing reputable financial and legal advisers for the transaction" -- JPMorgan Chase will be the manager.

  Nolan continued that the actual size of the bond sale will depend on how much "concessionary lending" Angola gets from "countries with a strong record of financial support to Angola."

  Inner City Press asked if the size of China's loans to Angola -- China gets 16% of its foreign oil from Angola -- were known by the IMF or considered.

  "That hasn't figured in our discussions," the IMF's Nolan responded. Why not? Watch this site.

No honor among thieves: Deutsche Bank AG and a unit of BNP Paribas SA separately sued Bank of America Corp. on Wednesday, alleging that the bank has failed to repay about $1.7 billion in secured notes issued by a special-purpose entity. The breach-of-contract lawsuits, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, allege that Bank of America has failed to redeem $480.7 million in secured notes held by BNP Paribas and $1.2 billion held by Deutsche Bank. The notes were issued by Ocala Funding LLC, a special-purpose entity that provided short-term liquidity funding to Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp..."


November 23, 2009

Amid Reports of War Crimes, IMF Gives More Funds to Sri Lankan Government and Spins on Human Rights

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 18 -- The International Monetary Fund's seemingly dismissive attitude toward human rights, including labor rights and protections against ethnic cleansing and even torture, has been on display this month. Managing Director Dominique Strauss Kahn defended the IMF's disbursement of funds to the government of Sri Lanka, without any conditions or safeguards, after detailed reports of presumptive war crimes.

  When Inner City Press asked IMF spokesperson Caroline Atkinson if, in light of Mr. Strauss Kahn's logic, the IMF ever considers human rights in disbursing funds or not, she laughed and called the question's "premise... a bit misleading." Video here from Minute 9:07.

  From the IMF's sanitized transcript:

Inner City Press: Does the Managing Director’s November the 5th statement ‘regardless of one’s opinion of the human rights situation’ mean that the IMF never considers human rights?”

MS. ATKINSON: That’s another question where the premise is a bit misleading. The point that the Managing Director was making in his response to a letter from Human Rights Watch was—and as you know, the text of that letter talks quite directly about the Managing Director’s own feelings about the importance of human rights. And the point of that quote was that he was saying whatever you think about what rights and wrongs of what’s happening in Sri Lanka now, what is true is that an economic collapse would make lives worse for everybody. And, of course, usually the most vulnerable are most hurt by any economic collapse. So it was in that context he was explaining the reasoning behind the Fund’s economic support for Sri Lanka. Thank you all very much and have a good Thanksgiving.

  In fact, even the Europe Commission in considering extending or suspending its GSP Plus favorable tariff treatment to Sri Lanka, has taken into account consideration of human rights and war crimes. By contrast, the IMF has argued against any duty to consider human rights. Even Strauss Kahn's letter refers only to "humanitarian" issues, and uses this as an argument in favor of releasing more funds.

  Since March, Inner City Press has asked IMF spokespeople what safeguards if any would be attached to the loan. (Despite Inner City Press' demonstrated interest since then, the IMF did not tell it about its conference calls on disbursements to Sri Lanka, neither in July nor this month).

  
On July 16, the IMF's Caroline Atkinson said that the views of the international community will be taken into account. Four days later her boss Mr. Strauss Kahn issued a press release with no mention of safeguards. Now a letter, and a laugh. We will continue to follow this issue.

November 23, 2009 -

Citigroup, which used to have five retail banking locations in London, has written to account holders alerting them to the closure of its Monument branch on November 27. It’s the one just east of the monument to the Great Fire of London, the tallest isolated stone tower in the world. Users are being directed to the St. Paul’s branch, which is about a mile west. That’s a 15-minute walkaway. Accounting for the closure, a spokeswoman said: “The St Paul’s branch has better facilities and is located on a bigger site.” They've done this in the USA too...


November 16, 2009

House of cards - HSBC announced last week it had agreed to sell its London headquarters building to the National Pension Service of Korea for $1.3 billion. The move to sell its 8 Canada Square property in Canary Wharf, London's financial area, comes a month after the bank announced the sale of its New York headquarters building to Israeli investment holding company IDB Group for $330 million...

November 9, 2009

So Jaime Dimon's father Theodore or Ted being given a job at JPMorgan Chase, can we call that nepotism?

IMF's Report Buries Its Icesave Conditionality, Enforcer's Duplicity?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 3 -- While the IMF has acknowledged that its second round of disbursements to crisis-hit Iceland was delayed for months by the country's failure to placate those in the Netherlands and UK who did business with IceSave, the IMF's just released report on Iceland buries the issue on page 30 of the 98 page report. The IMF states that

"[t]he terms and conditions of Nordic loans, amounting to $2.5 billion, have been finalized. Their disbursement has been linked to resolution of the Icesave dispute with the U.K. and Netherlands over deposit insurance liabilities. After protracted discussions, the three governments have reached an agreement on this"

  Once that agreement was reached, on October 18, the IMF then went forward with a letter of intent and memorandum of understanding for the second tranche of financing. But, as with the IMF's moves in Latvia for Swedish banks, some see the Fund operating as an enforcement or collections agent for creditors who even less would like to show their hand.

  Since the IMF does not like to admit or reveal its degree of control over the countries it lends to, the de facto conditions for loans, such as paying off on IceSave, are often not explicit in what purport to be full agreements containing all express and implied terms.

  In fact, the IMF has claimed that it "no longer" engages in conditionality. But the Iceland report has an entire chart about conditionalities. It's just that the most important one was left unsaid. Is this diplomacy or duplicity?

  The IMF's Iceland report continues, about other loan requests including from Russia:

"A loan from the Faroe Islands ($50 million) has already disbursed, and a loan from Poland has been agreed ($200 million), and will disburse alongside the next 3 program reviews. A $500 million loan originally committed by Russia is no longer expected, but the $250 million in over-financing in the original program, an expected macro-stabilization loan from the EU ($150 million), and use of an existing repo facility with the BIS ($700 million, of which $214 million is outstanding) will more than offset this."

   Offset may be the right word. Last year, in the midst of Iceland's abortive run for a seat on the UN Security Council, the country announced it had to seek a $4 billion loan from Russia. It was after that that the IMF loan commitment was made -- an "offset," some saw it -- and after talks in Istanbul, on October 15 the already whittled down loan request to Russia was formally rejected.

  Then the deal with the UK and Netherlands, and the IMF's releasing. While the IMF calls these types of moves only technical, others call them power politics. Watch this site.


November 2, 2009

One TARP-er hypes the stock of another, per WSJ: The recent selloff in BofA shares creates a good chance to buy into the bank, say Citigroup analysts. Bank of America shares are down some 17% from their most recent closing peak of $18.59 hit on Oct. 14. "Given the ongoing CEO search, fear of a capital raise only adds to the uncertainty hitting the stock, which creates a very attractive entry point."

October 26, 2009

Never-ending sleaze: a Lewis Ranieri-led firm has cut deals with -redatory Taylor Bean & Whitaker for Debtor in Possession financing and the bulk purchase of $331M REO portfolio...

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. made nearly $50,000 in political donations through its PAC in September, counted by WSJ. The company donated $2,000 to Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, the senior Republican on the Senate Banking Committee. The company also donated $1,000 to Pennsylvania Rep. Paul Kanjorski, the No. 2 Democrat on the House financial-services panel...

Citigroup canceled a planned $4.5 million renovation of its main office in Brazil that included an area for entertaining clients and a landscaped terrace called a "suspended garden." Can you say, Babylon?

"We need it to compete," a senior executive told the WSJ about about the project last week, describing it as an important way to impress banking clients and use Citigroup's real estate more efficiently. But on Tuesday afternoon, a person familiar with the situation said the renovation had been reviewed by senior executives, who decided to shelve the project. The reversal underscores the sensitivity inside Citigroup about its spending habits, since the bank has gotten $45 billion from the U.S. government, a 34%-owner of the company's common stock.


October 19, 2009

HSBC reportedly "hopes to list its shares in Shanghai next year, becoming one of the first overseas companies to do so, its chief executive said. "I don't see it being a 2009 event, hopefully in 2010. It has a very symbolic element for HSBC. We were established in 1865 in Hong Kong and Shanghai... we would welcome participating in the Chinese market," Michael Geoghegan told Reuters in an interview on Monday. Asked how much he expected the listing to raise, he said: "We haven't got to that stage yet. We are looking at the fundamentals." People familiar with the matter have told Reuters that HSBS could raise $3-$7 billion as part of a Shanghai listing. The bank, which operates in 86 countries, has investments worth about $22 billion in China, including a 19 percent stake in Bank of Communications and a 16.8 percent stake in Ping An Insurance. HSBC announced last month Geoghegan would move to Hong Kong from February, as the bank focused more on Asia."

Watch out for the predatory lending...

October 12, 2009

In the UK, there is talk of breaking up the large banks like Royal Bank of Scotland. In the U.S., shouldn't Citi, Chase, B of A and Wells be broken up?

October 5, 2009

The belated ouster of Ken Lewis from Bank of America, who will now leave at latest by the end of the year, triggers a successor search by three ex-Fleeters, Charles Gifford, Thomas May and Thomas Ryan -- and former Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Donald Powell and DuPont Co. Chairman Charles Holliday. A motley crew...

September 28, 2009 --

IMF Disappears Questions on Post-Coup Honduras, Sri Lanka Withholding and Jamaica

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 24, updated -- Despite the International Monetary Fund's rhetoric about transparency and openness, at its press briefing on Thursday it declined to answer or even acknowledge timely submitted questions about how it will decide whether to allow Honduras' de facto Micheletti regime to use the funds the IMF has allocated, after the coup, about conditions imposed on Jamaica and staff reports withheld about Sri Lanka.

This is happened before with the IMF, when the spokesperson has stood smiling on camera in the Fund's auditorium in Washington claiming that, "There are no more questions."

  On Thursday, it was Caroline Atkinson delivering this line, after waiting to take two separate rounds of questions from another media organization. (Ms. Atkinson made a reference to the IMF's question-accepting technology -- could it be filtering?) From among the questions submitted to the IMF online, the IMF picks and chooses which ones to read out loud and acknowledge. There is no transparency in how this censorship is conducted, even that it is taking place at all.

  Nevertheless, Inner City Press has respected the IMF's 10:30 a.m. embargo.

 The questions submitted:

1) On Honduras, when and by whom will the decision be made on "whether the Fund deal with the [Micheletti] regime" be made? 2) Is the IMF considering granting Jamaica budget support, as the Prime Minister has said? 3) And why has the IMF staff report on the loan to Sri Lanka not been released?

  If and when answers are provided by the IMF, they will be reported on this site.

Update: More than four hours after declining to answer or even acknowledge the question on Honduras that Inner City Press timely submitted during the fortnightly briefing, the IMF sent this out:

IMF Statement on Honduras: "In recent weeks, the Fund consulted its membership through its Executive Directors. Based on this consultation, IMF Management has determined that it will recognize the government of President Zelaya as the government of Honduras."

September 21, 2009

HSBC, whose Household International unit told borrowers how to doctor their applications for subprime loans, has now sued New York businessman and prominent Democrat fund-raiser Hassan Nemazee, alleging he fraudulently obtained a $100 million loan from the bank and used the bulk of the money to repay a separate loan he falsely obtained from Citigroup. The funds were used to repay a loan from Citigroup's Citibank unit, according to the lawsuit. The HSBC loan remains outstanding, according to the complaint. Prosecutors have said he used fake documents to borrow money to repay the loan from Citibank on Aug. 24. The government has said Nemazee obtained a line of credit to repay Citibank by using the same type of fake documents - fake account statements and forged signatures - that he used to fraudulently obtain the Citibank loan.

September 14, 2009

IMF Still Murky on Honduras and SDR Use, Critique on Georgia, Serbia, Hungary and Latvia

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 10 -- The International Monetary Fund through spokesman David Hawley repeated on Thursday that despite its recent allocation to Honduras of $168 million in Special Drawing Rights, "the regime in de facto control is not able to use [the allocation] until a decision is made if the Fund will deal with" the regime as the government of Honduras.

  But Hawley also said that he has "no details on how individual countries have used the allocation," and when asked if countries have to disclose if they convert SDRs into hard currency, he said, I'll have to get back to you. So still the IMF's approach to Honduras, as well as other countries with coups and de facto regimes, remains unclear.

   At the IMF's regular press briefing on September 10, Inner City Press submitted three questions, including "Please clarify the conditions under which a government of Honduras could access the SDRs voted to the country on August 28? Could the Micheletti government never do so? Or after a new election" without UN observers?

  Mr. Hawley read the first part of the question out loud, and then flipped through a binder to repeat a line the IMF e-mailed to the Press on Su