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: BloggingHeads.tv 6/1/7  6/14/7   6/29/07  Reuters AlertNet 7/14/07  Until next time, for or with more information, contact us.

June 29, 2009

Japan's financial regulator ordered Citigroup Inc.'s Citibank Japan Ltd. to suspend all promotional sales activities in its retail-banking division for one month as punishment for lax compliance in preventing money laundering.....

June 22, 2009 --

While HSBC Gushes About Sri Lanka, IMF "Loan for Ethnic Cleansing" Still Delayed

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, June 19 -- While human rights groups call for investigations of the killing of tens of thousands of civilians by the Sri Lankan government as well as Tamil Tigers, and for the government to release the hundreds of thousands of Tamils including UN staff whom it has in detention, HSBC Bank, like some notorious hedge fund investors, sees only the chance to profit while there's blood in the streets.

   "The rebound will be spectacular," said HSBC Private Bank's chief investment strategist for Asia Arjuna Mahendran, hyping the possibility of Sri Lanka becoming the "Hong Kong of India."

  Another HSBC report by Prakriti Sofat is being used to urge countries to drop restrictions on and travel advisories about Sri Lanka: "a report released by  HSBC Global Research on 25 May 2009 had forecast... business process outsourcing (BPO), and manufacturing were key sectors ripe for Foreign Direct Investment."

  But while continuance of the EU's GPS Plus favorable tariff treatment of Sri Lankan textiles, proffered after the tsunami, requires a human rights review, the Rajapakse administration has blocked investigators' access.

   The focus seems to be on Sri Lanka's ports, which are to be trebled in size. Getting many of the contracts, some have noted, are South Korean firms.

  But even the International Monetary Fund, which a month ago on May 21 said that the Rajapakse administration's application for a $1.9 billion loan would be approved "within weeks"(click here for the Inner City Press story) now says the proposal is not yet certain, is not agreed to.

  The government's use of funds for what many call ethnic cleansing is increasingly questionable. This does not dissuade HSBC, or reportedly Citigroup and Deutsche Bank, under fire for standardless banking for strongmen in Gabon and Turkmenistan, respectively.

  HSBC has a global record of ignoring human rights. It was implicated in money laundering with Riggs Banks, for Agusto Pinochet of Chile and other dictators. It has raised funds for controversial Canadian oil company Talisman, and has been sued for lending discrimination. Many now question its blithe gushing at this time about Sri Lanka. Watch this site.

June 15, 2009

So while supposedly recused at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Tim Geithner was weighing in on Bank of America, in support of the shotgun marriage with Merrill Lynch, it emerged in Congress last week. He denies it. But didn't he initially denied not paying his taxes?

From the WSJ: "Mr. Geithner, then head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, had recused himself from individual bank matters in November after being tapped as Treasury Secretary. Treasury officials say Mr. Paulson kept Mr. Geithner apprised of what was happening with the merger. A separate note from Mr. Lewis recounts a conversation with Mr. Bernanke and suggests that Mr. Geithner approved of the agreement to infuse the bank with more money and guarantee its assets. A similar structure had been used to help Citigroup Inc. A Treasury spokesman said Mr. Geithner was informed about what was happening but didn't weigh in on specifics."

Yeah...

June 8, 2009

Bank of America will be saved by... ex-regulators? Now on the board of directors are former Federal Reserve Governor Susan Bies and former Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Donald Powell. That is to say, regulators who failed to stop predatory lending and the meltdown now benefit from it....

So the regulators' idea of change at Citigroup would be to hand the reigns from Pandit to former U.S. Bancorp CEO Jerry Grundhofer, who bought a 25% stake in now-failed predatory lender New Century? Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.

June 1, 2009

The race for governor in Florida pits bad banker against worse pro-bank blowhard. Bill McCollum, who while in Congress promoted every form of deregulation and promoted predatory lending, now faces off against Alex Sink, the former CFO of NationsBank now Bank of America, who oversaw the former's purchase of Barnett Banks which set negative fair lending precedents. How to choose between them? We don't envy Floridians on this one...

In the UK, according to a new study by the New Local Government Network, "There is evidence that the pernicious trend of illegal unsecured lending at extremely high rates of interest, or 'loan sharking,' is making a comeback At least 165,000 people already use loan sharks in the UK and we can expect the number to rise sharply." An additional 35,000 people, or an even higher number, are likely to use loan sharks during the recession, the report predicts.

May 25, 2009

High rate, subprime accounts make up one-third of Citigroup's and Bank of America's credit card portfolios...

May 18, 2009

Airports operator BAA Ltd last week said Citigroup Inc.'s consortium had been eliminated from the auction for Gatwick Airport, leaving just two bidders still in the running. BAA said the Citigroup proposal "was uncompetitive on price and there were no assurances on deliverability." Many are saying that of the current Citigroup...

May 11, 2009

Now Citi sells its Japanese domestic securities business for 774.5 billion yen ($7.9 billion) in cash. "We will continue to look for additional opportunities to maximize the value of businesses and assets as we rationalize and restructure Citi," Citi Chief Executive Vikram Pandit said. Citi had bought Nikko Cordial for $7.7 billion as the largest foreign bidder in Japan in April 2007. However, it is now being forced to sell its non-core assets after being hit by credit-related losses in wake of the global financial meltdown. Citi is also selling its Nikko Asset Management business in a separate deal. The sell off continues...

May 4, 2009

Amazingly, CitiFinancial continues to sponsor a Ford car -- NASCAR TARP.

So at Bank of America's shareholders' meeting last week in Charlotte, Ken Lewis was ousted as chairman. This same a week after he and his CFO Joe Price fingered the bank's “Community Reinvestment Act porfolio” as having much higher delinquency rates than other loans. Cynically, Lewis arranged for some community groups to lobby for him to remain as chairman. He's still the CEO -- shareholders couldn't vote on that. Yet.

April 27, 2009

According to the WSJ, “a long procession of grumpy investors took to the microphone to vent about the crippling losses that have decimated Citigroup's share price. Some shareholders lashed out at the New York bank's directors for failing to adequately shield the company from the credit crisis and recession. Still, by the time the meeting adjourned roughly six hours later in the ballroom of a Manhattan hotel, Citigroup's slate of directors had been handily elected, with each director receiving at least 70% of the votes cast. Also, Chief Executive Vikram Pandit managed to dodge much criticism of his 16-month tenure. There was no sign of representatives of Citigroup's soon-to-be-largest shareholder, the U.S. government, which is poised to own as much as 36% of the company.” How about the taxpayers? Or the predatory lending victims Citi previously tried to belatedly buy off?

From the mail bag, on Wells Fargo and US Bank

Subj: My Plight with Wells Fargo Auto Financial
From: [Name withheld in this format]
To: Inner City Press
Sent: 4/17/2009 6:59:57 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time
Hello Matthew, I've been referred to you by a family member to contact you about some trouble I've been having with Wells Fargo Auto Financial. I'd like to share my story with you, in hopes that you will promote awareness regarding Predatory and Discriminatory Lending Practices.

I myself, am a young, black female; have always been a part-time worker, and full-time student (until recently as of 4/06/09); and a single mother. At the time I contracted with WF, these same characteristics applied.

December 2007, I was deceived into a contract for an auto loan that did not state the terms that was initially discussed. Based on my good credit history, I was told that Wells Fargo would pay off all of my credit card debt, and buy out my car loan from Bank of America and I would end up paying a low monthly payment each month. Right before it is time to sign the contract, Wells fargo change the terms, and decided it was best to give me a check in the amount of $2000 to pay off my own debt, and buy out my car loan ($18K). This was a little fishy to my then, but I felt pressured to go ahead with the deal because (1) I spent almost 3 hours in this office, and I had to leave quickly; (2) I needed the money to pay off some debt and bills; (3) Wells Fargo offered an additional line of credit (as an incentive) for $1000, and (4) I didn't have to start paying for another month and a half.

The terms were $505.77 per month, which was far less than what I was paying for the bills separately. He told me where to sign, and I left. Things were fine for the first couple of months.

May 2008, I had a life changing event occur. My daughter had chronic bronchitis due to Chicago's weather and I had to move to Arkansas for a better climate environment. Upon my move I had certain job leads that fell through and was out of work for at least 4 months. During the entire time, Well Fargo called everyday, at least 3 or 4 times a day. My credit score dropped tremendously, and no one was willing to help. Once I did find a job, I paid all I could to Wells Fargo to get things back on track, but all the money was going torward the interest and not the principle of the load, which kept me at a standstill with paying it down.

I now landed a job where I currently make $30K. As I discussed to Wells Fargo, I've worked in the $505.77 in my monthly budget; but I know that I don't have the money to pay a past due balance, late charges, the current monthly payment, and rolocation expenses in preparation for this new job. I've kept them up to date with all of the changes, and yet they continue to threaten me with repossession, despite the fact that I paid out over $1500 within the last month and a half.

I've called numerous times to see if my loan can be restructured, and been given countless run arounds. Finally, Wells Fargo Bank explained that neither them nor Wells Fargo Auto Financial work with customers (new or existing) that live in Arkansas.

Bottom line, there was absolutely nothing they could do to help me. All the while, I owe $505.77 for March payment, $272.99 in late charges, $505.77 for April, and the $505.77 in May. My credit score is shot, so no other bank will loan me anything, and no car dealership is willing to take a trade in for a car only worth $8000 but a loan attached to it for $20,000.

I've contact the CEO, John G. Stumpf, who had someone else send me a letter back explaining that since I signed the contracted there was nothing they could do. I'm seeking justice in that, Well Fargo needs to be stopped. They thought it was best for my financial situation to require a full-time student, part-time worker, single parent, young black lady to pay them $33,380.82 on a car worth $8000. Tack on a 19.24% interest rate to a loan, which would have me pay them $13,035.13 outright.

This is ridiculous, and something must be done. I trusted Wells Fargo in that they were charged to help me. They initially told me that there was something they can do to help, and made me believe that this is what was best for my situation. Now that I am a customer of theirs, there is nothing they can do to assist me. I am enraged!

Us too. And on US Bank --

Subj: Attn: Matthew Lee, Executive Director or appropriate staff
From: [Name withheld in this format]
To: Inner City Press
Sent: 4/17/2009 10:37:28 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time

I'm in a fix with US Bank as they have attempted to keep me in perpetual debt to them by using late fees, or overdraft fees. Lately I've moved my account to a credit union, and closed my account with US Bank. I paid in full the negative amount in doing so, and now they claim I own them $795.50 in a negative balance. Again, "overdraft fees".It has been hard to shake these people off. They almost had me lose my apartment, my electricity was off for a week, my phone was off for 4 months. During that time, I had an auto deposit I could not stop because of a perpetual negative balance they claimed even when the deposit was well over the negative. Is there any law I can use to stop these idiots? I doubt I'm the only one having this problem with there predatory practices. And can't the state pull their charter?

April 20, 2009

In the run-up to its annual shareholders' meeting, this time in the Hilton and not Carnegie Hall, Citigroup has been criticized for misleadingly offering $5,000 loans and not disclosing in the advertising the interest rate -- 30%. But CitiFinancial has been doing that for a long time...

Bank of America, raising its credit card interest rates and saying that "To continue to offer competitive products and services and responsibly lend in this current environment, we must adjust our pricing."

April 13, 2009

  Job well done? "Citigroup said longtime executive Steve Freiberg plans to retire after nearly three decades with the company. 'Steve has been an extraordinary leader and has made significant contributions to building the great global franchise that Citi is today,' Chief Executive Vikram Pandit said in a statement." What exactly was so well done about the job?

  Beyond the closings, "before it collapsed last September, Washington Mutual Inc. spent roughly $1 billion on a branch-building binge that replaced bank-teller windows with free-standing counters and cash-dispensing machines. New owner J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is now dismantling it all, right down to the signs that promise "free checking, free smiles," and basically dragging the former WaMu branches back to the past. Traditional branches 'are superior in every way,' said Charles Scharf, who runs the Chase unit of J.P. Morgan. 'They might be boring, but they're practical.'" What ever happened to Chemical Bank's promise of five dollars if you're not served in five minutes?

April 6, 2009

Subprime Survivors Wells, BofA and JPM Chase Were More Disparate By Race in 2008 than Wachovia or Countrywide, Trends Will Worsen Under Current Regulators

NEW YORK, April 2 -- In the first study of the just-released 2008 mortgage lending data, Inner City Press / Fair Finance Watch has found that the seeming survivors of the banking meltdown, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, had worse disparities by race and ethnicity in denials and higher-cost lending than the banks they acquired, Wachovia and Countrywide. Mortgage lending in the U.S. will become more and not less disparate because of the emergency mergers and bailouts engineered by the regulators, the study predicts.

   Fair Finance Watch notes that JPMorgan Chase's massive closing of branches of Washington Mutual will also make credit harder to come by, especially in poor neighborhoods.  2008 is the fifth year in which the data distinguishes which loans are higher cost, over the federally-defined rate spread of 3 percent over the yield on Treasury securities of comparable duration on first lien loans, 5 percent on subordinate liens.

            Wells Fargo Bank in 2008 confined African Americans to higher-cost loans above this rate spread 2.18 times more frequently than whites, according to Fair Finance Watch. Wachovia Mortgage FSB, the largest lender of Wachovia which Wells Fargo acquired, had a lower disparity, at 1.46.

            Bank of America NA in 2008 confined Latinos to higher-cost loans above the rate spread 1.51 times more frequently than whites, the data show. Countrywide Bank, which B of A acquired, had a lower disparity, at 1.22.

            JPMorgan Chase was even more disparate to Latinos, confined them to higher-cost loans 2.10 times more frequently than whites, almost as pronounced as its disparity between African-Americans and whites, 2.26. Citigroup, perhaps due to its shrinking, some say dying, business had disparities of 1.90 for African Americans and 1.23 for Latinos. For US Bancorp, the disparity for African Americans was 1.55 and for Latinos, 1.35.

            "The banks the regulators favored in 2008, allowing emergency takeovers like JPMorgan Chase's of Washington Mutual, Bank of America's of Countrywide and Merrill Lynch, and Wells Fargo's of Wachovia, were the most racial disparate lenders," states the Fair Finance Watch report. "The regulators did not put any conditions on the mergers or Troubled Assets Relief Program bailouts, for example allowing Chase to close dozens of Washington Mutual branches. As things are going, it will be worse and more disparate in 2009. The new administration has yet to make any substantive change to this."

            Several lenders had worse denial rate disparities in 2008 between Latinos and whites then between African American and whites, a change from previous years. Bank of America NA, for example, denied applications by African Americans 1.44 times more frequently than whites, while denying Latinos fully 1.57 times more frequently than whites. Atlanta-based SunTrust in 2008 denied applications by African Americans 1.37 times more frequently than whites, while denying Latinos fully 1.78 times more frequently than whites.

March 30, 2009

Geithner Promotes Megabanks' Monopoly, in DC as at Fed, 17 Cut to 7 on Derivatives

Byline: Matthew R. Lee of Inner City Press on Wall Street: News Analysis

NEW YORK, March 28 -- Seven megabanks' renewed grab for monopoly power in the over the counter derivatives market shows how little Wall Street's real power has changed in the transition from the Bush to Obama administrations.

  The banks, including Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, are paying over $1 million to p.r. firm Prism Public Affairs to "educate" the voters weary of bonus and bailouts that those who caused the crisis should benefit from it.

  Already, Congress members hungry for campaign contribution have submitted to closed door briefings by Ed Rosen of the law firm Cleary Gottlieb, who drafted the legislative language for monopoly.

  The connector in this story is Timothy Geithner, under Bush the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and now Obama's Treasury Secretary. Geithner in June 2008 convened closed door meetings with 17 banks, essentially allowing them to propose and draft their own rules for the derivatives market.

    This led to advocacy by the Fair Finance Watch that Geithner's meetings were in fact rule making that excluded the public in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, and by Inner City Press, as media, to get the meetings opened to journalists and the public.

  The Administrative Procedures Act (5 U.S.C. Section 553) and related laws require that when the government engaged in rule-making, it must provide notice to the public, and allow and weigh public comments.  The New York Fed under Geithner tried to rule-make without any involvement by the public, even the public most impacted by the subprime lending that underlies these processes. The New York Fed on June 9, 2008 met with a group of the largest banks to discuss, according to the Geithner himself

"Regulatory policy. These are the incentives and constraints designed to affect the level and concentration of risk-taking across the financial system. You can think of these as a financial analog to imposing speed limits and requiring air bags and antilock brakes in cars, or establishing building codes in earthquake zones. Regulatory structure. This is about who is responsible for setting and enforcing those rules. Crisis management. This is about when and how we intervene and about the expectations we create for official intervention in crises."

     Press accounts made clear that the financial instruments and regulatory issues discussed behind closed doors are related to issues of public interest, which in fact are disproportionately impacting low- and moderate- income people and communities of color -- subprime and predatory mortgages.

The financial institutions invited, in mid 2008, were:

Bank of America, N.A. - Barclays Capital - BNP Paribas - Citigroup - Credit Suisse - Deutsche Bank AG - Dresdner Kleinwort - Goldman, Sachs & Co. - HSBC Group - JPMorgan Chase - Lehman Brothers - Merrill Lynch & Co. - Morgan Stanley - The Royal Bank of Scotland Group - Societe Generale - UBS AG - Wachovia Bank, N.A.
Buy-Side Firms: AllianceBernstein - BlueMountain Capital Management LLC - Citadel Investment Group, L.L.C.

  Fast forward to March 2009, with Geithner despite tax evasion installed as Obama's Secretary of the Treasury, and with Lehman having failed and Wachovia been swallowed by Wells Fargo. Now he is promoting monopoly powers in the market for an even smaller group of banks, just seven: Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank -- which despite European headquarters received billions of dollars in U.S. Troubled Assets Relief Program bailout funds through AIG.

March 23, 2009

   Citigroup's Pandit put out this spin last week, "The work we have all done to try to stabilize the financial system and to get this economy moving again would be significantly set back if we lose our talented people because Congress imposes a special tax on financial services employees," Mr. Pandit wrote in a memo distributed to Citi's 300,000 employees.

 Bank of America's Ken Lewis claims that B of A is "part of the solution for the financial crisis" through its subsidized acquisitions of Countrywide Financial and Merrill Lynch. Most say, part of the problem...

March 16, 2009

In DC, "Inevitable" Fraud as Obama Jokes with JPM Chase, Meets Citi and ExxonMobil

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press

WASHINGTON, March 12 -- As President Barack Obama promises to find and "call out" misuses of the stimulus package, and to review the over 7,000 earmarks in the budget bill he signed this week, the chairman of his Recovery Act's Transparency and Accountability Board, Earl Devaney, told the Press of a "naive impression that given the amount of transparency and accountability called for by this Act, no or little fraud will occur... some level of waste and fraud is unfortunately inevitable."

   Accordingly, the same is true not only at the United Nations -- despite Obama not mentioning the need for UN reform in his comments Tuesday after meeting Secretary General Ban Ki-moon -- but also with the bank bailout funds of the Troubled Assets Relief Program. Nevertheless, Obama joked with JPMorgan Chase's Jaime Dimon at the Business Roundtable's gabfest Thursday in Washington. As a smaller banker asked the final question of Obama -- no questions were taken after his meeting with the UN's Ban -- Obama said that banking has of late become complex, and that he could ask "Jaime" about it.

  Also on the White House's list of Roundtable attendees was Citigroup's longtime board member and now chairman Richard Parsons. Citigroup veered into predatory lending, JPM Chase at a minimum securitized it, while lending to payday lenders and pawnshops. What then is so funny?

On Sri Lanka, IMF Says Its Pending Loan Would "Support Government Policy Goals," To Wait and See

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press: News Analysis

WASHINGTON, March 12 -- As conflict rages in Northern Sri Lanka, with not only the Tamil Tigers but also the government forces killing civilians at a pace that has triggered two calls for a cessation of fighting by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the International Monetary Fund is in the final stages of negotiating a $1.9 billion loan to Sri Lanka. Asked Thursday what restrictions the IMF might place on the loan IMF spokesman David Hawley said the loan funds would be used for "the government's policy goals."

  Inner City Press asked a follow-up on possible conditions or safeguards, specifically with regard to the military action in Northern Sri Lanka. Mr. Hawley referred to the note he had just read out, saying that the loan is still under negotiation and to wait and see what conditions there might be.

  The IMF briefing, held in basement auditorium of the Fund's headquarters a few blocks from the White House where Ban Ki-moon met with U.S. President Barack Obama on March 12, was sparsely attended and lasted less than 20 minutes.  After passing through security and waiting for an escort, Inner City Press arrived just as Mr. Hawley was about to close the briefing. He took Sri Lanka as the last question. Some said it must be a busy news day, that few questions were submitted online to the briefing. (Inner City Press has in the past sought to submit questions from the UN in New York via the IMF's web site and has watched online as it was said, "There are no more questions.") The IMF's own lack of funds would seem to trigger at least a half hour of questions and answers.

   During the visit of Ban and his entourage to Washington, the word Sri Lanka did not arise even once, chief UN Peacekeeper Alain Le Roy told Inner City Press on Wednesday in the Rayburn House Office Building. This despite Ban Ki-moon have twice called for a cessation of fighting, and his Spokesperson's Office's claim that he has made the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka a priority.

March 9, 2009

  Citigroup's stock went below one dollar a share last week -- along with HSBC closing 800 HFC and Beneficial storefronts, a fitting end to an era?

March 2, 2009

The Journal sings HSBC's praises, that "gains from growth in Asia have helped HSBC offset deep losses from HSBC Finance Corp., the bank's largely subprime U.S. lender." According to the strategy, some of that Asia lending was subprime, too...

  Eye of the beholder: the Teamsters last week came out against KeyCorp for lending to a company they planned to go on strike against, and cited Key's (mis) use of TARP funds and abuse of consumers, including a consumer advocate's quote. But one report drew, at least initially, entirely negative response, including a comment that the underlying strike had been called off. Still the TARP was mis-used...

February 23, 2009

   The use of the subprime-triggered meltdown to justify anticompetitive mergers toward monopoly is a global phenomenon.  Brazil's Central Bank last week approved the merger of the country's second- and third-largest banks, Banco Itau and Unibanco. "This is an initiative which contributes to the stability of the national financial system in the current environment of the international financial market," the Central Bank said in a statement.  The authority claimed the merger wouldn't hinder competition in the financial system, although it would increase the market power of the new conglomerate "in some relevant markets for financial products." Ya don't say...

   Citigroup's Pandit last week said, "The future of Citi is in emerging markets, is in Latin America, and is in Mexico with Banamex." While the last is dubious, one thing seems true: the future of Citigroup, if it has one, is not in the United States, although it might be WITH the United States (government)...

February 16, 2009

 Citigroup, to defend its plastering of its discredited name on the Mets new stadium in Queens, rounded up the support of Dem Reps Eliot Engel, Joseph Crowley, Yvette Clarke, Gregory Meeks, Anthony Weiner and Steve Israel. Would they write in favor of Citigroup's jet? During the Congressional hearings last week, Nydia Velazquez called Pandit “a convincing person." Convincing to whom?

So BofA's Ken Lewis has claimed he had no authority over Merrill Lynch's final bonuses. We'll see...

Before Congress last week, JPMChase's Jaime Dimon complained, “we have a Byzantine alphabet soup of regulators,” and that banks and lenders have to deal with the OTC, the CFTC, the SEC and so on. He pontificated that it should be a U.S. system and globally regulated, and that no one should try to create a new regulator. He suggested the Federal Reserve -- and why not, since the Fed delivered Bear Stearns to him and Chase, which then got WaMu as well... The Fed's been good to Morgan Chase.

February 9, 2009

As Royal Bank of Scotland, bailed-out by UK taxpayers, tries to pay bonuses to its second layer of executives, the UK's Gordon Brown says the Government would only support any bonus payments to RBS staff through UKFI if they were consistent with the taxpayers’ interest. Business Secretary Lord Mandelson added that RBS risked alienating the public by offering “exorbitant” bonuses to its traders and senior bankers.

  But note that in New York, JPMorgan Chase has just awarded bonuses, on the theory that particular units didn't lose money. Your tax dollars at work...

February 2, 2009

Too little too late, accountability awaits: Sanford "Sandy" Weill says he will end a 10-year consulting contract with Citigroup that gave him millions of dollars in perks, including an office, car and driver and the use of company jets. Weill, who retired as chairman and started the consulting job three years ago, now wants to opt out. But what about returning ill-gotten gains?

Beyond the branch closing listed last week, JPMorgan Chase plans to axe another 13 in San Antonio -- the countdown will continue.

January 26, 2009

As JPMorgan Chase Shutters WaMu Branches, Regulators Missing, Commitments Gone

Byline: Matthew R. Lee of Inner City Press on Wall Street: News Analysis

NEW YORK, January 23 -- JPMorgan Chase is moving to closed down dozens of the Washington Mutual bank branches the government allowed it to acquire last year with no public notice or comment period. In Dallas, Chase has targeted 23 WaMu branches for closure, and another six in Fort Worth. In the Chicago area, Chase says it will shutter 57 WaMu locations. More branch closings will follow across the nation.

  Community and consumers groups are belated protesting the acquisition, which was a one of a slew of so-called emergency transactions on which no Community Reinvestment Act comments were considered, including the accession of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to bank holding company status, and Bank of America's now discredited acquisition of Merrill Lynch.

   JPMorgan Chase benefited from regulator-protected acquisitions not only of WaMu but, before that, of Bear Stearns. As first reported by Inner City Press, Bronx-based Fair Finance Watch submitted to the Federal Reserve Board comments on these transactions, but was told that emergency did not allow consideration of the issues raised, including prospective branches closings.

  JPMorgan Chase has now told groups who have asked if it will continue Washington Mutual's CRA programs and commitments that since there is no more Washington Mutual, there is no more commitment.

 This comes in the wake of JPMorgan Chase's Jaime Dimon reversing himself from a stated commitment to mortgages through brokers to abruptly shutting down Chase's wholesale mortgage unit. While groups are told this will give Chase more control over the terms of loans, brokers point out that Chase ultimately had control in the wholesale business, too.  Commitments are made to be broken, apparently, particularly those by companies the federal regulators bailed out or merged out of existence. What, the question grows, is Timothy Geithner's position on this Main Street issue?

Update: later on January 23, community groups were told that JPMorgan Chase plans to close over 40 WaMu branches in New York State...

January 19, 2009  

Fed's Geithner Evaded Taxes at IMF, Used Statute of Limitations Later, Mishanded Citigroup

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, January 14 -- While working for the UN-affiliated International Monetary Fund earlier this decade, Treasury Secretary-nominee Timothy Geithner did not pay required taxes to the Treasury Department's Internal Revenue Service. This would seem to be problematize, to be diplomatic, Geithner's ability to gain confirmation by the U.S. Senate to oversee the IRS.

This would seem to be problematize, to be diplomatic, Geithner's ability to gain confirmation by the U.S. Senate to oversee the IRS. But Democratic Senators and Barack Obama himself are calling Geithner's an "innocent mistake" which should not impinge on confirmation. Some ask how a financial whiz, head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, would claim ignorance of basic tax law as a defense.

  Worse, Geithner initially hid behind the statute of limitations to refuse to pay $25,000 in taxes for 2001 and 2002: "A three-year statute of limitations had precluded the [IRS] from auditing the 2001 and 2002 tax returns." But his supporters argue that Geithner's expertise is needed to confront the global financial crisis.

  But what of Geithner's role, as the President of the New York Fed, in mis-regulating Citigroup, an institution which has already swallowed $45 billion in Troubled Assets Relief Program funds, and billions more in guarantees for toxic loans still on its books? Said otherwise, how can those who oversaw -- or turned a blind eye to -- the origins of the financial meltdown be presented as the only ones who can now save the day?

 Also on Citigroup, sources say that the Feds are pushing Richard Parsons to take over as the embattled company's chairman. He ran Dime Savings Bank, part of the now-collapsed Washington Mutual franchise. At Citigroup's annual meetings, at Inner City Press asked questions about predatory lending from the floor of Carnegie Hall, Parsons never spoke up.  What did he think of the questions, of Citigroup's venture into predatory lending with Commercial Credit, Associates First Capital and CitiFinancial? The questions should be answered.

  Leaving the Federal Reserve Board is Randy Kroszner, who had served the Fed's point Governor on community and consumer issues. A new Fed advisor on these issues was recently withheld from the press without explanation by the Fed's public relations office. Fed chairman Ben Bernanke hides behind the Federal Open Markets Committee news blackout requirements in order to skip speaking to non-financial audiences, but disagrees with and ignored the requirement of public notice and comment while granting bank holding company status to Morgan Stanley, CIT, Goldman Sachs and GMAC.

  So JPMorgan Chase has closed its wholesale mortgage business, after virtually promising not to. They claim this way they can better control the terms of loans. But the ones they made through brokers, they made decisions on. Back on Nov. 6, 2007, David Lowman, CEO of JPMorgan Chase's home lending division, and Patrick Sheehy, business-to-business channel
executive at Chase Home Lending, told mortgage brokers of “an unwavering commitment to our wholesale … lending” business. Jamie Dimon made this type of about-face and close-down before. It's just what he does.

  BofA is making layoffs, BofA is getting sued. And yet BofA is getting more and more billions of TARP, including the share that would have been Merrill's. For shame.  Bank of America Corp. filed a letter with Charlotte, N.C., Mayor Pat McCrory verifying that it is laying off about 139 employees in the city’s Ballantyne neighborhood. The layoffs are expected to be completed by March 10. The bank is also laying off about 85 workers at a Preferred Services site in Dallas. Meanwhile, a group of Washington state homeowners filed a lawsuit against Bank of America Corp. unit Countrywide Financial Corp., alleging that the company illegally manipulated the appraisal process in a plan to increase profits at the expense of homeowners and independent appraisers. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Seattle under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Practices Act, claims that the company forced homeowners to use its unit, LandSafe, for appraisals, while subcontracting the work to independent appraisers and charging homeowners as much as 200% of the actual cost of the appraisal. 

   HSBC has significant exposure to toxic assets, including U.S. subprime mortgages that aren't marked to market, either because they are held directly on its loan book or because the U.K. regulator absurdly allows unrealized losses on certain assets to be written back for capital purposes. It is estimated that HSBC's true leverage is closer to 50 times and Tier 1 is 4.6%, making it one of the most highly leveraged banks in the world. How's that Household now?

 Here are properties in The Bronx, New York on which Wells Fargo has foreclosed:

  2096 RYER AVE BRONX 2862 Multi-family $374,900 N

  5730 POST ROAD BRONX 1809 Multi-family $599,000 N

  605 WALES AVE BRONX 2700 Duplex TBD N

  2194 WASHINGTON AVE BRONX 2403 Multi-family $325,000 N

  4027 EDSON AVE UNIT 1 & 2 BRONX 1848 Duplex $339,900 N

  2782 CRESTON AVE BRONX 2000 Multi-family TBD N

January 12, 2009

  More chickens coming home to roost for HSBC -- "European shareholder group Deminor said Friday it may take legal action against ... HSBC Holdings PLC on behalf of investors who bought products from disgraced asset manager Bernard Madoff."

January 5, 2009

  Talk by HSBC and Wells Fargo that they had cleaned up their predatory lending act has been blown out of the water by the example cited by even the Wall Street Journal, of a $103,000 mortgage on a shack in Arizona, purchased by Wells and then HSBC --

"Less than two years ago, Integrity Funding LLC, a local lender, gave a $103,000 mortgage to the owner, Marvene Halterman, an unemployed woman with a long list of creditors and, by her own account, a long history of drug and alcohol abuse. By the time the house went into foreclosure in August, Integrity had sold that loan to Wells Fargo & Co., which had sold it to a U.S. unit of HSBC Holdings PLC"

 We'll wait to hear the spinmeisters at Wells and HSBC try to explain this one away...

December 29, 2008

   So HBOS is said to be cutting off Oz Minerals, not extending loans, the extractive party is over...

December 22, 2008

  So Capitol One goes forward to scoop up Chevy Chase in DC... What in your wallet -- a bank with a history of racially-based redlining?

  Who knew? Morgan Stanley, which the Federal Reserve let become a bank holding company with no public comment, now applies on an expedited basis for its Greenwich, Connecticut-based subsidiary Frontpoint to own a stake in a start-up bank that says it will serve Manhattan, Brooklyn and parts of Long Island: Heritage Bank. Then, there is a China-related application by Morgan Stanley, on which the comment period is still open. Expect more on this.

December 1, 2008

  HSBC client companies' violations include... client companies embroiled in conflicts over lands and forests with the Penan communities in Sarawak regarding the establishment of oil palm plantations on community lands

.. long standing conflicts between client companies and communities in North Sumatra which have led to the imprisonment of villagers and restrictions being placed on people’s movements, which have in turn prevented children from getting to school and villagers from going to market or their farmland

.. the takeover of community lands in West Kalimantan undermining community food security

.. repeated allegations that client companies in several parts of Indonesia are clearing forests and areas of high conservation value.

Nearly all of the 17 business groups which are HSBC’s clients have announced plans to expand their palm oil operations. Unless their practices change, these operations will inevitably destroy more forest, wildlife and peoples’ homes.   Yep, that's HSBC..

November 24, 2008

In October, Fred H. Langhammer, chairman of global affairs of Estee Lauder quit the board of AIG, as it got a $150 billion government bailout. His resignation letter cited the time demands of the AIG board seat. Between Nov. 10 and Nov. 19, the directors conferred three times. Where -- in Biarritz? San Tropez?

PNC's proxy statement to acquire National City raises the question, why would NCC's regulators rule that TARP funds were unavailable to it, but then turn around and give them to PCC? Some are alleging that the Comptroller's connections to PNC played a role here. Crony capitalism, indeed...

 The WSJ of November 18 reported that in February 2007 "to modify loans, HSBC tried a strategy called 're-aging.'  If a borrower fell behind on payments by two months or more, HSBC effectively allowed some to catch up by declaring the loan current and adding the delinquent amount to the balance owed."  But re-aging began far earlier -- in fact, it was done at Household during the run-up to its sale to HSBC, to make the already dubious predatory business model look better. "Lipstick on the pig," whistleblowers called it them to Inner City Press, who reported it at the time. Plus ca change...

November 17, 2008

  Asked at NCRC's Responsible Lending conference in London on November 14: How will the UK run RBS, which owns subprime lenders in the US, and securitizes subprime loans through its subsidiary Greenwich Capital Markets?  What oversight will be given to Deutsche Bank and HSBC and BNP Paribas and their involvement in subprime lending?

    Raised at the meeting in September with the Federal Reserve's Bernanke was his decision to allow Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to become Bank Holding Companies with no public comment. Both of these investment banks helped cause the current crisis, in their role as securitizers of subprime loans by now-bankrupt firms like Ameriquest and New Century. Bernanke said CRA could be considered later. But under the law, the only time to consider it is before granting these regulatory approvals.  

  And, one reason for the crisis was the lack of sufficient oversight of financial institutions and their practices, which the Fed is now making more widespread by overriding the oversight laws.

  The same evasion of the law has just be done for American Express, will be done for CIT, while General Electric complains loudly that it will not become a bank holding company, protesting too much, some opine.

November 10, 2008

  So how many WaMu branches is JPMorgan Chase planning to close? The bank refuses to say, but we aim to find out...

 HSBC, one of the first banks to have to announced big subprime write-offs, is trying to pull back in some segments of the U.S. consumer finance market. Through their purchase of Household International (and affiliates of its like the secured / subprime card lender Orchard Bank), HSBC became huge in subprime, and then had to pay the price. (They are exporting the business model elsewhere, but cutting back in US at least for now, as evidence by card solicitations down.

And see this November 7 debate: http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/15731#

November 3, 2008

   Great job, Pandit: in the last year, Citigroup shares have lost 65% of their value, and $68 billion in mortgage-related losses later, the company has so many troubled assets that its days as a leader in U.S. finance appear to be over. “Citi no longer matters,” says Bill Smith, head of Smith Asset Management, a shareholder in and longtime critic of the bank. “It's a black hole.” Even after massive write-downs, the bank still has $138 billion of “problem assets." Crain's says that with $25 billion in federal bailout money safely in its coffers, the company will also get another chance to snap up an even weaker rival or two on the cheap.

But see Inner City Press' interview with Joseph Stiglitz, in this week's CRA Report, www.innercitypress.org/crreport.html

From the mail bag

Subj: A US Bank story

From: [Name withheld in this format]

To: Inner City Press

Date: 11/1/2008 12:53:33 P.M. Eastern Standard Time

In an issue of the Portland Oregonian in late 2001, there was a small 4-5 paragraph article buried in the last pages of the front part of the paper. It spoke of a high level security employee of US Bank that was gathering evidence to present to the FBI regarding US Bank account and Branch managers.  Apparently, they were selling names of consumers who had accounts to certain Cincinnati, Ohio Consumer Finance Division’s loan officers. Aggressive sales tactics were employed to recruit potential loan applications in which somehow dummy accounts were established not to the benefit of the person applying for a loan, rather those who were behind the scheme.

The US Bank security person who uncovered this scheme never did submit her documentation to the FBI, because she apparently decided to suddenly retire, and conveniently was unavailable for comment on the story. It never went nowhere. I consider myself as one of the victims of the scheme here 6 years later still have not found any closure nor justice.

It is unfortunate because I had not learned of this article until 3 maybe even 4 years after it had appeared in the Oregonian. Had I known, perhaps the outcome that personally tore this family to shreds may have been avoided. There was an accounts manager at my local Scappoose, Oregon branch that pursued me to refinance to the point of being totally annoying, so much so that I would not even go into the branch, opting to either going to a different branch or banking through the ATM. The most extreme was one morning while at the ATM, this individual saw me and came outside to ATM to once again “sign us up”.

Strange? Perhaps not except for the fact that it was during a torrential downpour.

The owner of the company my wife was consulting for had some issues with a competitor over patent rights or something along those lines, and decided to retire and dissolve the company. My wife, being tired of traveling and being away from home decided to go back to a firm on a salary basis, the consequence being a drastic reduction in income. That is not to mention the coinciding terrorist attacks of 9/11 and consequences that rippled through the economy that affected my business.

Finally, we succumbed to the pressure and gave permission to this accounts manager to forward our name to the Consumer Finance Division. Of course, we were investigating our options with our lenders and such, but none pursued us on a daily basis as did the loan officer from US Bank, promising this and promising that. The heavy handed sales tactics and pressure clouded our better sense, because we lost sight of all the problems we had at the local level branch level. Tellers posting to incorrect accounts resulting in bounced checks and overdrafts, I mean it was constant. If we are guilty of anything it is moving forward with US Bank on a refi, given all the problems we were already having.

It was after one of these “mispostings” that I had gone to see the same accounts manager that doggedly pursued us, to correct the tellers mistakes and set our personal accounts correct. We walked through it, he saw the mistakes made and promised that it would be taken care of and to stop in tomorrow if it was not done yet. The following day nothing was corrected and so I stopped in and to amazement this accounts manager was gone for good. I was told that he transferred to a location closer to his home, which I found very odd because he was from a rural area, more so than Scappoose, and this was a considerable step up for him. Just like that, overnight, he was gone. This “disappearing” act, I would come to learn over the years to come is a tactic used to keep consumers at bay. After discovering the article in the Oregonian, I went back through my records and checked for timeframe. Turns out that the day that the article was published was the same day I had met the accounts manager regarding the mispostings. Coincidence? It is one of those questions that never has been answered.

We were given assurances, verbally, time and again, that we were all approved for this refi and that was holding it up was the appraisal and if it would come in high enough. Once that was done, we would essentially be done in a couple of days. That was nothing more than deceit, lies and simply keeping us on the line of their hook. The appraisal was done and we were well above where it needed to be and we assured it would be wrapped up by Christmas of 2001. Christmas came and went with nothing done.

We were getting very concerned as estimated business taxes on my wife's consulting and my business we rapidly coming due. We were going fall 7800 dollars shy and part of the disbursements from the refi were going to cover that. It became apparent that this was going to drag through past the 15th of January and we were furious that all their promises had been unfulfilled, yet we had come this far and to start all over someplace else was just unthinkable at this point. Our loan officer suggested that we find someone to lend us the 7800 and that she would personally secure a note with that person to the disbursements funds, in essence guaranteeing payment back to this person.

I asked my mother in Cleveland Ohio and she agreed to lend the money, everything else was handled by the loan officer. She contacted my mother and explained that she would have some sort of document that would secure her name to the disbursement funds. As we are in Oregon, the funds needed to transfer via Western Union. This loan officer went as far as walking my mother step by step on how to do so. The note that guaranteed repayment that was promised never did arrive, nor for that matter did the refi.

People look at me when I tell that part of the story as if I am an idiot, a liar or a bad storyteller, and who is to blame them. After all it's totally outlandish. Preposterous, absolutely so, but totally true. Is it in writing? Of course not, US Bank puts none of their promises in writing, only what they can screw you with, not what would screw them.

However, phone records and transference of fund records, and my mother don’t lie. We later came to find out that this scheme was concocted by the loan officers supervisor. I call that fraud.

Finally, on morning in mid February 2002, as we walking out the door to go and sign the paperwork finalizing the refi. We get phone call from our loan officer. She tells us that their has been a stipulation added that simply destroyed the whole deal. We were told that because of my wife's short time at new place of employment and my being unemployed suddenly had caused concern as to whether we should be loaned money to. Never was this even a concern to them prior. We later came to find out that it was a concern long ago and that they had farmed us out to other lenders and they found one in a place call Greenpoint, but never shared that information with us, as a matter of fact it was deliberately held from us. All the while we were being told everything was hunky dory.

The stipulation for approval is again something that people look at me as if I am idiot.

I am in Architecture and I designed and built our home. It sits on a slight downslope because of that there is a basement area that is known as a daylight basement. I designed it as such so that in the future it could be modified into living space. However, that would be under a separate building permit and was for all intensive purposes is deemed as nothing but a crawl area. US Bank and Greenpoint decided in their infinite wisdom that in order to get the refi we would now have to make the daylight basement livable.

In other words, we would have had  to obtain a building permit, bring in rock and pour a slab over, and additionally insulate and drywall the walls at a cost of 15,000 – 20,000 dollars. That did it that was the final straw, to which we walked away very, very angry. We felt like we were raped. On top of that our loan officer told us not to pay the mortgage payment to Washington Mutual, that she had it worked out with them with all these prior delays and that it was all taken care of. Naïve our part? Absolutely it was, but this is their business, a consumer should be able to put trust in that. For that we were very very stupid.

In the early part of 2002 the lending practices were still rather strict and we found ourselves not being able to get a refi anywhere. No one would touch us because of a past 30 day on our mortgage that showed up on our credit report. It did not matter what the reason was.

Our intention to adjust our finances to our personal and economic changing times was destroyed. The stocks we held and the savings we had all withered away to keep pace with what had become financial chaos. I was determined to fight back because I believed in justice and truly believed that we mattered. I came to find out that we do not matter. I filed a complaint with the OCC, and they contacted me back asking me to send them all the info I had so they could review it and proceed further. They even told me to fax it as opposed to mailing my docs, as it would find its way quicker into their hands. I did that, on a Sunday evening. I faxed about 150 pages if not more, and the following day I called to ensure that it was received.

I was stunned when the woman on the side of the line admonished me for having the nerve and stupidity to fax that many documents. I asked them if they were going to review and she said that they do not have time to pour through that many pages and that they wrapped it all up with a cover letter and sent it to US Bank. As I understand it in a civil matter I am not obligated to provide the defendant with discovery. Any chance of that happening went right out the door when the agency designed to protect me as a consumer

Did just the opposite.

If you have ever missed a car payment then you know that the calls come daily if not 2 or 3 times, and that’s what my life became. A balancing act, paying the mortgage one month and skipping other ones and then the following month doing the opposite, all the while the credit report overall number divebombing. Being a one person office those calls came to that phone line. Every single I made it a point that I was going to find justice, and I called the 800 number of US Bank, never speaking to the same person twice, and being bounced all over the country to get nowhere. While at the same time I was also receiving phone calls from their collections department looking for the payment on a second that we had with them. I exaggerate not when I say that in a 1-1/2 year period I spoke with over one thousand different US Bank personnel, and the small handful that took an interest in my pleadings for help would  disappear……be transferred. To this day, I am still appalled by that.

The day that the refi fell apart, and after we were done screaming at the loan officer she had faxed me a copy of a field review that was commissioned by US Bank, which is common practice, but nonetheless a document that is to be used in house and not privy to us, the loan applicant. Their was so much emotion that day that it did not occur to me until long after a statement that she had made to me, and that was that “you did not get this from me”. In an effort to shorten an already very lengthy letter, what it came down to was that the person who did the field review was not licensed to appraise our particular zone or type of estate property, as we sit on 5 acres.

It took about a week of spouting off about the appraisal when all of a sudden, after months of getting nowhere, I suddenly find myself taking a call from The President of Consumer Finance. Which is just another long story ending in corporate America screwing the common man and getting away with it.

October 27, 2008

  PNC proposing to buy Nat City on the cheap is a deal with many echoes. There was National City's purchase in Pittsburgh of Integra, with the favor now being returned. There's PNC's purchase of Riggs after its money laundering for Chile's Pinochet and Equatorial Guinea came to light. National City's sins have been closer to home and if the past is any guide, PNC wouldn't clean them up either.

  HSBC's stock fell 13.5 per cent last week to a five-year low. "We question how long the [HSBC] shares can tread water in the face of falling earnings and increased pressure on capital, and we think the dividend is exposed," Morgan Stanley said. Takes one to know one...

October 20, 2008

   It's telling, in terms of how sloppy the corporate giveaways have been, that neither the Fed nor Treasury thought through how buying warrants in the big banks would put them in the position of reducing book value or recording a loss. They plan to pumps a combined $125 billion in Bank of America Corp. (BAC) - including Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. (MER) - as well as JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Citigroup Inc. (C), Wells Fargo Corp. (WFC), Goldman Sachs & Co. (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (BK) and State Street Corp. (STT). 

  Meanwhile --

As FDIC Offers Bail-Out, Its Conference Calls Are Full Then Off the Record

Byline: Matthew R. Lee of Inner City Press on Wall Street: News Analysis

SOUTH BRONX, October 14 -- If the way the FDIC dealt with the Press on Tuesday is any indication of how they will offer guarantees as part of the bank bail-out process, the corner may not yet be turned. The FDIC emailed the press corps at 9:57 Tuesday morning, announcing a briefing  at 10:45 a.m. to "provide details of the FDIC’s plan, what it includes, how it will be funded and who will be eligible to participate." A phone number was provided, but when called the message was that the conference call was full.

  Then at 11:22, the same notice of 10:45 press conference was sent out, this time with a new phone number and pass code. But even if one called immediately, the call was ending, with some anonymous participant griping that only JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Bank of America will benefit.

   This was followed at 1:48 on Tuesday afternoon with a notice of a new conference call, at 3:15. Once on, an FDIC official said it would all be not for attribution.  Inner City Press asked two questions. First, why are some savings and loan holding companies being excluded from the guarantee program? Because some were grandfathered in and engage in commercial activity was the answer. No list of excluded S&L holding companies was provided.

  Inner City Press then asked if the FDIC believes that the proposal to acquire Wachovia by Wells Fargo is an emergency transaction, or that requirements of public notice and comment should be adhered to. The official said the FDIC is "not prepared to comment on particular institutions." Inner City Press asked, Why will you be? But the phone line had been cut off. The masters of the universe moved on, corporate welfare in their wake.

And see this Oct 17 (UN) debate, including Musing of One-Term Limit for Ban by Obama, at http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/15262# 

October 13, 2008

The WSJ transcribes for Citigroup that "Citi will mainly seek to expand overseas, particular in Asia and Eastern Europe, which has long been a major focus of Citi's growth strategy. Retail banking and consumer lending returns there by far outweigh the returns in the U.S., Citi has long argued. Citi has 'exactly the same strategy as before,' the source said." And that strategy includes predatory lending -- now in Asia and Eastern Europe...

Tales for a time of lawless regulators giving rubber stamp bank merger approvals without any public notice or comment, Chase and now Wachovia --

On October 10, the Federal Reserve Board sent Inner City Press a partial response to a Freedom of Information Act request made back in March, about the Fed voting without public notice or comment to bail out JPMorgan Chase's acquisition of Bear Stearns without even following the law requiring the involvement of Fed governors. Six months after the fact, the Fed releases an April letter to Congress saying the Governor Mishkin, who has since left the Board, was in the air on a flight from Finland to the U.S. and therefore couldn't be involved. Click here to view. And now he's gone...

  There are other responsive records which Inner City Press is pursuing.

 Meanwhile, while Inner City Press / Fair Finance Watch has already commented to the Fed demanding they hold a comment period on Wells Fargo's proposal to buy Wachovia, now Wachovia says it will bypass its own shareholders -- with the NYSE's rubber stamp. Note to Fed: this doesn't make it an emergency to bypass the public too. But the Fed on Friday said, vaguely, that it will begin "immediate consideration" of Wells Fargo's application.  But no FDIC involvement = no emergency.

RBS is pleading for a bailout from the UK... When Inner City Press / Fair Finance Watch commented, at length and over years, about RBS' involvement in and exposure to predatory subprime lending, RBS always said it wasn't true...

October 6, 2008 -- So why not let Germany's Hypo Real Estate fail? For an angry debate to this effect by Inner City Press on the bailout, click here

In Wachovia War, Wells Fargo Would Require Public Notice and Comment, No Emergency

Byline: Matthew R. Lee of Inner City Press on Wall Street: News Analysis

NEW YORK, October 3, 5 -- With Wells Fargo's announcement that is it outbidding Citigroup for Wachovia, and would consummate its proposal, without FDIC assistance, by the end of the year the question arises: how could the regulators bypass public notice and comment on a transaction that has no FDIC involvement?  Since this still hasn't been answered as of October 5, Citigroup's announcement that it's gotten a judge to restrain the deal is much more sizzle than steak.

September 29, 2008

When Inner City Press / Fair Finance Watch complained to the Office of Thrift Supervision about the subprime practices of Washington Mutual's affiliate Long Beach Mortgage, the OTS responded that is was only concerned with WaMu's savings bank, not its finance company. WaMu never got CRA credit for Long Beach's loans, but now WaMu has failed and been bought at fire sale prices by bottom-feeder JPMorgan Chase...

 -- First on the fringes and now on Fox News, the Community Reinvestment Act is being blamed by some for today's financial crisis. The argument is that by encouraging FDIC-insured banks to lend in lower income neighborhoods, the government -- read, Democrats, from Jimmy Carter to Bill Clinton -- created the explosion in high interest rate subprime loans.

   There's a major factual problem, though: with a single exception, no bank sought CRA credit for its subprime loans. And the investment banks which were purchasing, bundling and securitizing the loans were not covered by CRA. Bear Stearns was not covered by CRA, but was bailed out by the Federal Reserve Board for $30 billion dollars. AIG, an insurance company, was not covered by CRA, but its subprime activities have led to a $75 billion loan from the Federal Reserve, whose chairman Ben Bernanke nevertheless claimed to Inner City Press that  the Fed does not control AIG, despite owning warrants for 79% of its stock, click here for that story.

  In fact, community advocates had been telling the Federal Reserve about the dangers of subprime lending since the 1990s.  For example, Bronx-based Fair Finance Watch commented to the Federal Reserve about the practices of now-defunct non-bank subprime lender New Century, when U.S. Bancorp bought warrants for 24% of New Century's stock. The Fed, rather than take any action on New Century, merely waited until U.S. Bancorp sold off some of the warrants, and then said the issue was moot...

September 22, 2008

  On the rumors of Wachovia looking to buy Morgan Stanley, just as its bigger sibling Bank of America bought Merrill Lynch (click here for Inner City Press' 10% deposit cap analysis), consider that both deals involve Utah-based industrial loans companies, which are covered by the Community Reinvestment Act, but whose acquisition, it is argued, is not subject to CRA scrutiny and public comment. This is something that should be fixed, clearly, in the pending bail-out legislation...

How did Citigroup slip the bit? Now they're listed as a possible bidder for WaMu... HSBC finally ended its pact for Korea Exchange Bank, denied rumors of interest in Morgan Stanley and Halifax...

September 15, 2008

  Alan Fishman, who shepherded Independence Savings Bank in Brooklyn toward its ill-fated sale to Sovereign, has now brought another Independentista over to the fast-collapsing WaMu, Frank Baier...

Citigroup said last week that it expects a $450 million quarter-to-date pretax impact on revenue from trading losses and write-downs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securities...

 When asked on September 12 if it was making an offer for Lehman Brothers, HSBC through a spokesperson said, " "We have made it clear that our strategy relies on focusing on emerging markets and businesses with a genuine global connectivity."  Yeah, like Household International and predatory lending...

September 8, 2008

GE said it received a Wells notice that staffers at the Securities and Exchange Commission are considering recommending the SEC file civil charges in a long-running probe of GE's accounting. GE said Friday that the SEC staff is considering civil charges on its accounting for four items over various periods: derivatives; sales of spare parts, particularly in its aviation unit; the timing of revenue recognition on the sales of locomotives; and revenue recognition on several other items.

  What about subprime?

Merrill under John Thain has reached down into Citigroup's mortgage operation for James De Mare to run its mortgage trading operations. As reported, De Mare has been with Citigroup for 11 years. He most recently was the firm's global head of mortgage trading, overseeing the trading of all securitized products in the firm's fixed-income currencies and commodities group. Great track record...

September 1, 2008

  Commerzbank AG was poised Sunday to announce the purchase of Dresdner Bank AG in a $13.2 billion deal -- to compete with predatory lending enabler Deutsche Bank...

   HSBC Holdings brags it has increased its stake in Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank from 14.4% to 20% for $77.1 million.  The transaction follows the granting of special approval from the State Bank of Vietnam and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in July to increase HSBC's investment in Techcombank beyond the foreign ownership cap of 15%, HSBC said...

August 25, 2008

   Per DJ, "Russian police have raided the offices of four law firms representing Hermitage Capital Management Ltd., once the country's biggest portfolio investor, the fund's chief executive, Bill Browder, said Friday.  The raids come after Hermitage, together with HSBC Holdings, turned to Russian courts to recover ownership of three Hermitage investment vehicles that they say were stolen last year with the help of the Interior Ministry."

  So HSBC, in most parts of the world a rogue and spreader of predatory lending, is draped in the banner of corporate reform in Russia...

Genpact Ltd.,  a business process outsourcing provider with its Latin American headquarters in Juarez, has acquired a delivery center in Guatemala City, the company announced this week. Genpact  will provide services to GE Money from the facility, which it acquired from GE Money, a division of General Electric. Financial details were not disclosed. The Guatemala facility extends Genpact 's Latin American presence beyond Mexico, the company said in a news release. The delivery center will initially employ more than 700 people, and can grow to 2,000 workers, it said.

August 18, 2008

This week we note the sale of ABN Amro's private equity business this week to a Goldman Sachs (CS)-led consortium for 600 million Euros, just part of the $95 billion carve-up of the Dutch bank by new owners Banco Santander, Royal Bank of Scotland Group and Dutch-Belgian financial services company Fortis NV. The fall-out continues.

HSBC Auto Finance will lay off about 400 workers in San Diego in the next three months as the giant London-based bank stops making auto loans in the United States. After exiting auto lending, HSBC's consumer finance unit intends to focus on its credit card and home mortgage businesses, said bank spokeswoman Cindy Savio in Chicago. And still much of it is predatory -- now to employees as well.

August 11, 2008

  Per WSJ, "the SEC didn’t want to impose an upfront fine against Citi, say people familiar with the matter, while the states pushed for -- and eventually got — a $100 million fine. Also, as part of the deal, the SEC wants Citi to use its 'best efforts' to help help institutional investors sell roughly $12 billion of auction-rate securities it sold to retirement plans and institutional investors by the end of 2009, or else face possible sanctions from the commission. (In other words, this is the SEC’s version of a deferred-prosecution agreement.)" Another sleazy deal by Citigroup...

   In Ireland, "GE Money  is to make 85 staff redundant and stop offering personal and commercial loans, in a major restructuring of its operations in Ireland. The lender, which is part of America's largest company General Electric,  is to continue offering sub-prime loans, loan protection insurance, and car finance through motor dealers." The subprime continues...

Also per WSJ, "HSBC North America's risk-weighted assets rose 11% to $374 billion in the first half, under the new Basel II banking rules, with most of the rise at HSBC Finance. That is the old subprime-dominated Household International, HSBC's U.S. unit into which it has pumped $2.2 billion in equity this year and which continues to need intensive treatment." Great purchase, that...

August 4, 2008

  GE is getting out of mortgages in Canada, while expanding elsewhere. Apparently Canada is too regulated for GE...
 
 HSBC is playing hard ball in Seoul. DJNS: " HSBC Holdings PLC (HBC) said Thursday that it hadn't received regulatory approval to buy a controlling stake in Korea Exchange Bank (004940.SE) by a July 31 deadline.  The bank, recently ranked by Forbes as the world's largest company, has an exclusive agreement to buy the stake from U.S-based Lone Star Funds.  HSBC and Lone Star have imposed a deadline on the deal, valued at around $6 billion, of July 31 to coincide with the required regulatory approval.  'The required regulatory approval was not obtained by 31 July so, under the terms of the acquisition agreement, either HSBC or Lone Star may terminate the agreement,' HSBC said in a statement... Earlier Thursday, an official at South Korea's Financial Services Commission said that HSBC hadn't submitted an amended application. " We'll see...
 

July 28, 2008  -- a week of shenanigans by Citigroup (in London), HSBC (in South Korea)  and GE (in Abu Dhabi).  And this --

  Triggering a hurried correction, AFP on July 25 reported that

Late Friday, the Treasury's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency took over First Heritage Bank of Newport Beach, California, and First National Bank of Nevada, based in Reno, Nevada, declaring both undercapitalized and facing losses that would wipe out their capital.

"The 28 offices of the two banks will reopen on Monday as branches of Mutual of Omaha Bank," the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said in a statement.

"All depositors, including those with deposits in excess of the FDIC's insurance limits, will automatically become depositors of Mutual of Omaha Bank for the full amount of their deposits."

In addition to taking over the deposits, Mutual of Omaha Bank will pay 200 million dollars for assets of the two closed banks, which are now in receivership under FDIC control.

The closures took to 10 the number of banks closed in the country in the past 18 months, as the collapse of real estate prices, the spread of mortgage defaults and the crumbling of the markets for billions of dollars worth of securities tied to mortgages.

Earlier in July, the FDIC seized control of the large IndyMac Bank, which was weakened by heavy exposure to risky subprime mortgages and collapsed after a run by depositors. 

Then they added the N.A....

July 21, 2008

  So why did Richard Holbrooke resign last week from AIG's board? AIG while announcing the resignation, "effective immediately," did not list a reason...

From the earnings: " At Citigroup, about 8.5% of its subprime mortgage borrowers, which make up about 16% of the bank's total mortgage portfolio, have fallen at least 90 days behind on their loan payments, and therefore are considered at high risk of defaulting."

   Slinking out of Slovakia, "in Slovakia Citibank of the US made several redundancies after its consumer finance division CitiFinancial was liquidated. At the beginning of 2008 the bank said that it plans to cut 55 jobs in Slovakia out of almost 230 jobs. In the near future Citibank Slovakia will operate as a branch of Ireland-based Citibank Europe."

July 14, 2008

  After GE's sell-off of Lake to Shinsei in Japan, where will the $5.4 billion be redeployed -- in predatory lending elsewhere? "In an extremely challenging environment, we have completed an agreement that fully meets our core strategic objectives: giving our Japanese business the opportunity to work with a partner committed to investing in Japan, and allowing GE Money  and GE to redeploy its capital to areas which will generate strong sustainable long-term growth and returns for our shareowners,'' said GE Money's CEO Bill Carey said-in-a-statement...

  Korea Exchange Bank's CEO said Friday that the government should decide soon whether to approve HSBC to purchase of a controlling stake in the bank from U.S.-based Lone Star Fund.  "It is very difficult for the bank not to have clarity on when the deal can be closed," Richard Wacker whined at a press conference.  If Lone Star has to find a new buyer for KEB as a result of the delayed decision, then the outcome may not be what the Korean government wanted, he said. Is that a threat?

July 7, 2008

Pandit's pitch about a great turn-around just around the corner is falling on deaf ears. Meanwhile, Threat Level quotes the FBI that Citi's servers were hacked, leading to mass withdrawals from ATMs, the reissuance of cards and, to be sure, some truly sleepless nights from the Citi that never sleeps (except when it comes to consumer privacy)...  Ex-Chaser Don Layton, now at E-Trade, has scooped up an old crony, Joe Sclafani....

  Hat tip to CR: CapitalOne Healthcare Finance says, "Expert cosmetic surgery and procedures like liposuction, hair restoration, tummy tucks, and more are now within reach." GE Money CareCredit provides this testimonial from Laser Elite, a hair and skin clinic in McLean, Va.: "Having CareCredit has definitely had a positive impact on our business. It helps us attract more patients and has increased our sales by 25 percent." GE's website for its CareCredit card lists endorsements from 31 state medical and veterinary associations and 11 national groups, including the American Dental Association, American College of Eye Surgeons, American Society of Plastic Surgeons, American Society of Bariatric Physicians, and American Animal Hospital Association. Like we've said before, pet loans. But how does GE collect?

June 30, 2008

  As desperate Citigroup looks to sell its German operations, probably to Deutsche Bank, its unions have laid down conditions that "management also emphasizes the need of employees in the talks with the bidders," that working conditions shouldn't deteriorate and the current locations be kept. Citibank's German retail operations, Citibank Privatkunden AG & Co. KGaA, employs around 6,500 people in Germany, at Duesseldorf headquarters and a call center in Duisburg.  Can you say fire sale? As noted, Citi's stock is at a 10 year low; it has cut its dividend and been forced to raise, so far, $42 billion...

RBS has finagled approval from China's banking regulator to buy nearly 20% of Suzhou Trust Co., sources say, a follow-up to RBS' stake in Bank of China Ltd. in 2005. Desperate swashbucklers...

  In other desperation news, GE is trying to sell off its credit cards, but nobody is interested...

June 23, 2008

Citigroup has said it's  buying a brokerage firm Intra S.A. Corretora de Cambio e Valores in Brazil which has about $745 million in client assets --but would not disclose how much it is paying for the firm. Ah, transparency.... On the spin front, Leah Johnson jumped ship earlier this month after about eight years of spinning, replaced by Kate James, who was Standard Chartered Bank's head of public affairs and strategy for the Americas. James will report to Lisa Caputo, Citigroup's chief marketing officer, whom the company has now put in charge of both marketing and communications operations.

JPMorgan Chase's securities arm sued a former private banker on Monday, alleging he stole confidential and proprietary information about the bank and its clients.  The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, is seeking an injunction against Hernan E. Arbizu, a former senior private banker for the Argentina and Chile region at J.P. Morgan Securities' private banking department in Manhattan. Live by the sword...

June 16, 2008

   First, we're glad to see that CompuCredit, and First Bank of Delaware, are getting sued by the government for $200 million. Inner City Press / Fair Finance Watch filed comments opposing CompuCredit as a predatory lender.

   This week, Inner City Press / Fair Finance Watch filed comments against the applications by Spain's Caja Madrid, funder of biofuel projects and 23% owner of Iberia airlines, to acquire City National Bank of Florida, and against the Federal Reserve's secret process with banks, in essence a rule-making excluding the public even those the topic, credit derivatives, has come up because of the subprime lending crisis. The financial institutions invited -- and now challenged -- are listed below.

Bank of America, N.A., Barclays Capital - BNP Paribas - Citigroup - Credit Suisse - Deutsche Bank AG - Dresdner Kleinwort - Goldman, Sachs & Co. - HSBC Group - JPMorgan Chase - Lehman Brothers - Merrill Lynch & Co. - Morgan Stanley - The Royal Bank of Scotland Group - Societe Generale - UBS AG - Wachovia Bank, N.A.
Buy-Side Firms: AllianceBernstein - BlueMountain Capital Management LLC - Citadel Investment Group, L.L.C.

  The Administrative Procedures Act (5 U.S.C. Section 553) and related laws require that when the government engages in rule-making, it must provide notice to the public, and allow and weigh public comments.  Here, the FRBNY has tried to rule-make without any involvement by the public, even the public most impacted by the subprime lending that underlies this FRBNY process. Rather, for example, the FRBNY on June 9 met with a group of the largest banks to discuss, according to the FRBNY's president,

"Regulatory policy. These are the incentives and constraints designed to affect the level and concentration of risk-taking across the financial system. You can think of these as a financial analog to imposing speed limits and requiring air bags and antilock brakes in cars, or establishing building codes in earthquake zones.
"Regulatory structure. This is about who is responsible for setting and enforcing those rules.
"Crisis management. This is about when and how we intervene and about the expectations we create for official intervention in crises."

 But when rules are being set, to use Mr. Geithner's own analogies, for air bags, brakes, speed limits or building codes, the agencies at issue are not allowed to and do not only take input from the industry.

     Press accounts make clear that the financial instruments and regulatory issues discussed behind closed doors are related to issues of public interest, which in fact are disproportionately impacting low- and moderate- income people and communities of color -- subprime and predatory mortgages.  AFP of June 9 reported that

"those swaps are designed to transfer the c