The decision means the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee will extend its programme of buying Government bonds from an initial £75bn to a total of £125bn within the next three months. The announcement came as the Bank left interest rates at 0.5pc - a move widely expected by economists.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs suggested that President Barack Obama’s administration may seek management changes at U.S. banks after federal regulators release results of “stress tests.”
U.S. regulators are working with the top 19 banks on Tuesday to put the final touches on the results of regulatory stress tests, which are expected to reveal about half the banks need more capital but face manageable losses.
European stocks retreated on concern that banks may need to raise additional capital and the outbreak of swine flu will hinder an economic recovery.
U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling said Tuesday the government isn’t in a hurry to sell its stakes in banks.
The Bank of Japan refrained from increasing interest rates, the lowest among industrial nations, amid signs that the world’s second-largest economy is slowing.
Governor Toshihiko Fukui and his colleagues voted 8-1 to leave the key overnight lending rate at 0.5 percent, the central bank said in a statement today in Tokyo. Atsushi Mizuno was the sole advocate for an increase for a sixth straight meeting.
A group of Europe’s leading banks are engaged in discussions that could lead to the launch of their own debit card payments system to rival Visa and Mastercard. The banks, which include Société Générale of France, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank of Germany, Italy’s Unicredito, plus ING, Rabobank and ABN Amro of Holland, want to end the US companies’ control of Europe’s debit card transactions.
A spokesman for Commerzbank yesterday confirmed the talks, but said they were at a very early stage. "There are ideas being exchanged, but we do not have concrete plans yet," he said.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is dropping its bid to establish a bank after months of heated debate over whether the world’s largest retailer should be allowed to gain the added financial power of a federally insured bank.
Wal-Mart announced Friday that it was withdrawing its application for a bank charter.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was considering Wal-Mart’s application to establish an industrial loan corporation, which is a limited-purpose bank for processing credit card and other payments.
The news came a day after details came to light of leases that Wal-Mart recently signed with banks that operate branches in hundreds of its stores, reserving the company’s right to offer an array of future financial services in its stores. According to the lease terms, Wal-Mart can offer future services including mortgages, consumer loans, home equity loans, investment and insurance products and any other type of service or product that the company might develop.
By Alison Vekshin
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will scrap plans to open a limited-service bank, abandoning an effort that roiled the financial-services industry, the company said today.
Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, said it notified the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. it was withdrawing an application to open a so-called industrial bank based in Utah. The unit would have enabled the Bentonville, Arkansas company to process credit- card and debit-card transactions internally.
(more…)Dormant money in bank accounts should be used to support voluntary groups and charities fighting social deprivation, a report has argued.
The government is currently looking at ways of putting the estimated £400m in unclaimed bank deposits to better use.
About £250m should be spent on creating a ’social bank’ to fund plans to tackle social and financial exclusion, the Commission on Unclaimed Assets said.
But the body said its "first priority" was to ensure people get their cash.
HSBC Holdings (HSBA.L) on Monday said its 2006 profits rose 5 percent, just short of analysts’ expectations, as Europe’s biggest bank took a $10.6 billion hit for bad debts after problems in its U.S. mortgage lending.
HSBC (0005.HK) reported a record 2006 pretax profit of $22.1 billion, up from $21 billion in 2005, but below an average forecast of $22.4 billion in a poll of analysts by Reuters Estimates.
Headquartered in London with about 125 million customers worldwide, HSBC said there had been no further deterioration at its troubled U.S. mortgage lending since it warned about the deepening problem a month ago, and it was confident the problems would not spread to other areas.
By midday HSBC shares were up 0.3 percent at 889 pence, valuing the bank at 103 billion pounds ($200.9 billion), against a 1.65 percent drop in the FTSE (^FTSE - news) index.
Hundreds of people each week are turning to ‘no win, no fee’ firms to get back penalty charges levied by banks and building societies.
Claims handlers are typically keeping about 25% of any money won back.
Consumer groups and a body representing banks have told the BBC there is no need for intermediaries to be brought in to resolve disputes over charges.
But the firms argue they provide a service for those who are not confident in acting for themselves.
The Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle said President and Chief Executive James Gilleran will leave the bank April 30.
The Seattle bank, a wholesale lender to member institutions to make home loans, said Chief Operating Officer Richard Riccobono will succeed Gilleran. During Gilleran’s tenure, the Seattle bank returned to profitability, and federal regulators lifted an order, in place when he was appointed, for the bank to correct financial and management practices.
Like many CEOs I think his timing is absolutely perfect. Not all bank CEOs will be so lucky.
Compass Bancshares Inc. said Friday it is being purchased by Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A., in a $9.6 billion cash and stock deal that strengthens the Spanish company’s foothold in Texas and other states with large Hispanic populations. The transaction consists of roughly $4.6 billion in cash and about 196 million shares of Banco Bilbao common stock.
Compass, which is based in Birmingham and has 415 banks from Arizona to Florida, including 162 in Texas, will become a subsidiary of Banco Bilbao, with Banco merging its U.S.-based banking affiliates with Compass.
The boards of both companies have already approved the deal, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2007.
(more…)Only weeks after its new CEO announced that one of his top priorities would be to improve the banking company’s credit quality, FirstMerit Corp. (Nasdaq: FMER) revealed that its executive vice president and chief credit officer, David Lucht, has resigned.
FirstMerit said Mark Grescovich, the company’s executive vice president of commercial banking, has replaced Mr. Lucht as chief credit officer on an interim basis. FirstMerit said it has begun a search for a replacement for Mr. Lucht, whom the company said “resigned to pursue another career opportunity.”
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