The first semiannual report on banking applications activity by the Federal Reserve shows a sharp increase in mergers and acquisitions during the first six months of 2014. The Federal Reserve, as one of the primary U.S. regulators, reviews applications from bank holding companies, state member banks, foreign banking organizations, and savings and loan companies. Applications […]
Whatever Happened to Money Market Fund Rates? The New World of Zero Return and High Risk
October 11, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Here’s an interesting tidbit from Merrill Lynch on the various money market funds that investors can sweep excess cash into. The yields are enough to bring retired investors trying to live off of yield to tears. It’s hard to believe looking back that a mere five years ago, prior to the financial meltdown, savers could […]
Eastside Commercial Bank, Conyers, GA, Becomes 13th Bank Failure of 2014
July 18, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Georgia state regulators closed the Eastside Commercial Bank, Conyers, Georgia, and appointed the FDIC as receiver. In order to protect depositors, the FDIC sold Eastside Commercial Bank to Community & Southern Bank, Atlanta, Georgia, which will assume all deposits of the failed bank. Eastside Commercial Bank did not even last a decade, having been founded […]
Housing Recovery Stalls as Old Rules for Recover No Longer Apply
May 19, 2014 By Leave a Comment
The old rules for a strong housing market appear to have changed in a fundamental manner frustrating traditional analysts who have been predicting a housing recovery. In the latest Economic and Housing Market Outlook report, Freddie Mac examines three fundamental areas in the housing market that have not behaved as expected which has contributed to […]
Oops! My Calculator was Broken – Red Faces for both Bank of America and the Fed
April 29, 2014 By Leave a Comment
One “tiny little error” resulted in red faces at both Bank of America (BAC) and the Federal Reserve when bank officials disclosed they had incorrectly calculated capital levels required for the annual stress tests. The Fed apparently did not notice the error until Bank of America notified them. This would all be very funny except […]
Will Banks Get Burned on Huge Holdings of U.S. Treasuries?
April 28, 2014 By Leave a Comment
With loan demand still tepid after over five years of unprecedented monetary stimulus by the Federal Reserve, banks need to invest trillions of dollars of deposits that they can’t lend out. Just as individual savers have been forced to take on more risk and go further out on the yield curve, banks have been forced […]
Mobile Banking Rapidly Expands
March 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment
The evolution of internet based services has transformed the banking industry. The combination of online banking services and the proliferation of smart phones now makes is possible to conduct just about any banking transaction without ever having to physically step into a brick and mortar bank branch. In a report released by the Federal Reserve, […]
Feds Approve FirstMerit Corp Acquisition of Citizens Republic Bancorp
March 23, 2013 By Leave a Comment
The Federal Reserve today issued an order approving the acquisition of Citizens Republic Bancorp by FirstMerit Corporation. FirstMerit Corp, which had announced the acquisition last September was waiting for regulatory approval before consummating the transaction which is still subject to shareholder approval. Completion of the acquisition is expected to occur in the second quarter of […]
Fed Says Largest Banks Would Lose Half Trillion Dollars Under Adverse Economic Conditions
March 7, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Based on the results of the Federal Reserve’s stress tests, the nation’s 18 largest banks would collectively lose a massive $462 billion under an extremely adverse hypothetical economic scenario. Reflecting the severity of the stress scenario–which includes a peak unemployment rate of 12.1 percent, a drop in equity prices of more than 50 percent, a […]
Bernanke Tells Retirees and Savers “To Take One For The Team” – Interest Rates To Remain At Zero
February 26, 2013 By 4 Comments
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke presented to Congress today the semiannual Monetary Policy Report which discusses current economic conditions, monetary policy and thoughts on fiscal policy. Mr. Bernanke vigorously defended the Federal Reserve’s zero interest rate policy stating that the benefits of an easy money policy outweigh the “potential costs of the increased risk-taking in […]