Bank of Scotland could be forced to sell Citizens

The Royal Bank of Scotland, which nearly collapsed during last year’s financial panic, is trying to avoid a possible sale of U.S. banking arm Citizens Financial Group, according to Reuters news service.

http://bit.ly/2BIay1

Related articles by Zemanta

• RBS fights to keep US retail bank Citizens (telegraph.co.uk)
• 2 British banks in major shake-up (money.cnn.com)

two cows

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

seekingtheaftrglow:withoutcountry)

SOCIALISM You have 2 cows. You give one to your neighbor.

COMMUNISM You have 2 cows. The State takes both and gives you some milk.

FASCISM You have 2 cows. The State takes both and sells you some milk.

NAZISM You have 2 cows. The State takes both and shoots you.

SURREALISM You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION You have two cows. You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows. Later, you hire a consultant to analyze why the cow has dropped dead.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION You have two cows, but you don’t know where they are. You decide to have lunch.

A RUSSIAN CORPORATION You have two cows. You count them and learn you have five cows. You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. You count them again and learn you have 2 cows. You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.

A SWISS CORPORATION You have 5000 cows. None of them belong to you. You charge the owners for storing them.

AN INDIAN CORPORATION You have two cows. You worship them.

A BRITISH CORPORATION You have two cows. Both are mad.

AN IRAQI CORPORATION Everyone thinks you have lots of cows. You tell them that you have none. No-one believes you, so they bomb the crap out of you and invade your country. You still have no cows, but at least you are now a Democracy.

Best holding:

SBUX , +20.53%  $17.22

Holy Shit! The GM hybrid short bus comment was tongue-in-cheek, but these bastards are really running this scheme!!!!

http://newsblog.projo.com/2009/07/stimulus-money-1.html

In my Sharebuilder IRA:

Your 7-day Portfolio Performance, as of 06/26/2009

Best holding:

% gain/loss                       Last close

LVLT ,                       +16.83%                            $1.40

Worst holding:

GT ,                            -8.12%                              $11.22

Largest holding:

GHQTX ,                       +0.88%                             $10.27

Bank Failure Friday

crazynutjob:

It looks like 4 banks were added to the FDIC Failed Bank List today:

1. Metro Pacific Bank, Irvine, CA - Total deposits of $73 million and an estimated cost to the FDIC fund of $29 million.

2. Horizon Bank, Pine City, MN - Total deposits of $69.4 million and an estimated cost to the FDIC fund of $33.5 million. However, the acquiring institution, Stearns Bank, entered into a loss sharing agreement with the FDIC on $65.1 million of Horizon’s assets. There’s a little less certainty on this loss estimate.

3. Neighborhood Community Bank, Newnan, GA - Total deposits of $191.3 million and an estimated cost to the FDIC fund of $66.7 million. Another loss share agreement on $178.5 million of Neighborhood Community Bank’s assets.

4. Community Bank of West Georgia, Villa Rica, GA - Total deposits of $182.5 million and an estimated cost to the FDIC fund of $85 million. The bank was shut down, and there are an estimated $1.1 million in deposits that exceeded the insurance limits. For the rest, the checks are in the mail (well, soon).

That makes 44 failures this year. Georgia is at 9 and California is at 5 with this week’s additions. We’re trying to catch up, Georgia, but you’re pulling ahead. For now. Remember, a Santa Barbara bank has had to suspend the dividend payments on their TARP money. We’re just warming up.

Bank Failure Friday

crazynutjob:

It has turned out to be a Friday true to form, and three banks have been added to the FDIC Failed Bank List:

1. First National Bank of Anthony, Anthony, KS — Total deposits of $142.5 million and an estimated hit to the FDIC fund of $32.2 million.

2. Cooperative Bank, Wilmington, NC — Total deposits of approximately $774 million and an estimated cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund of $217 million.

3. Southern Community Bank Fayetteville, GA — Total deposits of approximately $307 million and an estimated cost to the FDIC fund of $114 million.

All three banks had deposits acquired by other banks (this is the happiest option for depositors). Looks like a hat trick tonight.

House targets Fed in Bank of America investigation

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A House panel has subpoenaed documents that lawmakers say could shed new light on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s role in Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch.

The subpoena comes ahead of a hearing next week in which Bernanke is scheduled to testify.

Lawmakers have accused Bernanke and President Bush’s treasury secretary, Hank Paulson, of pressuring Bank of America Corp. Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis into the deal and urging him to keep quiet about Merrill’s financial problems.

Not divulging that information would have violated Lewis’ fiduciary duty to the bank’s shareholders.

Lawmakers also have questioned whether Lewis threatened not to go through with the merger in order to squeeze money from the government.

Bank of America ultimately received $45 billion from the government’s bank bailout program, $20 billion of which was tied to its acquisition of Merrill Lynch.

The subpoena is the second of its kind by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Last week, chairman Rep. Ed Towns, D-N.Y., and ranking member Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said the panel had reviewed documents that proved the merger was a “shotgun wedding” that came at the expense of the taxpayer.

“The question may be … who was holding the shotgun?” Towns asked at a June 11 hearing.

In one e-mail reviewed by committee staff, Bernanke said he thought Lewis’ threat to pull out of the deal was a “bargaining chip” and “we do not see it as a very likely scenario at all.”

In testimony before the committee, Lewis said publicly for the first time that his job was threatened after he expressed second thoughts about the merger. Lewis said then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and federal regulators made clear that if the bank reneged on its promise they would force his ouster and that of board members at the bank.

“What gave me concern is that they gave that threat to a bank in good standing,” Lewis told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. “So it showed the seriousness with which they thought that we should not” back out.

Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke also pledged government aid to Bank of America to help absorb the losses, Lewis said.

The Associated Press: House targets Fed in Bank of America investigation

Spongetech Stock Quote Ticker: SPNG Last: 0.17 High: 0.17 Low: 0.15 Volume: 55819656

U.S. Says Bonds Seized in Italy Are ‘Clearly Fakes’

June 18 (Bloomberg) — U.S. government bonds found in the false bottom of a suitcase carried by two Japanese travelers attempting to cross into Switzerland are fake, a Treasury spokesman said.

“They’re clearly fakes,” Stephen Meyerhardt, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of the Public Debt in Washington, said yesterday. “That’s beyond the fact that the face value is far beyond what’s out there.”

Italy’s financial police last week said they asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to authenticate the seized bonds, with a face value of $134 billion. Colonel Rodolfo Mecarelli of the Guardia di Finanza in Como, Italy, said the securities, seized in Chiasso, Italy, were probably forgeries.

Meyerhardt said Treasury records show an estimated $105.4 million in bearer bonds have yet to be surrendered. Most matured more than five years ago, he said. The Treasury stopped issuing bearer bonds in 1982, Meyerhardt said.

Had the notes been genuine, the pair would have been the U.S. government’s fourth-biggest creditor, ahead of the U.K. with $128 billion of U.S. debt and just behind Russia, which is owed $138 billion.

According to the Italian authorities, the seized notes included 249 securities with a face value of $500 million each and 10 additional bonds with a value of more than $1 billion, as well as securities purported to be “Kennedy” bonds. Meyerhardt said no such securities exist.

Nowadays, Treasury securities are issued electronically. The U.S. started converting all of its marketable debt from paper to electronic form in the 1980s.

U.S. Says Bonds Seized in Italy Are ‘Clearly Fakes’ (Correct) - Bloomberg.com