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AmEx Dropping Some Customers
Posted on February 23rd, 2009 No commentsAmerican Express is offering select members a $300 gift card to drop its card, according to a notice on its web site. Read more in the Business Journal of Milwaukee.
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Takeover of Banks Inevitable?
Posted on February 22nd, 2009 No commentsThere is precedent for the U.S. government temporarily nationalizing key industries in times of national emergency. Two such interventions, the Reconstruction Finance Corp. in the 1930s and Continental Illinois Bank and Trust in 1984, involved the financial sector. But bank nationalizations abroad have been mostly unsuccessful, and as the months go by without apparent progress in solving the financial crisis, the specter of Japan’s lost decade of the 1990s grows more ominous, writes columnist Tom Saler in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
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Fiserv Rebranding Unveiled
Posted on February 22nd, 2009 No commentsBrookfield-based Fiserv Inc. has introduced a new orange logo and a renaming of some of its business units as part of a corporate rebranding initiative for the $4.7 billion company, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
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TARP Often Misunderstood
Posted on February 21st, 2009 No commentsThe Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, “has become one of the most misunderstood and controversial parts of the federal government’s effort to revive the economy,” according to a story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
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AnchorBank Faces Debt Deadline
Posted on February 21st, 2009 No commentsThe parent company of AnchorBank, which received $110 million in federal Troubled Asset Relief Program funds about three weeks ago, has a debt problem that threatens the bank’s survival if it can’t be resolved. The company owes U.S. Bank $116 million, almost half of which is due March 2. The debt is secured by Anchor stock. Read the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article.
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Swiss Bank Accountholders Sought
Posted on February 20th, 2009 No commentsA government lawsuit filed Feb. 19 seeks the identities of tens of thousands of possible U.S. tax cheats who hid billions of dollars in assets at the Swiss-based bank UBS AG, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported in a Business brief. A defiant Swiss president pledged to maintain his country’s bank secrecy laws. In the suit filed in Miami, the Obama administration wants UBS to turn over information on as many as 52,000 U.S. customers who concealed accounts from the U.S. government in violation of tax laws. A deal announced Feb. 18 provides access to about 250 to 300 UBS customers who used Swiss bank secrecy laws to hide assets.
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Mid-Wisconsin Gets TARP Funds
Posted on February 20th, 2009 No commentsThe Medford-based parent company of Mid-Wisconsin Bank has become the eighth Wisconsin-based bank to receive funding through TARP’s Capital Purchase Program. The bank said it received a $10 million investment from the U.S. Treasury, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
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Help for Countrywide Borrowers
Posted on February 20th, 2009 No commentsMore than 2,900 people in Wisconsin at risk of losing their homes could have an easier time getting lower mortgage rates under an agreement announced Feb. 19 by Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen. Bank of America has agreed to lower interest rates on troubled subprime and adjustable-rate mortgages from Countrywide Financial, which B of A acquired last year. Read more in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
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Bank Apologies for Escrow Delay
Posted on February 20th, 2009 No commentsHarris Bank is working with customers to resolve issues related to late property tax payments made on behalf of Milwaukee-area customers, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
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SBA Scam Detailed
Posted on February 20th, 2009 No commentsCon artists have been sending fraudulent letters on what looks like stationery of the U.S. Small Business Administration, asking business owners for bank account information so they supposedly can qualify for a tax rebate under the economic stimulus act, the SBA warned on Feb. 19. The letters are false and businesses should not respond to them, the agency said in a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel news brief. Anyone who receives such a letter should report it to the SBA fraud line, (800) 767-0385 or e-mail OIGHotline@sba.gov.