Results of a new Federal Reserve survey says senior bank lenders are reporting an easing of tightened credit on loans to businesses for the second consecutive month.
The survey also says banks have tightened lending for residential mortgages.
To see the survey, click here.
Washington insiders, according to this article, believe that a bill cracking down on the excesses of credit card companies will be signed into law next month.
The proposed legislation does seem to clean up some of the unilateral aspects of today’s credit card contracts.
What no reporting whatsoever covers, however, is what becomes of the current three-month salvo of rate- and payment-hiking many issuers have been on since the Federal Reserve announced plans to re-regulate the industry beginning in 2010.
Obama’s bill will turn out to be lip service if it doesn’t address the doubled rates and payments binge of 2009.
Emprise Bank president Tom Page is a beacon of humor and information in his industry.
And Page, who’s not shy about dropping a little wit into his remarks, struck again Thursday afternoon.
A questioner at a Martin Pringle forum asked Page about the impact that huge first-quarter profits by national banks would have on community banks in Wichita.
“Profit is an opinion,” Page opined. “Cash is fact.”
Seven words that speak very loudly, I think.
It appears today that the Obama administration is barreling down the tracks toward a Thursday train wreck with credit card companies.
A White House meeting is on the books with representatives of Bank of America, HSBC, Capital One and others who, flush with taxpayer cash from the TARP program, are further bolstering their balance sheets by unilaterally jacking interest rates into the stratosphere. The reason? The “risk of doing business,” they say.
While I remain skeptical that Obama and Congress can withstand the onslaught from the phalanx of credit card lobbyists, it’s at least interesting to note that they’ve been called on the carpet like their other financial brethren.
I wonder if Obama will limit them to one glass of water and no munchies, as he did some of the bankers when he warned them, “We’re the only thing between you and the pitchforks.”
While I don’t question the banks’ risk of doing business, it appears to me that the real risk lies with consumers who made the unfortunate decision to do credit card business with some of these institutions.
An additional note: Once you complete the McClatchy piece, go down to the bottom and read the credit card practices study by Pew Charitable Trusts. It directly contradicts industry claims that they can’t remain profitable without unilateral account control.
Kudos to Landmark National Bank, a Topeka-based bank that was awarded an outstanding rating on its Community Reinvestment Act evaluation by the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulates nationally chartered banks.
Kudos because achieving an outstanding rating is not an easy thing to do and the comptroller gives out that rating sparingly. At least not as often as it does a satisfactory rating.
The comptroller said Landmark’s record of lending to businesses of different sizes and to borrowers of different income levels is excellent.
Banks that are looking for additional money from the federal government may have to sacrifice their chiefs in order to get it.
That was the message Sunday from Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.
“If, in the future, banks need exceptional assistance in order to get through this, then we’ll make sure that assistance comes with conditions, not just to protect the taxpayer but to make sure this is the kind of restructuring necessary for them to emerge stronger,” he said on “Face the Nation” on CBS. “And where that requires a change of management of the board, we’ll do that.”
The Charlotte Observer has a story this morning about how April is a key month for Bank of America chief executive Ken Lewis.
Not only does this month mark Lewis’ eight year at the helm of the country’s biggest bank — and the Wichita area’s second biggest by market share — but also whether or not the proof will be there to back up his claims that 2009 will be a profitable year for the bank.
Lewis also is facing pressure by some shareholders to resign his post.
Seems that a few banks think that the capital infusions they got a few months ago from the Treasury Department’s Troubled Assets Relief Program are now something they want to get rid of quickly.
That’s according to a story in today’s Charlotte Observer, a sister paper to the Wichita Eagle.
You might want to take this with a grain of salt, but a financial services industry trade group says banks are lending money.
In fact, the Financial Services Roundtable says that its “in-depth analysis” of the Treasury Department’s banking lending survey shows that lending increased 14 percent in January.
” … TARP capital continues to fuel lending activity,” says Steve Bartlett, the roundtable’s chief executive, in a news release.
Federal bank regulators on Friday seized three banks, including Paola, Kan.-based TeamBank.
That was in addition to regulators from the National Credit Union Administration placing two corporate credit unions, including Lenexa-based U.S. Central Federal Credit Union, into conservatorship.
Conservatorship is a nice word for a takeover.
Friday’s action on the three banks brings the total number of bank failures this year to 20.
Friday came and went without one bank closing in the country.
Nada. Zero. Zip.
Does this suggest a trend?
Probably not. After all, there have been 17 bank and thrift closings since the beginning of 2009. And the economy has not improved.
Still, change in this instance is kind of refreshing.
Very quietly, a federal program to jump-start consumer lending kicked off today.
Experts think the program could ease skin-tight consumer and business credit, which would translate into needed business for everyone from car dealers to property owners.
It will be interesting to see if this move works – and what kind of partisan criticism it draws.