Banking News

Angelo Mozilo will never again serve as an officer or director of a public company in the USA afterhe settled an action by the USA's SEC: he will pay a record penalty, surrender "ill-gotten gains" and agree to a banning order. Mozilo was CEO of failed Countrywide Financial.

Union First Market Bankshares Corporation, the holding company for Union First Market Bank, yesterday announced it has completed the integration of Rappahannock National Bank and Northern Neck State Bank into Union First Market Bank. But the integration has not been quick.

It's becoming tiresome, this tit-for-tat attacks by the UK and the USA on each other's banks. The UK is coming off worse because it only has a few financial institutions operating in the USA whereas the UK authorities have dozens of US institutions to pick on. So the effect is concentrated in the US while being spread in the UK. And the USA is always looking for a chance to slap foreign banks that it considers are capable of challenging its own. So HSBC's on the hit list again.

Red faces all around at the Reserve Bank of Australia this morning as it currency printing division is raided by police. The RBA has been debating interest rates - but this is one rate of interest it wishes it didn't have to deal with.

The concept is being pushed through FinCEN under the guise of combating money laundering and terrorist financing but the reality is that Obama's Treasury, determined to trace funds held offshore by Americans and US residents, is tracking money for tax purposes. But it's also an attack on Money Services Businesses - and an extension of the CTR regime in preference to SARs.

In 2008, bank manager Jerri Sell was named Woman of the Year by the town of Tulane in California. That was before suspicions arose that she was embezzling large sums from customers' accounts.

Perhaps the UN's announcement achieved extra poignancy arriving, as it did, minutes after the announcement that two UK men have been charged with running an illegal sperm-donor website. But when the UN headlines its press releases with "premature withdrawal," it guarantees a look. And when it goes on to warn of double-dipping, it's bound to get attention. And, for entirely different reasons, rightly so.

The USA's federal banking agencies have voiced their support for Basel III - but Basel III is built in such a way as it enshrines the USA's opt outs under Basel II - which ultimately paved the way for the global financial crisis - and it does nothing to prevent another domestic meltdown, says Nigel Morris-Cotterill.

Increasing financial and regulatory pressures continue to dog the USA's small banking sector and consolidation is picking up speed amongst the smallest banks. First Financial Bankshares, Inc is to buy Sam Houston Financial Corporation, the parent company of The First State Bank in Huntsville, Texas. The price? Just USD22.2 million in cash and shares.

Troubled Anglo-Irish Bank has announced that it is to split itself into two in the hope of surviving its massive financial problems. The bank recently posted losses of more than €8,000 million for the first half of 2010.