Bank channel

It had to spend money to make money, but U.S. Bancorp earned enough in the second quarter to put more distance between itself and rivals that are struggling in their core businesses.

Morgan Stanley surpassed analysts’ expectations when it reported its second quarter results on Wednesday, but its chief executive officer warned it expects a rough road ahead.

The Chicago-based company reported a profit of $199.6 million, or 82 cents a share, down 36% from a year earlier. Revenue declined 7% to $973.8 million. The results beat analysts' estimates by eight cents, according to Thomson Reuters.

The company saw assets under management increase 19% from a year earlier to $1.047 trillion, but fell 5.2% from the previous quarter because of stock market declines. Fee revenue rose 1.8% to $2.56 billion.

Comerica Bank has asked Dennis Johnson, a 30-year industry veteran, to assist in developing investment strategies for its asset management division.

The price of the deal, which is expected to close later this year, was not disclosed. When the deal is completed, LaCrosse would have more than $21 billion in assets under administration and more than 250 employees.

Average fee and commission production drops 22% from April, which benefited from fee accounts’ quarterly payment schedule.

It has only been a few months since CEO Vikram Pandit started referring to the company as "America's global bank," and already the numbers are cooperating with the image.

Bank of America raised almost all the same questions as its fellow megabanks did last week and got no closer to resolving them.

If you have clients who still have a healthy dose of outrage at the big banks, now there is a fund just for them.

UBS Wealth Management Americas announced in an internal memo it was launching a new Wealth Planning and Investment Strategies group to be led by Tony Roth.

June hires turn positive thanks to aggressive recruiting in all positions by the industry’s largest firms.

The disappointing results, which beat analyst estimates, came a quarter after the New York-based banking company reported its strongest period in nearly three years, following the financial crisis which staggered, but didn't shutter, the company.

Due to poor market conditions, assets under management fell 14.5% from a year earlier and 19.6% from the previous quarter to $603.3 billion.

Although the Senate finally voted Thursday to send regulatory reform to the president's desk, policy circles are already abuzz about what changes to seek in a "corrections" bill to fix problems with the legislation.

Assets under management declined 5% to $1.16 trillion as customers withdrew $29 billion from cash-like funds during the quarter and $126 billion over the past year.

According to an Ernst & Young 2010 survey, which was recently released, 72% of global banking executives reported that regulatory uncertainty was the biggest challenge around risk management faced by their organizations and 80% say costs to manage new regulations are going to rise.

This transaction is part of Citi’s strategy to reduce its assets and businesses within Citi Holdings, its portfolio of non-core operating businesses and assets. Citi said that it plans to continue to divest non-core assets.

Two big names in industry circles — Eric Hovde and Jay Sidhu — just planted seeds they hope will sprout into the East Coast's next billion-dollar banking companies.

Bankers may never be considered Boy Scouts on compensation, but in terms of the executive pay provisions in the financial reform bill, they certainly are prepared.