Bank channel

The financial services industry may want to take a cue from Domino’s Pizza before declaring “mission accomplished” on the economic crisis.

The regulator fined units of the two banking companies $1.5 million and $275,000 respectively for auction rate securities violations.

The first quarter was the weakest quarter for the San Francisco banking company since it bought Wachovia at the end of 2008.

Lawmakers split Tuesday on whether the regulatory reform bill should include a "financial crisis responsibility fee" charged on the largest institutions.

As the country’s two largest custody banks wait for interest rates to improve, both continue to jockey for position as the industry consolidates.

As earnings surged at larger competitors, the Chicago-based bank reported that profits declined 3% to $157.2 million as revenue remained flat.

According to Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch Affluent Insights Quarterly survey, affluent investors have become slightly less concerned about the economy’s impact on their ability to meet financial goals, but issues related to retirement and healthcare rank highest among financial concerns.

As lawmakers continue to spar over regulatory reform legislation, a separate push to charge the largest banks a "financial crisis responsibility fee" is gaining momentum.

Citigroup's corner-turning first-quarter performance reflected more than just a boffo bond trading business and a well-timed economic recovery in overseas markets.

As it continues to shed business units and streamline operations, Citigroup Inc. reported Tuesday that earnings more than doubled from a year earlier.

Fraud probe won't harm accounts, CEO says.

TD Bank of Wilmington, Del., purchased three separate failed banks in Florida late Friday, totaling $3.9 billion in assets, on a night that saw a total of eight bank collapses.

More than 18 months after the largest bank failure in U.S. history, regulators of the collapsed Washington Mutual Inc. faced a day of reckoning Friday, with a key lawmaker accusing them of gross incompetence.

The Charlotte-based banking company's strong quarter from the investment and wealth units more than offset the performance at the rest of the bank, which collectively lost $36 million in the first quarter.

The banking company has decided to shutter nine wealth management branches that were hit particularly hard by the lack of foot traffic.

Pay-to-play scandal now behind Quadrangle, although former head Rattner is still in AG's sights

The Office of Thrift Supervision was more focused on blocking the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. from reining in Washington Mutual Inc. than it was in regulating the thrift company itself, congressional investigators and two watchdogs said Thursday.

Assets under supervision ($1.7 trillion) and assets under management ($1.2 trillion) increased 17% and 9%, respectively. The company attributed these gains to “the effect of higher market levels and inflows in fixed income and equity products offset largely by outflows in liquidity products.”

The three business units — a fund of hedge funds, hedge fund seeding and hedge fund advisory businesses — are from Citi Alternative Investment LLC and collectively have $4.2 billion of assets under management.

Four years after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. launched an elaborate deposit insurance pricing system, the agency has gone back to the drawing board.