Bank channel

Sen. Richard Shelby raised concerns with bankers on Thursday that "too big to fail" would survive if a proposed $50 billion fund to help unwind failing financial institutions remains in the Senate's latest regulatory reform bill.

A Dutch pension fund is the latest in a string of lawsuits against the banking company.

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke offered a vigorous defense of his agency's oversight of holding companies and state banks, rejecting a Senate bill that would strip them of supervisory powers over all but the biggest institutions.

Preemption process would be complex, more burdensome

The latest regulatory reform proposal from Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd would have far-reaching implications for day-to-day operations at most banks and thrifts, changing which regulators oversee them and potentially broadening the number considered systemically important.

As the recession deepened, market watchers began obsessing about banks' capital ratios to figure out who might fail next. With a recovery on the horizon, they've latched on to another somewhat obscure financial metric: pretax, pre-provision earnings.

The Internal Revenue Service is collecting information on approximately 20 Swiss banks, according a letter from UBS, one of the main banks it has been investigating.

The government closed state-chartered banks in New York, Florida and Louisiana late Friday to bring the year's failure tally to 30.

This time, Bank of Florida Corp. is trying to raise enough capital just to stay alive.

Grubb said: "I'm moving on and they're moving on."

Union Bank’s licensed retail banker staff should double this year, to about 200, and increase to 325 within three years.

On a day when many at the Citi financial confab told of their quest to deploy mounting capital in the United States, their host had a simple message: See you later.

Canadian banking companies are emerging from the global economic crisis stronger than many U.S. counterparts. While the U.S. operations of many of those companies continue to struggle, Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Montreal and Toronto-Dominion Bank are seen as likely buyers of that banks fail here.

But credit quality is stabilizing, boosting capital and profits

After years out of the spotlight due to the financial crisis, anti-money-laundering issues returned to Capitol Hill on Wednesday as lawmakers raised renewed concerns about the supervision of money-services businesses.

A total of four sessions at the conference were focused on regulations and fiduciary responsibility and speculation swirled about who would be affected and how.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd said Tuesday that he continues to hope for a strong bipartisan regulatory reform bill, but he offered no fresh details on developments in negotiations.

Tarp warrants could spawn a new source of funds for banks

Bank regulators issued 1,143 formal enforcement actions against banks and their holding companies last year, a new record and more than double the 2008 tally.

Guaranteed living benefits may now be synonymous with variable annuities, but unless insurers rein in costs and restore benefits, sales may continue to slide.