Category: Banking

During the 2008 recession, Warren Buffet, the legendary investor, was noted as one of the bank shareholders that made good money during and in the aftermath of the crisis. During the period of fear after Lehman Brothers collapsed in Sept, Buffet injected money into two of the biggest American names GE and Goldman Sachs. These investments were a vote of faith in those tough times. These two investments came out to be extremely profitable for Buffet, and furthering his legend as one of the smartest investors ever. Amid signs of the financial crisis reawakening, the Sage of Omaha has once again extended his capital to an institution that the public believes is beleaguered. This is none other than Bank of America, the bank holding the most assets, and one whose fate is most intertwined with billions of American consumers. The bank was facing investor doubts whether it is able to raise sufficient  [...]

Offshore banking plays an important role in global financial transactions. What is offshore banking actually is? It is the act of depositing funds outside one’s own country (country where one lives). In most cases the offshore banking organizations are located in low tax regions, which offer a number of financial benefits legally over domestic or onshore banks. Today, offshore banking is a common phenomenon of financial world. A large number of financial institutions offer the advantage of offshore banking to their depositors. However, the 2 most popular centers for offshore banking are Cayman Islands and Switzerland. Another characteristic of offshore banks is that they offer more privacy compared to the onshore banks. This is because the offshore banks work based on the bank secrecy acts related to protection of personal information of clients. The offshore banks will only release  [...]

Gizmos and gadgets are filling up the Gen Y and anywhere you swing your head you are sure to find an iPhone or a smart phone or at least an advanced mobile phone. There have been lots of researches going on to predict the expanse of smart phones in the future. As per the studies and forecasting, it expected that more than half of the American population are going to own smart phones. Even the tech-shy and techno phobic people are going to won at least a standard cell phone. These devices are penetrating into each life not just for the purpose of sending text message or calling, but rather for the ease it offers in dealing with financial institutions- mobile banking. So far there have been a horde of facilities that mobile banking has offered to the customers. Banks see mobile banking as a mean to keep up with the technological boom and consumers find it as a mean to save time.  [...]

Banking facilities has taken a steep turn following the technical integration in financial transactions. Phone and mobile banking, internet banking, ATM are so me of the features that has vanished the need to stand in a queue. Supposedly, bank transactions are now substantially convenient that what it was 50 years back. ATM introduction is a profound innovation as it makes our daily transactions hassle free. Simultaneously, the use of ATM needs a big leap of faith with the advent of ATM skimmers. ATM skimmers are a dangerous imitation of ATM device that treacherously steals the information contained in a card. A customer needs to have eagle eye to differentiate between normal ATM and an ATM skimmer. Once a user slides his card in the skimming device account information stored in the magnetic strip of an ATM card is immediately recorded. Depending on the degree of sophistication on the  [...]

Credit card debt can be a major burden for anyone, and an easy way to get rid of it is to avail of one of the 0% balance transfers that could come your way from a “friendly” financial institution. On the face of it, it is understandable that you have your doubts about taking up this offer, but it really is the best way to get rid of credit card debt. It is the best tool you can use to polish off any credit card debt that is weighing you down and save vital money in the process. Who cares that these 0% balance transfers are marketing offers from credit card companies? If you can use it to clear up your debt there should be no complaints made. The benefits for credit card companies offering these credit cards are that they will be able to get more customers into their fold this way. And hopefully, some of them will default on those payments, earning the credit card companies a nice amount  [...]

It has now been two years since the financial crisis was fully upon us, and never has a body blow so heavy been dealt to the global economy since the great depression of the '30s. In collaboration with policy and decision makers based at home and overseas, the Federal Reserve has attempted to stabilize the American economy with wide-ranging and forward looking measures, but it seems to run into a brick wall every time it looks to make headway on this front. In fact, so committed was the Federal Reserve that it relaxed its monetary policies not once, but twice in an effort to ease things over, never mind the fact that it also cut short-term interest rates to very nearly zero. The Federal Reserve also picked up more than a trillion dollars worth of securities from the Treasury as also mortgage securities. These steps, among others were initiated so that the slide down a slippery slope could  [...]

Quantitative easing, for those that are not in the know (if you're one of them, which rock have you been stuck under?), is a program of massive asset purchases by the Federal Reserve. While needed to stimulate a flagging economy and while it is a popular decision, many analysts and economists are expecting it to increase the long-term risks of uncontrolled inflation and devalue the US dollar significantly. But say what you will, it is a necessary evil and there was no way the Federal Reserve was not going to do it. It is merely a question balancing out the long-term and short-term risks. Amongst the latter you can count deflation and a double-dip recession, and that was a far less palatable option to the risks posed by the long-term use of this policy. Since quantitative easing might ease short-term risks, it was always going to be implemented. But even in the short term, there are risks  [...]

It's the kind of big buyout you read about in the papers all the time or watch on the idiot box as it all unfolds. Terra Firma, a Europe-based private-equity enterprise, was mulling over whether they should pick up music company EMI and within the corridors of Terra Firma the deal was referred to simply by its operational code name: Project Dice. Eventually, Terra Firma did roll the dice but they must be wishing they could roll back time instead and take away that one throw of the dice. In May 2007, which was the time that Terra Firma did pick up EMI for a figure amounting to £4 billion ($6.3 billion), the deal seemed like a sensible one with benefits involved for all parties. Today, that deal looks like an absolute rip-off, with EMI worth a mere £1.8 billion. With stars such as Lily Allen and Robin Williams on the roster, EMI isn't exactly a big dog as music companies go and it makes  [...]

It’s the perfect storm, a trifecta that knocks out bettors everywhere. Even in the midst of an economic recovery of sorts, indicators of slower than expected recovery continue to loom large. Manufacturing is still slow to pick up, the jobless aren’t pounding the streets a whole lot less than they were during the worst of the recession and consequently investor confidence too is sagging. This is shown in the way stock value has dipped lower than might have been anticipated by doyens of the industry. The Dow Jones has tumbled 144 points (a loss of 1.4% across the board), and the S&P 500 slid by 19 points, still a loss of 1.7% on previous day’s trading. Nasdaq too wasn’t much different, taking a beating of 37 points, again a mystifying 1.7% lower than the previous day’s close. It seemed as if stocks were recovering after two straight days of posting gains and this came on  [...]