Time Magazine recently covered an article about how the BB&T Corporation takeover of Colonial BancGroup is the third best business deal in all of 2009, in their opinion. The story, explaining how this little unknown bank has grown from about $5 billion in overall assets to approximately $163.5 billion in twenty years, was covered here [...]
Wondering how to maintain your finances without having to spend hours tracking dollars or if you paid your bills on time? With help from this Dollar Stretcher story, we’ve taken the headache and time suck out of banking. Organize your accounts. With financial gurus advising consumers take on a host of accounts, from everyday checking [...]
It is quite possible to place our investments into funds that match our values, or what is better known as Socially Responsible Investing or SRI. According to the Social Investment Forum, SRI integrates environmental, social and governance factors into investment decisions and recognizes that corporate responsibility and societal concerns are valid parts of investment decisions. [...]
The new Financial Fraud Task Force, composed of senior-level officials from 25 government agencies, is aimed to combat mortgage, securities and corporate fraud. The FBI is currently investigating more than 189 cases of corporate fraud and 18 of which had losses greater than $1 billion. The US Securities and Exchange Commission state in this press [...]
Bank of America might have recently made a plan to payback TARP money to the government, appearing to be a classic “Rob Peter to Pay Paul” move. The corporation recently reported a $2.24 billion bank loan loss due to consumers struggling to pay bills as covered in this Huffington Post article. This figure adds into [...]
The average investor lost nearly 25 percent of investments during the economic collapse that began its nosedive in late 2008. Workers who held 401(k)s suffered a 24.3 percent average drop in their account balance during this bear market. The Employee Benefit Research Institute studied a five-year period of 401(k) investors, finding that before the plunge [...]
Bailout companies or bank executives have been ordered cut top salaries in half and even as high as 90 percent, ordered by the Obama Administration under the direction of “Pay Czar” Kenneth Feinberg, the Treasury official in charge of setting compensation for bailed-out companies. Targeted companies or positions include senior employees at Citigroup, Bank of [...]
A new study by NCLC is finding that mortgage servers – and their banks – are finding it cheaper to foreclose than offer a loan modification. NCLC, or the National Consumer Law Center, shows that despite several programs designed to encourage loan modifications, Americans are still facing a record number or home foreclosures. The report [...]
The market took a steep jump today as confidence data showed the strongest consumer confidence jump for one month than we’ve seen in six years. The index for consumer confidence surged in May registering the largest monthly jump since April 2003, according to the Conference Board, an industry group. The news out weighted investers concerns [...]