Financial Roundup: CEOs To Get Grilled, Geithner To Plug Holes, Regionals Not Consolidating

Grilling the chiefs – Eight of the biggest CEO names in banking, including Goldman Sach’s Lloyd C. Blankfein, Citigroup’s Vikram S. Pandit and Bank of America’s Kenneth D. Lewis, will testify before the House Financial Services Committee today. Likely questions include how they spent $160 billion in bailout money, a looming credit card crisis and hedge fund dealing. [Source: The New York Times]

Filling the holes in Geithner’s plan — After getting the razz for his $1.5 trillion bailout plan,Treasury Secretary Timothy Gethner is working on the lack of details. Big questions include how a proposed public-private investment fund to buy up toxic loans will work and how the government will inject more public money into banks. [Source: The Street.com]

SEC’s Casey wants credit rating “oligopoly” ended – SEC Commissioner Kathleen Casey wants her agency to change rules to break up the “oligopoly” of 10 credit rating agencies. The current rules dating back to the 1970s limit competition, she says. [Source: CFO.com]

Regional banks in no rush to consolidate — Big regional banks such as U.S. Bancorp, KeyCorp and BB&T Corp. are taking a “go-slow” approach in buying up other banks. Instead, they are focusing on technology upgrades and dealing with deteriorating loans on their balance sheets. [Source: American Banker]

State Farm customers rush to other insurers in Florida – Some 1.2 million customers of State Farm insurance are quickly seeking other insurers, most likely small ones. State Farm is withdrawing from Florida because of a rate hike dispute with state regulators. [Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel]

Credit Suisse posts record loss — Credit Suisse Group posted its biggest-ever loss of $7.1 billion for 2008. The bank, however, has slimmed down its toxic assets. [Source: Reuters]

Survey shows gloom moderating — A new McKinsey Company global survey undertaken in January shows that executives see economic conditions as being bad but unlike earlier surveys does not see them getting much worse. [Source: McKinsey Quarterly]