Financial Services Industry Archive

The curtain has all but fallen on the stage of CIT Group, but the lender is fighting for another Act. According to CNBC, the firm is seeking to line up around $3 billion in secured financing from private investors over the next 24 hours in order to stave off bankruptcy, after being turned down for a bailout by the government. Apparently, there’s some interest around: CIT says that...

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Summer hurricanes haven’t rolled in off the Caribbean yet, but the news from some southern states isn’t good for property insurers, especially Progressive Corp. and GEICO, which specialize in auto coverage. Florida continues to duke it out with State Farm, the nation’s largest property insurer, over whether and when it will leave the state. Texas is another hard to (pan)handle...

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Life has changed for a lot of people this year. While the government gamely predicts that the recession is over, the other corner of its mouth is saying unemployment will top 10 percent. But here’s some good news: insurance CEOs are still making money. A study by compensation research firm Equilar shows that, among the largest financial firms, five executives ranked in the top 10 in 2008....

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Puzzling story today in American Banker, which writes that the U.S. banking industry “refuses to engage” with lawmakers on Capitol Hill writing legislation to establish a so-called Consumer Financial Protection Agency (registration required). Yet the same piece offers this quote from Scott Talbott, the chief lobbyist for the Financial Services Roundtable, about the trade...

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Does CIT Group illustrate the perils of being too small to save? The chatter over the weekend was that the federal government is refusing to lend the company money under its Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program. That prompted CIT to hire law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, according to the WSJ, stirring speculation that the company may be headed for bankruptcy. CIT on Sunday...

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Michael Lewis’s dissection of the collapse of AIG in the latest issue of Vanity Fair contains no bombshells, but it does bring into relief the confluence of factors that laid the insurer low. It also makes a key, and often overlooked, point: AIG wasn’t the problem. As usual in the financial world, the blame diffuses into a rather more complex set of circumstances. The main culprit...

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It’s always dangerous to speculate on office politics, particularly at the boardroom level, but it appears from today’s announcement by MetLife  that William Mullaney is within striking distance of becoming CEO at the country’s largest life insurer. But nothing is imminent. Current top dog C. Robert “Rob” Henrikson is doing a good job of steering the ship through...

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This week is shaping up to be one of the most significant this year for the long-term outlook of the banking industry — and the news is way more positive than anyone could have hoped. Previously, the biggest fear was that another round of deleveraging, possibly initiated by the lack of funding available to the beleaguered regional banking sector, would strike at the heart of financial...

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One would think that after having been tied to the whipping post and flagellated by everyone from Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that American International Group is a reformed company. But its detractors, and there are many, see it differently. Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-PA) wonders if AIG should give out those big “retention bonuses,” particularly...

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Here’s a thought you don’t often hear expressed: Goldman Sachs is saving your 401K. In a financial landscape that’s threatened by regional bank bankruptcies, sluggish growth by TARP-laden institutions, and a whole load of pessimism, Goldman Sachs is lifting investors’ spirits — and as a result, their stock portfolios. In fact, right now the firm is a pretty far...

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