Which countries attract the most U.S investment? First, let’s look at the whole global portfolio. As of last year, U.S. investors held a total of $4.3 trillion in foreign securities, according to a Treasury Department report released today. Of that, $2.7 trillion is in foreign equities, $1.3 trillion in long-term debt securities and $300 billion trillion in short-term debt. In 2007, by...
Financial Services Industry Archive
August 2009
If you measured the worth of AIG by its stock price performance this year, you’d be at a real loss as to what conclusion to draw. And that seems exactly what investors are. After plunging to nearly as low as it was at the bottom of the financial crisis in late June and early July, the beleaguered insurance behemoth audaciously announced a 20 for 1 reverse stock split. Then, in the...
Update, 4:59 p.m.: Linus Wilson, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette finance professor who crunched the numbers for the NYT in its piece today about taxpayers benefiting from the bank bailout, helpfully sent me some additional data that rounds out the picture on how taxpayers are doing on their investment. The following table shows that four big banks that have yet to re-pay funds they...
By all accounts, plans to sell the assets of crippled insurance giant American International Group aren’t going well. Recent events indicate buyers are still offering less than AIG thinks its pieces are worth. AIG’s Taiwan-based Nan Shan Life unit got four bids, all of which were less than the $2 billion the insurer wanted, reports The Wall Street Journal. Each bid was less than...
In the realm of insurers, midwesterner Edward Rust Jr. could be Warren Buffett’s alter ego. No, his company is not as big as Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, which is ranked 13th on the Fortune 500, but State Farm, where Rust is longtime CEO, does occupy the 31st spot, up one from last year. State Farm is the nation’s largest home insurer and possibly the U.S.’s biggest...
Ever enter a building and notice the security guard, feet propped up on his desk, having a snooze? That’s the image you get reading this report on the collapse of Ocala National Bank by the Treasury Department’s Inspector General. Ocala National’s failure is a case study in how lax financial regulation allowed a small bank to run itself into the ground. The Office of the...
Blame it on hurricanes if you want, but State Farm can’t seem to stop riling up southern insurance commissioners. In the latest duel, Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney turned down a State Farm filing that would have raised rates for this gulf state’s three coastal counties by a whopping 45 percent. The increase seems a bit excessive when people’s incomes, at least...
American International Group CEO Robert Benmosche’s pay package is worth $10.5 million a year. And judging by the hype he is garnering for the once-crippled company, Benmosche is well-worth it. AIG shares have risen from $13, when it was first announced that the former MetLife CEO would come on board, to nearly $56 today. Even The New York Times is perplexed. “Who would want to buy...
What’s the difference between a thrift and a bank, other than that the former has a number of dangerous regulatory loopholes it can jump through whenever it pleases and a lax regulator? That was the Obama Administration’s rhetorical question to bankers and policymakers earlier this year, when it first laid down proposals to merge the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), a thrift...
For the U.S. banking industry, things are going to have get worse before they get better, according to the FDIC’s latest industry report card. Agency chairman Sheila Bair said deteriorating loans remain the heaviest drag on bank earnings, as institutions set aside more capital to prepare for worsening conditions. Also hurting are bank writedowns of asset-backed commercial paper, along...
- Zions Bancorporation: Shareholder Confidence Runs High, But The Worst Is Not Over Yet
- Will Sun Life President Boscia Pay a Call on His Former Company?
- Midsize Banks Have Worst Credit
- Is Manulife Stock 'Depressed?' Ask the Lady in the Bikini
- AIG: Help Wanted, But Will Anyone Apply?
- State Farm Is Warming Up to Florida
- Underrated: S&P, Moody's, Fitch ... and PIMCO
- Geithner's Not Going
- Barney Frank Aide Blasts Media Report Alleging Lack of Progress on Financial Reform
- Goldman Sachs, Shareholders Just Can't Get Along
- Geithner: Guilty Until Proven Innocent in AIG Debacle
- ECB President Cautions Interest Rate Hike, But Banks Are Ill-Prepared
- Inside Small Business Lending: Short Q&A With An Industry Chief Executive
- More Homeowners Face Mortgage Woes
- If Consumer Prices Are Down, Why Are Car Insurance Rates Up?
- As Income Mobility Falls, American Dream Fades
- Lawmakers Push Bill to Monitor Fed Lending Programs
- Eugene Fama Drinks His Own Brand of Kool-Aid
- Roubini Warns of New Financial Crisis
- Ex-Wells Fargo Loan Officer Details Shady Practices
- Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase are too Late in Moving to Curb Overdraft Fees
- Civil Rights Group Teams With Wells Fargo Despite Charges of Predatory Lending
- State Farm CEO Rust: Effective But Not Greedy
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- As Income Mobility Falls, American Dream Fades
- Creative Destruction and the new Money Trust
- Geithner Deal With Wall Street Over AIG Swaps Cost Taxpayers $13 Billion
- Civil Rights Group Teams With Wells Fargo Despite Charges of Predatory Lending
- Senator Dodd Is Saving Lenders From Themselves
- Citigroup Hit With Huge Credit Loss
- FDIC Chief Sheila Bair to Treasury Brat Geithner: Nyah!
- Private Equity Firms About To Gear Up The Small Banking Sector
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The financial industry meltdown has been the worst since the great depression. BNET Financial provides daily industry trends and news coverage with insights for managers and executives about the major financial services companies in the banking and finance sector. In addition to detailed company profiles, we bring you industry analysis on new mergers, partnerships, financial products, rates, investments, capital, and a host of other critical factors of success in the finance business.