Bank Of China Declares Moratorium On Transfers, Online Banking

A Bank of China HK$20 note 

From Caijing, google translated. We hope the gist of the narrative in Mandarin is far less scary, because if the translation is even remotely accurate, then all hell may be about to break loose in China.

From Caijing: Bank of China, Bank of suspension of transfers morning counters were unable to apply for online banking

Update: Customer service said, now silver futures transfer service has been fully suspended, online banking, the counter can not be handled, and now has the background system response, recovery time is not yet known

Following the ICBC, the Bank of China also go awry again. This morning, the Bank of China Bank moratorium on transfers, online banking, counters are inoperable.

10:00 many, many people began to receive messages sent to the Bank of China, "the end result of the Bank of China Bank failures, bank customers can not carry on through the Bank transfers, please Bank online banking, bank counter or use of other bank transfer system, Bank system will be restored promptly notify you." large number of transfer business banking needs of the people turned to online banking, counter, but according to the instructions of the public still found text messages can not handle.

Reporters call the BOC, customer service said, now silver has been fully suspended phase transfer services, online banking, the counter can not be handled, and now has the background system response, recovery time is not yet known.

As of 12:00, the Bank customer service said handle part of the user's online banking has been restored. Read more >>

European Union has confiscated 10% of private Cyprus Bank Accounts

While this kind of 'wealth tax' has been predicted, as we noted yesterday, this stunning move in Cyprus is likely only the beginning of this process (which seems only stoppable by social unrest now). To get a sense of both what just happened and what its implications are, RBS has put toegther an excellent summary of everything you need to know about what the Europeans did, why they did it, what the short- and medium-term market reaction is likely to be, and the big picture of this "toxic policy error."

As RBS summarizes, "the deal to effectively haircut Cypriot deposits is an unprecedented move in the Euro crisis and highlights the limits of solidarity and the raw economics that somebody has to pay. It is also the most dangerous gambit that EMU leaders have made to date." And so we await Europe's open and what to expect as the rest of the PIIGSy Banks get plundered. Read more >>

S&P downgrades world's oldest bank to junk

Standard & Poor's on Wednesday cut its credit rating for troubled Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena -- the world's oldest surviving lender -- to speculative-grade status of BB+ from BBB-.

The ratings agency said it was also placing the bank on negative outlook.

"Deteriorating trends in Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena's financial position make it unlikely that the bank would restore profitability and improve its capital and funding position in line with our previous expectations.

"The difficult economic and operating environment we anticipate in the Italian market will compound the challenges for MPS to implement successfully its business plan," the agency said in a statement.

The ratings agency said the bank's profitability could continue to be under pressure through 2013 despite its efforts to reduce costs. Read more >>

Banking job cuts near 160,000

Banks worldwide are shedding jobs as stricter regulations and euro zone worries take their toll on trading income and investment banking units. Many began outlining layoffs plans 18 months ago and are now cutting more deeply as they reassess their entire business to cope with tougher capital rules, while some are cutting because of acquisitions or mergers they are involved in.

Switzerland's UBS in October added 10,000 job cuts to the 3,500 it had earmarked last year, after deciding to exit most of the rates and debt trading. Staff cuts announced since mid-2011 or reported to be in the works at major banks have now reached 158,000.

Below are aggregates of various redundancy rounds. They are likely to be conservative figures, as not all banks have announced lay-offs publicly, and the number does not take into account smaller investment banks, boutiques and brokers. Read more >>

$31.5 billion in overdraft fees by banks in the past year

The financial crisis was supposed to spur a new era of frugality and fiscal responsibility. It doesn't exactly appear to be working out that way. Americans are once again increasingly overspending what they have in their checking accounts. In all, consumers were hit with $31.5 billion in so-called overdraft fees by banks in the past year, according to a new study from bank research firm Moebs Services. That compares to $30.8 billion in the same period a year before.

That was below the peek of $36.8 billion in the same period in 2008. But this year is still the first time overdraft fees have risen since the financial crisis. From mid-2008 to mid-2011, the number of times consumers were hit by overdraft fees had fallen by roughly a third. Now in the past nine months, the levying of overdraft penalties appears to be on the rise again, up 10% in the past nine months.

The question is whether this a a result of shady bank practices or poor money management. On the margin, it appears that overdraft fees have gotten a little more fair. Banks have shelled out hundreds of millions to settle claims that they re-ordered consumer purchases in order to trigger overdraft penalties as often as possible. And the Card Act made it illegal for banks to automatically enroll customers in overdraft protection, limiting the number of people who get hit with fees they didn't even know about. Read more >>

More Bank Layoffs Coming: 'Bad as I've Seen It': Whitney

Banks have been behind the curve in terms of downsizing, with their employees paying for it now through a rash of furloughs, analyst Meredith Whitney told CNBC.

The industry has seen a recent spate of big layoff announcements, including 16,000 from Bank of America alone. Though banks already have jettisoned about half a million workers since the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008, Whitney said more are to come as the shrinking big institutions struggle to compete.

"The banks have been overstaffed for a really long time. If you think about all of the other industries that have gotten more competitive, more profitable, the banking sector and the insurance sector have been laggards behind it, and they employ a lot of people," Whitney said on "Closing Bell."

New banking regulations, particularly the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill, have seen the banks shrinking in order to avoid the too-big-to-fail syndrome that caused the industry to push the country into recession. Read more >>

ATM fees hit record high, free checking declines

Banks are hiking ATM fees to record levels and cutting back on free checking accounts, according to an industry report issued Monday. The financial research firm Bankrate,com said ATM surcharges -- the fee charged when you use a machine that's isn't your bank's -- rose for the eighth straight year, up 4%, to a record high of $2.50.

In addition, the fee your bank charges to use another bank's ATM rose 11% to $1.57. So for many customers, using an ATM from a competing bank costs $4.07, an increase of 7% and a record.

Banks traditionally provide ATMs for free to their own customers, and cover their costs by charging consumers who use out of network machines, according to Greg McBride, senior financial analyst for Bankrate.com. But people are getting smarter about using only in-network ATMs, which means that the companies are trying to make up for that lost revenue. Read more >>

More Americans opting out of banking system

In the aftermath of one of the worst recessions in history, more Americans have limited or no interaction with banks, instead relying on check cashers and payday lenders to manage their finances, according to a new federal report. Not only are these Americans more vulnerable to high fees and interest rates, but they are also cut off from credit to buy a car or a home or pay for college, the report from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said.

Released Wednesday, the study found that 821,000 households opted out of the banking system from 2009 to 2011 and that the so-called unbanked population grew to 8.2 percent of U.S. households. That means that roughly 17 million adults are without a checking or savings account. Another 51 million adults have a bank account, but use pawnshops, payday lenders or rent-to-own services, the FDIC said. This underbanked population has grown from 18.2 percent to 20.1 percent of households nationwide.

The study also found that one in four households, or 28.3 percent, either had one or no bank account. A third of these households said they do not have enough money to open and fund an account. Minorities, the unemployed, young people and lower-income households are least likely to have accounts. Read more >>

British Bank gets slap on wrist for Laundering hundreds of billions in tainted money with Iran

New York’s top banking regulator reached a settlement on Tuesday with Standard Chartered over charges that the British bank laundered hundreds of billions of dollars in tainted money with Iran and deliberately lied to regulators.

The bank agreed to pay $340 million to the Department of Financial Services, which is led by Benjamin M. Lawsky. “The parties have agreed that the conduct at issue involved transactions of at least $250 billion,” Mr. Lawsky said in a statement.

Tuesday’s cease-fire between the state regulator and Standard Chartered marks a big win for the department, which was formed last year.

As part of the settlement, the bank will install a monitor for at least two years to vet the bank’s money laundering controls. In addition, the bank agreed to put in permanent officials who will audit the bank’s internal procedures to prevent offshore money laundering. Read more >>

Bank fees rise for checking, ATMs; fewer credit unions offer free accounts

Checking and ATM fees are rising at the nation's banks, and fewer credit unions are offering free accounts, two new studies show. MoneyRates.com's semi-annual bank fees survey found that, by nearly every measure, the fee environment for consumers has worsened since the end of 2011.

The average minimum checking-account balance needed to avoid a monthly service fee jumped by $856, to $4,447. Overdraft fees jumped to an average of $29.83, up from $29.23, said the data provider about bank rates, personal finance and savings accounts. Among banks that charge a monthly fee, the average cost was $12.08, up from $11.28. ATM fees also rose.

"This is the most comprehensive rising fee trend we've seen in one of our checking account surveys," Richard Barrington, MoneyRates.com senior financial analyst, said in a statement. Typically, credit unions have been a haven for fee-sensitive consumers, but the ranks of those offering free checking is shrinking, according to a Bankrate.com study, also released Monday.

Seventy-two percent of the nation's 50 biggest credit unions offer free checking accounts with no minimum balance required, down from 76 percent last year, Bankrate.com said. Read more>>

Matt Taibbi: LIBOR Rate-Fixing Scandal "Biggest Insider Trading You Could Ever Imagine"

Democracy Now
Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi joins us to discuss the pattern of systemic corruption by 16 banks accused of rigging a key global interest rate used in contracts worth trillions of dollars. The London Interbank Offered Rate — known as LIBOR — is the average interest rate at which banks can borrow from each other; some analysts say it defines the cost of money.

Barclays was recently fined $453 million for rigging LIBOR, and a number of other banks are under investigation. "Ordinary people actually suffered when LIBOR was manipulated downward, mainly because local governments tended to lose money," Taibbi says. "Even the tiniest manipulation downward when you’re talking about a thing of this scale would result in tens of trillions of dollars of losses. ...

The banks weren’t doing this just to make themselves look healthier, they were also doing this just to make money. They were trading against this information in what essentially was the biggest kind of insider trading you could possibly imagine." Taibbi is author of the book, "Griftopia: A Story of Bankers, Politicians, and the Most Audacious Power Grab in American History." [Transcript to come. Check back soon.]

Bankers constantly lying, defrauding; most still not in jail

Barclays, JPMorgan and the rest of the megabanks reach new heights in malfeasance, suffer few consequences
By Alex Pareene

Has there ever been a better time to be a disastrously inept banker? Well, probably — over the course of human civilization it’s almost always been a pretty good time to be a banker — but today’s finance titans seem uniquely immune to punishment of any sort.

Eurozone Unemployment Hits Record High

The European Central Bank is widely expected to make an interest-rate cut this week to try to invigorate the eurozone’s ailing economy after unemployment in the region climbed to a record high and a key survey of manufacturing showed the sector to be at its weakest in three years.

Attention is back on the ECB’s role in helping the eurozone emerge from its debt crisis, after last week’s EU summit agreed that the central bank should play a role in common bank supervision. Leaders also backed the view of Mario Draghi, ECB president, that eurozone bailout funds should be offered directly to recapitalize struggling banks.

Few analysts expect the ECB to offer politicians a quid pro quo this week by giving further direct support to banks or governments such as more cheap loans or bond buying. But markets are pricing in the likelihood that the ECB will respond to worsening economic data by cutting its main policy rate to below 1 per cent for the first time – a step that should help peripheral eurozone banks that rely on central bank borrowing. Read more >>

Wells Fargo To Send Jobs to India, Philippines

Wells Fargo, the lender looking to trim more than $1.7 billion in quarterly expenses between the first quarter and the end of this year, may move some jobs overseas.

Roles in technology, the retirement division and other business lines may go to India and the Philippines as part of a companywide review, Bridget Braxton, a bank spokeswoman, said today. News 14 Carolina reported a review for the retirement business earlier, citing an internal memo from a Wells Fargo executive it didn’t name. Braxton, who declined to make the memo available, said it alerted employees that the bank was undergoing “an assessment” of the idea. She wouldn’t say how many jobs may be moved.

Wells Fargo has had employees in India since 2006 when it opened a so-called technology resource center in Hyderabad. The bank cited a “growing need” for talent that couldn’t be met by U.S. workers, according to a statement in August, 2006. The move wasn’t made to cut costs, Wells Fargo said at the time. The lender started a Philippines-based unit in November, Braxton said. Many jobs in the Philippines are “customer- service” roles, while those in India involve technology functions as well as functions for many business lines across the bank, she said. Read more >>

More Icelandic Bankers Arrested

Icenews
Iceland’s special prosecutor into the banking crisis has confirmed that raids have taken place today and that arrests have been made.

The Central Bank of Iceland is among the institutions under investigation. Special Prosecutor, Olafur Thor Hauksson told Visir.is that house searches are taking place in at least three places today as part of investigations into the central bank, MP Bank and Straumur Bank.

Stefan Johann Stefansson at the central bank confirmed that agents were in the building conducting searches; and it has also been confirmed that searches are underway at MP Bank and ALMC (formerly Straumur).
An ALMC spokesman said that the premises are indeed being searched and that the bank’s staff members are doing their best to help.

In other news, four people have so far been arrested today in connection with the special prosecutor’s investigation into Landsbanki. One of the arrested parties is Jon Thorsteinn Oddleifsson, former Landsbanki treasury boss; and it is not yet known who the other three are.

According to Visir.is sources, the arrests concern a brand new section of the wider case against the bank and are not directly connected to searches and arrests made last week.

Greeks Withdraw $1 Billion a Day Ahead of Vote

Placard: In union and in left, we turn the impossible to possible 

Greeks pulled their cash out of the banks and stocked up with food ahead of a cliffhanger election on Sunday that many fear will result in the country being forced out of the euro. Bankers said up to 800 million euros ($1 billion) were leaving major banks daily and retailers said some of the money was being used to buy pasta and canned goods, as fears of returning to the drachma were fanned by rumors that a radical leftist leader may win the election.

The last published opinion polls showed the conservative New Democracy party, which backs the 130 billion euro ($160 billion) bailout that is keeping Greece afloat, running neck and neck with the leftist Syriza party, which wants to cancel the rescue deal.

As the election approaches, publishing polls is now legally banned and in the ensuing information vacuum, party officials have been leaking contradictory "secret polls". On Tuesday, one rumor making the rounds was that Syriza was leading by a wide margin.  Read more >>

When The Derivatives Market Crashes U.S. Taxpayers Will Be On The Hook

Recently, JP Morgan made national headlines when it announced that it was going to take a 2 billion dollar loss from derivatives trades gone bad.  Well, it turns out that JP Morgan did not tell us the whole truth.  As you will see later in this article, most analysts are estimating that the losses will eventually be far larger than 2 billion dollars. 

But no matter how bad things get for JP Morgan, it will not be allowed to fail.  JP Morgan is the largest bank in the United States, so it is essentially the "granddaddy" of the too big to fail banks. If JP Morgan gets to the point where it is about to collapse, the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve will rush in to save it.  Because of this "security blanket", banks such as JP Morgan feel free to take outrageous risks. 

Today, JP Morgan has more exposure to derivatives than anyone else in the world.  If they win, they win big.  If they lose, U.S. taxpayers will be on the hook.  Not only that, but thanks to Dodd-Frank, U.S. taxpayers are on the hook for bailing out the major derivatives clearinghouses if there is ever a major derivatives crisis.  So when the derivatives market crashes (and it will) you and I will be left holding a gigantic bill. Read more >>

€100 Billion In Secret Funds Props Up Greek Banks

There has been no official announcement. No terms or conditions have been disclosed. But Greece’s banking system is being propped up by an estimated €100 billion or so of emergency liquidity provided by the country’s central bank — approved secretly by the European Central Bank in Frankfurt. If Greece were to leave the eurozone, the immediate cause might be an ECB decision to pull the plug.

Extensive use of “emergency liquidity assistance” (ELA) to help banks in the weakest economies has been one of the less-noticed features of the eurozone crisis. Separate from normal supplies of liquidity and meant originally as a temporary facility for national authorities to use when banks hit problems, ELA proved a lifesaver for the financial system Ireland and is now even more so in Greece.

As such, it has given the ECB — which has ultimate control over the facility — considerable power to determine countries’ fates. Whether that power would ever be exercised is unclear. ELA is a subject on which the ECB is deeply reluctant to provide information — even on where or when it is provided. More...

Bank Runs In Greece Will Soon Be Followed By More Bank Runs In Europe

Depression: "Runs on Banks": people milling about outside of bank. Photograph of Anxious Depositors, 02/28/1933 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The bank runs that we are watching right now in Greece are shocking, but they are only just the beginning.  Since May 6th, nearly one billion dollars has been withdrawn from Greek banks.  For a small nation like Greece, that is an absolutely catastrophic number.  At this point, the entire Greek banking system is in danger of collapsing.  If you had money in a Greek bank, why wouldn't you pull it out? 

If Greece leaves the euro, all euros in Greek banks will likely be converted to drachmas, and the value of those drachmas will almost certainly decline dramatically.  In fact, it has been estimated that Greek citizens could see the value of their bank accounts decline by up to 50 percent if Greece leaves the euro.  So if you had money in a Greek bank, it would only make sense to withdraw it and move it to another country as quickly as possible. 

And as the eurozone begins to unravel, this is a scenario that we are going to see play out in country after country.  As member nations leave the eurozone, you would be a fool to have your euros in Italian banks or Spanish banks when you could have them in German banks instead.  So the bank runs that are happening in Greece right now are only a preview of things to come.  Before this crisis is over we are going to see bank runs happening all over Europe. More...

Moody’s Issues Capital Warning to Global Banks - May Downgrade 17 Banks

Moody’s has warned that the tendency of global banks to avoid new capital requirement rules and load up on debt will continue to put pressure on their creditworthiness.

The credit rating agency announced it was placing 17 banks on review for a downgrade earlier this year, citing “vulnerabilities” in the companies’ vast and volatile capital markets businesses. The potential downgrades have become a talking point on Wall Street, with some bankers openly criticizing Moody’s and others privately attempting to change the agency’s mind in closed-door meetings.

But in an interview with the Financial Times, Moody’s banking analysts said the agency was updating its financial ratings to take into account the historical tendency of banks to leverage their balance sheets and arbitrage global financial rules, often to the detriment of the banks’ own health and the safety of the wider banking system. Moody’s caution could see all 17 banks downgraded when the review is finally completed, expected to happen in mid-June. More...