Search results for Citigroup
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Posted
Oct 16 2009, 06:28 PM
by
Anthony Mirhaydari
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
The Dow Industrials tumbled back under the psychologically important 10,000 threshold on Friday after some surprisingly bad news from the banks jarred the bulls out of their complacency.
Bank of America (BAC) reported a third-quarter loss of $2.2 billion or 26 cents per share, falling below the consensus estimate of a 12 cent loss as its consumer credit portfolio continues to deteriorate. Similar problems plagued Citigroup (C) when it reported a 27 cent per share loss on Thursday. The results would've been even worse if not for some accounting trickery surrounding the amount of money set aside for future loan losses.
Remember that it was news the banks had returned to profitability back in March that got the equity rally going in the first place. Now, after a 53% rise in the Dow and a 146% increase in bank stocks as represented by the Financial SPDR (XLF), one wonders: Will the beleaguered financial system deal yet more damage to the real economy as loan growth is tightened and fresh losses recognized? It's too early to say, but the banks are already balking at plans to increase capital requirements. Moreover, there is evidence that the consumer loan delinquencies that have dampened Q3 results are about to get worse.
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Posted
Oct 09 2009, 10:48 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
 Citigroup (C) had a giant headache in the form of Andrew Hall, its rockstar energy trader in line for a controversial $100 million bonus.
Could
a bank that received $45 billion in bailout funds really get away with
paying one employee $100 million? The very idea was outrageous to
investors and taxpayers. Yet Hall was reportedly demanding the bonus,
since it had been contractually promised to him if he performed well
over the year.
The whole debacle became an ongoing problem for Citigroup, and so the bank decided to sell Hall's energy-trading group to Occidental Petroleum (OXY) for an undisclosed amount. Bing: Who is Andrew Hall?
But in saying goodbye to Hall, Citigroup loses one of its most profitable segments.
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Posted
Oct 05 2009, 09:02 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
It seems that Henry Paulson was a bit too optimistic about the prospects of several banks which received TARP funds at the end of last year. The Treasury Department’s inspector general Neil Barofsky reports that the department “lost credibility” when its top officials claimed that the first capital injections from the $700 billion financial rescue were for healthy banks. At the time, Bank of America (BAC) and Citigroup (C) were actually in a great deal of trouble.
The inspector’s report states “Treasury may have created unrealistic expectations about the institutions’ condition and their ability to increase lending.”
It was, perhaps, only a little white lie. Paulson and Bernanke knew that confidence in the credit markets was worse than fragile as the financial crisis spun nearly out of control. They also knew that the TARP was likely to keep large banks from failing, at least for a few months, while the world credit system had a chance to catch its breath.
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Posted
Oct 02 2009, 03:38 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
When Ken Lewis finally leaves Bank of America (BAC), he will get a $125 million goodbye from the financial firm, unless the federal government’s pay czar decides to challenge the package.
Most of the Lewis compensation was set long before the big bank got into trouble and had to take $45 billion in TARP funds, so his employment contract may be sacrosanct. If so, he will get one of the largest severance packages in American corporate history.
According to Reuters, Lewis’ severance package "includes $53.2 million in retirement benefits, mostly from a program frozen years ago, and $72.8 million in accumulated stock and other compensation."
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Posted
Sep 30 2009, 07:36 AM
by
Minyanville
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
 This article is written by Minyanville's Justin Rohrlich
The financial crisis that began in August 2007 had relatively little to do with traditional bank lending…Its prime cause was the rise and fall of "securitized lending," which allowed banks to originate loans but then repackage and sell them out.
-- Niall Ferguson, The Ascent Of Money
The dust is still settling from the great market crash of 2008-09, and we still don’t know exactly who or what to blame. It might have been securitization, but it probably wasn’t David Bowie. For more on securities, see Banks Realize Securities Are Like a Box of Chocolates.
Securitization is the process of taking a group of assets and transforming them into a tradable security. By aggregating them into one large pool, investor risk is, in concept at least, distributed more evenly. Asset-backed securities resemble bonds in that they pay a fixed amount of interest over a specific time period. Bing: The history of Bowie bonds
These securities can be backed by mortgages, credit card debt, car loans, or anything else that will (theoretically) generate future cash flow. Like song royalties, for instance.
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Posted
Sep 30 2009, 03:48 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
A devilishly clever new Trojan virus that works over the Internet can hack into bank accounts while people are online and take money without being noticed.
According to CNET, the Trojan, dubbed "URLzone," has features "designed to thwart fraud detection systems which are triggered by unusual transactions.”
The new program takes online fraud to a new level. And that should cause significant alarm among consumers. It appears that the experts who create the Trojans have made them so advanced that they will soon be able to get into credit card and brokerage accounts, which could cause a nationwide disruption of the financial system and drive people away from online banking. Financial firms have counted on increasing numbers of people to use the Internet for their transactions which save the banks money on retail locations and tellers.
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Posted
Sep 18 2009, 03:55 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Citigroup (C) chief executive Vikram Pandit has admitted what most people already believe. Paying an individual banker $100 million in the current climate is not responsible or right.
According to Reuters, when asked if $100 million was too much money for a Citigroup employee to earn given the government support the bank has received, Pandit said, “Yes.”
But is it too much, or is it simply a fair wage for a job well-done?
Andrew Hall, who runs Citi’s energy trading operation Phibro,
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Posted
Sep 17 2009, 11:57 AM
by
Minyanville
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
This article is written by Minyanville's Andrew Jeffery
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke may have kept his job for another four years, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be any easier than the last four.
With pundits, politicians, and regulators sounding the trumpets that our latest bout with recession is likely behind us, central banks and Treasury Departments around the world are looking forward at the daunting task of removing the various forms of stimulus -- which, in the estimation of former Merrill Lynch economist David Rosenberg, have contributed 100% of global economic growth this year. See "Staying Neutral on Inflation vs. Deflation."
European Central Bank Chief Jean-Claude Trichet even took out space in the Financial Times to lay out his vision for the eventual withdrawal of “enhanced credit support,” which helped prop up local, and indeed global, financial markets.
Here at home, Bernanke’s much maligned predecessor, Alan Greenspan, is voicing concern that Congress could complicate the Fed’s already delicate task of keeping the economy grinding ahead without waking the sleeping giant of inflation.
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Posted
Sep 16 2009, 11:33 AM
by
Louis Navellier
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
It's been one year since Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, creating the worst credit crisis in history. But we've come a long way in those 12 months. Banks that were teetering on the brink of ruin have seen their stocks surge lately.
So is it the right time to get into financials again?
I'll answer that by taking a look at two very different financial firms: JP Morgan Chase (JPM) and Citigroup (C).
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Posted
Sep 09 2009, 06:04 PM
by
CAPS Editor
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
 This post comes from Rich Duprey at partner site The Motley Fool.
Some stocks are one-hit wonders, making a big splash when they first appear before quickly fading into obscurity. But for other stocks, that initial run-up is merely a preview of bigger and better gains to come.
Today, we've compiled a list of 10 stocks that spiked in August. We then paired the names with the ratings for each company issued by the MSN CAPS community. The higher each stock's rating, the greater CAPS members' faith in the company's ability to continue beating the market.
We're looking for stocks that might stay hot as the summer winds downs.
Bing: What does MSN CAPS do?
Here's our list:
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