The Responsibilities of Working for a Bank
Banking, or banks, are one of the most important institutions in society. The people working in these establishments also have important responsibilities to take on, as they deal with money (and everything related to it) every day.
It is important for people working in a bank to fulfill their daily duties and responsibilities because a lot of people are counting on them to keep their savings safe. Visitors health insurance is one of the important documents that a traveller has to posses. If travelling to US then a patriot America insurance is most suitable. If bank personnel become neglectful and lax in performing their duties and responsibilities, it could result in chaos.
As people always take their finances seriously, any discrepancy of the bank’s in a customer account always triggers suspicion and questions. If things are not resolved adequately, these questions become a customer complaints, and banks (or any other business for that matter) would always rather avoid having unhappy customers.
Customer complaints equal customer dissatisfaction, which could mean an indirect loss for the business. Thus, for bank personnel, it is always important to be diligent in their duties and responsibilities in order to avoid customer problems.
Mentoring program serves young women in business
Mentoring program is a formal relationship between a mentor and a protégé, in which the mentor helps the protégé achieve clearly defined goals.Simply put, mentoring is the process in which people help others set important goals and develop the skills to reach them. In its purist sense, mentoring is about supporting and developing the all-around growth of a less experienced individual, not just making them better at their job. The program affords seasoned business professionals the opportunity to share their experiences with less experienced individuals.
This program boost the number of women in corporate boardrooms is tapping 100 executives from top businesses in New York to mentor young women.The effort to increase the number of high-level female executives was announced Monday at a New York City event hosted by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. Executives from IBM, Citigroup, Time Warner and Macy’s will volunteer for the program, which will start next month and will be open to women who are between two and seven years out of college. Buy a Visitors Health Insurance
Partnership for New York City chief executive officer Kathryn Wylde, who took part in the announcement, said that though there are many women in business, they don’t have the same professional networks that help young male executives on the rise. He added that they didn’t have a well-defined ‘old girls’ network and the boys are on the golf course and the women are often either at their desk or taking care of family responsibilities. The women don’t have the same kind of professional network and support system and the partnership is involving both female and male mentors, in part because of necessity.
There are currently 15 female chief executive officers among the companies listed in the Fortune 500, according to the nonprofit organization Catalyst. Research released this month by Catalyst found men were more likely to reach senior executive positions than women across all career profiles. Making the announcement with Gillibrand and Wylde was Council for Urban Professionals executive director Chloe Drew. The program is a collaboration between the two groups and was initiated by Gllibrand. The Partnership is identifying the 100 mentors and the Council is identifying 100 young professionals.
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Mentoring program serves young women in business
Is Free Checking Going Extinct?
New regulatory reforms aimed at reining in big banks’ excessive profits and helping retailers cut costs might actually end up hurting consumers.
The new debit-card swipe rule set to take effect Saturday lowers the fees banks can patriot america insurance charge retailers for debit card transactions to 24 cents per transaction. The current average for such fees is 44 cents per swipe. While that’s good news for retailers, consumers may face higher banking fees as a result.
Proponents of the swipe fee reduction argue that lower fees for retailers should help the industry lower costs and pass on savings to consumers. But banks, facing a multibillion-dollar, industry-wide loss in swipe fees, are paring down free checking options and charging more in overdraft and ATM fees to make up for the shortfall. Swipe fees helped subsidize free checking for millions of Americans, so while a burden has been lifted from retailers, another has been effectively shifted to consumers, experts say.
“The decline in free checking is a more recent development and is pegged to regulatory changes dealing with both overdraft [fees] and debit cards,” says Greg McBride, senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com.
“The cost of providing free checking accounts was completely underwritten by overdraft and debit card swipe fees. With both of those revenue streams now being constricted, free checking becomes the obvious casualty.”
Only 45 percent of non-interest checking accounts are free today, down from 65 percent in 2010 and 76 percent two years ago, according to a survey by Bankrate. Fees, meanwhile, are rising: The average monthly tab for a non-interest account is $4.37, up 75 percent from a year ago. The average overdraft fee amounts to nearly $31, up 1 percent from last year.
U.S. News talked to the experts for tips on how consumers can sidestep hefty fees and keep more of their hard-earned money.
Enroll in direct deposit.
While it’s true that the number of truly free checking accounts is dwindling, many banks will waive checking fees if you enroll in direct deposit or maintain a certain minimum balance. “The point is they’re not going to give away free checking anymore,” McBride says. “The silver lining in that dark cloud of eliminating free checking is that many banks are instituting fee waivers so that something as simple as direct deposit could be sufficient to get the fee waived.”
The percentage of banks offering “free” checking jumps to more than 90 percent after accounting for fee waivers, McBride says. So although it seems like free checking is on the path to extinction, consumers, for the most part, can still access that benefit by overcoming a few small hurdles, he says.
Shop around.
But what if your employer doesn’t offer direct deposit or you don’t have the cash flow to keep a required minimum balance? You can still get free checking as long as you’re willing to take your business elsewhere.
An increasing number of smaller community banks, credit unions, and online banks are luring customers by offering a more extensive lineup of free checking options, experts say. And if you’re worried about getting slammed with ATM fees by belonging to a tiny, regional bank, that concern has largely become a non-issue as smaller banks have joined larger ATM alliances, allowing customers to access their money free of charge at thousands of locations around the country.
Some online banks even offer fee reimbursement programs, which refund ATM fees that customers incur.
“They’ve really tried to level the playing field to make these banks very consumer-friendly,” McBride says. Consumers can research banks offering the best free checking options using Bankrate’s “Find a Checking Account” feature.
Keep close tabs on your balance.
“Avoiding overdraft fees is the financial equivalent of walking and chewing gum,” McBride says. With the increasing seamlessness of banking information on computers and mobile devices, there’s no excuse for overdrawing your account, because you can generally confirm account balances before you make purchases. “It’s completely avoidable, as long as you keep close tabs on your available balances,” he adds.
Nevertheless, if you slip up and overdraw your account, experts recommend having your savings account tied to your checking account to cover shortfalls. That way you avoid hefty overdraft fees and sidestep the embarrassment of having your card declined in the checkout line.
“We recommend that consumers have that protection because it’s not just one fee,” says Linda Sherry, director of national priorities at Consumer Action. “If more than one payment or debit transaction bounces, you will pay a fee for every instrument that bounces.”
Some banks offer to link a line of credit to your checking account to cover overdrafts. Experts caution consumers to pay off the balance as soon as possible, because while you might avoid a $30 overdraft fee by leveraging a line of credit, you could get slammed with interest fees on the borrowed money if you don’t pay it off.
Plan ahead when you need cash.
Today, you’ll get dinged $3.81, on average, to use an out-of-network ATM, according to Bankrate’s survey. To avoid those pesky fees, plan ahead when you know you’ll need cash or keep some greenbacks on hand for emergencies so you won’t be forced to accept outrageous ATM charges. “Go online or use your mobile device to find nearby ATMs in your network,” McBride adds.
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Is Free Checking Going Extinct?
Bank Of America Reports $6.2 Billion Profit
Bank of America Corp reported a third-quarter profit, boosted by accounting gains. But it struggling to get income from lending and visitors health insurance investment banking fell. This year Bank of America results its profit as $6.2 Billion. Backlash has faced by the bank due to charge customers $5 per month to use debit cards. Moynihan’s plans make many shareholders to remain unconvinced. Net interest income fell to $10.74 billion from $12.72 billion a year earlier. Bank of America’s noninterest expense, excluding a goodwill write-down a year earlier, rose 4.7 percent to $17.6 billion.
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Dexia Bank’s Collapse and the European Financial Crisis
INVESTMENT BANKS should be illegal…. Who would put their savings into a bank, knowing that bank will use the savings to gamble on the world markets. This is pure CRIMINALITY. Stockbrokers etc for investors. Banks for savers and borrowers.
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Dexia Bank’s Collapse and the European Financial Crisis
Baltimore-area SBA loans grew by 63 percent in fiscal 2011
Government-backed loans for small businesses in the Baltimore area jumped 63 percent in value in fiscal year 2011.
The U.S. Small Business Administration’s Baltimore office approved 615 loans under SBA’s 7(a) and 504 loan programs for a total of $204.2 million for the 12 months ended Sept. 30. That was up from 543 loans worth a total of $125.1 million in fiscal year 2010.
M&T Bank Corp. (NYSE: MTB) remains the biggest lender in the Baltimore area under SBA’s 7(a) program with 234 loans worth a total of $21.4 million. That compares with the 166 loans worth a total of $18.7 million that M&T wrote in fiscal 2010 under the 7(a) program.
Susquehanna Bank (NASDAQ: SUSQ) was the second-biggest lender in the region under the 7(a) program with 18 loans in fiscal 2011 worth a total of $12.8 million.
Business Finance Group was once again the largest lender under SBA’s 504 program, writing 43 loans for a total of $25.9 million in fiscal 2011. It wrote 35 loans worth a combined $20.2 million in fiscal 2010. Chesapeake Business Finance Corp. was the second-biggest 504 lender in fiscal 2011 with 18 loans totaling $15.4 million.
SBA’s 7(a) program insures loans for equipment, working capital and inventory. The 504 program is for small-business owners who want to purchase a building to house their company.
The SBA’s Baltimore area includes covers all Maryland states except for Prince George’s and Montgomery counties.
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Baltimore-area SBA loans grew by 63 percent in fiscal 2011
Wells Fargo Earnings Rise 21%, to $4.1 Billion
Wells Fargo, the nation’s largest consumer lender, reported Monday that its third-quarter earnings rose 21 percent, even as a drop in revenue indicated a disappointing sign for the San Francisco-based bank.The bank turned a $4.1 billion profit in the third quarter, or 72 cents a share, bolstered by gains in its lending and deposit division and its lack of exposure to the volatile investment banking business. That compared with a profit of $3.3 billion, or 60 cents a share, in the same period a year earlier. The figures, also aided by an $800 million release in reserves amid easing loan losses, fell just below the analysts’ consensus estimate of 73 cents a share.
The bottom line improvement was somewhat overshadowed by the lack of top-line growth. The bank’s revenue fell to $19.6 billion, from $20.9 billion, reflecting the banking industry’s broader struggles generating growth as the economic recovery stalls and the markets wildly fluctuate. Investors frowned on the report, sending the bank’s shares down more than 8 percent to close at $24.42, a loss of $2.25. “The economic recovery has been more sluggish and uneven than anyone anticipated,” the bank’s chairman and chief executive, John Stumpf, said in a statement. “They can’t change the economic environment, yet they have worked hard to control the variables, can – making their products and services more relevant to individuals and businesses, focusing on the customer, making as many loans as possible and growing new relationships – as well as fostering longtime ones.”
The strong profit numbers at Wells Fargo bucked the generally grim outlook facing the industry, as big banks struggle to shed the legacy of the mortgage crisis and cope with poor investment banking figures. JPMorgan Chase last week kicked off bank earnings season by reporting a 4 percent drop in profit. Bank of America, which will announce its earnings on Tuesday, has racked up billions of dollars in losses over the last few quarters. And some analysts expect Goldman Sachs, once appearing immune from the industry’s woes, to report a quarterly loss, only the second since the company went public 12 years ago.
While competitors have struggled, Wells Fargo has remained relatively healthy. Profit has grown quarter after quarter. Following the takeover of the Wachovia Corporation at the height of the financial crisis, it established a network of retail branches along both coasts.Still, Wells is not immune from the industry’s turmoil. The bank reported disappointing revenue numbers across its operation. The community banking division, which includes Wells Fargo’s branches and mortgage business, experienced a 7 percent drop in revenue, while revenue declined slightly in the bank’s retail brokerage unit.
While it is no secret the banking industry is struggling, investment banking results have been especially hard hit. Trading revenue, in particular, is hurting from the unnerving volatility in the markets.
Wells Fargo does not break out its investment banking results, but the wholesale banking unit, which includes the sales and trading business along with the corporate lending division, had a 4 percent decline in revenue. The bank attributed the drop to weak fixed-income sales and trading.
But it could have been worse. Wells Fargo features a far smaller investment bank than most of its big rivals, so it is less exposed to the difficult market conditions that, for instance, caused JPMorgan’s third-quarter investment banking profit to tumble 20 percent.“Investment banking is a boom and bust business, and right now it’s bust,” said Brian Foran, a senior analyst at Nomura Securities International. He noted that it “helps” banks like Wells that are not deeply entrenched in the business.
Wells Fargo’s biggest unit by far is its community-banking arm, which reported a 7 percent drop in revenue, as mortgage banking income slowed and the bank battled the choppy markets.But earnings at the unit leapt 20 percent compared with the third quarter of 2010. Unlike competitors that had a heavy hand in the mortgage business during the toxic subprime boom, Wells Fargo enforced tougher standards for borrowers and only revved up its lending following the 2008 takeover of Wachovia. Wells Fargo has since quietly emerged from the mortgage mess as one of the nation’s largest and strongest lenders.
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Wells Fargo Earnings Rise 21%, to $4.1 Billion