Information On Banking Articles and News

Five Things You Need to Know: Here's a TIP: Investors Are Banking on Inflation

2008-03-10T22:37:00.000-07:00

Kevin Depew's daily Five Things You Need to Know to stay ahead of the pack on Wall Street:

1. Here's a TIP: Investors Are Banking on Inflation

Caught the following headline on Bloomberg when we walked in this morning: "TIPS' Yields Show Fed Has Lost Control of Inflation."

The gist of the story is that the yield on the five-year Treasury Inflation-Protected Security TIPs) is negative for the first time ever, and has been trading that way since Feb. 29. The real yield is currently -.20%. Five-year TIPS are now yielding about 2% less than five-year Treasuries.

What does this mean? Does a negative yield mean a Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities holder has to pay to own the security? In a way, yes. It means if you buy TIPs here you are essentially paying the government to do so because the yield is less than the Treasury equivalent.

Now why would anyone do that? Because TIPs are designed to provide protection against inflation. Investors can still earn money from TIPS with sub-zero rates because the principal rises with the CPI. TIPs pay interest twice a year at a fixed rate and that rate is applied to the adjusted principal; so, like the principal, interest payments rise with inflation and fall with deflation.

When TIPS mature an investor is paid the adjusted principal or original principal, whichever is greater. What the current negative yield situation means is that investors believe headline inflation is going to remain elevated and are willing to give up the real yield for the inflation-adjusted return of principal.

TIPS have returned 6.2% this year, compared with 3.7% from Treasuries, according to tracking indexes compiled by Merrill Lynch (MER).

On the one hand, buying TIPs here might seem a bit like fighting the Federal Reserve, though not in the way one might typically think of "fighting the Fed." The bet on TIPs would be that the U.S. central bank is sacrificing price stability for higher growth, allowing inflationary pressures to continue to build.

That's the conventional wisdom to be sure, and we disagree with it. It's true, the Fed is not fighting inflation; they're fighting deflation. TIPs holders better hope the Fed doesn't lose.

2. Barron's Joins the "Tinfoil Hat Club"

Last week when sitting around wearing my tinfoil hat and pondering the potential nationalization of Fannie Mae (FNM), little did I know I would soon be joined in the "tinfoil hat club" by Barron's. The weekly newspaper was out this weekend with a pretty wonky story on Fannie Mae ("Is Fannie Mae Toast?") and the possibility the mortgage giant may be "the next government bailout."

"Just maybe a bailout of Fannie, in effect a nationalization, would be a good thing," the article said. "A retooled Fannie could pursue its important social mission without the distraction of trying to please Wall Street. Of course, it's doubtful if this happens that the shareholders would be along for the ride."

It certainly appears at least some shareholders have reached that conclusion as well, which is really what prompted the Five Things piece on the nationalization of the GSE's in the first place. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (FRE) are down more than 40% since the beginning of the year.

As for nationalization being "a good thing"? Well, Barron's will have to remain in that particular club without us.

3. The Next Real Estate Bubble?

First residential real estate. Now, increasing signs of stress in commercial real estate. Next? Perhaps the farm. According to an interesting piece in the New York Times over the weekend ("A Global Need for Grain That Farms Can’t Fill"), the flood of money into American agriculture is leading to rising land values and a renewed sense of optimism in rural America.

A separate Associated Press story noted that farmland values rose 16% in parts of the upper Midwest, the largest increase in nearly 30 years. USDA officials found that the average value of an acre of Wisconsin farmland, about $2,250 in 2002, had jumped to $3,366 in 2006.

4. Apparently, We Aren't Going to Just Sit Home Twiddling Our Thumbs Every Day

Amusement park operator Six Flags (SIX) may not be the most important stock in the universe at around a buck 65 a share, but we took a listen to their conference call this morning mainly because we were interested in their take on a consumer recession and what that means for discretionary entertainment dollars.

Mark Shapiro, Chief Executive Officer noted the headwinds right off the bat: "From October 15th to the end of 2007 the stock market was down 15%, driven by the credit crunch, driven by the housing bubble, driven by oil prices, driven by a retail sector that was down really across the board from a Christmas shopping standpoint, just overall it's the same climate
that we're experiencing right now," he said.

True enough. But what caught our ear was the inventiveness in Shapiro's pitch that Six Flags is somewhat recessionary proof. Despite the economic headwinds, what ends up happening historically is the long-distance vacation, the big-ticket items are what get sacrificed, Shapiro said. The short, close to home and affordable vacations usually historically ramp up.

"We just believe that people are not going to stay in their house every single day just twiddling their thumbs," he said. "Recent results from BJ's (BJS) and Costco (COST) indicate the consumers are essentially trading down for specialty stores, they're trading down from department stores, they're looking for lower price alternatives and we believe Six Flags is such that it is exactly a low-priced alternative."

Fair enough. So does that mean the company gets hammered when the economy improves and people can afford to vacation again?

5. Anti-Consumption Sentiment Turns Against the "Good Consumers"

Ran across a fascinating piece in the Washington Post that merges neatly with our thesis that as social mood darkens, consumption will increasingly be targeted as a societal evil. What was unexpected, however, was that the target in this anti-consumption piece wasn't the Neiman Marcus set, but "good consumers."

"Let us buy Anna Sova Luxury Organics Turkish towels, 900 grams per square meter, $58 apiece. Let us buy the eco-friendly 600-thread-count bed sheets, milled in Switzerland with U.S. cotton, $570 for queen-size.

Let us purge our closets of those sinful synthetics, purify ourselves in the flame of the soy candle at the altar of the immaculate Earth Weave rug, and let us buy, buy, buy until we are whipped into a beatific froth of free-range fulfillment.

And let us never consider the other organic option -- not buying -- because the new green consumer wants to consume, to be more celadon than emerald, in the right color family but muted, without all the hand-me-down baby clothes and out-of-date carpet."

The aggressive cynicism in the first three paragraphs is also a bit surprising. There's no attempt to gently persuade going on here. The commentary is forthright and harsh:

"Consuming until you're squeaky green. It feels so good. It looks so good. It feels so good to look so good, which is why conspicuousness is key."

It speaks to the magnitude of the shift in social mood that we may be seeing.

http://www.minyanville.com/

New-found fear of debt rattles shares

2008-03-08T08:16:00.000-08:00

Fashion can be very fickle. Twelve months ago companies were under pressure from investors to take on debt and gear up their balance sheets. Fast-forward to 2008 and investors are fleeing stocks with high debt levels.

The worry is that these companies will struggle to refinance debt or that the economic slowdown will dent their ability to meet interest payments and keep banking covenants.

Nowhere has this flight from leverage been more in evidence than in the case of Yell. Shares in the Yellow Pages publisher have fallen 51 per cent since the start of the year, making them the worst performer in the FTSE 100.

Aside from concerns about the outlook for the advertising market, the main reason for the poor share price performance is worries regarding Yell's balance sheet.

Yell is highly leveraged. Net debt was five times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation at the end of December. Put another way, 70 per cent of its enterprise value is debt.

Analysts fear a further downturn in the advertising market could see Yell breach covenants (although they can only guess what the covenants are because the company has never disclosed them).

Of course, Yell is not the only company affected by the new-found fear of debt. Shares in Premier Foods have halved this year amid concerns that the maker of Branston Pickle and Hovis bread would need a rights issue.

Premier moved to address those fears this week and provided full details of its banking covenants, which have been renegotiated, and increased available credit by £225m.

Investors soon found another company to worry about. Shares in Johnston Press, the regional newspapers group, fell more than 15 per cent on Thursday and Friday on fears it could breach banking covenants. Broker UBS said that was possible if revenues fell a further 5 per cent this year.

So which other companies' share prices could weaken (or weaken further) on debt concerns?

In a research report, Morgan Stanley said the deterioration in money and credit markets would weigh on companies that need short-term funding and have low fixed-charge cover.

Fixed-charge cover is earnings before interest and tax divided by net interest payments, rent and operating leases. Companies with low cover should in theory have less cash available to invest in growth and pay dividends.

Companies with low fixed-charge cover include Ashtead, Avis Europe and the retailers DSG International, Debenhams and HMV. In terms of funding, Morgan Stanley identified HMV and Avis as stocks in which short-term funding costs equated to 5 per cent or more of total assets. Other companies that screened poorly on this measure were Rentokil Initial, Helphire Group, Dairy Crest and, surprisingly, BTGroup

More broadly, companies that have a high multiple of net debt to equity include Debenhams, Rank, Next, Enterprise Inns and Mitchells & Butlers.

Investors in these companies will hope debt comes back into fashion soon. But, as with flares and kipper ties, they could wait some time. * Yell's recent performance is all but certain to cost the company its FTSE 100 place when the results of the quarterly review are released on Wednesday. Other companies for the chop are Rentokil and Taylor Wimpey, the housebuilder.

One of those three places will be taken by Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation. Although it is valued at £14bn, the Kazakh mining company is something of a mystery to many brokers and investors. That will change pretty quickly. ENRC is one of the world's largest producers of ferrochrome but has a small number of shares that can be traded. This seems likely to make it one of the most volatile stocks in the FTSE 100, unless, of course, one of its pre-float backers decides to cash in. ENRC has risen 95 per cent since listing in December.

http://www.ft.com/

Sterling Construction: Banking on a builder

2008-03-08T08:13:00.000-08:00

America is crumbling, and we’re not talking the economy here.

The U.S. infrastructure needs upgrading worse than that old computer running Windows 98. Just a few of the problems faced by state and municipal governments are packed roads that can’t handle 21st-century traffic, century-old water and sewer lines continually springing leaks, and airports lacking the long runways needed to handle the biggest jets leaping to the skies.

Even with budget shortfalls knocking on the doors of government at all levels, elected officials know they must keep the customer satisfied by paving the potholes and keeping the water and sewage flowing for consumers and businesses. Sterling Construction Company, Inc. (Nasdaq: STRL) has been lending its expertise to all sorts of public projects in the building and rebuilding of Texas and the Southwest.

Mom and Pop might suck it up and put off some of those big home improvements during the current economic downturn, but they’re going to give government officials an earful if they’re repeatedly sitting in traffic jams or finding a sewage backup in their basement.

That’s where Sterling Construction comes in. Primarily operating through its Texas Sterling Construction business, which traces its lineage back more than half a century, Sterling has been winning a healthy stream of contracts from state and municipal government for transportation and water infrastructure projects in the Longhorn state.

Last month, the company announced its latest deals: it was the low bidder on a $26 million road project in Collin County, Texas, north of Dallas, with completion expected in the fall of 2010, and it was the apparent low bidder on a $55 million rebuilding project for the North Texas Toll Road Authority that will continue into the summer of 2010.

Three analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial have a favorable view of Sterling Construction with either a “strong buy” or “buy” rating on the stock. The recent median 12-month price target from Thomson is $26.50. On Thursday, Sterling closed at $18.40.

http://www.smallcapinvestor.com/

Banking on rise of mobile phone portals

2008-02-21T03:12:00.000-08:00

With more gadgets using mobile technology, the rise of a banking portal for mobile phones seems likely. The question is whether Monitise, a UK company, will be behind that portal.

Since spinning off in June from Morse, a technology consultancy, it has signed partnerships with big banks and telecoms companies in the UK and US. It also claims to have achieved “scalability” – with much of the investment in system development done and the remaining challenge just rolling it out.

Since floating at 22p, Monitise shares have fallen to 12½p, giving it a market capitalisation of about £32m ($63m). So far, 110,000 customers have signed up, below Monitise’s own expectations. The company is not expected to be profitable until 2010 and its revenue model is still evolving.

In the UK, banks pay a fee per-user per-month, while in the US they must also pay a monthly licence fee. There are many competitors. Alastair Lukies, chief executive, thinks 30 companies offer similar technology.

In November, Qualcomm, a wireless technology company, bought Firethorn, a smaller US rival to Monitise, for $210m (£107m). That could mean Monitise is undervalued or overmatched, depending on your point of view.

http://www.ft.com/

Gold Price Jumps as Banking Stocks Tumble; Platinum Gains Despite "No Actual Shortage"

2008-02-21T03:10:00.000-08:00

Gold Prices shot higher early Tuesday to hit a one-week high of $918.90 per ounce – up more than $18 from yesterday's low – as European equities bounced from a sharp fall in banking stocks.

The value of Credit Suisse, the second largest Swiss banking group, sank nearly 10% at the opening in Zurich today after it trebled the size of write-downs on its debt investments.

Only last week banking analysts agreed that Credit Suisse had "weathered 2007 comparatively well" after it wrote down $1.4 billion for Oct. to Dec.

"This is a disaster, this could be the tip of the iceberg," says Peter Thorne, an analyst at institutional brokerage Helvea.

"According to the presentation Credit Suisse gave a week ago their exposures to residential mortgages were $7.9 billion and collateralized debt obligations were $2.4bn, and now they have just written down $2.85bn down."

Here in London – where Northern Rock has finally been nationalized after receiving more than $50 billion in tax-funded support – shares in Barclays lost 4.5% at one point today after the UK's third largest bank cut second-half profits by one fifth.

Again it blamed credit investment write-downs, as well as lost earnings from securitization. All told, the world's biggest financial institutions have now written down $145 billion since the US subprime collapse began in July 2007, according to Reuters data.

The Gold Price, in contrast, has risen by one-third or more since then against all major currencies.

"Additional buying [from Newcrest Mining] has certainly been a supporting factor for gold over the past few months," says today's note from Mitsui, the precious metals dealer, "but it has not been the only story and with the current consolidation continuing, the market looks set to test higher again soon."

Australian gold miner Newcrest today reported a net loss of A$8.1 million (US$7.4m), driven by the cost of buying back 3.4 million ounces of gold – previously sold forward during the two-decade bear market in gold ending 2001 – over the last six months.

"As of the 15th February," Mitsui adds, "Newcrest still holds 622,302 ozs on its hedge book."

Elsewhere in the precious metals market today, platinum futures jumped "limit up" in Tokyo today and rose to a new record high of $2,145 per ounce in London as South Africa's energy shortage continued to drive speculators into the white metal.

"The platinum market was already worried about supplies in South Africa and this power problem emerged to trigger more buying," says Hisaaki Tasaka, a precious metals analyst at Ace Koeki in Tokyo, Japan.

"But at the moment, we are not seeing an actual shortage in supplies," he notes, "because lease rates have not surged."

New mining supply outweighed physical platinum demand by 1,715 tonnes last year, according to Johnson Matthey, the world's No.1 platinum distributor. Enough to meet 26% of annual consumption, that excess supply in the platinum market has grown four times over since 2002.

Meantime on the currency markets this morning, the European single currency jumped almost one cent vs. the Dollar – capping the Gold Price in Euros below €623.50 per ounce – despite news that construction output in the 14-nation Eurozone shrank for the second month running in December.

Eurostat, the official data agency, also revised Nov.'s output further down, taking the total contraction so far to 1.6%. Inflation in the cost of living, on the other hand, surged to a 14-year high of 3.2% at the end of 2007, squeezing the European Central Bank's room for maneuver.

Copper futures today rose 1% in Shanghai on news that global stockpiles have shrunk to a five-month low.

Ahead of Wall Street's return after the long Presidents Day weekend, US crude oil futures rose for the second session running to hit a five-week high above $96.40 per barrel in London – more than 1% higher from Friday's close in New York.

"It's likely that Opec will make a cut [to output] as in their view the market is well supplied," said one Swiss analyst to Bloomberg earlier.

The Opec oil cartel – which pumps 40% of the world's daily supply – has cut its demand forecasts for April to June by 1.6 million barrels per day. Yesterday the Iranian oil minister said that "cutting production has been the normal process every year in March."

Prices of bauxite, the aluminum ore, continued to rise, taking the gain since the start of January above 30% – double the gains of 2007 as a whole – after Indonesia, which supplies more than two-thirds of China's bauxite demand, cracked down on illegal mining, restricting output.

Robusta coffee today gained 1.2% in London, taking its rise since New Year's Day to 22%, a "record start" according to Bloomberg data.

http://goldnews.bullionvault.com/

2007 IN REVIEW: The banking sector: Post-EU fine-tuning

2008-01-04T23:57:00.000-08:00

With its accession to the European Union on January 1 2007, Bulgaria entered a period of fine-tuned transition. As experts noted, the banking sector underwent a period of large-scale restructuring, through privatisations and subsequent buy-outs, and now it can well be likened to any of its peers in developed economies. Now, as elsewhere in Europe, the bulk of the largest banks in the country are in the hands of big European banking giants and have a strong financial backbone through their parent companies.

As such, Bulgaria’s banking sector became an inalienable part of developments elsewhere in Europe. Thus, the remoulding of Bulgaria’s banking sector in 2007 was marked by the merger of UniCredit, Hebros Bank and HVB Bank Biochim in what was part of the perennial pan-European merger of Italy’s UniCredit and HVB of Germany. Locally, the merger created the largest bank in the country by assets and business network.

The other event in the 2007 merger and acquisition timetable of note was the purchase by Greece’s Eurobank EFG, the owner of Bulgarian Postbank, of DZI Bank in what was to form another banking conglomerate in the country.

Another European-type development at hand was the entry of Belgium’s second-largest financial group, KBC, on the Bulgarian market. After years of futile attempts, KBC struck a double purchase in Bulgaria; Economic and Investment Bank and the largest insurer in the country, DZI. The Belgian group set out an ambitious plan to enter the top-three ranking in both sectors in the medium term.

The entry of the Belgian giant was interpreted as a trend-setter. In Bulgaria’s maiden year in the EU, it did what a number of other European financial players are expected to do in the years to come. Data showed that a number of finance entities with a registration in the EU sent notifications to Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) and the Commission for Financial Supervision, the local financial watchdogs, informing about plans to start operations in Bulgaria in the near term.

To recall, now that Bulgaria is a member of the EU, all EU-registered entities can begin operations through a single notification to the relevant financial watchdog, under the single-passport mechanism. This means that the sector, despite its maturity, is set to welcome new and experienced players. Their entry is expected to bring about a sift-out through the offer of new and sophisticated products, among which figure investment products, opportunities for clients to invest in equity and pension and mutual funds.

The anticipation of impending fierce competition, to be posed by the new entrants, put a number of banks in Bulgarian ownership onto the path of forward-looking busy product portfolio re-jigging. The need to finance those initiatives, while retaining their independence from foreign financial players, prompted a number of banks to seek large-scale financing and set the pace for the flotation of initial public offerings (IPOs). In 2007, the floor of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange tested First Investment Bank, Corporate Commercial Bank and EIBank, among others. This not only gave a new push to the local bourse, the IPOs being many times oversubscribed, but also showed that local banks had discovered a new successful tool to finance future expansion.

The reverse trend was also in place by players whose foreign parent companies believed that a single listing by the parent company itself was enough. An example of this trend was KBC, whose subsidiary DZI Insurance was about to be taken in to private hands after the completion of the mandatory buy-out procedure toward DZI insurers.

Fine-tuning also had its other facet. As Levon Hampartzoumian, CEO of UniCredit Bulbank, put it at the annual business-Government meeting organised by media group Handelsblatt and the newspaper Kapital, the banking sector was in need of a mini-reform that would discipline it. Referring to banks and other financial entities, which in 2007 continued to expand the share of loans in their portfolios – consumer and corporate alike – he spoke of the need of safeguarding against a splurge in the bad loans’ share. Noting that the sector’s stability at present was not under threat, he said that it might be in the future if no measures to check on both loan takers and borrowers’ trustworthiness were taken.

He urged for the set-up of credit bureaus, both public and private, that would run alongside the measures undertaken by the local central bank to rein in credit expansion.
In the latter half of 2007, BNB also identified that credit expansion, through faster and simpler loan-issue procedures, was the main risk to the stability of the banking sector. After relaxing restrictions on commercial banks in Bulgaria, it decided on restoring them as of September 2007. Commercial banks were again expected to file with BNB 12 per cent of their assets as mandatory reserves in case of default.

On the watch in 2008: loan expansion and the entry of foreign financial players.

http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/2007-in-review-the-banking-sector-post-eu-fine-tuning/id_26897/catid_23

Salem to become total banking district before April

2008-01-04T23:55:00.000-08:00

SALEM(TN): Salem in Tamil Nadu would become a 'total banking district' by March 31, a top official of the Reserve Bank of India said on Saturday.

There were 7.2 lakh families in the district and around four lakh families atleast have one bank account, said F R Joseph, Director, RBI Southern Region.

Efforts were being taken at a fast pace to ensure that all the remaining families had atleast one bank account before the end of this fiscal, he told reporters here yesterday.

Further, a special camp would be soon held in Salem to educate people on identifying counterfeit currency. A similar camp was held in Chennai recently, he added.

Loans upto Rs 50,000 could be availed from the banks without providing any surety; he said adding that about 13,000 women Self Help Groups in Salem district were availing loans from different banks.

Joseph said that bank account holders in Tamil Nadu could approach the RBI, Chennai branch with complaints about any bank. He assured that action would be taken by the ombudsman within 45 days.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry/Banking_Finance_/Salem_to_become_total_banking_district_before_April/articleshow/2676716.cms

Boutique Investment Banking Firm Marlin & Associates Strengthens Executive Team

2008-01-04T23:54:00.000-08:00

Marlin & Associates (M&A), the New York and Washington, DC-based investment boutique banking advisory and consulting firm, today affirmed its leadership in advising US and international middle-market digital information and technology firms by announcing that Jason Panzer, former Vice President of business development at FactSet Research Systems Inc. (NYSE: FDS) has joined the firm.

"Jason's combination of relevant industry experience, extensive US and international transaction expertise and long-term focus on the digital information economy strengthens several of our firm's unfair competitive advantages," said Ken Marlin, M&A's founder and Managing Partner. "He'll be a great addition to our team and we are pleased that he chose to join us."

Jason began his career in the Mergers and Acquisitions group at the leading global law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom, LLP, where he worked on dozens of public and private mergers, stock/asset acquisitions, tender offers, LBOs and private equity investments, including the bailout of Long-Term Capital Management; the Citigroup/Travelers merger; and LBOs with top private-equity firms including KKR and Soros.

Later, Jason spent three years as the Chief Financial Officer of JCF Group, the Paris-based provider of global earnings-estimates and other financial data. In 2004, Jason helped to manage the sale of JCF to FactSet, where, as an executive, he successfully led the acquisition and integration of numerous other online data and application software businesses.

Jason earned his Master's degree in Business Administration (MBA) from Columbia Business School, his law degree from Fordham Law School. He is a CFA charterholder.

About Marlin & Associates

Founded in 2002, Marlin & Associates New York LLC is a boutique investment banking and strategic consulting firm focused on providing highly strategic, transaction-related services to U.S. and international middle-market firms engaged in technology, information, on-line media and business services. Marlin & Associates' professionals have advised on over 200 successfully completed transactions in the sector. The firm is based in New York City with a Washington, DC office and has been the recipient of numerous awards.

In December, Marlin & Associates was recognized as the Middle Market Investment Banking Firm of the Year. In July, the firm was acknowledged as the Middle Market Financing Agent of the Year -- Equity. The firm also has been awarded honors in multiple "Deal-of-the-Year" categories including: Financial Technology Deal of the Year; Financial Services Deal of the Year; International Cross-Border Deal of the Year; and Middle Market Financing -- Computer, Technology and Telecommunications Deal of the Year.

M&A professionals have advised on over 200 successfully completed transactions in the technology and information services sector. Recently, Marlin & Associates announced the signing of two transactions that are expected to close in early 2008: the sale of the Hemscott Group (London, England) to Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: MORN); and the sale of StarMine Corporation of San Francisco to Reuters Group PLC (LSE: RTR). Marlin & Associates initiated these transactions, helped to manage the process, assisted in the negotiations and acted as exclusive strategic and financial advisor to the sellers.

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/marketwire/0344802.htm

Verizon Wireless Rolls Out Mobile Banking

2008-01-04T23:52:00.000-08:00

Verizon Wireless this week rolled out a mobile banking application that lets its subscribers access their bank accounts and pay bills on their cell phones and smartphones.

The wireless carrier collaborated with mobile payments provider Firethorn Holdings to enable the application, which can be used to check bank account balances, transfer funds between accounts within the same bank, and pay bills.

Participating banks include Wachovia, SunTrust Bank, Regions Financial, BancorpSouth, Synovus, FirstBank, Arvest Bank, and America First Credit Union.

Access to mobile banking is secured through a PIN and device lock-out capabilities, said Verizon Wireless.

Additional security measures require subscribers to enroll in the service by first signing up on their financial firm's online banking Web site, which would provide them with an initialization code. The code is then used to link a bank account to the mobile banking app when a subscriber accesses it.

The Firethorn application can be downloaded for free through Verizon Wireless' Get It Now virtual store in the "Business/Tools" section. It's available on several new phone models, such the Chocolate and enV by LG Electronics, LG VX8700, LG VX8600, LG VX9400, and the Samsung SCH-a950.

Verizon Wireless said additional devices that are compatible with the mobile banking application will be launched in the coming months.

AT&T also struck a partnership with Firethorn for mobile banking, having introduced a similar service introduced a similar service to its subscribers in November.

The application has been pre-loaded on mobile phones recently introduced by AT&T, including the SLM by Samsung and the Shine by LG. It can be accessed through a mobile banking icon in the phones' applications folder.

Alternatively, AT&T is offering its subscribers the option to download the mobile banking app, which is compatible with more than 30 of AT&T's phone models.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205208723

Where financial liberalisation got us

2007-12-29T01:50:00.000-08:00

These are the glory days of the financial markets. They are bigger, richer and more powerful than they have ever been. Yet it is that very position at the heart of global economic life that makes this year’s credit squeeze a threat. Already, fairly or unfairly, a pantomime cast of predatory lenders, bankrupt bankers and teenage money managers has been lined up to take the blame. There are calls – some justified – for stricter regulation of financial markets. But before writing new rules, we should remember the financial world of 40 years ago, and where liberalisation has got us.

In the US 40 years ago, commercial banking and securities trading were strictly separated by the Glass-Steagall Act, and banks were unable to expand across state boundaries. On Wall Street and in the City of London, there were fixed commissions for share trades, and a closed circle of underwriting banks. Home mortgages came from building societies or a savings and loan and there was little competition on interest rates. Banks held a lot of reserves, but before the first Basel agreement on capital adequacy, reserves often bore little relation to a bank’s risk. Exchange rates were fixed under the Bretton Woods regime and the international mobility of capital was restricted.

The liberalisation of these restrictions, mainly in the 1970s and 1980s, brought great benefits. The deregulation of financial markets led to a surge of competition and innovation. The cost of trading securities has collapsed. Banks have become bigger – and so in one sense more secure – and brought the techniques of the securities business to bear on banking. As a result of liberalisation, financial intermediation is cheaper, and we have a more complete and efficient set of markets.

Whereas 40 years ago many millions of young people may have wanted to borrow against their future income, in order to go to university or to buy a home, they struggled to do so. The liberalisation of consumer finance has eased credit constraints on many.

With the free international movement of capital has come a surge in direct and portfolio investment across borders. Not only has capital been allocated more efficiently as a result, but foreign investment has been a channel for the transfer of technology and management skills, and so increased growth. The wave of globalisation in recent decades would have travelled more slowly without financial liberalisation.

But for all this gain, there is a cost. Any relaxation in controls on banks’ capital and activities makes it easier for them to take risks – and so increase profit – in the knowledge that the state cannot afford to let them fail. There is no simple answer, but a system of bank rescues in which shareholders lose all of their money creates the right incentives. Shareholders walked away from this year’s bailouts of Northern Rock and Germany’s IKB .

Consumer credit liberalisation also leads to a trade-off. Subprime mortgages made home ownership possible for hundreds of thousands of people who would otherwise have been tenants. Yet incompetent and fraudulent misuse of subprime mortgages has caused tens of thousands of those people to lose their homes as well as a shock to the financial markets. Regulation should be directed at the misuse and mis-selling of these products and not at the products themselves.

The greatest effect of financial liberalisation, however, has been to bind markets more closely together. A shock in the US mortgage market really can affect the availability of credit for a European consumer. To those consumers this is hard to explain, and feels like a threat, yet while the scope for financial shocks is now greater, there is little evidence that they have increased in frequency or in magnitude. Financial regulation, especially on bank liquidity and consumer lending, should be tweaked in response to the credit squeeze. But its liberal direction, which has brought great benefits, must remain

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8f082324-b579-11dc-896e-0000779fd2ac.html

Blog: Knol, BNZ's banking pledge, best of the web

2007-12-29T01:46:00.000-08:00

Google's announcement that it will develop a rival to Wikipedia, but one where by-lined articles by experts in their field dominate, has had a mixed reception in the blogosphere.

TechCrunch argues that Google's planned online encyclopaedia, named Knol, puts Google further than ever in the content-generation space - away from its core business of content aggregation.

But who really cares? Google already acts as a major content generation platform in the form of its Blogger free weblog system.

If Google's Knol starts creating better articles than Wikipedia I'll be visiting the former more. I like the idea of more authoritative articles being featured and having more than one big collaborative online encyclopaedia will give all the players more of an incentive to get the content right.

Back home, a decent dose of good sense has been administered to the banking sector with the BNZ's pledge to cover the losses of customers who are defrauded due to having their passwords or PINs stolen online. It follows a move by Westpac to make the same pledge.

As we discussed earlier in the year, the New Zealand Bankers' Association's Code of Banking Practice release in July, included a subclause which said you could be liable for online banking losses as a result of e-crime if "you have failed to take reasonable steps to ensure that the protective systems such as virus scanning, firewall, antispyware, operating system and anti-spam software on your computer are up to date".

That little paragraph created potential for nightmare scenarios where oniline banking customers thought they were protected, but turned out not to be well-protected enough, and therefore were left out of pocket.

Everyone should use antivirus and firewall, identity protection and secure web browsers to keep their online financial transactions safe. But moves by the banking sector to wash their hands of responsibility for losses will do nothing but discourage people from using online banking services.

Instead the strategy should be to provide easy-to-use, two-factor authentication systems, such as random key generators and text message-based authorisation. Both are currently on offer from some banks.

The BNZ will in fact make two-factor authentication compulsory from next March. This stance by the BNZ and Westpac, puts them on the same footing as Australian banks which take responsibility for the losses of customers caught in online banking scams. That's a good thing. We'll all have to get used to two-factor security measures, but that's a relatively small price to pay given the possible alternative.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10482872

Blog: Knol, BNZ's banking pledge, best of the web

2007-12-16T21:52:00.000-08:00

Google's announcement that it will develop a rival to Wikipedia, but one where by-lined articles by experts in their field dominate, has had a mixed reception in the blogosphere.

TechCrunch argues that Google's planned online encyclopaedia, named Knol, puts Google further than ever in the content-generation space - away from its core business of content aggregation.

But who really cares? Google already acts as a major content generation platform in the form of its Blogger free weblog system.

If Google's Knol starts creating better articles than Wikipedia I'll be visiting the former more. I like the idea of more authoritative articles being featured and having more than one big collaborative online encyclopaedia will give all the players more of an incentive to get the content right.

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Back home, a decent dose of good sense has been administered to the banking sector with the BNZ's pledge to cover the losses of customers who are defrauded due to having their passwords or PINs stolen online. It follows a move by Westpac to make the same pledge.

As we discussed earlier in the year, the New Zealand Bankers' Association's Code of Banking Practice release in July, included a subclause which said you could be liable for online banking losses as a result of e-crime if "you have failed to take reasonable steps to ensure that the protective systems such as virus scanning, firewall, antispyware, operating system and anti-spam software on your computer are up to date".

That little paragraph created potential for nightmare scenarios where oniline banking customers thought they were protected, but turned out not to be well-protected enough, and therefore were left out of pocket.

Everyone should use antivirus and firewall, identity protection and secure web browsers to keep their online financial transactions safe. But moves by the banking sector to wash their hands of responsibility for losses will do nothing but discourage people from using online banking services.

Instead the strategy should be to provide easy-to-use, two-factor authentication systems, such as random key generators and text message-based authorisation. Both are currently on offer from some banks.

The BNZ will in fact make two-factor authentication compulsory from next March. This stance by the BNZ and Westpac, puts them on the same footing as Australian banks which take responsibility for the losses of customers caught in online banking scams. That's a good thing. We'll all have to get used to two-factor security measures, but that's a relatively small price to pay given the possible alternative.

Finally, it's worth checking out Kiwi Web 2.0 expert Richard MacManus' votes for the best web companies of the year and Twitter and his pick for what will be big next year - open source web technologies.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10482872

Six Sigma In The Banking Industry

2007-11-16T05:18:00.001-08:00

Six Sigma was developed in the 1980's to reduce defects that were quite common in the manufacturing industry. However, with the development of new concepts and methodologies, Six Sigma is now being used in the service sector as well. It helps to improve the quality of the services rendered. The Six Sigma methodology used in the banking industry is referred to as the DMAIC process. It denotes: define, measure, analyze, improve and control.

Define:

In the 'define' phase of DMAIC, Six Sigma professionals define the objectives and boundaries of a particular business process, in consultation with the employees and senior management. In most banks, customer satisfaction is the main objective, making it necessary to define all the processes that involve customer interactions and directly affect customer satisfaction. Some of the processes that involve customer interaction include address change request processing, new account openings, teller window transactions and CD rollovers.

Measure

In the 'measure' phase of DMAIC, Six Sigma professionals deploy quantitative procedures to collect statistical data in consultation with the business managers. The statistical data is then used for measuring the impact of the various business processes on customer satisfaction. Different processes have different impact on customer satisfaction. It is financially not viable to improve every business process. The measurement of impact of the individual processes helps the banks to concentrate on improving the processes that have the maximum impact on customer satisfaction. In the banking industry, wait times are said to have the maximum impact on customer satisfaction. Banks can employ observers at their different branches to measure the average wait time, under different work conditions.

Analyze

In the 'analyze' phase of DMAIC, Six Sigma professionals analyze the collected data according to predefined parameters to identify the processes that can be improved at minimum costs. The analysis covers every aspect of a business process that directly affects customer satisfaction. For example, a check cashing transaction involves the customer coming to the teller window, the teller receiving the customer's request and the teller seeking a manager's approval for processing the request. These three different, single transactions need to be analyzed individually to ascertain which one has the maximum impact on the overall transaction time.

Improve

In the 'improve' phase of DMAIC, Six Sigma professionals apply corrective measures to improve processes that cause problems in consultation with the bank staff and the branch manager. All improvement measures are based on facts and statistics. Advanced simulation tools can also be employed to study the impact of the proposed improvement initiative on business processes.

Control

In the control phase of DMAIC, control systems are put in place to monitor the impact of the improvement initiatives. If a business process is still not performing in accordance to the desired Six Sigma levels, the process is referred back to the 'define' phase. However, if a small problem is affecting the performance, then corrective measures are taken and the whole process is not referred back.

Six Sigma methodology has been successfully implemented by banks in last few decades to improve service delivery and customer satisfaction.

Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solutions - Six Sigma Online ( http://www.sixsigmaonline.org ) offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.

Confidence In The Banking System Is Paramount - Can We Trust Those Entrusted?

2007-11-16T05:17:00.002-08:00

Our banking system is not without risk, but how safe is our money in the bank these days? Are bankers taking the proper precautions or taking too many risks? As we watch our devaluation of the US Dollar and the downward slope into recession, while simultaneously dealing with a credit crisis in real estate, low consumer confidence and ultra-high energy costs - the question has raised its head once more.

Is our money in the bank safe? Well, to answer this question, I would like you to consider an older work of note, that I recommend that your read before you discuss this issue with any conspiracy theorists about our civilizations banking system collapsing. There is good and bad discussed in this book and the warnings are indeed relevant as well:

"Money in the Bank - How Safe is It?" by A. Robert Abboud, William G Schopf and Geoffrey N. Smith - 1988. Sanctioned by the Bank Administration Institute.

The authors explain to us how bankers are often enticed to take unnecessary risks by lending money on questionable ventures. They also explain why banks and financial experts keep repeating the same crisis issues over and over again, they attempt to help us understand why regulatory bodies seem to not be able to keep a handle on them and how politics and money run in circles.

The book has a serious dialogue about how bank boards have corporate executives sitting on their boards and how this incestuous relationship is nearly as bad as the political aspects of banking in America. The internal financial mechanism in many commercial banks is broken and out authors explain how this happens so often. The off-balance sheet obligations of banks in the 1990s is also discussed at length.

L. Winslow is an Economic, Political and Technology Advisor to the Online Think Tank, a Futurist and retired entrepreneur http://www.worldthinktank.net . Currently Mr. Winslow is planning a bicycle ride from Canada to Mexico and in Spring across the US from San Diego to Virginia Beach to raise money for charity. Previously he was a track star athlete, private pilot, involved in politics, community volunteerism and a Franchising Founder. Mr. Winslow has choosen 100 titles of Books he wishes to write and has completed ten thus far. The subjects include; Community Planning, Future Tech, Franchising, Small Business, and Third World Issues.

History Of Internet Banking

2007-11-16T05:17:00.001-08:00

We all know about internet banking and most of us use it quite often as well, but few of us actually understand about the history of internet banking and how it all came out. Knowing the history of internet banking can be incredibly useful, especially since it will allow you to have more respect for the little things that you take for granted.

How it All Began

Computers themselves have really come an enormous way since their initial establishment, as the earliest electronic computers were so large that they would take up the entire area of a room, while today some are so small that they can hardly be seen at all.

In today's world, computers play an incredibly large role in the way the world exists in general, and the majority of tasks could actually not be completed if not for the use of computers. Although there are certainly some areas and jobs that cannot yet be completed solely by computers and which thus still require actual manpower, for the most part, computers have helped to make life significantly easier, productive, and more convenient for us all.

The history of Internet banking obviously begins with the history of the Internet, which is notoriously known throughout the world now as a household name, but which actually did not even exist too long ago.

Although the term Internet was first adopted around the year 1974, it wasn't until the 1990s that the Internet became a really universal adoption. The Internet grew incredibly throughout the 90s, and as it continued to grow, various different search engines and Web directories were created in order to assist Web browsers, as well to track pages on the Web and allow people to find things more easily.

Internet banking has been around for quite a few years now, but has really only become prominent over the past year or so in particular. Internet banking offers an array of different advantages to the user, including: account balances and history including year-to-date information, the ability to transfer money from one account to another and to payees for bill payments, check history, reorders, and stop payments, check credit card balances and statements, complete online loan applications, secure interactive messaging with staff, and much more.

Internet banking basically allows you to be able to do everything that you can in your regular banking institution, only with the benefit that you can do it all right from the convenience of your own home. Not only is this great because you can be comfortable and have peace of mind knowing that you can keep track yourself of all your banking issues, but as well it allows for more ease because you never have to worry about rushing out and making it to the bank in time, as you can complete Internet banking tasks around the clock.

Sandra Stammberger owns and operates http://www.webinternetbanking.com

Building A Proper CV With Project Banking Positions

2007-11-16T05:09:00.000-08:00

In the world of high finance and banking, skills and intelligence are close behind experience in the most important aspects of a successful career. Bankers and financial planners alike who have been in the banking field for decades would be the first to tell young professionals that taking advantage of unique opportunities early on in their careers leads to a better skill set. Graduates often want to leap into the work force in order to pay off their debts, get settled into their new life as professionals, and start on their career path. However, the job market for bankers and other banking professionals can lead to frustration and apathy by even the most determined graduates.

In order to avoid the rigors of the job hunt and develop the experiences sought after by banks in the United Kingdom and Europe, banking and finance graduates should seek project positions. Project positions can range from a month long assignment helping audit the various accounts of a major international client to a year long assignment managing customer service representatives. These types of experiences are ideal for new graduates who have all of the knowledge needed for banking jobs but little of the wisdom in developing a strong career.

Graduates and experienced professionals looking for project banking positions should look at recruiting agencies for job leads. Top flight companies in the UK and Europe look to such agencies to meet their personnel needs. Recruiting agencies throughout the UK and Europe are constantly looking for quality professionals for banking positions around the European continent. Typically, the recruiting process for a banking applicant to be placed into a high quality job includes an initial application, a preliminary interview, assessment, training, and placement with ongoing professional development.

When a recruiter finds an applicant that would benefit the most from a particular job opening, they call up the recruit and conduct a preliminary phone interview. Some companies are turning to online forms in order to create a more efficient initial assessment of skills. Candidates who demonstrate good interpersonal skills and potential in the phone interview are typically invited to the agency for a series of interviews. These interviews fall into one-on-one and group sessions where applicants are asked how they would deal with various scenarios in the workplace.

As well, psychometric testing and personality testing can help recruiters find the right fit between an employer and employee. Banking professionals who want to find the right job need to consult with a recruiting agency that will work on their own behalf. Agencies can save time for aspiring professionals while providing them exclusive job leads and ongoing professional development.

Roger Dursley is the Managing Director of iTS European, a specialist IT recruitment agency in the UK. iTS European focus on jobs in Europe and IT recruitment services.

Six Sigma In The Banking Industry

2007-11-14T04:56:00.001-08:00

Define:

Measure

Analyze

Improve

Control

Six Sigma methodology has been successfully implemented by banks in last few decades to improve service delivery and customer satisfaction.

UK Banking Crisis - Nothern Rock Seeks Help from Central Bank

2007-11-14T04:55:00.000-08:00

Northern Rock, one of Britian's largest mortgage banks is expected to receive emergency funding from the Bank of England today for possibly more than £4 billion ($8 billions), as the mortgage bank runs out of cash and is unable to obtain credit on the interbank money market due to the ongoing liquidity squeeze and the banks own sizeable subprime mortgage book risks. As with the earlier emergency funding of barclays, the rate charged by the Bank of England is expected to be significantly higher than the 5.75% base rate, possibly around 6.75%.

The share price is down by 50% from highs set barely 6 months ago, the current PE of 6.75 is expected to rise on profit warnings and bad debt provisions to above the recent range of 14 to 17. Technically, the chart looks oversold, but there may be blood on the street as some panic grips stock holders which may send the stock to a new multi-year low on today's open as there is a risk of a run on the bank as savers make panic withdrawals.

The Market Oracle specifically warned investors and savers of the growing problems facing Northern Rock due to the size of its subprime mortgage book and the US subprime induced credit crunch on the 22nd of August 07 UK Housing Market Crash of 2007 - 2008 and Steps to Protect Your Wealth.

Investors : " Trading on a PE of just 7.5 and a yield of 4% may now make the stock seem enticing, but the mark down is in anticipation of the much higher risk of mortgage defaults and repossessions in the UK as the housing market starts to nose dive. These repossessions (foreclosures) are already hitting the likes of northern rock with expectations of a tripling in the rate over the next 6 months as compared with the same period last year. This surge in repossessions will impact the earnings of the UK Mortgage banks as they make every larger bad debt provisions and issue profit warnings.

This is in addition to any toxic US Sub prime related exposure. Therefore in Northern Rock's case a PE of 7.5 could jump many fold in a worse case scenario. " - Nadeem Walayat, 22nd August 07

Savers : " Invest in Fixed Interest Bonds issued by large strong banks , avoid issues from mortgage banks such as Northern Rock. Keep in mind that In the UK savers have protection at 90% of holdings of the first 35k of investments in fixed bonds and savings accounts so bare that limit in mind." - Nadeem Walayat, 22nd August 07

Are my Savings Safe ?

Absolutely, 100% Safe!, well okay only the first £2000 is 100% safe under the UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), then the next £33,000 is protected at 90%. Therefore, the maximum safety net is for £31,700 covering total deposits of £35,000, thus you could say it is highly prudent to ensure that you do not have savings of more than £35,000 with the Northern Rock or any other UK financial institution. Off course avoiding the mortgage banks with large UK subprime exposure altogether would be an even more prudent move. But for the average savings punter, there is little need to start panicking and seeking to transfer out your £3k Cash ISA accounts, other than for a higher interest rate elsewhere.

Unfortunately this is just the tip of the UK Subprime housing bust cycle Iceberg, as the credit crunch has barely begun to bite ! These are but mere credit crunch nibbles for the market participants to snack upon.

The real bites will come as the financial institutions post their quarterly earnings reports, that's starting in October 2007. The expectations are for at least 3 quarters of deteriorating market conditions. The UK property market as anticipated has now peaked, and the credit crunch liquidity squeeze literally ensures a downward spiral well into Mid 2008.

Can the Bank of England do Anything to Avoid the Inevitable ?

It appears that the central banks have learned some lessons from the last liquidity boom. I say it appears that they have, but appearances can be deceptive! What is likely to happen is that the central banks will tow a tough line for some months, i.e. release liquidity at high rates of interest to ensure banks don't default. But as the economies start to tank under the mounting bad debts crisis, the central banks such as the BOE will bend to the politicians, especially in the lead up to elections by making money much cheaper. This will result in higher inflation, higher commodity prices, and maybe a year or so from now the word stagflation will be hitting the headlines with regular frequency.

What else should I do now ?

I am not going to start pointing the finger at all of the likely candidates for banks that could go bust during the downward spiral. But the strategy of what to do to protect yourselves is clear and and listed in the previous article UK Housing Market Crash of 2007 - 2008 and Steps to Protect Your Wealth .

However, I could add additional pointers such as paying down your debt, cutting household expenditure and diversifying your sources of income, which is easier said then done. But this financial 'problem' is not going to go away anytime soon, and decisions by individuals exposed to the housing market need to be made now rather than be forced upon through circumstance.

Originally Published 13th September 2007

By Nadeem Walayat

The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Forecasting & Analysis online publication. We present in-depth analysis from over 100 experienced analysts on a range of views of the probable direction of the financial markets. Thus enabling our readers to arrive at an informed opinion on future market direction. http://www.marketoracle.co.uk

Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors before engaging in any trading activities.

History Of Internet Banking

2007-11-14T04:54:00.002-08:00

How it All Began

Sandra Stammberger owns and operates http://www.webinternetbanking.com

How Good Is Offshore Banking

2007-11-14T04:54:00.001-08:00

The concept of establishing a second residence in some other part of the world is fiercely catching on the mass fancies today. It’s often considered a great step and fall-back option for any future unforeseen necessity. Quite in keeping with its pace, offshore banking has made its presence felt among the young and intelligent of 21st century. Many are taking to banking offshore while enjoying changing places at the blink of an eye. But the question remains, how good is that? Does offshore banking really live up to all the promises it bears?

Well, to say the least, offshore banking has immense potential. If you’re one of those who change job or the city quite frequently, then this perhaps fits your bill the best. You can keep your bank constant even if you’re on the move. Wherever you go, you will always have an access to your money and your bank account through offshore banking. If you use any specific bank in one country, you may find it difficult to access your money abroad or may have to unwillingly pay charges on every transaction. You may also not be able to reach your account in some countries. Offshore banking takes care of all these and ensures your money anytime anywhere.

This kind of banking has become popular also because it exempts you from paying high taxes. Moving your money to another bank in another country other than your native place can save you a lot of tax. This is quite a legal way of avoiding taxes, given that you first abide by the tax laws of your own country.

Then there is the benefit of being accessible to the world market through an offshore bank account. You will be able to invest in more number of products and services across the world if you do offshore banking.

Alternatively, you may just use this as a savings account. Although you can use an offshore account to make big investments like buying insurance or loans, you may choose not to go that way and keep it just as a source of readily available cash in any part of the world.

However, this mode of banking is not free of risks, no matter how little they are. You first need to ensure that you are abiding by the tax laws of your country. Take legal advice before you commit to an offshore account or set up an offshore company You will also be required to deposit a big sum to have this account and your money can be at stake if anything goes wrong in that country. So think and analyze carefully before going for it. And when you are cent percent sure, your offshore bank account can do you a lot of good.

Wain Roy is an internet marketing professional expert in various industries like real estate, web design, finance, medical tourism, Canadian pharmacy drug and offshore banking

Building A Proper CV With Project Banking Positions

2007-11-14T04:48:00.000-08:00

Roger Dursley is the Managing Director of iTS European, a specialist IT recruitment agency in the UK. iTS European focus on jobs in Europe and IT recruitment services.

Florida Department Of Banking And Finance

2007-11-07T02:20:00.001-08:00

The Florida Department of Banking and Finance provides Florida consumers with information and education they need to make informed financial decisions. For example, some of its important services can be listed as follows.

Consumer assistance and answers to general insurance and financial questions are available through our toll-free help line. These help lines are available through regional service offices or website. The Florida Department of Banking and Finance claims that each year, our specialists handle more than 450,000 consumer calls.
The regional services offices are located strategically throughout the state and provide consumers with access to one-on-one guidance regarding insurance and financial issues.
The Florida Department of Banking and Finance offers free community outreach programs that reach thousands of Floridians each year.
The department has also partnered with the Department of Elder Affairs to conduct a special outreach program helping seniors with their insurance concerns. This is known as SHINE, in short. The abbreviation is Serving Health Insurance Needs of Elders.
The Florida Department of Banking and Finance also offers free consumer guides. They do not take a single penny from the consumer for making the guide available to them. The consumer guide has been made available by the Department on a range of topics relevant to today's insurance and finance markets. If you want to have that consumer guide, the best way is to order or review it online. What is more, you can also get the printout of the online consumers guide.

John Gutenburg has written many more articles about banks and loans.

The Advantages Of Online Banking

2007-11-07T02:17:00.000-08:00

Online banking uses computer technology to relieve the consumer of the paper based and time consuming aspects of traditional banking, which allows people to manage their finances efficiently and quickly. Sometime online banking is called electronic banking, Internet banking or home banking. With the help of the internet, banks have started utilizing powerful computer networks for automating large numbers of daily transactions, which minimizes the time consuming manual paper work and giving access to many different banking services to its clients instantly, on demand, at home or at work.

With the help online banking the banks have the power to attract the new and potential customers by giving them an opportunity to eradicate time consuming teller interactions and has therefore become a significant competitive weapon in an increasingly over supplied banking environment. Online banking allows day to day transactions over the Internet through a secure bank website. With the help of online banking one can have access to money and banking functions anytime and anywhere, where there is internet access.

One advantage of these online banks is that they remain available all the time unlike the traditional banks, which are open only within office hours. If the consumer is out of town and he needs money, then he can log on quickly to his banks website and take care of the required business, such as paying a pressing utility bill. Also the individual can manage and access all of the aspects of bank accounts like CDs, IRAs securities from one protected website. Increasingly banks are using online access to bundle access to stock brokerage and other financial services.

The speed employed by the online banks for executing and confirming the transactions is faster than the traditional speed of ATM processing. Also various features are included in online bank websites. These features such as stock quotes, account aggregation, programs for managing portfolio and rate alerts assist the customers in organizing all their assets easily and efficiently. This technology has seen a tremendous increment in usage, as more and more big national banks and various other banks in smaller regions, have started some form of online banking to provide convenience to their customers. In fact it is rare today to find a significant bank without a comprehensive online presence.

The online banking mechanism is fast and relatively secure compared to the traditional banks operations because of automation of the manual aspects of banking practice, which is time consuming. It is interesting to note that often a modern internet banking facility is built as a front end to an older legacy banking system. Banks are loath to change something that they know works, when millions of dollars flow through the system.

Apart from various benefits, there are also some downfalls of online banking as online crime is increasing day by day. A few computer glitches which have revealed individuals personal details have been occurring, sometimes at third party processors. Therefore one must check the security of the website, while conducting business online as any leak of passwords to the wrong person may have adverse effects. Also one should make sure to log out after finishing the session. The computers security system should be sound enough to maintain privacy of personal information. But still, we can say that Internet banking is really a boom to the customers in accessing and managing their account effectively, anytime and almost anywhere.

Frank Reed owns and operates http://www.myonlinebankingservices.com

The Foundation Of Modern Banking

2007-11-05T00:28:00.001-08:00

I was very fortunate some time back, in having the opportunity of reading an extremely rare four volume set of the works of the Russian economist Nikolai Kondratiev. Nikolai Kondratiev was undoubtedly one of the greatest Russian economists of all time and was the first person to carry out a systematic investigation into the existence of long cycles in the world economy.

Kondratiev’s works eventually fell out of favour with the Soviet authorities and were banned. Kondratiev’s daughter, however, managed to smuggle his papers out of the Soviet Union and they were finally passed to one of the large language translation agencies for translation and eventual publication.

No long cycle, however, would be possible without the worlds banking infrastructure and the creation of money. The creation and lending of money by banks is made possible by the use of Fractional Reserve Banking. And we will look at its history and workings here.

Banking per se, started during the middle ages. It was started by goldsmiths to whom people would entrust their gold for safekeeping. The goldsmiths would issue a receipt to the depositor for the amount deposited and eventually these redeemable receipts were used as an accepted form of payment between people to settle debts.

They were readily accepted because everyone knew that if they wanted to, they could actually go to the goldsmith and exchange the receipt for the stated amount of gold. In effect the depositary receipts became the prototype of our modern banknotes and every note was backed by physical gold.

It did not take the goldsmiths long, however, to notice that the incidence of people actually redeeming gold against their receipts had dwindled to a very low level. Because of this they discovered that they could make loans and earn interest on these loans by issuing out more receipts than they had gold to cover for and that as long as they kept the ratio of receipts to gold at 10 to 1, they would be able to cover the occasional demand for physical gold…in effect they had created money from thin air and created the Fractional Reserve Banking System.

Today’s banks do exactly the same thing, but since 1971, when the last country in the world to guarantee their paper money with gold (the USA), came off the gold standard, no paper money is guaranteed by anything but a government promise…this is known as a fiat currency. Fractional reserve banking has both its champions and its detractors…its champions argue that without the expansion of a country’s money supply, a country cannot grow its economy and trade efficiently with other nations, thus there would be none of the economic cycles that Kondratiev spoke of and analysed.

Fractional Reserve detractors argue that creating money that is backed by no more than a government’s promise is a recipe for disaster, as governments are always liable to print much more money that is expedient, in order to alleviate their overspending…besides, they say, how many of us trust any government’s promise?

Jack Waley-Cohen is the Operations director of Lingo24 document translations company in London, a provider of high quality financial translations .

Confidence In The Banking System Is Paramount - Can We Trust Those Entrusted?

2007-11-05T00:27:00.001-08:00

"Money in the Bank - How Safe is It?" by A. Robert Abboud, William G Schopf and Geoffrey N. Smith - 1988. Sanctioned by the Bank Administration Institute.

What Is So Great About Online Banking

2007-11-03T03:10:00.003-07:00

All of us, whether we like it or not, have to manage our finances. These days, many people opt for online banking as their preferred method of handling their bank accounts. But what makes online banking so attractive to so many people? Here are a few of the advantages that make online banking such a hit.

Some people have a fear of online banking, wondering how the banks manage to keep Internet pirates from grabbing access codes and making off with the money. Financial institutions in particular have a number of checkpoints that make it virtually impossible for someone to grab your credentials. In fact, your bank accounts are probably safer today since the advent of online banking than they were just twenty years ago.

Perhaps the single most attractive feature of online banking is the fact that you can access your accounts any time of the day or night. This feature allows you to check on available balances any time you like. You can know if a check or some other sort of debit has cleared your account, see if any pending deposits have been posted, and verify your balance at a time that is convenient for you. As an added bonus, you can transfer funds from one account to another, with the greatest of ease.

Many online banking packages also have a package you may use to create and mail checks directly from your account, rather than you having to do the checks manually. Basically, you establish a profile on each of the vendors you wish to pay with an electronic check. When you are ready to do your monthly bills, you simply log into your account, pull up the information on the vendor, and authorize a payment in the amount you wish. The check is printed and mailed on your behalf. Many people find the process takes them a fraction of the time it takes to write out a check by hand, address an envelope, lick a stamp, and then mail the payment.

Online banking also encompasses the ability to set up recurring payments. It is possible to establish electronic transfers from your account directly to your vendors each month. This process allows you to not even have to worry about whether or not the phone bill has been received and paid. Of course, you can change the status of a recurring payment any time you wish, and online banking systems always allow you to see what recurring payments have been processed in your current billing cycle.

Online banking can be a great help to anyone who would rather spend time in ways other than standing in line at the bank, or arranging your schedule to accommodate the hours that a bank is open. If you do not currently utilize online banking, contact your financial institution today. You may be surprised in the many ways online banking will make your life easier.

Craig Thornburrow is an acknowledged expert in his field. You can get more free advice on online banking and Barclays online banking services at http://www.onlinebankingadvice.com

Top Offshore Banking - Is It For You?

2007-11-03T03:10:00.001-07:00

Amendments have recently been made to legislation in the Bahamas to allow for the formation of Private Trust Companies. This is a demonstration of the government's commitment to the delivery of superior financial services to all clients.

The government is in talks with stockholders including International Trust Companies and Banks, The Bahamas Financial Services Board and other financial institutions. Recently a seminar was held to discuss the review and use of legislation as it pertains to Private Trust Companies.

Private Trust Companies are formed for the purpose of acting as trustees of single trusts. The majority of the world's wealth is held by private individuals and their families. Private Wealth Management is about the preservation of that wealth. Private Wealth Management for families involves the creation of programs to generate wealth, control the transfer of wealth from one generation to the next and protect wealth from predators. These services are normally geared towards individuals with a high net worth.

Most international banks offer a special rate of interest to wealthier private depositors and call it private banking. Minimums have dropped to under $10,000 in many cases. Many institutions are catering for the client with $20,000 to invest in the hope that they will have $200,000 or $2 million to invest in the future.

A top offshore banking investment or private offshore investment normally means investment management offered on a personal level to the company or individual with disposable wealth exceeding $100,000. You should take care when you are thinking of opening a private bank account. You need to be sure that it is the sort of bank that you would like to do business with. Offshore banking is not the same as private banking. You need to know the difference. Find out what banks hope to gain from your investment before you open any type of account.

Private banking does not necessarily indicate investment. Banks like to lend money to wealthy people. If you deposit money with a private bank that is not accompanied by borrowing or lending you are not likely to be charged a fee. In the majority of cases these banks will be hoping for more involvement from wealthy depositors in the future.

Wealthy individuals are normally bombarded by offers from many different banks wanting them to deposit their money with their institution. Your residential status will normally affect whether you choose an offshore banking investment or a conventional banking investment. If you plan to reside in a high tax area or plan to do so in the future then you will probably strive to make an investment with an offshore bank.

Before you become involved with a bank you should try and find out everything about it. You will be able to choose the right bank for your specific needs after you have looked into what each bank can offer you.

Learn about Top Offshore Banking, top offshore investment and top offshore company formation at http://www.top-offshore.com

Online Internet Banking - What Are You Waiting For?

2007-11-03T03:09:00.001-07:00

Just as people were hesitant to shop online due to concerns about security, individuals are hesitant to transfer their banking activity online. This is understandable. There is a certain comfort level in being able to drive to your nearest bank branch, sit down with a banker and review your account information. But with the internet, these barriers break down over time and the level of comfort improves. For instance ebay has become a household term and internet shopping has taken off. If you are under the age of 45 you have most certainly purchased something online.

Well it is time to consider online banking. I am not saying that you should go out and transfer all of your money from your Bank of America account to an internet bank like those offered by eTrade or Ing but you should consider transferring a portion of your savings. After all, 4.75% Interest rates on checking accounts are nothing to sneeze at. Your traditional bank interest rate is likely to be around 1% if not less.

Online banks offer other great features as well. Most notably, in an attempt to attract customers, in addition to high interest checking and money market accounts, online banks offer ATM fee reimbursement. This means that you can go to any ATM in the world, withdraw cash from your account, and your internet bank will reimburse you the fee charged by the operator of the ATM. So even if you bank with a mega-bank like Bank of America with ATMs across the country, you will still not have the access to ATM's like with many of the internet banks.

Your funds are FDIC insured with internet banks just as with your traditional banks so you can be reasonably assured that your money is safe. Chances are you are already using bill pay and other online banking services at your traditional bank so take your banking to the next level and start putting you money to work . . . harder!

Albo Bens is a Personal Finance guru who wants to see you succeed financially. Get more information about personal finance and high interest internet checking resources.

UK Banking Crisis - Nothern Rock Seeks Help from Central Bank

2007-11-02T03:37:00.001-07:00

This is in addition to any toxic US Sub prime related exposure. Therefore in Northern Rock's case a PE of 7.5 could jump many fold in a worse case scenario. " - Nadeem Walayat, 22nd August 07

Are my Savings Safe ?

Can the Bank of England do Anything to Avoid the Inevitable ?

What else should I do now ?

Originally Published 13th September 2007

By Nadeem Walayat

Importance of SSL Certificates on Banking Websites

2007-11-02T03:36:00.000-07:00

It is possible for every piece of data to be seen by others unless it is secured by an SSL Certificate. Your customers won't trust your web site without it.

Why banks need SSL?

SSL Certificates are essential factor to gain Customers' confidence in your Services and Brand......

SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer, which allows online users to create sessions with Internet sites that are safe and secure i.e. they have the least risk of external contravention. In an Online Banking website, the customers can only be secure with the use of SSL technology. An SSL Certificate ensures that all data passed between the Web server and browser remains private and secure.

To make online banking safe for its Customers all the banks must have SSL Certificates. SSL Certificates is the only answers to questions such as - Will my money be safe? Can someone steal my Personal information?, Can someone access funds or track my transactions?, Could a thief find a way to clean out my bank account?

Thus all the banking websites need SSL Certificates -

• To enhance Customers' Confidence in your Website.
• To get accepted globally - expand clientele from all over the world.
• SSL is mandatory for sites collecting personal or financial information from their customers.
• Most of the consumers now expect safety & security to the part of online services they use.
• You value privacy and expect others to trust you.
• Banks need to comply with privacy and online security requirements.
• SSL is a necessity if you have offices that share confidential information over an intranet.
• The most important is to protect your customer's transactions and provide visitors with proof of your digital identity.

What happens if a bank does not use SSL, What are the risks involved?

Customers are very careful while doing online banking. They are aware of SSL and check for HTTPS before logging in to the website. SSL, Secure Socket Layer is extremely essential for any website, which is collecting sensitive information like personal information, credit card numbers online. Especially banking websites should have SSL Certificates to secure the online transactions of their customer.

Consequences for not deploying SSL certificates on banking website are -

• Customer may rebuff to expose his bank account details to the Internet.
• Hackers and criminals may track the valuable information.
• You can lose a potential customer.
• Customers may loose faith and may go to some other bank.
• Non-availability of SSL on any Banking Website may affect its brand image or Goodwill.

What is SSL Certificate?

SSL (secure sockets layer) is a communications protocol, which is now the global standard for security SSL creates an encrypted link between a web server and a web browser to ensure that all data transmitted remains private and secure. The Secure Sockets Layer protects data transferred over http using encryption enabled by a server's SSL Certificate

SSL uses a cryptographic system that uses two keys to encrypt data - a public key known to everyone and a private or secret key known only to the recipient of the message. The public key is used to encrypt information and the private key is used to decipher it. When a Web browser points to a secured domain, a Secure Sockets Layer handshake authenticates the server (Web site) and the client (Web browser). An encryption method is established with a unique session key.

http://www.sslgenie.com , the trusted Global Certification Authority for SSL, recommends its PremiumSSLGenie Package for SSL for banking website.

Offshore Investment Banking in Switzerland

2007-11-01T04:10:00.000-07:00

Switzerland has been the world's largest offshore tax haven for some time. For wealthier individuals there are guarantees and assurances that other offshore banking jurisdictions do not have. They are specifically designed for the ultra wealthy.

Swiss banks are also regarded by far as the most secure and stable as they have the safest asset holdings along with the asset prosperity provided to their clients. This makes opening an investment bank account with a Swiss bank all the more enticing for those who are privileged. When a Swiss bank account is opened, the individual opening the account will be privy to undisputed personal service and wealth protection which is unmatched by any other Bank in the world.

The opening of a Swiss bank account is far simpler than you might think. Even many of the most prestigious offshore Swiss banks have simple application processes. You will be able to do the all the same account transactions as you can onshore.

Indeed opening an offshore investment account in Switzerland is the most important step you can take for both wealth growth and wealth protection.

Opening a Swiss bank account with deposits in the range of $300,000 would be best to set up in person. Some Swiss banks will send out their own representative for large sums to deposit at a clients place of choice. If you are setting up a Swiss bank account through the mail, you will first be required to follow these steps:

Request the forms you will need to open the account.
Have your signature verified at a Swiss Consulate, or by visiting any affiliated banks in Switzerland.

The procedure to open a Swiss bank account is similar in nature to opening a securities account with a few procedural policies in place, which is the same as what any financial institution goes through.

Swiss bankers have always had a solid reputation for managing many different investment portfolios and as such provide the following services:

Investment planning
Estate planning
Wealth management
Trust company establishment
Gold numismatics
Derivatives
Confidential brokerage accounts

To ensure your privacy and confidentiality, every Swiss banking employee must sign the bank act's secrecy portion as a condition of their employment. Of special note, the banking act also stipulates that it is a criminal offence, with a possible jail sentence imposed for any employee or agent of the bank, if they have been found to divulge any confidential information at any time. In cases put before the courts and in general banking practices, this portion of the banking law has stipulated it is a serious offense, punishable by both fines and jail time, to divulge any customer information to any third party. This includes official requests from foreign governments. This makes opening an offshore investment bank account in Switzerland all the more attractive.

To open a Swiss investment account, the following requirements must be met: by most Swiss banks:

$300,000 minimum opening balance in order to establish an account.
A notarized copy of your passport.
Reference letters from two different sources.
Every client is required to fill out a "know your client" form.
A signed 'Source of Funds' form must be filled out by each applicant.

Once these requirements are met by the individual or offshore company, the account can then be set up at the Swiss investment bank.

Richard Price is the publisher of http://www.confidentialbanking.com, a resource and service for those seeking offshore banking services, and http://www.confidentialbanking.co.uk, offshore banking services for UK citizens.

Frauds in Banking Sector - Prevention and Control

2007-11-01T04:08:00.000-07:00

INTRODUCTION

Banking Fraud is posing threat to Indian Economy. Its vibrant effect can be understood be the fact that in the year 2004 number of Cyber Crime were 347 in India which rose to 481 in 2005 showing an increase of 38.5% while I.P.C. category crime stood at 302 in 2005 including 186 cases of cyber fraud and 68 cases cyber forgery. Thus it becomes very important that occurrence of such frauds should be minimized. More upsetting is the fact that such frauds are entering in Banking Sector as well.

In the present day, Global Scenario Banking System has acquired new dimensions. Banking did spread in India. Today, the banking system has entered into competitive markets in areas covering resource mobilization, human resource development, customer services and credit management as well.

Indian’s banking system has several outstanding achievements to its credit, the most striking of which is its reach. In fact, Indian banks are now spread out into the remotest areas of our country. Indian banking, which was operating in a highly comfortable and protected environment till the beginning of 1990s, has been pushed into the choppy waters of intense competition.

A sound banking system should possess three basic characteristics to protect depositor’s interest and public faith. Theses are (i) a fraud free culture, (ii) a time tested Best Practice Code, and (iii) an in house immediate grievance remedial system. All these conditions are their missing or extremely weak in India. Section 5(b) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 defines banking… “Banking is the accepting for the purpose of lending or investment, deposits of money from the purpose of lending or investment, deposits of money from the public, repayable on demand or otherwise and withdraw able by cheque, draft, order or otherwise.” But if his money has fraudulently been drawn from the bank the latter is under strict obligation to pay the depositor. The bank therefore has to ensure at all times that the money of the depositors is not drawn fraudulently. Time has come when the security aspects of the banks have to be dealt on priority basis.

The banking system in our country has been taking care of all segments of our socio-economic set up. The Article contains a discussion on the rise of banking frauds and various methods that can be used to avoid such frauds. A bank fraud is a deliberate act of omission or commission by any person carried out in the course of banking transactions or in the books of accounts, resulting in wrongful gain to any person for a temporary period or otherwise, with or without any monetary loss to the bank. The relevant provisions of Indian Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code, Indian Contract Act, and Negotiable Instruments Act relating to banking frauds has been cited in the present Article.

EVOLUTION OF BANKING SYSTEM IN INDIA

Banking system occupies an important place in a nation’s economy. A banking institution is indispensable in a modern society. It plays a pivotal role in economic development of a country and forms the core of the money market in an advanced country.

Banking industry in India has traversed a long way to assume its present stature. It has undergone a major structural transformation after the nationalization of 14 major commercial banks in 1969 and 6 more on 15 April 1980.

RESERVE BANK OF INDIA-ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL OBJECTIVE

The Reserve Bank of India has an important role to play in the maintenance of the exchange value of the rupee in view of the close interdependence of international trade and national economic growth and well being. This aspect is of the wider responsibly of the central bank for the maintenance of economic and financial stability. For this the bank is entrusted with the custody and the management of country’s international reserves; it acts also as the agent of the government in respect of India’s membership of the international monetary fund. With economic development the bank also performs a variety of developmental and promotional functions which in the past were registered being outside the normal purview of central banking. It also acts an important regulator.

BANK FRAUDS: CONCEPT AND DIMENSIONS

Banks are the engines that drive the operations in the financial sector, which is vital for the economy. With the nationalization of banks in 1969, they also have emerged as engines for social change. After Independence, the banks have passed through three stages. They have moved from the character based lending to ideology based lending to today competitiveness based lending in the context of India's economic liberalization policies and the process of linking with the global economy.

While the operations of the bank have become increasingly significant banking frauds in banks are also increasing and fraudsters are becoming more and more sophisticated and ingenious. In a bid to keep pace with the changing times, the banking sector has diversified it business manifold. And the old philosophy of class banking has been replaced by mass banking. The challenge in management of social responsibility with economic viability has increased.

DEFINITION OF FRAUD

Fraud is defined as “any behavior by which one person intends to gain a dishonest advantage over another”. In other words , fraud is an act or omission which is intended to cause wrongful gain to one person and wrongful loss to the other, either by way of concealment of facts or otherwise.

Fraud is defined u/s 421 of the Indian Penal Code and u/s 17 of the Indian Contract Act. Thus essential elements of frauds are:

1. There must be a representation and assertion;
2. It must relate to a fact;
3. It must be with the knowledge that it is false or without belief in its truth; and
4. It must induce another to act upon the assertion in question or to do or not to do certain act.

BANK FRAUDS

Losses sustained by banks as a result of frauds exceed the losses due to robbery, dacoity, burglary and theft-all put together. Unauthorized credit facilities are extended for illegal gratification such as case credit allowed against pledge of goods, hypothecation of goods against bills or against book debts. Common modus operandi are, pledging of spurious goods, inletting the value of goods, hypothecating goods to more than one bank, fraudulent removal of goods with the knowledge and connivance of in negligence of bank staff, pledging of goods belonging to a third party.

An analysis made of cases brings out broadly the under mentioned four major elements responsible for the commission of frauds in banks.

1. Active involvement of the staff-both supervisor and clerical either independent of external elements or in connivance with outsiders.
2. Failure on the part of the bank staff to follow meticulously laid down instructions and guidelines.
3. External elements perpetuating frauds on banks by forgeries or manipulations of cheques, drafts and other instruments.
4. There has been a growing collusion between business, top banks executives, civil servants and politicians in power to defraud the banks, by getting the rules bent, regulations flouted and banking norms thrown to the winds.

FRAUDS-PREVENTION AND DETECTION

A close study of any fraud in bank reveals many common basic features. There may have been negligence or dishonesty at some stage, on part of one or more of the bank employees. One of them may have colluded with the borrower. The bank official may have been putting up with the borrower’s sharp practices for a personal gain. The proper care which was expected of the staff, as custodians of banks interest may not have been taken. The bank’s rules and procedures laid down in the Manual instructions and the circulars may not have been observed or may have been deliberately ignored.

Bank frauds are the failure of the banker. It does not mean that the external frauds do not defraud banks. But if the banker is upright and knows his job, the task of defrauder will become extremely difficult, if not possible.

Detection of Frauds

Despite all care and vigilance there may still be some frauds, though their number, periodicity and intensity may be considerably reduced. The following procedure would be very helpful if taken into consideration:

1. All relevant data-papers, documents etc. Should be promptly collected. Original vouchers or other papers forming the basis of the investigation should be kept under lock and key.
2. All persons in the bank who may be knowing something about the time, place a modus operandi of the fraud should be examined and their statements should be recorded.
3. The probable order of events should thereafter be reconstructed by the officer, in his own mind.
4. It is advisable to keep the central office informed about the fraud and further developments in regard thereto.

Classification of Frauds and Action Required by Banks

The Reserve Bank of India had set-up a high level committee in 1992 which was headed by Mr. A. Ghosh, the then Dy. Governor Reserve Bank of India to inquire into various aspects relating to frauds malpractice in banks. The committee had noticed/observed three major causes for perpetration of fraud as given hereunder:

1. Laxity in observance of the laid down system and procedures by operational and supervising staff.
2. Over confidence reposed in the clients who indulged in breach of trust.
3. Unscrupulous clients by taking advantages of the laxity in observance of established, time tested safeguards also committed frauds.

In order to have uniformity in reporting cases of frauds, RBI considered the question of classification of bank frauds on the basis of the provisions of the IPC. Given below are the Provisions and their Remedial measures that can be taken.

1. Cheating (Section 415, IPC)
Remedial Measures.
The preventive measures in respect of the cheating can be concentrated on cross-checking regarding identity, genuineness, verification of particulars, etc. in respect of various instruments as well as persons involved in encashment or dealing with the property of the bank.

2. Criminal misappropriation of property (Section 403 IPC).
Remedial Measure
Criminal misappropriation of property, presuppose the custody or control of funds or property, so subjected, with that of the person committing such frauds. Preventive measures, for this class of fraud should be taken at the level the custody or control of the funds or property of the bank generally vests. Such a measure should be sufficient, it is extended to these persons who are actually handling or having actual custody or control of the fund or movable properties of the bank.

3. Criminal breach of trust (Section 405, IPC)
Remedial Measure
Care should be taken from the initial step when a person comes to the bank. Care needs to be taken at the time of recruitment in bank as well.

4. Forgery (Section 463, IPC)
Remedial Measure
Both the prevention and detection of frauds through forgery are important for a bank. Forgery of signatures is the most frequent fraud in banking business. The bank should take special care when the instrument has been presented either bearer or order; in case a bank pays forged instrument he would be liable for the loss to the genuine costumer.

5. Falsification of accounts (Section 477A)
Remedial Measure
Proper diligence is required while filling of forms and accounts. The accounts should be rechecked on daily basis.

6. Theft (Section 378, IPC)
Remedial Measures
Encashment of stolen’ cheque can be prevented if the bank clearly specify the age, sex and two visible identify action marks on the body of the person traveler’s cheques on the back of the cheque leaf. This will help the paying bank to easily identify the cheque holder.

7. Criminal conspiracy (Section 120 A, IPC)
In the case of State of Andhra Pradesh v. IBS Prasad Rao and Other, the accused, who were clerks in a cooperative Central Bank were all convicted of the offences of cheating under Section 420 read along with Section 120 A. all the four accused had conspired together to defraud the bank by making false demand drafts and receipt vouchers.

8. Offences relating to currency notes and banks notes (Section 489 A-489E, IPC) These sections provide for the protection of currency-notes and bank notes from forgery. The offences under section are:
(a) Counterfeiting currency notes or banks.
(b) Selling, buying or using as genuine, forged or counterfeit currency notes or bank notes. Knowing the same to be forged or counterfeit.
(c) Possession of forged or counterfeit currency notes or bank-notes, knowing or counterfeit and intending to use the same as genuine.
(d) Making or passing instruments or materials for forging or counterfeiting currency notes or banks.
(e) Making or using documents resembling currency-notes or bank notes.

Most of the above provisions are Cognizable Offences under Section 2(c) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.

FRAUD PRONE AREAS IN DIFFERENT ACCOUNTS

The following are the potential fraud prone areas in Banking Sector. In addition to those areas I have also given kinds of fraud that are common in these areas.

Savings Bank Accounts

The following are some of the examples being played in respect of savings bank accounts:
(a) Cheques bearing the forged signatures of depositors may be presented and paid.
(b) Specimen signatures of the depositors may be changed, particularly after the death of depositors,
(c) Dormant accounts may be operated by dishonest persons with or without collusion of bank employees, and
(d) Unauthorized withdrawals from customer’s accounts by employee of the bank maintaining the savings ledger and later destruction of the recent vouchers by them.

Current Account Fraud

The following types are likely to be committed in case of current accounts.
(a) Opening of frauds in the names of limited companies or firms by unauthorized persons; (b) Presentation and payment of cheques bearing forged signatures;
(c) Breach of trust by the employees of the companies or firms possessing cheque leaves duly signed by the authorized signatures;
(d) Fraudulent alteration of the amount of the cheques and getting it paid either at the counter or though another bank.

Frauds In Case Of Advances

Following types may be committed in respect of advances:
(a) Spurious gold ornaments may be pledged.
(b) Sub-standard goods may be pledged with the bank or their value may be shown at inflated figures. (c) Same goods may be hypothecated in favour of different banks.

LEGAL REGIME TO CONTROL BANK FRAUDS

Frauds constitute white-collar crime, committed by unscrupulous persons deftly advantage of loopholes existing in systems/procedures. The ideal situation is one there is no fraud, but taking ground realities of the nation’s environment and human nature’s fragility, an institution should always like to keep the overreach of frauds at the minimum occurrence level.

Following are the relevant sections relating to Bank Frauds

Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860)

(a) Section 23 "Wrongful gain".-
"Wrongful gain” is gain by unlawful means of property to which the person gaining is not legally entitled.
(b) "Wrongful loss"
“Wrongful loss" is the loss by unlawful means of property to which the person losing it is legally entitled. (c) Gaining wrongfully. Losing wrongfully-A person is said to gain wrongfully when such person retains wrongfully, as well as when such person acquires wrongfully. A person is said to lose wrongfully when such person is wrongfully kept out of any property, as well as when such person is wrongfully deprived of property.
(d) Section 24. "Dishonestly"
Whoever does anything with the intention of causing wrongful gain to one person or wrongful loss to another person, is said to do that thing "dishonestly".
(e) Section 28. "Counterfeit"
A person is said to "counterfeit" who causes one thing to resemble another thing, intending by means of that resemblance to practice deception, or knowing it to be likely that deception will thereby be practiced.

BREACH OF TRUST

1. Section 408- Criminal breach of trust by clerk or servant.
2. Section 409- Criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent.
3. Section 416- Cheating by personating
4. Section 419- Punishment for cheating by personation.

OFFENCES RELATING TO DOCMENTS

1) Section 463-Forgery
2) Section 464 -Making a false document
3) Section 465- Punishment for forgery.
4) Section 467- Forgery of valuable security, will, etc
5) Section 468- Forgery for purpose of cheating
6) Section 469- Forgery for purpose of harming reputation
7) Section 470- Forged document.
8) Section 471- Using as genuine a forged document
9) Section 477- Fraudulent cancellation, destruction, etc., of will, authority to adopt, or valuable security.
10) Section 477A- Falsification of accounts.

THE RESERVE BANK OF INDIA ACT, 1934

Issue of demand bills and notes Section 31.
Provides that only Bank and except provided by Central Government shall be authorized to draw, accept, make or issue any bill of exchange, hundi, promissory note or engagement for the payment of money payable to bearer on demand, or borrow, owe or take up any sum or sums of money on the bills, hundis or notes payable to bearer on demand of any such person

THE NEGOTIABLE INSTRUMENTS ACT, 1881

Holder’s right to duplicate of lost bill Section 45A.
1. The finder of lost bill or note acquires no title to it. The title remains with the true owner. He is entitled to recover from the true owner.
2. If the finder obtains payment on a lost bill or note in due course, the payee may be able to get a valid discharge for it. But the true owner can recover the money due on the instrument as damages from the finder.

Section 58
When an Instrument is obtained by unlawful means or for unlawful consideration no possessor or indorse who claims through the person who found or so obtained the instrument is entitled to receive the amount due thereon from such maker, acceptor or holder, or from any party prior to such holder, unless such possessor or indorse is, or some person through whom he claims was, a holder thereof in due course.

Section 85:
Cheque payable to order.
1. By this section, bankers are placed in privileged position. It provides that if an order cheque is indorsed by or on behalf of the payee, and the banker on whom it is drawn pays it in due course, the banker is discharged. He can debit his customer with the amount so paid, though the endorsement of the payee might turn out to be a forgery.
2. The claim protection under this section the banker has to prove that the payment was a payment in due course, in good faith and without negligence.

Section 87. Effect of material alteration
Under this section any alteration made without the consent of party would be void. Alteration would be valid only if is made with common intention of the party.

Section 138. Dishonour of cheque for insufficiency, etc., of funds in the account. Where any cheque drawn by a person on an account maintained by him with a banker for payment of any amount of money to another person from out of that account for the discharge, in whole or in part, of any debt or other liability, is returned by the bank unpaid. either because of the amount of money standing to the credit of that account is insufficient to honour the cheque or that it exceeds the amount arranged to be paid from that account by an agreement made with that bank, such person shall be deemed to have committed an offence and shall, without prejudice.

Section 141(1) Offences by companies.
If the person committing an offence under Section 138 is a company, every person who, at the time the offence was committed, was in charge of, and was responsible to, the company for the conduct of the business of the company, as well as the company, shall be deemed to be guilty of the offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

SECURITY REGIME IN BANKING SYSTEM

Security implies sense of safety and of freedom from danger or anxiety. When a banker takes a collateral security, say in the form of gold or a title deed, against the money lent by him, he has a sense of safety and of freedom from anxiety about the possible non-payment of the loan by the borrower. These should be communicated to all strata of the organization through appropriate means. Before staff managers should analyze current practices. Security procedure should be stated explicitly and agreed upon by each user in the specific environment. Such practices ensure information security and enhance availability. Bank security is essentially a defense against unforced attacks by thieves, dacoits and burglars.

PHYSICAL SECURITY MEASURES-CONCEPT

A large part of banks security depends on social security measures. Physical security measures can be defined as those specific and special protective or defensive measures adopted to deter, detect, delay, defend and defeat or to perform any one or more of these functions against culpable acts, both covert and covert and acclamations natural events. The protective or defensive, measures adopted involve construction, installation and deployment of structures, equipment and persons respectively.

The following are few guidelines to check malpractices:

1. To rotate the cash work within the staff.
2. One person should not continue on the same seat for more than two months.
3. Daybook should not be written by the Cashier where an other person is available to the job
4. No cash withdrawal should be allowed within passbook in case of withdrawal by pay order.
5. The branch manager should ensure that all staff members have recorder their presence in the attendance registrar, before starting work.

Execution of Documents

1. A bank officer must adopt a strict professional approach in the execution of documents. The ink and the pen used for the execution must be maintained uniformly.
2. Bank documents should not be typed on a typewriter for execution. These should be invariably handwritten for execution.
3. The execution should always be done in the presence of the officer responsible for obtain them,
4. The borrowers should be asked to sign in full signatures in same style throughout the documents.
5. Unless there is a specific requirement in the document, it should not be got attested or witnessed as such attestation may change the character of the instruments and the documents may subject to ad volrem stamp duty.
6. The paper on which the bank documents are made should be pilfer proof. It should be unique and available to the banks only.
7. The printing of the bank documents should have highly artistic intricate and complex graphics.
8. The documents executed between Banker and Borrowers must be kept in safe custody,

CHANGES IN LEGISLATIONS AFTER ELECTRONIC TRANSACTIONS

1. Section 91 of IPC shall be amended to include electronic documents also.
2. Section 92 of Indian Evidence Act, 1872 shall be amended to include commuter based communications
3. Section 93 of Bankers Book Evidence Act, 1891 has been amended to give legal sanctity for books of account maintained in the electronic form by the banks.
4. Section 94 of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1939 shall be amended to facilitate electronic fund transfers between the financial institutions and the banks. A new clause (pp) has been inserted in Section 58(2).

RECENT TRENDS OF BANKING SYSTEM IN INDIA

In the banking and financial sectors, the introduction of electronic technology for transactions, settlement of accounts, book–keeping and all other related functions is now an imperative. Increasingly, whether we like it or not, all banking transactions are going to be electronic. The thrust is on commercially important centers, which account for 65 percent of banking business in terms of value. There are now a large number of fully computerized branches across the country.

A switchover from cash-based transactions to paper-based transactions is being accelerated. Magnetic Ink character recognition clearing of cheques is now operational in many cities, beside the four metro cities. In India, the design, management and regulation of electronically-based payments system are becoming the focus of policy deliberations. The imperatives of developing an effective, efficient and speedy payment and settlement systems are getting sharper with introduction of new instruments such as credit cards, telebanking, ATMs, retail Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) and Electronic Clearing Services (ECS). We are moving towards smart cards, credit and financial Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) for straight through processing.

Financial Fraud (Investigation, Prosecution, Recovery and Restoration of property) Bill, 2001

Further the Financial Fraud (Investigation, Prosecution, Recovery and Restoration of property) Bill, 2001 was introduced in Parliament to curb the menace of Bank Fraud. The Act was to prohibit, control, investigate financial frauds; recover and restore properties subject to such fraud; prosecute for causing financial fraud and matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

Under the said act the term Financial Fraud has been defined as under:
Section 512 - Financial Fraud
Financial frauds means and includes any of the following acts committed by a person or with his connivance, or by his agent, in his dealings with any bank or financial institution or any other entity holding public funds;
1. The suggestion, as a fact, of that which is not true, by one who does not believe it to be true;
2. The active concealment of a fact by one having knowledge or belief of the fact;
3. A promise made with out any intention of performing it;
4. Any other act fitted to deceive;
5. Any such act or omission as the law specially declares to be fraudulent. Provided that whoever acquires, possesses or transfers any proceeds of financial fraud or enters into any transaction which is related to proceeds of fraud either directly or indirectly or conceals or aids in the concealment of the proceeds of financial fraud, commits financial fraud.

513(a) - Punishment for Financial Fraud
Whoever commits financial fraud shall be:
(a) Punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term, which may extend to seven years and shall also be liable to fine.
(b)Whoever commits serious financial fraud shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to ten years but shall not be less than five years and shall also be liable for fine up to double the amount involved in such fraud.

Provided that in both (a) and (b) all funds, bank accounts and properties acquired using such funds subjected to the financial fraud as may reasonably be attributed by the investigating agency shall be recovered and restored to the rightful owner according to the procedure established by law.

CONCLUSION

The Indian Banking Industry has undergone tremendous growth since nationalization of 14 banks in the year 1969. There has an almost eight times increase in the bank branches from about 8000 during 1969 to mote than 60,000 belonging to 289 commercial banks, of which 66 banks are in private sector.

It was the result of two successive Committees on Computerization (Rangarajan Committee) that set the tone for computerization in India. While the first committee drew the blue print in 1983-84 for the mechanization and computerization in banking industry, the second committee set up in 1989 paved the way for integrated use of telecommunications and computers for applying technogical breakthroughs in banking sector.

However, with the spread of banking and banks, frauds have been on a constant increase. It could be a natural corollary to increase in the number of customers who are using banks these days. In the year 2000 alone we have lost Rs 673 crores in as many as 3,072 number of fraud cases. These are only reported figures. Though, this is 0.075% of Rs 8,96,696 crores of total deposits and 0.15% of Rs 4,44,125 crores of loans & advances, there are any numbers of cases that are not reported. There were nearly 65,800 bank branches of a total of 295 commercial banks in India as on June 30, 2001 reporting a total of nearly 3,072 bank fraud cases. This makes nearly 10.4 frauds per bank and roughly 0.47 frauds per branch.

An Expert Committee on Bank Frauds (Chairman: Dr.N.L.Mitra) submitted its Report to RBI in September 2001. The Committee examined and suggested both the preventive and curative aspects of bank frauds.
The important recommendations of the Committee include:
• A need for including financial fraud as a criminal offence;
• Amendments to the IPC by including a new chapter on financial fraud;
• Amendments to the Evidence Act to shift the burden of proof on the accused person;
• Special provision in the Cr. PC for properties involved in the Financial Fraud.
• Confiscating unlawful gains; and preventive measures including the development of Best Code Procedures by banks and financial institutions.

Thus it can be concluded that following measures should necessarily be adopted by the Ministry of Finance in order to reduce cases of Fraud.
• There must be a Special Court to try financial fraud cases of serious nature.
• The law should provide separate structural and recovery procedure.
• A fraud involving an amount of ten crore of rupees and above may be considered serious and be tried in the Special Court.

The Twenty-ninth Report of the Law Commission had dealt some categories of crimes one of which is “offences calculated to prevent and obstruct the economic development of the country and endanger its economic health.” Offences relating to Banking Fraud will fall under this category. The most important feature of such offences is that ordinarily they do not involve an individual direct victim. They are punishable because they harm the whole society. It is clear that money involved in Bank belongs to public. They deposit there whole life’ security in Banks and in case of Dacoity or Robbery in banks the public will be al lost. Thus it is important that sufficient efforts should be taken in this regard.

There exists a new kind of threat in cyber world. Writers are referring it as “Salami Attack” under this a special software is used for transferring the amount from the account of the individual. Hence the culprits of such crimes should be found quickly and should be given strict punishment. Moreover there is requirement of more number of IT professionals who will help in finding a solution against all these security threats.

Written By:
Juhi Malviya and Apoorva Yadav
Final Year, National Law Institute University, Bhopal.

1. Extracts from the paper presented by Dr. Srinivasan, National Seminar on Economic Crimes, and Committee on Criminal Justice Reforms, International Institute of Revenue Research.
2. Report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India, 2001, p. 73, Rath DP, RBI, 2001.
3. Banking System, Frauds and Legal Control, R.P Nainta, Deep & Deep Publications Pvt. Ltd., 2005
4. H.L. Bedi, V.K Hardikar, Practical Banking (Advances) 1982, p.472
5. B.R Sharma, Bank Frauds Prevention and Detection (2001), p. 33
6. The H.P State Cooperative Bank Ltd., H.O No. 66/2001, dated 9.8.2001.
7. State of Andhra Pradesh v. IBS Prasad Rao and Other AIR 1970, SC 648;
8. V.C. Shukla v. State (1980), 25 CC 665.
9. S.N Maheshwari, Banking Law and Practice (1994), p. 635

Final Year Student
National Law Institute University,
Bhopal (M.P)

Corporate Banking - Essential Requirement Of Large Corporations

2007-10-31T01:13:00.000-07:00

The success of large corporations depends on a variety of factors. Generally proper planning, foresight, human resources and research are amongst the top most factors contributing to the sustained growth of a company. But in the current scenario with cut throat competition, changing or evolving technology, changes in requirements and needs of people or changes in business practices means for corporations to survive and maintain their position, they need much more than just planning and execution.

Corporate banking is one such factor which goes a long way in helping the growth of a large corporation. It provides the comprehensive and sophisticated services that a large company requires in today's business world.

Given the huge demand for a proper accountable banking service by these large corporations, most top banks of the world have a separate dedicated operation which caters to the needs of companies that are quite different in requirements and scale as compared to an average small to medium enterprise.

Corporate banking requires a huge knowledge base and experience to service all requirements of commerce and industry. It includes a huge selection of commercial and transactional products and services. Some of the typical products and services include corporate funding or financing, bank guarantees, syndication services, foreign exchange services, investments, stocks, derivatives, comprehensive internet banking facilities etc.

Corporate lending, trade financing and commodity financing are also some important aspect of corporate banking:

Corporate lending: Big varieties of credit products are offered which includes revolving credit lines, term loans, and standby letters of credit and forex facilities. This sector also deals in arranging working capital lines, long term debt, acquisition finance, bridge financing and some other syndicated services.

Trade financing: this sector of banking provides very powerful trade services for the efficient movement of goods. This includes automated letter of credit system and documentary collection services.

Commodity financing: this banking sector is considered "the boss" of the industry when it comes to financing trade flows for some agricultural products such as grain, cotton, coffee, sugar, cocoa and a variety of other commodities. Short term and mid term credit facility is also available on going exchange related requirements.

From the corporate banks point of view, it is very essential to form teams to handle requirement of individual companies as personalized services are the pre requisite for handling such operations. Also it goes well beyond simply providing banking products and services to corporations. It involves lot of consulting and one on one interaction as well. Consulting services could be required on a range of issues like mergers and acquisitions, foreign trade, company liquidity etc.

The services requires a team of highly skilled and highly pro active personnel who would be able to cater to all of the requirements of a corporate client, no matter how unique or difficult the requirement may be. Banking personnel should be able to pro actively find ways in which to complete the request of the client as it could make a lot of difference to the functioning and growth of the client's business which is anyways the main reason they need specialized corporate banking services.

Dagur Jonsson is the CEO of Libius Inc a company which provides an internet appropriation service to companies in the banking industry like www.kaupthing.com.

Offshore Banking - Compare Top Saving Accounts

2007-10-31T01:12:00.000-07:00

Jersey and the Isle of Man offer a huge array of offshore banking and offshore saving accounts that enable you to manage your tax affairs a good deal more simply if you are eligable to bank offshore . All the major UK banks and building societies are represented and there are one or two interesting names as yet unknown on the UK high streets that deserve a mention too. Jersey and the Isle of Man offer the security of being well regulated financial environments, the convenience of being part of the UK clearing system which means that for sterling payments at least, the BACS payment system can generally be used for moving funds around, keeping bank charges to a minimum, and generally, free. Of course faster payment channels can be used too - like CHAPS and SWIFT.

Accounts may commonly be opened in sterling, US dollars and Euros . In very rare situations these may even be run as multi-currency accounts, though this tends to be more for the current accounts rather than saving accounts . The interest rates on offer, seem to vary quite widely. For example, the best sterling savings accounts on offer from Bradford and Bingley International and the Alliance and Leicester pay 6.35 and 6.40% respectively on a minimum balance of £1k without imposing any significant time or fee restrictions on withdrawals, though these top paying accounts are 'linked' accounts and money can only be transferred out of them into another account in your name. This compares with the top sterling accounts from HSBC and Barclays paying 5.45% AER (5.75% AER for premier accts) and 6.05% AER respectively, with HSBC and Barclays requiring a minimum balance of £10K.

Looking at Euro offshore bank accounts, the Bank of Scotland International offers 4.25% on a minimum balance of 35k Euros on their Euro Guaranteed Saver account, HSBCoffer 3.6% on a minimum €20k balance, the Alliance and Leicester International offers 3.86% on a minimum balance of €5k, Bradford and Bingley International offer 3.75% tiered, on balances of €10-49.9k and Barclays offer 2.45% tiered on €15-75k.

Looking at options for US dollar saving accounts, the headline rate of 5.04% AER for the International Tracker Savings Account from Barclays on a minimum balance of U$20k compares with 4.96% AER from HSBC for their online saver account. Bradford and Bingley International offer tiered interest on their US dollar account starting at 4.75% on balances of U$10-49.9k and the Alliance and Leicester 5.2% AER on a minimum balance of U$5k for their US dollar savings account. If you can manage to keep your withdrawls to a minimum, Bank of Scotland International have a US dollar account called the Guaranteed Saver that offers 5.5% AER on a minimum balance of U$50k and a restriction of 4 free withdrawls a year.

The other high street players worth considering are The Royal Bank of Scotland who have an interesting multi-currency account, Royalties International for an annual fee of £150, Lloyds TSB whose sterling offshore current account costs just £7.50 per month, Abbey International whose sterling call account is a useful fee free option, particularly if you are looking for a linked account with an offshore bank that clears its own funds (which is necessary for linking with the BBI esaver account for example) and finally, the wildcard Lansbanki Guernsey, part of Landsbanki, Iceland's largest financial institution that is currently marketing aggressively for new customers and offers a headline rate of 6.5% on its sterling 2 year fixed rate bonds.

Having lived and worked in Australia, UK, US and Singapore, finding my way around the various offshore savings accounts and banking options has been a must. Now I hope to make it a little easier for anyone else trying to wade their way through the wealth of information. With rates and terms & conditions changing all the time, we have created direct links at http://www.offshore-savings-accounts.org.uk to all the major players' websites at an account-specific level so you can find exactly what you need, when and where you need it. There are also links here at offshore-savings-accounts.org.uk/currency_exchange.htm to specialist currency exchange companies that handle transactions much more competitively than the high street banks. There are some interesting FOREX options here too for anyone with the courage to play that game!

We have also created an environment where you can see which of these banks and building societies is currently hungriest for your business - the concept behind hungry-fish.com - helping you fish where the fish are hungry!

Offshore Banking Could be Ideal for Retirees

2007-10-29T02:15:00.000-07:00

Offshore banking gives retirees many reasons for utilizing it as a component in their investment strategies. There are a number of reasons why choosing offshore banking could be considered as a strategic decision. Being a retiree, perhaps you just cashed in on your entire pension fund as a lump sum, or perhaps you decided to liquidate the whole of your stock investments, or even perhaps you just sold out your company as part of your retirement. Whatever reasons you have, there are many aspects that must be thought out and carefully considered.

Dome of the considerations you may want to take into account include tax and legal considerations. You will need to consider whether the service provider your are looking at fully understands all the legal and financial requirements when using offshore accounts such as the reporting requirements of the the governments where the businesses operate. In the United States in particular there are specific requirements, and the US Patriot Act requires or rather demands the certain types of information for any business operating in the United States including all fund transfers to offshore banking accounts. These are important aspects that need to be considered.

Making the Choice of the Ideal Offshore Bank and Country

Before you start any transfers, you must consider if you are choosing the offshore banking provider that is right for you. You will have to consider the country of where the offshore banking service is and their governments relationship to the US and other governments. You must also ensure that all the tax implications are fully understood and detailed out, and that the services have the capacity and depth to service your specific needs. For Americans some the best countries that provide ideal offshore banking services may include Panama and other Caribbean countries.

Many Offshore investors, offshore holding companies and offshore financiers have found these small countries to be ideal for worldwide corporate bases and offshore banking services. This in addition to being stable and viable offshore incorporation of offshore companies, offshore trusts and offshore foundations. This would be evident from the number of such institutions that have set up shop and the number and quality of clients that they have.

The next consideration you will need to take up is finding fiduciary services that will be able to provide you with trusted service. It is critical that when you are transferring funds to your offshore account(s) that there is someone that you can trust and rely on to handle and invest your funds. This is so important that virtually all International corporate offshore consultants or consulting institutions make it their priority to be very diligent in handling such matters.

Good offshore service institutions provide professional administration of the offshore company legal affairs and formation which are connected with your offshore banking, continuously. The personnel in these firms should be very business savvy, technically skilled, knowledgeable and more importantly discreet since they will be assisting you to represent huge sums of of money and their character, integrity and work ethic should stand to reflect it.

Conclusion

In offshore banking, finding the right offshore service(s) that will allow you achieve your objectives at a reasonable cost and within the shortest possible time frame is paramount and should be considered with the utmost importance. Considering that the stock markets are continuously changing, the way that your offshore banking is handled must be in the best order, if not perfect.

The bottom line is for you to find an offshore services firm that can service your needs and, has your interests and objectives at heart since it is your retirement benefits you are most likely to use. If you are able to find this type of institution then you can rest assured that your offshore account will grow successfully and will provide your needs well into the twilight of your life.

Luvi Marie Corcuera is a full time Mom and works part time as the Editor of Informational sites such as: Finance and Paradise Philippines

History Of Internet Banking

2007-10-29T02:14:00.000-07:00

How it All Began

Sandra Stammberger owns and operates http://www.webinternetbanking.com

Have You Thought About Cord Blood Banking?

2007-10-27T04:23:00.000-07:00

Cord blood banking is an incredible advancement in the field of medicine. Newspapers, journals, television news stories, articles, and websites are loaded with information about this amazing feat achieved by the medical experts.

However, a large number of curious expecting couples are interested in knowing more about umbilical cord blood banking. Unfortunately, a lot of rumors and misleading facts are going around regarding cord blood banking. It's important to have a clear understanding of this significant step that can prove to be a life savior!

Proven Facts of Cord Blood Banking

There is no risk, either to the mother or her baby, in collecting umbilical cord blood. On the contrary, peripheral or bone marrow blood stem cell collection requires the donor to pass through insidious medical procedure and there is a risk of infection.

Studies on transplants of umbilical cord blood have revealed a sustained engraftment, which is similar to bone marrow transplant results.

Umbilical cord blood is stored cryogenically through a meticulous cord blood banking process and is available at once when needed.

Research on umbilical cord blood stem cell has revealed its potential to treat Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, heart attacks and strokes, and spinal cord injuries.

Stem cells from umbilical cord blood have successfully been used in treating more than 70 non-malignant as well as malignant diseases, including leukemia, sickle cell anemia, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, life-threatening anemia, various types of cancer, and auto-immune conditions.

Umbilical cord blood stem cells are more primitive than bone marrow stem cells. Hence, they harbor a lower risk of graft versus host disease (GVHD). This makes it possible to use less than perfect matches for transplants.

Ultra-modern cord blood banking technologies induce multiplication of cord blood stem cells by ex vivo expansion.

Cord blood banking is not new. Since 1988, medical experts are using umbilical cord blood as a substitute source of hematopoietic stem cells for treating human diseases.

Cord Blood Banking Cost

The Unites States has several companies dealing with cord blood banking. The most popular among them are Cord Blood Registry and ViaCord. If you are interested in cord blood banking, then you need to take a second look at your wallet.

The charges of ViaCord are around $1500 for cord blood collection. After that, you need to pay an annual fee of $95 for cord blood storage. They are equipped to store cord blood for as long as 21 years. This costs around $3500.

Take time and think about cord blood banking. Who knows, it may save your child's life in the future!

Cord blood banking is gradually being accepted by expecting couples who want to leave no stone unturned for the safety of their child. Many couples are opting for umbilical cord blood banking despite of high cord blood banking cost. Those who cannot afford to use the services of a private cord blood bank are looking for cheaper alternatives such as public cord blood banks. To know more about cord blood stem cells, their benefits and other pregnancy related issues visit pregnancy.

Umbilical Cord Blood Banking - A Responsible Decision

2007-10-27T04:22:00.000-07:00

By the end of this article, you should have gained enough new knowledge on this subject to be able to explain its main points to another person.

Are you pregnant with a baby?

You grab every offered book on the question of pregnancy. You donate no gemstone unturned. You want to be well learned. Openly.

Jason and his partner were no different. They stilt they had it all roofed-that is awaiting a few weeks before the pitched court of freedom. That is when a code on television tainted their lives. The code dealt with cord blood caching. Just another device, stilt Jason firstly. However, after intensive inquiries, there was no denying that cord blood caching was a main development, remedially dialogue. In detail, so positive were Jason and his partner that they definite to gather cord blood during the birth of their baby. Little did they grasp what an important decision that was? That blood would avert their baby's life, many being down the line. Flex blood caching can be lifesavers for your family too.

From now until the now until the end of this article, take the time to think about how all of this information can help you.

What is flexing Blood saving?

Flex blood caching is a breakthrough in blood caching. It involves the collection and mass room of blood from the umbilical cord, which connects the baby to the mother in the womb. Discarding cord blood, along with the lasting umbilical cord and the placenta, was stock method. However, the discovery that cord blood is a plentiful trace of stem groups revolutionized remedial perception. Flex blood is now considered to have immense therapeutic amount. The best part is that these stem groups can be conveniently cool from the umbilical cord after birth, lacking hurting moreover the mother or the baby.

Flex Blood is an anodyne and ethical trace of stem groups

What makes cord blood stem groups so unusual? Stem groups have two sole capabilities. They can multiply to deliver more stem groups. A small number of stem groups can be nurtured to produce a substantial number. The stem groups can also transform into any mature adult group, potentially bountiful any flaw organ a moment ability at life. Stem groups are a priceless retrace. The umbilical cord on can be a plentiful trace of stem groups with diverse advantages.

- Stem groups can be certainly obtained from cord blood

- flex blood stem groups are a 100% reach for the patron, 50% reach for biological parents and 25% reach for blood allied siblings and grandparents.

- They are not tumorogenic

- Collecting umbilical cord blood does not hurt the patron in any way

Flex Blood saving is not emergent Stem group inquiries

Unfortunately, controversy surrounding budding stem group inquiries undermines the view of cord blood mass room and adult stem group inquiries. Distinct budding stem group inquiries where developing embryos are the trace for gathering stem groups, cord blood stem group inquiries only uses those stem groups discarded from the umbilical cord after the freedom of the baby. There is no debit of life, as moreover neither the mother nor the baby comes to hurt in any way. Flex blood stem groups are amply correct for therapeutic purposes.

Fairly aware views like cloning force younger stem groups. These stem groups are called budding stem groups and they must be damaged in order to pursue any inquiries. Flex blood stem groups are more mature and are called adult stem groups. They are not handy in controversial fields of stem group inquiries; hence donating cord blood does not violate any ethical standard.

Flex Blood saving: ability at Regeneration

The first umbilical cord blood transplant was done by Professor Blackman in 1989. Flex blood from a sibling was worn to avert a tolerant of François Anemia. Over the last two decades, umbilical cord blood has been worn to remedy more than 75 conditions plus cancers, bone essence collapses, low immune states, genetic disruption in metabolism, concern disease, stroke, many sclerosis and some autoimmune conditions.

The file is rising steadily.

distant from these uses, cord blood stem group inquiries has exposed talented outcome in concern disease, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and even diabetes. Stem groups can reproduce abandoned pancreatic bandanna which can squirt insulin. We may be able to destroy diabetes with just a shot of compatible baby stem groups from cord blood. The possibilities are relating briskly.

Flex blood from a family limb is haughty to stem groups from bone essence transplants because it doubles abilities of triumph. With ones own cord blood, or blood from a family limb, eliminates the abilities of collapse of reedmen. An unfussy decision in pregnancy can present a game trace of stem groups with no doubts about incompatibility. Flex blood caching presents an ability to renew the stem groups of the unnatural organ.

Everyday Misviewions about flex Blood saving:

Still cord blood is a priceless retrace, these repayment are not well known. A fresh inquiry, available by the Canadian wellbeing Association, prominent that more than half the hopeful parents had meager facts or misviewions about cord blood caching. The most customary misviewion was that cord blood donation could hurt the baby. The inquiry also prominent that an unfussy explanation sufficed to sway them about the advantages of cord blood donation. Impressed with the proof offered, thirteen states have accepted laws to help educate pregnant mothers and sponsor shared cord caching. Flex blood donation and preservation can now be conceded out at no ultra rush. Close family limbs of the patron then have access to correct reaches if the require arises.

How do you donate cord blood?

Flex blood caching starts before the actual court of freedom of the baby. Once you catalog with a cord blood cache, they forward you a kit, containing all the crucial gear for collecting cord blood, along with instructions for the presence doctor, imparter or attention employees. After severing and clamping the umbilical cord in the medium, place partum collection and mass room of the lasting blood from the placental end of the cord, follows. An unusual container carries the cord blood to the cord blood cache. Here unusual separators withdraw the stem groups in the blood. Mass room is at very cold temperatures. The baby suffers no debit or hurt through this method, as there is no blood collection from that end.

Pick the Right flex Blood save

The most crucial decision is to take the right reserved cord blood cache. This is a long-phrase investment. Make reliable that the cord blood cache has the finances and a long-phrase commitment to the pitch. Verify the accreditation of the organization and unreliable that they have a hygienic footprint best. Ask whether they mass the blood themselves or rely on a third revel to sponsor them. Make reliable that the blood will be offered speedily, lacking interval, when you require it most. You can also donate cord blood to a shared cache, which then uses the donated blood for tolerant awaiting reedmen. However, still you have no retrieve over the donated blood; you will have access to a bigger assemble of stem groups. In reserved caches, your cord blood is massed exclusively for your use.

Umbilical cord blood caching was relatively nameless two decades ago. Now cord blood caching is on the head of present remedial inquiries and reedmen. Flex blood caching is an anodyne and ethical trace of stem groups. Preserving cord blood is an action towards protecting the wellbeing of your baby, your family and our citizens.

Seeing believes, but sometimes we can't all experience every subject in life. This article hopes to make up for that by providing you with a valuable resource of information on this topic.

Mary Gibs writes for http://www.cordbloodmen.com where you can find out more about Cord Blood and other topics

The Benefits of Cord Blood Banking

2007-10-25T05:50:00.001-07:00

We hope that you finish this article having learned at least a little bit of new information. If so, then we have done our job.

If you could help to ensure the coming vigor of your result with minimum sacrifice and sweat, would you do it? What about if you had the muscle to help your result grows into maturity with a useful well for hostility life-threatening diseases? Any caring mother or grandmother wants to help a precious new element of the family to grow up freely and vigor; and with new innovations in checkup technology, that detail fantasy is seemly increasingly probable. More than ever before, it's achievable for those with occupied lives, an ordinary proceeds and a mounting family.

One kind of technology in particular is donation fresh mothers a certain stillness of thoughts and the prospect to invest in their family's coming. Not only does it proposal an impending way to enhance or pleasurement genuine vigor harms in a result, but it could also provide lifesaving pleasurements to other family elements. It's called cord blood mounding, and it contains the collection and storeroom of state mentions found in the blood provide of a new baby's umbilical cord, which are gathered at birth with a straightforward and entirely pain minus practice.

Twine blood mounding uses blood from this part of a baby's body because it's a loaded well of stem state mentions, which act as 'structure blocks', or master state mentions, for the construction of blood, bandannas and the immune procedure. Different other kinds of state mentions, stem state mentions have the ability to transform themselves into suchlike kind of detail state mention is essential by the body at any particular time. Consequently, they act as a biological darn procedure, because they can be worn to regenerate state mentions to reconstruct any spoiled or unhealthful organs or bandannas, when that becomes essential.

The second half of this article will help you to extend upon what you have learned in the first half.

The most generally poetized use of stem state mentions is in bone spirit transplants. In statement, over the last twenty being or so, stem state mention transplants have been revealed to also successfully darn concern bandanna, and to pleasurement many red and ashen blood state mention diseases, as well as cancers such as leukemia. They have also been worn to pleasure bone disorders such as osteoporosis. In the near coming, stem state mention transplants may well become the pleasurement of select for many diseases, in the same way that antibiotics are presently worn to patent up a sort of illnesses.

For this persuade, open funding bodies and checkup examine organizations have invested violently in stem state mention technology. Scientists judge stem state mentions will quickly be a helpful well for pleasuring harms such as several sclerosis; Parkinson's disease; diabetes (counting result en's diabetes); Alzheimer's; stroke; muscle spoil; and concern disease or spoil to the concern's muscles incurred during a concern strike. They also chance to consume them in the pleasurement of spinal cord injuries.

Twine blood mounding anticipates this checkup development by storing blood for coming use. If you keep a provide of your baby's stem state mentions, or the blood that contains the stem state mentions, through cord blood mounding, you are donation your result a way to access lifesaving state mentions in the coming, should they want pleasurement for dozens of different kinds of diseases or injuries. In addition, it's probable that these state mentions will attest to be a rigorous harmonizes for close family elements who may also want them, as stem state mention transplants have been worn to reclusively pleasure both resulted and adults.

Ensuring you have your own provide of vigor stem state mentions through cord blood mounding could mean you will never have to explore for a harmonizing state mention scaffold at an open blood mound. Civic safflowers for cord blood mounding are relatively few and far between; and these sorts of harmonizing practices can be very time-consuming. There is also no ensure that doctors will be able to find a rigorous harmonize for you or your family from open donations when one is most urgently wanted.

It's particularly important for those from ethnic minorities to donate to open cord blood mounding organizations. That's because those from particular ethnic backgrounds, and those with certain kinds of ethnically assorted heritage, have an especially tough time ruling a harmonizing scaffold. African-American patients, for example, are greatly minus probable to find a harmonized, unrelated bone spirit scaffold and are thus shrewd to invest in trust a exclusive stem state mention provide. Fortunately, with umbilical cord blood, a part harmonize is acceptable, and if enough non-Caucasians and those of assorted heritage donate, the prospects of ruling a harmonize are greatly elevated.

Twine blood state mentions are not the same as the controversial nascent stem state mentions, and cord blood mounding does not contain the use of nascent state mentions in any way. Budding state mentions, as the name suggests, are full from person seeds that are typically four or five living old. Specifically, they are harvested from seeds urban from eggs that have been fertilized in an in vitro fertilization clinic, and then donated for examine purposes. They can also be full from aborted fetuses, or produced with a certain kind of cloning skill.

Budding stem state mention examine (distinct cord blood mounding and examine) has attracted a good total of controversy because it regularly contains the destruction of the seed from which the state mentions are full. In diverge, cord blood mounding and examine has not attracted denial opacity, because cord stem state mentions can be lonely from the blood of a infant's umbilical cord lacking any denial realize on mother or result. For this persuade, it has attracted more open scaffold than nascent stem state mention examine, as well as better levels of government funding and a stronger endorsement from most sectors of the scientific district.

Twine blood mounding is patently a helpful well and looks set to become the face of checkup skill in the near coming. It proposals the prospect for decisive action, to those sans relaxed access to a inborn outcome that could help their resulted and other family elements when they are most in want. Put easily, it's a way to cover the coming vigor of your bordering and darling against ordinary but impedingly life-threatening illness. For that judgment forward, cord blood mounding very is a once-in-a-existence opportunity.

Share the information that you have learned with your friends and family. They will be impressed by your knowledge and happy to learn something new.

Mary Gibs writes for http://www.cordbloodmen.com where you can find out more about Cord Blood and other topics.

Umbilical Cord Blood Banking - A Responsible Decision

2007-10-25T05:45:00.000-07:00

By the end of this article, you should have gained enough new knowledge on this subject to be able to explain its main points to another person.

Are you pregnant with a baby?

You grab every offered book on the question of pregnancy. You donate no gemstone unturned. You want to be well learned. Openly.

From now until the now until the end of this article, take the time to think about how all of this information can help you.

What is flexing Blood saving?

Flex Blood is an anodyne and ethical trace of stem groups

- Stem groups can be certainly obtained from cord blood

- flex blood stem groups are a 100% reach for the patron, 50% reach for biological parents and 25% reach for blood allied siblings and grandparents.

- They are not tumorogenic

- Collecting umbilical cord blood does not hurt the patron in any way

Flex Blood saving is not emergent Stem group inquiries

Flex Blood saving: ability at Regeneration

The file is rising steadily.

Everyday Misviewions about flex Blood saving:

How do you donate cord blood?

Pick the Right flex Blood save

Seeing believes, but sometimes we can't all experience every subject in life. This article hopes to make up for that by providing you with a valuable resource of information on this topic.

Mary Gibs writes for http://www.cordbloodmen.com where you can find out more about Cord Blood and other topics

Cord Blood Banking

2007-10-24T03:17:00.003-07:00

There are many great aspects to this subject, which we will review carefully so that you may get the most from it.

If you are pregnant or have freshly had a baby, you are liable at slightest a little regular with the idea of stockpiling or preserving your new baby's umbilical cord blood.

This umbilical cord blood is keep when a baby is intuitive, cryogenically deposited, and then existing if your daughter later becomes sick and desires a bone center transplant. This kind of transplant would be 'antilogous' and is different than the more universal 'allergenic' transplants that might be done from a sibling or other qualified or an unrelated supporter.

The ads from the companies that bestow this ceremony, such as via cable and cable Blood Registry, are very persuasive. Who wouldn't want to do something that might keep their baby's life?

We have had a lot of fun during the first portion of this article and hopefully you feel as though you have a firm grasp on the topic.

And many of the pieces on other parenting and pregnancy places look to bestow unbiased pieces on cord blood stockpiling, but the ads from cable Blood Registry and Via cable on the same pages make these pieces look excluding credible. The piece on one place is actually bestowed by via cable, which would look to make the undivided page an advertisement, stilt that isn't mentioned somewhere.

So how do you make certitude about cord blood stockpiling?

If you activate to investigate cord blood stockpiling, the first highway deter that you will liable come winning is the worth.

The worth at via cable activates at $1500 for collection of the cord blood and then $95/year for deposit room. Because the blood is keep for up to 21 days, the equal charge would be about $3500, unexcluding you prepay for deposit room, which can keep you up to $500.

The cable Blood Registry has analogous pricing, with a $1290 enrollment and processing fee and then a $95/year deposit room fee, still you can keep some money here too if you prepay for deposit room.

Still these worth's will put cord blood stockpiling out of extent of many families, you will liable have some mood guilty that they can't allow taking this opportunity to perhaps 'keep' their babies life.

Should they feel guilty?

Should you stockpile your baby's cord blood?

The answer to the first one is a stated no. The American Academy of Pediatrics goes as far as axiom that 'it is fractious to advocate that parents deposit their daughter en's cord blood for potential use.'

The minute query is something that you will have to choose for manually.

The answer is easier if you have a daughter or family element that already has a prepare that can be treated with a stem cabal transplant, such as sickle cabal anemia, thalassemia, plastic anemia, leukemia, metabolic deposit room disorders and certain genetic immunodeficiency's. In this suit, you should stately try to stockpile your daughter's umbilical cord blood.

There is actually a course called the Sibling patron cable Blood agenda at Children's infirmary of Oakland where you can stockpile your daughter's umbilical cord blood for unbound if you encounter their eligibility requirements. Which includes having a daughter with a transplantable prepare, having a daughter with a prenatal diagnosis of a transplantable prepare, or if your unintuitive daughter is at high jeopardy for a having a transplantable prepare.

While the claims are rightful that a bone center transplant with your own daughter's cord blood stem cabals could keep his life, the actual odds that you would have to use his stem cabals is very small, and only about 1 in 2,700.

1 in 2,700 means that for every 2700 umbilical cord stem cabals keep, only 1 would be worn. That number is misleading still. Some, if not many, of that daughter might be treated with other therapies if stem cabals weren't existing.

For example, while an antilogous stem cabal transplant could be worn as a remedy for leukemia, it has been revealed to be no more operative than chemotherapy.

For other disorders, an allergenic transplant from a sibling or an unrelated supporter might also be existing for use.

Or you might even be able to find a stem cabal equal from an umbilical cord blood stockpile that deposits donated stem cabals from unrelated supporters from the native middle patron agenda cable Blood Banks.

So it is not like there is a 100% luck that your daughter will not have a life discount remedy existing if stem cabals hadn't been keep.

Still, having your daughter's cord blood existing does have payback, counting that:

* The cord blood is simply existing if you ever do should it

* These stem cabals will be a improve equal for your daughter, while there is only a 25% luck that a sibling will be a equal

Umbilical cord blood stockpiling does advance a lot of ethical queries. If cord blood stockpiling is a good idea, is it good that only people who can allow it will be able to have luck at a life discount therapy for their daughter?

This query will be excluding of a delivery if there is an extension of the unrelated cord blood stockpiles. With this kind of cord blood stockpile, it is potential to donate your daughter's cord blood for unbound if you live near one of the native middle patron agenda cable Blood Banks in 14 states in the United States, counting Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New pullover, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington.. These stem cabals could then be worn by unrelated daughter who should a transplant and explore their registry. Because there is no charge or jeopardy to you to do this, if you choose not to stockpile your daughter's stem cabals for your own use, you might judge donating them.

If you have found our database of information on this subject useful, read some of our other topics as well.

Mary Gibs writes for http://www.cordbloodmen.com where you can find out more about Cord Blood and other topics.

Best Online Banking

2007-10-24T03:17:00.001-07:00

Practically any financial transaction can be completed through the use of online banking. The advent of direct deposit made getting your money lightning quick and accurate, and many banks have catered to the needs of their account holders by simplifying online banking features.

Do you remember the days when you had to make a physical trip down to your corner bank just to check the balance of your accounts and to make a deposit? While you may have to take a trek to Wachovia every once in awhile, online banking has drastically reduced the necessity to do so.

6StarReviews.com reports that the popular Bank of America offers their customers added security features, such as encryption and pass codes. Bank of America even implemented a customized image security feature, whereby you choose an image and if you happen to land on a phishing website posing as the authentic site, you will know it before entering personal information.

Online banking through Bank of America and other big names such as Citibank and Wachovia offer similar features through their services. For starters, you can receive online statements instead of those paper ones that always seem to arrive a month after you made the purchases listed on them. You can also utilize online bill payment and add lists of payees to automatically transfer funds to.

Most online banks also allow account holders to transfer funds between checking and savings accounts. Popular online bank ING Direct even allows you to transfer money from their service to other banks, such as Washington Mutual (WaMu) for free. Add this benefit to convenience such as online loan applications and online banking is hard to live without!

Kelly Liyakasa is staff writer for 6StarReviews.com, a site dedicated to giving YOU, the consumer, the best product and service reviews around. If you like saving time and money by having someone else review leading sites and products, then Visit our site at 6StarReviews.com

Importance of SSL Certificates on Banking Websites

2007-10-24T02:15:00.000-07:00

It is possible for every piece of data to be seen by others unless it is secured by an SSL Certificate. Your customers won't trust your web site without it.

Why banks need SSL?

SSL Certificates are essential factor to gain Customers' confidence in your Services and Brand......

Thus all the banking websites need SSL Certificates -

What happens if a bank does not use SSL, What are the risks involved?

Consequences for not deploying SSL certificates on banking website are -

What is SSL Certificate?

http://www.sslgenie.com , the trusted Global Certification Authority for SSL, recommends its PremiumSSLGenie Package for SSL for banking website.

UK Banking Sector Crash - Run on Northern Rock Bank

2007-10-18T03:10:00.001-07:00

Northern Rocks Share price crashed by 30% today as the mortgage bank sought emergency funds from the Bank of England due to the credit freeze in the interbank money market which Northern Rock heavily relies upon. Panic gripped savers forming long lines outside Northern Rock Branches throughout the UK to withdraw funds. Investors dumping the stock on the market open where even unsubstantiated rumors of takeovers and white knights failed to halt the crash in the banks share price.

In our pre-market open article we warned about possible 'blood on the street' for Northern Rock stock holders as there was a high risk of a run on the bank as panicking depositors sought to withdraw savings. This is what has subsequently transpired. Northern Rock Bank Seeks Emergency Cash From The Bank of England

Northern Rock is Britain's fifth largest mortgage bank, and the Bank of England deemed it necessary for Britain's economic stability to come to its rescue by offering the mortgage bank an open ended line of credit for the duration of the current liquidity crisis, which is set to continue well into 2008. The amount of the funding has not been specified but is estimated at more than £4 billion ($8 billion).

Northern Rock also issued a profits warning, that its profits for this year will be £147 million lower than expected. A run on the Northern Rock bank is expected to continue during the weekend as depositors make panic withdrawals, ignoring the Bank of England's emergency funding of the bank.

Article originally published on 14th September 2007

By Nadeem Walayat, Editor

The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Forecasting & Analysis online publication. We present in-depth analysis from over 100 experienced analysts on a range of views of the probable direction of the financial markets. Thus enabling our readers to arrive at an informed opinion on future market direction. http://www.marketoracle.co.uk

Nadeem Walayat Article Archive

How To Be Safe When Banking Online

2007-10-18T03:09:00.000-07:00

In today's modern world, people use every resource to make their hectic lifestyles a little easier. The World Wide Web has made many menial tasks much simpler and quicker to perform than they might otherwise be done through conventional methods. An email to Australia, for example, can be delivered in seconds whereas the same letter sent by standard mail could take several days or even weeks to arrive at its destination. Similarly, with a few clicks of your mouse it's possible to have your weekly groceries packed and delivered to your front door without you ever needing to leave the house.

However, for many World Wide Web users, online banking is a bone of contention as doubts about the security of online banking remain abundantly clear. Recent figures have revealed that 21 per cent of British internet users feared being a victim of a phishing scam or ID theft more than car theft, burglary and even mugging. However, online banking needn't be an ordeal, so how do you protect yourself from fraudsters?

Firstly, the way you set up your login details for your online banking account is vital to protecting the integrity of your account. Many people tend to choose passwords that are easily memorable, such as a child's or pet's name, but these can be easily guessed. Instead, choose a username and password consisting of a mixture of letters and numbers, and avoid using the same password for other online accounts.

Secondly, check to make sure the site you are on is secure. To do this, check that your internet browser displays a small padlock icon in the bottom of your screen. This icon indicates that any information you enter and send through the internet will be encrypted, making it much harder for internet thieves to intercept and decipher the data.

Phishing has become something of a buzzword when it comes to internet fraud, with losses due to phishing scams reaching £23 million by the end of 2006. Phishing is a method used by fraudsters to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication - most commonly via email. Phishing emails typically take the form of an official document from a bank, credit card company, or other financial institution and claims that there has been a problem with the user's account, or requests the user update their details.

The email usually includes a link to follow which redirects the user to a dummy site, where users input sensitive information, including usernames, account numbers and passwords. These dummy sites resemble the authentic websites of the real institutions and can catch unsuspecting users. Remember, your bank will never send you an email asking you to update your details online, so if you receive an email like this, the best course of action is to use the 'delete' key!

Using a good antivirus software program can help provide extra protection from Trojans and other software designed to gather data from your computer. These programs are commonly disguised as common software applications and can log keystrokes made by the user, such as passwords and credit card numbers. There are also programs designed to eradicate these malicious components and preserve the integrity of your data, many of which are free to use.

Despite tales to the contrary, online banking can be quick, convenient and safe. Providing you take steps to protect your online current account, online banking needn't be an ordeal. After all, you wouldn't leave your wallet lying around - so why do the same with your bank account details?

On-Line Banking Systems

2007-10-17T04:02:00.001-07:00

Let me preface my remarks by saying I've been involved in the I.T. industry for over 30 years now and have seen a lot, particularly banking systems. In fact the Japanese used our "PRIDE" methodologies to design their latest generation of banking systems which are considered state of the art and ahead of their American counterparts. With this said, I recently went to my bank to make a deposit. I know most of the tellers there and enjoy a good relationship with them. However, on this occasion there was a new teller who dutifully processed my deposit and upon looking at my account told me, "Mr. Bryce I see you are not taking advantage of all of our on-line banking services. Do you want a pin number or a debit card? How about direct deposit and on-line payment of bills?"

I politely declined the offer and said, "No, that won't be necessary."

She kept pressing the issue and said, "Don't you want to know what your up-to-the-minute balance is?" I told her I shouldn't have a bank account if I didn't know what was in it.

This got me thinking about our on-line banking systems and how people interact with them. I've been writing checks and balancing a check book manually for about 37 years now. I don't find it complicated and actually enjoy balancing my check book; it's good mental gymnastics for me. I particularly like it when I find a bank error. My children though are different and take full advantage of on-line banking systems. They can't be bored with balancing a bank account, they like direct deposit, and often use their debit cards. I guess to each their own.

Somehow I've always had a problem with allowing others to electronically tap into my bank account and have resisted it for years. I know they have some very good security measures over such transactions, but I still have an uneasy feeling about allowing others to directly tap into my account. Call me old fashioned.

Actually, I don't find banking to be very complicated. I probably write 10-15 checks a month and make a couple of deposits. To me, writing a check and updating my register doesn't require a rocket scientist. True, I have to apply postage to pay my bills by mail, but I see this as a very nominal charge. I also have to visit my bank to make a deposit, but I find this to be a pleasant distraction from my work.

I'm sure these on-line banking systems provide some handy services, but I don't believe in change just for the sake of change. If this is how I like to operate, what's wrong with that?

I remember years ago when my grandfather passed away in Buffalo, New York, we went up to help my grandmother tidy up his affairs. My father was rooting around in the basement and found a small box containing quite a sum of money. My Dad confronted his mother with it and said, "Mom, why are you keeping such a large wad of cash laying around?"

"Well Sonny," she explained, "Don't forget the banks failed one time (a reference to the Great Depression), and they can fail again."

I guess I feel somewhat the same way and basically don't trust on-line banking systems. Even though I've been intimate with banking systems for a long time, I'll probably be the last person to make use of them. Don't forget I'll probably also be the last guy to buy a cell phone as well.

Yea, I know what you're saying, "This guy is out of step with the times."

Maybe, but I also know what's in my bank account and know how to pay my bills on time. Like I said, call me "old fashioned."

Tim Bryce is a writer and management consultant located in Palm Harbor, Florida. You can find his work on the Internet at: http://www.phmainstreet.com/timbryce.htm

He can be contacted at: timb001@phmainstreet.com

What Is So Great About Online Banking

2007-10-17T04:01:00.000-07:00

Craig Thornburrow is an acknowledged expert in his field. You can get more free advice on online banking and Barclays online banking services at http://www.onlinebankingadvice.com

UK Banking Crisis - Nothern Rock Seeks Help from Central Bank

2007-10-15T02:13:00.002-07:00

This is in addition to any toxic US Sub prime related exposure. Therefore in Northern Rock's case a PE of 7.5 could jump many fold in a worse case scenario. " - Nadeem Walayat, 22nd August 07

Are my Savings Safe ?

Can the Bank of England do Anything to Avoid the Inevitable ?

What else should I do now ?

Originally Published 13th September 2007

By Nadeem Walayat

The Foundation Of Modern Banking

2007-10-15T02:13:00.001-07:00

Jack Waley-Cohen is the Operations director of Lingo24 document translations company in London, a provider of high quality financial translations .

Checking Accounts - A Frugal Banking Solution

2007-10-13T03:39:00.001-07:00

Money is an essential commodity. Hence proper money management is quite an important task. However not many are adept in managing their money with ease. It takes a lot of calculations and risk taking for one to save money and put it to better use.

Banks and other financial institutions play a vital role in this regard. There are several ways in which you make monetary transactions. And in some way or the other most of these fiscal dealings are associated with banks. However it is important to note that even banking transactions cost you quite a considerable amount. It includes various expenses such as monthly account fees, ATM fees, maintenance charges, overdraft fees, etc. If you can somehow manage to keep such expenses to a minimum, you can save a lot of money out of your banking system.

Amongst the various banking operations that you go through in your daily life, maintaining a checking account is a very common phenomenon. It is a service that you are provided by the banks to deposit and take out money from a federally guarded account of yours. The terms and conditions of maintaining a checking account may differ from bank to bank, but generally if you are a checking account holder then you can use a personal check in place of cash to make business payments.

There are a few tricks that you utilize to make your checking account work to your advantage. If you carefully adopt such frugal options then your checking account can prove to be quite a money saver. Following are some tips to make your checking account add up some savings for you.

- If your current checking account is costing you a substantial amount to maintain, then try to look for a bank or financial institution with a no-fee checking. There are banks that offer such no-fee checking provided that you keep a minimum balance in a savings account or a combined balance in your savings and checking account.

- Make sure that you do not forget to balance your checkbook every month. Try not to have any bounce check either. Almost every bank charges a fine of $20 to $35 for writing checks with amount exceeding the available funds in your account. If you can refrain from writing such bounce checks, then you will not incur such bounce check fees.

- If you maintain a substantial balance in an interest-bearing account, try to have an account in a bank that employs the average daily balance method for calculating your minimum balance and interest.

- Try to select a bank that does not charge fees for using Automated Teller Machines (ATMs). Create a checking account with a bank that has a large ATM network with branches near your home or working place. It is important to take care of such extra surcharges that a bank can make you pay thereby leading to drainage of your precious and hard earned money.

Martin Lukac represents Rate Empire Mortgage Quote and Refinance marketplace. RateEmpire is a destination site of personal finance, investing and taxes. For more information please visit Checking Accounts: A frugal banking solution

UK Banking Crisis - Nothern Rock Seeks Help from Central Bank

2007-10-13T03:38:00.000-07:00

This is in addition to any toxic US Sub prime related exposure. Therefore in Northern Rock's case a PE of 7.5 could jump many fold in a worse case scenario. " - Nadeem Walayat, 22nd August 07

Are my Savings Safe ?

Can the Bank of England do Anything to Avoid the Inevitable ?

What else should I do now ?

Originally Published 13th September 2007

By Nadeem Walayat

Commercial Law - Construction of Contract - Loan Repayment - Banking - Joint Venture - Guarantee

2007-10-12T00:40:00.002-07:00

The case of Wosley Securities Ltd v Abbeygate Management Services (Hampton) Ltd [2007], concerned an action which was brought as a result of the claimant, the defendant and a company (“ASL”) entering into a joint venture agreement (“JVA”) to construct a block of flats.

It transpired that the development was unprofitable and ASL went into liquidation. ASL was incorporated for the purpose of carrying out the development and had no assets of its own. The funds to carry out the development were provided by:

§ A bank loan to ASL; and

§ A loan from a loan facility granted by the claimant under the terms of a facility letter from the claimant to ASL. This letter was annexed to the JVA.

According to clause 10.3 of the JVA, the defendant guaranteed that ASL would perform its obligations under the agreement. In addition to this, clause 2.12 of the JVA obliged ASL to repay to the claimant all monies that the claimant had advanced in pursuance of its loan facility. Furthermore, clause 4.3 of the facility letter entitled the claimant to debit to ASL's loan account 'any management charge'.

The claimant alleged that a sum of £97,762, which included interest, was due to be paid by the defendant in accordance with the guarantee. Although the claim included only a small part of the outstanding loan, it was substantially made for 'management charges'. Those charges were divided into:

§ Charges relating to the facility letter; and

§ Charges provided for in the cash flow appraisal.

The claimant applied for a summary judgement under CPR 24. As the management charges were due pursuant to the facility letter, the issue before the judge was whether the JVA and the facility letter constituted one agreement or two separate agreements.

If they were one agreement, the defendant accepted (subject to any other defence it might have) that it would be liable for the management charges. If they were two separate agreements, the claimant accepted that the defendant would not be liable.

The judge held that there were two separate agreements, and therefore made a declaration that the defendant was not liable for the management charges. The claimant appealed against this decision.

The appeal was allowed. The question as to whether there was one agreement or two agreements was irrelevant. Whether there was one agreement or two agreements, there could be no doubt that since the facility letter was, at the very least, referred to in the JVA, both the JVA and the facility letter had to be interpreted in each other’s context.

Considering clause 2.12 of the JVA and clause 4.3 of the facility letter, it was impossible to resist the conclusion that as and when the claimant did in fact debit any management charge to ASL's loan account, the amount in the loan account (including any management charge) was part of the advance. According to clause 2.12 of the JVA, it was ASL's obligation to pay that sum. As the repayment had not been made, the defendant had to be liable as they were the guarantor.

Please contact us for more information on assessing damages due under termination of a contract at enquiries@rtcoopers.com

Visit http://www.rtcoopers.com/practice_corporatecommercial.php

© RT COOPERS, 2007. This Briefing Note does not provide a comprehensive or complete statement of the law relating to the issues discussed nor does it constitute legal advice. It is intended only to highlight general issues. Specialist legal advice should always be sought in relation to particular circumstances.

Full service commercial law firm based in the City of London specialising in commercial and corporate law, Corporate Finance, Commercial Lawyers, Commercial Law, Commercial Contracts, commercial solicitors, commercial law firm, corporate lawyers, corporate solicitors, corporate law firm, due diligence, mergers and acquisitions, management buy outs, white wash, sale of shares, sale of business, offshore companies, offshore transactions, white wash procedure, company law, law, legal, law firm, lawyers, solicitors, solicitors in wapping, Solicitors in Docklands, Solicitors in E1, distribution agreements, agency agreements, commercial contracts, shareholders agreement, companies act 2006, branding, yerms and conditions, Internet law.

Please contact us for more information on assessing damages due under termination of a contract at enquiries@rtcoopers.com

Visit http://www.rtcoopers.com/practice_corporatecommercial.php

Interactive DVD - the Future of Banking Training?

2007-10-12T00:40:00.001-07:00

Banking is already the biggest user of video of any UK industry sector, producing, collectively 5-10, or possibly more, videos every month. Ninety percent of these are used for training, on every imaginable topic – for new products, new processes, new corporate values, new starters. Literally anything new that requires a competent response.

More videos are on their way, driven by issues of the day, whether it’s internet fraud, increasing consumer complaints, over-lending and rate rises, terrorist threats, the impending merger.

Whether the training is for cashiers, sales people, managers, IT staff, property and infrastructure managers, or suppliers and contractors, there’s a huge internal market for video training in the banking industry. In a world of money, it’s a people business.

Video aims, and succeeds, in delivering competence and, better still, proficiency. It’s no coincidence that banking staff are arguably the best trained employees in Britain, and that these employees are all video trained.

So what’s the problem?

The problem is how to improve; where to go next. How to deliver more for less.

Video has done the job adequately for years, but it falls short as it’s not interactive. It’s strictly one-way.

Without the element of interaction, we find that acquiring, retaining and recalling information is a lot less efficient than it could be.

Potentially this means extra training time is required to:

- Learn to the required standard

- Make up for the lack of motivation from not getting it right first time,

- Fill in gaps in understanding later

- Compensate for lack of attention at the point of delivery of the training.

Video is good, but not the best available. Interaction brings a relationship to training, complete with an inbuilt self-validating process.

Where next?

For a while, computer-based training (CBT) filled the interaction gap, but CBT was strictly text only and as dry as dust. Words alone never engage enough to stick. And they lack the emotional wallop to win hearts and minds. Winning commitment is not guaranteed.

Paper-based training also has the same limitations – nice flow, good charts, relevant pictures – but no sound, no role model on screen, no authority.

Internet-based training sounds ideal, but there’s the cost element. Upgrading 20,000 branch PCs to multimedia standard is not cheap. Then there are security issues. Hackers target banking systems, and training online is a soft entry point.

This leaves interactive DVD.

Let’s define it. It’s video, text, animation, multiple choice, graphics and sound all authored into a single dynamic, friendly and persuasive package.

And DVD players are dirt cheap, highly accessible and cost-efficient for other applications.

What is Interactive DVD? How does it work?

Instead of playing a whole video from end to end, interactive DVD allows users to select the sections they need to see - and to see them in the order they select.

After viewing a given section they’re guided towards a multiple choice questionnaire where the training for that section can be validated.

For example, take this cashier training situation, where effective distance learning is essential:

> A cashier watches a section on handling ad-hoc customer complaints.

> It concludes by automatically arriving at a multiple choice questionnaire.

> If they get the answers correct, they automatically get directed to the next section

> If they get the answers wrong, they automatically have to watch the module section again.

This is what interactive DVD offers. User choice and validation, all desirable features from the points of view of the trainee and the distance learning training designer.

And you get all the pulling power and excitement of a terrific interactive DVD (if you need proof of this, go out and buy a copy of Chris Tarrant’s Who Wants to be a Millionaire DVD!)

What does it cost and how soon can I get it?

Interactive authoring costs have come down substantially mainly because the software is cheaper and better than ever before. Many corporate budgets can now afford to plan for moving to interactive DVD.

A big plus is that older videos, that still work well, can now be re-edited and authored into the new interactive format, offering greater user choice and validation.

If you’re starting a new video from scratch, you can produce it as a series of short interactive DVD modules, each followed by a Multiple Choice Questionnaire.

Powerful interactive DVD modules start from £20,000, with the cost of DVD copies as low as 3p and a production time of three months.

So next time instead of commissioning 5 video modules of one way street learning, opt for a single disk solution - interactive training DVD.

Kevin Rossiter is a leading UK video and multimedia producer with many years experience in helping companies win high value contracts. He publishes Corporate Producer, the newsletter for buyers of corporate multimedia video web: http://www.rossiterandco.com/CorporateProducer/Newsletter/Index.asp

Florida Department Of Banking And Finance

2007-10-10T23:14:00.003-07:00

Consumer assistance and answers to general insurance and financial questions are available through our toll-free help line. These help lines are available through regional service offices or website. The Florida Department of Banking and Finance claims that each year, our specialists handle more than 450,000 consumer calls.
The regional services offices are located strategically throughout the state and provide consumers with access to one-on-one guidance regarding insurance and financial issues.
The Florida Department of Banking and Finance offers free community outreach programs that reach thousands of Floridians each year.
The department has also partnered with the Department of Elder Affairs to conduct a special outreach program helping seniors with their insurance concerns. This is known as SHINE, in short. The abbreviation is Serving Health Insurance Needs of Elders.
The Florida Department of Banking and Finance also offers free consumer guides. They do not take a single penny from the consumer for making the guide available to them. The consumer guide has been made available by the Department on a range of topics relevant to today's insurance and finance markets. If you want to have that consumer guide, the best way is to order or review it online. What is more, you can also get the printout of the online consumers guide.

John Gutenburg has written many more articles about banks and loans.

Real Estate Banking Scenario in the Middle East

2007-10-10T23:14:00.001-07:00

It can be marked as the best occasion for Ayman Adel Kamal who is presently the Vice President of the real estate and investment division of the Dubai Islamic bank, when his bank won the best investment bank award for their achievement over the past 12 months. This would not only increase the reputation and market credibility of the "Dubai Islamic bank", but also boost the moral real estate investors and builders who seek capital investment through the bank.

Incidentally the Dubai Islamic Bank which has funded many real estate investment propositions and neighboring areas is led deeply by the principles of Islam contributing another factor to being labeled as the "best real estate investment management bank". This award has been presented by the "liquid real Estate Magazine" which is also a part of the "Euromoney". The award ceremony was held in London and it covered real estate banks from over 50 countries.

Dubai has grown the size of its real estate industry by many times over the past few years. Therefore the contribution of real estate investment banks is indispensable for the sustenance of this outstanding growth. Real Estate investment banks have been providing the much need financial support to these banks especially in an inflatable industry like Dubai. This has earmarked the progress of the real estate builders as well as small investors who have capitalized on these investments. Moreover investment banks much like the Dubai Islamic bank have served as a resource which has fed the growing demand for commercial as well as the residential spaces in this fast developing economy of Dubai.

Awards such as these have aroused much competition in the investment banking sector promoting a more growth oriented environment in this segment. Banking industry is now increasingly concentrating on their strategies, visions, missions, execution capabilities as well as management aspects. Banks, for example have started recruiting extremely skilled staff inviting expertise from various countries of the world. As an example the newspapers in India and Pakistan and other neighboring countries are flooded with vacancies from banks in Dubai and other Emirates. These banks generally look for extremely skilled and experienced staffs who can help them capitalize on the growing real estate market of Dubai.

These days many private banks have established themselves well in the Middle East region. Some prominent names are like that of ABN AMBRO, Citigroup, HDFC, Dubai Islamic Bank, Standard Chartered and many other big names thriving to capture major chunks of the expanding real estate opportunities in Dubai along with the rest of the emirates. Now it depends on the services provided by these banks and the investment opportunities in real estate markets like that of Dubai that they can extract a handsome profit from.

Deepak Rodey works for Property Advice Dubai a real estate dubai company