Lloyds TSB announced first half results, a 70% fall in pre-tax profits. Yet, Lloyds’ management was confident enough to raise the dividend 2p a share to 11. 4p. This strikes me as completely out of touch with market conditions. In the midst of a credit crisis and on the back of a [...]

Last week, we heard that Australia’s NAB had to take a massive writedown due to American CDO exposure (apparently triggered by Merrill Lynch). Yesterday, we heard about Australia’s ANZ Bank taking it on the chin to the tune of $1.2 million Australian.
Now, it’s New Zealand’s turn with the problems at the New Zealand Guardian [...]

I fully anticipate this will happen, so the question becomes: what will the Fed do?
The FDIC stepped in at two banks over the weekend, 1st National Bank of Nevada and First Heritage Bank. These banks failed as a result of construction loans in real estate bust regions of the US. No, surprise there. [...]

1st National Bank of Nevada and First Heritage Bank, operating in Nevada, Arizona and California were taken over by the FDIC on Friday. They always wait until Friday night to do their business. This marks the first FDIC closure action since the FDIC closed the much bigger IndyMac.
Bad loans to developers and home [...]

The day is almost over for the market (thank goodness) and it seems that financal service investors are in panic mode again. The market is down over 250 points and some shares in financial services are down over 15%. What gives?
As we may soon find out, non-market based economic solutions, like the infamous SEC [...]

I just picked up on a MarketWatch article about 401(k) debit cards through Tim Iacono’s blog. It marks a pretty astounding trend in financial innovation.
Debit cards are straightforward. You use them for purchases and money is deducted from your bank account. But when the debited account is your 401(k) retirement plan, critics angrily line [...]

As the downturn gathers steam, lawsuits against financial firms are going to rise. Below is the latest in lawsuits. The associated WSJ article is available only to subscribers.

New York state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is preparing to file civil securities-fraud charges against UBS The Wall Street Journal reported.
The suit, which reportedly may [...]

As an unofficial Eurosceptic, I always view EU power grabs through a lens of distrust. Now, the EU is looking to increase its power by further regulating financial markets. But, the heavy-handiness of the regulation surely will be counterproductive.
The regulation backlash due to the credit crunch is obviously taking hold in Europe and [...]

Recently, the SEC restricted short selling on a list of 19 stocks because of turmoil following the Fannie-Freddie worries last week. In effect, the SEC was signaling that these institutions are too big to fail because a number of these companies were not subject to rumors of massive losses while a number of institutions not [...]

In the aftermath of the Meltdown of the GSEs and the heavy-handed regulatory solution used to stem the tide, regional banks are in focus for investors as they stand to the take the brunt of short-selling.
Financial services bears know full well that the regionals are not too big to fail. No one is coming [...]