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In its latest airport display ads, HSBC takes a lot of latitude, both figuratively and literally. The result is a visually striking series of images that should have no problem luring already captive eyeballs, even if the message occasionally...

Washington Mutual, the Seattle-based retail banking and home-loan giant, made some hay last year with humorous TV ads portraying rival bankers as greedy old men dreaming of fee-generated riches while WaMu, represented by a hip young...

It may seem ironic to talk about top performance by banks when most analysts are predicting the financial industry is ## months from bottoming out. Yet, despite the crisis—the industry has already seen one rescue (Bank of America’s...

{Ranked by #-Year Average ROE} Rank/Institution Location Total Assets ($###) Market Value ($M) Closing Price ($) ROE #### (%) #–YR Avg. ROE (%) Net Interest Margin (%) Net Income ($###) Total Non-Interest Income ($###) ROAA...

All was quiet on the bank-failure front, as it had been for several years. Then came August of ####, a turning point for the industry when the subprime-mortgage meltdown began to expose the decay in the financial system. In January,...

Chances are, if one has $###,### or more in liquid assets, he or she has nice stuff in their home. Whether itÂ’s luxurious furniture, fine art or the most technologically advanced appliances, the mass affluent know how to live. With...

The current climate for loan production might not be Great Depression #.#, but try telling that to someone with less than perfect credit. “Even people with credit scores over ### are getting turned down for mortgages now,” says James...

At many mom-and-pop shops, one of the toughest questions owners face is: When does it make financial sense to offer employee-retirement plans? The decision comes down to weighing the planÂ’s costs against the tax and employee-retention...

When The Modern Bank was launched in midtown Manhattan in ####, executives’ philosophy was that private banking is a relationship-driven business—and they knew many affluent clients weren’t getting the hand-holding they expected. How...

When it comes to choosing a credit card today, consumers — that means all of us — are sitting in the drivers’ seat. With dozens of competing offers to choose from, we can afford to be as selective as we like. Increasingly, that has...

In October ####, J.P. Morgan bullied his banker brethren to prevent the collapse of the New York Stock Exchange. In March ####, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke called upon chief executive Jamie Dimon and JPMorgan Chase to prevent...

May ####...

VIEWPOINT Fiduciary duty praised, page # LOAN CLOSER Script panned, page # AT THE AGENCIES Jumbos backed, page ## LEAD GENERATION Finding the Right Blend Lead generation has to be done right in order for it to be an effective way...

With last month's announcement that Washington Mutual will exit the wholesale lending arena, loan brokers nationwide were left wondering who's next? In the fourth quarter, WaMu ranked third nationwide among wholesale originators, table...

State regulation of mortgage bankers and brokers would be rated by a new federal commission that would also set minimum licensing and underwriting standards as part of a larger plan to restructure the U.S. financial regulatory system....

The president's nominee to be the new housing secretary, Steve Preston, probably already knows what RESPA stands for and that a lot of small businesses have real problems with HUD's latest RESPA reform proposal. Mr. Preston heads the...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue to tighten underwriting standards and lately they have made changes to their affordable housing mortgage programs that have rubbed fair housing groups the wrong way. Fannie established a ### minimum...

Out of the many challenges originators trying to keep up with tighter secondary market loan standards have faced of late, depreciation and a lack of equity may be the trickiest, particularly in the jumbo market. Originators largely...

The Federal Reserve Board's prescription for dealing with yield-spread premiums is drawing fire from mortgage brokers. "You are literally killing off the (broker) industry in favor of the big banks ... who are more responsible for [the...

The origination business has been in some ways thought of as forward-looking as it is largely focused on making new loans. But the most successful players have long known that looking backward can be just as important. Past borrowers,...

Mr. Cruise, senior national mortgage trainer at the Silver Spring, Md.-based Innovations Mortgage Training Center, has written an opinion piece on why he believes originators now should consider it to be in their best interest to officially...

Borrowers have managed to pay their mortgage every month. But an interest-rate adjustment is bearing down on them like an out-of-control ##-wheeler. Worse, their house is no longer worth what they paid for it. Hey, it's not even worth...