Florida 4th in Bank Failures

This latest failure announcement by the FDIC means that Florida and Georgia now have 33 bank failures between them, after two Floridian banks, Orion Bank and Century Bank, both failed on November 13th. Florida has 3 fewer failures than California, 7 fewer failures than Illinois, and 9 fewer than Georgia, the state with the most bank failures by far this year.

“Assuming Institution”

The failed assets and deposits from Commerce Bank of Southwest Florida will be transferred to Central Bank of Stillwater, MN over the weekend. The FDIC entered into the deal with Central Bank, saying that it was the “least costly option” for the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF). The single branch of Commerce Bank of Southwest Florida will reopen on Monday as a Central Bank branch. Depositors will be able to access their funds as usual over the weekend, and the FDIC has assured them that all of their deposits up the $250,000 limit are insured.

ING Direct's signature orange ball

ING Direct Black Friday Deals

To help holiday savers stock up on savings this year, ING Direct will offer four Black Friday and Cyber Monday specials. Below are the deals:

1. ING DIRECT will offer $683 off Easy Orange and Orange Mortgage (our mortgage products) closing costs for anyone who applies on Black Friday. Why $683? That’s what the average American will spend on gifts this holiday season, according to the National Retail Federation.
2. On Cyber Monday, November 30, ING DIRECT’s brokerage, ShareBuilder, will offer a 20 percent rebate on trades to help investors save money while they grow their investments.
3. The Orange CD special will be announced here on Black Friday.
4. The Electric Orange checking account special will be announced here on Black Friday.

So if you are looking at a new account this holiday season or maybe just want to open one for a family member, you may want to check out ING Direct.

Stay Tuned!

MyBankTracker.com will post an update to this article once the Orange CD and Electric Orange checking account Black Friday deals are revealed.

Yet even with Fed officials releasing statements that convey optimism, consumers still find it difficult to get a glimpse of that recovery in sight as news of more job losses, rising credit card and mortgage delinquencies, and falling deposit rates continue to hound us.

This week alone, the country’s savers were dealt with a rather severe blow as Hudson City Savings Bank, the New Jersey-based banking institution that for the past weeks has offered consumers the best CD rates for the 2 to 5-year terms made cuts in its CD rates. The bank lowered yields by 0.10% in its 12-, 13-, 18-, 24-, 36-, 48-, and 60-month CDs.

Fortunately, some banks also increased their CD yields this week so that on the whole, CD rate averages this week didn’t drop too far down.

6-month CDs

The 6-month CD average rate was maintained at 0.91%. A major factor that helped keep the 6-month average at the same level as last week’s despite some banks slashing their 6-month CD yields, is the 0.30% rate hike made by Onewest Bank, Fsb on its 6-month CD.

12-month CDs

The 1-year CD rate average dropped the most this week, going down three basis points from 1.27% to 1.24%. Among the banks that made rate cuts for this term were  Amboy Direct (-0.35%), Bank of Internet (-0.37%), and Wilshire State Bank (-0.25%).

24-month CDs

The CD average rate for 2-year CDs also fell, although by only one basis point from 1.71% to 1.70%. The banks that contributed significantly to this rate drop were banking giants Bank of America (-0.26%) and Citibank (-0.25%).

36-month CDs

The 3-year CD average rate also went down by one basis point, going from 2.08% to 2.07%. Bank of America made the biggest rate cut for this term from 2.30% to 1.86% (-0.44%), while both Citibank and Hudson City 36-month CD rates fell by 0.10%.

48-month CDs and 60-month CDs

Both 4-year and 5-year CD rate averages held their own this week, keeping levels at 2.37% and 2.63% respectively.

To see if your bank has perhaps raised or lowered their CD yields and contributed to the changes in this week’s CD rate averages, check out our CD rates page.

Wells Fargo

A Settlement

By agreeing to pay the settlement, Wells Fargo is not admitting to any wrongdoing, but instead simply reimbursing the investors who were unable to cash in their securities after the auctions markets froze back in February 2008. The bank will also pay the attorney generals office for its fees, but will not pay any civil fees or fines.

For many investors, this money will be the first return on the auction-rate securities that that they have seen. The securities were marketed as highly lucrative investments by Wells Fargo, but the lawsuit claims that the bank ignored or even purposefully withheld industry warnings about the true risks involved. These risks were made evident to institutions by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Accounting Standards Board, which specifically stated that auction-rate securities should not be considered safe, “cash equivalent” investments.

Auction-Rate Securities

An auction-rate security, or ARS, is a long term corporate or mutual bond with an interest rate that is set by auction. Problems with auction-rate securities rose in 2008 when many auctions failed, meaning that there were not enough buyers willing to purchase all of the shares that were being sold. When the ARS market failed, these were frozen and many investors were unable to withdraw their funds. Therefore, as the lawsuit alleges, many investors were left with securities that were useless, despite the fact that banks like Wells Fargo had all but assured them that they were going to be lucrative investments.

In the settlement, Wells Fargo has agreed to buy back at face value any securities purchased thorough them before February 13th 2008, as well as reimburse investors who were forced to sell their securities at a discounted rate after the market froze.

Under this new legislation, there would be a council of regulators that have the authority to take apart large financial operations. It would require the Treasury secretary’s approval to force a break down of assets worth at least $10 billion. If it is necessary to have a break up of a corporation worth more than $100 billion, then it would require consultation with the president.

Stiff Opposition

As should be expected, Republicans have voiced their discontent with the proposal calling it “draconian” and “unconstitutional”. Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas) was quoted as saying “When the government says you are too big and we’re going to make you dismantle, that is a taking of private property rights in this country.”

There are also some large financial firms voicing their concern over this new reform. Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase & Co., said that he would have no problem with allowing for the orderly dismantling of a large financial company on the brink of collapse. However, he believes that financial firms should not be capped because they will not be able to compete with massive foreign banks.

Some Strong Support

On the other hand this proposal is also gaining steam. Both Former Federal Reserve Chairmen Paul Volcker and Alan Greenspan have recently backed the proposal. Even the Bank of England endorsed the idea, so there are definitely some out there that want this to come to fruition. The Obama administration also backs this proposal but wants even tougher rules (for big financial firms) such as requiring them to have more capital at hand in case of losses. It will be interesting to see what happens, but do not expect everything to get passed in one smooth process.

A Winner At Every Branch

All you have to do to be eligible for the drawing is go into a TD Bank branch and sign up for the weekly drawing. If you can’t get to one of the TD Bank branches, you can also sign up online. TD will draw five $250 winners every week on Friday for four weeks.

In addition to the weekly $250 winners, TD will also announce 13 Grand Prize winners during the week of December 14th, celebrating each of the banks metro areas. These lucky customers will win a $2500 vacation getaway.

A Big Thank You From TD to Customers

TD Bank Regional Retail Banking President Fred Graziano said that this giveaway is in appreciation of their customers. With the latest acquisition of TD Banknorth, now TD Bank serves locations all along the east coast from Maine to Florida, with over 1000 banking locations. Enter to win weekly at one of these locations, or simply fill out your name, address, phone number and email address on their online form to be entered to win $250.

To sign up for your chance to win, visit the TD Big Thanks promotion site here or visit your local TD Bank branch.

Visa Mobile

Visa Mobile made its debut in 2008, but was enhanced for the US Bank application, providing users with greater functionality, more information and an added layer of security. Some of the new features Visa Mobile offers are:

• Alerts – account holders can select from a list of preferences what they would like to be notified of, such as transaction amount, gasoline purchases, declined transactions and purchases made with the card not present. All of these are near-real time alerts, given within seconds of account activity.

• Offers – Users can select from a list of merchants that they would like to receive offers from, including Papa John’s Pizza, Planet Hollywood, and Omaha Steaks, to name a few.

• Locator – Allows users to locate merchants offering deals or US Bank ATMs, using Google Maps, and will even provide directions.

Mobile Banking is a Growing Market

With nearly everyone today walking arounf with a cell phone on their ear or in their pocket, mobile banking seems to be the next big thing to make banking faster and more convenient for the consumer. The Federal Reserve agrees, saying that mobile financial devices are expected to take over as the primary means of bank/client interaction by 2015, if the current trend continues. Tim Attinger, head of product innovation at Visa, is hopeing that Visa can capitalize on some of this new market ith Visa Mobile, saying that “More and more consumers around the globe rely on their mobile device as an everyday financial tool.”

The new enhancements for the US Bank application show a great deal of progress, but Visa plans on more expansion by working with other financial institutions as well as wireless operators and handset manufacturers so that it can continue to make innovations in the mobile banking market.

Actual figures

The data found in the table below shows that the charge-off and delinquency trends are consistent for most of the six major US credit card companies. Only American Express Co., the biggest credit card issuer by purchases, bucked the trend by managing to maintain the percentage of cardholders who were behind in their payments at the same level as last month’s.

Credit card delinquencies vs. charge-offs

As a general rule, a credit card account is deemed to be delinquent when a payment is already more than 30 days overdue. Charge-offs, on the other hand, are accounts that the issuing company believes it will no longer be able to collect. The slight decline in charge-offs or defaults shown in the above data is a result of the slowdown in delinquencies earlier this year due to tax refunds and government moves to stimulate the economy.

At this point however, the increasing rate of late payments should be a more telling indicator that hard times are still ahead. Unemployment is the biggest factor that can bring about credit card delinquencies, and as jobless rates enter the double digit figure, credit card issuers should prepare for more losses.

Balances increasing as holidays approach

Recent data from two credit card tracking firms, Synovate Mail Monitor and Credit Karma, shows that with the holiday season approaching, average credit card balances for October increased as consumers who had earlier kept their wallets shut, now used their credit cards to make new purchases. The economic crisis was said to have developed in Americans better spending and saving habits, but apparently not enough for some to resist the lure of the busiest shopping season.

As John Ulzheimer, president of consumer education for Credit.com puts it, “It’s silly to expect people to have a complete change in the model of how they buy things forever – and especially in the holiday season.”

If this trend continues over the next two months, it could spell another wave of credit card delinquencies, and ultimately defaults, in the future.

In a program called Chase Community Giving: You Decide What Matters, Chase gives Facebook users the chance to support their local charities by voting for them and encouraging their network of Facebook friends to do the same.

Chase Community Giving on Facebook

“We are moving from a centralized way of philanthropic giving to the wisdom of friends,” said Elliot Schrage, Vice President for Communications of Facebook.

Facebook users can get to choose from the bank’s list of more than 500,000 charitable organizations that work on an operational budget of less than $10 million. These nonprofits make a huge impact in their respective communities doing the good work they do but don’t have the resources to go around lobbying for grants.

The program has two rounds. In the first round, the top 100 charities which get the highest number of votes by December 11, 2009 will each get $25,000 from Chase. In the second round of voting that runs from Jan 15 to 29, 2010, Facebook fans will again get to vote from among the top 100 charities, and the one that gets the most votes will be awarded $1 million. Five runners-up will receive an additional $100,000 each.

The remaining $1 million will be distributed by a separate advisory board composed of celebrities and experts in different philanthropic areas, to any of the committee’s chosen charities from among those nominated. Winners for the first round or the top 100 finalists will be announced on December 15, 2009, while the grand winners will be revealed on February 1, 2010.

Now we know that social media sites are not only good marketing tools that business can use, or a way to reconnect with friends for most people, they can also be instrumental in helping our local communities.

According to Kimberly Davis, president of the JPMorgan Chase Foundation, “Such ‘crowdsourcing’ of charitable organizations lets Chase expand its giving from the 3,000 to which it currently donates.”

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  Discover bank Mobile Applications

  View your account summary including: current balance, last statement balance, minimum payment due, payment due date, last payment made, credit available, and Cashback Bonus balance

• Make a Discover card account payment

• View recent transactions

• View recent and pending payments

• View rewards activity

• Enroll in quarterly 5% programs

For more information, make sure to visit Discover.com Mobile here.

To download the application click here to visit the Apple iTunes Store.

If any MyBankTracker.com readers are currently testing out the new app, make sure to post a comment and let us know if it is a hit or miss.