| A Wahoo to WaMu - community blog from Chris Skinner
Leaving Las Vegas is always a bitter pill. On the one hand, you're leaving behind all the bright lights, shows, drinks, girls ... you name it - what goes on in Vegas, stays in Vegas ... on the other, my pocket is a few thousand dollars lighter and so it's nice to escape before bankruptcy or Chapter 11 or whatever it is occurs. The BAI Retail Delivery show has been top heavy with big hitters: Geldof, Greenspan and Forbes; and the message seems to be one where America's cup is either half-full or half-empty. The half-full would say that America's just going through a minor market hiccup. What's interesting there is that it used to be that when America sneezed, the world got flu. Now, if America sneezes, it's just Europe that gets the Lemsip, for the half-empty glass watchers are saying that China, India and the BRIC economies are fast rising and America is no longer the resilient currency. That's why the dollar is weak and the subprime is being offset by Europe and not Asia. Asia is meantime investing in the next BRIC economy: Africa.
State grants charter to Greensboro business bank
Greensboro is a step closer to getting its first business-only bank. The North Carolina Banking Commission has granted a charter to Premier Commercial Bank, a startup lender for small and medium-sized businesses. The bank said it expects to open in early 2008. Premier was founded by Frank Gavigan, a longtime Triad banker who was most recently senior credit officer at 1st State Bank in Burlington. It's joining a space that's become increasingly crowded in North Carolina since Raleigh's Paragon Commercial Bank became the state's first business-only bank in 1999. The Triad has yet to get in on the action, however, with most of the startups planting their headquarters in Charlotte or the Triangle. So far, Premier has raised more than $11 million in its initial stock offering, which began Aug.
Shares fall on US lead
SHARES traded within a small range this morning, leaving them marginally down at noon after a weak lead from the US and a rise in oil and gold prices. At 12noon (AEDT), the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was 13.6 points lower at 6411.8, while the All Ordinaries dropped 9.6 points to 6480.6. On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the December share price index contract was 16 points lower at 6443 on a volume of 15,901 contracts. ABN AMRO Morgans Ipswich manager Tony Russell said the market had been interesting after no clear lead from the US. "It has been swinging from 10 down to 10 up at the moment,'' Mr Russell said. "We had no real lead from the US overnight, with it being very volatile even though it did close up.'' "Oil and gold prices have also buoyed our market a little bit.'' At 12.04pm AEDT, the two mining giants were in up after taking a bath yesterday, with BHP Billiton Ltd 87 cents higher to $41.17 while Rio Tinto Ltd added 20 cents to $132.10.
HSBC aims for bigger niche in Australian banking
THE Australian arm of global banking giant HSBC expects to double its customers over the next five years - even though it has ruled out following British-based competitor HBOS in opening a large branch network on the east coast. HSBC will focus on Australians who do increasing amounts of business abroad and travel regularly, rather than compete with the major banks whose retail operations dominate the local market. HBOS, which owns Perth-based BankWest, last month announced its plans to set up another 160 branches over the next four years - in NSW, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia - at a cost of $760 million, in a move that will rival the networks of Suncorp and the Bank of Queensland. For its part, HSBC reckons the cost of a similar expansion could not be supported in investment terms, while the current market capitalisations of the major four Australian banks are far too high to justify a friendly takeover bid.
Standard Chartered expands China biz
Standard Chartered Bank, one of the first foreign banks to incorporate in China, is planning a 66 percent increase in staff and to expand its branches by a third by the end of the year. "We are on track with our branch expansion, with 30 locations in 15 Chinese cities, and still plan to have about 40 locations by the year end, subject to the regulatory approvals," said group chief executive Peter Sands in a statement on the bank's mid-term business report. The bank planned to recruit another 1,400 people to bring staff numbers in China to 3,500, Sands added. Standard Chartered has opened an operations center in Tianjin, a municipality striving to become an economic center in north China. Sands said Standard Chartered in China more than doubled its income in the first half, without giving details.
Europe shares dip; UBS underlines bank worry
LONDON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - European stocks were down by midday on Tuesday as worries about banks' vulnerability to credit market turmoil and the U.S. subprime crisis returned to centre stage after a sharp rally in the previous session. At 1033 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was down 0.3 percent at 1,508.61 points with Swiss bank UBS the top weighted percentage decliner after it warned market turmoil was likely to hit its investment banking business in the second half. UBS shares were down 3.5 percent after it said that if turbulent conditions prevailed throughout the third quarter, it would probably see "a very weak trading result in the investment bank". The update, which also sent other financial stocks lower, was the first by a big bank since last week's turbulence in global markets forced central banks to pump cash into the financial system.
Bank of Hawaii offers banking on the go
Bank of Hawaii will roll out the state's first wireless mobile banking service this weekend, helping its customers to locate automated teller machines and to check account balances on the go. The free service, which goes live on Sunday, gives customers access to their accounts through mobile telephones or personal digital assistants. .
|
