FED Watch (Federal Reserve System) May 12, 2009 Stress and More Stress By Tim Holland  While the stock market is expressing what might be called a sigh of relief over the “stress test” results, whereby it appears that none of the 19 largest banks in the country are expected to fail, small banks around the country continue to reflect the real health of the county’s financial system. The Federal Reserve announced on Tuesday, May 12 that they had placed a series of banks on a short leash that are owned and controlled by Security Bank Corporation and Security Interim Holding Corporation (both of Macon, Georgia).  In effect, the controlling entities are bank holding companies that could be considered smaller versions of the 19 financial services companies that have just finished their examination by the Fed.                               Read full story.... March 30, 2009 FED Puts Two More Banks on Watch List In two separate notices, the Federal Reserve on Friday, March 27 and this morning March 30, announced the addition of two more banks to its watch list.  This brings the total number of banks added to the FED’s list to 22 for 2009.  The banks are added to the watch list by means of entering into a legal agreement with the local Federal Reserve Bank in the region where the bank is located.  In this instance, BankEast of Knoxville, Tennessee and its bank holding company parent, BankEast Corporation, also of Knoxville, entered into their agreement with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia.                                                                                                                                                   Read full story....  March 25, 2009 Fed Puts Four Banks on Short Leash By Tim Holland  The FED announced on March 24, 2009 that it has entered into a written agreement with four more banks.  Such agreements are usually entered into when it is deemed that a banking company’s financial position does not meet the minimum Federal Reserve System’s requirements.  The banks involved consist of three in Minnesota and one in Oregon. Unlike the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which has the capability of taking over and operating a bank in receivership, the regional district Federal Reserve Banks perform a monitoring function to assure a healthy banking system.                                                                                                                                                                Read full story.... March 9, 2009 Auto Loan Rates at Five Year High News Analysis by Tim Holland  The Federal Reserve released its Consumer Credit statistical report for the month of January 2009 late Friday and some of the numbers seemed to jump off the page.  Of particular note was the trend in “new car Loans at auto finance companies,” which proved to be a prime example of the tight consumer credit markets. In 2004 average auto interest rates were reported to be at 4.92% with the average maturity being 60.7 months – just over five years.                                        Read full story.... March 6, 2009x FED Offers Consumer Tips on Foreclosure Fraud In a continuing effort by federal regulatory agencies to be more consumer pre active, the Federal Reserve issued a series of guidelines and suggestions on how mortgage holders could protect themselves from foreclosure scams.  In a press release issued yesterday the Fed continued its efforts to address the American public directly on matters affecting their financial health.  The text of the release follows: *** Reports of mortgage foreclosure scams are on the rise.  Knowing what to watch for and where to turn for help is vital for families who are struggling to remain in their homes.                                                                            Read more.... February 24, 2009 Federal Reserve Opens a Window on its Operations The Federal Reserve Board added some sunshine to the way it operates by providing a new section on its website.  Described as “…expanding the information provided about the policy tools…” it uses to deal with the financial crisis.                                                                        Read more.... February 18, 2009 Industrial Production Drops 1.8% The Federal Reserve this morning released its statistical report of Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization for the month of January 2009.  The news, as anticipated, was not particularly encouraging as production fell 1.8 percent for the month.                                                                         Read more.... FTC Watch (Federal Trade Commission) Crackdown on mortgage scams By Tim Holland   The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), in conjunction with the Federal Reserve and the Justice Department, made a joint announcement earlier this week in which they made the crackdown on mortgage modification and foreclosure rescue scams an official part of the effort to right the economy.  Speaking first at a press conference and later with the release of a detailed press statement, the FTC took the lead in an effort to educate the consumer about the increasing amount of fraud and deception that is evolving around the effort to help consumers that are in difficulty with their mortgage loans. Unfortunately, many of the people who were duped into signing mortgage loan agreements by unscrupulous lenders are now becoming victims of similar scams to rewrite those mortgages.  The FTC announced that it had sent warning letters to 71 companies who may be deceptively marketing mortgage loan modification of foreclosure rescue services.                                                                                                                                                             Read full story...       February 20, 2009 FTC Forum Examines Advertising Literacy The Federal Trade Commission announced on February 20 that its staff will host a forum on March 12, 2009 to gather input for its upcoming education program on advertising literacy for “tweens,” or kids who are 8 to 12 years old. At the forum, experts on advertising and marketing to kids will discuss a range of issues, including:        Read more....                                                                                                        FDIC Watch (Federal Deposit Insurance Corp) May 4, 2009 FDIC Creates Bridge Bank By Tim Holland The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) announced the creation of a bridge bank to take over the operations of Silverton Bank, National Association, Atlanta, GA.  Silverton Bank was closed by the Office of the Controller of the Currency, the regulator of national banks, on Friday, May 1, 2009 and appointed the FDIC as receiver.  Silverton Bank did not deal directly with consumers but served as a correspondent bank for smaller banks around the country.  The new bank will be called Silverton Bridge Bank. Silverton Bank’s failure continues to demonstrate the weakness in the country’s financial structure.  The bank’s primary function was to provide correspondent banking services to smaller independent banks around the country and did not deal directly with consumers.  It had 1,400 client banks in 44 states and maintained six regional offices. Silverton, at the time of its closing, had assets of $4.1 billion and $3.3 billion in deposits (all of which will be covered by FDIC insurance).                                                                                                                   Read full story.... April 5, 2009 A look at the week past News analysis by Tim Holland With the President and First Lady off on the grand tour of Europe, much financial news slipped by un-noticed last week.  The stock market did get some attention, since it was advancing, but the market anticipates or reacts to economic news it doesn’t create it, which is why, since banks and financial service companies are at the heart of our current problem, watching what the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) has been doing is critical. Yes, another bank did fail - the 21st this year.  The FDIC closed Omni National Bank, Atlanta, GA with the deposits being moved to SunTrust Bank in Atlanta.  As no buyer for the bank was immediately found, SunTruat Bank will operate the six former branches of the bank on behalf of the FDIC until April 27, 2009.  Omni had branches in Georgia, Florida, Illinois and Texas.                                                                                                                       Read full story.... March 23, 2009 IndyMac Sold – Three Banks Fail By Tim Holland  The FDIC announced the sale of IndyMac Federal Bank FSB, Pasadena, CA to OneWest Bank. FSB, a newly formed Pasadena, California based federal savings bank.  IndyMac bank is the largest bank to fail in the current recession and the most visible as the FDIC was obliged to actually take over the bank and operate it as opposed to immediately selling it to a third party. All thirty three branches of IndyMac officially became branches of OneWest on Friday.                                                                                                                   Read full story  March 7,2009 Bank Failures Now at 17 for 2009 The FDIC announced late on Friday the failure of the 17th U S Bank this year with the closing of the Freedom Bank of Georgia, Commerce, Georgia.  The Georgia Department of Banking and Finance appointed the FDIC as receiver which immediately entered into an agreement with Northeast Georgia Bank, Lavonia, Georgia to assume all of the deposits of the Commerce, Georgia bank.                    Read more....   March 5, 2009 FDIC Highlights Money Management Tools Having the right tools is critical to completing any task. This is true for consumers trying to manage their money and is particularly important during a difficult economy. "Accurate and reliable information is essential to helping consumers protect their savings, avoid fraud, and make informed financial decisions," said Sandra L. Thompson, Director of the FDIC's Division of Supervision and Consumer Protection. "We are pleased to be one of the national organizers of National Consumer Protection Week 2009."                                                                                                                       Read more.... x February 28, 2009 Banks 15 and 16 Fail on Friday The FDIC announced on Friday, February 27, the failure of two more U. S. Banks.  As with previous closings, the FDIC made the announcement as the weekend began thereby giving the local market an opportunity to absorb the news before the start of a new week. Heritage Community Bank of Glenwood, Illinois was closed by the Illinois Department of Financial Regulation, Banking Division and appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver.  As has become standard practice, all arrangements were in place at the time of the announcement by the Illinois State regulators for the FDIC to immediately turn the failed bank over to another financial institution, in this case the MB Financial Bank, N.A., Chicago, IL   Read more..... February 23, 2009 Fourteenth US Bank Fails in 2009 On Friday, February 20, the FDIC announced that the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services closed the Silver Falls Bank of Silverton, Oregon.  This represents the fourteenth bank in the U. S. to fail this year and the second one in Oregon in slightly over a week: Pinnacle Bank of Beaverton, Oregon failed on February 13.                                                      Read more.... February 5, 2009 Results of FDIC Survey to Serve Unbanked and Underbanked Market By Tim Holland On Thursday February 5, the FDIC released the results of its first national survey of bank’s efforts to serve the so called “unbanked” and “underbanked” market place.  Over the years there has been some criticism of the banking industry not offering banking products to the working poor and elderly living on minimal benefits and to reach out, in general to those who do not have regular bank accounts or check cashing arrangements within the federally insured banking system.                                                          Read more....		The Holland Report NEWS Reports Page 1 Go to Page 2 Go to Main Page
			DOJ Watch (Dept of Justice-Antitrust Div) March 27, 2009 Michigan School Official Sentenced in Fraud Scheme By Tim Holland The Anti-Trust Div. of the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on March 26, the sentencing of a former Michigan school official to serve 48 months in jail and pay $1.34 million in restitution with regard to a fraudulent scheme regarding a Michigan school district and falsifying loan documentation with regard to a credit line obtained from a Minnesota bank.                                                             Read full story....   March 20, 2009 Guilty Plea in Army Contracts Case. In a statement released this morning, March 20, 2009, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Carolyn Blake, of Sunnyvale, Texas, pleaded guilty to money laundering in connection with a scheme that is related to bribes paid to army contractors involved in providing goods and services in support of the Iraq war.                      Read full story.... FBI Watch (Federal Bureau of Investigation) March 23, 2009 FBI’s Top Ten News Stories for the Week Ending March 20, 2009 Again this week, financial related crimes led the list of the FBI’s top ten news stories.  The Bernie Madoff saga continues to drag others into its net as the ongoing investigation into the world’s largest Ponzi scheme continues to unfold.  This week it is Mr. Madoff’s accountant who has been caught in the web. As awareness of Ponzi schemes has been highlighted in the law enforcement world, another has been uncovered, this time in Georgia, where the operator of a local financial advisory company has been accused of operating a $25 million fraud.                                                                                                                                                                                                              Read full story.... March 18, 2009 D. B. Cooper Revisited By Tim Holland  The crime may have occurred 37 years ago but that doesn’t mean the FBI is going to give up.  With everything else that is going on in the world, the Bureau doesn’t have the case on the front burner but it’s still active and Seattle Special Agent Larry Carr is still investigating new leads.                     Read full story.... March 13, 2009 FBI’s Top Ten News Stories for the Week Ending March 13, 2009 This week’s top ten FBI stories had, as one would expect, the Bernard L. Madoff guilty plea as its lead story.  However, it also continued its trend of having various types of financial fraud dominate the list that it publishes at the end of the week. Six of the ten stories were involved with financial activities related to bribery, money laundering, bankruptcy fraud, and there was even one of an attorney accused of defrauding a charity and his own church.  Violent crimes against people seem to have taken a backseat to what is typically referred to as “white collar crime.”  The world has certainly taken a turn when banks are accused of robbing people and computers are used more in stealing than hand guns.                                          Read full story.... March 7, 2009 FBI’s Top Ten News Stories for the Week Ending March 6, 2009 While financial related fraud did not stay in the lead this week it remained tied with a newcomer to the list – immigration related crime.  Both financial fraud and immigration crimes had four of the top ten stories but the finance side was surely more interesting.  Geography, as usual, has no bearing on crime with with the stories covering the country from Buffalo, NY to Phoenix, AZ                                           Read full story.... February 28,2009 FBI’s Top Ten News Stories for the Week Ending February 27, 2009 This week’s list of top tens from the FBI continued its pattern of having financial fraud cases as one of the dominant themes.  However, although have three of the top ten, Terrorism topped the list this time with four cases. On the Financial front the cases included the very high profile one of charging the Chief Financial Officer of Stanford Financial Group with obstruction of the SEC investigation to an employee of The Export Import Bank of the United States being charged with soliciting bribes in order to facilitate obtaining loan guarantees and other financial support.                                                                 Read full story.... xx