And then he lied about it!
"Banks lose battle to delay cap on invisible fee; Retailers and consumers see victory" June 09, 2011|By Theo Emery, Globe Staff
WASHINGTON — Banks suffered the defeat despite an unexpected, 11th-hour plug from Representative Barney Frank....
Not unexpected here: Bankers' Best Friend
The banking industry called it a “dark day,’’ predicting that banks would raise fees on account holders to make up for the lost revenue [from] “swipe fees’’.... $16 billion a year.
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The measure from Montana Democrat Jon Tester and Tennessee Republican Bob Corker would have delayed the fee decrease for a year, giving the Federal Reserve six months to study the issue and come up with a fair system of structuring the fees.
I thought Tester was supposed to be this mountain man everyman and now it turns out he is a servant of banks?
The cap on swipe fees was not a major part of last year’s Dodd-Frank law, which was primarily aimed at preventing another Wall Street meltdown like the one in 2008 that triggered the recession.
Is that what it was meant for?
See: Barney Frank Goes Straight
Senate Sends Along Financial Fraud Bill
A career-capping failure?
It wasn’t in the House version that Frank authored; Richard J. Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, added it later in a compromise version. But the issue burst into the spotlight this week after months of intense lobbying and an ad war that has blanketed subways and billboards around Washington.
Major financial institutions, community credit unions, and small banks have been fighting for a delay to the implementation of the lower swipe fees to allow time for the study of a system that they believe would be more equitable.
Retail groups large and small fought back, calling the fees excessive and arbitrary and saying that consumers will benefit from the savings. According to a campaign finance watchdog group, the Center for Responsive Politics, the lobbying war has cost millions of dollars and has involved well over 100 lobbyists, highlighting the enormous stakes....
Frank’s decision to support the measure caught some observers by surprise....
Not me. Once you get past the gay liberal facade you realize Barney is beholden to banks.
Frank said that he believed that the new fees were too low and that it made sense to delay the reduction to find a system that was fair to all parties....
While large banks also supported the delay, he said that he was seeking the delay on behalf of the community banks, which he maintained carry more clout on Capitol Hill.
“The lobbying strength in the financial area is not with the major institutions, it’s with the community banks and the credit unions,’’ he said....
Oh, what a self-serving liar!
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Also see: Political Love Stories
The Edwards Indictment
Edwards seeks to delay testimony
What a tease.
And now the banks will punish the politicians for daring to side with the people for once:
"Big banks may soon shed jobs; Analysts blame slow growth, shrinking values" June 09, 2011|By Michael J. Moore, Bloomberg News
NEW YORK — Financial firms, shunned by investors to a degree seen only once in the last 20 years, are becoming a smaller part of the economy as they deal with a past that won’t go away and a future of lower revenue and fewer jobs.
Related: Banks Reserve Profits For Themselves
The banker's paper really has some nerve, doesn't it?
Shares of financial companies have fallen for three straight months and now have their lowest ratio to the Standard & Poor’s 500 index since 2009. Net revenue at the six largest US lenders — Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley — will probably fall 3.7 percent in the second quarter, the fourth year-over-year decline in five quarters, according to analyst estimates.
Persistent low interest rates and stagnant loan growth are shrinking interest income as new regulations curtail fee revenue from retail banking.
Awww, the poow, poow, fee-gouging banks, huh?
Analysts, including Meredith Whitney and Nomura Holding Inc.’s Glenn Schorr, expect the slow growth to result in job cuts on Wall Street in the coming months....
Another record bonus year coming up!
Drags on earnings include new regulations surrounding proprietary trading and debit-card interchange fees; state and federal investigations into mortgage practices; and stricter capital and liquidity requirements....
As less revenue comes into banks, more money may be drained by mounting legal risks, according to FBR.
Don't worry; I'm sure there is a bailout waiting.
Bank of America paid about $3 billion to resolve some mortgage repurchase demands from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the fourth quarter, and it may face more claims as housing prices slide this year.
That means they had to BUY BACK the FRAUDULENT MBS they sold!
The largest mortgage servicers, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and JPMorgan, also may have to spend $5 billion to $17 billion to settle state probes into documentation lapses during home seizures, according to the FBR note....
That is how they describe FRAUDULENT FORECLOSURES made on the basis of NO PAPERWORK?
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And the champion looters:
"Goldman agrees to pay $10m to Mass.; ‘Huddles’ gave larger investors an unfair advantage, state says" June 10, 2011|By Taryn Luna, Globe Correspondent
Massachusetts’ top securities regulator fined Goldman Sachs & Co. $10 million to settle allegations that the Wall Street broker systematically favored certain clients over others.
Yesterday’s settlement is the result of a two-year investigation into Goldman’s practice of “huddles,’’ or internal meetings in which the company’s traders and securities analysts discussed investments and market trends, and then allegedly shared insights from these meetings with hedge funds and other large clients.
A 26-page consent order between Goldman and the Massachusetts Securities Division describes the broker’s actions as “dishonest and unethical violations’’ of state securities laws, putting certain clients at an advantage over others. In addition to the fine, Goldman agreed to stop conducting huddles.
That is nothing new.
“In the securities industry we’re seeing all the time that information is not only power, its money,’’ said Secretary of State William F. Galvin, whose office regulates securities. “Fairness to all customers is important if we’re going to have a marketplace that people can be comfortable in.’’
Stephen Cohen, a spokesman for Goldman, said the bank was pleased to have resolved the matter. Goldman neither admitted or denied wrongdoing....
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