GLG News by Banking Consultants

In November 2007, Wal-Mart de México (WMT) opened its first consumer bank, Banco Wal*Mart, in Toluca – an industrial town near Mexico City. The company plans to launch 80 more branches by the end of 2008. Will this initiative be successful? Will the established Mexican banking community suffer...

Citigroup (NYSE: C) seems to understand the importance of adjusting to the ever changing consumer and corporate base that wants to send money “home” in a secure, efficient manner.  Their growth through acquisition of remittance service companies and helps to create a solid hold as a leader in the...

Write-downs for high-risk, high-yield corporate debt, known as "junk", could dwarf losses in the mortgage mess. History repeats itself again and again. Bottom is not here, coming in the next year or two.

Citibank announced that it will cut back on its branch expansion strategy and may sell some recently opened branches due to high costs and/or poor results.  Any future expansion initiatives are likely to be limited to larger markets. What are the implications for Citibank's future in retail banking?...

Intuit Inc. (INTU) and Electronic Clearing House Inc., (ECHO), have signed another definitive agreement for Intuit to acquire ECHO. Under the terms of this agreement, Intuit will pay $17 per share in cash in exchange for each share of ECHO common stock, including shares tied to options. The total purchase...

Banking, mortgage, capital markets and other industry participants are comparing the current “subprime” mortgage market meltdown to the U.S. Savings and Loan crises whose roots were caused by archaic deposit and loan regulations and nurtured under the Reagan administration’s hands off regulatory watch...

Not all banks are exposed to sub-prime mortgages, CDO's, SIV's, MBS's and the like yet all banks are trading at unrealistically low levels.  This is a golden opportunity for investors who know how and where to analyze bank financials.

To prevent the mortgage meltdown from spreading to payment cards, Congress will suspend aggressive reforms against bankcard lenders and other government pressure (from the feds and perhaps the DoJ) will help to minimize their risks in the interchange antitrust lawsuits.  Thus what Paulson...

Efforts by the EC and UK to stop cartel price fixing threaten bankcard interchange The threat will worsen if they allow private class actions to enforce antitrust standards.

Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) announced it is spinning off its Lender Processing Services (LPS) business unit to its shareholders in a tax free exchange. The rationale is to focus on its “core banking and payments” business unit, Transaction Processing Services. In light of its recent...