GLG News by Banking Consultants

The suggestion that Wal-Mart will boldly go where no bank has gone before raises several questions. How can Wal-Mart undercut competitor pricing in order to expand into banking? Is Wal-Mart willing to lose money from a banking strategy to gain market share? Does the unbanked and underbanked marketplace...

Mortgage REITs, a dividend paying equity vehicle that expanded with the mortgage industry in the past 10 years, have been facing a severe liquidity crises. The fallout that began with the subprime crises is spilling over to other types of mortgages, particularly the Alt-A mortgage. A virus-like illness...

Fiserv is buying CheckFree in an all-cash deal. At$4.4 billion, the $48/share price is about 30% over CKFR's recent stock price. However, a year ago CKFR had just hit an all-time high of $56/share. Fiserv describes this deal as transformative - what does that mean? And, did CKFR get a good price?

Marshall & Ilsley Corporation (MI)M & I's earnings for 2Q07 were up by 5.5%. A closer look at the details indicates that a one-time gain on sale of MasterCard stock accounted for the increase. Net interest margin compression and a deteriorating real estate loan portfolio suggest that future...

The buyers, headed by private equity firms J. C. Flowers & Co. and Friedman, Fleischer & Lowe LLC along with Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase, are claiming that new Congressional legislation adversely changes the deal and they are prepared to back out. Sallie Mae (SLM) strongly disagrees...

Federal regulators issued new requirements to curtail weak underwriting standards for the subprime mortgage market. The new guidelines require all banks, thrifts, and credit unions regulated by a federal agency to use the adjusted mortgage loan rate instead of the initial teaser rate to qualify all...

Visa's has proposed a global corporate restructure and IPO to help distance itself from antitrust risks.  Its recent filings with the SEC explaining its plan is an exceedingly complex, dreary and foreboding document.  It does not inspire confidence. 

On June 26, the Advocate General to the Dutch Supreme Court announced the results of his analysis of the appeal by ABN AMRO (NYS:ABN), Barclays (NYS:BCS), and Bank of America (NYS:BAC) regarding a lower court's mandate that the B of A - LaSalle deal be submitted to a shareholder vote by ABN AMRO. The...

The retailing giant withdrew its application for an industrial loan charter in 1Q2007 after the FDIC froze all such applications in light of tremendous opposition from banks and politicians in Washington and state capitals.  Wal-Mart (NYS:WMT) is now taking a different path to expanding its ability...

The recent round of hiring by large private equity firms has targeted senior banking executives, which is adding a new wrinkle to the multi-billion $ investments in financial services firms or their key vendors by these firms. Executives from Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Mercantile Bank, and Hartford...