Free Republic

US regulators have seized Republic First Bancorp and agreed to sell it to Fulton Bank, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Friday, underscoring the challenges facing regional banks a year after the collapse of three peers. The Philadelphia-based bank, which had abandoned funding talks with a group of investors, was seized by the Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities. The FDIC, appointed as a receiver, said Fulton Bank, a unit of Fulton Financial, will assume substantially all deposits and purchase all the assets of Republic Bank to “protect depositors.” Republic Bank had about $6 billion in total assets and $4...

-A year after Silicon Valley Bank's failure, less than half of U.S. banks have established borrowing capacity by pledging collateral at the Federal Reserve's emergency lending facility, according to Fed data released on Friday. That's despite a crescendo of calls from financial regulators for banks to make sure they can access the Fed's discount window quickly if trouble arises. But the data also showed some real progress, with an increase in the number of banks signing up and a jump in the amount of total collateral pledged. SVB's inability to access the window in March of last year in the...

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Real estate tycoon Truong My Lan was sentenced Thursday to death by a court in Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam in the country’s largest financial fraud case ever, state media Vietnam Net said. The 67-year-old chair of the real estate company Van Thinh Phat was formally charged with fraud amounting to $12.5 billion — nearly 3% of the country’s 2022 GDP. Lan illegally controlled Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank between 2012 and 2022 and allowed 2,500 loans that resulted in losses of $27 billion to the bank, reported state media VnExpress. The court asked...

The U.S. and China are deepening co-operation on financial stability issues, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Monday, with more simulations of financial shocks due after a recent exercise on tackling the failure of a large bank. Wrapping up four days of meetings in China, Yellen issued a stern warning to Chinese banks that facilitating transactions providing material support or dual-use goods to Russia for its Ukraine war effort would lead to "significant consequences."

Law enforcement officers converged on a Queens intersection where a grenade was found outside a Chase Bank Tuesday, authorities said. No injuries were reported.

A brazen Los Angeles cash heist on Easter weekend in which thieves cracked a safe and got away with as much as $30 million is believed to be one of the largest such heists in U.S. history. The heist has triggered rampant speculation among a public long infatuated with daring burglaries and hefty criminal paydays. L.A. police and the FBI were tight-lipped Friday about any new developments in their joint investigation, but police Cmdr. Elaine Morales told The Los Angeles Times, which broke news of the crime, that thieves were able to breach the money storage facility in the suburban...

Australians made $746 million in digital payments in 2018—that number soared to $93 billion in 2022.. A new all-in-one mobile app will offer what its developers claim is Australia’s first end-to-end digital banking platform for the country’s 2.4 million businesses with fewer than 10 employees. The announcement comes a day after Bankwest announced that it is closing 45 of its branches and transitioning the remaining 15 to Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) branches, going digital-only by October 2024. Bankwest is a subsidiary of the Commonwealth Bank, which trades on the Australian Stock Exchange. ... The new app, called Business+, was...

THE LAWSUIT: A class action securities lawsuit was filed against New York Community Bancorp, Inc. that seeks to recover losses of shareholders who were adversely affected by alleged securities fraud between March 1, 2023 and February 5, 2024. CASE DETAILS: The filed complaint alleges that defendants made false statements and/or concealed that: (1) the Company was experiencing higher net charge-offs and deterioration in its office portfolio; (2) as a result, NYCB was reasonably likely to incur higher loan losses; (3) as a result of the foregoing and NYCB's status as Category IV bank, the Company was reasonably likely to increase...

In a major push to seize control of the public’s financial freedom, Canada is radicalizing its banking system by linking citizens’ bank accounts to a tyrannical social credit score.The Canadian banking system will soon be transformed by a so-called “open banking” framework.Proponents are framing this as a more “inclusive” way for banks to easily share information and access user data.However, the move will merge social standings with banking to provide governments and unelected bureaucrats with complete control over our finances.The organization Open Banking Excellence (OBE), a World Bank partner that originated in the UK, boasts that it will incorporate social...

The three boys ranged in age from 11 to 16. A trio of tiny bank robbers dubbed the “little rascals” were arrested by the FBI Tuesday for robbing a Wells Fargo in Houston. The three boys, ages 11, 12 and 16, were charged with robbery ... “Because they are juveniles, their names and no additional details will be released,... Images of the three baby-faced suspects were blasted out following the robbery .. All three were wearing hoodies and didn’t look old enough to drive or .

What do the two have in common? They are both insidious threats to a free people. Central banks and espionage agencies are insidious threats to any free people. The former manipulate the value of money, and the latter manipulate the perceived truthfulness of information. Both ostensibly work for the broader public’s “best interest,” but as is true of all institutions, they ultimately serve the interests of those people who run them. Spies and bankers should not have so much power over free citizens. Both institutions are not only plainly anti-democratic but also inherently authoritarian. The central banker says, “Free markets...

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Thursday he expects to see some banks fail due to their exposure to the commercial real estate sector, which has declined significantly in value following the shift to remote work. Powell said the banks that are in trouble with falling office space and retail assets are not the big banks, which were designated as “systemically important” in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. That episode, which resulted in a taxpayer bailout of the financial sector, was also triggered by unsound real estate assets. Rather, the banks at risk of failure now Powell identified...

16 Republican AGs seek answers from Wells Fargo CEO Charles Scharf... ... debanking ... Wells Fargo is pushing the Biden administration's anti-gun and anti-traditional energy policies and discriminating against customers who don't fall in line with their political beliefs," Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen... As attorney general, it's my job to protect Montanans from discriminatory business practices. I will continue to investigate and fight against any illegal actions that could impact Montana businesses and consumers." ... Wells Fargo unexpectedly closed the business and personal accounts of Bradon Wexler, the owner of Florida-based firearms dealer Wex Gunworks, with a vague explanation...

New York Community Bancorp sent its shares plummeting 26% on Friday after the regional lender said has discovered “material weaknesses” in the ways it tracks loan risks and that its CEO is leaving. The New York-based firm announced late Thursday that CEO Thomas Cangemi would be leaving NYCB — capping off a 27-year tenure at NYCB — and that Alessandro DiNello would take his place, effective immediately. DiNello, NYCB’s executive chairman, had been acting as the bank’s true boss since earlier this month ... One NYCB director, Hanif “Wally” Dahya, said in a Feb. 25 letter that he “did not...

Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser got a 6% pay bump for her performance in 2023, a year the bank's profits dropped 38% and Fraser began a dramatic restructuring that will result in an estimated 20,000 job cuts. The board awarded her total compensation of $26 million, ... The $26 million for Fraser was the lowest among CEO rivals at JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley, who received between $29 million and $37 million. Bank of America's Brian Moynihan was the only CEO among this group to experience a compensation decline. ... Fraser had a lot...

[H/T ExTexasRedhead]ransomnote: In the following 3 minute video from Boston 25 News, a hard to detect method of stealing information and money from ATM's is described. A 'shimmer' (see image below) the size of a bank card is inserted into the ATM and stays there collecting information from inserted cards. The thieves 'harvest' the data, produce fake cards and use them to withdraw money from victims' accounts.Super skimmers: The new way criminals are hacking your account, even if you don’t swipe your card

New York Community Bank on Wednesday promoted its chairman to help stabilize the company’s operations. Late Tuesday Moody’s Investors Service downgraded NYCB’s credit ratings two notches to junk. The regional bank has been in free fall, shedding more than 50% of its market value across a punishing series of trading sessions, since reporting a surprise fourth-quarter loss last week. ... New York Community Bank on Wednesday promoted its chairman to help stabilize the company’s operations, hours after Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the bank’s credit ratings two notches to junk. Shares gained nearly 7% Wednesday after initially falling as much as...

Amidst the unfolding year, concerns heighten over a looming financial crisis, with a potential bank failure on the horizon. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) proposes rule changes, including waiving margin requirements for major banks during periods of “high volatility,” sparking questions about the stability of the financial system. The specter of last year’s challenges resurfaces, with shares of $NYCB plummeting and regional banks experiencing a downturn. Notably, the financial sector is gripped by worries of a derivatives implosion, adding complexity to an already precarious situation. The ongoing decline in commercial property values, coupled with the exposure...

His critics call him Prime Minister Zoolander after the vacuous male model in the movie of the same name. But Canada’s Justin Trudeau is someone much more sinister. That’s been obvious ever since the PM turned the federal government’s power on the COVID-mandate-protesting truckers of Canada’s Freedom Convoy in 2022, jailing them, seizing their rigs and even shutting down their bank accounts (“debanking,” as it’s known) — though that last came to a swift end when enough Canadians withdrew their money to threaten a bank run. We were told the truckers were “right-wing extremists,” probably racist and possibly agents for...

The recently-retired banking oracle - who forecast the 2008 housing crisis - made the dramatic prediction this week.. Bove, 83, claimed other analysts won't make the same admission because they're 'monks praying to money' who rely on the mainstream financial system.. It comes despite the collapse of its property sector, which accounts for roughly a quarter of the country's economy, and US growth ... China will soon overtake the American economy and the US dollar will catastrophically collapse, according to famed financial analyst Richard X Bove. In a characteristically histrionic forecast, the recently-retired 83-year-old banking oracle has announced that 'the...