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Handpicked Bank Fails Schools' Testby Paul C. Clark Staff Writer December 13, 2012 The administration of Guilford County School Superintendent Mo Green has killed an effort by the Guilford County Board of Education's four black members to divert taxpayer money from the banks Guilford County Schools usually uses to Durham-based Mechanics and Farmers Bank. After pressure from school board members Sandra Alexander, Deena Hayes, Carlvena Foster and Amos Quick, the school board in September voted unanimously to consider overriding the way it invests the taxpayer money it holds to steer money to one bank: the Greensboro branch of the black-owned,...

European Union finance ministers reached an agreement early Thursday to create a single supervisor for their banks - one of the most significant transfers of authority from national governments to regional authorities since the creation of the euro currency. Under the deal, banks with more than $39 billion in assets supervised or those that represent a significant proportion of their national economies will be placed under the oversight of the European Central Bank. The deal gives the ECB broad powers, including the ability to grant and withdraw banking licenses, investigate institutions, and financially sanction banks that don't follow the rules.

JERUSALEM — Israel responded swiftly Friday to U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state, revealing it will build 3,000 more homes for Jews on Israeli-occupied lands that the world body overwhelmingly said belong to the Palestinians. The plans also include future construction in a strategic area of the West Bank where critics have long warned that Jewish settlements would kill hopes for a viable Palestinian state. Israel's moves served as a harsh reminder to Palestinians – euphoric over the U.N. upgrade – that while they now have a state on paper, most of it remains very much under Israeli control. "This...

Kabul Bank became Afghanistan’s largest financial institution by offering the promise of modern banking to people who had never had a saving or checking account. What it really dealt in was modern theft: “From its very beginning,” according to a confidential forensic audit of Kabul Bank, “the bank was a well-concealed Ponzi scheme.” Afghan and American officials had for years promoted Kabul Bank as a prime example of how Western-style banking was transforming a war-ravaged economy. But the audit, prepared this year for Afghanistan’s central bank by the Kroll investigative firm, gives new details of how the bank instead was...

You always hear stories of people pulling guns on bank tellers, but what about the other way around? When was the last time that you heard of a bank manager holding a bank robber at gun point? Peoples Bank & Trust President David W. Thompson of St. Louis, Missouri, turned the tables on a gun-toting thief with a weapon of his own. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that it started the same way that most robberies start: a masked-man walked into a bank, held up the place, and then walked out with a bag full of loot. He should have...

TROY, Mo. • David W. Thompson, the president of a Troy bank, was in his office Tuesday afternoon talking with a salesman about advertising when his receptionist buzzed him with an emergency. "David, we've got a problem," she told him. Thompson said he looked out his office window into the bank lobby of Peoples Bank & Trust. He saw that his tellers looked fearful. And he saw a man wearing a heavy jacket and a ghoulish Halloween mask calmly walk away from the tellers, carrying one of the bank's money bags. Thompson, 58, followed the man outside, onto the parking...

The latest executive order (EO) emanating from the White House October 9 now claims the power to freeze all bank accounts and stop any related financial transactions that a “sanctioned person” may own or try to perform — all in the name of “Iran Sanctions.” Titled an “Executive Order from the President regarding Authorizing the Implementation of Certain Sanctions…” the order says that if an individual is declared by the president, the secretary of state, or the secretary of the treasury to be a “sanctioned person,” he (or she) will be unable to obtain access to his accounts, will be...

SNIPPET: "New York City is the center of a public uproar as Internet blogger Pamela Gellar rises with an “anti-jihad” ad campaign." SNIPPET: "Gellar and her group are protesting the Jihad, which in definition is the religious duty of Muslims. According to the Dictionary of Islam, jihad is defined as “A religious war with those who are unbelievers in the mission of Muhammad . . . enjoined especially for the purpose of advancing Islam and repelling evil from Muslims.” The literal meaning of jihad, according to the British Broadcasting Network, “is struggle or effort, and it means much more than...

Free Beacon: Wasserman hails DNC's $8 million partnership with SEIU bankBy: Devonia Smith September 21, 2012 Friday, The Free Beacon, reported the Democratic National Committee, (DNC) is in hock to the tune of $8 million to "Amalgamated Bank, often described as “America’s Labor Bank," whose majority ownership is Service Employees International Union (SEIU). According to the Beacon, Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D), "hailed" DNC's banking move because of a “fiduciary responsibility to those who invest in our party.” **SNIP** Not only will the Democrats owe the union for their support; they will now owe real money. Some think thinks this kind...

On Thursday, members of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis took a tour of the Bakken area. The trips was planned so that Bank President Narayana Kocherlakota and his staff could gather more information on what is currently happening in the region from an economic standpoint. “Obviously, what’s happening here in the Bakken —we took a tour today between Minot and Williston—is quite special,” said Kocherlakota in meeting with the press after the tour. “Just the level of economic vitality is quite different her relative to anywhere else.” With all the struggles in the national economy, western North Dakota is...

Families of victims of a deadly 1983 bombing of U.S. Marines in Lebanon filed a lawsuit on Wednesday seeking to hold Standard Chartered Bank and its New York branch accountable. They claim in the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan that the bank conspired with Iran and its agents to hide Iran's assets from them. They're seeking to trace assets as they try to enforce a $2.6 billion judgment against the Islamic Republic of Iran. A federal court in Washington, D.C., issued the award in 2007 after Iran failed to contest claims it was involved in the bombing, which...

Democratic National Committee Moves Its Money to Amalgamated BankBy Amalgamated Bank Published: Friday, Aug. 10, 2012 - 2:35 pm WASHINGTON, Aug. 10, 2012 -- /PRNewswire/ -- The Democratic National Committee (DNC) announced today that it has recently moved its primary banking relationship to Amalgamated Bank, America's Labor Bank. The DNC will use Amalgamated Bank's cash management services to handle its day-to-day banking needs. **SNIP** In announcing the new alliance with Amalgamated, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said, "We are proud to join forces with Amalgamated Bank, an organization with a 90-year legacy of reflecting the values of our nation's middle...

It was a cheque, made out in my name, for $95,093.35 and it came in a junk-mail letter from a get-rich-quick company. It was worthless, meant only as a financial tease, a lip-licking come-on. “This is how much money you could soon be making.” What it was never meant for was deposit. But that’s exactly what made the thought of depositing it so irresistibly funny. What could possibly be funnier than depositing a perfectly ridiculous, obviously false, fake cheque? (Did I mention it had “non-negotiable” clearly written on it?) So, as a joke, I deposited the fake cheque into my...

Solyndra’s CEO labeled President Barack Obama’s administration “The Bank of Washington.” Chris Gronet offered the description in an internal email one year before the company collapsed in 2010, costing taxpayers roughly $500 million. “The Bank of Washington continues to help us!” he wrote in the October 2009 e-mail, which described several government programs and incentives. The email bolsters GOP claims that Obama’s support of green-tech companies amounted to “crony capitalism.” Several White House officials had close ties to green-tech companies, and many green-tech executives have donated to Obama’s political campaigns.

The plan works in a fairly simple manner: In the UK`s case, the BofE is lending short-term government bills to banks, which use the securities as collateral to borrow money from the central bank at a rock-bottom rate - about 0.25% - and then make loans. Banks can borrow up to 5% of the value of their existing loan books, and the loans from the BofE are four years in duration. The program is similar to something the Fed tried, with considerable success, during the financial crisis that exploded in 2008. The Fed is meeting Tuesday and Wednesday and will...

As we watch the battle for the Presidency get thrown into the gutter by a President unable to lead the Nation out of its disastrous stagnation, no serious action from Washington will be applied to the national debt, the deficit, or the international banking system heading for a major crash.For well over one generation, America’s and the world’s middle class has been primed and pumped by financial institutions to borrow. The majority was persuaded to incur debt because debt was good. Debt fed the system and placed you in a home. Debt filled that home with appliances and furniture...

Italian prosecutors have now detained the former head of the Vatican’s bank after searching his home and former office for suspected criminal behavior. Catholics and followers of the Holy See will be disappointed to learn that the Vatican’s bank appears to be embroiled in yet another financial scandal. After a number of very embarrassing episodes in recent years, the Pope pledged to comply with international standards on illicit finance and clean up the bank’s image. The European Union has an important role to play in helping the Vatican mitigate risk and come into full compliance; the Financial Action Task Force...

I don't often put stories in "breaking." I post vanities even less often. Hardly anything surprises me any longer, but I find this absolutely astounding. If you follow the financial threads or the situation in Europe, you really need to read this. Actually anyone with a bank account needs to read this. I'm going to ask the mods to leave this here, unless they really feel I'm all wet here. I don't, however, believe I am. Follow me here. BNI (Bank Network Investments) is Italy's oldest and forth largest bank. In other words, it's a biggie. Anyway, the bank went...

Time Bomb? Banks Pressured to Buy Government Debt CNBC, NETNET, NET NET, EUROPE DEBT, GREEK DEBT, EUROPEAN DEBT CRISIS, ECB, EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK Posted By: Jeff Cox | CNBC.com Senior Writer CNBC.com | 31 May 2012 | 02:42 PM ET US and European regulators are essentially forcing banks to buy up their own government's debt—a move that could end up making the debt crisis even worse, a Citigroup analysis says. Regulators are allowing banks to escape counting their country's debt against capital requirements and loosening other rules to create a steady market for government bonds, the study says. While that...

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