Free Republic

SunTrust Bank is cutting ties with three types of legal businesses in the latest evidence of the Obama administration’s secretive crusade against “objectionable” enterprises. SunTrust, which counts more than 400,000 small business clients, cited “compliance requirements” as its reason for closing accounts with “payday lenders, pawn shops and dedicated check-cashers.” “It is consistent with long-standing industry practice to review relationships to ensure they satisfy a range of business and risk considerations,” the bank said in a little-noticed press release dated Aug. 8. In the same blanket notice, however, SunTrust underlined its support for maintaining bank relationships with licensed gun sellers....

Fellow Conservatives: Senate Democrats plan to bring up legislation later this month that will give new life to a corporate welfare program called the Export-Import Bank. The Ex-Im Bank is a loan guarantee program that forces American taxpayers to subsidize foreign companies. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reports the bank will cost taxpayers $2 billion. That’s two BILLION dollars of your money being spent to pick winners and losers. It's cronyism at its worst. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Ex-Im Bank "removed four officials in recent months amid investigations into allegations of gifts and kickbacks, as well as...

THE American guillotine has fallen. After lengthy negotiations, prosecutors and regulators announced on June 30th the penalties they planned to impose on BNP Paribas, France’s largest bank, for evading American sanctions on doing business with Cuba, Iran and the Sudan: an almost $9 billion fine, a guilty plea to criminal charges of conspiracy and falsifying records and a suspension of its right to clear certain dollar transactions. The bank’s dealings with and for Sudan—where Osama bin Laden found refuge and the UN’s attempt to stem the bloodletting in Darfur was resisted—lie at the heart of the charges against it. BNP...

Let’s say you take out a safety deposit box for precious family heirlooms, or create a bank account for your children that you don’t make transactions with regularly. How long would it take you to realize that the government has actually confiscated your property, sometimes without even informing you? That’s what happened to Glenn Beck’s chief of staff, Joe Kerry, and countless other Americans across the United States, many of whom are unaware that the state can legally take hold of your possessions if your account shows no signs of activity for a certain period of time. snip “I guess...

Perhaps the saddest thing -as we watch Iraq's hard-won democracy/liberty collapse before our eyes- is that the takeover of large swathes of territory by an 7th century Medieval savages could have been prevented. In fact, the Iraqi government had been begging the head-up-their-ass Obama Administration for air support since last November (2013), only to be utterly ignored (welcome to the club)... Today we see the rotten fruit of horrendously foolish Obama foreign policy over the last six years dropping all around the globe, yet this Iraq debacle -erasing nearly all US war gains- really takes the cake: not only...

(JTA) — A Jewish organization from Crimea said its Ukrainian bank account had been emptied of funds following Russia’s annexation of the peninsula. The disappearance of $3,157 from the account of the Jewish Ner Tamid association with Privatbank was reported Thursday by the ITAR-TASS news agency. The money “had been withdrawn,” the news agency quoted Anatoli Guendine, head of the Reform Jewish group, as saying. Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine on March 18, in a move that Russia said was in accordance with the wishes of most residents and that was designed to protect them from persecution by...

You are mine entirely now for My Flames have touched you and bathed you in My Glory among the coals and now I AM the Gold and Silver in your life for "The Veil is torn " and now the Fullness and Saphire of My Spirit (( ( RESIDES ) )) in you in a abundantly overflowing manner and My Eyes( 7 Spirits of The Lord) are yours for you have already obediently sat quietly at my feet and listened intently for my Voice and will . So now "Take" the Fullness of My Kingdom to the reckless and lost...

Last week a World Bank report that compares something called purchasing power parity claimed that, based on the purchasing power statistics, the Chinese economy has reached a point of rough equality with the United States, or, could actually have moved slightly ahead of the USA, based on the incomplete figures of economic growth over the last three years. This announcement, which confirms the fact of China’s explosive economic development, and the anemic American recovery after the Great Recession of 2008-2010, has caused quite a stir in a number of quarters. The Chinese, usually quick to tout great achievements, have been...

Lloyds Bank has been accused of religious discrimination after offering free overdraft accounts to Muslims. The bank sent customers a booklet this month explaining new charges. While many will have to pay up to £80 a month if they go into the red, Muslims were told they would escape the charges. The document said: “We are removing the monthly overdraft management fee of £6 from our Islamic Account, Islamic Student Account and Islamic Graduate Account. So, if you use an unplanned overdraft on these accounts, there won’t be any charges.” One customer, Anita Milton, a nurse of New Eltham, south...

HAYWARD— Authorities in the San Francisco Bay Area are looking for a man who robbed a bank wearing a t-shirt that read "I Have Issues."

Over the weekend the world was gripped by the drama surrounding the mysterious murder-homicide of the former CEO of Dutch bank ABN Amro and members of his family, and whether there is more foul play than meets the eye. However, that is nothing compared to what just happened in the tiny, and all too quiet Principality of Lichtenstein, where moments ago the CEO of local financial institution Bank Frick & Co. AG, Juergen Frick, was shot dead in the underground garage of the bank located in the city of Balzers.

Troubled Japan-based bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox has filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection, an ancillary form of bankruptcy that will complement its primary Tokyo District Court claim issued on 28th February. US Chapter 15 bankruptcy provides specific protections in cases of cross-border insolvency, and is based on UN model law. Both Japan and the US have adopted Chapter 15 bankruptcy in an effort to better protect the interests of shareholders and maximize the value of debtor assets in cross-border bankruptcies.

Snippet: "Iran and its terrorist proxy groups’ influence in Latin America remains a troubling security threat to the region and world, experts said at a congressional hearing on Tuesday."

The operators of two exchanges for the virtual currency Bitcoin have been arrested in the US. The Department of Justice said Robert Faiella, known as BTCKing, and Charlie Shrem from BitInstant.com have both been charged with money laundering. The authorities said the pair were engaged in a scheme to sell more than $1m (£603,000) in bitcoins to users of online drug marketplace the Silk Road. The site was shut down last year and its alleged owner was arrested. Mr Shrem was arrested on Sunday at New York's JFK airport. He was expected to appear in court on Monday, prosecutors said....

St. Louis police are searching for a man who robbed a Bank of America branch from the drive-through lane about noon Saturday. Police said the man drove up to the bank in the 6600 block of South Kingshighway in a white Impala and announced a robbery while at the drive-through window. The teller gave him an undisclosed amount of cash and the man drove off.

When Dmitry Argarkov was sent a letter offering him a credit card, he found the rates not to his liking. But he didn't throw the contract away or shred it. Instead, the 42-year-old from Voronezh, Russia, scanned it into his computer, altered the terms and sent it back to Tinkoff Credit Systems.

The banks would hold a buffer of liquid assets - such as government bonds - to draw on to ensure they can meet withdrawals by depositors, to post collateral due to credit rating downgrades and to meet other needs. U.S. government debt and excess reserves held at the Fed are deemed the most liquid under the Fed's proposal, while claims on government-sponsored enterprises, such as mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are less liquid and may make up only 40 percent of the buffer.

Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse has launched what it says is the first market index and portfolio based on gay-friendly policies. The LGBT Equality Index ranks companies by how well they respect the rights of employees and other members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. It currently covers 201 US-based firms, but Credit Suisse said it hoped to expand the index and associated investment portfolio, unveiled Monday in New York, to other countries. The portfolio is currently only available to US-based private banking clients able to spend a minimum of $250,000 but could be open to smaller...

MOUNT CLEMENS, Michigan - A 53-year-old woman has pleaded guilty after she allegedly used cans of spaghetti sauce to simulate a bomb and then proceeded to rob a bank. Police say Ophelia A. Neal, a parole absconder, robbed a Fifth Third Bank branch in Macomb County's Clinton Township on April 6. According to police, Neal told bank employees she had a bomb in a cloth bag, demanded money and fled with an undisclosed amount of cash into a getaway car driven by a man. Neal pleaded guilty Monday in Oakland County Circuit Court in Mount Clemens to bank robbery and...

"Gunman who took hostages at Louisiana bank posted chilling Facebook messages" SNIPPET: "The gunman who took three hostages at a Louisiana bank Tuesday -- killing one of them before being shot and killed by police -- recently posted chilling messages on Facebook, including a cartoon strip about hostages.   In a post on Sunday, 20-year-old Fuaed Abdo Ahmed displays a cartoon strip that focuses on an apparent hostage situation." SNIPPET: "Ahmed's final post, made Tuesday just hours before the hostage standoff began, is of a photo of a man with a sword attacking a tank.Under the photo is a quote...