Free Republic

**SNIP** The post office will be closed so there will be no mail delivery Monday for the holiday. Those looking to send mail also won’t be able to, so anyone looking to mail something should be sure to get to the post office Saturday before it closes, their next chance will be Tuesday. The Department of Motor Vehicles offices in most states will be closed for the holiday as well. Some offices even closed early on the Friday ahead of Columbus Day. Schools aren’t required to close for the holiday, so those wondering whether they should head to the bus...

Full Title: Grassley asks Ford's legal team for records of contacts with Feinstein and Hirono 'in light of recently uncovered information' "In addition to the evidence I requested in my October 2 letter," Grassley continued in his letter, "in light of recently uncovered information, please turn over records and descriptions of direct or indirect communications between Dr. Ford or her representatives and any of the following: (1) U.S. Senators or their staffs, particularly the offices of Senators Feinstein and Hirono, other than your communications with me and my staff in preparation for the September 27 hearing; (2) the alleged witnesses...

Wells Fargo executives know that everyone hates them. In the last two years, the bank has launched three separate marketing campaigns hoping to clean up its public image, only to see each effort thwarted by fresh, catastrophic scandals ― like wrongly repossessing 27,000 cars and foreclosing on 400 families for no reason. The bank’s latest quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission dedicates more than 2,000 words to “Additional Efforts To Rebuild Trust,” listing “automobile lending,” “mortgage interest rate lock extensions,” “consumer deposit account freezing/closing,” “certain activities within wealth and investment management,” “foreign exchange business,” “fiduciary and custody account...

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and the state’s Bond Commission denied $600 million to Citibank and Bank of America over the gun control stance adopted by both companies. Citibank and Bank of America were both to be part of a road financing plan in the state, but were omitted from the financial plan after arbitrarily placing new gun controls on banking customers.

Do you really earn less working for a European than for a U.S. bank in London? Popular opinion would have it that you do. But popular opinion may be wrong: our analysis suggests that if the European investment bank you work for is either Credit Suisse or UBS, you'll be paid on a par with people at U.S. houses. - Or at least, this appears to have been the case for last year. Both UBS and Credit Suisse issued UK specific remuneration reports for 2017. They're not new, but they are buried on the Swiss banks' websites and we've only...

Facebook has been asking banks in the United States for their customers’ financial data, including account balances and transactions, according to a report. The Wall Street Journal revealed that the social network has been asking major banks to “share detailed financial information about their customers, including card transactions and checking account balances, as part of an effort to offer new services to users.” The banks asked by Facebook included JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and U.S. Bancorp, while one “large U.S. bank pulled away from talks due to privacy concerns.” “Facebook has talked about a feature that would show its...

Facebook is asking major U.S. banks for financial data in order to provide more online shopping services and to track consumer spending habits, The Wall Street Journal reported. But according to the Journal, financial institutions are reluctant to partner with the social media network over privacy concerns. One bank has reportedly pulled out of discussions with Facebook because of the issue. The news comes as Facebook struggles to fend off concerns that arose from a privacy scandal in which a political consulting firm obtained data on 87 million users without their knowledge.

The social media giant has asked large U.S. banks to share detailed financial information about their customers, including card transactions and checking account balances, as part of an effort to offer new services to users. Facebook increasingly wants to be a platform where people buy and sell goods and services, besides connecting with friends. The company over the past year asked JPMorgan Chase JPM +0.25% & Co., Wells Fargo & Co., Citigroup Inc. C +0.20% and U.S. Bancorp USB +0.40% to discuss potential offerings it could host for bank customers on Facebook Messenger, said people familiar with the matter. Facebook...

When gun control advocates can’t win on guns, they have tried to either silence those who support self-defense from having their views covered in the media, youtube banning videos intending to sell firearms or accessories or how to use guns or build them, or prevent firearms companies from getting financing. On financing, the first strategy was to use government pressure. With that ended, individual finance companies are making life difficult for those in the firearms industry.

The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which was passed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and was designed to safeguard the banking system, appears to have made it more difficult for small businesses and entrepreneurs to obtain funding. In The Impact of the Dodd-Frank Act on Small Business (NBER Working Paper No. 24501), Michael D. Bordo and John V. Duca find that the 2010 legislation reduced the incentives for all banks to make small loans. It also raised the benefits of scale in the banking business, tilting the playing field away from small banks which...

Bank robberies aren’t as exciting as they used to be when they were the stuff of Ocean’s Eleven style, or the coarser Bonnie and Clyde. No more black balaclavas or dead president masks. No more guns, no more physical threats. This is the age of the cyber thief, and Mexico’s recent $110-million bank heist didn’t even require a criminal to touch the money at all. With a push of a button it was gone--almost. Gone, too, is the excitement of getting caught up in a bank robbery as dramatized on television. But the lack of physical excitement also means that...

American history is beyond fascinating and most Americans don't even know it. What would you say if you were offered your own kingdom full of servants? That is more or less what the eight presidents before George Washington who only served one term and 95% of a nation that can't name one. The American middle class was never meant to be more than the mule, oxen, yoke to tow the line and support the wars, corporations, poor, and big pharma. Middle class American moving either up or down - to the government food line, or the no tax, launder your...

Western banking met Islam many decades ago, but only began to sleep with her a few years ago. Since then, it is has become a wanton and open affair. The implications for the West, and especially for the U.S., are staggering. Because all Islamic banking products must be created and offered according to strict Sharia law, global banks are doing for Islam what it could never do on its own: Give legitimacy to Sharia and infiltrate it into the fabric of Western society.

When the Bank of America (BofA) and Citigroup announced changes in their policies earlier this month restricting loans to companies that sell or manufacture firearms, Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, sent a letter to the CEO of each bank:It is deeply concerning to me when large national banks … which receive significant forms of government support and benefits, use their market power to manage social policy by withholding access to credit to customers and companies they disfavor….We should all be concerned if banks … seek to replace legislators and policymakers...

Banks and credit-card companies are discussing ways to identify purchases of guns in their payment systems, a move that could be a prelude to restricting such transactions, according to people familiar with the talks. The discussions are preliminary but could be deeply controversial. Gun-rights groups have long resisted any effort to monitor which Americans own guns; there are federal laws limiting the government’s use of electronic databases of gun sales. The financial companies have explored creating a new credit-card code for firearms dealers, similar to how they code restaurants, or department stores, according to people familiar with the matter. Another...

What we know about the alleged SunTrust data breach On April 20, SunTrust Bank announced that an insider may have stolen records on 1,500,000 customers with the criminal intent of sharing them outside the organization. The bank first became aware of the likelihood of “inappropriate access” of records in February. A subsequent internal investigation now points to an ex-employee for the alleged theft. It is believed the culprit tried to print the records and share them with a “criminal third party,” according to the Wall Street Journal. The investigation is still ongoing as the bank continues to work closely with...

Wells Fargo will pay two federal regulators a total of $1 billion to settle an array of investigations into its mortgage and auto-lending practices. Customers were forced to pay for extending the length of so-called interest rate locks on mortgage applications even when the bank was responsible for delays in the application process. Thousands of customers who bought cars with loans from Wells Fargo were forced to buy unnecessary insurance policies from the bank with premiums that topped a $1,000 a year. The bank said the policies could have contributed to about 27,000 customers having their cars repossessed after defaulting...

Rahm Emanuel has tried almost everything a lefty anti-gun big city may can think of to cut back on the murder epidemic in his violent city. He’s fired and hired police superintendents, he’s tried (unsuccessfully) to eliminate gun stores within city limits, he’s tried (unsuccessfully) to keep shooting ranges out of his town, he fought concealed carry to the bitter end, and he’s mumbled meaningless platitudes like “public-private mentoring partnerships” and wrung his hands over the perpetual need for more “neighborhood resources.” He’s tried bogus “violence interruptor” programs, basically paying gang bangers (with city tax dollars) to stop banging. He’s...

A Bank of America executive announced Tuesday that the bank will stop lending money to companies that manufacture "military-style" rifles that are available for civilians to purchase. Anne Finucane, Bank of America’s vice chair, told Bloomberg TV that the bank doesn’t want to “underwrite or finance military-style firearms” and has told a number of gun manufacturers that it will no longer do business with them. The bank has lended to the gun makers Vista Outdoor, Remington and Sturm Ruger, CNBC reported.

Bank Stands up for 2nd Amendment! I support them