finance
The Best European PerformersThere are no flavor-of-the-month outfits or dot-com hangers-on in the European BusinessWeek 50. Only companies whose managers know how to earn money in good times and bad make the grade.Name an economic malady and Europe has it in abundance right now: sluggish economic growth, lackluster consumer spending, currency swings that hurt exports, and depressed stock markets. For that reason, BusinessWeek could not have picked a better time to launch its first annual ranking of Europe's 50 best-performing companies. You won't find any frothy flavor-of-the-month outfits or dot-com hangers-on among these stalwarts. The BW Europe 50 is instead studded with companies whose managers know how to make money in good times and bad. What do corporations such as British bank HBOS (No. 1), Belgian utility Electrabel (No. 4), and Swedish apparel retailer H&M Hennes & Mauritz (No. 8) have in common? All have made singular progress in boosting sales, increasing profits, and delivering superior returns to investors in these worst of times for much of Europe. "Such top performers excel mainly because of good management that knows what to do in a difficult environment," says Robert Parkes, a European analyst at HSBC Bank in London. "They're doing well because they've kept in touch with what their customers and shareholders want."Most of the companies that powered to the top of this inaugural list are top-notch names with the size, stamina, and savvy needed to thrive in turbulent times. Energy companies like Total and financial-services companies such as Royal Bank of Scotland Group figure prominently. So do retail and consumer-staple giants such as France's Carrefour and Switzerland's Nestlé. Notable by their absence are Europe's big technology and telecom companies. Only three made it onto our top 50 list: France's Bouygues, Italy's Telecom Italia Mobile, and Finland's Nokia. Absent from the top 50 are powerhouses such as Germany's SAP, Geneva-based STMicroelectronics, and France's Alcatel. Blame the poor tech showing on three years of weak revenue growth, poor profitability, and, most of all, sagging stock market valuations.As investors know all too well, companies can manage impressive profits one year, only to disappoint the next. That's why the BW Europe 50 rewards those with staying power. To generate our ranking we used a series of criteria that judge the performance of the companies in the Standard & Poor's Europe 350 stock index over both one and three years.The turmoil in the markets over the past year means that today's darling can become tomorrow's dog almost overnight. That's why it's important not to see the BW Europe ranking as an all-knowing investment guide. Even stellar performers have their ups and downs from year to year. Take German pharmaceutical firm Altana and Spanish construction and engineering company Grupo Dragados. They beat all comers with total returns of 160.2% and 140.6%, respectively, between June 30, 2000, and June 30, 2003. However, both companies have delivered lower returns in recent months and neither Altana nor Grupo Dragados would appear in the top 50 if the ranking was based simply on the returns generated over the past 12 months.There's a definite British tilt in the European BW 50: British enterprises dominate, accounting for 17 of the 50 and 6 of the top 10. In part, that's because Britain has the most publicly traded companies of any European nation. That automatically increases the odds for British companies. Other elements are at work, though: The British economy has outperformed the 12-member euro zone in each of the past three years, and British companies have benefited from more buoyant domestic demand. France and Spain are also well represented. By contrast, although the German economy is the biggest in Europe by far, there isn't a single German company among the top 20. "Many German companies, such as car manufacturers, are well managed," says Paul Strebel, a professor at the IMD-International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland. "But the environment is more difficult there in terms of the macro background and structural rigidities."What's the secret of Anglo-Saxon corporate prowess? British companies operate in a freer environment than many of their Continental competitors. They do not suffer from the same labor restrictions, heavy social-security burden, and other structural impediments that hold back enterprises in many countries. It would have been much more difficult for HBOS, Royal Bank of Scotland Group, and HSBC Holdings to cut costs and exploit synergies as aggressively as they have done over the past three years if they had been headquartered in Germany rather than Britain. Yet structural reforms now wending their way through the German parliament may give Teutonic companies a competitive jolt. Also, notable absentees from this year's list, such as Deutsche Bank, could well make it next year, thanks to their belated cost-cutting efforts.The European BW 50 also provides proof that, despite the long-standing argument over whether mergers generate shareholder value, they can and do create powerful, successful companies. HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland, the two top-performing banks on the list, both British, prove the point. HBOS, which heads the overall ranking, was created in 2001 when Bank of Scotland joined forces with Halifax PLC, a mortgage specialist. A year earlier, Royal Bank of Scotland, No.3 on our list, acquired National Westminster Bank PLC. The merged entities now not only outrank British arch-rivals HSBC (No. 48) and Barclays PLC (No. 52), but also every bank on the Continent. "We have the financial strength and flexibility needed to sustain growth and manage risk in an uncertain world," says HBOS Chief Executive James Crosby. "Our merger continues to exceed expectations."Meanwhile, ongoing consolidation within the global pharmaceutical industry has produced some of Europe's biggest mergers. The 1999 union of Sweden's Astra and Britain's Zeneca gave birth to Europe's third-largest drug company -- and No.35 on our list. A year later, rival British drugmakers GlaxoWellcome and Smith-Kline Beecham joined forces, to form the global No. 2, behind Pfizer of the U.S.With a market value of 105 billion euros, GlaxoSmithKline PLC also ranks No.2 in the BW Europe 50. Glaxo boosted net income 27% last year to produce an astounding 62% return on equity in 2002. Despite shareholder criticism of the size of senior executive pay-packages, CEO Jean-Pierre Garnier told shareholders in May that the group's "effective cost control" and "promising early-stage R&D pipeline" give it an edge over its competitors.One of the most striking things about the BW Europe 50 is the presence of so many energy and utility companies. In all, there are 13 producers, refiners, and distributors of oil, natural gas, and electricity. Some want to extract the energy and avoid the costly business of selling the end product. Oil giant Total, for example, is making a major bet on finding new acreage. "We are benefiting from a very clear long-term strategy of giving priority to the upstream," said Christophe de Margerie, president of exploration and production.Total benefited from a rise in world oil prices, but those companies in power generation and distribution had to combat three years of stalled demand for power by consumers and companies. Plus, privatization, deregulation, and mounting competition have limited the ability of these companies to push through rate hikes. To make matters worse, many European energy outfits temporarily fell out of favor with investors following the collapse of Enron Corp. in 2001 on the other side of the Atlantic.Despite the tough odds, European power producers such as Belgium's Electrabel (No. 4) and Italy's ENI (No. 28) managed to assert themselves. Both have a commanding presence in their domestic markets. And, as a result of collapsing borders and deregulation, they have been able to push deep into markets elsewhere in the European Union. Electrabel has made significant breakthroughs into France, Italy, and Spain, and now chalks up 37% of its sales abroad. All told, Electrabel increased sales by 18% over the past year. Its success sends an important message to the rest of Europe: Companies that exploit opportunities stemming from deregulation and the single currency are poised to excel.Then there's retail. Stagnant economies and rising joblessness have caused consumers in many parts of the Old World to pull in their horns. At the same time, fierce competition and deflationary pressures have forced down prices for many goods. That's hardly an optimal climate for retail chains. Yet seven retailers of one sort or another made it into the European BW 50. British supermarket operator Tesco PLC (No. 10) shows that grocers can sparkle even in tough markets. The group, headquartered in Hertfordshire, England, spent 300 million euros last year in a successful bid to wrest market share from rivals such as J. Sainsbury PLC, slashing prices and opening 62 new stores in Britain. Whereas many retailers saw profits plunge, Tesco's surged 14% in 2002. Tesco also runs the world's most successful online supermarket, which it is now replicating from Korea to Central Europe to the U.S., via a partnership with its American peer, Safeway.Giving customers what they want at a reasonable price is also paying big dividends at Swedish apparel retailer H&M Hennes & Mauritz (No. 8). The chain has 893 stores in 17 countries and plans to open another 110 this year, including 20 in the U.S. "We've halved the time it takes to open new stores, to an average of four to five weeks," says CEO Rolf Eriksen. "This doesn't reduce start-up costs, but it does help accelerate sales."H&M has long been an investor favorite. On the flip side, companies that investors shunned just 12 months ago are back in favor. France Télécom, for example, generated a jaw-dropping 161.6% shareholder return over the past year, thanks to the appointment of turnaround whiz Thierry Breton as CEO and investor enthusiasm for his plan to slash the company's massive debt load and trim operating expenses. Despite its improved outlook, though, France Télécom didn't make it into the top 50 because its performance in the previous two years was so dire. The same goes for other telcos such as Deutsche Telekom and Britain's BT Group, which are rebounding but still dealing with post-boom excesses.Despite their strengths, many of the companies in the BW Europe 50 face new challenges. Although there are some signs that the euro- zone economy is finally beginning to recover, consumers are still reluctant to splurge on big-ticket items. According to the European Automobile Manufacturers' Assn., European car sales were down 2.6% in unit terms during the first six months of 2003. Notwithstanding cheap financing deals and special offers, demand for autos could drop further in the coming months. Innovation, expansion into new markets, and deft control over manufacturing will set the winners apart from the losers, and likely continue to benefit the four carmakers on our list: France's PSA Peugeot Citroën (No. 15), Renault (No. 19), Germany's BMW (No. 21), and Porsche (No. 27).Luxury carmakers Porsche and BMW are expected to boost revenues and outmaneuver rivals, even in the stagnant Western European market. As the U.S. and European car markets went into a tailspin, Porsche moved quickly to trim production of its classic 911 and Boxster models. It also introduced the Cayenne, a racy new sport-utility vehicle that is powering sales and more than offsetting the decline in sportscar sales. The Stuttgart-based carmaker has returned 39% in value to shareholders over the past three years.It does help that global consumers have demonstrated a willingness to spend more of their income on luxury cars. The premium auto segment is growing at nearly twice the annual clip of the mass market. "The outlook for German luxury brands in the U.S. is extremely bright in sedans and SUVs," says Stephen B. Cheetham, auto analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.Meanwhile, the strong euro is giving headaches to many European companies -- and that could eventually include the luxury carmakers. Most vulnerable are exporters and those with large dollar revenues. If, as some currency traders predict, the euro hits $1.25 by year end, BMW, Carrefour, Sanofi-Synthélabo, and other companies with large sales outside the euro zone could see their revenues crimped.Yet for every euro loser there will be a euro winner. Companies that source a large portion of their products outside Europe stand to gain, as wages and other production costs decline when measured in euros. H&M's Eriksen says his company has already reaped some benefits. "As the euro strengthens," he says, "so does our purchasing power. That enables us to pass on those gains to consumers through lower prices."Falling interest rates could also spell relief for European businesses. With the benchmark European Central Bank rate at 2%, interest rates for most companies in the euro zone are at their lowest level in a generation. And the consensus among economists is that the ECB will cut rates again before the end of the year. On the Continent, cheap money is changing the dynamics of corporate performance. For starters, it makes it easier for heavily indebted enterprises to refinance themselves, which is one reason why many telcos have been able to stage a recovery in recent months.The biggest impact of low interest rates could be to underpin the recovery of the equity markets and create an environment in which managers are once again willing to assume big capital-market risks, such as mergers and acquisitions.The process has already started. In June, Italy's Banca Generali acquired compatriot Banca Privamera for 50 million euros in cash and 202 million euros in shares. A return to the go-go days of the late 1990s is probably still a long way off, however. And despite all the uncertainties about the euro, interest rates, and the economy, the European companies that are likely to thrive over the next year will be the ones that can do what the winners have done over the past three years: cut costs, widen margins, develop a more intimate and lucrative relationship with customers, and generate more profits.By David Fairlamb, with Jack Ewing and Gail Edmondson in Frankfurt, Kerry Capell and Stanley Reed in London, and Andy Reinhardt in Paris, and Frederick F. Jespersen in New YorkGet BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed.Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video.To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here.Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page# posted by brijesh agarwal @ 10:19 PM 0 Comments banks-financeThursday, July 12, 2007Bank of America (NYSE: BAC TYO: 8648 ) is the largest commercial bank in the United States in terms of deposits, and the largest company of its kind in the world.[3][4] Bank of America is the largest American company (by market capitalization) that is not part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. On July 19, 2006, Bank of America reported second quarter 2006 net income of $5.48 billion,[5] surpassing that of Citigroup for the first time.Contents[hide]1 Corporate history1.1 Pre-1998 history1.1.1 Bank of Italy1.1.2 Growth in California1.1.3 Expansion outside of California1.2 Merger of NationsBank and BankAmerica1.3 History since 19981.3.1 Acquisition of National Processing Company1.3.2 FleetBoston Financial merger1.3.3 Purchase of MBNA1.3.4 Divestiture of Brazil operations1.3.5 Plans to acquire LaSalle Bank2 Bank of America today2.1 Consumer2.2 Corporate2.3 Investment Management2.4 Social responsibility3 Controversy and criticism4 International operations5 Bank of America corporate buildings6 Diversity7 Major sponsorships7.1 Official bank of8 References9 See also10 External links//[edit] Corporate historyIt has been suggested that NationsBank be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)Before 1993, the Bank of America that exists today was known as NationsBank, based in Charlotte, NC. In 1998, NationsBank merged with San Francisco-based BankAmerica and assumed the Bank of America name.[edit] Pre-1998 history[edit] Bank of ItalyThe roots of the pre-1998 Bank of America lie in the American Bank of Italy, founded in San Francisco by Amadeo Giannini in 1904. When the 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck, Giannini was able to get all of the deposits out of the bank building and away from the fires. Thus, unlike many other banks, he retained the confidence of the depositors and also had money to loan to those struck by the disaster.In the late 1920s, Giannini approached Orra E. Monnette, President and founder of the Los Angeles based Bank of America, Los Angeles about a potential merger between the two entities. The Los Angeles based bank had exhibited strong growth throughout the 1920s, due in part to its success in developing an advanced bank branching system. The merger of the two institutions was completed in early 1929 and took the name Bank of America. The combined company was headed by Giannini with Monnette serving as co-Chair.While the names of many nationally chartered banks end with the initials 'N.A.' (National Association), Giannini picked a unique ending, National Trust and Savings Association, or 'NT&SA', because he wanted the name to highlight the different functions of the bank. Bank of America was the only NT&SA in the country. Thanks to good management, but also to aggressive development of the branch banking concept, the bank was soon the largest in California.[edit] Growth in CaliforniaGiannini also sought to build a national bank, expanding into most of the western states as well as into the insurance industry, under the aegis of his holding company, Transamerica Corporation. Bank of America NT&SA also had banking relationships in international financial markets. Largely out of fear that Giannini would succeed in his efforts to create a nationwide bank, federal legislation prohibited banks from accepting deposits in states where they were not headquartered. This led to the creation of the bank holding company which could own a separate bank in each state.The passage of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, prohibited banks from owning non-banking subsidiaries such as insurance companies. Bank of America and Transamerica were separated, with the latter company continuing in the insurance business. However, federal banking regulators prohibited Bank of America's interstate banking activity, and Bank of America's domestic banks outside of California were forced into a separate company that eventually became First Interstate Bancorp, which was acquired by Wells Fargo and Company in 1996. It was not until the 1980s with a change in federal banking legislation and regulation that Bank of America was again able to expand its domestic consumer banking activity outside of California.California was the nation's fastest growing state during the post-World War II boom, with the highest use of checking accounts (partially driven by many soldiers being paid via bank accounts during World War II), resulting in Bank of America being swamped by checks. By 1949 , the branches had to close at 2:00pm in order to process the bookkeeping by 5:00 p.m. To cope with the transaction volume, the bank invested heavily in information technology and is generally credited, together with General Electric and SRI International, with inventing modern centralized bank operations, along with a number of financial transaction processing technologies such as automatic check processing, account numbers, and Magnetic Ink Character Recognition. Because of the efficiency of these technologies, the bank had significantly lower administrative costs than other banks and was able to expand until it became the world's largest bank in the early 1970s.These technologies also enabled credit cards to be linked directly to individual bank accounts. In 1958, the bank invented the bank credit card, the BankAmericard, which changed its name to VISA in 1977. A consortium of other California banks came up with Master Charge (now MasterCard) in order to compete with BankAmericard.[edit] Expansion outside of CaliforniaBank of America Corporate Center, located in the center of uptown Charlotte, North Carolina.Following passage of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1967, BankAmerica Corporation was established for the purpose of owning Bank of America and its subsidiaries.BankAmerica expanded outside California in 1983 with its acquisition of Seafirst Corporation of Seattle, Washington, and its wholly owned banking subsidiary, Seattle-First National Bank. Seafirst was at risk of seizure by the federal government after becoming insolvent due to a series of bad loans to the oil industry. BankAmerica continued to operate its new subsidiary as Seafirst rather than Bank of America until the 1998 merger with NationsBank.BankAmerica was dealt huge losses in 1986 and 1987 due to the placement of a series of bad loans in the Third World, particularly in Latin America. The company fired its CEO, Sam Armacost, although Armacost blamed the problems on his predecessor, A.W. (Tom) Clausen, who was then appointed to replace Armacost. The losses resulted in a huge decline of BankAmerica stock, making it vulnerable to a hostile takeover. First Interstate Bancorp of Los Angeles (which had originated from banks once owned by BankAmerica), launched such a bid in the fall of 1986, although BankAmerica rebuffed it, mostly by selling its FinanceAmerica subsidiary to Chrysler, and by selling the brokerage firm Charles Schwab and Co. back to Mr. Schwab. On the day of the 1987 stock market crash, BankAmerica was trading at $8 per share, although by 1992 it had rebounded mightily to become one of the biggest gainers of that half-decade. The selling of the corporate headquarters building in downtown San Francisco to raise capital was a symbolic blow to the bank.[citation needed]BankAmerica's next big acquisition came in 1992. The company acquired its California rival, Security Pacific Corporation and its subsidiary Security Pacific National Bank in California and other banks in Arizona, Idaho, Oregon and Washington (which Security Pacific had acquired in a series of acquisitions in the late 1980s). This was, at the time, the biggest bank acquisition in history. Federal regulators nevertheless forced the sale of Security Pacific's Washington subsidiary, Rainier Bank, because the combination of Seafirst and Rainier would have given BankAmerica too large a share of the market in that state. Later that year, BankAmerica expanded into Nevada by acquiring Valley Bank of Nevada.In 1994 , BankAmerica acquired the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Co. of Chicago, which had become federally owned as part of the same oil industry debacle that had brought down Seafirst. At the time, no bank had the resources to bail out Continental, so the federal government operated the bank for nearly a decade. Illinois at that time regulated branch banking extremely heavily, so Bank of America Illinois was a single-unit bank until the 21st century. BankAmerica moved its national lending department to Chicago in an effort to establish a financial beachhead in the region.These mergers helped BankAmerica Corporation once again become the largest U.S. bank holding company in terms of deposits, but the company fell to second place in 1997 behind fast-growing NationsBank Corporation, and to third in 1998 behind North Carolina's First Union Corp. In 1998, BankAmerica and NationsBank executed a merger-of-equals and changed the headquarters to Charlotte, North Carolina.[edit] Merger of NationsBank and BankAmericaIn 1997, BankAmerica lent D.E. Shaw & Co., a large hedge fund, $1.4bn so that the hedge fund would run various businesses for the bank. However, D.E. Shaw suffered significant loss after 1998 Russia bond default. BankAmerica was later acquired by NationsBank that year.The purchase of BankAmerica Corp. by the NationsBank Corporation was the largest bank acquisition in history at that time. While the deal was technically a purchase of BankAmerica Corporation by NationsBank, the deal was structured as merger with NationsBank renamed to Bank of America Corporation, and Bank of America NT&SA, changing its name to Bank of America, N.A. as the remaining legal bank entity. The bank still operates under Federal Charter 13044 which was granted to Giannini's Bank of Italy on March 1, 1927. However, SEC filings before 1998 are listed under NationsBank, not BankAmerica.Following the US$64.8 billion acquisition of BankAmerica by NationsBank, the resulting Bank of America had combined assets of US$570 billion, as well as 4,800 branches in 22 states. Despite the mammoth size of the two companies, federal regulators insisted only upon the divestiture of 13 branches in New Mexico, in towns that would be left with only a single bankposted by vishal @ 1:00 PM 0 Comments finance - banking financeThe Best European PerformersThere are no flavor-of-the-month outfits or dot-com hangers-on in the European BusinessWeek 50. Only companies whose managers know how to earn money in good times and bad make the grade.Name an economic malady and Europe has it in abundance right now: sluggish economic growth, lackluster consumer spending, currency swings that hurt exports, and depressed stock markets. For that reason, BusinessWeek could not have picked a better time to launch its first annual ranking of Europe's 50 best-performing companies. You won't find any frothy flavor-of-the-month outfits or dot-com hangers-on among these stalwarts. The BW Europe 50 is instead studded with companies whose managers know how to make money in good times and bad. What do corporations such as British bank HBOS (No. 1), Belgian utility Electrabel (No. 4), and Swedish apparel retailer H&M Hennes & Mauritz (No. 8) have in common? All have made singular progress in boosting sales, increasing profits, and delivering superior returns to investors in these worst of times for much of Europe. "Such top performers excel mainly because of good management that knows what to do in a difficult environment," says Robert Parkes, a European analyst at HSBC Bank in London. "They're doing well because they've kept in touch with what their customers and shareholders want."Most of the companies that powered to the top of this inaugural list are top-notch names with the size, stamina, and savvy needed to thrive in turbulent times. Energy companies like Total and financial-services companies such as Royal Bank of Scotland Group figure prominently. So do retail and consumer-staple giants such as France's Carrefour and Switzerland's Nestlé. Notable by their absence are Europe's big technology and telecom companies. Only three made it onto our top 50 list: France's Bouygues, Italy's Telecom Italia Mobile, and Finland's Nokia. Absent from the top 50 are powerhouses such as Germany's SAP, Geneva-based STMicroelectronics, and France's Alcatel. Blame the poor tech showing on three years of weak revenue growth, poor profitability, and, most of all, sagging stock market valuations.As investors know all too well, companies can manage impressive profits one year, only to disappoint the next. That's why the BW Europe 50 rewards those with staying power. To generate our ranking we used a series of criteria that judge the performance of the companies in the Standard & Poor's Europe 350 stock index over both one and three years.The turmoil in the markets over the past year means that today's darling can become tomorrow's dog almost overnight. That's why it's important not to see the BW Europe ranking as an all-knowing investment guide. Even stellar performers have their ups and downs from year to year. Take German pharmaceutical firm Altana and Spanish construction and engineering company Grupo Dragados. They beat all comers with total returns of 160.2% and 140.6%, respectively, between June 30, 2000, and June 30, 2003. However, both companies have delivered lower returns in recent months and neither Altana nor Grupo Dragados would appear in the top 50 if the ranking was based simply on the returns generated over the past 12 months.There's a definite British tilt in the European BW 50: British enterprises dominate, accounting for 17 of the 50 and 6 of the top 10. In part, that's because Britain has the most publicly traded companies of any European nation. That automatically increases the odds for British companies. Other elements are at work, though: The British economy has outperformed the 12-member euro zone in each of the past three years, and British companies have benefited from more buoyant domestic demand. France and Spain are also well represented. By contrast, although the German economy is the biggest in Europe by far, there isn't a single German company among the top 20. "Many German companies, such as car manufacturers, are well managed," says Paul Strebel, a professor at the IMD-International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland. "But the environment is more difficult there in terms of the macro background and structural rigidities."What's the secret of Anglo-Saxon corporate prowess? British companies operate in a freer environment than many of their Continental competitors. They do not suffer from the same labor restrictions, heavy social-security burden, and other structural impediments that hold back enterprises in many countries. It would have been much more difficult for HBOS, Royal Bank of Scotland Group, and HSBC Holdings to cut costs and exploit synergies as aggressively as they have done over the past three years if they had been headquartered in Germany rather than Britain. Yet structural reforms now wending their way through the German parliament may give Teutonic companies a competitive jolt. Also, notable absentees from this year's list, such as Deutsche Bank, could well make it next year, thanks to their belated cost-cutting efforts.The European BW 50 also provides proof that, despite the long-standing argument over whether mergers generate shareholder value, they can and do create powerful, successful companies. HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland, the two top-performing banks on the list, both British, prove the point. HBOS, which heads the overall ranking, was created in 2001 when Bank of Scotland joined forces with Halifax PLC, a mortgage specialist. A year earlier, Royal Bank of Scotland, No.3 on our list, acquired National Westminster Bank PLC. The merged entities now not only outrank British arch-rivals HSBC (No. 48) and Barclays PLC (No. 52), but also every bank on the Continent. "We have the financial strength and flexibility needed to sustain growth and manage risk in an uncertain world," says HBOS Chief Executive James Crosby. "Our merger continues to exceed expectations."Meanwhile, ongoing consolidation within the global pharmaceutical industry has produced some of Europe's biggest mergers. The 1999 union of Sweden's Astra and Britain's Zeneca gave birth to Europe's third-largest drug company -- and No.35 on our list. A year later, rival British drugmakers GlaxoWellcome and Smith-Kline Beecham joined forces, to form the global No. 2, behind Pfizer of the U.S.With a market value of 105 billion euros, GlaxoSmithKline PLC also ranks No.2 in the BW Europe 50. Glaxo boosted net income 27% last year to produce an astounding 62% return on equity in 2002. Despite shareholder criticism of the size of senior executive pay-packages, CEO Jean-Pierre Garnier told shareholders in May that the group's "effective cost control" and "promising early-stage R&D pipeline" give it an edge over its competitors.One of the most striking things about the BW Europe 50 is the presence of so many energy and utility companies. In all, there are 13 producers, refiners, and distributors of oil, natural gas, and electricity. Some want to extract the energy and avoid the costly business of selling the end product. Oil giant Total, for example, is making a major bet on finding new acreage. "We are benefiting from a very clear long-term strategy of giving priority to the upstream," said Christophe de Margerie, president of exploration and production.Total benefited from a rise in world oil prices, but those companies in power generation and distribution had to combat three years of stalled demand for power by consumers and companies. Plus, privatization, deregulation, and mounting competition have limited the ability of these companies to push through rate hikes. To make matters worse, many European energy outfits temporarily fell out of favor with investors following the collapse of Enron Corp. in 2001 on the other side of the Atlantic.Despite the tough odds, European power producers such as Belgium's Electrabel (No. 4) and Italy's ENI (No. 28) managed to assert themselves. Both have a commanding presence in their domestic markets. And, as a result of collapsing borders and deregulation, they have been able to push deep into markets elsewhere in the European Union. Electrabel has made significant breakthroughs into France, Italy, and Spain, and now chalks up 37% of its sales abroad. All told, Electrabel increased sales by 18% over the past year. Its success sends an important message to the rest of Europe: Companies that exploit opportunities stemming from deregulation and the single currency are poised to excel.Then there's retail. Stagnant economies and rising joblessness have caused consumers in many parts of the Old World to pull in their horns. At the same time, fierce competition and deflationary pressures have forced down prices for many goods. That's hardly an optimal climate for retail chains. Yet seven retailers of one sort or another made it into the European BW 50. British supermarket operator Tesco PLC (No. 10) shows that grocers can sparkle even in tough markets. The group, headquartered in Hertfordshire, England, spent 300 million euros last year in a successful bid to wrest market share from rivals such as J. Sainsbury PLC, slashing prices and opening 62 new stores in Britain. Whereas many retailers saw profits plunge, Tesco's surged 14% in 2002. Tesco also runs the world's most successful online supermarket, which it is now replicating from Korea to Central Europe to the U.S., via a partnership with its American peer, Safeway.Giving customers what they want at a reasonable price is also paying big dividends at Swedish apparel retailer H&M Hennes & Mauritz (No. 8). The chain has 893 stores in 17 countries and plans to open another 110 this year, including 20 in the U.S. "We've halved the time it takes to open new stores, to an average of four to five weeks," says CEO Rolf Eriksen. "This doesn't reduce start-up costs, but it does help accelerate sales."H&M has long been an investor favorite. On the flip side, companies that investors shunned just 12 months ago are back in favor. France Télécom, for example, generated a jaw-dropping 161.6% shareholder return over the past year, thanks to the appointment of turnaround whiz Thierry Breton as CEO and investor enthusiasm for his plan to slash the company's massive debt load and trim operating expenses. Despite its improved outlook, though, France Télécom didn't make it into the top 50 because its performance in the previous two years was so dire. The same goes for other telcos such as Deutsche Telekom and Britain's BT Group, which are rebounding but still dealing with post-boom excesses.Despite their strengths, many of the companies in the BW Europe 50 face new challenges. Although there are some signs that the euro- zone economy is finally beginning to recover, consumers are still reluctant to splurge on big-ticket items. According to the European Automobile Manufacturers' Assn., European car sales were down 2.6% in unit terms during the first six months of 2003. Notwithstanding cheap financing deals and special offers, demand for autos could drop further in the coming months. Innovation, expansion into new markets, and deft control over manufacturing will set the winners apart from the losers, and likely continue to benefit the four carmakers on our list: France's PSA Peugeot Citroën (No. 15), Renault (No. 19), Germany's BMW (No. 21), and Porsche (No. 27).Luxury carmakers Porsche and BMW are expected to boost revenues and outmaneuver rivals, even in the stagnant Western European market. As the U.S. and European car markets went into a tailspin, Porsche moved quickly to trim production of its classic 911 and Boxster models. It also introduced the Cayenne, a racy new sport-utility vehicle that is powering sales and more than offsetting the decline in sportscar sales. The Stuttgart-based carmaker has returned 39% in value to shareholders over the past three years.It does help that global consumers have demonstrated a willingness to spend more of their income on luxury cars. The premium auto segment is growing at nearly twice the annual clip of the mass market. "The outlook for German luxury brands in the U.S. is extremely bright in sedans and SUVs," says Stephen B. Cheetham, auto analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.Meanwhile, the strong euro is giving headaches to many European companies -- and that could eventually include the luxury carmakers. Most vulnerable are exporters and those with large dollar revenues. If, as some currency traders predict, the euro hits $1.25 by year end, BMW, Carrefour, Sanofi-Synthélabo, and other companies with large sales outside the euro zone could see their revenues crimped.Yet for every euro loser there will be a euro winner. Companies that source a large portion of their products outside Europe stand to gain, as wages and other production costs decline when measured in euros. H&M's Eriksen says his company has already reaped some benefits. "As the euro strengthens," he says, "so does our purchasing power. That enables us to pass on those gains to consumers through lower prices."Falling interest rates could also spell relief for European businesses. With the benchmark European Central Bank rate at 2%, interest rates for most companies in the euro zone are at their lowest level in a generation. And the consensus among economists is that the ECB will cut rates again before the end of the year. On the Continent, cheap money is changing the dynamics of corporate performance. For starters, it makes it easier for heavily indebted enterprises to refinance themselves, which is one reason why many telcos have been able to stage a recovery in recent months.The biggest impact of low interest rates could be to underpin the recovery of the equity markets and create an environment in which managers are once again willing to assume big capital-market risks, such as mergers and acquisitions.The process has already started. In June, Italy's Banca Generali acquired compatriot Banca Privamera for 50 million euros in cash and 202 million euros in shares. A return to the go-go days of the late 1990s is probably still a long way off, however. And despite all the uncertainties about the euro, interest rates, and the economy, the European companies that are likely to thrive over the next year will be the ones that can do what the winners have done over the past three years: cut costs, widen margins, develop a more intimate and lucrative relationship with customers, and generate more profits.By David Fairlamb, with Jack Ewing and Gail Edmondson in Frankfurt, Kerry Capell and Stanley Reed in London, and Andy Reinhardt in Paris, and Frederick F. Jespersen in New YorkGet BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed.Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video.To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here.Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page# posted by brijesh agarwal @ 10:19 PM 0 Comments banks-financeThursday, July 12, 2007Bank of America (NYSE: BAC TYO: 8648 ) is the largest commercial bank in the United States in terms of deposits, and the largest company of its kind in the world.[3][4] Bank of America is the largest American company (by market capitalization) that is not part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. On July 19, 2006, Bank of America reported second quarter 2006 net income of $5.48 billion,[5] surpassing that of Citigroup for the first time.Contents[hide]1 Corporate history1.1 Pre-1998 history1.1.1 Bank of Italy1.1.2 Growth in California1.1.3 Expansion outside of California1.2 Merger of NationsBank and BankAmerica1.3 History since 19981.3.1 Acquisition of National Processing Company1.3.2 FleetBoston Financial merger1.3.3 Purchase of MBNA1.3.4 Divestiture of Brazil operations1.3.5 Plans to acquire LaSalle Bank2 Bank of America today2.1 Consumer2.2 Corporate2.3 Investment Management2.4 Social responsibility3 Controversy and criticism4 International operations5 Bank of America corporate buildings6 Diversity7 Major sponsorships7.1 Official bank of8 References9 See also10 External links//[edit] Corporate historyIt has been suggested that NationsBank be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)Before 1993, the Bank of America that exists today was known as NationsBank, based in Charlotte, NC. In 1998, NationsBank merged with San Francisco-based BankAmerica and assumed the Bank of America name.[edit] Pre-1998 history[edit] Bank of ItalyThe roots of the pre-1998 Bank of America lie in the American Bank of Italy, founded in San Francisco by Amadeo Giannini in 1904. When the 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck, Giannini was able to get all of the deposits out of the bank building and away from the fires. Thus, unlike many other banks, he retained the confidence of the depositors and also had money to loan to those struck by the disaster.In the late 1920s, Giannini approached Orra E. Monnette, President and founder of the Los Angeles based Bank of America, Los Angeles about a potential merger between the two entities. The Los Angeles based bank had exhibited strong growth throughout the 1920s, due in part to its success in developing an advanced bank branching system. The merger of the two institutions was completed in early 1929 and took the name Bank of America. The combined company was headed by Giannini with Monnette serving as co-Chair.While the names of many nationally chartered banks end with the initials 'N.A.' (National Association), Giannini picked a unique ending, National Trust and Savings Association, or 'NT&SA', because he wanted the name to highlight the different functions of the bank. Bank of America was the only NT&SA in the country. Thanks to good management, but also to aggressive development of the branch banking concept, the bank was soon the largest in California.[edit] Growth in CaliforniaGiannini also sought to build a national bank, expanding into most of the western states as well as into the insurance industry, under the aegis of his holding company, Transamerica Corporation. Bank of America NT&SA also had banking relationships in international financial markets. Largely out of fear that Giannini would succeed in his efforts to create a nationwide bank, federal legislation prohibited banks from accepting deposits in states where they were not headquartered. This led to the creation of the bank holding company which could own a separate bank in each state.The passage of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, prohibited banks from owning non-banking subsidiaries such as insurance companies. Bank of America and Transamerica were separated, with the latter company continuing in the insurance business. However, federal banking regulators prohibited Bank of America's interstate banking activity, and Bank of America's domestic banks outside of California were forced into a separate company that eventually became First Interstate Bancorp, which was acquired by Wells Fargo and Company in 1996. It was not until the 1980s with a change in federal banking legislation and regulation that Bank of America was again able to expand its domestic consumer banking activity outside of California.California was the nation's fastest growing state during the post-World War II boom, with the highest use of checking accounts (partially driven by many soldiers being paid via bank accounts during World War II), resulting in Bank of America being swamped by checks. By 1949 , the branches had to close at 2:00pm in order to process the bookkeeping by 5:00 p.m. To cope with the transaction volume, the bank invested heavily in information technology and is generally credited, together with General Electric and SRI International, with inventing modern centralized bank operations, along with a number of financial transaction processing technologies such as automatic check processing, account numbers, and Magnetic Ink Character Recognition. Because of the efficiency of these technologies, the bank had significantly lower administrative costs than other banks and was able to expand until it became the world's largest bank in the early 1970s.These technologies also enabled credit cards to be linked directly to individual bank accounts. In 1958, the bank invented the bank credit card, the BankAmericard, which changed its name to VISA in 1977. A consortium of other California banks came up with Master Charge (now MasterCard) in order to compete with BankAmericard.[edit] Expansion outside of CaliforniaBank of America Corporate Center, located in the center of uptown Charlotte, North Carolina.Following passage of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1967, BankAmerica Corporation was established for the purpose of owning Bank of America and its subsidiaries.BankAmerica expanded outside California in 1983 with its acquisition of Seafirst Corporation of Seattle, Washington, and its wholly owned banking subsidiary, Seattle-First National Bank. Seafirst was at risk of seizure by the federal government after becoming insolvent due to a series of bad loans to the oil industry. BankAmerica continued to operate its new subsidiary as Seafirst rather than Bank of America until the 1998 merger with NationsBank.BankAmerica was dealt huge losses in 1986 and 1987 due to the placement of a series of bad loans in the Third World, particularly in Latin America. The company fired its CEO, Sam Armacost, although Armacost blamed the problems on his predecessor, A.W. (Tom) Clausen, who was then appointed to replace Armacost. The losses resulted in a huge decline of BankAmerica stock, making it vulnerable to a hostile takeover. First Interstate Bancorp of Los Angeles (which had originated from banks once owned by BankAmerica), launched such a bid in the fall of 1986, although BankAmerica rebuffed it, mostly by selling its FinanceAmerica subsidiary to Chrysler, and by selling the brokerage firm Charles Schwab and Co. back to Mr. Schwab. On the day of the 1987 stock market crash, BankAmerica was trading at $8 per share, although by 1992 it had rebounded mightily to become one of the biggest gainers of that half-decade. The selling of the corporate headquarters building in downtown San Francisco to raise capital was a symbolic blow to the bank.[citation needed]BankAmerica's next big acquisition came in 1992. The company acquired its California rival, Security Pacific Corporation and its subsidiary Security Pacific National Bank in California and other banks in Arizona, Idaho, Oregon and Washington (which Security Pacific had acquired in a series of acquisitions in the late 1980s). This was, at the time, the biggest bank acquisition in history. Federal regulators nevertheless forced the sale of Security Pacific's Washington subsidiary, Rainier Bank, because the combination of Seafirst and Rainier would have given BankAmerica too large a share of the market in that state. Later that year, BankAmerica expanded into Nevada by acquiring Valley Bank of Nevada.In 1994 , BankAmerica acquired the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Co. of Chicago, which had become federally owned as part of the same oil industry debacle that had brought down Seafirst. At the time, no bank had the resources to bail out Continental, so the federal government operated the bank for nearly a decade. Illinois at that time regulated branch banking extremely heavily, so Bank of America Illinois was a single-unit bank until the 21st century. BankAmerica moved its national lending department to Chicago in an effort to establish a financial beachhead in the region.These mergers helped BankAmerica Corporation once again become the largest U.S. bank holding company in terms of deposits, but the company fell to second place in 1997 behind fast-growing NationsBank Corporation, and to third in 1998 behind North Carolina's First Union Corp. In 1998, BankAmerica and NationsBank executed a merger-of-equals and changed the headquarters to Charlotte, North Carolina.[edit] Merger of NationsBank and BankAmericaIn 1997, BankAmerica lent D.E. Shaw & Co., a large hedge fund, $1.4bn so that the hedge fund would run various businesses for the bank. However, D.E. Shaw suffered significant loss after 1998 Russia bond default. BankAmerica was later acquired by NationsBank that year.The purchase of BankAmerica Corp. by the NationsBank Corporation was the largest bank acquisition in history at that time. While the deal was technically a purchase of BankAmerica Corporation by NationsBank, the deal was structured as merger with NationsBank renamed to Bank of America Corporation, and Bank of America NT&SA, changing its name to Bank of America, N.A. as the remaining legal bank entity. The bank still operates under Federal Charter 13044 which was granted to Giannini's Bank of Italy on March 1, 1927. However, SEC filings before 1998 are listed under NationsBank, not BankAmerica.Following the US$64.8 billion acquisition of BankAmerica by NationsBank, the resulting Bank of America had combined assets of US$570 billion, as well as 4,800 branches in 22 states. Despite the mammoth size of the two companies, federal regulators insisted only upon the divestiture of 13 branches in New Mexico, in towns that would be left with only a single bankposted by vishal @ 1:00 PM 0 Comments finance - banking financeThe Best European PerformersThere are no flavor-of-the-month outfits or dot-com hangers-on in the European BusinessWeek 50. Only companies whose managers know how to earn money in good times and bad make the grade.Name an economic malady and Europe has it in abundance right now: sluggish economic growth, lackluster consumer spending, currency swings that hurt exports, and depressed stock markets. For that reason, BusinessWeek could not have picked a better time to launch its first annual ranking of Europe's 50 best-performing companies. You won't find any frothy flavor-of-the-month outfits or dot-com hangers-on among these stalwarts. The BW Europe 50 is instead studded with companies whose managers know how to make money in good times and bad. What do corporations such as British bank HBOS (No. 1), Belgian utility Electrabel (No. 4), and Swedish apparel retailer H&M Hennes & Mauritz (No. 8) have in common? All have made singular progress in boosting sales, increasing profits, and delivering superior returns to investors in these worst of times for much of Europe. "Such top performers excel mainly because of good management that knows what to do in a difficult environment," says Robert Parkes, a European analyst at HSBC Bank in London. "They're doing well because they've kept in touch with what their customers and shareholders want."Most of the companies that powered to the top of this inaugural list are top-notch names with the size, stamina, and savvy needed to thrive in turbulent times. Energy companies like Total and financial-services companies such as Royal Bank of Scotland Group figure prominently. So do retail and consumer-staple giants such as France's Carrefour and Switzerland's Nestlé. Notable by their absence are Europe's big technology and telecom companies. Only three made it onto our top 50 list: France's Bouygues, Italy's Telecom Italia Mobile, and Finland's Nokia. Absent from the top 50 are powerhouses such as Germany's SAP, Geneva-based STMicroelectronics, and France's Alcatel. Blame the poor tech showing on three years of weak revenue growth, poor profitability, and, most of all, sagging stock market valuations.As investors know all too well, companies can manage impressive profits one year, only to disappoint the next. That's why the BW Europe 50 rewards those with staying power. To generate our ranking we used a series of criteria that judge the performance of the companies in the Standard & Poor's Europe 350 stock index over both one and three years.The turmoil in the markets over the past year means that today's darling can become tomorrow's dog almost overnight. That's why it's important not to see the BW Europe ranking as an all-knowing investment guide. Even stellar performers have their ups and downs from year to year. Take German pharmaceutical firm Altana and Spanish construction and engineering company Grupo Dragados. They beat all comers with total returns of 160.2% and 140.6%, respectively, between June 30, 2000, and June 30, 2003. However, both companies have delivered lower returns in recent months and neither Altana nor Grupo Dragados would appear in the top 50 if the ranking was based simply on the returns generated over the past 12 months.There's a definite British tilt in the European BW 50: British enterprises dominate, accounting for 17 of the 50 and 6 of the top 10. In part, that's because Britain has the most publicly traded companies of any European nation. That automatically increases the odds for British companies. Other elements are at work, though: The British economy has outperformed the 12-member euro zone in each of the past three years, and British companies have benefited from more buoyant domestic demand. France and Spain are also well represented. By contrast, although the German economy is the biggest in Europe by far, there isn't a single German company among the top 20. "Many German companies, such as car manufacturers, are well managed," says Paul Strebel, a professor at the IMD-International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland. "But the environment is more difficult there in terms of the macro background and structural rigidities."What's the secret of Anglo-Saxon corporate prowess? British companies operate in a freer environment than many of their Continental competitors. They do not suffer from the same labor restrictions, heavy social-security burden, and other structural impediments that hold back enterprises in many countries. It would have been much more difficult for HBOS, Royal Bank of Scotland Group, and HSBC Holdings to cut costs and exploit synergies as aggressively as they have done over the past three years if they had been headquartered in Germany rather than Britain. Yet structural reforms now wending their way through the German parliament may give Teutonic companies a competitive jolt. Also, notable absentees from this year's list, such as Deutsche Bank, could well make it next year, thanks to their belated cost-cutting efforts.The European BW 50 also provides proof that, despite the long-standing argument over whether mergers generate shareholder value, they can and do create powerful, successful companies. HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland, the two top-performing banks on the list, both British, prove the point. HBOS, which heads the overall ranking, was created in 2001 when Bank of Scotland joined forces with Halifax PLC, a mortgage specialist. A year earlier, Royal Bank of Scotland, No.3 on our list, acquired National Westminster Bank PLC. The merged entities now not only outrank British arch-rivals HSBC (No. 48) and Barclays PLC (No. 52), but also every bank on the Continent. "We have the financial strength and flexibility needed to sustain growth and manage risk in an uncertain world," says HBOS Chief Executive James Crosby. "Our merger continues to exceed expectations."Meanwhile, ongoing consolidation within the global pharmaceutical industry has produced some of Europe's biggest mergers. The 1999 union of Sweden's Astra and Britain's Zeneca gave birth to Europe's third-largest drug company -- and No.35 on our list. A year later, rival British drugmakers GlaxoWellcome and Smith-Kline Beecham joined forces, to form the global No. 2, behind Pfizer of the U.S.With a market value of 105 billion euros, GlaxoSmithKline PLC also ranks No.2 in the BW Europe 50. Glaxo boosted net income 27% last year to produce an astounding 62% return on equity in 2002. Despite shareholder criticism of the size of senior executive pay-packages, CEO Jean-Pierre Garnier told shareholders in May that the group's "effective cost control" and "promising early-stage R&D pipeline" give it an edge over its competitors.One of the most striking things about the BW Europe 50 is the presence of so many energy and utility companies. In all, there are 13 producers, refiners, and distributors of oil, natural gas, and electricity. Some want to extract the energy and avoid the costly business of selling the end product. Oil giant Total, for example, is making a major bet on finding new acreage. "We are benefiting from a very clear long-term strategy of giving priority to the upstream," said Christophe de Margerie, president of exploration and production.Total benefited from a rise in world oil prices, but those companies in power generation and distribution had to combat three years of stalled demand for power by consumers and companies. Plus, privatization, deregulation, and mounting competition have limited the ability of these companies to push through rate hikes. To make matters worse, many European energy outfits temporarily fell out of favor with investors following the collapse of Enron Corp. in 2001 on the other side of the Atlantic.Despite the tough odds, European power producers such as Belgium's Electrabel (No. 4) and Italy's ENI (No. 28) managed to assert themselves. Both have a commanding presence in their domestic markets. And, as a result of collapsing borders and deregulation, they have been able to push deep into markets elsewhere in the European Union. Electrabel has made significant breakthroughs into France, Italy, and Spain, and now chalks up 37% of its sales abroad. All told, Electrabel increased sales by 18% over the past year. Its success sends an important message to the rest of Europe: Companies that exploit opportunities stemming from deregulation and the single currency are poised to excel.Then there's retail. Stagnant economies and rising joblessness have caused consumers in many parts of the Old World to pull in their horns. At the same time, fierce competition and deflationary pressures have forced down prices for many goods. That's hardly an optimal climate for retail chains. Yet seven retailers of one sort or another made it into the European BW 50. British supermarket operator Tesco PLC (No. 10) shows that grocers can sparkle even in tough markets. The group, headquartered in Hertfordshire, England, spent 300 million euros last year in a successful bid to wrest market share from rivals such as J. Sainsbury PLC, slashing prices and opening 62 new stores in Britain. Whereas many retailers saw profits plunge, Tesco's surged 14% in 2002. Tesco also runs the world's most successful online supermarket, which it is now replicating from Korea to Central Europe to the U.S., via a partnership with its American peer, Safeway.Giving customers what they want at a reasonable price is also paying big dividends at Swedish apparel retailer H&M Hennes & Mauritz (No. 8). The chain has 893 stores in 17 countries and plans to open another 110 this year, including 20 in the U.S. "We've halved the time it takes to open new stores, to an average of four to five weeks," says CEO Rolf Eriksen. "This doesn't reduce start-up costs, but it does help accelerate sales."H&M has long been an investor favorite. On the flip side, companies that investors shunned just 12 months ago are back in favor. France Télécom, for example, generated a jaw-dropping 161.6% shareholder return over the past year, thanks to the appointment of turnaround whiz Thierry Breton as CEO and investor enthusiasm for his plan to slash the company's massive debt load and trim operating expenses. Despite its improved outlook, though, France Télécom didn't make it into the top 50 because its performance in the previous two years was so dire. The same goes for other telcos such as Deutsche Telekom and Britain's BT Group, which are rebounding but still dealing with post-boom excesses.Despite their strengths, many of the companies in the BW Europe 50 face new challenges. Although there are some signs that the euro- zone economy is finally beginning to recover, consumers are still reluctant to splurge on big-ticket items. According to the European Automobile Manufacturers' Assn., European car sales were down 2.6% in unit terms during the first six months of 2003. Notwithstanding cheap financing deals and special offers, demand for autos could drop further in the coming months. Innovation, expansion into new markets, and deft control over manufacturing will set the winners apart from the losers, and likely continue to benefit the four carmakers on our list: France's PSA Peugeot Citroën (No. 15), Renault (No. 19), Germany's BMW (No. 21), and Porsche (No. 27).Luxury carmakers Porsche and BMW are expected to boost revenues and outmaneuver rivals, even in the stagnant Western European market. As the U.S. and European car markets went into a tailspin, Porsche moved quickly to trim production of its classic 911 and Boxster models. It also introduced the Cayenne, a racy new sport-utility vehicle that is powering sales and more than offsetting the decline in sportscar sales. The Stuttgart-based carmaker has returned 39% in value to shareholders over the past three years.It does help that global consumers have demonstrated a willingness to spend more of their income on luxury cars. The premium auto segment is growing at nearly twice the annual clip of the mass market. "The outlook for German luxury brands in the U.S. is extremely bright in sedans and SUVs," says Stephen B. Cheetham, auto analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.Meanwhile, the strong euro is giving headaches to many European companies -- and that could eventually include the luxury carmakers. Most vulnerable are exporters and those with large dollar revenues. If, as some currency traders predict, the euro hits $1.25 by year end, BMW, Carrefour, Sanofi-Synthélabo, and other companies with large sales outside the euro zone could see their revenues crimped.Yet for every euro loser there will be a euro winner. Companies that source a large portion of their products outside Europe stand to gain, as wages and other production costs decline when measured in euros. H&M's Eriksen says his company has already reaped some benefits. "As the euro strengthens," he says, "so does our purchasing power. That enables us to pass on those gains to consumers through lower prices."Falling interest rates could also spell relief for European businesses. With the benchmark European Central Bank rate at 2%, interest rates for most companies in the euro zone are at their lowest level in a generation. And the consensus among economists is that the ECB will cut rates again before the end of the year. On the Continent, cheap money is changing the dynamics of corporate performance. For starters, it makes it easier for heavily indebted enterprises to refinance themselves, which is one reason why many telcos have been able to stage a recovery in recent months.The biggest impact of low interest rates could be to underpin the recovery of the equity markets and create an environment in which managers are once again willing to assume big capital-market risks, such as mergers and acquisitions.The process has already started. In June, Italy's Banca Generali acquired compatriot Banca Privamera for 50 million euros in cash and 202 million euros in shares. A return to the go-go days of the late 1990s is probably still a long way off, however. And despite all the uncertainties about the euro, interest rates, and the economy, the European companies that are likely to thrive over the next year will be the ones that can do what the winners have done over the past three years: cut costs, widen margins, develop a more intimate and lucrative relationship with customers, and generate more profits.By David Fairlamb, with Jack Ewing and Gail Edmondson in Frankfurt, Kerry Capell and Stanley Reed in London, and Andy Reinhardt in Paris, and Frederick F. Jespersen in New YorkGet BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed.Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video.To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here.Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page# posted by brijesh agarwal @ 10:19 PM 0 Comments banks-financeThursday, July 12, 2007Bank of America (NYSE: BAC TYO: 8648 ) is the largest commercial bank in the United States in terms of deposits, and the largest company of its kind in the world.[3][4] Bank of America is the largest American company (by market capitalization) that is not part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. On July 19, 2006, Bank of America reported second quarter 2006 net income of $5.48 billion,[5] surpassing that of Citigroup for the first time.Contents[hide]1 Corporate history1.1 Pre-1998 history1.1.1 Bank of Italy1.1.2 Growth in California1.1.3 Expansion outside of California1.2 Merger of NationsBank and BankAmerica1.3 History since 19981.3.1 Acquisition of National Processing Company1.3.2 FleetBoston Financial merger1.3.3 Purchase of MBNA1.3.4 Divestiture of Brazil operations1.3.5 Plans to acquire LaSalle Bank2 Bank of America today2.1 Consumer2.2 Corporate2.3 Investment Management2.4 Social responsibility3 Controversy and criticism4 International operations5 Bank of America corporate buildings6 Diversity7 Major sponsorships7.1 Official bank of8 References9 See also10 External links//[edit] Corporate historyIt has been suggested that NationsBank be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)Before 1993, the Bank of America that exists today was known as NationsBank, based in Charlotte, NC. In 1998, NationsBank merged with San Francisco-based BankAmerica and assumed the Bank of America name.[edit] Pre-1998 history[edit] Bank of ItalyThe roots of the pre-1998 Bank of America lie in the American Bank of Italy, founded in San Francisco by Amadeo Giannini in 1904. When the 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck, Giannini was able to get all of the deposits out of the bank building and away from the fires. Thus, unlike many other banks, he retained the confidence of the depositors and also had money to loan to those struck by the disaster.In the late 1920s, Giannini approached Orra E. Monnette, President and founder of the Los Angeles based Bank of America, Los Angeles about a potential merger between the two entities. The Los Angeles based bank had exhibited strong growth throughout the 1920s, due in part to its success in developing an advanced bank branching system. The merger of the two institutions was completed in early 1929 and took the name Bank of America. The combined company was headed by Giannini with Monnette serving as co-Chair.While the names of many nationally chartered banks end with the initials 'N.A.' (National Association), Giannini picked a unique ending, National Trust and Savings Association, or 'NT&SA', because he wanted the name to highlight the different functions of the bank. Bank of America was the only NT&SA in the country. Thanks to good management, but also to aggressive development of the branch banking concept, the bank was soon the largest in California.[edit] Growth in CaliforniaGiannini also sought to build a national bank, expanding into most of the western states as well as into the insurance industry, under the aegis of his holding company, Transamerica Corporation. Bank of America NT&SA also had banking relationships in international financial markets. Largely out of fear that Giannini would succeed in his efforts to create a nationwide bank, federal legislation prohibited banks from accepting deposits in states where they were not headquartered. This led to the creation of the bank holding company which could own a separate bank in each state.The passage of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, prohibited banks from owning non-banking subsidiaries such as insurance companies. Bank of America and Transamerica were separated, with the latter company continuing in the insurance business. However, federal banking regulators prohibited Bank of America's interstate banking activity, and Bank of America's domestic banks outside of California were forced into a separate company that eventually became First Interstate Bancorp, which was acquired by Wells Fargo and Company in 1996. It was not until the 1980s with a change in federal banking legislation and regulation that Bank of America was again able to expand its domestic consumer banking activity outside of California.California was the nation's fastest growing state during the post-World War II boom, with the highest use of checking accounts (partially driven by many soldiers being paid via bank accounts during World War II), resulting in Bank of America being swamped by checks. By 1949 , the branches had to close at 2:00pm in order to process the bookkeeping by 5:00 p.m. To cope with the transaction volume, the bank invested heavily in information technology and is generally credited, together with General Electric and SRI International, with inventing modern centralized bank operations, along with a number of financial transaction processing technologies such as automatic check processing, account numbers, and Magnetic Ink Character Recognition. Because of the efficiency of these technologies, the bank had significantly lower administrative costs than other banks and was able to expand until it became the world's largest bank in the early 1970s.These technologies also enabled credit cards to be linked directly to individual bank accounts. In 1958, the bank invented the bank credit card, the BankAmericard, which changed its name to VISA in 1977. A consortium of other California banks came up with Master Charge (now MasterCard) in order to compete with BankAmericard.[edit] Expansion outside of CaliforniaBank of America Corporate Center, located in the center of uptown Charlotte, North Carolina.Following passage of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1967, BankAmerica Corporation was established for the purpose of owning Bank of America and its subsidiaries.BankAmerica expanded outside California in 1983 with its acquisition of Seafirst Corporation of Seattle, Washington, and its wholly owned banking subsidiary, Seattle-First National Bank. Seafirst was at risk of seizure by the federal government after becoming insolvent due to a series of bad loans to the oil industry. BankAmerica continued to operate its new subsidiary as Seafirst rather than Bank of America until the 1998 merger with NationsBank.BankAmerica was dealt huge losses in 1986 and 1987 due to the placement of a series of bad loans in the Third World, particularly in Latin America. The company fired its CEO, Sam Armacost, although Armacost blamed the problems on his predecessor, A.W. (Tom) Clausen, who was then appointed to replace Armacost. The losses resulted in a huge decline of BankAmerica stock, making it vulnerable to a hostile takeover. First Interstate Bancorp of Los Angeles (which had originated from banks once owned by BankAmerica), launched such a bid in the fall of 1986, although BankAmerica rebuffed it, mostly by selling its FinanceAmerica subsidiary to Chrysler, and by selling the brokerage firm Charles Schwab and Co. back to Mr. Schwab. On the day of the 1987 stock market crash, BankAmerica was trading at $8 per share, although by 1992 it had rebounded mightily to become one of the biggest gainers of that half-decade. The selling of the corporate headquarters building in downtown San Francisco to raise capital was a symbolic blow to the bank.[citation needed]BankAmerica's next big acquisition came in 1992. The company acquired its California rival, Security Pacific Corporation and its subsidiary Security Pacific National Bank in California and other banks in Arizona, Idaho, Oregon and Washington (which Security Pacific had acquired in a series of acquisitions in the late 1980s). This was, at the time, the biggest bank acquisition in history. Federal regulators nevertheless forced the sale of Security Pacific's Washington subsidiary, Rainier Bank, because the combination of Seafirst and Rainier would have given BankAmerica too large a share of the market in that state. Later that year, BankAmerica expanded into Nevada by acquiring Valley Bank of Nevada.In 1994 , BankAmerica acquired the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Co. of Chicago, which had become federally owned as part of the same oil industry debacle that had brought down Seafirst. At the time, no bank had the resources to bail out Continental, so the federal government operated the bank for nearly a decade. Illinois at that time regulated branch banking extremely heavily, so Bank of America Illinois was a single-unit bank until the 21st century. BankAmerica moved its national lending department to Chicago in an effort to establish a financial beachhead in the region.These mergers helped BankAmerica Corporation once again become the largest U.S. bank holding company in terms of deposits, but the company fell to second place in 1997 behind fast-growing NationsBank Corporation, and to third in 1998 behind North Carolina's First Union Corp. In 1998, BankAmerica and NationsBank executed a merger-of-equals and changed the headquarters to Charlotte, North Carolina.[edit] Merger of NationsBank and BankAmericaIn 1997, BankAmerica lent D.E. Shaw & Co., a large hedge fund, $1.4bn so that the hedge fund would run various businesses for the bank. However, D.E. Shaw suffered significant loss after 1998 Russia bond default. BankAmerica was later acquired by NationsBank that year.The purchase of BankAmerica Corp. by the NationsBank Corporation was the largest bank acquisition in history at that time. While the deal was technically a purchase of BankAmerica Corporation by NationsBank, the deal was structured as merger with NationsBank renamed to Bank of America Corporation, and Bank of America NT&SA, changing its name to Bank of America, N.A. as the remaining legal bank entity. The bank still operates under Federal Charter 13044 which was granted to Giannini's Bank of Italy on March 1, 1927. However, SEC filings before 1998 are listed under NationsBank, not BankAmerica.Following the US$64.8 billion acquisition of BankAmerica by NationsBank, the resulting Bank of America had combined assets of US$570 billion, as well as 4,800 branches in 22 states. 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account, invest,© 2005-2007 www.Top100-Bank.comCoca-Cola Enterprises declines 20%Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc.'s net income dipped on higher prices for aluminum and sweetener in North America.feeds.bizjournals.com CN's bottom line shrinksCanadian National Railway Co. reported Monday its second quarter net income fell by 29 percent, from $695 million last year to $492 million this year.feeds.bizjournals.com Hanesbrands' profits fall on interest expenseHanesbrands Inc. said its profits fell by 57 percent in the second quarter, primarily because of higher interest costs related to its spin-off last year from Sara Lee Corp.feeds.bizjournals.com The Newest Homeowners: Big Banks (Motley Fool)As subprime mortgage defaults grow, investment banks find themselves reluctantly holding mortgages.us.rd.yahoo.comUpdated Sun, July 22, 2007. 151. www.uboc.com 33900152. www.citibank.co.jp 33800153. www.netbank.com 33300154. www.raiffeisen.ru 33200155. www.rbccentura.com 32700156. www.lasallebank.com 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personal loans, www.ubc.com, www.uboc.com, www.ubo.com, bank, brokerage, www.uoc.com, www.uboc.co© 2005-2007 www.Top100-Bank.comRollins rolls to record Q2 performanceRollins Inc.'s second-quarter net income increased about 10 percent.feeds.bizjournals.com Apple stock rebounds on strong earningsApple Inc. stock rebounded Thursday, closing up 5.7 percent at $145.05, as strong earnings reported Thursday eased investor fears about iPhone sales.feeds.bizjournals.com [$$] Big Stakeholder in Resolution Faults Friends Provident Deal (at The Wall Street Journal Online)us.rd.yahoo.com Bank of Granite 2Q earnings fall 83.5%Bank of Granite Corp. says higher provisions for loan losses contributed to an 83.5 percent drop in its second-quarter earnings.feeds.bizjournals.comMain Add a Site FREE Content for Your Web-site Bookmark this site Links Webmaster Updated Sun, July 22, 2007. 201. www.svb.com 22000202. www.fortisbank.com 21900203. www.aaadir.com 21800204. www.1822direkt.com 21700205. 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HoldingKeyCorp will strengthen its presence in New York's Hudson Valley with the purchase of U.S.B. Holding Co. 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Ohio and Florida Mortgage and Home Equity Lender, Third Federal Savings and LoanDescription: Third Federal mortgage lender offers low interest rates on Florida mortgages and Ohio mortgages, mortgage rates, home equity lines of credit, mortgage refinance, debt consolidation, Florida mortgage pre-approvals, Ohio mortgage pre-approvalsMost popular searches: wwwthirdfederal.com, iras, credit card, ww.thirdfederal.com, www.thidfederal.com, FDIC, mortgage, www.thirdfederal, www.thirdfderal.com, checking account, mastercard, US Bank, www.thirdfederalcom, finance, www.thirdederal.com, www.thirdfederl.com, fha, checking, www.thirdfedeal.com, www.thirdfeeral.com, www.thirfederal.com, www.thirdfederal.cm, home, refinance, banking center, www.thirdfederal.om, www.thirdfederal.co, ww.thirdfederal.com, refi, financial planning, savings account, savings, financial, www.thirdfedera.com, cds, investment, equity, www.thirdfedral.com, online banking, www.thirdfederal.cmo, wwwthirdfederal.com, www.tirdfederal.com, banking, loan, www.hirdfederal.com, investors, invest, visa, investing, www.thrdfederal.com© 2005-2007 www.Top100-Bank.comFirst Advantage grows revenue, earningsFirst Advantage Corp.'s earnings jumped 10 percent during the second quarter.feeds.bizjournals.com Carter's Inc. in the red in Q2Carter's Inc. moved to a loss in the second quarter, dragged down by charges related to the closure of a Tennessee distribution facility and a disappointing sales performance by its OshKosh segments.feeds.bizjournals.com Vignette earnings up in Q2Internet applications maker Vignette Corp.'s second quarter profits rose sharply, due largely to lower expenses than it had last year, while revenue slipped 1.6 percent.feeds.bizjournals.com CONSOL profit, revenue rises in 2QSpurred by higher gas and coal prices, CONSOL Energy Inc. had an increase in revenue and net income during its second quarter 2007.feeds.bizjournals.comMain Add a Site FREE Content for Your Web-site Bookmark this site Links Webmaster Updated Sun, July 22, 2007. 301. www.ibc.com 9240302. www.cbj.gov.jo 9210303. www.citizensonline.com 8760304. www.comfedbank.com 5850305. www.northwestsavingsbank.com 5440306. www.ohiosavings.com 4840307. www.virtualbank.com 4670308. www.ucbi.com 4580309. www.ingdirect.com.au 4070310. www.washingtonfederal.com 3720311. www.northshorebank.com 3560312. www.wsfsbank.com 3540313. www.rabobank.com.au 3530314. www.nsbank.com 3480315. www.firstcitizensonline.com 3420316. www.firstinterstatebank.com 3400317. www.westamerica.com 3380318. www.valleynationalbank.com 3180319. www.bancorpsouthonline.com 3170320. www.carolinafirst.com 3140321. www.pinnbank.com 3030322. www.texasstatebank.com 3010323. www.citibank.es 2950324. www.bbv.es 2920325. www.woodforest.com 2910326. www.bankunited.com 2750327. www.corusbank.com 2690328. www.banquelaurentienne.com 2670329. www.banqueagf.fr 2670330. www.ntrs.com 2630331. www.banknorth.com 2600332. www.standardfederalbank.com 2550333. www.ibtco.com 2530334. www.websterbank.com 2510335. www.thesouthgroup.com 2500336. banking.yahoo.com 2480337. www.adelaidebank.com.au 2460338. www.fultonbank.com 2430339. www.alabamanational.com 2410340. www.tibbank.com 2400341. www.pcfinancial.ca 2350342. www.midfirst.com 2280343. www.irwinfinancial.com 2270344. www.whbhk.com 2220345. www.citybank.com 2130346. www.bokf.com 2130347. www.uob.com.sg 2070348. www.ucbh.com 2060349. www.firstfederal.com 2050350. www.providentnj.com 2030Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11301. www.ibc.comRating: 9240 points**amount mentions of word 'www.ibc.com' on the other websitesBC BankDescription: IBC was founded in 1966 to meet the needs of the small businesses of Laredo, Texas. Today, it serves as the flagship bank of International Bancshares Corporation. Since its opening, IBC has grown from less than $1 million in assets to over $10.6 billion making it Texas’ largest holding company. IBC now serves more than 90 communities throughout Texas and Oklahoma with more than 220 branches and more than 330 ATM'S.Most popular searches: credit card, banking center, www.ib.com, www.ib.ccom, investing, wwwibc.com, www.icb.com, mortgage, www.ibcc.om, visa, www.ic.com, www.bic.com, www.ibc.cm, wwwibc.com, refi, savings account, refinance, savings, ww.wibc.com, www.ibc.ocm, ww.ibc.com, loan, finance, banking, financial, www.ibc.cmo, cds, online banking, www.bc.com, wwwi.bc.com, www.ibc.co, www.ibccom, FDIC, ww.ibc.com, financial planning, www.ibc, www.ibc.om, investors, checking account, fha, iras, investment, equity, checking, US Bank, mastercard, invest, www.ibc.com© 2005-2007 www.Top100-Bank.com2Q profits flat for parent of Glens Falls and Saratoga banksArrow Financial Corp. has reported second quarter earnings that were flat with those of a year ago.feeds.bizjournals.com Waste Connections earnings report drives up stockShares of Waste Connections Inc. closed 4.6 percent higher Monday with the company's announcement of higher second-quarter earnings and revenue.feeds.bizjournals.com FirstBank reports six-month incomeFirstBank Holding Co. on Friday reported net income of $47.7 million and earnings per share of $361.56 for the first six months of 2007.feeds.bizjournals.com Belden sees Q2 profit hike 40%Belden Inc. saw its second-quarter profit rise nearly 40 percent despite charges and accounting effects related to restructuring and acquisitions, respectively.feeds.bizjournals.comMain Add a Site FREE Content for Your Web-site Bookmark this site Links Webmaster Updated Sun, July 22, 2007. 351. www.savingsloans.com.au 1940352. www.presidential.com 1940353. www.unitedbank-va.com 1940354. www.swkbank.de 1940355. www.northrim.com 1900356. www.dahsing.com.hk 1860357. www.centralpacificbank.com 1810358. www.bostonprivate.com 1800359. www.lakecitybank.com 1780360. www.pcbancorp.com 1740361. www.ccf.fr 1720362. www.knbt.com 1690363. www.sbbt.com 1670364. www.hlb.com.my 1640365. www.cwbank.com 1620366. www.1stnb.com 1620367. www.daoheng.com 1600368. www.idbibank.com 1580369. www.regionsbank.com 1570370. www.emiratesbank.com 1540371. www.islamic-bank.com 1540372. www.fremontgeneral.com 1520373. www.creditcardscompare.com 1490374. www.citibank.com.ph 1410375. www.shacombank.com.hk 1380376. www.swbanktx.com 1350377. www.rgonline.com 1320378. www.rbtt.com 1320379. www.centura.com 1300380. www.doralfinancial.com 1250381. www.suncorpmetway.com.au 1220382. www.hudsoncitysavingsbank.com 1200383. www.cbtks.com 1190384. www.wholding.com 1160385. www.bbl.be 1150386. www.sunflowerbank.com 1150387. www.metrobank.com.ph 1150388. www.indymac.com 1150389. www.publicbank.com.my 1140390. www.mevas.com 1140391. www.citibank.co.in 1110392. www.oceanbank.com 1110393. www.cua.com.au 1100394. www.palmettobank.com 1090395. www.icicibank.ca 1090396. www.mcb-bank.com 1080397. www.banknorthma.com 1080398. www.myindependence.com 1080399. www.bsch.es 1070400. www.downeysavings.com 1060Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11351. www.savingsloans.com.auRating: 1940 points**amount mentions of word 'www.savingsloans.com.au' on the other websitesSavings & Loans Credit Unionescription: Savings and Loans Credit Union South Australia. 50 Flinders Street Adelaide SA. Call 131182Most popular searches: www.savingsloas.com.au, www.savingslons.com.au, savings &, deposits, investment, investment loans, credit union, deeming, highriser, latitude, travel, pclink, flinders street, www.savingloans.com.au, www.savigsloans.com.au, savings and loans credit union, friendly society, treasure chest, car loans, www.avingsloans.com.au, premium saver, pc link, www.savingsloan.com.au, www.savingsoans.com.au, teeny weeny, home loans, www.savingsloans.com.a, Christmas Page, www.savingsloanscom.au, www.saingsloans.com.au, ww.savingsloans.com.au, ww.savingsloans.com.au, www.svingsloans.com.au, no fees, superannuation, visa, wwwsavingsloans.com.au, www.savinsloans.com.au, insurance, wwwsavingsloans.com.au, www.savingsloans.comau, www.savngsloans.com.au, www.savingsloans.cm.au, womens and childrens, personal loans, www.savingsloans.com.u, loans, www.savingsloans.om.au, www.savingsloans.co.au, adelaide, www.savingslans.com.au, south australia, cash manager, www.savingsloans.au© 2005-2007 www.Top100-Bank.comPolitics and the public payroll -- banks play alongGovernment deposits have never been viewed as being as profitable for banks as retail and commercial work. But it is still extremely competitive, as banks service a variety of governmental entities with an ever-expanding list of product offerings.feeds.bizjournals.com Voltaire begins trading on NasdaqVoltaire Ltd. debuted on the Nasdaq Stock Market Thursday.feeds.bizjournals.com Wachovia execs find a new homeTop executives of Wachovia Securities who will be relocating to St. Louis as the retail brokerage merges with A.G. Edwards are looking at high-dollar properties, and some already are buying, boosting what has been a slow real estate market.feeds.bizjournals.com PrivateBank adding staff, growing assetsThe PrivateBank plans to add senior bankers within the next six months and increase total assets to $1 billion within five years.feeds.bizjournals.comUpdated Sun, July 22, 2007. 401. www.ocbc.com.my 1060402. www.firstfedca.com 1050403. www.bankofbaroda.com 1030404. www.bankofamerica.com.hk 1030405. www.habibbank.com 1030406. www.lrp.de 998407. www.kookminbank.com 996408. www.riyadbank.com.sa 996409. www.ubsi-wv.com 989410. www.mercantile.net 972411. www.providentbankmd.com 968412. www.firstib.com 966413. www.texasbank.com 964414. www.bremer.com 952415. www.cibeg.com 951416. www.kagin.co.jp 941417. www.northforkbank.com 941418. www.cspb.com 937419. www.umb.com 928420. www.mynycb.com 927421. www.bancorio.com.ar 926422. www.1stnationalbank.com 921423. www.lcf-rothschild.com 912424. www.harrisbank.com 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wwwo.cbc.com.my, loan, FDIC, equity, www.ocbc.cm.my, refinance, ww.ocbc.com.my, wwwocbc.com.my, investment, US Bank, wwwocbc.com.my, credit card, www.obcc.com.my, www.obc.com.my, banking, investors, fha, www.ocbc.co.mmy, www.ocbc.comm.y, www.ocbc.com.m, cds, www.ocbc.commy, www.ocbc.co.my, www.occb.com.my, www.ocbcc.om.my, www.ocbc.ocm.my, www.ocbc.cmo.my, refi, invest, financial, financial planning, online banking, www.ocbc.om.my, www.ocbccom.my, www.ocbc.com.ym, www.ocbc.com.my, www.ocbc.com.y, www.cbc.com.my, savings account, visa, savings, ww.wocbc.com.my, www.cobc.com.my, banking center, www.ocb.com.my, ww.ocbc.com.my© 2005-2007 www.Top100-Bank.comWilmington bank grows loans, profitWilmington-based Cooperative Bankshares said Wednesday that the continued growth of its loan portfolio led to a 15 percent increase in second-quarter net income.feeds.bizjournals.com Wichita credit unions find 2006 a mixed bag; 3 large institutions post lossesThree of Wichita's six largest credit unions took losses in 2006 -- the result of growing pains and efforts to rid themselves of problem real estate.feeds.bizjournals.com Earnings rise 20% for SEISEI Investments Co. said Wednesday that net profits increased in the second quarter by 20 percent over the comparable period last year, from $57.9 million to $69.5 million.feeds.bizjournals.com Major South Florida stocks struggle in bumpy marketThe Dow Jones had its worse week in five years, plunging more than 500 points in two days, and all but one of South Florida's 10 largest public companies (according to 2006 gross revenue) showed a little red.feeds.bizjournals.comMain Add a Site FREE Content for Your Web-site Bookmark this site Links Webmaster Updated Sun, July 22, 2007. 451. www.lnb.com 789452. my.countrywide.com 778453. www.ssnb.com 775454. www.top100-bank.com 775455. www.firstmidwest.com 770456. www.citizensbank.ca 766457. www.unb.co.ae 764458. www.aba-argentina.com 760459. www.firstnatlbank.com 757460. www.nor.no 752461. 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www.lanb.com 610500. www.gbbk.com 607Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11451. www.lnb.comRating: 789 points**amount mentions of word 'www.lnb.com' on the other websiteshe Laredo National Bank - Home - www.lnb.comMost popular searches: invest, wwwlnb.com, www.ln.bcom, ww.lnb.com, iras, financial, www.lnbcom, refinance, mastercard, cds, credit card, visa, savings account, online banking, FDIC, www.nb.com, www.lbn.com, checking account, www.lnbc.om, www.ln.com, investment, loan, wwwl.nb.com, financial planning, finance, banking center, www.nlb.com, www.lnb, refi, www.lnb.ocm, equity, www.lb.com, www.lnb.com, mortgage, US Bank, ww.lnb.com, www.lnb.co, savings, www.lnb.cmo, ww.wlnb.com, www.lnb.om, investors, investing, wwwlnb.com, fha, checking, banking, www.lnb.cm© 2005-2007 www.Top100-Bank.comBofA raises dividend 14%The board of Bank of America Corp. has approved a 14 percent increase in its quarterly dividend to 64 per share from 56 cents.feeds.bizjournals.com PetMed earnings, sales surgeFirst quarter earnings at PetMed Express jumped 30 percent, while sales increased 16 percent.feeds.bizjournals.com Fed reports flat to modest economic gainsEconomic growth for Ohio and its neighboring states ranged narrowly from flat to modest in the past six weeks, the Federal Reserve's Cleveland district bank reported.feeds.bizjournals.com Central Federal income picks up momentumCentral Federal Corp. has announced an increase in its income during the second quarter - the fifth consecutive profitable quarter for the once troubled institution.feeds.bizjournals.comBank of America®Free Checking Plus Online Bill Pay, Security Protection, Updated Sun, July 22, 2007. 1. finance.yahoo.com 75100002. www.bundesbank.de 29300003. www.iadb.org 21700004. www.businessweek.com 20300005. www.marketwatch.com 20300006. www.prnewswire.com 19200007. moneycentral.msn.com 18900008. cms.hhs.gov 18900009. www.paypal.com 187000010. www.forbes.com 187000011. money.cnn.com 136000012. www.bankofamerica.com 124000013. www.finanztreff.de 117000014. home.ingdirect.com 112000015. www.irs.gov 109000016. www.eloan.com 108000017. www.adb.org 99600018. www.lendingtree.com 97600019. www.wallstreet-online.de 95700020. www.euronext.com 94200021. www.economist.com 90200022. www.nyc.gov 87100023. www.fisconet.fgov.be 77000024. www.insurance.com 71500025. www.ecb.int 70000026. www.ft.com 69200027. www.hud.gov 65600028. www.ftd.de 64000029. www.moneycontrol.com 61100030. www.investools.com 61000031. www.finanzas.com 61000032. www.invertia.com 57700033. www.statefarm.com 57400034. www.geico.com 57300035. www.wachovia.com 57100036. www.bankrate.com 55400037. www.capitalone.com 52500038. www.netquote.com 51000039. www.americanexpress.com 49600040. www.fool.com 44700041. www.quickenloans.com 43900042. www.wellsfargo.com 42300043. www.esurance.com 40000044. www.ubs.com 39400045. www.zawya.com 35300046. www.medicare.gov 35000047. www.fatwallet.com 33600048. www.chase.com 32800049. www.progressive.com 30100050. www.aok.de 299000Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 1213 14 15 16 17 18What is TOP 100 FINANCIAL SITES rating?The Best Financial Sites were collected in this rating and sorted by popularity. Weekly updated Financial Directory Features listing of resources, links and news about money, loans, mortgages, personal finance, and more.New sites in the ratingJul 20 www.forex4marketiva.com - Forex Marketiva... Jul 14 www.apriori24.com - Willkommen bei apriori24.com – Ihrem H... Jul 14 www.basicfx.blogspot.com - Free Guide To Learn Online Forex Trading... Jul 04 fx-articles.blogspot.com - FOREX ARTICLES... Jul 04 adry-fx.blogspot.com - FOREX MT4 INDICATORS ARCHIEVE... Jun 29 www.compact-money.de - Compact-Money - Startseite ... Jun 24 forex-way.blogspot.com - Forex Ways To Trading And Free E-Book Do... Jun 21 marketiva.fx-bg.com - Mrketiva - E-gold Forex Broker. Make Mon... May 29 www.financial.de - financial.de... May 29 www.coastcapitalsavings.com - Coast Capital Savings Credit Union... May 27 www.forex-inf.hit.bg - Forex info web... May 23 vietstocknews.blogspot.com - Hot News From Vietnam Stock Market... May 19 www.magraduga.ru - www.MagRaduga.com... May 18 www.magdays.com - Fin Raduga ... May 16 www.finraduga.com - FinRaduga... Add your Site to TOP100 for FREE.(!) Back link is required to add new sites to the rating.Step1: Please paste this link code on FRONT PAGE of your site:TOP 100 FINANCIAL SITESor 'button' link:Step2: Submit your site.Domain of your website:* Only sites with good, useful content related our categories will be added. Your site will be declined by our moderator if the ‘back link’ is hidden from visitors or search engines. Please keep the link to us on your site otherwise your site won't be approved or can be removed. Useful content for your web-site: Add this HTML code to your web-page and you'll seetop sites rating regularly updated on your site:TOP 100 FINANCIAL SITESUpdated Sun, July 22, 2007. 1. finance.yahoo.com 75100002. www.bundesbank.de 29300003. www.iadb.org 21700004. www.businessweek.com 20300005. www.marketwatch.com 20300006. www.prnewswire.com 19200007. moneycentral.msn.com 18900008. cms.hhs.gov 18900009. www.paypal.com 187000010. www.forbes.com 187000011. money.cnn.com 136000012. www.bankofamerica.com 124000013. www.finanztreff.de 117000014. home.ingdirect.com 112000015. www.irs.gov 1090000 © 2005-2007 www.Top100Finance.comFannie, Freddie face $4.7 billion in subprime losses: CitigroupSAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could have $4.7 billion in unrealized losses from the deterioration in subprime mortgages, Citigroup" s fixed-income strategy team estimated on Friday.feeds.marketwatch.com Corporate bond markets volatile as rough week winds upNEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- The corporate-bond market remained shaky Friday after a morning effort at stabilization gave way to volatility and fairly heavy selling, as a very rough week for the debt markets drew to a close with fresh rumors about hedge-fund troubles.feeds.marketwatch.com Asia Life : Rentokil dips into the petty cash box to sew up strategic Chinese buyAstute dealmaker Flynn gains control of Chinese fumigation technology .telegraph.co.uk China Oil Thieves Sentenced to DeathBEIJING (AP) -- Two men were sentenced to death for masterminding a plan to steal oil from an underwater pipeline, a botched plot that caused tens of millions of dollars in damages, China's state news agency reported Saturday....hosted.ap.org Site Counters by RelmaxTop Main Add a Site FREE Content for Your Web-site Bookmark this site Links Webmaster Updated Sun, July 22, 2007. 51. www.mastercard.com 29700052. www.bot.or.th 28100053. www.citibank.com 27400054. www.fd.nl 26500055. www.socialsecurity.gov 25600056. www.revenue.state.pa.us 25000057. www.citigroup.com 24500058. www.visa.com 23300059. www.tijd.be 23300060. www.belegger.nl 23300061. www.wamu.com 22500062. www.creditreform.de 22500063. moneymanagement.org 22400064. www.ditech.com 22200065. www.allstate.com 21600066. www.beursduivel.be 21400067. www.discovercard.com 21300068. www.equifax.com 21000069. www.experian.com 20200070. www.charitynavigator.org 19600071. www.tk-online.de 19500072. www.iii.co.uk 19400073. www.westernunion.com 19000074. www.floodsmart.gov 18900075. www.kiplinger.com 18700076. www.redherring.com 18000077. www.ebrd.com 18000078. www.annualcreditreport.com 17700079. www.icbc.com.cn 17600080. www.rbi.org.in 17300081. www.belastingdienst.nl 17100082. emagazine.credit-suisse.com 17100083. www.snl.com 16800084. www.aetna.com 16700085. www.finanztip.de 16700086. www.inail.it 16500087. www.allopass.com 16200088. www.ameriquestmortgage.com 15800089. www.guidestar.org 15800090. www.hrblock.com 15300091. www.aon.com 14900092. www.oenb.at 14500093. www.finaid.org 14400094. www.comparis.ch 14400095. www.dnb.com 14200096. www.rabobank.nl 14000097. www.credit-suisse.com 13900098. www.fortune.com 13900099. www.bnpparibas.com 136000100. www.mycashnow.com 13600051. www.mastercard.comRating: 297000 points**amount mentions of word 'www.mastercard.com' on the other websitesWelcome to MasterCard InternationalDescription: MasterCard International manages a family of well-known, widely accepted payment cards brands including MasterCard®, Maestro® and Cirrus® and serves financial institutions, consumers, and businesses in over 210 countries and territories worldwide.Most popular searches: www.mstercard.com, www.mastercar.dcom, www.astercard.com, forex, www.mastercard.cmo, mortgage, www.mastrecard.com, www.masterard.com, www.mastercardc.om, www.mastercard, paypass, small business, ww.mastercard.com, country, equity loan, www.mastercard.om, fha, www.mastercard.cmo, ww.mastercard.com, ww.wmastercard.com, stock, region, www.mastecard.com, www.mastercar.com, www.mastercard.com, visa, Car Insurance, business intelligence, creditcard, www.mastecrard.com, Mortgages, tax preparation, www.mastercadr.com, business opportunity, Loans, www.mastercard.co, www.mastercardcom, Savings, www.msatercard.com, www.matsercard.com, mastercard, credit card, www.masetrcard.com, home mortgage refinance, investing, www.mastercrd.com, Investor, www.mastercard.cm, wwwmastercard.com, www.amstercard.com, debit card, www.mastercard.ocm, wwwm.astercard.com, www.mastercrad.com, priceless, banking, Insurance, debt consolidation refinance, wwwmastercard.com, www.masteracrd.com, www.masercard.com, www.mastrcard.com, www.mastercad.com, www.matercard.com© 2005-2007 www.Top100Finance.comLetters to the City EditorReaders' responses to the issues reported in the Daily Telegraph Business section over the past week.telegraph.co.uk Business comment: By failing in his ambition Blair allowed the MPC to workSo now it's official: the Blair era is drawing to a close. The public prints have been so full of assessments of his decade at the top that by now you may be heartily sick of Blairism.telegraph.co.uk Rio hires Morgan Stanley for bid defenceRio Tinto, the mining group at the centre of takeover speculation, is believed to have hired Morgan Stanley, the US investment bank, to help defend it in the event of an unsolicited takeover approach.telegraph.co.uk Rio Tinto and BP set up new energy companyBP and Rio Tinto are set to join forces to tackle climate change with the creation of a new company, Hydrogen Energy.telegraph.co.uk Updated Sun, July 22, 2007. 101. www.kfw.de 134000102. www.tcmb.gov.tr 127000103. www.myfico.com 127000104. www.bid4assets.com 126000105. www.nationwide.com 126000106. www.usbank.com 125000107. www.asstel.de 124000108. www.quicken.com 124000109. www.wsj.com 123000110. www.columbusdirect.com 123000111. www.deutsche-bank.de 120000112. www.transunion.com 119000113. www.iii.org 119000114. www.bankisrael.gov.il 118000115. www.sparkasse.de 118000116. www.daveramsey.com 118000117. www.fortis.com 117000118. www.dft.nl 115000119. www.iex.nl 115000120. www.2checkout.com 114000121. www.cigna.com 113000122. www.jpmorgan.com 113000123. www.gomopa.net 113000124. www.investorguide.com 113000125. www.prudential.com 111000126. www.eib.eu.int 110000127. www.ccnow.com 106000128. www.freddiemac.com 106000129. www.ikk.de 105000130. www.ftb.ca.gov 105000131. www.fanniemae.com 103000132. www.raiffeisen.ch 99900133. www.metlife.com 99300134. www.jobsinthemoney.com 99000135. www.financescout24.de 94100136. www.k2kapital.com 93600137. www.beursplaza.com 91000138. www.ml.com 89200139. www.abnamro.com 88200140. www.business-wissen.de 87600141. www.ambest.com 86800142. www.postfinance.ch 86000143. www.analist.be 84900144. www.jpmorganchase.com 84300145. www.thehartford.com 84000146. www.afm.nl 83600147. www.cubi.nl 83300148. www.carinsurance.com 83000149. www.deutsche-rentenversicherung.de 82900150. www.forium.de 82800P101. www.kfw.deRating: 134000 points**amount mentions of word 'www.kfw.de' on the other websitesKfW Bankengruppe - Deutsche HomepageDescription: KfWMost popular searches: wwwkfw.de, ww.wkfw.de, wwwk.fw.de, DEG, www.kfw.com, www.kfw.de, www.kfwd.e, ww.kfw.de, wwwkfw.de, www.kwf.de, ww.kfw.de, www.kfw.de, Investor Relations, Karriere, www.kfw.ed, Presse, KfW IPEX-Bank, Kontakt, Kreditverbriefung, www.kf.wde, KfW Bankengruppe, Research, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, KfW Entwicklungsbank, www.fkw.de, www.kw.de, www.kfw.d, KfW Mittelstandsbank, www.kf.de, www.kfwde, www.kfw.e, KfW Förderbank, www.fw.de © 2005-2007 www.Top100Finance.comKeep Stable Value Funds Out Of Auto Enroll401(k) auto enrollment is huge for workers and the mutual fund industry. Now the insurance industry is crying foul.forbes.com Tangent helped by Gordon Brown's websiteGordon Brown was not the only the person eagerly awaiting word of the exact moment when Tony Blair would announce his resignation last week.telegraph.co.uk Sub-prime crisis to hit market, says Fed chiefUS Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke warned that the sub-prime lending crisis crippling homeowners across the US would hurt the housing market for at least the next 18 months as foreclosures continue to increase.telegraph.co.uk China Oil Thieves Sentenced to DeathBEIJING (AP) -- Two men were sentenced to death for masterminding a plan to steal oil from an underwater pipeline, a botched plot that caused tens of millions of dollars in damages, China's state news agency reported Saturday....hosted.ap.orgUpdated Sun, July 22, 2007. 151. www.principal.com 82600152. www.interhyp.de 81800153. www.key.com 81200154. www.vergleichen-und-sparen.de 81100155. www.beurs.nl 80400156. www.db.com 78500157. www.manulife.com 78400158. www.dkb.de 78000159. www.aig.com 76300160. www.ing.com 75900161. www.newyorklife.com 75700162. www.abnamro.nl 75500163. www.deka.de 75500164. www.citizensbank.com 74200165. www.nationalcity.com 74000166. www.victoria.de 73700167. www.nymex.com 73500168. www.gs.com 73000169. benefitslink.com 72400170. www.postbank.nl 71800171. www.kbc.be 71500172. www.bank-banque-canada.ca 71000173. www.abi.cab.banche.meglio.it 70900174. www.postbank.de 70400175. www.hangseng.com 69800176. www.insweb.com 66800177. www.wgkk.at 66400178. www.worldpay.com 65900179. www.steuernetz.de 65300180. www.comdirect.de 63300181. www.adp.com 62800182. www.signal-iduna.de 62600183. www.bankkaufmann.com 62500184. www.wetfeet.com 61600185. www.novethic.fr 61500186. www.financieel-management.nl 60700187. www.cibc.com 60600188. www.vsp.com 60500189. www.kaiserpermanente.org 60200190. www.cvz.nl 59800191. www.quote.com 59300192. www.dak.de 58800193. www.moneygram.com 58500194. www.westpac.com.au 57900195. www.xoom.com 56800196. www.bmo.com 56600197. www.dexia.be 55600198. www.gothaer.de 55600199. www.scotiabank.com 55400200. www.sovereignbank.com 54800151. www.principal.comRating: 82600 points**amount mentions of word 'www.principal.com' on the other websitesPrincipal.com: 401k plans, mutual funds, insurance, investmentsDescription: The Principal Financial Group is a nationally known provider of 401k plans, mutual funds, retirement plans, investments, life insurance, health insurance, and on-line banking. Online customer service, education.Most popular searches: estate, www.pricipal.com, employee benefits, www.principla.com, www.pincipal.com, medical, life, nonqualified, www.principl.com, www.prinicpal.com, www.principa.lcom, www.principalc.om, www.princpal.com, wwwp.rincipal.com, www.principal.com, ppo, www.pirncipal.com, www.principal, health, www.prinipal.com, plans, guaranteed interest contracts, wwwprincipal.com, ww.principal.com, investments, www.prncipal.com, www.rincipal.com, insurance, dental, www.princial.com, www.principal.cmo, principal financial group, www.principalcom, www.principal.cm, www.princpial.com, wwwprincipal.com, www.princiapl.com, defined contribution, Retirement, disability, ww.wprincipal.com, banking online, defined benefit, hmo, vision, www.principal.ocm, online brokerage, www.pricnipal.com, www.principal.co, www.principa.com, 401(k), www.principal.om, unions, www.rpincipal.com, gics, saving, hmos, ww.principal.com, www.principal.cmo, life, principle, financial, ppos, pension, bank, www.prnicipal.com, mutual funds, Retirement services, 401k© 2005-2007 www.Top100Finance.comBeware Of Hidden DerivativesYou might be carrying more risk than you think if your fund invests in derivatives.forbes.com Business Profile : Vijay Mallya' My ultimate objective is to pilot a Kingfisher Airlines A380 superjumbo ’ says Vijay Mallya, buyer of Whyte & Mackay.Rory Ross profiles the man dubbed the Branson of Bangalore.telegraph.co.uk Reuters agrees to £8.7bn Thomson takeoverReuters agrees to £8.7bn Thomson takeovertelegraph.co.uk BoE hints at further interest rate riseThe Bank of England has dropped a heavy hint that interest rates have to go up at least once more to bring inflation back under control.telegraph.co.ukUpdated Sun, July 22, 2007. 201. www.onlinebanking-forum.de 54400202. www.ey.nl 54100203. www.pnc.com 53300204. www.swapalease.com 53300205. www.cajamadrid.es 53200206. www.aib.ie 52800207. www.aflac.com 52800208. www.insure.com 52400209. creditboards.com 51200210. www.biallo.de 51100211. www.53.com 50900212. www.icicibank.com 50100213. www.hoyinversion.com 50100214. www.zionsbank.com 50000215. forums.kiplinger.com 49800216. www.lacaixa.es 49400217. www.eulerhermes.com 49400218. www.commerzbank.de 49000219. www.savingadvice.com 48700220. www.axa.de 48500221. www.bkk.de 48400222. www.insurance-canada.ca 47900223. us.hsbc.com 47700224. www.peoples.com 47700225. www.amsouth.com 46800226. www.give.org 46700227. www.humana.com 46600228. www.ffsa.fr 46300229. www.veb.net 46200230. www.hypovereinsbank.de 45700231. www.santander.de 45500232. www.ihre-vorsorge.de 45400233. www.snsbank.nl 45200234. www.sozialversicherung.at 44800235. www.huntington.com 44400236. www.upromise.com 44300237. www.bankone.com 42900238. www.co-operativebank.co.uk 42800239. www.tdcanadatrust.com 42700240. www.massmutual.com 42500241. www.rzb.at 42200242. www.bcbs.com 42100243. www.delta-credit.de 42100244. www.abkbank.de 41900245. financialplan.about.com 41900246. www.standardbank.co.za 41800247. www.creval.it 41800248. www.usmarkets.nl 41500249. www.1040.com 40500250. www.on24.com 40300w.onlinebanking-forum.deRating: 54400 points**amount mentions of word 'www.onlinebanking-forum.de' on the other websiteswww.onlinebanking-forum.de :: IndexDescription: Forum mit Hilfen und FAQs zu Homebanking-Software und Verfahren.Most popular searches: Insurance, creditcard, www.onlinebanking-forum.de, business opportunity, small business, Savings, wwwonlinebanking-forum.de, mortgage, forex, Investor, Loans, Car Insurance, Mortgages, home mortgage refinance, ww.onlinebanking-forum.de, fha, visa, www.onlinebanking-forum.com, investing, banking, debt consolidation refinance, business intelligence, stock, tax preparation, equity loan© 2005-2007 www.Top100Finance.comAdd Some Green To Your PortfolioSocially responsible investing can bring surprising returns.forbes.com Google in talks with Salesforce.comGoogle in talks with Salesforce.comtelegraph.co.uk Rivals look to thwart $33bn aluminium dealRival mining groups are drawing up plans to gatecrash Alcoa's $33bn (£16.6bn) hostile bid for Alcan, the Canadian aluminium producer, to prevent the creation of what would be a $60bn powerhouse.telegraph.co.uk Wild Oats: Sale Won't Lead to Price RiseDALLAS (AP) -- Wild Oats Markets Inc. says prices at its stores will fall if they are bought by rival Whole Foods Market Inc., and regulators shouldn't oppose the deal because it would be good for consumers....hosted.ap.orgposted by navjot singh at7:59 PM 0 Commentsfinance-bankingfinance - bankingfinanceThe Best European PerformersThere are no flavor-of-the-month outfits or dot-com hangers-on in the European BusinessWeek 50. Only companies whose managers know how to earn money in good times and bad make the grade.Name an economic malady and Europe has it in abundance right now: sluggish economic growth, lackluster consumer spending, currency swings that hurt exports, and depressed stock markets. For that reason, BusinessWeek could not have picked a better time to launch its first annual ranking of Europe's 50 best-performing companies. You won't find any frothy flavor-of-the-month outfits or dot-com hangers-on among these stalwarts. The BW Europe 50 is instead studded with companies whose managers know how to make money in good times and bad. What do corporations such as British bank HBOS (No. 1), Belgian utility Electrabel (No. 4), and Swedish apparel retailer H&M Hennes & Mauritz (No. 8) have in common? All have made singular progress in boosting sales, increasing profits, and delivering superior returns to investors in these worst of times for much of Europe. "Such top performers excel mainly because of good management that knows what to do in a difficult environment," says Robert Parkes, a European analyst at HSBC Bank in London. "They're doing well because they've kept in touch with what their customers and shareholders want."Most of the companies that powered to the top of this inaugural list are top-notch names with the size, stamina, and savvy needed to thrive in turbulent times. Energy companies like Total and financial-services companies such as Royal Bank of Scotland Group figure prominently. So do retail and consumer-staple giants such as France's Carrefour and Switzerland's Nestlé. Notable by their absence are Europe's big technology and telecom companies. Only three made it onto our top 50 list: France's Bouygues, Italy's Telecom Italia Mobile, and Finland's Nokia. Absent from the top 50 are powerhouses such as Germany's SAP, Geneva-based STMicroelectronics, and France's Alcatel. Blame the poor tech showing on three years of weak revenue growth, poor profitability, and, most of all, sagging stock market valuations.As investors know all too well, companies can manage impressive profits one year, only to disappoint the next. That's why the BW Europe 50 rewards those with staying power. To generate our ranking we used a series of criteria that judge the performance of the companies in the Standard & Poor's Europe 350 stock index over both one and three years.The turmoil in the markets over the past year means that today's darling can become tomorrow's dog almost overnight. That's why it's important not to see the BW Europe ranking as an all-knowing investment guide. Even stellar performers have their ups and downs from year to year. Take German pharmaceutical firm Altana and Spanish construction and engineering company Grupo Dragados. They beat all comers with total returns of 160.2% and 140.6%, respectively, between June 30, 2000, and June 30, 2003. However, both companies have delivered lower returns in recent months and neither Altana nor Grupo Dragados would appear in the top 50 if the ranking was based simply on the returns generated over the past 12 months.There's a definite British tilt in the European BW 50: British enterprises dominate, accounting for 17 of the 50 and 6 of the top 10. In part, that's because Britain has the most publicly traded companies of any European nation. That automatically increases the odds for British companies. Other elements are at work, though: The British economy has outperformed the 12-member euro zone in each of the past three years, and British companies have benefited from more buoyant domestic demand. France and Spain are also well represented. By contrast, although the German economy is the biggest in Europe by far, there isn't a single German company among the top 20. "Many German companies, such as car manufacturers, are well managed," says Paul Strebel, a professor at the IMD-International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland. "But the environment is more difficult there in terms of the macro background and structural rigidities."What's the secret of Anglo-Saxon corporate prowess? British companies operate in a freer environment than many of their Continental competitors. They do not suffer from the same labor restrictions, heavy social-security burden, and other structural impediments that hold back enterprises in many countries. It would have been much more difficult for HBOS, Royal Bank of Scotland Group, and HSBC Holdings to cut costs and exploit synergies as aggressively as they have done over the past three years if they had been headquartered in Germany rather than Britain. Yet structural reforms now wending their way through the German parliament may give Teutonic companies a competitive jolt. Also, notable absentees from this year's list, such as Deutsche Bank, could well make it next year, thanks to their belated cost-cutting efforts.The European BW 50 also provides proof that, despite the long-standing argument over whether mergers generate shareholder value, they can and do create powerful, successful companies. HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland, the two top-performing banks on the list, both British, prove the point. HBOS, which heads the overall ranking, was created in 2001 when Bank of Scotland joined forces with Halifax PLC, a mortgage specialist. A year earlier, Royal Bank of Scotland, No.3 on our list, acquired National Westminster Bank PLC. The merged entities now not only outrank British arch-rivals HSBC (No. 48) and Barclays PLC (No. 52), but also every bank on the Continent. "We have the financial strength and flexibility needed to sustain growth and manage risk in an uncertain world," says HBOS Chief Executive James Crosby. "Our merger continues to exceed expectations."Meanwhile, ongoing consolidation within the global pharmaceutical industry has produced some of Europe's biggest mergers. The 1999 union of Sweden's Astra and Britain's Zeneca gave birth to Europe's third-largest drug company -- and No.35 on our list. A year later, rival British drugmakers GlaxoWellcome and Smith-Kline Beecham joined forces, to form the global No. 2, behind Pfizer of the U.S.With a market value of 105 billion euros, GlaxoSmithKline PLC also ranks No.2 in the BW Europe 50. Glaxo boosted net income 27% last year to produce an astounding 62% return on equity in 2002. Despite shareholder criticism of the size of senior executive pay-packages, CEO Jean-Pierre Garnier told shareholders in May that the group's "effective cost control" and "promising early-stage R&D pipeline" give it an edge over its competitors.One of the most striking things about the BW Europe 50 is the presence of so many energy and utility companies. In all, there are 13 producers, refiners, and distributors of oil, natural gas, and electricity. Some want to extract the energy and avoid the costly business of selling the end product. Oil giant Total, for example, is making a major bet on finding new acreage. "We are benefiting from a very clear long-term strategy of giving priority to the upstream," said Christophe de Margerie, president of exploration and production.Total benefited from a rise in world oil prices, but those companies in power generation and distribution had to combat three years of stalled demand for power by consumers and companies. Plus, privatization, deregulation, and mounting competition have limited the ability of these companies to push through rate hikes. To make matters worse, many European energy outfits temporarily fell out of favor with investors following the collapse of Enron Corp. in 2001 on the other side of the Atlantic.Despite the tough odds, European power producers such as Belgium's Electrabel (No. 4) and Italy's ENI (No. 28) managed to assert themselves. Both have a commanding presence in their domestic markets. And, as a result of collapsing borders and deregulation, they have been able to push deep into markets elsewhere in the European Union. Electrabel has made significant breakthroughs into France, Italy, and Spain, and now chalks up 37% of its sales abroad. All told, Electrabel increased sales by 18% over the past year. Its success sends an important message to the rest of Europe: Companies that exploit opportunities stemming from deregulation and the single currency are poised to excel.Then there's retail. Stagnant economies and rising joblessness have caused consumers in many parts of the Old World to pull in their horns. At the same time, fierce competition and deflationary pressures have forced down prices for many goods. That's hardly an optimal climate for retail chains. Yet seven retailers of one sort or another made it into the European BW 50. British supermarket operator Tesco PLC (No. 10) shows that grocers can sparkle even in tough markets. The group, headquartered in Hertfordshire, England, spent 300 million euros last year in a successful bid to wrest market share from rivals such as J. Sainsbury PLC, slashing prices and opening 62 new stores in Britain. Whereas many retailers saw profits plunge, Tesco's surged 14% in 2002. Tesco also runs the world's most successful online supermarket, which it is now replicating from Korea to Central Europe to the U.S., via a partnership with its American peer, Safeway.Giving customers what they want at a reasonable price is also paying big dividends at Swedish apparel retailer H&M Hennes & Mauritz (No. 8). The chain has 893 stores in 17 countries and plans to open another 110 this year, including 20 in the U.S. "We've halved the time it takes to open new stores, to an average of four to five weeks," says CEO Rolf Eriksen. "This doesn't reduce start-up costs, but it does help accelerate sales."H&M has long been an investor favorite. On the flip side, companies that investors shunned just 12 months ago are back in favor. France Télécom, for example, generated a jaw-dropping 161.6% shareholder return over the past year, thanks to the appointment of turnaround whiz Thierry Breton as CEO and investor enthusiasm for his plan to slash the company's massive debt load and trim operating expenses. Despite its improved outlook, though, France Télécom didn't make it into the top 50 because its performance in the previous two years was so dire. The same goes for other telcos such as Deutsche Telekom and Britain's BT Group, which are rebounding but still dealing with post-boom excesses.Despite their strengths, many of the companies in the BW Europe 50 face new challenges. Although there are some signs that the euro- zone economy is finally beginning to recover, consumers are still reluctant to splurge on big-ticket items. According to the European Automobile Manufacturers' Assn., European car sales were down 2.6% in unit terms during the first six months of 2003. Notwithstanding cheap financing deals and special offers, demand for autos could drop further in the coming months. Innovation, expansion into new markets, and deft control over manufacturing will set the winners apart from the losers, and likely continue to benefit the four carmakers on our list: France's PSA Peugeot Citroën (No. 15), Renault (No. 19), Germany's BMW (No. 21), and Porsche (No. 27).Luxury carmakers Porsche and BMW are expected to boost revenues and outmaneuver rivals, even in the stagnant Western European market. As the U.S. and European car markets went into a tailspin, Porsche moved quickly to trim production of its classic 911 and Boxster models. It also introduced the Cayenne, a racy new sport-utility vehicle that is powering sales and more than offsetting the decline in sportscar sales. The Stuttgart-based carmaker has returned 39% in value to shareholders over the past three years.It does help that global consumers have demonstrated a willingness to spend more of their income on luxury cars. The premium auto segment is growing at nearly twice the annual clip of the mass market. "The outlook for German luxury brands in the U.S. is extremely bright in sedans and SUVs," says Stephen B. Cheetham, auto analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.Meanwhile, the strong euro is giving headaches to many European companies -- and that could eventually include the luxury carmakers. Most vulnerable are exporters and those with large dollar revenues. If, as some currency traders predict, the euro hits $1.25 by year end, BMW, Carrefour, Sanofi-Synthélabo, and other companies with large sales outside the euro zone could see their revenues crimped.Yet for every euro loser there will be a euro winner. Companies that source a large portion of their products outside Europe stand to gain, as wages and other production costs decline when measured in euros. H&M's Eriksen says his company has already reaped some benefits. "As the euro strengthens," he says, "so does our purchasing power. That enables us to pass on those gains to consumers through lower prices."Falling interest rates could also spell relief for European businesses. With the benchmark European Central Bank rate at 2%, interest rates for most companies in the euro zone are at their lowest level in a generation. And the consensus among economists is that the ECB will cut rates again before the end of the year. On the Continent, cheap money is changing the dynamics of corporate performance. For starters, it makes it easier for heavily indebted enterprises to refinance themselves, which is one reason why many telcos have been able to stage a recovery in recent months.The biggest impact of low interest rates could be to underpin the recovery of the equity markets and create an environment in which managers are once again willing to assume big capital-market risks, such as mergers and acquisitions.The process has already started. In June, Italy's Banca Generali acquired compatriot Banca Privamera for 50 million euros in cash and 202 million euros in shares. A return to the go-go days of the late 1990s is probably still a long way off, however. And despite all the uncertainties about the euro, interest rates, and the economy, the European companies that are likely to thrive over the next year will be the ones that can do what the winners have done over the past three years: cut costs, widen margins, develop a more intimate and lucrative relationship with customers, and generate more profits.By David Fairlamb, with Jack Ewing and Gail Edmondson in Frankfurt, Kerry Capell and Stanley Reed in London, and Andy Reinhardt in Paris, and Frederick F. Jespersen in New YorkGet BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed.Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video.To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here.Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page# posted by brijesh agarwal @ 10:19 PM 0 Comments banks-financeThursday, July 12, 2007Bank of America (NYSE: BAC TYO: 8648 ) is the largest commercial bank in the United States in terms of deposits, and the largest company of its kind in the world.[3][4] Bank of America is the largest American company (by market capitalization) that is not part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. On July 19, 2006, Bank of America reported second quarter 2006 net income of $5.48 billion,[5] surpassing that of Citigroup for the first time.Contents[hide]1 Corporate history1.1 Pre-1998 history1.1.1 Bank of Italy1.1.2 Growth in California1.1.3 Expansion outside of California1.2 Merger of NationsBank and BankAmerica1.3 History since 19981.3.1 Acquisition of National Processing Company1.3.2 FleetBoston Financial merger1.3.3 Purchase of MBNA1.3.4 Divestiture of Brazil operations1.3.5 Plans to acquire LaSalle Bank2 Bank of America today2.1 Consumer2.2 Corporate2.3 Investment Management2.4 Social responsibility3 Controversy and criticism4 International operations5 Bank of America corporate buildings6 Diversity7 Major sponsorships7.1 Official bank of8 References9 See also10 External links//[edit] Corporate historyIt has been suggested that NationsBank be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)Before 1993, the Bank of America that exists today was known as NationsBank, based in Charlotte, NC. In 1998, NationsBank merged with San Francisco-based BankAmerica and assumed the Bank of America name.[edit] Pre-1998 history[edit] Bank of ItalyThe roots of the pre-1998 Bank of America lie in the American Bank of Italy, founded in San Francisco by Amadeo Giannini in 1904. When the 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck, Giannini was able to get all of the deposits out of the bank building and away from the fires. Thus, unlike many other banks, he retained the confidence of the depositors and also had money to loan to those struck by the disaster.In the late 1920s, Giannini approached Orra E. Monnette, President and founder of the Los Angeles based Bank of America, Los Angeles about a potential merger between the two entities. The Los Angeles based bank had exhibited strong growth throughout the 1920s, due in part to its success in developing an advanced bank branching system. The merger of the two institutions was completed in early 1929 and took the name Bank of America. The combined company was headed by Giannini with Monnette serving as co-Chair.While the names of many nationally chartered banks end with the initials 'N.A.' (National Association), Giannini picked a unique ending, National Trust and Savings Association, or 'NT&SA', because he wanted the name to highlight the different functions of the bank. Bank of America was the only NT&SA in the country. Thanks to good management, but also to aggressive development of the branch banking concept, the bank was soon the largest in California.[edit] Growth in CaliforniaGiannini also sought to build a national bank, expanding into most of the western states as well as into the insurance industry, under the aegis of his holding company, Transamerica Corporation. Bank of America NT&SA also had banking relationships in international financial markets. Largely out of fear that Giannini would succeed in his efforts to create a nationwide bank, federal legislation prohibited banks from accepting deposits in states where they were not headquartered. This led to the creation of the bank holding company which could own a separate bank in each state.The passage of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, prohibited banks from owning non-banking subsidiaries such as insurance companies. Bank of America and Transamerica were separated, with the latter company continuing in the insurance business. However, federal banking regulators prohibited Bank of America's interstate banking activity, and Bank of America's domestic banks outside of California were forced into a separate company that eventually became First Interstate Bancorp, which was acquired by Wells Fargo and Company in 1996. It was not until the 1980s with a change in federal banking legislation and regulation that Bank of America was again able to expand its domestic consumer banking activity outside of California.California was the nation's fastest growing state during the post-World War II boom, with the highest use of checking accounts (partially driven by many soldiers being paid via bank accounts during World War II), resulting in Bank of America being swamped by checks. By 1949 , the branches had to close at 2:00pm in order to process the bookkeeping by 5:00 p.m. To cope with the transaction volume, the bank invested heavily in information technology and is generally credited, together with General Electric and SRI International, with inventing modern centralized bank operations, along with a number of financial transaction processing technologies such as automatic check processing, account numbers, and Magnetic Ink Character Recognition. Because of the efficiency of these technologies, the bank had significantly lower administrative costs than other banks and was able to expand until it became the world's largest bank in the early 1970s.These technologies also enabled credit cards to be linked directly to individual bank accounts. In 1958, the bank invented the bank credit card, the BankAmericard, which changed its name to VISA in 1977. A consortium of other California banks came up with Master Charge (now MasterCard) in order to compete with BankAmericard.[edit] Expansion outside of CaliforniaBank of America Corporate Center, located in the center of uptown Charlotte, North Carolina.Following passage of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1967, BankAmerica Corporation was established for the purpose of owning Bank of America and its subsidiaries.BankAmerica expanded outside California in 1983 with its acquisition of Seafirst Corporation of Seattle, Washington, and its wholly owned banking subsidiary, Seattle-First National Bank. Seafirst was at risk of seizure by the federal government after becoming insolvent due to a series of bad loans to the oil industry. BankAmerica continued to operate its new subsidiary as Seafirst rather than Bank of America until the 1998 merger with NationsBank.BankAmerica was dealt huge losses in 1986 and 1987 due to the placement of a series of bad loans in the Third World, particularly in Latin America. The company fired its CEO, Sam Armacost, although Armacost blamed the problems on his predecessor, A.W. (Tom) Clausen, who was then appointed to replace Armacost. The losses resulted in a huge decline of BankAmerica stock, making it vulnerable to a hostile takeover. First Interstate Bancorp of Los Angeles (which had originated from banks once owned by BankAmerica), launched such a bid in the fall of 1986, although BankAmerica rebuffed it, mostly by selling its FinanceAmerica subsidiary to Chrysler, and by selling the brokerage firm Charles Schwab and Co. back to Mr. Schwab. On the day of the 1987 stock market crash, BankAmerica was trading at $8 per share, although by 1992 it had rebounded mightily to become one of the biggest gainers of that half-decade. The selling of the corporate headquarters building in downtown San Francisco to raise capital was a symbolic blow to the bank.[citation needed]BankAmerica's next big acquisition came in 1992. The company acquired its California rival, Security Pacific Corporation and its subsidiary Security Pacific National Bank in California and other banks in Arizona, Idaho, Oregon and Washington (which Security Pacific had acquired in a series of acquisitions in the late 1980s). This was, at the time, the biggest bank acquisition in history. Federal regulators nevertheless forced the sale of Security Pacific's Washington subsidiary, Rainier Bank, because the combination of Seafirst and Rainier would have given BankAmerica too large a share of the market in that state. Later that year, BankAmerica expanded into Nevada by acquiring Valley Bank of Nevada.In 1994 , BankAmerica acquired the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Co. of Chicago, which had become federally owned as part of the same oil industry debacle that had brought down Seafirst. At the time, no bank had the resources to bail out Continental, so the federal government operated the bank for nearly a decade. Illinois at that time regulated branch banking extremely heavily, so Bank of America Illinois was a single-unit bank until the 21st century. BankAmerica moved its national lending department to Chicago in an effort to establish a financial beachhead in the region.These mergers helped BankAmerica Corporation once again become the largest U.S. bank holding company in terms of deposits, but the company fell to second place in 1997 behind fast-growing NationsBank Corporation, and to third in 1998 behind North Carolina's First Union Corp. In 1998, BankAmerica and NationsBank executed a merger-of-equals and changed the headquarters to Charlotte, North Carolina.[edit] Merger of NationsBank and BankAmericaIn 1997, BankAmerica lent D.E. Shaw & Co., a large hedge fund, $1.4bn so that the hedge fund would run various businesses for the bank. However, D.E. Shaw suffered significant loss after 1998 Russia bond default. BankAmerica was later acquired by NationsBank that year.The purchase of BankAmerica Corp. by the NationsBank Corporation was the largest bank acquisition in history at that time. While the deal was technically a purchase of BankAmerica Corporation by NationsBank, the deal was structured as merger with NationsBank renamed to Bank of America Corporation, and Bank of America NT&SA, changing its name to Bank of America, N.A. as the remaining legal bank entity. The bank still operates under Federal Charter 13044 which was granted to Giannini's Bank of Italy on March 1, 1927. However, SEC filings before 1998 are listed under NationsBank, not BankAmerica.Following the US$64.8 billion acquisition of BankAmerica by NationsBank, the resulting Bank of America had combined assets of US$570 billion, as well as 4,800 branches in 22 states. Despite the mammoth size of the two companies, federal regulators insisted only upon the divestiture of 13 branches in New Mexico, in towns that would be left with only a single bankposted by vishal @ 1:00 PM 0 Comments finance - bankingfinanceThe Best European PerformersThere are no flavor-of-the-month outfits or dot-com hangers-on in the European BusinessWeek 50. Only companies whose managers know how to earn money in good times and bad make the grade.Name an economic malady and Europe has it in abundance right now: sluggish economic growth, lackluster consumer spending, currency swings that hurt exports, and depressed stock markets. For that reason, BusinessWeek could not have picked a better time to launch its first annual ranking of Europe's 50 best-performing companies. You won't find any frothy flavor-of-the-month outfits or dot-com hangers-on among these stalwarts. The BW Europe 50 is instead studded with companies whose managers know how to make money in good times and bad. What do corporations such as British bank HBOS (No. 1), Belgian utility Electrabel (No. 4), and Swedish apparel retailer H&M Hennes & Mauritz (No. 8) have in common? All have made singular progress in boosting sales, increasing profits, and delivering superior returns to investors in these worst of times for much of Europe. "Such top performers excel mainly because of good management that knows what to do in a difficult environment," says Robert Parkes, a European analyst at HSBC Bank in London. "They're doing well because they've kept in touch with what their customers and shareholders want."Most of the companies that powered to the top of this inaugural list are top-notch names with the size, stamina, and savvy needed to thrive in turbulent times. Energy companies like Total and financial-services companies such as Royal Bank of Scotland Group figure prominently. So do retail and consumer-staple giants such as France's Carrefour and Switzerland's Nestlé. Notable by their absence are Europe's big technology and telecom companies. Only three made it onto our top 50 list: France's Bouygues, Italy's Telecom Italia Mobile, and Finland's Nokia. Absent from the top 50 are powerhouses such as Germany's SAP, Geneva-based STMicroelectronics, and France's Alcatel. Blame the poor tech showing on three years of weak revenue growth, poor profitability, and, most of all, sagging stock market valuations.As investors know all too well, companies can manage impressive profits one year, only to disappoint the next. That's why the BW Europe 50 rewards those with staying power. To generate our ranking we used a series of criteria that judge the performance of the companies in the Standard & Poor's Europe 350 stock index over both one and three years.The turmoil in the markets over the past year means that today's darling can become tomorrow's dog almost overnight. That's why it's important not to see the BW Europe ranking as an all-knowing investment guide. Even stellar performers have their ups and downs from year to year. Take German pharmaceutical firm Altana and Spanish construction and engineering company Grupo Dragados. They beat all comers with total returns of 160.2% and 140.6%, respectively, between June 30, 2000, and June 30, 2003. However, both companies have delivered lower returns in recent months and neither Altana nor Grupo Dragados would appear in the top 50 if the ranking was based simply on the returns generated over the past 12 months.There's a definite British tilt in the European BW 50: British enterprises dominate, accounting for 17 of the 50 and 6 of the top 10. In part, that's because Britain has the most publicly traded companies of any European nation. That automatically increases the odds for British companies. Other elements are at work, though: The British economy has outperformed the 12-member euro zone in each of the past three years, and British companies have benefited from more buoyant domestic demand. France and Spain are also well represented. By contrast, although the German economy is the biggest in Europe by far, there isn't a single German company among the top 20. "Many German companies, such as car manufacturers, are well managed," says Paul Strebel, a professor at the IMD-International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland. "But the environment is more difficult there in terms of the macro background and structural rigidities."What's the secret of Anglo-Saxon corporate prowess? British companies operate in a freer environment than many of their Continental competitors. They do not suffer from the same labor restrictions, heavy social-security burden, and other structural impediments that hold back enterprises in many countries. It would have been much more difficult for HBOS, Royal Bank of Scotland Group, and HSBC Holdings to cut costs and exploit synergies as aggressively as they have done over the past three years if they had been headquartered in Germany rather than Britain. Yet structural reforms now wending their way through the German parliament may give Teutonic companies a competitive jolt. Also, notable absentees from this year's list, such as Deutsche Bank, could well make it next year, thanks to their belated cost-cutting efforts.The European BW 50 also provides proof that, despite the long-standing argument over whether mergers generate shareholder value, they can and do create powerful, successful companies. HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland, the two top-performing banks on the list, both British, prove the point. HBOS, which heads the overall ranking, was created in 2001 when Bank of Scotland joined forces with Halifax PLC, a mortgage specialist. A year earlier, Royal Bank of Scotland, No.3 on our list, acquired National Westminster Bank PLC. The merged entities now not only outrank British arch-rivals HSBC (No. 48) and Barclays PLC (No. 52), but also every bank on the Continent. "We have the financial strength and flexibility needed to sustain growth and manage risk in an uncertain world," says HBOS Chief Executive James Crosby. "Our merger continues to exceed expectations."Meanwhile, ongoing consolidation within the global pharmaceutical industry has produced some of Europe's biggest mergers. The 1999 union of Sweden's Astra and Britain's Zeneca gave birth to Europe's third-largest drug company -- and No.35 on our list. A year later, rival British drugmakers GlaxoWellcome and Smith-Kline Beecham joined forces, to form the global No. 2, behind Pfizer of the U.S.With a market value of 105 billion euros, GlaxoSmithKline PLC also ranks No.2 in the BW Europe 50. Glaxo boosted net income 27% last year to produce an astounding 62% return on equity in 2002. Despite shareholder criticism of the size of senior executive pay-packages, CEO Jean-Pierre Garnier told shareholders in May that the group's "effective cost control" and "promising early-stage R&D pipeline" give it an edge over its competitors.One of the most striking things about the BW Europe 50 is the presence of so many energy and utility companies. In all, there are 13 producers, refiners, and distributors of oil, natural gas, and electricity. Some want to extract the energy and avoid the costly business of selling the end product. Oil giant Total, for example, is making a major bet on finding new acreage. "We are benefiting from a very clear long-term strategy of giving priority to the upstream," said Christophe de Margerie, president of exploration and production.Total benefited from a rise in world oil prices, but those companies in power generation and distribution had to combat three years of stalled demand for power by consumers and companies. Plus, privatization, deregulation, and mounting competition have limited the ability of these companies to push through rate hikes. To make matters worse, many European energy outfits temporarily fell out of favor with investors following the collapse of Enron Corp. in 2001 on the other side of the Atlantic.Despite the tough odds, European power producers such as Belgium's Electrabel (No. 4) and Italy's ENI (No. 28) managed to assert themselves. Both have a commanding presence in their domestic markets. And, as a result of collapsing borders and deregulation, they have been able to push deep into markets elsewhere in the European Union. Electrabel has made significant breakthroughs into France, Italy, and Spain, and now chalks up 37% of its sales abroad. All told, Electrabel increased sales by 18% over the past year. Its success sends an important message to the rest of Europe: Companies that exploit opportunities stemming from deregulation and the single currency are poised to excel.Then there's retail. Stagnant economies and rising joblessness have caused consumers in many parts of the Old World to pull in their horns. At the same time, fierce competition and deflationary pressures have forced down prices for many goods. That's hardly an optimal climate for retail chains. Yet seven retailers of one sort or another made it into the European BW 50. British supermarket operator Tesco PLC (No. 10) shows that grocers can sparkle even in tough markets. The group, headquartered in Hertfordshire, England, spent 300 million euros last year in a successful bid to wrest market share from rivals such as J. Sainsbury PLC, slashing prices and opening 62 new stores in Britain. Whereas many retailers saw profits plunge, Tesco's surged 14% in 2002. Tesco also runs the world's most successful online supermarket, which it is now replicating from Korea to Central Europe to the U.S., via a partnership with its American peer, Safeway.Giving customers what they want at a reasonable price is also paying big dividends at Swedish apparel retailer H&M Hennes & Mauritz (No. 8). The chain has 893 stores in 17 countries and plans to open another 110 this year, including 20 in the U.S. "We've halved the time it takes to open new stores, to an average of four to five weeks," says CEO Rolf Eriksen. "This doesn't reduce start-up costs, but it does help accelerate sales."H&M has long been an investor favorite. On the flip side, companies that investors shunned just 12 months ago are back in favor. France Télécom, for example, generated a jaw-dropping 161.6% shareholder return over the past year, thanks to the appointment of turnaround whiz Thierry Breton as CEO and investor enthusiasm for his plan to slash the company's massive debt load and trim operating expenses. Despite its improved outlook, though, France Télécom didn't make it into the top 50 because its performance in the previous two years was so dire. The same goes for other telcos such as Deutsche Telekom and Britain's BT Group, which are rebounding but still dealing with post-boom excesses.Despite their strengths, many of the companies in the BW Europe 50 face new challenges. Although there are some signs that the euro- zone economy is finally beginning to recover, consumers are still reluctant to splurge on big-ticket items. According to the European Automobile Manufacturers' Assn., European car sales were down 2.6% in unit terms during the first six months of 2003. Notwithstanding cheap financing deals and special offers, demand for autos could drop further in the coming months. Innovation, expansion into new markets, and deft control over manufacturing will set the winners apart from the losers, and likely continue to benefit the four carmakers on our list: France's PSA Peugeot Citroën (No. 15), Renault (No. 19), Germany's BMW (No. 21), and Porsche (No. 27).Luxury carmakers Porsche and BMW are expected to boost revenues and outmaneuver rivals, even in the stagnant Western European market. As the U.S. and European car markets went into a tailspin, Porsche moved quickly to trim production of its classic 911 and Boxster models. It also introduced the Cayenne, a racy new sport-utility vehicle that is powering sales and more than offsetting the decline in sportscar sales. The Stuttgart-based carmaker has returned 39% in value to shareholders over the past three years.It does help that global consumers have demonstrated a willingness to spend more of their income on luxury cars. The premium auto segment is growing at nearly twice the annual clip of the mass market. "The outlook for German luxury brands in the U.S. is extremely bright in sedans and SUVs," says Stephen B. Cheetham, auto analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.Meanwhile, the strong euro is giving headaches to many European companies -- and that could eventually include the luxury carmakers. Most vulnerable are exporters and those with large dollar revenues. If, as some currency traders predict, the euro hits $1.25 by year end, BMW, Carrefour, Sanofi-Synthélabo, and other companies with large sales outside the euro zone could see their revenues crimped.Yet for every euro loser there will be a euro winner. Companies that source a large portion of their products outside Europe stand to gain, as wages and other production costs decline when measured in euros. H&M's Eriksen says his company has already reaped some benefits. "As the euro strengthens," he says, "so does our purchasing power. That enables us to pass on those gains to consumers through lower prices."Falling interest rates could also spell relief for European businesses. With the benchmark European Central Bank rate at 2%, interest rates for most companies in the euro zone are at their lowest level in a generation. And the consensus among economists is that the ECB will cut rates again before the end of the year. On the Continent, cheap money is changing the dynamics of corporate performance. For starters, it makes it easier for heavily indebted enterprises to refinance themselves, which is one reason why many telcos have been able to stage a recovery in recent months.The biggest impact of low interest rates could be to underpin the recovery of the equity markets and create an environment in which managers are once again willing to assume big capital-market risks, such as mergers and acquisitions.The process has already started. In June, Italy's Banca Generali acquired compatriot Banca Privamera for 50 million euros in cash and 202 million euros in shares. A return to the go-go days of the late 1990s is probably still a long way off, however. And despite all the uncertainties about the euro, interest rates, and the economy, the European companies that are likely to thrive over the next year will be the ones that can do what the winners have done over the past three years: cut costs, widen margins, develop a more intimate and lucrative relationship with customers, and generate more profits.By David Fairlamb, with Jack Ewing and Gail Edmondson in Frankfurt, Kerry Capell and Stanley Reed in London, and Andy Reinhardt in Paris, and Frederick F. Jespersen in New YorkGet BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed.Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video.To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here.Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page# posted by brijesh agarwal @ 10:19 PM 0 Comments banks-financeThursday, July 12, 2007Bank of America (NYSE: BAC TYO: 8648 ) is the largest commercial bank in the United States in terms of deposits, and the largest company of its kind in the world.[3][4] Bank of America is the largest American company (by market capitalization) that is not part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. On July 19, 2006, Bank of America reported second quarter 2006 net income of $5.48 billion,[5] surpassing that of Citigroup for the first time.Contents[hide]1 Corporate history1.1 Pre-1998 history1.1.1 Bank of Italy1.1.2 Growth in California1.1.3 Expansion outside of California1.2 Merger of NationsBank and BankAmerica1.3 History since 19981.3.1 Acquisition of National Processing Company1.3.2 FleetBoston Financial merger1.3.3 Purchase of MBNA1.3.4 Divestiture of Brazil operations1.3.5 Plans to acquire LaSalle Bank2 Bank of America today2.1 Consumer2.2 Corporate2.3 Investment Management2.4 Social responsibility3 Controversy and criticism4 International operations5 Bank of America corporate buildings6 Diversity7 Major sponsorships7.1 Official bank of8 References9 See also10 External links//[edit] Corporate historyIt has been suggested that NationsBank be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)Before 1993, the Bank of America that exists today was known as NationsBank, based in Charlotte, NC. In 1998, NationsBank merged with San Francisco-based BankAmerica and assumed the Bank of America name.[edit] Pre-1998 history[edit] Bank of ItalyThe roots of the pre-1998 Bank of America lie in the American Bank of Italy, founded in San Francisco by Amadeo Giannini in 1904. When the 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck, Giannini was able to get all of the deposits out of the bank building and away from the fires. Thus, unlike many other banks, he retained the confidence of the depositors and also had money to loan to those struck by the disaster.In the late 1920s, Giannini approached Orra E. Monnette, President and founder of the Los Angeles based Bank of America, Los Angeles about a potential merger between the two entities. The Los Angeles based bank had exhibited strong growth throughout the 1920s, due in part to its success in developing an advanced bank branching system. The merger of the two institutions was completed in early 1929 and took the name Bank of America. The combined company was headed by Giannini with Monnette serving as co-Chair.While the names of many nationally chartered banks end with the initials 'N.A.' (National Association), Giannini picked a unique ending, National Trust and Savings Association, or 'NT&SA', because he wanted the name to highlight the different functions of the bank. Bank of America was the only NT&SA in the country. Thanks to good management, but also to aggressive development of the branch banking concept, the bank was soon the largest in California.[edit] Growth in CaliforniaGiannini also sought to build a national bank, expanding into most of the western states as well as into the insurance industry, under the aegis of his holding company, Transamerica Corporation. Bank of America NT&SA also had banking relationships in international financial markets. Largely out of fear that Giannini would succeed in his efforts to create a nationwide bank, federal legislation prohibited banks from accepting deposits in states where they were not headquartered. This led to the creation of the bank holding company which could own a separate bank in each state.The passage of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, prohibited banks from owning non-banking subsidiaries such as insurance companies. Bank of America and Transamerica were separated, with the latter company continuing in the insurance business. However, federal banking regulators prohibited Bank of America's interstate banking activity, and Bank of America's domestic banks outside of California were forced into a separate company that eventually became First Interstate Bancorp, which was acquired by Wells Fargo and Company in 1996. It was not until the 1980s with a change in federal banking legislation and regulation that Bank of America was again able to expand its domestic consumer banking activity outside of California.California was the nation's fastest growing state during the post-World War II boom, with the highest use of checking accounts (partially driven by many soldiers being paid via bank accounts during World War II), resulting in Bank of America being swamped by checks. By 1949 , the branches had to close at 2:00pm in order to process the bookkeeping by 5:00 p.m. To cope with the transaction volume, the bank invested heavily in information technology and is generally credited, together with General Electric and SRI International, with inventing modern centralized bank operations, along with a number of financial transaction processing technologies such as automatic check processing, account numbers, and Magnetic Ink Character Recognition. Because of the efficiency of these technologies, the bank had significantly lower administrative costs than other banks and was able to expand until it became the world's largest bank in the early 1970s.These technologies also enabled credit cards to be linked directly to individual bank accounts. In 1958, the bank invented the bank credit card, the BankAmericard, which changed its name to VISA in 1977. A consortium of other California banks came up with Master Charge (now MasterCard) in order to compete with BankAmericard.[edit] Expansion outside of CaliforniaBank of America Corporate Center, located in the center of uptown Charlotte, North Carolina.Following passage of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1967, BankAmerica Corporation was established for the purpose of owning Bank of America and its subsidiaries.BankAmerica expanded outside California in 1983 with its acquisition of Seafirst Corporation of Seattle, Washington, and its wholly owned banking subsidiary, Seattle-First National Bank. Seafirst was at risk of seizure by the federal government after becoming insolvent due to a series of bad loans to the oil industry. BankAmerica continued to operate its new subsidiary as Seafirst rather than Bank of America until the 1998 merger with NationsBank.BankAmerica was dealt huge losses in 1986 and 1987 due to the placement of a series of bad loans in the Third World, particularly in Latin America. The company fired its CEO, Sam Armacost, although Armacost blamed the problems on his predecessor, A.W. (Tom) Clausen, who was then appointed to replace Armacost. The losses resulted in a huge decline of BankAmerica stock, making it vulnerable to a hostile takeover. First Interstate Bancorp of Los Angeles (which had originated from banks once owned by BankAmerica), launched such a bid in the fall of 1986, although BankAmerica rebuffed it, mostly by selling its FinanceAmerica subsidiary to Chrysler, and by selling the brokerage firm Charles Schwab and Co. back to Mr. Schwab. On the day of the 1987 stock market crash, BankAmerica was trading at $8 per share, although by 1992 it had rebounded mightily to become one of the biggest gainers of that half-decade. The selling of the corporate headquarters building in downtown San Francisco to raise capital was a symbolic blow to the bank.[citation needed]BankAmerica's next big acquisition came in 1992. The company acquired its California rival, Security Pacific Corporation and its subsidiary Security Pacific National Bank in California and other banks in Arizona, Idaho, Oregon and Washington (which Security Pacific had acquired in a series of acquisitions in the late 1980s). This was, at the time, the biggest bank acquisition in history. Federal regulators nevertheless forced the sale of Security Pacific's Washington subsidiary, Rainier Bank, because the combination of Seafirst and Rainier would have given BankAmerica too large a share of the market in that state. Later that year, BankAmerica expanded into Nevada by acquiring Valley Bank of Nevada.In 1994 , BankAmerica acquired the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Co. of Chicago, which had become federally owned as part of the same oil industry debacle that had brought down Seafirst. At the time, no bank had the resources to bail out Continental, so the federal government operated the bank for nearly a decade. Illinois at that time regulated branch banking extremely heavily, so Bank of America Illinois was a single-unit bank until the 21st century. BankAmerica moved its national lending department to Chicago in an effort to establish a financial beachhead in the region.These mergers helped BankAmerica Corporation once again become the largest U.S. bank holding company in terms of deposits, but the company fell to second place in 1997 behind fast-growing NationsBank Corporation, and to third in 1998 behind North Carolina's First Union Corp. In 1998, BankAmerica and NationsBank executed a merger-of-equals and changed the headquarters to Charlotte, North Carolina.[edit] Merger of NationsBank and BankAmericaIn 1997, BankAmerica lent D.E. Shaw & Co., a large hedge fund, $1.4bn so that the hedge fund would run various businesses for the bank. However, D.E. Shaw suffered significant loss after 1998 Russia bond default. BankAmerica was later acquired by NationsBank that year.The purchase of BankAmerica Corp. by the NationsBank Corporation was the largest bank acquisition in history at that time. While the deal was technically a purchase of BankAmerica Corporation by NationsBank, the deal was structured as merger with NationsBank renamed to Bank of America Corporation, and Bank of America NT&SA, changing its name to Bank of America, N.A. as the remaining legal bank entity. The bank still operates under Federal Charter 13044 which was granted to Giannini's Bank of Italy on March 1, 1927. However, SEC filings before 1998 are listed under NationsBank, not BankAmerica.Following the US$64.8 billion acquisition of BankAmerica by NationsBank, the resulting Bank of America had combined assets of US$570 billion, as well as 4,800 branches in 22 states. Despite the mammoth size of the two companies, federal regulators insisted only upon the divestiture of 13 branches in New Mexico, in towns that would be left with only a single bankposted by vishal @ 1:00 PM 0 Comments finance - bankingfinanceThe Best European PerformersThere are no flavor-of-the-month outfits or dot-com hangers-on in the European BusinessWeek 50. Only companies whose managers know how to earn money in good times and bad make the grade.Name an economic malady and Europe has it in abundance right now: sluggish economic growth, lackluster consumer spending, currency swings that hurt exports, and depressed stock markets. For that reason, BusinessWeek could not have picked a better time to launch its first annual ranking of Europe's 50 best-performing companies. You won't find any frothy flavor-of-the-month outfits or dot-com hangers-on among these stalwarts. The BW Europe 50 is instead studded with companies whose managers know how to make money in good times and bad. What do corporations such as British bank HBOS (No. 1), Belgian utility Electrabel (No. 4), and Swedish apparel retailer H&M Hennes & Mauritz (No. 8) have in common? All have made singular progress in boosting sales, increasing profits, and delivering superior returns to investors in these worst of times for much of Europe. "Such top performers excel mainly because of good management that knows what to do in a difficult environment," says Robert Parkes, a European analyst at HSBC Bank in London. "They're doing well because they've kept in touch with what their customers and shareholders want."Most of the companies that powered to the top of this inaugural list are top-notch names with the size, stamina, and savvy needed to thrive in turbulent times. Energy companies like Total and financial-services companies such as Royal Bank of Scotland Group figure prominently. So do retail and consumer-staple giants such as France's Carrefour and Switzerland's Nestlé. Notable by their absence are Europe's big technology and telecom companies. Only three made it onto our top 50 list: France's Bouygues, Italy's Telecom Italia Mobile, and Finland's Nokia. Absent from the top 50 are powerhouses such as Germany's SAP, Geneva-based STMicroelectronics, and France's Alcatel. Blame the poor tech showing on three years of weak revenue growth, poor profitability, and, most of all, sagging stock market valuations.As investors know all too well, companies can manage impressive profits one year, only to disappoint the next. That's why the BW Europe 50 rewards those with staying power. To generate our ranking we used a series of criteria that judge the performance of the companies in the Standard & Poor's Europe 350 stock index over both one and three years.The turmoil in the markets over the past year means that today's darling can become tomorrow's dog almost overnight. That's why it's important not to see the BW Europe ranking as an all-knowing investment guide. Even stellar performers have their ups and downs from year to year. Take German pharmaceutical firm Altana and Spanish construction and engineering company Grupo Dragados. They beat all comers with total returns of 160.2% and 140.6%, respectively, between June 30, 2000, and June 30, 2003. However, both companies have delivered lower returns in recent months and neither Altana nor Grupo Dragados would appear in the top 50 if the ranking was based simply on the returns generated over the past 12 months.There's a definite British tilt in the European BW 50: British enterprises dominate, accounting for 17 of the 50 and 6 of the top 10. In part, that's because Britain has the most publicly traded companies of any European nation. That automatically increases the odds for British companies. Other elements are at work, though: The British economy has outperformed the 12-member euro zone in each of the past three years, and British companies have benefited from more buoyant domestic demand. France and Spain are also well represented. By contrast, although the German economy is the biggest in Europe by far, there isn't a single German company among the top 20. "Many German companies, such as car manufacturers, are well managed," says Paul Strebel, a professor at the IMD-International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland. "But the environment is more difficult there in terms of the macro background and structural rigidities."What's the secret of Anglo-Saxon corporate prowess? British companies operate in a freer environment than many of their Continental competitors. They do not suffer from the same labor restrictions, heavy social-security burden, and other structural impediments that hold back enterprises in many countries. It would have been much more difficult for HBOS, Royal Bank of Scotland Group, and HSBC Holdings to cut costs and exploit synergies as aggressively as they have done over the past three years if they had been headquartered in Germany rather than Britain. Yet structural reforms now wending their way through the German parliament may give Teutonic companies a competitive jolt. Also, notable absentees from this year's list, such as Deutsche Bank, could well make it next year, thanks to their belated cost-cutting efforts.The European BW 50 also provides proof that, despite the long-standing argument over whether mergers generate shareholder value, they can and do create powerful, successful companies. HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland, the two top-performing banks on the list, both British, prove the point. HBOS, which heads the overall ranking, was created in 2001 when Bank of Scotland joined forces with Halifax PLC, a mortgage specialist. A year earlier, Royal Bank of Scotland, No.3 on our list, acquired National Westminster Bank PLC. The merged entities now not only outrank British arch-rivals HSBC (No. 48) and Barclays PLC (No. 52), but also every bank on the Continent. "We have the financial strength and flexibility needed to sustain growth and manage risk in an uncertain world," says HBOS Chief Executive James Crosby. "Our merger continues to exceed expectations."Meanwhile, ongoing consolidation within the global pharmaceutical industry has produced some of Europe's biggest mergers. The 1999 union of Sweden's Astra and Britain's Zeneca gave birth to Europe's third-largest drug company -- and No.35 on our list. A year later, rival British drugmakers GlaxoWellcome and Smith-Kline Beecham joined forces, to form the global No. 2, behind Pfizer of the U.S.With a market value of 105 billion euros, GlaxoSmithKline PLC also ranks No.2 in the BW Europe 50. Glaxo boosted net income 27% last year to produce an astounding 62% return on equity in 2002. Despite shareholder criticism of the size of senior executive pay-packages, CEO Jean-Pierre Garnier told shareholders in May that the group's "effective cost control" and "promising early-stage R&D pipeline" give it an edge over its competitors.One of the most striking things about the BW Europe 50 is the presence of so many energy and utility companies. In all, there are 13 producers, refiners, and distributors of oil, natural gas, and electricity. Some want to extract the energy and avoid the costly business of selling the end product. Oil giant Total, for example, is making a major bet on finding new acreage. "We are benefiting from a very clear long-term strategy of giving priority to the upstream," said Christophe de Margerie, president of exploration and production.Total benefited from a rise in world oil prices, but those companies in power generation and distribution had to combat three years of stalled demand for power by consumers and companies. Plus, privatization, deregulation, and mounting competition have limited the ability of these companies to push through rate hikes. To make matters worse, many European energy outfits temporarily fell out of favor with investors following the collapse of Enron Corp. in 2001 on the other side of the Atlantic.Despite the tough odds, European power producers such as Belgium's Electrabel (No. 4) and Italy's ENI (No. 28) managed to assert themselves. Both have a commanding presence in their domestic markets. And, as a result of collapsing borders and deregulation, they have been able to push deep into markets elsewhere in the European Union. Electrabel has made significant breakthroughs into France, Italy, and Spain, and now chalks up 37% of its sales abroad. All told, Electrabel increased sales by 18% over the past year. Its success sends an important message to the rest of Europe: Companies that exploit opportunities stemming from deregulation and the single currency are poised to excel.Then there's retail. Stagnant economies and rising joblessness have caused consumers in many parts of the Old World to pull in their horns. At the same time, fierce competition and deflationary pressures have forced down prices for many goods. That's hardly an optimal climate for retail chains. Yet seven retailers of one sort or another made it into the European BW 50. British supermarket operator Tesco PLC (No. 10) shows that grocers can sparkle even in tough markets. The group, headquartered in Hertfordshire, England, spent 300 million euros last year in a successful bid to wrest market share from rivals such as J. Sainsbury PLC, slashing prices and opening 62 new stores in Britain. Whereas many retailers saw profits plunge, Tesco's surged 14% in 2002. Tesco also runs the world's most successful online supermarket, which it is now replicating from Korea to Central Europe to the U.S., via a partnership with its American peer, Safeway.Giving customers what they want at a reasonable price is also paying big dividends at Swedish apparel retailer H&M Hennes & Mauritz (No. 8). The chain has 893 stores in 17 countries and plans to open another 110 this year, including 20 in the U.S. "We've halved the time it takes to open new stores, to an average of four to five weeks," says CEO Rolf Eriksen. "This doesn't reduce start-up costs, but it does help accelerate sales."H&M has long been an investor favorite. On the flip side, companies that investors shunned just 12 months ago are back in favor. France Télécom, for example, generated a jaw-dropping 161.6% shareholder return over the past year, thanks to the appointment of turnaround whiz Thierry Breton as CEO and investor enthusiasm for his plan to slash the company's massive debt load and trim operating expenses. Despite its improved outlook, though, France Télécom didn't make it into the top 50 because its performance in the previous two years was so dire. The same goes for other telcos such as Deutsche Telekom and Britain's BT Group, which are rebounding but still dealing with post-boom excesses.Despite their strengths, many of the companies in the BW Europe 50 face new challenges. Although there are some signs that the euro- zone economy is finally beginning to recover, consumers are still reluctant to splurge on big-ticket items. According to the European Automobile Manufacturers' Assn., European car sales were down 2.6% in unit terms during the first six months of 2003. Notwithstanding cheap financing deals and special offers, demand for autos could drop further in the coming months. Innovation, expansion into new markets, and deft control over manufacturing will set the winners apart from the losers, and likely continue to benefit the four carmakers on our list: France's PSA Peugeot Citroën (No. 15), Renault (No. 19), Germany's BMW (No. 21), and Porsche (No. 27).Luxury carmakers Porsche and BMW are expected to boost revenues and outmaneuver rivals, even in the stagnant Western European market. As the U.S. and European car markets went into a tailspin, Porsche moved quickly to trim production of its classic 911 and Boxster models. It also introduced the Cayenne, a racy new sport-utility vehicle that is powering sales and more than offsetting the decline in sportscar sales. The Stuttgart-based carmaker has returned 39% in value to shareholders over the past three years.It does help that global consumers have demonstrated a willingness to spend more of their income on luxury cars. The premium auto segment is growing at nearly twice the annual clip of the mass market. "The outlook for German luxury brands in the U.S. is extremely bright in sedans and SUVs," says Stephen B. Cheetham, auto analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.Meanwhile, the strong euro is giving headaches to many European companies -- and that could eventually include the luxury carmakers. Most vulnerable are exporters and those with large dollar revenues. If, as some currency traders predict, the euro hits $1.25 by year end, BMW, Carrefour, Sanofi-Synthélabo, and other companies with large sales outside the euro zone could see their revenues crimped.Yet for every euro loser there will be a euro winner. Companies that source a large portion of their products outside Europe stand to gain, as wages and other production costs decline when measured in euros. H&M's Eriksen says his company has already reaped some benefits. "As the euro strengthens," he says, "so does our purchasing power. That enables us to pass on those gains to consumers through lower prices."Falling interest rates could also spell relief for European businesses. With the benchmark European Central Bank rate at 2%, interest rates for most companies in the euro zone are at their lowest level in a generation. And the consensus among economists is that the ECB will cut rates again before the end of the year. On the Continent, cheap money is changing the dynamics of corporate performance. For starters, it makes it easier for heavily indebted enterprises to refinance themselves, which is one reason why many telcos have been able to stage a recovery in recent months.The biggest impact of low interest rates could be to underpin the recovery of the equity markets and create an environment in which managers are once again willing to assume big capital-market risks, such as mergers and acquisitions.The process has already started. In June, Italy's Banca Generali acquired compatriot Banca Privamera for 50 million euros in cash and 202 million euros in shares. A return to the go-go days of the late 1990s is probably still a long way off, however. And despite all the uncertainties about the euro, interest rates, and the economy, the European companies that are likely to thrive over the next year will be the ones that can do what the winners have done over the past three years: cut costs, widen margins, develop a more intimate and lucrative relationship with customers, and generate more profits.By David Fairlamb, with Jack Ewing and Gail Edmondson in Frankfurt, Kerry Capell and Stanley Reed in London, and Andy Reinhardt in Paris, and Frederick F. Jespersen in New YorkGet BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed.Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video.To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here.Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page# posted by brijesh agarwal @ 10:19 PM 0 Comments banks-financeThursday, July 12, 2007Bank of America (NYSE: BAC TYO: 8648 ) is the largest commercial bank in the United States in terms of deposits, and the largest company of its kind in the world.[3][4] Bank of America is the largest American company (by market capitalization) that is not part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. On July 19, 2006, Bank of America reported second quarter 2006 net income of $5.48 billion,[5] surpassing that of Citigroup for the first time.Contents[hide]1 Corporate history1.1 Pre-1998 history1.1.1 Bank of Italy1.1.2 Growth in California1.1.3 Expansion outside of California1.2 Merger of NationsBank and BankAmerica1.3 History since 19981.3.1 Acquisition of National Processing Company1.3.2 FleetBoston Financial merger1.3.3 Purchase of MBNA1.3.4 Divestiture of Brazil operations1.3.5 Plans to acquire LaSalle Bank2 Bank of America today2.1 Consumer2.2 Corporate2.3 Investment Management2.4 Social responsibility3 Controversy and criticism4 International operations5 Bank of America corporate buildings6 Diversity7 Major sponsorships7.1 Official bank of8 References9 See also10 External links//[edit] Corporate historyIt has been suggested that NationsBank be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)Before 1993, the Bank of America that exists today was known as NationsBank, based in Charlotte, NC. In 1998, NationsBank merged with San Francisco-based BankAmerica and assumed the Bank of America name.[edit] Pre-1998 history[edit] Bank of ItalyThe roots of the pre-1998 Bank of America lie in the American Bank of Italy, founded in San Francisco by Amadeo Giannini in 1904. When the 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck, Giannini was able to get all of the deposits out of the bank building and away from the fires. Thus, unlike many other banks, he retained the confidence of the depositors and also had money to loan to those struck by the disaster.In the late 1920s, Giannini approached Orra E. Monnette, President and founder of the Los Angeles based Bank of America, Los Angeles about a potential merger between the two entities. The Los Angeles based bank had exhibited strong growth throughout the 1920s, due in part to its success in developing an advanced bank branching system. The merger of the two institutions was completed in early 1929 and took the name Bank of America. The combined company was headed by Giannini with Monnette serving as co-Chair.While the names of many nationally chartered banks end with the initials 'N.A.' (National Association), Giannini picked a unique ending, National Trust and Savings Association, or 'NT&SA', because he wanted the name to highlight the different functions of the bank. Bank of America was the only NT&SA in the country. Thanks to good management, but also to aggressive development of the branch banking concept, the bank was soon the largest in California.[edit] Growth in CaliforniaGiannini also sought to build a national bank, expanding into most of the western states as well as into the insurance industry, under the aegis of his holding company, Transamerica Corporation. Bank of America NT&SA also had banking relationships in international financial markets. Largely out of fear that Giannini would succeed in his efforts to create a nationwide bank, federal legislation prohibited banks from accepting deposits in states where they were not headquartered. This led to the creation of the bank holding company which could own a separate bank in each state.The passage of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, prohibited banks from owning non-banking subsidiaries such as insurance companies. Bank of America and Transamerica were separated, with the latter company continuing in the insurance business. However, federal banking regulators prohibited Bank of America's interstate banking activity, and Bank of America's domestic banks outside of California were forced into a separate company that eventually became First Interstate Bancorp, which was acquired by Wells Fargo and Company in 1996. It was not until the 1980s with a change in federal banking legislation and regulation that Bank of America was again able to expand its domestic consumer banking activity outside of California.California was the nation's fastest growing state during the post-World War II boom, with the highest use of checking accounts (partially driven by many soldiers being paid via bank accounts during World War II), resulting in Bank of America being swamped by checks. By 1949 , the branches had to close at 2:00pm in order to process the bookkeeping by 5:00 p.m. To cope with the transaction volume, the bank invested heavily in information technology and is generally credited, together with General Electric and SRI International, with inventing modern centralized bank operations, along with a number of financial transaction processing technologies such as automatic check processing, account numbers, and Magnetic Ink Character Recognition. Because of the efficiency of these technologies, the bank had significantly lower administrative costs than other banks and was able to expand until it became the world's largest bank in the early 1970s.These technologies also enabled credit cards to be linked directly to individual bank accounts. In 1958, the bank invented the bank credit card, the BankAmericard, which changed its name to VISA in 1977. A consortium of other California banks came up with Master Charge (now MasterCard) in order to compete with BankAmericard.[edit] Expansion outside of CaliforniaBank of America Corporate Center, located in the center of uptown Charlotte, North Carolina.Following passage of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1967, BankAmerica Corporation was established for the purpose of owning Bank of America and its subsidiaries.BankAmerica expanded outside California in 1983 with its acquisition of Seafirst Corporation of Seattle, Washington, and its wholly owned banking subsidiary, Seattle-First National Bank. Seafirst was at risk of seizure by the federal government after becoming insolvent due to a series of bad loans to the oil industry. BankAmerica continued to operate its new subsidiary as Seafirst rather than Bank of America until the 1998 merger with NationsBank.BankAmerica was dealt huge losses in 1986 and 1987 due to the placement of a series of bad loans in the Third World, particularly in Latin America. The company fired its CEO, Sam Armacost, although Armacost blamed the problems on his predecessor, A.W. (Tom) Clausen, who was then appointed to replace Armacost. The losses resulted in a huge decline of BankAmerica stock, making it vulnerable to a hostile takeover. First Interstate Bancorp of Los Angeles (which had originated from banks once owned by BankAmerica), launched such a bid in the fall of 1986, although BankAmerica rebuffed it, mostly by selling its FinanceAmerica subsidiary to Chrysler, and by selling the brokerage firm Charles Schwab and Co. back to Mr. Schwab. On the day of the 1987 stock market crash, BankAmerica was trading at $8 per share, although by 1992 it had rebounded mightily to become one of the biggest gainers of that half-decade. The selling of the corporate headquarters building in downtown San Francisco to raise capital was a symbolic blow to the bank.[citation needed]BankAmerica's next big acquisition came in 1992. The company acquired its California rival, Security Pacific Corporation and its subsidiary Security Pacific National Bank in California and other banks in Arizona, Idaho, Oregon and Washington (which Security Pacific had acquired in a series of acquisitions in the late 1980s). This was, at the time, the biggest bank acquisition in history. Federal regulators nevertheless forced the sale of Security Pacific's Washington subsidiary, Rainier Bank, because the combination of Seafirst and Rainier would have given BankAmerica too large a share of the market in that state. Later that year, BankAmerica expanded into Nevada by acquiring Valley Bank of Nevada.In 1994 , BankAmerica acquired the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Co. of Chicago, which had become federally owned as part of the same oil industry debacle that had brought down Seafirst. At the time, no bank had the resources to bail out Continental, so the federal government operated the bank for nearly a decade. Illinois at that time regulated branch banking extremely heavily, so Bank of America Illinois was a single-unit bank until the 21st century. BankAmerica moved its national lending department to Chicago in an effort to establish a financial beachhead in the region.These mergers helped BankAmerica Corporation once again become the largest U.S. bank holding company in terms of deposits, but the company fell to second place in 1997 behind fast-growing NationsBank Corporation, and to third in 1998 behind North Carolina's First Union Corp. In 1998, BankAmerica and NationsBank executed a merger-of-equals and changed the headquarters to Charlotte, North Carolina.[edit] Merger of NationsBank and BankAmericaIn 1997, BankAmerica lent D.E. Shaw & Co., a large hedge fund, $1.4bn so that the hedge fund would run various businesses for the bank. However, D.E. Shaw suffered significant loss after 1998 Russia bond default. BankAmerica was later acquired by NationsBank that year.The purchase of BankAmerica Corp. by the NationsBank Corporation was the largest bank acquisition in history at that time. While the deal was technically a purchase of BankAmerica Corporation by NationsBank, the deal was structured as merger with NationsBank renamed to Bank of America Corporation, and Bank of America NT&SA, changing its name to Bank of America, N.A. as the remaining legal bank entity. The bank still operates under Federal Charter 13044 which was granted to Giannini's Bank of Italy on March 1, 1927. However, SEC filings before 1998 are listed under NationsBank, not BankAmerica.Following the US$64.8 billion acquisition of BankAmerica by NationsBank, the resulting Bank of America had combined assets of US$570 billion, as well as 4,800 branches in 22 states. Despite the mammoth size of the two companies, federal regulators insisted only upon the divestiture of 13 branches in New Mexico, in towns that would be left with only a single bankLinksfinanceThe Best European PerformersThere are no fl...finance&bankfinance-banking
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The Best European PerformersThere are no flavor-of-the-month outfits or dot-com hangers-on in the European BusinessWeek 50. Only companies whose managers know how to earn money in good times and bad make the grade.Name an economic malady and Europe has it in abundance right now: sluggish economic growth, lackluster consumer spending, currency swings that hurt exports, and depressed stock markets. For that reason, BusinessWeek could not have picked a better time to launch its first annual ranking of Europe's 50 best-performing companies. You won't find any frothy flavor-of-the-month outfits or dot-com hangers-on among these stalwarts. The BW Europe 50 is instead studded with companies whose managers know how to make money in good times and bad. What do corporations such as British bank HBOS (No. 1), Belgian utility Electrabel (No. 4), and Swedish apparel retailer H&M Hennes & Mauritz (No. 8) have in common? All have made singular progress in boosting sales, increasing profits, and delivering superior returns to investors in these worst of times for much of Europe. "Such top performers excel mainly because of good management that knows what to do in a difficult environment," says Robert Parkes, a European analyst at HSBC Bank in London. "They're doing well because they've kept in touch with what their customers and shareholders want."Most of the companies that powered to the top of this inaugural list are top-notch names with the size, stamina, and savvy needed to thrive in turbulent times. Energy companies like Total and financial-services companies such as Royal Bank of Scotland Group figure prominently. So do retail and consumer-staple giants such as France's Carrefour and Switzerland's Nestlé. Notable by their absence are Europe's big technology and telecom companies. Only three made it onto our top 50 list: France's Bouygues, Italy's Telecom Italia Mobile, and Finland's Nokia. Absent from the top 50 are powerhouses such as Germany's SAP, Geneva-based STMicroelectronics, and France's Alcatel. Blame the poor tech showing on three years of weak revenue growth, poor profitability, and, most of all, sagging stock market valuations.As investors know all too well, companies can manage impressive profits one year, only to disappoint the next. That's why the BW Europe 50 rewards those with staying power. To generate our ranking we used a series of criteria that judge the performance of the companies in the Standard & Poor's Europe 350 stock index over both one and three years.The turmoil in the markets over the past year means that today's darling can become tomorrow's dog almost overnight. That's why it's important not to see the BW Europe ranking as an all-knowing investment guide. Even stellar performers have their ups and downs from year to year. Take German pharmaceutical firm Altana and Spanish construction and engineering company Grupo Dragados. They beat all comers with total returns of 160.2% and 140.6%, respectively, between June 30, 2000, and June 30, 2003. However, both companies have delivered lower returns in recent months and neither Altana nor Grupo Dragados would appear in the top 50 if the ranking was based simply on the returns generated over the past 12 months.There's a definite British tilt in the European BW 50: British enterprises dominate, accounting for 17 of the 50 and 6 of the top 10. In part, that's because Britain has the most publicly traded companies of any European nation. That automatically increases the odds for British companies. Other elements are at work, though: The British economy has outperformed the 12-member euro zone in each of the past three years, and British companies have benefited from more buoyant domestic demand. France and Spain are also well represented. By contrast, although the German economy is the biggest in Europe by far, there isn't a single German company among the top 20. "Many German companies, such as car manufacturers, are well managed," says Paul Strebel, a professor at the IMD-International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland. "But the environment is more difficult there in terms of the macro background and structural rigidities."What's the secret of Anglo-Saxon corporate prowess? British companies operate in a freer environment than many of their Continental competitors. They do not suffer from the same labor restrictions, heavy social-security burden, and other structural impediments that hold back enterprises in many countries. It would have been much more difficult for HBOS, Royal Bank of Scotland Group, and HSBC Holdings to cut costs and exploit synergies as aggressively as they have done over the past three years if they had been headquartered in Germany rather than Britain. Yet structural reforms now wending their way through the German parliament may give Teutonic companies a competitive jolt. Also, notable absentees from this year's list, such as Deutsche Bank, could well make it next year, thanks to their belated cost-cutting efforts.The European BW 50 also provides proof that, despite the long-standing argument over whether mergers generate shareholder value, they can and do create powerful, successful companies. HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland, the two top-performing banks on the list, both British, prove the point. HBOS, which heads the overall ranking, was created in 2001 when Bank of Scotland joined forces with Halifax PLC, a mortgage specialist. A year earlier, Royal Bank of Scotland, No.3 on our list, acquired National Westminster Bank PLC. The merged entities now not only outrank British arch-rivals HSBC (No. 48) and Barclays PLC (No. 52), but also every bank on the Continent. "We have the financial strength and flexibility needed to sustain growth and manage risk in an uncertain world," says HBOS Chief Executive James Crosby. "Our merger continues to exceed expectations."Meanwhile, ongoing consolidation within the global pharmaceutical industry has produced some of Europe's biggest mergers. The 1999 union of Sweden's Astra and Britain's Zeneca gave birth to Europe's third-largest drug company -- and No.35 on our list. A year later, rival British drugmakers GlaxoWellcome and Smith-Kline Beecham joined forces, to form the global No. 2, behind Pfizer of the U.S.With a market value of 105 billion euros, GlaxoSmithKline PLC also ranks No.2 in the BW Europe 50. Glaxo boosted net income 27% last year to produce an astounding 62% return on equity in 2002. Despite shareholder criticism of the size of senior executive pay-packages, CEO Jean-Pierre Garnier told shareholders in May that the group's "effective cost control" and "promising early-stage R&D pipeline" give it an edge over its competitors.One of the most striking things about the BW Europe 50 is the presence of so many energy and utility companies. In all, there are 13 producers, refiners, and distributors of oil, natural gas, and electricity. Some want to extract the energy and avoid the costly business of selling the end product. Oil giant Total, for example, is making a major bet on finding new acreage. "We are benefiting from a very clear long-term strategy of giving priority to the upstream," said Christophe de Margerie, president of exploration and production.Total benefited from a rise in world oil prices, but those companies in power generation and distribution had to combat three years of stalled demand for power by consumers and companies. Plus, privatization, deregulation, and mounting competition have limited the ability of these companies to push through rate hikes. To make matters worse, many European energy outfits temporarily fell out of favor with investors following the collapse of Enron Corp. in 2001 on the other side of the Atlantic.Despite the tough odds, European power producers such as Belgium's Electrabel (No. 4) and Italy's ENI (No. 28) managed to assert themselves. Both have a commanding presence in their domestic markets. And, as a result of collapsing borders and deregulation, they have been able to push deep into markets elsewhere in the European Union. Electrabel has made significant breakthroughs into France, Italy, and Spain, and now chalks up 37% of its sales abroad. All told, Electrabel increased sales by 18% over the past year. Its success sends an important message to the rest of Europe: Companies that exploit opportunities stemming from deregulation and the single currency are poised to excel.Then there's retail. Stagnant economies and rising joblessness have caused consumers in many parts of the Old World to pull in their horns. At the same time, fierce competition and deflationary pressures have forced down prices for many goods. That's hardly an optimal climate for retail chains. Yet seven retailers of one sort or another made it into the European BW 50. British supermarket operator Tesco PLC (No. 10) shows that grocers can sparkle even in tough markets. The group, headquartered in Hertfordshire, England, spent 300 million euros last year in a successful bid to wrest market share from rivals such as J. Sainsbury PLC, slashing prices and opening 62 new stores in Britain. Whereas many retailers saw profits plunge, Tesco's surged 14% in 2002. Tesco also runs the world's most successful online supermarket, which it is now replicating from Korea to Central Europe to the U.S., via a partnership with its American peer, Safeway.Giving customers what they want at a reasonable price is also paying big dividends at Swedish apparel retailer H&M Hennes & Mauritz (No. 8). The chain has 893 stores in 17 countries and plans to open another 110 this year, including 20 in the U.S. "We've halved the time it takes to open new stores, to an average of four to five weeks," says CEO Rolf Eriksen. "This doesn't reduce start-up costs, but it does help accelerate sales."H&M has long been an investor favorite. On the flip side, companies that investors shunned just 12 months ago are back in favor. France Télécom, for example, generated a jaw-dropping 161.6% shareholder return over the past year, thanks to the appointment of turnaround whiz Thierry Breton as CEO and investor enthusiasm for his plan to slash the company's massive debt load and trim operating expenses. Despite its improved outlook, though, France Télécom didn't make it into the top 50 because its performance in the previous two years was so dire. The same goes for other telcos such as Deutsche Telekom and Britain's BT Group, which are rebounding but still dealing with post-boom excesses.Despite their strengths, many of the companies in the BW Europe 50 face new challenges. Although there are some signs that the euro- zone economy is finally beginning to recover, consumers are still reluctant to splurge on big-ticket items. According to the European Automobile Manufacturers' Assn., European car sales were down 2.6% in unit terms during the first six months of 2003. Notwithstanding cheap financing deals and special offers, demand for autos could drop further in the coming months. Innovation, expansion into new markets, and deft control over manufacturing will set the winners apart from the losers, and likely continue to benefit the four carmakers on our list: France's PSA Peugeot Citroën (No. 15), Renault (No. 19), Germany's BMW (No. 21), and Porsche (No. 27).Luxury carmakers Porsche and BMW are expected to boost revenues and outmaneuver rivals, even in the stagnant Western European market. As the U.S. and European car markets went into a tailspin, Porsche moved quickly to trim production of its classic 911 and Boxster models. It also introduced the Cayenne, a racy new sport-utility vehicle that is powering sales and more than offsetting the decline in sportscar sales. The Stuttgart-based carmaker has returned 39% in value to shareholders over the past three years.It does help that global consumers have demonstrated a willingness to spend more of their income on luxury cars. The premium auto segment is growing at nearly twice the annual clip of the mass market. "The outlook for German luxury brands in the U.S. is extremely bright in sedans and SUVs," says Stephen B. Cheetham, auto analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.Meanwhile, the strong euro is giving headaches to many European companies -- and that could eventually include the luxury carmakers. Most vulnerable are exporters and those with large dollar revenues. If, as some currency traders predict, the euro hits $1.25 by year end, BMW, Carrefour, Sanofi-Synthélabo, and other companies with large sales outside the euro zone could see their revenues crimped.Yet for every euro loser there will be a euro winner. Companies that source a large portion of their products outside Europe stand to gain, as wages and other production costs decline when measured in euros. H&M's Eriksen says his company has already reaped some benefits. "As the euro strengthens," he says, "so does our purchasing power. That enables us to pass on those gains to consumers through lower prices."Falling interest rates could also spell relief for European businesses. With the benchmark European Central Bank rate at 2%, interest rates for most companies in the euro zone are at their lowest level in a generation. And the consensus among economists is that the ECB will cut rates again before the end of the year. On the Continent, cheap money is changing the dynamics of corporate performance. For starters, it makes it easier for heavily indebted enterprises to refinance themselves, which is one reason why many telcos have been able to stage a recovery in recent months.The biggest impact of low interest rates could be to underpin the recovery of the equity markets and create an environment in which managers are once again willing to assume big capital-market risks, such as mergers and acquisitions.The process has already started. In June, Italy's Banca Generali acquired compatriot Banca Privamera for 50 million euros in cash and 202 million euros in shares. A return to the go-go days of the late 1990s is probably still a long way off, however. And despite all the uncertainties about the euro, interest rates, and the economy, the European companies that are likely to thrive over the next year will be the ones that can do what the winners have done over the past three years: cut costs, widen margins, develop a more intimate and lucrative relationship with customers, and generate more profits.By David Fairlamb, with Jack Ewing and Gail Edmondson in Frankfurt, Kerry Capell and Stanley Reed in London, and Andy Reinhardt in Paris, and Frederick F. Jespersen in New YorkGet BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed.Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video.To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here.Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page# posted by brijesh agarwal @ 10:19 PM 0 Comments banks-financeThursday, July 12, 2007Bank of America (NYSE: BAC TYO: 8648 ) is the largest commercial bank in the United States in terms of deposits, and the largest company of its kind in the world.[3][4] Bank of America is the largest American company (by market capitalization) that is not part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. On July 19, 2006, Bank of America reported second quarter 2006 net income of $5.48 billion,[5] surpassing that of Citigroup for the first time.Contents[hide]1 Corporate history1.1 Pre-1998 history1.1.1 Bank of Italy1.1.2 Growth in California1.1.3 Expansion outside of California1.2 Merger of NationsBank and BankAmerica1.3 History since 19981.3.1 Acquisition of National Processing Company1.3.2 FleetBoston Financial merger1.3.3 Purchase of MBNA1.3.4 Divestiture of Brazil operations1.3.5 Plans to acquire LaSalle Bank2 Bank of America today2.1 Consumer2.2 Corporate2.3 Investment Management2.4 Social responsibility3 Controversy and criticism4 International operations5 Bank of America corporate buildings6 Diversity7 Major sponsorships7.1 Official bank of8 References9 See also10 External links//[edit] Corporate historyIt has been suggested that NationsBank be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)Before 1993, the Bank of America that exists today was known as NationsBank, based in Charlotte, NC. In 1998, NationsBank merged with San Francisco-based BankAmerica and assumed the Bank of America name.[edit] Pre-1998 history[edit] Bank of ItalyThe roots of the pre-1998 Bank of America lie in the American Bank of Italy, founded in San Francisco by Amadeo Giannini in 1904. When the 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck, Giannini was able to get all of the deposits out of the bank building and away from the fires. Thus, unlike many other banks, he retained the confidence of the depositors and also had money to loan to those struck by the disaster.In the late 1920s, Giannini approached Orra E. Monnette, President and founder of the Los Angeles based Bank of America, Los Angeles about a potential merger between the two entities. The Los Angeles based bank had exhibited strong growth throughout the 1920s, due in part to its success in developing an advanced bank branching system. The merger of the two institutions was completed in early 1929 and took the name Bank of America. The combined company was headed by Giannini with Monnette serving as co-Chair.While the names of many nationally chartered banks end with the initials 'N.A.' (National Association), Giannini picked a unique ending, National Trust and Savings Association, or 'NT&SA', because he wanted the name to highlight the different functions of the bank. Bank of America was the only NT&SA in the country. Thanks to good management, but also to aggressive development of the branch banking concept, the bank was soon the largest in California.[edit] Growth in CaliforniaGiannini also sought to build a national bank, expanding into most of the western states as well as into the insurance industry, under the aegis of his holding company, Transamerica Corporation. Bank of America NT&SA also had banking relationships in international financial markets. Largely out of fear that Giannini would succeed in his efforts to create a nationwide bank, federal legislation prohibited banks from accepting deposits in states where they were not headquartered. This led to the creation of the bank holding company which could own a separate bank in each state.The passage of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, prohibited banks from owning non-banking subsidiaries such as insurance companies. Bank of America and Transamerica were separated, with the latter company continuing in the insurance business. However, federal banking regulators prohibited Bank of America's interstate banking activity, and Bank of America's domestic banks outside of California were forced into a separate company that eventually became First Interstate Bancorp, which was acquired by Wells Fargo and Company in 1996. It was not until the 1980s with a change in federal banking legislation and regulation that Bank of America was again able to expand its domestic consumer banking activity outside of California.California was the nation's fastest growing state during the post-World War II boom, with the highest use of checking accounts (partially driven by many soldiers being paid via bank accounts during World War II), resulting in Bank of America being swamped by checks. By 1949 , the branches had to close at 2:00pm in order to process the bookkeeping by 5:00 p.m. To cope with the transaction volume, the bank invested heavily in information technology and is generally credited, together with General Electric and SRI International, with inventing modern centralized bank operations, along with a number of financial transaction processing technologies such as automatic check processing, account numbers, and Magnetic Ink Character Recognition. Because of the efficiency of these technologies, the bank had significantly lower administrative costs than other banks and was able to expand until it became the world's largest bank in the early 1970s.These technologies also enabled credit cards to be linked directly to individual bank accounts. In 1958, the bank invented the bank credit card, the BankAmericard, which changed its name to VISA in 1977. A consortium of other California banks came up with Master Charge (now MasterCard) in order to compete with BankAmericard.[edit] Expansion outside of CaliforniaBank of America Corporate Center, located in the center of uptown Charlotte, North Carolina.Following passage of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1967, BankAmerica Corporation was established for the purpose of owning Bank of America and its subsidiaries.BankAmerica expanded outside California in 1983 with its acquisition of Seafirst Corporation of Seattle, Washington, and its wholly owned banking subsidiary, Seattle-First National Bank. Seafirst was at risk of seizure by the federal government after becoming insolvent due to a series of bad loans to the oil industry. BankAmerica continued to operate its new subsidiary as Seafirst rather than Bank of America until the 1998 merger with NationsBank.BankAmerica was dealt huge losses in 1986 and 1987 due to the placement of a series of bad loans in the Third World, particularly in Latin America. The company fired its CEO, Sam Armacost, although Armacost blamed the problems on his predecessor, A.W. (Tom) Clausen, who was then appointed to replace Armacost. The losses resulted in a huge decline of BankAmerica stock, making it vulnerable to a hostile takeover. First Interstate Bancorp of Los Angeles (which had originated from banks once owned by BankAmerica), launched such a bid in the fall of 1986, although BankAmerica rebuffed it, mostly by selling its FinanceAmerica subsidiary to Chrysler, and by selling the brokerage firm Charles Schwab and Co. back to Mr. Schwab. On the day of the 1987 stock market crash, BankAmerica was trading at $8 per share, although by 1992 it had rebounded mightily to become one of the biggest gainers of that half-decade. The selling of the corporate headquarters building in downtown San Francisco to raise capital was a symbolic blow to the bank.[citation needed]BankAmerica's next big acquisition came in 1992. The company acquired its California rival, Security Pacific Corporation and its subsidiary Security Pacific National Bank in California and other banks in Arizona, Idaho, Oregon and Washington (which Security Pacific had acquired in a series of acquisitions in the late 1980s). This was, at the time, the biggest bank acquisition in history. Federal regulators nevertheless forced the sale of Security Pacific's Washington subsidiary, Rainier Bank, because the combination of Seafirst and Rainier would have given BankAmerica too large a share of the market in that state. Later that year, BankAmerica expanded into Nevada by acquiring Valley Bank of Nevada.In 1994 , BankAmerica acquired the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Co. of Chicago, which had become federally owned as part of the same oil industry debacle that had brought down Seafirst. At the time, no bank had the resources to bail out Continental, so the federal government operated the bank for nearly a decade. Illinois at that time regulated branch banking extremely heavily, so Bank of America Illinois was a single-unit bank until the 21st century. BankAmerica moved its national lending department to Chicago in an effort to establish a financial beachhead in the region.These mergers helped BankAmerica Corporation once again become the largest U.S. bank holding company in terms of deposits, but the company fell to second place in 1997 behind fast-growing NationsBank Corporation, and to third in 1998 behind North Carolina's First Union Corp. In 1998, BankAmerica and NationsBank executed a merger-of-equals and changed the headquarters to Charlotte, North Carolina.[edit] Merger of NationsBank and BankAmericaIn 1997, BankAmerica lent D.E. Shaw & Co., a large hedge fund, $1.4bn so that the hedge fund would run various businesses for the bank. However, D.E. Shaw suffered significant loss after 1998 Russia bond default. BankAmerica was later acquired by NationsBank that year.The purchase of BankAmerica Corp. by the NationsBank Corporation was the largest bank acquisition in history at that time. While the deal was technically a purchase of BankAmerica Corporation by NationsBank, the deal was structured as merger with NationsBank renamed to Bank of America Corporation, and Bank of America NT&SA, changing its name to Bank of America, N.A. as the remaining legal bank entity. The bank still operates under Federal Charter 13044 which was granted to Giannini's Bank of Italy on March 1, 1927. However, SEC filings before 1998 are listed under NationsBank, not BankAmerica.Following the US$64.8 billion acquisition of BankAmerica by NationsBank, the resulting Bank of America had combined assets of US$570 billion, as well as 4,800 branches in 22 states. Despite the mammoth size of the two companies, federal regulators insisted only upon the divestiture of 13 branches in New Mexico, in towns that would be left with only a single bankposted by vishal @ 1:00 PM 0 Comments finance - banking financeThe Best European PerformersThere are no flavor-of-the-month outfits or dot-com hangers-on in the European BusinessWeek 50. Only companies whose managers know how to earn money in good times and bad make the grade.Name an economic malady and Europe has it in abundance right now: sluggish economic growth, lackluster consumer spending, currency swings that hurt exports, and depressed stock markets. For that reason, BusinessWeek could not have picked a better time to launch its first annual ranking of Europe's 50 best-performing companies. You won't find any frothy flavor-of-the-month outfits or dot-com hangers-on among these stalwarts. The BW Europe 50 is instead studded with companies whose managers know how to make money in good times and bad. What do corporations such as British bank HBOS (No. 1), Belgian utility Electrabel (No. 4), and Swedish apparel retailer H&M Hennes & Mauritz (No. 8) have in common? All have made singular progress in boosting sales, increasing profits, and delivering superior returns to investors in these worst of times for much of Europe. "Such top performers excel mainly because of good management that knows what to do in a difficult environment," says Robert Parkes, a European analyst at HSBC Bank in London. "They're doing well because they've kept in touch with what their customers and shareholders want."Most of the companies that powered to the top of this inaugural list are top-notch names with the size, stamina, and savvy needed to thrive in turbulent times. Energy companies like Total and financial-services companies such as Royal Bank of Scotland Group figure prominently. So do retail and consumer-staple giants such as France's Carrefour and Switzerland's Nestlé. Notable by their absence are Europe's big technology and telecom companies. Only three made it onto our top 50 list: France's Bouygues, Italy's Telecom Italia Mobile, and Finland's Nokia. Absent from the top 50 are powerhouses such as Germany's SAP, Geneva-based STMicroelectronics, and France's Alcatel. Blame the poor tech showing on three years of weak revenue growth, poor profitability, and, most of all, sagging stock market valuations.As investors know all too well, companies can manage impressive profits one year, only to disappoint the next. That's why the BW Europe 50 rewards those with staying power. To generate our ranking we used a series of criteria that judge the performance of the companies in the Standard & Poor's Europe 350 stock index over both one and three years.The turmoil in the markets over the past year means that today's darling can become tomorrow's dog almost overnight. That's why it's important not to see the BW Europe ranking as an all-knowing investment guide. Even stellar performers have their ups and downs from year to year. Take German pharmaceutical firm Altana and Spanish construction and engineering company Grupo Dragados. They beat all comers with total returns of 160.2% and 140.6%, respectively, between June 30, 2000, and June 30, 2003. However, both companies have delivered lower returns in recent months and neither Altana nor Grupo Dragados would appear in the top 50 if the ranking was based simply on the returns generated over the past 12 months.There's a definite British tilt in the European BW 50: British enterprises dominate, accounting for 17 of the 50 and 6 of the top 10. In part, that's because Britain has the most publicly traded companies of any European nation. That automatically increases the odds for British companies. Other elements are at work, though: The British economy has outperformed the 12-member euro zone in each of the past three years, and British companies have benefited from more buoyant domestic demand. France and Spain are also well represented. By contrast, although the German economy is the biggest in Europe by far, there isn't a single German company among the top 20. "Many German companies, such as car manufacturers, are well managed," says Paul Strebel, a professor at the IMD-International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland. "But the environment is more difficult there in terms of the macro background and structural rigidities."What's the secret of Anglo-Saxon corporate prowess? British companies operate in a freer environment than many of their Continental competitors. They do not suffer from the same labor restrictions, heavy social-security burden, and other structural impediments that hold back enterprises in many countries. It would have been much more difficult for HBOS, Royal Bank of Scotland Group, and HSBC Holdings to cut costs and exploit synergies as aggressively as they have done over the past three years if they had been headquartered in Germany rather than Britain. Yet structural reforms now wending their way through the German parliament may give Teutonic companies a competitive jolt. Also, notable absentees from this year's list, such as Deutsche Bank, could well make it next year, thanks to their belated cost-cutting efforts.The European BW 50 also provides proof that, despite the long-standing argument over whether mergers generate shareholder value, they can and do create powerful, successful companies. HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland, the two top-performing banks on the list, both British, prove the point. HBOS, which heads the overall ranking, was created in 2001 when Bank of Scotland joined forces with Halifax PLC, a mortgage specialist. A year earlier, Royal Bank of Scotland, No.3 on our list, acquired National Westminster Bank PLC. The merged entities now not only outrank British arch-rivals HSBC (No. 48) and Barclays PLC (No. 52), but also every bank on the Continent. "We have the financial strength and flexibility needed to sustain growth and manage risk in an uncertain world," says HBOS Chief Executive James Crosby. "Our merger continues to exceed expectations."Meanwhile, ongoing consolidation within the global pharmaceutical industry has produced some of Europe's biggest mergers. The 1999 union of Sweden's Astra and Britain's Zeneca gave birth to Europe's third-largest drug company -- and No.35 on our list. A year later, rival British drugmakers GlaxoWellcome and Smith-Kline Beecham joined forces, to form the global No. 2, behind Pfizer of the U.S.With a market value of 105 billion euros, GlaxoSmithKline PLC also ranks No.2 in the BW Europe 50. Glaxo boosted net income 27% last year to produce an astounding 62% return on equity in 2002. Despite shareholder criticism of the size of senior executive pay-packages, CEO Jean-Pierre Garnier told shareholders in May that the group's "effective cost control" and "promising early-stage R&D pipeline" give it an edge over its competitors.One of the most striking things about the BW Europe 50 is the presence of so many energy and utility companies. In all, there are 13 producers, refiners, and distributors of oil, natural gas, and electricity. Some want to extract the energy and avoid the costly business of selling the end product. Oil giant Total, for example, is making a major bet on finding new acreage. "We are benefiting from a very clear long-term strategy of giving priority to the upstream," said Christophe de Margerie, president of exploration and production.Total benefited from a rise in world oil prices, but those companies in power generation and distribution had to combat three years of stalled demand for power by consumers and companies. Plus, privatization, deregulation, and mounting competition have limited the ability of these companies to push through rate hikes. To make matters worse, many European energy outfits temporarily fell out of favor with investors following the collapse of Enron Corp. in 2001 on the other side of the Atlantic.Despite the tough odds, European power producers such as Belgium's Electrabel (No. 4) and Italy's ENI (No. 28) managed to assert themselves. Both have a commanding presence in their domestic markets. And, as a result of collapsing borders and deregulation, they have been able to push deep into markets elsewhere in the European Union. Electrabel has made significant breakthroughs into France, Italy, and Spain, and now chalks up 37% of its sales abroad. All told, Electrabel increased sales by 18% over the past year. Its success sends an important message to the rest of Europe: Companies that exploit opportunities stemming from deregulation and the single currency are poised to excel.Then there's retail. Stagnant economies and rising joblessness have caused consumers in many parts of the Old World to pull in their horns. At the same time, fierce competition and deflationary pressures have forced down prices for many goods. That's hardly an optimal climate for retail chains. Yet seven retailers of one sort or another made it into the European BW 50. British supermarket operator Tesco PLC (No. 10) shows that grocers can sparkle even in tough markets. The group, headquartered in Hertfordshire, England, spent 300 million euros last year in a successful bid to wrest market share from rivals such as J. Sainsbury PLC, slashing prices and opening 62 new stores in Britain. Whereas many retailers saw profits plunge, Tesco's surged 14% in 2002. Tesco also runs the world's most successful online supermarket, which it is now replicating from Korea to Central Europe to the U.S., via a partnership with its American peer, Safeway.Giving customers what they want at a reasonable price is also paying big dividends at Swedish apparel retailer H&M Hennes & Mauritz (No. 8). The chain has 893 stores in 17 countries and plans to open another 110 this year, including 20 in the U.S. "We've halved the time it takes to open new stores, to an average of four to five weeks," says CEO Rolf Eriksen. "This doesn't reduce start-up costs, but it does help accelerate sales."H&M has long been an investor favorite. On the flip side, companies that investors shunned just 12 months ago are back in favor. France Télécom, for example, generated a jaw-dropping 161.6% shareholder return over the past year, thanks to the appointment of turnaround whiz Thierry Breton as CEO and investor enthusiasm for his plan to slash the company's massive debt load and trim operating expenses. Despite its improved outlook, though, France Télécom didn't make it into the top 50 because its performance in the previous two years was so dire. The same goes for other telcos such as Deutsche Telekom and Britain's BT Group, which are rebounding but still dealing with post-boom excesses.Despite their strengths, many of the companies in the BW Europe 50 face new challenges. Although there are some signs that the euro- zone economy is finally beginning to recover, consumers are still reluctant to splurge on big-ticket items. According to the European Automobile Manufacturers' Assn., European car sales were down 2.6% in unit terms during the first six months of 2003. Notwithstanding cheap financing deals and special offers, demand for autos could drop further in the coming months. Innovation, expansion into new markets, and deft control over manufacturing will set the winners apart from the losers, and likely continue to benefit the four carmakers on our list: France's PSA Peugeot Citroën (No. 15), Renault (No. 19), Germany's BMW (No. 21), and Porsche (No. 27).Luxury carmakers Porsche and BMW are expected to boost revenues and outmaneuver rivals, even in the stagnant Western European market. As the U.S. and European car markets went into a tailspin, Porsche moved quickly to trim production of its classic 911 and Boxster models. It also introduced the Cayenne, a racy new sport-utility vehicle that is powering sales and more than offsetting the decline in sportscar sales. The Stuttgart-based carmaker has returned 39% in value to shareholders over the past three years.It does help that global consumers have demonstrated a willingness to spend more of their income on luxury cars. The premium auto segment is growing at nearly twice the annual clip of the mass market. "The outlook for German luxury brands in the U.S. is extremely bright in sedans and SUVs," says Stephen B. Cheetham, auto analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.Meanwhile, the strong euro is giving headaches to many European companies -- and that could eventually include the luxury carmakers. Most vulnerable are exporters and those with large dollar revenues. If, as some currency traders predict, the euro hits $1.25 by year end, BMW, Carrefour, Sanofi-Synthélabo, and other companies with large sales outside the euro zone could see their revenues crimped.Yet for every euro loser there will be a euro winner. Companies that source a large portion of their products outside Europe stand to gain, as wages and other production costs decline when measured in euros. H&M's Eriksen says his company has already reaped some benefits. "As the euro strengthens," he says, "so does our purchasing power. That enables us to pass on those gains to consumers through lower prices."Falling interest rates could also spell relief for European businesses. With the benchmark European Central Bank rate at 2%, interest rates for most companies in the euro zone are at their lowest level in a generation. And the consensus among economists is that the ECB will cut rates again before the end of the year. On the Continent, cheap money is changing the dynamics of corporate performance. For starters, it makes it easier for heavily indebted enterprises to refinance themselves, which is one reason why many telcos have been able to stage a recovery in recent months.The biggest impact of low interest rates could be to underpin the recovery of the equity markets and create an environment in which managers are once again willing to assume big capital-market risks, such as mergers and acquisitions.The process has already started. In June, Italy's Banca Generali acquired compatriot Banca Privamera for 50 million euros in cash and 202 million euros in shares. A return to the go-go days of the late 1990s is probably still a long way off, however. And despite all the uncertainties about the euro, interest rates, and the economy, the European companies that are likely to thrive over the next year will be the ones that can do what the winners have done over the past three years: cut costs, widen margins, develop a more intimate and lucrative relationship with customers, and generate more profits.By David Fairlamb, with Jack Ewing and Gail Edmondson in Frankfurt, Kerry Capell and Stanley Reed in London, and Andy Reinhardt in Paris, and Frederick F. Jespersen in New YorkGet BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed.Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video.To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here.Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page# posted by brijesh agarwal @ 10:19 PM 0 Comments banks-financeThursday, July 12, 2007Bank of America (NYSE: BAC TYO: 8648 ) is the largest commercial bank in the United States in terms of deposits, and the largest company of its kind in the world.[3][4] Bank of America is the largest American company (by market capitalization) that is not part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. On July 19, 2006, Bank of America reported second quarter 2006 net income of $5.48 billion,[5] surpassing that of Citigroup for the first time.Contents[hide]1 Corporate history1.1 Pre-1998 history1.1.1 Bank of Italy1.1.2 Growth in California1.1.3 Expansion outside of California1.2 Merger of NationsBank and BankAmerica1.3 History since 19981.3.1 Acquisition of National Processing Company1.3.2 FleetBoston Financial merger1.3.3 Purchase of MBNA1.3.4 Divestiture of Brazil operations1.3.5 Plans to acquire LaSalle Bank2 Bank of America today2.1 Consumer2.2 Corporate2.3 Investment Management2.4 Social responsibility3 Controversy and criticism4 International operations5 Bank of America corporate buildings6 Diversity7 Major sponsorships7.1 Official bank of8 References9 See also10 External links//[edit] Corporate historyIt has been suggested that NationsBank be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)Before 1993, the Bank of America that exists today was known as NationsBank, based in Charlotte, NC. In 1998, NationsBank merged with San Francisco-based BankAmerica and assumed the Bank of America name.[edit] Pre-1998 history[edit] Bank of ItalyThe roots of the pre-1998 Bank of America lie in the American Bank of Italy, founded in San Francisco by Amadeo Giannini in 1904. When the 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck, Giannini was able to get all of the deposits out of the bank building and away from the fires. Thus, unlike many other banks, he retained the confidence of the depositors and also had money to loan to those struck by the disaster.In the late 1920s, Giannini approached Orra E. Monnette, President and founder of the Los Angeles based Bank of America, Los Angeles about a potential merger between the two entities. The Los Angeles based bank had exhibited strong growth throughout the 1920s, due in part to its success in developing an advanced bank branching system. The merger of the two institutions was completed in early 1929 and took the name Bank of America. The combined company was headed by Giannini with Monnette serving as co-Chair.While the names of many nationally chartered banks end with the initials 'N.A.' (National Association), Giannini picked a unique ending, National Trust and Savings Association, or 'NT&SA', because he wanted the name to highlight the different functions of the bank. Bank of America was the only NT&SA in the country. Thanks to good management, but also to aggressive development of the branch banking concept, the bank was soon the largest in California.[edit] Growth in CaliforniaGiannini also sought to build a national bank, expanding into most of the western states as well as into the insurance industry, under the aegis of his holding company, Transamerica Corporation. Bank of America NT&SA also had banking relationships in international financial markets. Largely out of fear that Giannini would succeed in his efforts to create a nationwide bank, federal legislation prohibited banks from accepting deposits in states where they were not headquartered. This led to the creation of the bank holding company which could own a separate bank in each state.The passage of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, prohibited banks from owning non-banking subsidiaries such as insurance companies. Bank of America and Transamerica were separated, with the latter company continuing in the insurance business. However, federal banking regulators prohibited Bank of America's interstate banking activity, and Bank of America's domestic banks outside of California were forced into a separate company that eventually became First Interstate Bancorp, which was acquired by Wells Fargo and Company in 1996. It was not until the 1980s with a change in federal banking legislation and regulation that Bank of America was again able to expand its domestic consumer banking activity outside of California.California was the nation's fastest growing state during the post-World War II boom, with the highest use of checking accounts (partially driven by many soldiers being paid via bank accounts during World War II), resulting in Bank of America being swamped by checks. By 1949 , the branches had to close at 2:00pm in order to process the bookkeeping by 5:00 p.m. To cope with the transaction volume, the bank invested heavily in information technology and is generally credited, together with General Electric and SRI International, with inventing modern centralized bank operations, along with a number of financial transaction processing technologies such as automatic check processing, account numbers, and Magnetic Ink Character Recognition. Because of the efficiency of these technologies, the bank had significantly lower administrative costs than other banks and was able to expand until it became the world's largest bank in the early 1970s.These technologies also enabled credit cards to be linked directly to individual bank accounts. In 1958, the bank invented the bank credit card, the BankAmericard, which changed its name to VISA in 1977. A consortium of other California banks came up with Master Charge (now MasterCard) in order to compete with BankAmericard.[edit] Expansion outside of CaliforniaBank of America Corporate Center, located in the center of uptown Charlotte, North Carolina.Following passage of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1967, BankAmerica Corporation was established for the purpose of owning Bank of America and its subsidiaries.BankAmerica expanded outside California in 1983 with its acquisition of Seafirst Corporation of Seattle, Washington, and its wholly owned banking subsidiary, Seattle-First National Bank. Seafirst was at risk of seizure by the federal government after becoming insolvent due to a series of bad loans to the oil industry. BankAmerica continued to operate its new subsidiary as Seafirst rather than Bank of America until the 1998 merger with NationsBank.BankAmerica was dealt huge losses in 1986 and 1987 due to the placement of a series of bad loans in the Third World, particularly in Latin America. The company fired its CEO, Sam Armacost, although Armacost blamed the problems on his predecessor, A.W. (Tom) Clausen, who was then appointed to replace Armacost. The losses resulted in a huge decline of BankAmerica stock, making it vulnerable to a hostile takeover. First Interstate Bancorp of Los Angeles (which had originated from banks once owned by BankAmerica), launched such a bid in the fall of 1986, although BankAmerica rebuffed it, mostly by selling its FinanceAmerica subsidiary to Chrysler, and by selling the brokerage firm Charles Schwab and Co. back to Mr. Schwab. On the day of the 1987 stock market crash, BankAmerica was trading at $8 per share, although by 1992 it had rebounded mightily to become one of the biggest gainers of that half-decade. The selling of the corporate headquarters building in downtown San Francisco to raise capital was a symbolic blow to the bank.[citation needed]BankAmerica's next big acquisition came in 1992. The company acquired its California rival, Security Pacific Corporation and its subsidiary Security Pacific National Bank in California and other banks in Arizona, Idaho, Oregon and Washington (which Security Pacific had acquired in a series of acquisitions in the late 1980s). This was, at the time, the biggest bank acquisition in history. Federal regulators nevertheless forced the sale of Security Pacific's Washington subsidiary, Rainier Bank, because the combination of Seafirst and Rainier would have given BankAmerica too large a share of the market in that state. Later that year, BankAmerica expanded into Nevada by acquiring Valley Bank of Nevada.In 1994 , BankAmerica acquired the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Co. of Chicago, which had become federally owned as part of the same oil industry debacle that had brought down Seafirst. At the time, no bank had the resources to bail out Continental, so the federal government operated the bank for nearly a decade. Illinois at that time regulated branch banking extremely heavily, so Bank of America Illinois was a single-unit bank until the 21st century. BankAmerica moved its national lending department to Chicago in an effort to establish a financial beachhead in the region.These mergers helped BankAmerica Corporation once again become the largest U.S. bank holding company in terms of deposits, but the company fell to second place in 1997 behind fast-growing NationsBank Corporation, and to third in 1998 behind North Carolina's First Union Corp. In 1998, BankAmerica and NationsBank executed a merger-of-equals and changed the headquarters to Charlotte, North Carolina.[edit] Merger of NationsBank and BankAmericaIn 1997, BankAmerica lent D.E. Shaw & Co., a large hedge fund, $1.4bn so that the hedge fund would run various businesses for the bank. However, D.E. Shaw suffered significant loss after 1998 Russia bond default. BankAmerica was later acquired by NationsBank that year.The purchase of BankAmerica Corp. by the NationsBank Corporation was the largest bank acquisition in history at that time. While the deal was technically a purchase of BankAmerica Corporation by NationsBank, the deal was structured as merger with NationsBank renamed to Bank of America Corporation, and Bank of America NT&SA, changing its name to Bank of America, N.A. as the remaining legal bank entity. The bank still operates under Federal Charter 13044 which was granted to Giannini's Bank of Italy on March 1, 1927. However, SEC filings before 1998 are listed under NationsBank, not BankAmerica.Following the US$64.8 billion acquisition of BankAmerica by NationsBank, the resulting Bank of America had combined assets of US$570 billion, as well as 4,800 branches in 22 states. Despite the mammoth size of the two companies, federal regulators insisted only upon the divestiture of 13 branches in New Mexico, in towns that would be left with only a single bankposted by vishal @ 1:00 PM 0 Comments finance - banking financeThe Best European PerformersThere are no flavor-of-the-month outfits or dot-com hangers-on in the European BusinessWeek 50. Only companies whose managers know how to earn money in good times and bad make the grade.Name an economic malady and Europe has it in abundance right now: sluggish economic growth, lackluster consumer spending, currency swings that hurt exports, and depressed stock markets. For that reason, BusinessWeek could not have picked a better time to launch its first annual ranking of Europe's 50 best-performing companies. You won't find any frothy flavor-of-the-month outfits or dot-com hangers-on among these stalwarts. The BW Europe 50 is instead studded with companies whose managers know how to make money in good times and bad. What do corporations such as British bank HBOS (No. 1), Belgian utility Electrabel (No. 4), and Swedish apparel retailer H&M Hennes & Mauritz (No. 8) have in common? All have made singular progress in boosting sales, increasing profits, and delivering superior returns to investors in these worst of times for much of Europe. "Such top performers excel mainly because of good management that knows what to do in a difficult environment," says Robert Parkes, a European analyst at HSBC Bank in London. "They're doing well because they've kept in touch with what their customers and shareholders want."Most of the companies that powered to the top of this inaugural list are top-notch names with the size, stamina, and savvy needed to thrive in turbulent times. Energy companies like Total and financial-services companies such as Royal Bank of Scotland Group figure prominently. So do retail and consumer-staple giants such as France's Carrefour and Switzerland's Nestlé. Notable by their absence are Europe's big technology and telecom companies. Only three made it onto our top 50 list: France's Bouygues, Italy's Telecom Italia Mobile, and Finland's Nokia. Absent from the top 50 are powerhouses such as Germany's SAP, Geneva-based STMicroelectronics, and France's Alcatel. Blame the poor tech showing on three years of weak revenue growth, poor profitability, and, most of all, sagging stock market valuations.As investors know all too well, companies can manage impressive profits one year, only to disappoint the next. That's why the BW Europe 50 rewards those with staying power. To generate our ranking we used a series of criteria that judge the performance of the companies in the Standard & Poor's Europe 350 stock index over both one and three years.The turmoil in the markets over the past year means that today's darling can become tomorrow's dog almost overnight. That's why it's important not to see the BW Europe ranking as an all-knowing investment guide. Even stellar performers have their ups and downs from year to year. Take German pharmaceutical firm Altana and Spanish construction and engineering company Grupo Dragados. They beat all comers with total returns of 160.2% and 140.6%, respectively, between June 30, 2000, and June 30, 2003. However, both companies have delivered lower returns in recent months and neither Altana nor Grupo Dragados would appear in the top 50 if the ranking was based simply on the returns generated over the past 12 months.There's a definite British tilt in the European BW 50: British enterprises dominate, accounting for 17 of the 50 and 6 of the top 10. In part, that's because Britain has the most publicly traded companies of any European nation. That automatically increases the odds for British companies. Other elements are at work, though: The British economy has outperformed the 12-member euro zone in each of the past three years, and British companies have benefited from more buoyant domestic demand. France and Spain are also well represented. By contrast, although the German economy is the biggest in Europe by far, there isn't a single German company among the top 20. "Many German companies, such as car manufacturers, are well managed," says Paul Strebel, a professor at the IMD-International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland. "But the environment is more difficult there in terms of the macro background and structural rigidities."What's the secret of Anglo-Saxon corporate prowess? British companies operate in a freer environment than many of their Continental competitors. They do not suffer from the same labor restrictions, heavy social-security burden, and other structural impediments that hold back enterprises in many countries. It would have been much more difficult for HBOS, Royal Bank of Scotland Group, and HSBC Holdings to cut costs and exploit synergies as aggressively as they have done over the past three years if they had been headquartered in Germany rather than Britain. Yet structural reforms now wending their way through the German parliament may give Teutonic companies a competitive jolt. Also, notable absentees from this year's list, such as Deutsche Bank, could well make it next year, thanks to their belated cost-cutting efforts.The European BW 50 also provides proof that, despite the long-standing argument over whether mergers generate shareholder value, they can and do create powerful, successful companies. HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland, the two top-performing banks on the list, both British, prove the point. HBOS, which heads the overall ranking, was created in 2001 when Bank of Scotland joined forces with Halifax PLC, a mortgage specialist. A year earlier, Royal Bank of Scotland, No.3 on our list, acquired National Westminster Bank PLC. The merged entities now not only outrank British arch-rivals HSBC (No. 48) and Barclays PLC (No. 52), but also every bank on the Continent. "We have the financial strength and flexibility needed to sustain growth and manage risk in an uncertain world," says HBOS Chief Executive James Crosby. "Our merger continues to exceed expectations."Meanwhile, ongoing consolidation within the global pharmaceutical industry has produced some of Europe's biggest mergers. The 1999 union of Sweden's Astra and Britain's Zeneca gave birth to Europe's third-largest drug company -- and No.35 on our list. A year later, rival British drugmakers GlaxoWellcome and Smith-Kline Beecham joined forces, to form the global No. 2, behind Pfizer of the U.S.With a market value of 105 billion euros, GlaxoSmithKline PLC also ranks No.2 in the BW Europe 50. Glaxo boosted net income 27% last year to produce an astounding 62% return on equity in 2002. Despite shareholder criticism of the size of senior executive pay-packages, CEO Jean-Pierre Garnier told shareholders in May that the group's "effective cost control" and "promising early-stage R&D pipeline" give it an edge over its competitors.One of the most striking things about the BW Europe 50 is the presence of so many energy and utility companies. In all, there are 13 producers, refiners, and distributors of oil, natural gas, and electricity. Some want to extract the energy and avoid the costly business of selling the end product. Oil giant Total, for example, is making a major bet on finding new acreage. "We are benefiting from a very clear long-term strategy of giving priority to the upstream," said Christophe de Margerie, president of exploration and production.Total benefited from a rise in world oil prices, but those companies in power generation and distribution had to combat three years of stalled demand for power by consumers and companies. Plus, privatization, deregulation, and mounting competition have limited the ability of these companies to push through rate hikes. To make matters worse, many European energy outfits temporarily fell out of favor with investors following the collapse of Enron Corp. in 2001 on the other side of the Atlantic.Despite the tough odds, European power producers such as Belgium's Electrabel (No. 4) and Italy's ENI (No. 28) managed to assert themselves. Both have a commanding presence in their domestic markets. And, as a result of collapsing borders and deregulation, they have been able to push deep into markets elsewhere in the European Union. Electrabel has made significant breakthroughs into France, Italy, and Spain, and now chalks up 37% of its sales abroad. All told, Electrabel increased sales by 18% over the past year. Its success sends an important message to the rest of Europe: Companies that exploit opportunities stemming from deregulation and the single currency are poised to excel.Then there's retail. Stagnant economies and rising joblessness have caused consumers in many parts of the Old World to pull in their horns. At the same time, fierce competition and deflationary pressures have forced down prices for many goods. That's hardly an optimal climate for retail chains. Yet seven retailers of one sort or another made it into the European BW 50. British supermarket operator Tesco PLC (No. 10) shows that grocers can sparkle even in tough markets. The group, headquartered in Hertfordshire, England, spent 300 million euros last year in a successful bid to wrest market share from rivals such as J. Sainsbury PLC, slashing prices and opening 62 new stores in Britain. Whereas many retailers saw profits plunge, Tesco's surged 14% in 2002. Tesco also runs the world's most successful online supermarket, which it is now replicating from Korea to Central Europe to the U.S., via a partnership with its American peer, Safeway.Giving customers what they want at a reasonable price is also paying big dividends at Swedish apparel retailer H&M Hennes & Mauritz (No. 8). The chain has 893 stores in 17 countries and plans to open another 110 this year, including 20 in the U.S. "We've halved the time it takes to open new stores, to an average of four to five weeks," says CEO Rolf Eriksen. "This doesn't reduce start-up costs, but it does help accelerate sales."H&M has long been an investor favorite. On the flip side, companies that investors shunned just 12 months ago are back in favor. France Télécom, for example, generated a jaw-dropping 161.6% shareholder return over the past year, thanks to the appointment of turnaround whiz Thierry Breton as CEO and investor enthusiasm for his plan to slash the company's massive debt load and trim operating expenses. Despite its improved outlook, though, France Télécom didn't make it into the top 50 because its performance in the previous two years was so dire. The same goes for other telcos such as Deutsche Telekom and Britain's BT Group, which are rebounding but still dealing with post-boom excesses.Despite their strengths, many of the companies in the BW Europe 50 face new challenges. Although there are some signs that the euro- zone economy is finally beginning to recover, consumers are still reluctant to splurge on big-ticket items. According to the European Automobile Manufacturers' Assn., European car sales were down 2.6% in unit terms during the first six months of 2003. Notwithstanding cheap financing deals and special offers, demand for autos could drop further in the coming months. Innovation, expansion into new markets, and deft control over manufacturing will set the winners apart from the losers, and likely continue to benefit the four carmakers on our list: France's PSA Peugeot Citroën (No. 15), Renault (No. 19), Germany's BMW (No. 21), and Porsche (No. 27).Luxury carmakers Porsche and BMW are expected to boost revenues and outmaneuver rivals, even in the stagnant Western European market. As the U.S. and European car markets went into a tailspin, Porsche moved quickly to trim production of its classic 911 and Boxster models. It also introduced the Cayenne, a racy new sport-utility vehicle that is powering sales and more than offsetting the decline in sportscar sales. The Stuttgart-based carmaker has returned 39% in value to shareholders over the past three years.It does help that global consumers have demonstrated a willingness to spend more of their income on luxury cars. The premium auto segment is growing at nearly twice the annual clip of the mass market. "The outlook for German luxury brands in the U.S. is extremely bright in sedans and SUVs," says Stephen B. Cheetham, auto analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.Meanwhile, the strong euro is giving headaches to many European companies -- and that could eventually include the luxury carmakers. Most vulnerable are exporters and those with large dollar revenues. If, as some currency traders predict, the euro hits $1.25 by year end, BMW, Carrefour, Sanofi-Synthélabo, and other companies with large sales outside the euro zone could see their revenues crimped.Yet for every euro loser there will be a euro winner. Companies that source a large portion of their products outside Europe stand to gain, as wages and other production costs decline when measured in euros. H&M's Eriksen says his company has already reaped some benefits. "As the euro strengthens," he says, "so does our purchasing power. That enables us to pass on those gains to consumers through lower prices."Falling interest rates could also spell relief for European businesses. With the benchmark European Central Bank rate at 2%, interest rates for most companies in the euro zone are at their lowest level in a generation. And the consensus among economists is that the ECB will cut rates again before the end of the year. On the Continent, cheap money is changing the dynamics of corporate performance. For starters, it makes it easier for heavily indebted enterprises to refinance themselves, which is one reason why many telcos have been able to stage a recovery in recent months.The biggest impact of low interest rates could be to underpin the recovery of the equity markets and create an environment in which managers are once again willing to assume big capital-market risks, such as mergers and acquisitions.The process has already started. In June, Italy's Banca Generali acquired compatriot Banca Privamera for 50 million euros in cash and 202 million euros in shares. A return to the go-go days of the late 1990s is probably still a long way off, however. And despite all the uncertainties about the euro, interest rates, and the economy, the European companies that are likely to thrive over the next year will be the ones that can do what the winners have done over the past three years: cut costs, widen margins, develop a more intimate and lucrative relationship with customers, and generate more profits.By David Fairlamb, with Jack Ewing and Gail Edmondson in Frankfurt, Kerry Capell and Stanley Reed in London, and Andy Reinhardt in Paris, and Frederick F. Jespersen in New YorkGet BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed.Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video.To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here.Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page# posted by brijesh agarwal @ 10:19 PM 0 Comments banks-financeThursday, July 12, 2007Bank of America (NYSE: BAC TYO: 8648 ) is the largest commercial bank in the United States in terms of deposits, and the largest company of its kind in the world.[3][4] Bank of America is the largest American company (by market capitalization) that is not part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. On July 19, 2006, Bank of America reported second quarter 2006 net income of $5.48 billion,[5] surpassing that of Citigroup for the first time.Contents[hide]1 Corporate history1.1 Pre-1998 history1.1.1 Bank of Italy1.1.2 Growth in California1.1.3 Expansion outside of California1.2 Merger of NationsBank and BankAmerica1.3 History since 19981.3.1 Acquisition of National Processing Company1.3.2 FleetBoston Financial merger1.3.3 Purchase of MBNA1.3.4 Divestiture of Brazil operations1.3.5 Plans to acquire LaSalle Bank2 Bank of America today2.1 Consumer2.2 Corporate2.3 Investment Management2.4 Social responsibility3 Controversy and criticism4 International operations5 Bank of America corporate buildings6 Diversity7 Major sponsorships7.1 Official bank of8 References9 See also10 External links//[edit] Corporate historyIt has been suggested that NationsBank be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)Before 1993, the Bank of America that exists today was known as NationsBank, based in Charlotte, NC. In 1998, NationsBank merged with San Francisco-based BankAmerica and assumed the Bank of America name.[edit] Pre-1998 history[edit] Bank of ItalyThe roots of the pre-1998 Bank of America lie in the American Bank of Italy, founded in San Francisco by Amadeo Giannini in 1904. When the 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck, Giannini was able to get all of the deposits out of the bank building and away from the fires. Thus, unlike many other banks, he retained the confidence of the depositors and also had money to loan to those struck by the disaster.In the late 1920s, Giannini approached Orra E. Monnette, President and founder of the Los Angeles based Bank of America, Los Angeles about a potential merger between the two entities. The Los Angeles based bank had exhibited strong growth throughout the 1920s, due in part to its success in developing an advanced bank branching system. The merger of the two institutions was completed in early 1929 and took the name Bank of America. The combined company was headed by Giannini with Monnette serving as co-Chair.While the names of many nationally chartered banks end with the initials 'N.A.' (National Association), Giannini picked a unique ending, National Trust and Savings Association, or 'NT&SA', because he wanted the name to highlight the different functions of the bank. Bank of America was the only NT&SA in the country. Thanks to good management, but also to aggressive development of the branch banking concept, the bank was soon the largest in California.[edit] Growth in CaliforniaGiannini also sought to build a national bank, expanding into most of the western states as well as into the insurance industry, under the aegis of his holding company, Transamerica Corporation. Bank of America NT&SA also had banking relationships in international financial markets. Largely out of fear that Giannini would succeed in his efforts to create a nationwide bank, federal legislation prohibited banks from accepting deposits in states where they were not headquartered. This led to the creation of the bank holding company which could own a separate bank in each state.The passage of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, prohibited banks from owning non-banking subsidiaries such as insurance companies. Bank of America and Transamerica were separated, with the latter company continuing in the insurance business. However, federal banking regulators prohibited Bank of America's interstate banking activity, and Bank of America's domestic banks outside of California were forced into a separate company that eventually became First Interstate Bancorp, which was acquired by Wells Fargo and Company in 1996. It was not until the 1980s with a change in federal banking legislation and regulation that Bank of America was again able to expand its domestic consumer banking activity outside of California.California was the nation's fastest growing state during the post-World War II boom, with the highest use of checking accounts (partially driven by many soldiers being paid via bank accounts during World War II), resulting in Bank of America being swamped by checks. By 1949 , the branches had to close at 2:00pm in order to process the bookkeeping by 5:00 p.m. To cope with the transaction volume, the bank invested heavily in information technology and is generally credited, together with General Electric and SRI International, with inventing modern centralized bank operations, along with a number of financial transaction processing technologies such as automatic check processing, account numbers, and Magnetic Ink Character Recognition. Because of the efficiency of these technologies, the bank had significantly lower administrative costs than other banks and was able to expand until it became the world's largest bank in the early 1970s.These technologies also enabled credit cards to be linked directly to individual bank accounts. In 1958, the bank invented the bank credit card, the BankAmericard, which changed its name to VISA in 1977. A consortium of other California banks came up with Master Charge (now MasterCard) in order to compete with BankAmericard.[edit] Expansion outside of CaliforniaBank of America Corporate Center, located in the center of uptown Charlotte, North Carolina.Following passage of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1967, BankAmerica Corporation was established for the purpose of owning Bank of America and its subsidiaries.BankAmerica expanded outside California in 1983 with its acquisition of Seafirst Corporation of Seattle, Washington, and its wholly owned banking subsidiary, Seattle-First National Bank. Seafirst was at risk of seizure by the federal government after becoming insolvent due to a series of bad loans to the oil industry. BankAmerica continued to operate its new subsidiary as Seafirst rather than Bank of America until the 1998 merger with NationsBank.BankAmerica was dealt huge losses in 1986 and 1987 due to the placement of a series of bad loans in the Third World, particularly in Latin America. The company fired its CEO, Sam Armacost, although Armacost blamed the problems on his predecessor, A.W. (Tom) Clausen, who was then appointed to replace Armacost. The losses resulted in a huge decline of BankAmerica stock, making it vulnerable to a hostile takeover. First Interstate Bancorp of Los Angeles (which had originated from banks once owned by BankAmerica), launched such a bid in the fall of 1986, although BankAmerica rebuffed it, mostly by selling its FinanceAmerica subsidiary to Chrysler, and by selling the brokerage firm Charles Schwab and Co. back to Mr. Schwab. On the day of the 1987 stock market crash, BankAmerica was trading at $8 per share, although by 1992 it had rebounded mightily to become one of the biggest gainers of that half-decade. The selling of the corporate headquarters building in downtown San Francisco to raise capital was a symbolic blow to the bank.[citation needed]BankAmerica's next big acquisition came in 1992. The company acquired its California rival, Security Pacific Corporation and its subsidiary Security Pacific National Bank in California and other banks in Arizona, Idaho, Oregon and Washington (which Security Pacific had acquired in a series of acquisitions in the late 1980s). This was, at the time, the biggest bank acquisition in history. Federal regulators nevertheless forced the sale of Security Pacific's Washington subsidiary, Rainier Bank, because the combination of Seafirst and Rainier would have given BankAmerica too large a share of the market in that state. Later that year, BankAmerica expanded into Nevada by acquiring Valley Bank of Nevada.In 1994 , BankAmerica acquired the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Co. of Chicago, which had become federally owned as part of the same oil industry debacle that had brought down Seafirst. At the time, no bank had the resources to bail out Continental, so the federal government operated the bank for nearly a decade. Illinois at that time regulated branch banking extremely heavily, so Bank of America Illinois was a single-unit bank until the 21st century. BankAmerica moved its national lending department to Chicago in an effort to establish a financial beachhead in the region.These mergers helped BankAmerica Corporation once again become the largest U.S. bank holding company in terms of deposits, but the company fell to second place in 1997 behind fast-growing NationsBank Corporation, and to third in 1998 behind North Carolina's First Union Corp. In 1998, BankAmerica and NationsBank executed a merger-of-equals and changed the headquarters to Charlotte, North Carolina.[edit] Merger of NationsBank and BankAmericaIn 1997, BankAmerica lent D.E. Shaw & Co., a large hedge fund, $1.4bn so that the hedge fund would run various businesses for the bank. However, D.E. Shaw suffered significant loss after 1998 Russia bond default. BankAmerica was later acquired by NationsBank that year.The purchase of BankAmerica Corp. by the NationsBank Corporation was the largest bank acquisition in history at that time. While the deal was technically a purchase of BankAmerica Corporation by NationsBank, the deal was structured as merger with NationsBank renamed to Bank of America Corporation, and Bank of America NT&SA, changing its name to Bank of America, N.A. as the remaining legal bank entity. The bank still operates under Federal Charter 13044 which was granted to Giannini's Bank of Italy on March 1, 1927. However, SEC filings before 1998 are listed under NationsBank, not BankAmerica.Following the US$64.8 billion acquisition of BankAmerica by NationsBank, the resulting Bank of America had combined assets of US$570 billion, as well as 4,800 branches in 22 states. 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account, invest,© 2005-2007 www.Top100-Bank.comCoca-Cola Enterprises declines 20%Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc.'s net income dipped on higher prices for aluminum and sweetener in North America.feeds.bizjournals.com CN's bottom line shrinksCanadian National Railway Co. reported Monday its second quarter net income fell by 29 percent, from $695 million last year to $492 million this year.feeds.bizjournals.com Hanesbrands' profits fall on interest expenseHanesbrands Inc. said its profits fell by 57 percent in the second quarter, primarily because of higher interest costs related to its spin-off last year from Sara Lee Corp.feeds.bizjournals.com The Newest Homeowners: Big Banks (Motley Fool)As subprime mortgage defaults grow, investment banks find themselves reluctantly holding mortgages.us.rd.yahoo.comUpdated Sun, July 22, 2007. 151. www.uboc.com 33900152. www.citibank.co.jp 33800153. www.netbank.com 33300154. www.raiffeisen.ru 33200155. www.rbccentura.com 32700156. www.lasallebank.com 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www.worldsavings.com 23900194. www.rosbank.ru 23300195. www.nbg.gr 22800196. www.fnb.co.za 22800197. www.binbank.ru 22500198. www.seb.lt 22400199. www.bankofthewest.com 22300200. www.maybank2u.com 22300Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11151. www.uboc.comRating: 33900 points**amount mentions of word 'www.uboc.com' on the other websitesUnion Bank of California - HomeMost popular searches: bill pay, small business loans, www.boc.com, ww.wuboc.com, www.ubocc.om, ww.uboc.com, banking, branch locations, www.uboc, commercial banking, wwwu.boc.com, www.uboc.cmo, www.uboc.cm, mortgage, savings, online banking, www.ubco.com, home equity loans, credit cards, IRA, wwwuboc.com, cash management services, www.uobc.com, investing, www.uboc.ocm, treasury management , loans, wwwuboc.com, ww.uboc.com, www.buoc.com, personal banking, ATM, Union Bank of California, financial services, www.ubo.ccom, home loans, www.uboc.om, checking, www.uboccom, small business banking, bank online, international banking, personal loans, www.ubc.com, www.uboc.com, www.ubo.com, bank, brokerage, www.uoc.com, www.uboc.co© 2005-2007 www.Top100-Bank.comRollins rolls to record Q2 performanceRollins Inc.'s second-quarter net income increased about 10 percent.feeds.bizjournals.com Apple stock rebounds on strong earningsApple Inc. stock rebounded Thursday, closing up 5.7 percent at $145.05, as strong earnings reported Thursday eased investor fears about iPhone sales.feeds.bizjournals.com [$$] Big Stakeholder in Resolution Faults Friends Provident Deal (at The Wall Street Journal Online)us.rd.yahoo.com Bank of Granite 2Q earnings fall 83.5%Bank of Granite Corp. says higher provisions for loan losses contributed to an 83.5 percent drop in its second-quarter earnings.feeds.bizjournals.comMain Add a Site FREE Content for Your Web-site Bookmark this site Links Webmaster Updated Sun, July 22, 2007. 201. www.svb.com 22000202. www.fortisbank.com 21900203. www.aaadir.com 21800204. www.1822direkt.com 21700205. 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www.blkb.ch 14600243. www.cimoney.com.ky 14600244. www.hdfcbank.com 14400245. www.golden1.com 14400246. www.bancomer.com.mx 14200247. www.nbk.com 14000248. www.alahli.com 13700249. www.americanbanker.com 13700250. www.miebank.co.jp 13600Pges: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11201. www.svb.comRating: 22000 points**amount mentions of word 'www.svb.com' on the other websitesSVB Financial Groupescription: SVB Financial Group helps entrepreneurs and enterprising companies succeed, offering diversified and complementary financial services through SVB Silicon Valley Bank, SVB Alliant, SVB Capital and SVB Global.Most popular searches: www.sb.com, www.svb.cmo, wwwsvb.com, www.svb.om, ww.wsvb.com, www.svb.ocm, financial group, www.sbv.com, global, www.vsb.com, loan, SVB Capital, www.sv.com, acquisitions, capital, www.vb.com, SVB Silicon Valley Bank, lending, bank, wwws.vb.com, www.svb.co, www.svb.com, investment banking, www.sv.bcom, SVB Alliant, www.svbc.om, financial services, SVB, ww.svb.com, www.svb.cm, private equity, M&A, mergers, SVB Global, www.svbcom, wwwsvb.com, ww.svb.com, Silicon Valley, www.svb, banking, SVB Financial Group, Alliant© 2005-2007 www.Top100-Bank.comQ2 earnings down for Columbia BancorpColumbia Bancorp reported lower earnings for the second quarter of 2007 than it did in 2006.feeds.bizjournals.com KeyCorp to buy U.S.B. HoldingKeyCorp will strengthen its presence in New York's Hudson Valley with the purchase of U.S.B. Holding Co. Inc.feeds.bizjournals.com BK to settle $25M in debtBurger King Corp. said it plans to pay off $25 million in debt at the end of July due to a strong cash flow.feeds.bizjournals.com Parent of Glens Falls and Saratoga banks sees flat profits in 2QArrow Financial, the parent of Glens Falls National Bank & Trust Co. and Saratoga National Bank & Trust Co., reported second quarter net income flat with the same period the year before.feeds.bizjournals.com Main Add a Site FREE Content for Your Web-site Bookmark this site Links Webmaster Updated Sun, July 22, 2007. 251. www.thirdfederal.com 13600252. www.alrajhibank.com.sa 13400253. www.nab.ch 13400254. www.migrosbank.ch 13300255. www.flagstar.com 13200256. www.penfed.org 13200257. www.navyfcu.org 13000258. www.fleet.com 12900259. www.pncbank.com 12800260. www.openbank.es 12800261. www.synovus.com 12700262. www.firsthorizon.com 12600263. www.rbz.co.zw 12500264. www.anb.com.sa 12500265. www.commerceonline.com 12400266. www.bancofrances.com.ar 12400267. www.citibank.co.uk 12400268. www.compassweb.com 12300269. www.bankofcyprus.com 12000270. www.firstusa.com 11800271. www.anz.com.au 11800272. www.firstrepublic.com 11600273. www.bkb.ch 11600274. www.bankamerica.com 11600275. www.keybank.com 11600276. www.dbs.com.sg 11500277. www.colonialbank.com 11500278. www.skyfi.com 11300279. www.baloise.ch 11200280. www.boj.org.jm 11200281. www.statebankofindia.com 11100282. www.bankatlantic.com 11000283. www.rich.frb.org 11000284. www.utibank.com 10800285. www.alfransi.com 10600286. www.banksa.com.au 10500287. www.ufjbank.co.jp 10500288. www.discountbank.net 10400289. www.bancociudad.com.ar 10400290. www.standardchartered.com.hk 10200291. www.firstcitizens.com 10100292. www.fhb.com 10100293. www.Lloydstsb.co.uk 9880294. www.ambg.com.my 9860295. www.providian.com 9840296. www.trustmark.com 9800297. www.ingdirect.ca 9470298. www.bankwest.com.au 9360299. www.arabbank.com 9290300. www.arvest.com 9250Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11251. www.thirdfederal.comRating: 13600 points**amount mentions of word 'www.thirdfederal.com' on the other websitesThird Federal - Ohio and Florida Mortgage and Home Equity Lender, Third Federal Savings and LoanDescription: Third Federal mortgage lender offers low interest rates on Florida mortgages and Ohio mortgages, mortgage rates, home equity lines of credit, mortgage refinance, debt consolidation, Florida mortgage pre-approvals, Ohio mortgage pre-approvalsMost popular searches: wwwthirdfederal.com, iras, credit card, ww.thirdfederal.com, www.thidfederal.com, FDIC, mortgage, www.thirdfederal, www.thirdfderal.com, checking account, mastercard, US Bank, www.thirdfederalcom, finance, www.thirdederal.com, www.thirdfederl.com, fha, checking, www.thirdfedeal.com, www.thirdfeeral.com, www.thirfederal.com, www.thirdfederal.cm, home, refinance, banking center, www.thirdfederal.om, www.thirdfederal.co, ww.thirdfederal.com, refi, financial planning, savings account, savings, financial, www.thirdfedera.com, cds, investment, equity, www.thirdfedral.com, online banking, www.thirdfederal.cmo, wwwthirdfederal.com, www.tirdfederal.com, banking, loan, www.hirdfederal.com, investors, invest, visa, investing, www.thrdfederal.com© 2005-2007 www.Top100-Bank.comFirst Advantage grows revenue, earningsFirst Advantage Corp.'s earnings jumped 10 percent during the second quarter.feeds.bizjournals.com Carter's Inc. in the red in Q2Carter's Inc. moved to a loss in the second quarter, dragged down by charges related to the closure of a Tennessee distribution facility and a disappointing sales performance by its OshKosh segments.feeds.bizjournals.com Vignette earnings up in Q2Internet applications maker Vignette Corp.'s second quarter profits rose sharply, due largely to lower expenses than it had last year, while revenue slipped 1.6 percent.feeds.bizjournals.com CONSOL profit, revenue rises in 2QSpurred by higher gas and coal prices, CONSOL Energy Inc. had an increase in revenue and net income during its second quarter 2007.feeds.bizjournals.comMain Add a Site FREE Content for Your Web-site Bookmark this site Links Webmaster Updated Sun, July 22, 2007. 301. www.ibc.com 9240302. www.cbj.gov.jo 9210303. www.citizensonline.com 8760304. www.comfedbank.com 5850305. www.northwestsavingsbank.com 5440306. www.ohiosavings.com 4840307. www.virtualbank.com 4670308. www.ucbi.com 4580309. www.ingdirect.com.au 4070310. www.washingtonfederal.com 3720311. www.northshorebank.com 3560312. www.wsfsbank.com 3540313. www.rabobank.com.au 3530314. www.nsbank.com 3480315. www.firstcitizensonline.com 3420316. www.firstinterstatebank.com 3400317. www.westamerica.com 3380318. www.valleynationalbank.com 3180319. www.bancorpsouthonline.com 3170320. www.carolinafirst.com 3140321. www.pinnbank.com 3030322. www.texasstatebank.com 3010323. www.citibank.es 2950324. www.bbv.es 2920325. www.woodforest.com 2910326. www.bankunited.com 2750327. www.corusbank.com 2690328. www.banquelaurentienne.com 2670329. www.banqueagf.fr 2670330. www.ntrs.com 2630331. www.banknorth.com 2600332. www.standardfederalbank.com 2550333. www.ibtco.com 2530334. www.websterbank.com 2510335. www.thesouthgroup.com 2500336. banking.yahoo.com 2480337. www.adelaidebank.com.au 2460338. www.fultonbank.com 2430339. www.alabamanational.com 2410340. www.tibbank.com 2400341. www.pcfinancial.ca 2350342. www.midfirst.com 2280343. www.irwinfinancial.com 2270344. www.whbhk.com 2220345. www.citybank.com 2130346. www.bokf.com 2130347. www.uob.com.sg 2070348. www.ucbh.com 2060349. www.firstfederal.com 2050350. www.providentnj.com 2030Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11301. www.ibc.comRating: 9240 points**amount mentions of word 'www.ibc.com' on the other websitesBC BankDescription: IBC was founded in 1966 to meet the needs of the small businesses of Laredo, Texas. Today, it serves as the flagship bank of International Bancshares Corporation. Since its opening, IBC has grown from less than $1 million in assets to over $10.6 billion making it Texas’ largest holding company. IBC now serves more than 90 communities throughout Texas and Oklahoma with more than 220 branches and more than 330 ATM'S.Most popular searches: credit card, banking center, www.ib.com, www.ib.ccom, investing, wwwibc.com, www.icb.com, mortgage, www.ibcc.om, visa, www.ic.com, www.bic.com, www.ibc.cm, wwwibc.com, refi, savings account, refinance, savings, ww.wibc.com, www.ibc.ocm, ww.ibc.com, loan, finance, banking, financial, www.ibc.cmo, cds, online banking, www.bc.com, wwwi.bc.com, www.ibc.co, www.ibccom, FDIC, ww.ibc.com, financial planning, www.ibc, www.ibc.om, investors, checking account, fha, iras, investment, equity, checking, US Bank, mastercard, invest, www.ibc.com© 2005-2007 www.Top100-Bank.com2Q profits flat for parent of Glens Falls and Saratoga banksArrow Financial Corp. has reported second quarter earnings that were flat with those of a year ago.feeds.bizjournals.com Waste Connections earnings report drives up stockShares of Waste Connections Inc. closed 4.6 percent higher Monday with the company's announcement of higher second-quarter earnings and revenue.feeds.bizjournals.com FirstBank reports six-month incomeFirstBank Holding Co. on Friday reported net income of $47.7 million and earnings per share of $361.56 for the first six months of 2007.feeds.bizjournals.com Belden sees Q2 profit hike 40%Belden Inc. saw its second-quarter profit rise nearly 40 percent despite charges and accounting effects related to restructuring and acquisitions, respectively.feeds.bizjournals.comMain Add a Site FREE Content for Your Web-site Bookmark this site Links Webmaster Updated Sun, July 22, 2007. 351. www.savingsloans.com.au 1940352. www.presidential.com 1940353. www.unitedbank-va.com 1940354. www.swkbank.de 1940355. www.northrim.com 1900356. www.dahsing.com.hk 1860357. www.centralpacificbank.com 1810358. www.bostonprivate.com 1800359. www.lakecitybank.com 1780360. www.pcbancorp.com 1740361. www.ccf.fr 1720362. www.knbt.com 1690363. www.sbbt.com 1670364. www.hlb.com.my 1640365. www.cwbank.com 1620366. www.1stnb.com 1620367. www.daoheng.com 1600368. www.idbibank.com 1580369. www.regionsbank.com 1570370. www.emiratesbank.com 1540371. www.islamic-bank.com 1540372. www.fremontgeneral.com 1520373. www.creditcardscompare.com 1490374. www.citibank.com.ph 1410375. www.shacombank.com.hk 1380376. www.swbanktx.com 1350377. www.rgonline.com 1320378. www.rbtt.com 1320379. www.centura.com 1300380. www.doralfinancial.com 1250381. www.suncorpmetway.com.au 1220382. www.hudsoncitysavingsbank.com 1200383. www.cbtks.com 1190384. www.wholding.com 1160385. www.bbl.be 1150386. www.sunflowerbank.com 1150387. www.metrobank.com.ph 1150388. www.indymac.com 1150389. www.publicbank.com.my 1140390. www.mevas.com 1140391. www.citibank.co.in 1110392. www.oceanbank.com 1110393. www.cua.com.au 1100394. www.palmettobank.com 1090395. www.icicibank.ca 1090396. www.mcb-bank.com 1080397. www.banknorthma.com 1080398. www.myindependence.com 1080399. www.bsch.es 1070400. www.downeysavings.com 1060Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11351. www.savingsloans.com.auRating: 1940 points**amount mentions of word 'www.savingsloans.com.au' on the other websitesSavings & Loans Credit Unionescription: Savings and Loans Credit Union South Australia. 50 Flinders Street Adelaide SA. Call 131182Most popular searches: www.savingsloas.com.au, www.savingslons.com.au, savings &, deposits, investment, investment loans, credit union, deeming, highriser, latitude, travel, pclink, flinders street, www.savingloans.com.au, www.savigsloans.com.au, savings and loans credit union, friendly society, treasure chest, car loans, www.avingsloans.com.au, premium saver, pc link, www.savingsloan.com.au, www.savingsoans.com.au, teeny weeny, home loans, www.savingsloans.com.a, Christmas Page, www.savingsloanscom.au, www.saingsloans.com.au, ww.savingsloans.com.au, ww.savingsloans.com.au, www.svingsloans.com.au, no fees, superannuation, visa, wwwsavingsloans.com.au, www.savinsloans.com.au, insurance, wwwsavingsloans.com.au, www.savingsloans.comau, www.savngsloans.com.au, www.savingsloans.cm.au, womens and childrens, personal loans, www.savingsloans.com.u, loans, www.savingsloans.om.au, www.savingsloans.co.au, adelaide, www.savingslans.com.au, south australia, cash manager, www.savingsloans.au© 2005-2007 www.Top100-Bank.comPolitics and the public payroll -- banks play alongGovernment deposits have never been viewed as being as profitable for banks as retail and commercial work. But it is still extremely competitive, as banks service a variety of governmental entities with an ever-expanding list of product offerings.feeds.bizjournals.com Voltaire begins trading on NasdaqVoltaire Ltd. debuted on the Nasdaq Stock Market Thursday.feeds.bizjournals.com Wachovia execs find a new homeTop executives of Wachovia Securities who will be relocating to St. Louis as the retail brokerage merges with A.G. Edwards are looking at high-dollar properties, and some already are buying, boosting what has been a slow real estate market.feeds.bizjournals.com PrivateBank adding staff, growing assetsThe PrivateBank plans to add senior bankers within the next six months and increase total assets to $1 billion within five years.feeds.bizjournals.comUpdated Sun, July 22, 2007. 401. www.ocbc.com.my 1060402. www.firstfedca.com 1050403. www.bankofbaroda.com 1030404. www.bankofamerica.com.hk 1030405. www.habibbank.com 1030406. www.lrp.de 998407. www.kookminbank.com 996408. www.riyadbank.com.sa 996409. www.ubsi-wv.com 989410. www.mercantile.net 972411. www.providentbankmd.com 968412. www.firstib.com 966413. www.texasbank.com 964414. www.bremer.com 952415. www.cibeg.com 951416. www.kagin.co.jp 941417. www.northforkbank.com 941418. www.cspb.com 937419. www.umb.com 928420. www.mynycb.com 927421. www.bancorio.com.ar 926422. www.1stnationalbank.com 921423. www.lcf-rothschild.com 912424. www.harrisbank.com 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wwwo.cbc.com.my, loan, FDIC, equity, www.ocbc.cm.my, refinance, ww.ocbc.com.my, wwwocbc.com.my, investment, US Bank, wwwocbc.com.my, credit card, www.obcc.com.my, www.obc.com.my, banking, investors, fha, www.ocbc.co.mmy, www.ocbc.comm.y, www.ocbc.com.m, cds, www.ocbc.commy, www.ocbc.co.my, www.occb.com.my, www.ocbcc.om.my, www.ocbc.ocm.my, www.ocbc.cmo.my, refi, invest, financial, financial planning, online banking, www.ocbc.om.my, www.ocbccom.my, www.ocbc.com.ym, www.ocbc.com.my, www.ocbc.com.y, www.cbc.com.my, savings account, visa, savings, ww.wocbc.com.my, www.cobc.com.my, banking center, www.ocb.com.my, ww.ocbc.com.my© 2005-2007 www.Top100-Bank.comWilmington bank grows loans, profitWilmington-based Cooperative Bankshares said Wednesday that the continued growth of its loan portfolio led to a 15 percent increase in second-quarter net income.feeds.bizjournals.com Wichita credit unions find 2006 a mixed bag; 3 large institutions post lossesThree of Wichita's six largest credit unions took losses in 2006 -- the result of growing pains and efforts to rid themselves of problem real estate.feeds.bizjournals.com Earnings rise 20% for SEISEI Investments Co. said Wednesday that net profits increased in the second quarter by 20 percent over the comparable period last year, from $57.9 million to $69.5 million.feeds.bizjournals.com Major South Florida stocks struggle in bumpy marketThe Dow Jones had its worse week in five years, plunging more than 500 points in two days, and all but one of South Florida's 10 largest public companies (according to 2006 gross revenue) showed a little red.feeds.bizjournals.comMain Add a Site FREE Content for Your Web-site Bookmark this site Links Webmaster Updated Sun, July 22, 2007. 451. www.lnb.com 789452. my.countrywide.com 778453. www.ssnb.com 775454. www.top100-bank.com 775455. www.firstmidwest.com 770456. www.citizensbank.ca 766457. www.unb.co.ae 764458. www.aba-argentina.com 760459. www.firstnatlbank.com 757460. www.nor.no 752461. 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surgeFirst quarter earnings at PetMed Express jumped 30 percent, while sales increased 16 percent.feeds.bizjournals.com Fed reports flat to modest economic gainsEconomic growth for Ohio and its neighboring states ranged narrowly from flat to modest in the past six weeks, the Federal Reserve's Cleveland district bank reported.feeds.bizjournals.com Central Federal income picks up momentumCentral Federal Corp. has announced an increase in its income during the second quarter - the fifth consecutive profitable quarter for the once troubled institution.feeds.bizjournals.comBank of America®Free Checking Plus Online Bill Pay, Security Protection, Updated Sun, July 22, 2007. 1. finance.yahoo.com 75100002. www.bundesbank.de 29300003. www.iadb.org 21700004. www.businessweek.com 20300005. www.marketwatch.com 20300006. www.prnewswire.com 19200007. moneycentral.msn.com 18900008. cms.hhs.gov 18900009. www.paypal.com 187000010. www.forbes.com 187000011. money.cnn.com 136000012. www.bankofamerica.com 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30100050. www.aok.de 299000Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 1213 14 15 16 17 18What is TOP 100 FINANCIAL SITES rating?The Best Financial Sites were collected in this rating and sorted by popularity. Weekly updated Financial Directory Features listing of resources, links and news about money, loans, mortgages, personal finance, and more.New sites in the ratingJul 20 www.forex4marketiva.com - Forex Marketiva... Jul 14 www.apriori24.com - Willkommen bei apriori24.com – Ihrem H... Jul 14 www.basicfx.blogspot.com - Free Guide To Learn Online Forex Trading... Jul 04 fx-articles.blogspot.com - FOREX ARTICLES... Jul 04 adry-fx.blogspot.com - FOREX MT4 INDICATORS ARCHIEVE... Jun 29 www.compact-money.de - Compact-Money - Startseite ... Jun 24 forex-way.blogspot.com - Forex Ways To Trading And Free E-Book Do... Jun 21 marketiva.fx-bg.com - Mrketiva - E-gold Forex Broker. Make Mon... May 29 www.financial.de - financial.de... May 29 www.coastcapitalsavings.com - Coast Capital Savings Credit Union... May 27 www.forex-inf.hit.bg - Forex info web... May 23 vietstocknews.blogspot.com - Hot News From Vietnam Stock Market... May 19 www.magraduga.ru - www.MagRaduga.com... May 18 www.magdays.com - Fin Raduga ... May 16 www.finraduga.com - FinRaduga... Add your Site to TOP100 for FREE.(!) Back link is required to add new sites to the rating.Step1: Please paste this link code on FRONT PAGE of your site:TOP 100 FINANCIAL SITESor 'button' link:Step2: Submit your site.Domain of your website:* Only sites with good, useful content related our categories will be added. Your site will be declined by our moderator if the ‘back link’ is hidden from visitors or search engines. Please keep the link to us on your site otherwise your site won't be approved or can be removed. Useful content for your web-site: Add this HTML code to your web-page and you'll seetop sites rating regularly updated on your site:TOP 100 FINANCIAL SITESUpdated Sun, July 22, 2007. 1. finance.yahoo.com 75100002. www.bundesbank.de 29300003. www.iadb.org 21700004. www.businessweek.com 20300005. www.marketwatch.com 20300006. www.prnewswire.com 19200007. moneycentral.msn.com 18900008. cms.hhs.gov 18900009. www.paypal.com 187000010. www.forbes.com 187000011. money.cnn.com 136000012. www.bankofamerica.com 124000013. www.finanztreff.de 117000014. home.ingdirect.com 112000015. www.irs.gov 1090000 © 2005-2007 www.Top100Finance.comFannie, Freddie face $4.7 billion in subprime losses: CitigroupSAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could have $4.7 billion in unrealized losses from the deterioration in subprime mortgages, Citigroup" s fixed-income strategy team estimated on Friday.
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