ATM Fees Rise as Banks Feel Funding Squeeze

March 18th, 2011

Daily Finance

By: Dawn Kawamoto

Before slipping the old debit card into an ATM, consumers may want to think twice if it’s not their own bank’s machine. ATM fees at these non-customer cash-dispensing outposts are edging up, with some hitting the $5 transaction fee mark, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Some banks are saying so-long to the standard $3 fee as they seek to re-coup lost revenue from debit cards and overdraft charges due to federal regulatory changes, the report notes.

J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM) is trying out a $5 non-customer transaction fee in Illinois, as well as a $4 fee in Texas. PNC Financial Services Group (PNC), meanwhile, is planning to terminate its ATM reimbursement program, which covers transaction fees at non-customer bank machines, later this year. And last week TD Bank Financial Group (TD) eliminated its perk that allowed its customers to use ATMs operated by other banks without charging those customers for a piece of the transaction fee.

Banks brought home a sizable $7.1 billion last year from ATM transaction fees. And of that multi-billion-dollar bonanza, $3 billion was collected by banks whose customers used another institution’s ATM, the report notes.

As more banks are expected to weigh in with higher ATM fees, frequent ATM users may switch to institutions that have the largest network of cash-dispensing machines. Savvy consumers may also opt to double down when at checkout stands that allow them to get cash back when making a purchase, minimizing the impact of the non-customer ATM fee.

Click here for the full report from Daily Finance

Banks Are Still Deceiving The Public

April 9, 2010

CNBC

By: Reuters

Major U.S. banks temporarily lowered their debt levels just before reporting in the past five quarters, making it appear their balance sheets were less risky, the Wall Street Journal said, citing data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The paper said on Friday 18 banks, including Goldman Sachs  [GS  178.75    -0.75  (-0.42%)    ], Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup, understated the debt levels used to fund securities trades by lowering them an average of 42 percent at the end of each period.

The banks had increased their debt in the middle of successive quarters, it said.

Excessive leverage by the banks was one of the causes that led to the global financial crisis in 2008.

Due to the credit crisis, banks have become more sensitive about showing high levels of debt and risk, worried their stocks and credit ratings could be punished, the Journal said.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York could not be immediately reached for comment by Reuters.

Click here for the full report.

Citibank Gets Special Bailout

March 29, 2010

Washington Post

By David Cho

Among the banks that rule Wall Street, Citigroup got a bailout that was bigger than the rest. Now the company is about to pay a king’s ransom for its federal rescue.

The Obama administration is making final preparations to sell its stake in the New York bank, according to industry and federal sources. At today’s prices, the sale would net more than $8 billion, by far the largest profit returned from any firm that accepted bailout funds, and the transaction would be the second-largest stock sale in history.

On paper, the government’s 27 percent stake has grown in value to $33 billion. The size of the deal in the works has Wall Street buzzing. Only the stock offering by Japan’s Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, which raised $36.8 billion in 1987, was larger, according to Thomson Reuters.

Leading financial firms, including J.P. Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, are vying to be chosen as the deal’s underwriters to gain the prestige of managing a historic stock sale as well as the fees from investors who buy the shares. To improve their chances, some banks, such as Goldman Sachs, are offering their services to the Treasury Department at almost no cost, industry officials familiar with the matter said.

The windfall expected from the stock sale would amount to a validation of the rescue plan adopted by government officials during the height of the financial panic, when the banking system neared the brink of collapse. A year ago, Citigroup’s stock hovered around a dollar a share, and the bank’s future seemed in doubt. On Friday, the stock closed at $4.31.

If the sale proceeds as planned, Citigroup would be able to cut nearly all of its ties to the $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program. Meanwhile, the administration could highlight the profit generated from the rescue of big banks.

“It’s unprecedented to do [a stock sale] of this size right after the financial industry has been so battered,” said an industry official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly. “It’s just a very bullish sign.”

The Treasury, as well as the Wall Street firms, declined to comment on the stock sale.

Citigroup’s performance has lagged behind its rivals in Lower Manhattan. In January, the company announced a $1.6 billion loss for 2009. By comparison, J.P. Morgan Chase earned $11.7 billion. But Citigroup’s executives said at the time that they saw its business stabilizing, allowing the company to set aside less money in the last three months of 2009 to cover losses than it did for the same period of 2008.

Citigroup was among nine major banks that were the first to take bailout funds in October 2008, and all have returned their federal loans. In addition to these repayments, the Treasury has received interest, dividends and about $3.5 billion from the sale of warrants, which are contracts allowing a holder to buy a company’s stock in the future.

The true cost of rescuing the financial system, however, is not yet known. Senior Treasury officials have said that they expect the ultimate cost of TARP to be less than $100 billion. Besides TARP programs, mortgage financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have received more than $125 billion in federal aid. There is no indication that either firm will be able to repay the government anytime soon.

Yet many economists say that rescuing large Wall Street firms has come at a much lower cost than expected.

During the height of the financial crisis in October and November of 2008, Citigroup got more than $45 billion in federal aid in exchange for preferred shares. The government later restructured that package. Officials converted $20 billion into a loan, and the remaining $25 billion was converted in September into common stock at the price of $3.25 a share.

Citigroup was the only bank that gave common shares to the government, because the firm was in worse shape than its rivals and couldn’t promise to repay its aid entirely in cash.

In December, the bank announced it would raise money from investors to repay the $20 billion loan. The Treasury said at that time that it would sell its Citigroup shares in phases this year, beginning with a $5 billion deal.

The value of the government’s stake had grown to $33.1 billion at the end of regular trading Friday.

By issuing stock and giving it to the government last year, Citigroup had diluted the value of stock held by existing shareholders. The company could ratify a reverse stock split to enhance the value of shares.

Last fall, the bank’s shareholders approved a proposal by the company’s board of directors to speed a reverse stock split before June 30.

Click here for the full report.