The Big Banks

Prodded by Beijing to invest in developing countries, China's massive state-owned bank has inked a deal to buy 20% of South Africa's Standard Bank for $5.6 billion, marking the largest Chinese investment ever in Africa. ICBC, flush with cash, is eager to provide financial services to Chinese companies increasingly active in the Horn of Africa, Reuters reports. More »

Merrill Lynch is to announce its third-quarter earnings today, and the prognosis is bleak: insiders are expecting the bank to report $2.5 billion in additional losses. That's over and above the $5 billion Merrill already reported earlier this month. Today's announcement of greater losses raises even more questions about chief executive E. Stanley O'Neal, whose tenure has seen Merrill take on riskier investments. More »

One of the central goals of the new superfund announced by Citigroup and other major banks is to provide a buyer for structured investment vehicles, the low-yield capital-raising investments whose demand has dropped like a stone in the credit crunch. Citigroup announced today its SIVs are covered until year's end. But as several European SIVs face turmoil, bankers remain cautious. More »

Bank of America today reported a whopping 32% drop in third-quarter net income, thanks to steep trading losses, write-downs to cover loan defaults, and larger set-asides to cover credit losses. Unlike many competitors, the nation's second-largest bank hadn’t issued loss guidance. More »

A planned superfund of $80 to $100 billion to alleviate the subprime lending crisis is gaining ground, though some potential investors remain skeptical. Yesterday, Wachovia Corp. came on board; Fidelity and Federated Investors have already agreed to chip in. The trio of banks leading the fund—Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, and Bank of America—aim to invest less than half the target number, the Wall Street Journal reports. More »

Stocks fell more than they had in over a month today after Citigroup reported a 57% third-quarter loss. Of the S&P's 10 industry groups, only energy advanced, with oil closing at a record $86.13 a barrel. The Dow lost 108.28 to close at 13,984.80, the S&P 500 fell 13.09 to 1,548.71, and the Nasdaq finished at 2,780.05, down 25.63. More »

Citigroup reported a 57% drop in third-quarter profits today, anticipated news that nevertheless sent the bank's shares down by 3.6% to $46.17. The news helped drive nervous market downward as well. "This is the beginning of earnings season, and the market is skittish because analysts are looking for a weak quarter, particularly from the financials," a strategist told the Journal. More »

Citigroup and other major banks are banding together to create a $100-billion fund to buy back shaky mortgage securities in order to contain the threat of their undermining the markets and hurting the economy. The unprecedented project, pooling money from banks like JP Morgan and Bank of America, has been hatched in cooperation with the Treasury Department, the Wall Street Journal reports. More »

Citigroup is the latest big-name victim of the subprime crash, the company announced today, warning of a 60% third-quarter earnings drop. Full earnings will be out Oct. 15, but it appears net income will drop to $2.2 billion from the $5.51 billion reported last year. “Our expected third-quarter results are a clear disappointment,” said CEO Charles Prince. More »

Switzerland's largest bank, UBS, has become the biggest casualty of the worldwide turmoil in the financial markets, reports the Wall Street Journal . The bank is expected to announced today that it has written off  $3.4 billion in fixed income assets. UBS is projecting third quarter losses of at least $516 million. More »

The stock market took a dip today after an IMF report predicted that credit markets may not “normalize" soon and will slow global economic growth. Financial and energy companies helped pull the Dow down 61.13 points to 13,759.06. Citigroup, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase all fell, Bloomberg reports; Exxon Mobil, the world's biggest oil producer, led the sector to the loss column after crude prices dropped for the second day. More »

The leader of the Bank of England, the Fed's counterpart in the UK, is facing substantial pressure to resign. Only last week Mervyn King had declined to offer loans for inter-bank trading to ease credit markets, vowing to discourage the "moral hazard" of risk-taking that led to Northern Rock's collapse. But yesterday the bank injected £10 billion into the money market, and London's financial world is crying foul. More »

As the lines of people waiting to make withdrawals from Northern Rock bank dwindled today, the British lender’s stock rose, bringing with it other hard-hit British financials. Northern Rock's huge losses in the mortgage market sparked a sell-off, drawing emergency funds from the Bank of England. But the government's move yesterday to guarantee savings and provide emergency credit to any buyer halted the fire sale. More »

Shares of British mortgage lender Northern Rock crashed again today, causing heavy losses in other banks and deflating the FTSE 100 index by more than 100 points by midday. The bank's stock fell 36%, bringing the loss to 78% of its value in the past year. The spreading malaise is expected to bring an abrupt end to the British housing boom, and could damage the new government of PM Gordon Brown More »

Shares of Northern Rock fell 25% today on news that the group, Britain's fifth-largest mortgage lender, got an emergency shot of cash from the Bank of England last night. As worried customers lined up outside Northern Rock branches, the central bank's chancellor urged calm. "At the moment there is plenty of money in the system," said Alistair Darling. More »

Bank of America has raised its ATM surcharge to $3 for non-customers—and other banks' are likely to follow. That's the highest surcharge in America, and it affects millions, because BoA has the largest ATM network in the country, USA Today reports. Expect the hike to be contageous: "Banks often move like a school of fish on punitive charges such as ATM surcharge," says an analyst. More »

Banks around the world are clamoring to loan money to Russia, just nine years after the country paralyzed the economic world by defaulting on $40 billion in debt. These days, Russia looks like a haven from the US mortgage meltdown. Russian corporations borrowed $29 billion over the last three months, Bloomberg reports, up 40% from last year. More »

Almost $140 billion in commercial paper has matured and is up for renewal by next week, and banks need to attract buyers to pay it off. The yield on the short-term loans, which are entangled in the subprime mortgage crisis, is skyrocketing. "This could be a pivotal seven to 10 days,'' one credit strategist tells Bloomberg. More »

If you have CDs or a savings account, you may be contributing, soon enough, to the solution to the credit market upheaval, the LA Times reports. Some investors expect the Federal Reserve to cut short-term interest rates next month, a move that could inspire banks to raise money elsewhere by dropping deposit rates for the first time in more than 3 years. More »

America's biggest banks—Citigroup, Bank of America, J.P.Morgan Chase and Wachovia— have borrowed a total of $2 billion from the Federal Reserve at the government's so-called discount window. It's an attempt to shore up the faltering credit markets by encouraging smaller banks to borrow from the Fed without stigma, the Wall Street Journal reports. More »