banks

The Era of Bank Branches on Every Corner Is Ending

Hamilton Nolan · 05/23/16 10:50AM

Right now, 94% of U.S. commercial districts are composed of bank branches. (The other 6% are takeout salad lunch places.) The good news is that we may have already witnessed the peak of the “bazillions of banks, everywhere you look” era.

Why Break Up the Banks? A Smart Man Explains

Hamilton Nolan · 03/15/16 02:51PM

From the 2008 recession all the way through to the current presidential campaign, reformers of all types have been advocating for a breakup of the world’s biggest banks. Why? And how? We have just the right author to explain.

Hillary Clinton Has a Big Honking Goldman Sachs Problem

J.K. Trotter · 02/09/16 04:05PM

Since the beginning of her campaign last year, Hillary Clinton has steadfastly refused to disclose what exactly she said during the speeches she gave at several large banks, including three at Goldman Sachs, after her tenure as Secretary of State. Attendees of two of those Goldman speeches, both of which took place in October 2013, are now hinting at why Clinton has been so reticent. As one attendee explained to Ben White at Politico:

Hamilton Nolan · 11/11/14 05:00PM

New rules proposed this week would require the world's biggest banks to hold more capital, in an effort to (begin trying to) put an end to the "Too Big to Fail" dynamic. If this doesn't work we can always smash them.

Russian Bank Will Give You a Free Cat With Your Mortgage

Adam Weinstein · 08/27/14 01:20PM

Thinking of buying a new home in Moscow Oblast, but still on the fence? Perhaps a cat will convince you. Sign the promissory, take the cat. Look, cute cat! Это красивая кошка! Just hold him for a sec. Awwwwwwwww. Now, do you want a fixed-rate or a 5/1 ARM?

Hamilton Nolan · 07/31/14 04:01PM

A new government report on the persistence of the implied "Too Big to Fail" guarantee for major banks finds that the advantage for those banks has declined since the recession, but TBTF still exists, which is why we should still break up the biggest banks, so they can fail in peace.

The Top 1% May Be Richer Than We Thought

Hamilton Nolan · 07/15/14 08:35AM

Happy bank earnings day! You'll be happy to learn that both Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan have already reported higher than expected second quarter profits. Seems like a good time to let you know that the top 1% is even wealthier than we thought.

Adam Weinstein · 05/08/14 10:06AM

Is the Obama administration secretly ordering banks to close porn stars' accounts in an anti-money laundering program called "Operation Choke Point"? Probably not, but give conspiracy theorists mad points for hooking up that name and those deeds.

Adam Weinstein · 03/24/14 03:45PM

Shockingly, 87 percent of consumers think awful banks are also awful at social media. There's only one way to change perceptions like that: Hire credit ratings agencies to lie to us that the banks' Twitters are doing great.

Bank of America Sends Credit Card Offer to "Lisa Is a Slut McIntire"

Taylor Berman · 02/06/14 04:18PM

On Thursday, freelance writer Lisa McIntire's mother received a credit card offer from Bank of America sort of addressed to her daughter. There was one tiny difference, though, in the name; instead of Lisa McIntire, the letter was addressed to a "Lisa Is a Slut McIntire."

Nitasha Tiku · 12/17/13 12:15PM

To help avoid regulators, Bloomberg is offering banks more control of instant messages and chat rooms used by traders. The same IMs that were "used to rig interest rate markets, where they left a colourful trail of promised steak dinners and champagne."

Another Day, Another Reminder of How Banks Screwed Us Over

Jordan Sargent · 12/07/13 11:26AM

Five years out from the financial collapse, one would almost expect that we wouldn't still routinely be finding out about ways in which banks like Goldman Sachs and Bank of America manipulated financial markets in order to essentially pillage the American economy. Alas!

Bank Customer Arrested for Warning Teller About a Man with a Gun

Neetzan Zimmerman · 09/18/13 01:38PM

A bank customer who spotted a man with a concealed weapon inside a TD Bank branch in Glastonbury, Connecticut, thought he was doing the right thing by bringing the bank staff's attention to a potential robbery in progress.