Will Investors Get Back into U.S. Bank Stocks?

During the credit crisis many U.S. banks suspended dividend payments entirely or reduced them significantly. Currently most of the banks pay dividends. But the yields on them is so small that investors are not attracted to them. For example, the current yields of the big four superbanks are follows: 1. JPMorgan Chase (JPM) Current Dividend …

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Capital Adequacy Ratio: Asia vs. Europe vs. U.S. Banks

Asian banks in general have higher capital adequacy ratios than banks in Europe and the U.S. Large banks in Indonesia, Singapore and Taiwan have total capital adequacy ratios exceeding 15%. Source: REGIONAL ECONOMIC OUTLOOK, Asia: Consolidating Recovery, Building Sustainable Growth, IMFSurvey Magazine Capital adequacy ratio(CAR) “is a ratio of a bank’s capital to its risk”. …

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BofA and Citibank Among Top 10 Western Europe Credit Card Issuers

The Top 10 credit card issuers in Western Europe based on number of cards in issue last year is listed below: [TABLE=584] Source: Lafferty Group Barclays Plc(BCS) of the UK tops the  ranking with over 13 million cards issued thru its Barclaycard division. It is interesting to note that Bank of America’s MBNA unit(BAC) and …

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600 Banks Have Not Yet Repaid TARP Funds

In an earlier article I wrote about the success of the TARP program. This $700 billion bailout government program is officially ending on Monday. According to a Wall Street Journal piece, more than 600 banks are still holding $65 billion of the bailout funds.Many of these banks are too weak to repay the government funds. …

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10 U.S. Public Companies With Strong Insurance Subsidiaries

SNL Financial recently published its ranking of publicly-listed companies which have strong insurance units. Banking giants Bank of America(BAC), Wells Fargo(WFC) and Triton Insurance, a subsidiary of Citigroup(C)  appear in the top 10 list. These companies were selected based on the first quarter financial performance of their insurance divisions. The Top 10 Companies with Strong …

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