Banking News

CIBC quarterly profit slides to $436 million from $884 million By: 9:40 AM TORONTO - The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce reported Thursday a fourth-quarter profit of $436 million, down from $884 million a ...

Prudential Financial Inc. said today that it plans to sell its minority stake in retail brokerage Wachovia Securities to Wells Fargo & Co.

Capital One Financial Corp. said Thursday it will acquire Chevy Chase Bank for $520 million in cash and stock, expanding its presence in its own backyard.

Credit Suisse Group said Thursday it is cutting 5,300 jobs _ about 11 percent of its global work force _ in a bid to reduce costs and take its business back into the black.

Jobs will be lost in all parts of the world, said spokesman Marc Dosch, including in New York, London and Switzerland.

Switzerland's second biggest bank predicted another loss-making quarter, saying it was 3 billion francs ($2.5 billion) in the red by the end of November because of adverse market conditions and expenses associated with the job cuts.

Interest rates have been slashed by some Central banks in Europe. The banks are attempting to contain the global economic slump that appears to be spreading fast in European industrialized economies.

A trader talks on the phone on the floor of the Philippine Stock Exchange in Makati City, Manila December 2, 2008.

Bank of the Ozarks Inc. said Tuesday it received preliminary approval from the U.S. Department of Treasury to participate in its Capital Purchase Program.

AIG, U.S. Federal Reserve to terminate some debt obligations By: 7:50 AM CHARLOTTE, N.C. - American International Group Inc.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich has sent a letter to the vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland opposing the merger of National City Corp.

Calls mount for rate cut by European Central Bank; Report and analysis by Chris Burns of Bloomberg News

Merrill Lynch & Co. plans to cut year- end bonuses in half after more than $20 billion of losses that forced the U.S. securities firm to sell itself to Bank of America Corp.

A financially ailing Ohio school district has joined the ranks of banks and automakers clamoring for a portion of the $700 billion economic bailout package.

NEW YORK - Citigroup Inc. said Tuesday it will raise $5.5 billion through a debt offering under the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s temporary guarantee program.

Profit was $315-million, or 28 cents a share, compared to $954-million, or 95 cents a share, in the same quarter last year.

Tuesday denied a report that U.S. authorities have widened a probe into offshore tax evasion to include the Swiss bank.

The mayor of Alabama's largest city was arrested Monday on charges of steering millions of dollars of bond work to a friend in exchange for more than $230,000 in bribes to pay for an expensive wardrobe and flashy jewelry.

The bond deals _ which funded years of work on a substandard county sewer system _ went sour and have helped push surrounding Jefferson County to the brink of filing the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.

The charges stem from Mayor Larry Langford's time on the Jefferson County Commission, where he served four years as president. He is accused of telling Wall Street giants JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and the now-bankrupt Lehman Brothers that they had to include his friend's investment banking firm on the deal if they wanted to handle the county's bond work, which was worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Australia's central bank slashed interest rates by one percentage point Tuesday in the latest bold move by the country's top finance officials to stave off a recession.

The reduction is the fourth in a row by the Reserve Bank of Australia and takes the cash rate to 4.25 percent. It was larger than predicted by analysts, most of whom had expected a 0.75 percentage point cut.

The global financial crisis has taken Australia's economy from boom times to the verge of recession in a matter of months, and policymakers are throwing billions of dollars at the economy to try to stop it from tipping over the edge.

Analysis and Discussion with Jeffrey Palma of UBS AG

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. said Monday it will cut a total of 9,200 jobs at Washington Mutual, which it acquired Sept.

Timothy Geithner, President-elect Barack Obama's pick to be Treasury secretary, will soon step down from his current post as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.