80% of U.S. Banks Are Low-Intensity Banks When it Comes to Using Technology
July 13, 2009 @ 12:30 PM | By Art Gillis

Definition: a low intensity bank uses its IT system or outsourced service to do accounting, just like the old ledger card machines used to do. So if you should go to the back room of such a bank after 7:00 PM, you’ll see: (1) item processing to get all the transactions into the core system, (2) posting transactions and updating customer accounts, (3) transmission of EFT transactions to connect with the outside world, and (4) regulatory reporting to satisfy banking laws. At the end of that run (three to four hours for a small bank), a banker will feel good if the debits and credits balanced, if the customer accounts were ready for business at 7:00 AM, and if the call report went out. If a bank didn’t do these basic things, the chain and padlock would be on the front door.

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Sound Risk Management, Transparency Can Help Banks Master Financial Crisis
July 13, 2009 @ 09:38 AM | By

By Falk Rieker, SAP America

While the latest travails in the financial services industry were a decade or more in the making, the time is now to prevent plunging world markets into deeper despair. According to the Milken Institute, one common thread runs through all facets of the crisis from Main Street to Wall Street: excessive leverage. Homeowners and major financial firms alike had assumed too much debt, while, at the same time, taking on too much risk.

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Buy High, Sell Low? Determining the Right Price for TARP Warrant Buybacks
July 10, 2009 @ 10:17 AM | By Kathy Burger

Another week, another banking controversy. Now that some banks are starting to exit from the TARP program, questions are emerging about the prices of repayments, including the repurchase of stock warrants.

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No Cracks About “Float,” Please: PNC Bank Sponsors Gigantic American Flag
July 07, 2009 @ 09:41 AM | By Kathy Burger
It wasn't exactly art imitates life, but it was a treat for me to see a financial institution prominently featured in an unusual Independence Day celebration.

PNC Bank sponsors what is reportedly the world's largest free-flying American flag — a gigantic balloon that is officially known as America One — U.S. Flag Balloon. I caught the 53-foot-tall, 78-foot-wide, 530-pound flag in its full glory on July 3 in Hoboken, N.J., where it was launched in the stadium field at Stevens Institute of Technology. Check out some of the pictures I took of this amazing floating flag.

PNC Bank will next fly the U.S. Flag Balloon at the Quick-Chek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning, which takes place in northwest New Jersey later this summer.