Citibank Computers Down Blocked Customers, Trust The Banks?

[Mrs. Sharon B. Hodge]

Citibank Computers Down Blocked Customers, Trust The Banks?



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Citibank's computers down, blocking account info
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Associated Press
12-17-08

http://www. google. com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hWYJt03XY1Au0bp...

NEW YORK (AP) — Customers of New York City-based Citibank have lost access to much of their account information because of a computer outage

Many of the troubled bank's clients haven't been able to retrieve account details online or by telephone since Tuesday afternoon.
Others can access only parts of their account profiles

Citibank telephone representatives say they don't know what caused the outage but technicians are working to fix it.
They've been telling customers to call back after Wednesday morning

A Citibank spokeswoman hasn't replied to a phone message or an e-mail sent after business hours

Citibank is a division of Citigroup Inc.
, which is struggling to survive the global financial crisis with billions of dollars in aid from the government


Jim Rogers "America is out of control" demise of the dollar


Jim Rogers and the rise of China


JIM ROGERS LET THEM GO BANKRUPT

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Jim Rogers calls most big US banks "bankrupt"
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Reuters
Jonathan Stempel
Thu Dec 11, 2008

http://www. reuters. com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE4BA5CO20081211

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Jim Rogers, one of the world's most prominent international investors, on Thursday called most of the largest U.S.
banks "totally bankrupt," and said government efforts to fix the sector are wrongheaded

Speaking by teleconference at the Reuters Investment Outlook 2009 Summit, the co-founder with George Soros of the Quantum Fund, said the government's $700 billion rescue package for the sector doesn't address how banks manage their balance sheets, and instead rewards weaker lenders with new capital

Dozens of banks have won infusions from the Troubled Asset Relief Program created in early October, just after the Sept 15 bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc (LEHMQ. PK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).
Some of the funds are being used for acquisitions

"Without giving specific names, most of the significant American banks, the larger banks, are bankrupt, totally bankrupt," said Rogers, who is now a private investor

"What is outrageous economically and is outrageous morally is that normally in times like this, people who are competent and who saw it coming and who kept their powder dry go and take over the assets from the incompetent," he said. "What's happening this time is that the government is taking the assets from the competent people and giving them to the incompetent people and saying, now you can compete with the competent people.
It is horrible economics"

Rogers said he shorted shares of Fannie Mae (FNM.P: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Freddie Mac (FRE.
P: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) before the government nationalized the mortgage financiers in September, a week before Lehman failed

Now a specialist in commodities, Rogers said he has used the recent rally in the U.S.
dollar as an opportunity to exit dollar-denominated assets

While not saying how long the U.S. economic recession will last, he said conditions could ultimately mirror those of Japan in the 1990s.
"The way things are going, we're going to have a lost decade too, just like the 1970s," he said

Goldman Sachs & Co analysts this week estimated that banks worldwide have suffered $850 billion of credit-related losses and writedowns since the global credit crisis began last year

But Rogers said sound U.S. lenders remain.
He said these could include banks that don't make or hold subprime mortgages, or which have high ratios of deposits to equity, "all the classic old ratios that most banks in America forgot or started ignoring because they were too old-fashioned"

Many analysts cite Lehman's Sept 15 bankruptcy as a trigger for the recent cratering in the economy and stock markets

Rogers called that idea "laughable," noting that banks have been failing for hundreds of years.
And yet, he said policymakers aren't doing enough to prevent another Lehman

"Governments are making mistakes," he said. "They're saying to all the banks, you don't have to tell us your situation. You can continue to use your balance sheet that is phony.... All these guys are bankrupt, they're still worrying about their bonuses, they're still trying to pay their dividends, and the whole system is weakened"

Rogers said is investing in growth areas in China and Taiwan, in such areas as water treatment and agriculture, and recently bought positions in energy and agriculture indexes

(For summit blog: summitnotebook. reuters. com/)

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; Additional reporting by Jennifer Ablan and Herbert Lash)






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Bank of America to cut up to 35,000 jobs
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Reuters
Fri Dec 12, 2008

http://www. reuters. com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE4BA6ZD20081212

By Jonathan Stempel and Dan Wilchins

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp said on Thursday it plans to eliminate 30,000 to 35,000 jobs over three years, reflecting its pending purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co and weaker business activity stemming from the economic recession

The cuts could affect as much as 11.
4 percent of the combined companies' workforce of about 308,000 people, and are intended to help save $7 billion of annual costs

Bank of America said the cuts will come from both companies and affect all business lines, and in part reflect "the weak economic environment, which is affecting the level of business activity"

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank said it won't determine the final number of cuts until early 2009, and that as many as possible will come through attrition

Bank of America employs about 247,000 people and Merrill about 61,000. The merger values Merrill at about $20.5 billion and is expected to close on January 1, 2009, creating the largest U.S.
bank by assets

Financial companies have announced more than 250,000 job cuts this year, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc, as losses soared from mortgages, credit cards and securities write-downs

Bank of America announced its cuts less than four weeks after Citigroup Inc set plans to eliminate 52,000 jobs, or 15 percent of its workforce, by early 2009

"If you asked me six months ago I would be surprised, but in this day and age, it doesn't look as draconian, especially compared with what Citigroup did," said Howard Diamond, chief executive of Diamond Consultants, a Chester, New Jersey, recruiter

Other financial companies to cut jobs in recent months include Goldman Sachs Group Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Morgan Stanley.
Bank of America previously said it would cut 7,500 jobs following the July 1 purchase of mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp

Bank of America spokesman Scott Silvestri said the bank would not elaborate on where the latest job cuts will come from, how many might come from attrition, or where the banks' business activity had been hurt

One recruiter said attrition could account for most of the announced job cuts, and that more cuts may be needed to make Bank of America more competitive

Eventual losses may be "substantially higher" than 35,000, with many coming from the middle ranks, said Gustavo Dolfino, president of WhiteRock Group LLC, a New York-based recruiter

Shareholders of Bank of America and Merrill approved the merger on December 5.
The transaction was originally valued at $50 billion, but the value has fallen because Bank of America shares have declined

Bank of America shares closed Thursday down $1.78, or 10.7 percent, at $14.91, while Merrill shares fell $1.43, or 10.1 percent, to $12.67.
Shares of Bank of America fell 6 cents in after-hours trading

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel, editing by Matthew Lewis, Gary Hill)