Archive for March 3rd, 2008
Texas Department of Banking - Homepage
Charters, licenses, and regulates financial providers in the say of Texas to ensure that Texas has a safe and sound financial services system.
Banking
Celent is accepting nominations for its first annual Model Bank 2008 . For more information or to nominate your bank, please click here
Banking - MSN Encarta
Banking, the business of providing financial services to consumers and businesses. The basic services a bank provides are checking accounts, which can.
State of Connecticut Department of Banking
Governor M. Jodi Rell and Banking Commissioner Howard Pitkin announced the DOB Web site
Greater Bay Venture Banking
The Stability, Experience, and Responsiveness You Need, From a Partner You Trust. Unlike typical commercial banks that offer only formula products with fixed criteria, Greater Bay
Banking Jobs / Financial Resumes | Bankjobs.com
Banking and financial industry career site.
Banking Unusual
Equal Housing Lender | Member FDIC | Security | Privacy Policy | Contact Us | Site Map
On the internet Banking
Troy 5151 Corporate Dr Troy, MI 48098 (800) 642-0039 Banking hours: Weekdays 7:30 a.m. - 7:30 p.m. Saturday 8:30 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Banking Code Standards Board
Ensures that the Banking Code and the Business Banking Code deliver their promises of fair dealing and standards of good banking practice to the customers of UK banks and building
On the internet Banking
Welcome to our Internet Banking service. You must have an account with us to use this system. If you’ve an account and would like to sign up, click the ENROLL
Financial Supervisory Commmission, Executive Yuan-Banking in Taiwan
Banking Agency, Financial Supervisory Commission, Executive Yuan, R.O.C. Address: 7F., No.7, Sec. 2, Sianmin Blvd., Banciao City, Taipei County 22041, Taiwan, Republic of China
Pennsylvania Department of Banking
Ensure the safety and soundness of state-chartered deposit-taking institutions.
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eldavojohn writes “Over concerns for lack of an anti-phishing mechanism for Safari, Paypal is telling its Mac users to use another browser. An author from Ars Technica reveals that he has been using Camino and has fallen victim to a Paypal related phishing scam via e-mail so this story must hit home for him. ‘Currently the Apple browser does not alert users to sites that could be phishing for your info, and it lacks support for Extended Validation. PayPal is, of course, a popular site among phishers in their neverending search for personal information, user IDs, and passwords. While it’s not entirely fair singling out Safari (other Mac browsers like Camino also lack this support), it is perhaps at least a helpful reminder of the threat.’”
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alternative coup writes “eWEEK is running a story on the emergence of an anti-botnet market to fill a perceived need for software to deal with botnet-related malware (Trojans, keyloggers, rootkits, etc.). The article characterizes this as ‘another black eye’ for the existing anti-virus industry — asking consumers to pay twice for protection from things that anti-malware suites are missing. Venture capital money is flowing to these anti-bot products, an implicit statement that the AV giants are not doing their jobs. ‘For companies such as Symantec, which sells the Sana-powered Norton AntiBot and anti-malware subscriptions, it’s a nickel-and-dime situation. Symantec officials say Norton AntiBot is for a specialized, technical market segment looking for high-end tools to deal with botnets, but [Andrew Jaquith, an analyst with The Yankee Group] stated it’s a case of anti-malware companies double-dipping.’”
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jcatcw writes “Computerworld has reviewed seven USB drives that use either encryption or a physical keypad to protect stored data, and found large differences in I/O speeds, ease of use and strength of security. In the case of the drive using a key pad, the editors were able to break open the device and access the data, bypassing the PIN security. They also state that there’s tiny difference between 128-bit and 256-bit AES encryption because neither has been broken yet. The drives reviewed were the SanDisk Cruzer, the Lexar JumpDrive, the Kingston DataTraveler, the Imation Pivot Plus, the Corsair Survivor, the Corsair Padlock and the IronKey Secure USB Drive. The editors selected the IronKey as the most secure.”
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Posted by: in Services
Filed under: Productivity, Web services, Beta
 Finding a cheap flight isn’t too hard these days. At least a half-dozen major sites search for the ideal fares, and many of them will search their competitors and compare rates for you. InsideTrip is trying to carve out a new niche in this crowded market by focusing less on the cheapest flights, and more on the easiest, most comfortable ones. InsideTrip rates flights on its TripQuality scale, which includes your choice of 12 different factors. Sick of flights being late? Check the “on-time stats” box. Is sitting in the middle seat one of your pet peeves? InsideTrip has a box for that, too: you can search by historical load factor.
We conducted a few test searches to see how much more you could be paying for these amenities, but it turns out that it’s not that expensive. InsideTrip just lets you narrow down the same cheap results the other sites offer, based on what’s most important to you. If you’ll gladly endure a few hours of wait time or some lost bags to save money, skip it. If you’re concerned about everything from security wait times to the age of your plane, you might want to give it a look.
[Via TechCrunch]
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Posted by: in Rights Online
Scott Jaschik writes “At Hunter College, professors are debating the ethics of a course in which an industry group paid for a class to develop a fake student who would write a fake blog to discourage other students from buying knockoff products. The controversy involves both commercial interference with academic freedom and the ethics of ‘guerilla marketing.’”
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Posted by: in Rights Online
eldavojohn writes “Over concerns for lack of an anti-phishing mechanism for Safari, Paypal is telling its Mac users to use another browser. An author from Ars Technica reveals that he has been using Camino and has fallen victim to a Paypal related phishing scam via e-mail so this story must hit home for him. ‘Currently the Apple browser does not alert users to sites that could be phishing for your info, and it lacks support for Extended Validation. PayPal is, of course, a popular site among phishers in their neverending search for personal information, user IDs, and passwords. While it’s not entirely fair singling out Safari (other Mac browsers like Camino also lack this support), it is perhaps at least a helpful reminder of the threat.’”
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Posted by: in Rights Online
Umpire writes “As the UK thinks about a three strikes policy to fight copyright infringement, a new survey reports that 70% of UK broadband users would stop using P2P if they received a warning from their ISP. ‘Wiggin commissioned the 2008 Digital Entertainment Survey, which found that 70 percent of all people polled said they would stop illegally sharing files if their ISP notified them in some way that it had detected the practice. When broken down by age group, an unexpected trend emerges: teenagers are generally more apt to change their behavior than older Internet users.’”
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Filed under: Competitive strategy, Wal-Mart (WMT), Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), China, International Business Machines (IBM), Reliance Steel and Aluminum (RS), Valero Energy (VLO), Huaneng Power Intl ADS (HNP), Bargain stocks, Chasing Value, Commodities, Anglo Amer ADR (AAUK), S and P 500, DJIA, Stocks to Purchase, Newcastle Investment (NCT), Raytheon Company (RTN), Best Stocks for 2008, Bunge Ltd. (BG), Loews Corporation (LTR), NASDAQ
Two months into the year and investors’ true ‘metal’ was tested, and mine more than most. February showed signs of improvement over January, but the last week ended hopes of any rally. The last day of January saw a 370 point drop in the Dow and February’s last trading day closed with similar results, down 315 points.
The soft stock market did display many points worth noting. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was about break even for the month, indicating investors were showing some signs of support for large cap stocks, prompted in part by news of increased profits at Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and share buy-backs at IBM Corp (NYSE: IBM).
I can’t say the same for the other major indices, NASDAQ Composite Index and Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, which dropped significantly last month.
Some of my picks also sagged a tiny more, although not as much, while two turned into positive territory. In January, only Raytheon Co. (NYSE: RTN), the high tech, defense contractor, was up. In February, the weak dollar and inflation concerns boosted Anglo American plc (ADR) and Reliance Steel & Aluminum (NYSE: RS) — two commodity plays.
I still like all of my picks for the year and if things follow the pattern that’s emerging, all should be fine for my eight picks. See Chasing Value: Final list — 8 stocks for 2008 for the original story. In January, I added Newcastle Investment Corp. (NYSE: NCT) and Huaneng Power to my holdings. I made no additions in February.
As noted among the indices, the DJIA lost the least while the NASDAQ’s losses increased. The average return for my eight picks was a loss of -8.06% (in January it was -7.82%). This outperformed the average return of the indices: -10.1% (last month-7.58%). But the stalking horse, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.B), improved during the month besting both my average and overall indices average. So once more, I must take my hat off to ‘my pal Warren’.
Now, including dividends for my picks, which average 3.91% yield divided by six for the two months, allows for an additional .652%, reducing the loss to -7.41% (-7.49%). Using 1.8% for the average dividend of the indices divided by 6 adds 0.3%, reduces the loss to -9.8% (-7.43%). You can see the importance of dividends here. When they are included, I actually have reduced my loss from last month and increased the marginal benefit over the indices. All things being equal, I will have an inherent advantage all year. BRK.B does not pay a dividend.
I hope 2008 does not end up being about who loses the least, instead of who makes the most. The following are my eight picks with the starting share price as of December 28, 2007:
The Indices:
This year’s “stalking horse” Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.B) was one of the few stocks that were up on Friday 2/29/08 as investors ran for cover while the DJIA sank 2.5%. I am tracking the ‘B’ shares, not the more expensive ‘A’ shares. The B shares are down from $4,685 to $4,674.50 for a loss of $0.002%, basically nothing. This is actually an improvement from January. I guess it is no shocker that ‘my pal Warren’ outperformed all of the indices and my average as well. Only RTN (defense sector), AAUK and RS (metals) made a better showing.
The Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke, speaking before Congress, discussed his willingness to lower interest rates again. The “smart money” is looking for action the month of March. He spoke before Friday’s drop increased the odds of a rate cut.
The annual presidential pastime of embellishing the federal budget and deficits came out indicating a $400 billion deficit is likely — so maybe $800 billion is more likely given all that’s not included and the source of the predictions.
Most comments I’ve received during the past month support my notion that interest rates are a band aide remedy to an economic policy that has shown no signs of long or short term fiscal restraint. But I cannot say the American consumer has shown much restraint either.
Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money. DISCLOSURE: I currently own shares of AAUK, BRK.B, HNP, NCT, and VLO.
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Filed under: Forecasts, Deals, Competitive strategy, United Technologies (UTX), Initial public offerings
 Maker of Otis elevators and Chubb security systems, United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX), announced Sunday that it had made an unsolicited $2.63 billion offer for Diebold Inc. (NYSE: DBD). Diebold is one of the largest makers of automated teller machines and voting machines, and United Tech’s move comes as a part of its plan to extend its security business and presence in China.
United Technologies announced it first approached Diebold about a possible deal two years ago but nothing had materialized thus far. United Tech announced that its current bid amounts to $40 a share, a 66% premium to Diebold’s closing price of $24.12 on Friday. The company also said a it may increase its offer if it is sees more detailed information.
George David, United Technologies’ chairman and chief executive, said that the “transaction creates significant and immediate value for Diebold shareholders with no operational risk, while creating long term value for UTC shareholders.”
After reporting 13% profit growth in 2007, United Technologies now sees Diebold as a good opportunity to expand its electronic security business. A huge part of the company’s revenue came from China where United Technologies benefits from strong productivity and more efficient sales.
Diebold announced last month it would slash 800 jobs to reduce costs in North America and Brazil. Its decision came after the company revealed a plan last year aiming to save $100 million. Diebold would also review manufacturing and storage facilities in North and South America as it has to face a sharp decline in revenue.
Shares of UTX are down $1.70, or 2.4%, to $68.81 in early trading. To ease investors’ worries, the company reaffirmed its 2008 expectations. The company, which is offering $40 per share for Diebold, still anticipates 2008 earnings in the range of $4.65 and $4.85 per share, below analysts’ predictions for a profit of $4.86 per share.
Eliza Popescu is a financial writer for the on the internet investment advisory service Investor’s Observer.
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