FINALLY PUT MY MONEY WHERE MY MOUTH IS AND MOVED IT & EU CAPS Bank Bonuses: Company Performance To Dictate Bonus Pay 7JUL10

I finally put my money where my mouth is and joined thousands of Americans who have moved their money from the "too big to fail" banks (I was with Chevy Chase, soon to become part of CapitalOne in SEP). Now my money is with Middleburg Bank, a local northern VA institution. So far over $550 million has been moved by regular working people like me. If you are tired of the greed, the obscene bonuses and the lack of investment to get out out of this economic mess (after all, the nation bailed these banks out, the least they could do is make sure we are paid back with interest and then invest in the nation that saved them) you may want to check othe this link that will help you decide if you should and how to move your money. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/move-your-money-a-new-yea_b_406022.html

CHECK out this story about how the big banks are still helping themselves and then what the EU has done to address some of the greed of the big banks in Europe. 

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CHART: Bank Lending Dives, But Wall Street Bonuses Are Way Up

businessinsider.com:
The Business Insider's Joe Weisenthal and Kamelia Angelova produced this great chart juxtaposing the latest data on Wall Street bonuses (up 17%) with bank lending (down 7.5%). Their take away: "sitting on your hands and doing nothing is a pretty lucrative gig."
Read the whole story: businessinsider.com
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• Financial Crisis

The Business Insider's Joe Weisenthal and Kamelia Angelova produced this great chart juxtaposing the latest data on Wall Street bonuses (up 17%) with bank lending (down 7.5%). Their take away: "sittin...

The Business Insider's Joe Weisenthal and Kamelia Angelova produced this great chart juxtaposing the latest data on Wall Street bonuses (up 17%) with bank lending (down 7.5%). Their take away: "sittin...

Related News On Huffington Post:

EU CAPS Bank Bonuses: Company Performance To Dictate Bonus Pay BRUSSELS — European Union lawmakers have voted overwhelmingly to cap bankers' short-term cash bonuses from next year, a move that European leaders hope other parts...

Another Wall Street Bonus Tax Falters In Congress Few topics have generated as much political heat between Main Street and Wall Street as the billions of dollars in bonuses handed out at financial...

Wall Street Bankers Are Overpaid, Says Morgan Stanley Chairman John Mack Morgan Stanley Chairman John Mack said investment bankers are overpaid and Wall Street compensation won't decrease much because firms don't want to lose their best...  EU CAPS Bank Bonuses: Company Performance To Dictate Bonus Pay BRUSSELS — European Union lawmakers have voted overwhelmingly to cap bankers' short-term cash bonuses from next year, a move that European leaders hope other parts of the world will follow. Members of the European Parliament voted 625-28 in favor of the new rules which will become final when they are approved by EU finance ministers as expected next week. From 2011, bankers will only be able to get part of their yearly bonuses in cash upfront. The other 70 percent will be held back and paid out if the company performs well. The caps come after a European outcry over payments to executives of banks that received huge state bailouts during the financial crisis. Some say bonuses encouraged bankers to take massive risks at the expense of the long-term future of their businesses. Michel Barnier, the EU's financial services commissioner, said the new rules sent a strong message that "there will be no return to business as usual." "Banks will need to change radically their practices and the mentality that have led in many cases to excessive risk-taking and contributed to the financial crisis," he said. Starting next January, cash bonuses will be capped at 30 percent of the total bonus and 20 percent for "particularly large" bonuses. The measure leaves it to individual governments to determine what "particularly large" means in their economies. While some European countries including Britain have already imposed limits on banker bonuses, the new rules set minimum caps for all 27 members of the EU. French and German governments have also effectively set caps by pressing banks to agree to limit executive pay. On the other side of the Atlantic, the U.S. Federal Reserve, in an in-depth analysis released last month, found that many U.S. banks' compensation practices were deficient in curbing excessive risk-taking. The Fed – and other major banking regulators – under a newly adopted plan can veto pay policies that cause too much risk-taking by executives, traders, loan officers and other key employees. "We found that many banks had not modified their practices from what they were before the crisis," Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told a House panel last month. "The structure of the compensation practices needs to change so that there's not an incentive to take excessive risks, you know, packages where the trader gets all the upside and none of the downside. That's the kind of thing we're trying to get rid of," he said. In Europe, a large part of the bonus will have to be deferred, though it is up to governments to determine for how long. At least half of the total bonus will be held as "contingent capital" for banks to call on first if they urgently need funding. The measure also limits "exceptional pension payments" to avoid the kind of bloated severance packages for disgraced departing executives that have caused public uproar around Europe. Douglas Elliott, a fellow at the Washington DC-based Brookings Institution and former JP Morgan investment banker, says he doesn't think the new rules will force bankers to quit Europe. "There will be some effect, but generally bankers will continue to act the same way," he said. "It will have the least effect on the wealthiest ... the people who will be hurt are the investment bankers who actually need the cash." European banks will also be required to hold a minimum amount of capital to ensure they are covering risk from their trading book and complex securitized investments – such as mortgage-backed securities – to avoid a repeat of risk-related losses like those seen during the financial meltdown. The capital requirements will take effect in 2012. This could force banks to hold three to four times more capital against their trading risk than they do at present. Barnier, however, insists there would be an upside because the tougher requirements would help make the banking sector better able to cope with shocks. Global banking regulators are also separately drafting tighter capital requirements that European banks complain could force them to put aside far more money to counter risks. They say this could hit their profits and even force them to curb lending to companies and households. Associated Press writers Jeannine Aversa in Washington and Rafael Mesquita in Paris contributed to this story. Get HuffPost Business On Twitter, Facebook, and Google Buzz! Know something we don't? E-mail us at huffpostbiz@gmail.com Financial Crisis United Kingdom France European Union BRUSSELS — European Union lawmakers have voted overwhelmingly to cap bankers' short-term cash bonuses from next year, a move that European leaders hope other parts of the world will follow. Mem... BRUSSELS — European Union lawmakers have voted overwhelmingly to cap bankers' short-term cash bonuses from next year, a move that European leaders hope other parts of the world will follow. Mem... Related News On Huffington Post: Goldman Sachs Bonuses: Bank Paying Staff Over $5 Billion For Just Three Months Work LONDON — Goldman Sachs is facing a potential backlash in Europe over the fraud case brought against it in the United States, with Britain's Prime... Government Bank Regulators Got Big Bonuses WASHINGTON — As banks gambled on the risky mortgages that helped create the worst financial crisis in generations, the U.S. government handed out millions of... Bank Lending Dives, But Wall Street Bonuses Are Way Up: CHART The Business Insider's Joe Weisenthal and Kamelia Angelova produced this great chart juxtaposing the latest data on Wall Street bonuses (up 17%) with bank lending... Wall Street Bonuses Up 17%, Profits Could Hit 'Unprecedented' Level, Says NY State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli ALBANY, N.Y. (By Michael Gormley, Associated Press) - Wall Street bonuses were up 17 percent to over $20 billion in 2009, the year taxpayers bailed... More News Posts:  « First   Prev  1  2  Next   Last »