Prez targets finance system
Seeks to prevent Wall St. abuses
President Obama’s plan to overhaul the nation’s financial regulatory system received support yesterday from key Massachusetts congressional members who said changes are long overdue.
Saying America had allowed a “culture of irresponsibility” to grow within the financial industry, Obama proposed giving the Federal Reserve more regulatory powers and creating a new consumer watchdog agency to review new financial products peddled by firms.
“This was a failure of the entire system,” Obama said at a White House event, referring to last fall’s near collapse of the nation’s financial system. “An absence of oversight engendered systematic, and systemic, abuse.”
U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Newton), chairman of the influential House Financial Services Committee, said the plan is an important step toward overhauling the regulatory system. He predicted Congress will have a bill on Obama’s desk before the end of the year.
Frank, who has parted with the administration over some issues, said there will be changes to Obama’s plan, but he said Democrats agree with the “fundamental” thrust of the package.
U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Rep. William Delahunt (D-Quincy) won a major victory when Obama agreed to create a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency, something the two Bay State pols have pushed for in recent months.
“The plan announced by the president today will protect consumers and investors by restoring much of the regulatory oversight of our financial system that has been systematically dismantled in recent years,” said Delahunt.
But business leaders and Republicans didn’t like most of the proposals.
David Hirschmann, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s capital markets center, said the president’s plan adds an extra layer of red tape without really fixing the problems that led to last year’s Wall Street meltdown.
“We can’t simply insert new regulatory agencies and hope that we’ve covered our bases,” he said.
U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) said the president’s plan could create a cycle of more bank bailouts.
“It perpetuates what we’ve had in the past, said Garrett,” a member of Frank’s Financial Services committee.
The financial industry, including some of Boston’s most powerful mutual-fund companies, have been wary of too much government intervention in the sector, fearing their interests might be hurt.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1179683
US push to overhaul banking worries some
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BlackRock’s Fink engineers biggest deal of career
BOSTON (Reuters) – In the rarefied circles of institutional investors and government officials asking for investment aid, Laurence Fink is known as the go-to man.
Now he may become that to average savers around the world.
As chief executive of BlackRock Inc (BLK.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), already the largest publicly traded U.S. asset manager, Fink this week engineered a blockbuster deal to buy Barclays Plc’s investment unit BGI. Together they will become world’s biggest money manager with roughly $2.8 trillion of assets.
To analysts and investors the move is typical Fink — a carefully considered deal with a hefty price tag designed to add critical mass, access new products and bring in the retail clients BlackRock has long wanted to attract.
And one the California native, known for keeping top talent happy, is expected to execute on time.
“There is potential there for BlackRock to pull this one off,” said Michael Herbst, a mutual fund industry analyst at research firm Morningstar Inc.
Since 1988 when Fink co-founded BlackRock as a one-room fixed income shop, he has proven his hand at orchestrating a string of acquisitions, including a $8.6 billion deal to buy Merrill Lynch Investment Managers in 2006.
Before that he bought Boston-based State Street Research & Management and after that purchased the funds-of-funds business from Quellos Group.
Fink, who has deep roots in the mortgage markets, has worked hard to diversify BlackRock’s capabilities and make it more than a bond manager locked in a deep rivalry with West Coast competitor PIMCO.
And when Washington needs a trusted player on Wall Street to help calm markets during the financial crisis, BlackRock often gets a call, insiders at the company have said.
The company applied to become one of the Treasury Department’s hand-picked managers assigned to buy toxic assets from banks as part of its Public-Private Investment Program.
The lanky executive is not well-recognized by the public and can walk through midtown Manhattan without creating a stir. Unlike other bank chief executives, Fink is no danger of being pelted with expletives, largely because his company rode out the financial crisis with relative ease.
Since January, BlackRock has returned 36.12 percent, ranking among the best performers in the industry.
Two years ago Fink was in the running to take the helm of Merrill Lynch but was not offered the job after he began asking to tear into the company’s financial documents more deeply, people familiar with the search said.
Merrill Lynch was acquired by Bank of America last year and John Thain, who beat Fink to the position, is out of a job.
Fink apologized to shareholders for any unrest the talk of his leaving might have caused and has been fully devoted to BlackRock ever since.
Famous for the long hours he keeps, Fink is also known for navigating turbulent markets, wooing and keeping top talent, and speaking plainly about all types of topics, according to people who work with him and know him.
The 56 year old is also known to be both diplomatic and plain-spoken. He helped persuade embattled former New York Stock Exchange Chairman Dick Grasso to step down and helped find John Thain to take the top job.
Fink, who traditionally wears a tie to work even as he encourages other BlackRock employees to sport more casual wear, is usually at his midtown Manhattan office by 6 a.m.
He sticks to a grueling but predictable schedule that includes lunch at a favorite Italian restaurant near the office and lots of overseas travel.
Over the years, Fink’s fascination with geology has become well-known on Wall Street, where he and his partners stuck to the rock theme in naming their company, as well as products like the Obsidian and Galaxite hedge funds.
Even in his free time, rocks aren’t far from Fink’s mind. People who know him say the avid outdoorsman enjoys hiking and fly-fishing in the mountainous state of Colorado.
(Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
Boston moves ahead in world finance rank
The global recession has actually enhanced Boston’s reputation as one of the top financial centers in the world.
A new report ranks the Hub within the top 10 financial centers in the world, moving from 11th place to ninth place, as many other financial hotspots tumbled along with the global economy.
The “Global Financial Centres Index,” prepared for the City of London Corp., indicates that major investment players across the globe appreciate Boston’s steady environment for financial firms and experts at a time of deep market turmoil.
Previous rankings by other firms usually have Boston in top 20 lists of financial cities – thanks to the large number of mutual-fund, wealth-management, venture capital and private-equity firms based here.
But the City of London Corp.’s study, which was conducted by the UK-based Z/Yen Group, stands out because, in addition to data measuring the amount of funds flowing through a city, it relies on surveys of financial executives who are asked to rate cities.
Those interviewed are also dominated by European executives, confirming that Boston has an international, Old World flare appealing to those on the other side of the Atlantic.
Jim Lowell, editor of Fidelity Investor, an independent print and online newsletter, said Boston is considered a “hidden gem” by some international investors.
“Boston has long been known for being staid, fiduciary (minded) and for its long-term asset management,” said Lowell.
Those somewhat conservative traits have apparently helped Boston during tough financial times.
London and New York remain the unquestioned leaders of the financial world, the index report said.
If anything, London and New York’s leads may have solidified, despite London, in general, and New York, in particular, being epicenters of the current financial crisis. The two cities have maintained their lead partly because many up-and-coming, fast-growing cities in Asia and elsewhere took heavy hits during the current economic crisis, the City of London report said.
Boston was also a beneficiary of the recession, in terms of rankings.
The Hub rated particularly high for its financial “infrastructure” and “market access” to funds and deals, the report said.
How long Boston can maintain its strong, top-tier status is in question.
Cities throughout Asia and the Middle East – such as Shanghai, Beijing and Dubai – are emerging as financial powerhouses that want a larger piece of the funds and jobs flowing to more established financial centers, the report said.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1174535
A.
- www.citizensbank.com - (617) 725-5900
B.
- www.livenation.com - (617) 728-1600
C.
- www.bankofamerica.com - (617) 227-0531
D.
E.
Citizens Bank
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F.
Sovereign Bank
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G.
- www.bankofamerica.com - (617) 262-0331
H.
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I.
Sovereign Bank
- www.sovereignbank.com - (617) 737-3390
J.
Boston Private Bank & Trust Co
- www.bostonprivatebank.com - (617) 912-4500
