Banking

The House Financial Services Committee today approved three bills to water down the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau before it’s fully launched. Supporters of the legislation say it will add accountability and transparency. What’s transparent is that the legislation, backed by the banking industry, mostly serves to weaken the new Bureau. One bill, which passed 33-24, would eliminate the position of the director and replace the head of the Bureau with a five-member commission made up of people from both political parties.

Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc.'s top executive, R. Neal Black, earned $2.9 million last year, a decrease from the $4 million in compensation Black earned in 2011, the Hampstead-based men's apparel retailer said. Executive compensation for CEO Black, who also serves as the company's president, included a base salary of $806,492 and $1.96 million in stock awards, Bank reported in a filing Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In 2011, Black's earnings also included $1.2 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation.

While the Carroll commissioners' proposal to protect county woodlands through "tree banking" is an idea worth exploring, not all tree banks are created equal. Allowing industrial and commercial developers who can't satisfy the county's tree-preservation law to purchase "credits" for excess trees planted on other properties seems a good idea. But extending these benefits to residential developers creates new problems.The thrust of the county's forest conservation program is to preserve Carroll's existing woodlands whenever possible.

M&T Bank Corp. executive Atwood "Woody" Collins III has succeeded Edwin F. Hale Sr. as chair of the Baltimore Convention and Tourism Board, city officials said Monday. The appointment of Collins, an executive vice president of M&T, became effective Friday, Visit Baltimore announced. Collins has served on the convention and tourism board since 2008 as treasurer and head of the finance committee, advising on budget management and fiscal matters for both Visit Baltimore, the city's tourism and convention bureau, and the Baltimore Convention Center.

Mercantile Bankshares Corp.'s net income jumped 15.5 percent in the fourth quarter, fueled by revenue gains in its trust business and by fees it charges customers for other banking services.The Baltimore-based banking company made $37.8 million in the fourth quarter that ended Dec. 31, compared with $32.7 million in the corresponding period a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 15.2 percent to 53 cents a share in the quarter, compared with 46 cents a year earlier."They put up good numbers," said Gerard S. Cassidy, a bank analyst at Tucker Anthony, a Boston brokerage firm.

The mid-Atlantic region is turning into a banking backwater; welcome the financial meccas of the future: Charlotte, N.C., Pittsburgh and Columbus, Ohio.That's the banking world according to Arnold G. Danielson, president of Rockville-based Danielson Associates Inc., a consulting business that released its latest Middle Atlantic Banking Report this week.It's a world in which mergers will continue among regional and super-regional banking companies; smaller banks that avoid being acquired will grow to the point that they become pTC irresistible targets; and only the smallest community banks will remain independent.

WASHINGTON -- The General Accounting Office said yesterday that the Treasury Department's banking reform proposal may hurt the deposit insurance fund by placing too much emphasis on making U.S. banks internationally competitive.The Treasury's proposal would give banks powers to underwrite securities and enter related businesses to enhance their ability compete on the world market.However, the congressional investigative agency warned that "the more competitive markets get, the more tempting it becomes for banks to abuse expanded powers and attract federally insured deposits to take greater risks in attempts to gain market share or higher profits."

Mason-Dixon Bancshares' net income rose 10 percent in the first quarter, fueled by a jump in loans and fees it charges customers for products and services, the banking company said yesterday.The Westminster-based Mason-Dixon made $2.51 million in the quarter ended March 31, compared with $2.27 million earned during the corresponding period a year earlier. Net income per share rose 14 percent to 49 cents in the quarter, compared with 43 cents in 1997."We are happy, it is just a matter of keeping our heads pointed north," said Thomas K. Ferguson, Mason-Dixon's president and chief executive.

M&T Bank named Frances E. McNally manager of its Amber Meadows branch in Frederick. Preston Partners Inc. announced that Whitney Ferriell joined the financial planning and capital management commercial real estate firm as an associate in the mortgage banking group. Legal-insurance Offit Kurman said Mark Brenner has joined the law firm's new Maple Law Tax Advisory unit as a certified public accountant. Nonprofits The Children's Guild named Shemille Brown to the staff as clinical coordinator of group living programs.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- First Union Corp. said yesterday that its fourth-quarter profit fell 15 percent, meeting reduced expectations, as mortgage fees fell and expenses grew. The Charlotte, N.C.-based bank had reduced its earnings outlook twice last year, partly because of lower-than-expected revenue from its 1998 purchase of Co- reStates Financial Corp. in Philadelphia. Profit from operations fell to $846 million, or 86 cents a share, from $993 million, or $1, in the fourth quarter a year earlier.

For a decade, 1st Mariner's name adorned the Baltimore arena, but now the bank's parent company says it does not plan to bid for naming rights that expired last year. The bank's parent company has talked about the price for naming rights with Legends Sales and Marketing, a New York-based company hired by arena manager SMG Holdings to manage the sale. "We talked some numbers. We weren't close to what they're suggesting," said Dennis Finnegan, executive vice president of retail banking at First Mariner Bancorp.

Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc. expects first quarter earnings of 27 cents to 30 cents per diluted share, down from 53 cents per share in the first quarter of 2012, the Hampstead-based retailer said Monday. Sales for the quarter that ended May 4 dipped 3 percent, with unseasonably cool weather hurting spring business, the company said. The men's apparel seller was able to control expenses and improve advertising efficiency but had higher inventory sourcing costs during the quarter, the company said.

A shave and a haircut of yesteryear cost the proverbial two bits, 25 cents. A shave alone at The Old Bank Barbers, a soon-to-open barber shop on The Avenue in Hampden, will cost $25. It won't be any old shave, though. Owner Daniel Wells promises an old-fashioned, full-face, straight-edge shave, complete with hot lather, in a leather chair with a headrest that leans back. "It's an old-school barber shop with the tile floors," said Wells, who hopes to open this month at 1100 W. 36th St., the former site of Sixteen Tons, a men's clothing store.

Former Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold is doing his court-ordered community service hours at Anne Arundel County Food & Resource Bank in Crownsville, following his release from jail on convictions for misconduct in office. "He works in the front office for us," food bank Executive Director Bruce Michalec confirmed. He said he did not want to discuss specifics, but that Leopold completed a week of community service and is expected to be there 40 hours a week for his 400 hours of community service.

The robber of the Benson post office on Connolly Road Saturday is believed to be the same man who robbed that post office in December 2012, police investigators say.. An attempted robbery that also occurred Saturday, at the Sovereign Bank branch just south of Bel Air, is not believed to be related to the post office crime, according to the Harford County Sheriff's Office. The bank robbery is, however, likely to be connected to two earlier robberies at the same Sovereign Bank branch.

An armed man in camoflauge jumped the counter of a post office in Fallston and made off with an undisclosed amount of cash on Saturday morning, according to the Harford County Sheriff's Office. The armed robbery, which occurred at the Benson post office about 11:30 a.m., came just hours after an attempted armed robbery of a bank about five miles away in southern Bel Air, according to the sheriff's office. At the post office in the 100 block of Connolly Road, a man wearing camoflauge and holding a handgun entered, announced a robbery and then jumped over a counter before taking the cash and fleeing on foot toward the 1800 block of Harford Road, the sheriff's office said.

After several weeks of flirting with controversial proposals to ease banking regulations and encourage financial institutions to loan money to sound borrowers, the major federal regulatory agencies late last week issued a large package of actual and proposed changes.I find it impossible to separate the political, economic and regulatory motives for these rules, and I suspect even some regulators would share that difficulty. The rules are ostensibly aimed at restoring confidence in the banking industry, and perhaps they will.

Cost-cutting measures and increases in fee income lifted Signet Banking Corp.'s net income up 42 percent in the third quarter, the company said yesterday.The Richmond, Va.-based banking company reported net income of $42.2 million, up from $29.6 million for the same period a year earlier.Net income per share rose 39 percent to 68 cents a share, up from 49 cents in the year-ago quarter. "The ratios are excellent," said Joan T. Goodman, a banking analyst in Chicago with a unit of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Inc. "Everything looks good."

Jefferson Bancorp Inc., parent of Lutherville-based Bay Bank, said Monday it had completed its acquisition of Carrollton Bancorp, the holding company of Columbia-based Carrollton Bank. The $25 million stock-cash deal included the repayment of $9.1 million from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, a federal program created more than four years ago to support banks during the financial crisis. The combined bank operations have total assets of about $480 million and a dozen branches. Under the merged operations, Carrollton's former 10 branches - from Anne Arundel County to Harford County - now bear the name of Bay Bank.

PPL Park in Chester, Pa., will host the Atlantic Coast Conference men's lacrosse tournament in 2014 and 2015, the conference announced Wednesday. It will mark the first time in eight years that the tournament has been held at a neutral site. The 18,500-seat stadium, home to Major League Soccer's Philadelphia Union, will be the host venue for the ACC on April 25-27, 2014, and again in the spring of 2015. Next season will be the fourth time in the 26-year history of the tournament that the event has been held at a neutral site.