Wachovia

MIAMI - Banking giant Wachovia Corp. will pay $160 million to settle a federal investigation into laundering of illegal drug profits through Mexican exchange houses in the largest case of its kind ever brought against a U.S. bank, prosecutors said Wednesday. The inquiry uncovered at least $110 million in drug profits laundered from Mexico through Wachovia. The total settlement includes forfeiture in that amount plus a $50 million fine. The agreement means Wachovia and its executives will avoid criminal prosecution in return for the payment and significant improvements in its anti-money laundering program.

This weekend you may notice former Wachovia branches around Baltimore getting a makeover, swapping out their old logos for brand new Wells Fargo signs. While Wells Fargo has been busy promoting the new and improved services customers will receive, people in my east side neighborhood can't forget all the old services the bank brought to Baltimore during the height of the housing bubble. From 2005 to 2009, Wells Fargo was Baltimore's biggest mortgage lender, and it issued more high-cost subprime loans than any other bank.

NEW YORK - Citigroup announced late last night that it had persuaded a New York judge to temporarily block Wells Fargo from acquiring Wachovia, firing the first shot in what could be a prolonged legal battle. Citigroup has accused Wells Fargo of wrecking its plan to acquire Wachovia's banking operations for $2.2 billion, or $1 a share, in a deal arranged by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Four days after that deal was struck, it fell apart when Wachovia agreed to Wells Fargo's offer to pay seven times as much for the entire company.

Wachovia's 82 branches in Maryland will convert to Wells Fargo's platform and name in September, representing the last wave of their merger integration, the company announced Monday. The conversion of Wachovia's retail banking operations comes more than two years after Wells Fargo completed its purchase of Wachovia Corp. during the financial crisis. "It' been very nice because it allows us to ensure that we have minimal impact," said Andy Bertamini, Maryland regional president for Wachovia/Wells Fargo.

Wachovia customers will become part of the nation's largest bank under a $2.16 billion deal announced yesterday in which Citigroup Inc. will acquire Wachovia's banking operations. Customers of Wachovia, which is the Baltimore area's third-largest bank with about 9 percent of the market in terms of deposits, shouldn't expect changes until the end of the year, when the deal is expected to close. Even then, terms on outstanding loans, certificates of deposit and mortgages will remain the same.

ATLANTA -- Nothing gets consumers riled up and griping about their banks more than fees. Get ready to gripe some more. Wachovia has joined a number of other financial institutions, including Bank of America and SunTrust Banks, who charge their customers a monthly fee to download account information through their Quicken or Microsoft Money personal money management software. "This helps us offset some of the costs to our business for managing the access to the account information through the account software," said David Oliver, a Wachovia Corp.

Three Brothers, a West Baltimore retail institution whose livelihood was endangered when local banks stopped doing business with check cashers, has found another bank willing to work with it. With a new account at Wachovia Corp., Three Brothers -- which has remained in its struggling neighborhood for 48 years as many businesses have fled -- will be able to keep operating, owner John Rothenhoefer said yesterday. He had been looking for another bank since Carrollton Bancorp said three months ago that it would shut down his account, and those of all other check cashers, after losing $1.8 million in an alleged check-kiting scheme.

A $276 million judgment against First Union National Bank will not hurt the company financially and is likely to be significantly reduced or even thrown out completely on appeal, legal and industry experts said yesterday. A Baltimore jury, in one of the largest legal judgments in Maryland history, awarded the money Tuesday to Scott Steele, a Catonsville man who accused the bank of using ideas from his software company to start a $2.4 billion business venture. "I don't think it will impact the stock that much," said Tom Burnett, an analyst with Merger Insight, an affiliate of the New York brokerage firm Wall Street Access Inc. "You have to be patient because, historically, there are very often reductions or reversals on appeal."

NEW YORK - Wells Fargo & Co. and Citigroup Inc.'s dispute over their competing agreements to acquire Wachovia Corp. became a battle of dueling state and federal judges yesterday. In a ruling Saturday, New York state Judge Charles Ramos put the Wells-Wachovia deal on hold until a hearing this Friday. He ruled over objections from Wachovia, which accepted Wells Fargo's $7-a-share offer Friday for the entire bank, brushing off Citigroup's agreement in principle earlier in the week to buy most of Wachovia's operations for $1 a share.

ATLANTA - SunTrust Banks Inc., vying against rival suitor First Union Corp., said yesterday that its $14.7 billion stock bid for Wachovia Corp. is its final offer. The company said it won't revise the financial terms of its unsolicited May 14 offer of 1.081 SunTrust shares for each Wachovia share, which was worth $14.7 billion at the close of trading Friday. "Let me be clear: Best and final means just that. That means no change in the exchange ratio, no new cash, no pass through of Coke shares, no sale of Coke stock to pay more cash.

A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted a former United Way of Central Maryland employee on charges that she bilked the nonprofit out of more than $400,000 by steering deposits to a bank account she had allegedly commandeered. Dorothy Shields Talbot, 48, who lives in Woodlawn and worked in United Way's finance department from 2001 through 2010, was charged with wire fraud. A statement from the Maryland U.S. attorney's office says she had been responsible for depositing donations into a corporate bank account.

City police arrested a suspect in the robbery of a Northwest Baltimore bank on Friday afternoon, a spokesman said. The robbery occurred around 4 p.m. at a Wachovia bank in the 5700 block of Reisterstown Road. Police said a woman walked into the bank and handed the teller a note demanding money. She walked out of the bank with an undisclosed amount of cash, according to Detective Jeremy Silbert. Shortly after police were called and arrived on the scene, they scoured the area and discovered the suspect in the 5300 block of Reisterstown Road, Silbert said.

Wells Fargo & Co., one of the country's largest banks, said Monday that it plans to hire more than 1,000 part-time and full-time tellers, bankers and managers for its 404 retail bank branches in Maryland, Virginia and Washington by mid-May. The bank said it is planning the hiring surge as it transitions Wachovia branches to Wells Fargo branches. Wells Fargo says its banking model calls for more staff in stores to serve customers. Wells Fargo acquired Wachovia Corp. in 2008. Meantime, one of Wells Fargo's main competitors, Bank of America Corp.

MIAMI - Banking giant Wachovia Corp. will pay $160 million to settle a federal investigation into laundering of illegal drug profits through Mexican exchange houses in the largest case of its kind ever brought against a U.S. bank, prosecutors said Wednesday. The inquiry uncovered at least $110 million in drug profits laundered from Mexico through Wachovia. The total settlement includes forfeiture in that amount plus a $50 million fine. The agreement means Wachovia and its executives will avoid criminal prosecution in return for the payment and significant improvements in its anti-money laundering program.

NEW YORK - Wells Fargo & Co. and Citigroup Inc.'s dispute over their competing agreements to acquire Wachovia Corp. became a battle of dueling state and federal judges yesterday. In a ruling Saturday, New York state Judge Charles Ramos put the Wells-Wachovia deal on hold until a hearing this Friday. He ruled over objections from Wachovia, which accepted Wells Fargo's $7-a-share offer Friday for the entire bank, brushing off Citigroup's agreement in principle earlier in the week to buy most of Wachovia's operations for $1 a share.

NEW YORK - Citigroup announced late last night that it had persuaded a New York judge to temporarily block Wells Fargo from acquiring Wachovia, firing the first shot in what could be a prolonged legal battle. Citigroup has accused Wells Fargo of wrecking its plan to acquire Wachovia's banking operations for $2.2 billion, or $1 a share, in a deal arranged by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Four days after that deal was struck, it fell apart when Wachovia agreed to Wells Fargo's offer to pay seven times as much for the entire company.

ATLANTA - SunTrust Banks Inc., which is vying with First Union Corp. to take over Southeast banking rival Wachovia Corp., reported yesterday that second-quarter profit rose 9 percent as it earned more from mortgage and deposit fees. Net income rose to $347.1 million, or $1.19 a share, from $317.5 million, or $1.05, a year earlier. That exceeded the average analyst estimate of $1.16, according to a survey by Thomson Financial/First Call. Atlanta-based SunTrust reported its earnings earlier than usual to persuade investors to support its $14.3 billion unsolicited stock bid to buy Wachovia, based in Winston-Salem, N.C. Wachovia shareholders are to vote Aug. 3 on a board-approved agreement to sell the bank to Charlotte-based First Union for $14 billion in stock.

NEW YORK - When Bruce L. Hammonds, the chief executive of the MBNA Corp., stepped into the company's Sikorsky S76C at the heliport at 34th Street in Manhattan with five senior executives on Friday afternoon two weeks ago, the mood was jovial. The executives had spent the day secretly negotiating to sell their company, one of the nation's largest credit-card issuers, to Wachovia, the big bank. Both sides had agreed to the basic outlines of the deal; the only thing left to settle was the final price.

In a surprise development, Wachovia Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. announced a $15.1 billion merger yesterday. In doing so, Wachovia spurned a deal with Citigroup announced this week that was brokered by federal regulators. But shunned Citi is not going away quietly and has demanded that Wachovia and Wells Fargo put a halt to their plans. And federal regulators are backing the Citi deal. Meanwhile, Wachovia customers in the Baltimore area, where the North Carolina-based company is the third-largest bank based on deposits, are left wondering whether they will be part of Citi or Wells Fargo by the end of the year.

Wachovia customers will become part of the nation's largest bank under a $2.16 billion deal announced yesterday in which Citigroup Inc. will acquire Wachovia's banking operations. Customers of Wachovia, which is the Baltimore area's third-largest bank with about 9 percent of the market in terms of deposits, shouldn't expect changes until the end of the year, when the deal is expected to close. Even then, terms on outstanding loans, certificates of deposit and mortgages will remain the same.