In Brief: 09.08.09

FED SMACKDOWN

Two more banks were smacked with “written agreements” by the Federal Reserve. Valley Bancorp, Inc., Brighton, Colo., and Metro Financial Services, Inc. and its sister state-chartered Metro Bank of Dade County, both of Miami, are being forced to shore up their operations — or else.

JOB BANKS

Bank of America is hiring senior investment bankers and in equity research in Australia, according to Reuters. So far the staff has expanded by 25% this year.

After making some layoffs last year, hedge fund SAC is hiring again. The firm is rebuilding its London office, according to Bloomberg.

According to The Wall Street Journal, investment banks will continue hiring for the rest of the year. Those banks likely to hire well into next summer include Citigroup, HSBC Holdings PLC, and UBS.

Well, we’re not sure about HSBC. HSBC last month reportedly laid off about 90 junior and middle management employees in the United Arab Emirates.

Meanwhile, Provident Financial Inc., a Kalispell, Mont.-based investment and lending company, will liquidate its assets. Provident employs 10 people and expects to lay off employees at a future date, according to Daily Inter Lake.com, a news source in northern Montana. So the lesson of the day is: don’t bother going to Montana for a banking job.

PRIVATE PARTS

The Sunday Times reported that HSBC has placed an estimated 1 billion pound-plus offer for ING’s private banking assets. Other bidders include Swiss outfit Julius Baer and Singaporean operation DBS.
The report added that a preferred bidder will emerge from the process within the next 10 days. See TheStreet.com for more details.

YOU’LL PAY FOR THAT

CircuitCity.com now accepts payments via PayPal. About 1.3 million people visit CircuitCity.com every month.