Author: John Mason

I closed my review of the 2012 prospects for mergers and acquisitions with this paragraph: “Let’s hope the boom in M&A business does take place. Let’s hope that the corporate cash and corporate borrowing do...

Well, Mr. Bernanke has moved the Federal Reserve to a position of greater transparency. We now have projections of interest rates out until the end of 2014.It is now believed by most members of the Fed’s Open Market that...

The key issue in the area of mergers and acquisitions in 2012 is still uncertainty. There seems to be a lot of anticipation that the activity in this area could pick up during the year, but, like last year, there may be little...

I really don’t see much to like in the United States banking system. With interest rates so low across the board, commercial banks have very little interest rate spread to work with. With Congress and the regulators so...

“The FDIC Board yesterday issued a notice of proposed rulemaking that would require FDIC-insured state nonmember banks and state-chartered savings associations with more than $10 billion in total consolidated assets to...

The banking system is going through massive changes.The morning papers are filled with stories about what is happening in the banking area, although they cover only a minor portion of what is going on in the industry. The Wall...

In Europe, “On average the 31 companies in the Euro Stoxx Banks Index (SX7E) trade for 39 percent of common equity, or book value, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.France’s Credit Agricole SA (ACA) trades for...