Apr 16, 2013, 2:52pm CDT UPDATED: Apr 16, 2013, 3:42pm CDT
U.S. Bancorp’s profit grew 6.7 percent but revenue dropped to $4.87 billion in the first quarter, down from both the trailing quarter and same time last year, according to financial results posted by the Minneapolis-based financial institution bank Tuesday.
CEO Richard Davis had previously and repeatedly warned investors that the bank’s profits and revenue would grow at a slower rate in 2013, but the year will be rougher than even he expected if the next three quarters look like this one. (It’s worth noting that Davis did say that the bank’s leaders “don’t trust the first quarter for a lot of reasons” and get a better read on the year in April and May.)
The revenue drop — down 1.1 percent from Q1 2012 and 4.7 percent from Q4 2012 — came primarily from lower mortgage fee income and seasonal effects on other fees, Davis said.
Despite the mortgage business slowdown, the bank sees continued opportunity in refinancing and is aiming to grow its purchase mortgage business as refinancing activity falls off.
“We’re sticking with mortgage. We like it, and we do it well,” Davis said. MORE
Georgia Judge Mocks U.S. Bank Over Denied Mortgage Modification
First Posted: 11/15/11 01:31 PM ET Updated: 11/15/11 04:33 PM ET
Georgia Judge Dennis Blackmon is fed up with bailed-out banks refusing to help strapped homeowners.
“Sometimes, only the courts of law stand to protect the taxpayer. Somewhere, someone has to stand up,” Blackmon wrote in a five-page Nov. 2 order in Carroll County Superior Court. “Well, sometimes is now, and the place is the Great State of Georgia. The defendant’s motion to dismiss is hereby denied.”
Blackmon’s order shot down U.S. Bank’s request to throw out a complaint from Georgia homeowner Otis Wayne Phillips, who had tried to get a mortgage modification from the bank. Phillips could not be reached for this story.
The order lays the case out like this: Phillips is in danger of foreclosure. U.S. Bank is among the “poorly run organizations” that recently received massive bailouts from the federal government and agreed to participate in the Obama administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program. When Phillips applied for a modification, the bank denied his request “without numbers, figures, or explanation, reasoning, comparison to guidelines, or anything.”
HAMP guidelines require banks to consider homeowners for modifications if they are at risk of falling behind on their payments because of a financial hardship and if their monthly mortgage expenses take up more than 31 percent of their income.
“This court cannot imagine why U.S. Bank will not make known to Mr. Phillips, a taxpayer, how his numbers put him outside the federal guidelines to receive a loan modification,” Blackmon continued. “Taking $20 billion of taxpayer money was no problem for U.S. Bank. A cynical judge might believe that this entire motion to dismiss is a desperate attempt to avoid a discovery period, where U.S. Bank would have to tell Mr. Phillips how his financial situation did not qualify him for a modification.
US Bank to open Somali money transfer account
Associated Press – Tue, Apr 16, 2013
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – U.S. Bank has agreed to open an account that will allow Somalis living inMinnesota to send money to their homeland, reopening a lifeline to relatives living in the war-torn East African country, an advocacy group said Tuesday.
Minnesotans for a Fair Economy said U.S. Bank has agreed to open an account with Dahab-shil, a Minneapolis money service business. A spokeswoman for the Minneapolis-based bank confirmed the agreement.
That account will allow Somalis to send money to their families living in Somalia, 16 months after the last Minnesota bank stopped conducting the transactions, Minnesotans for a Fair Economy said. Many big banks have stopped handling the transfers in recent years, saying the federal requirements designed to crack down on terrorism financing are too complex and not worth the risk. Sunrise Community Banks, a group of independently managed banks, stepped in to fill the need. But in late 2011, Sunrise Community Banks announced it would stop processing the transactions.
In an email, U.S. Bank spokeswoman Teri Charest said over the past year the bank has worked closely with money transfer businesses seeking to send money to Somalia, which lacks a structured banking system. The bank already partners with Western Union, which has outlets in Somalia, but that network does not have as broad a distribution as the Somali community wishes, she said.
“We recognize the need and want to be able to help families send money to their relatives outside of the United States,” Charest said.
Somalis in Minnesota, which is home to the largest U.S. Somali community, say their families in Africa might not survive without the monthly remittances they send them.
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