Banking Services

CHP Aids Oakland Crime Surge

They Come From the Financial Crisis Down Under: Aussie Bankers Trek to S.F. on Company Dime

If you're out this weekend and you encounter a swarm of tanned suits calling each other mate, it might just be the National Australia Bank executives on holiday  attending an all-expense-paid leadership conference in San Francisco.According to the Australian publication Business ... More >>

Update: Scandal-Plagued Daly City Banking Regulator Confirms Resignation

Office of Thrift Supervision Darrel Dochow Darrel Dochow, the banking regulator found to have allowed IndyMac Bank to falsify financial records just before the Southern California lender collapsed last summer, confirmed in an e-mail that he will resign his post in March. In his resignation le ... More >>

U.S. Moves Thrift HQ From S.F. to Dallas to Ensure Corruption-Free Oversight. Could Outsourcing Local Government Be Next?

Will the last vestige of government to leave please lower the flag?Scandal-plagued regional bank regulators' headquarters have been moved from South San Francisco to Dallas, suggesting the Bay Area is simply too corrupt and incompetent a site for serious watchdogs. Last month, the director of the Of ... More >>

Bluegrass Festival Backer Hellman Sifts Through Ruins of Global Collapse Seeking Capital Sufficient To Bring Back Emmylou Harris

Joyce GoldschmidWarren Hellman, banjo messiah? With just a half-year to go before Golden Gate Park's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival, free-concert backer Warren Hellman is combing the wreckage of the global financial collapse, seeking to augment the fortune that keeps his massive three-day music ... More >>

Flubbers

How Federal Home Loan Banks and their execs exacerbated the banking meltdown.

Bonfire of the Profanities

An investigator who exposed dishonest savings and loan regulators in the '80s re-encounters an old rival in the latest banking crisis.

San Francisco's Slave-Disclosure Ordinance Reveals Little

An investigator who exposed dishonest savings and loan regulators in the '80s re-encounters an old rival in the latest banking crisis.

The Parmalat Syndrome

How U.S. financial firms -- including Bank of America -- allegedly abetted a multibillion-dollar fraud, and how U.S. regulators are letting them get away with it

Best New Downtown Public Space

JP Morgan Chase Building

Best Reagan-Era Road Trip Tapes

Community Thrift

Four Best Bars With a View

Community Thrift

Cleaning House

To work against terrorism, new money-laundering laws will have to be enforced in the world headquarters of cash-washing: the U.S. of A.

Thrift and Consequences

How a supervisor with just $42,500 in income services $1 million in mortgages

Support Your Local Embezzler

Hometown thieves we'll tolerate, but not southern sexists

The Grid

Hometown thieves we'll tolerate, but not southern sexists

Has Yaki Got a Deal for You

City pension fund could back bonds

The Grid

City pension fund could back bonds

Letters

City pension fund could back bonds

The Great Bank Thievery

The city and state say the Bank of America stole hundreds of millions -- even billions -- of dollars from the government. But didn't San Francisco finance officials know what was going on? And shouldn't B of A executives be under criminal investigation?

Dog Bites

The city and state say the Bank of America stole hundreds of millions -- even billions -- of dollars from the government. But didn't San Francisco finance officials know what was going on? And shouldn't B of A executives be under criminal investigation?

Apparent Ponzi Scheme Advertised in Sunday Chronicle, Fraud Investigator Says

Banking experts qualify the service being hawked in this San Francisco Chronicle ad as a potential Ponzi schemeReaders skimming the ads on page D-2 of the Sunday, July 12 San Francisco Chronicle might have been surprised to see an extraordinary investment opportunity in a quarter-page advertisement ... More >>

Advanta Corp.'s dubious investment offer in the Chronicle

Banking experts qualify the service being hawked in this San Francisco Chronicle ad as a potential Ponzi schemeReaders skimming the ads on page D-2 of the Sunday, July 12 San Francisco Chronicle might have been surprised to see an extraordinary investment opportunity in a quarter-page advertisement ... More >>

City Attorney Dennis Herrera Ups Ante in S.F.-Minnesota Credit Card Credit-Hogging Dispute

Don't worry, hypothetical Michigan Tech alum Chris L. Martin! Dennis Herrera has got your back.​When Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson hogged credit last month for attacking a loophole companies use to prevent consumer lawsuits, observers said San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera was g ... More >>

No Justice

Despite Obama's promises of change, corporate crooks are still going unpunished for their roles in the financial collapse.

Department of Can't Say We Didn't Warn Ya: Dicey Investment Offer Advertised in Chronicle Goes Bad

​On Friday, July 17 The Snitch warned readers that an advertisement published in the previous Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle seemed intended to lure mom-and-pop investors into possible financial disaster.News headlines Monday suggest our warning was valid. Advanta Corp., a bank holding company s ... More >>

Appropriate Behavior

​On Friday, July 17 The Snitch warned readers that an advertisement published in the previous Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle seemed intended to lure mom-and-pop investors into possible financial disaster.News headlines Monday suggest our warning was valid. Advanta Corp., a bank holding company s ... More >>

San Francisco's Most Stylish Bank Robber (Pics)

Yesterday we reported on a bank robber who -- counter-intuitively for someone who is pulling a gun and breaking the law -- was wearing open-toed shoes and dressed so distinctively that witnesses at two San Francisco banks were able to describe her appearance from head to toe. Now we've got some pict ... More >>

Anthony Gardenal, 'Agitated' Dementia Patient, Still At Large

Anthony Gardenal, who demonstratively exited his assisted living facility on Saturday​Anthony Gardenal, the 73-year-old dementia patient who went missing from his Mission District assisted care facility on Saturday, is still missing. According to staff at the Araville Residential Care Home at 1506 ... More >>

San Francisco's Most Stylish Bank Robber Arrested, Police Say

Police believe they've nabbed this sartorially gifted bank robber​A woman who knocked over a pair of San Francisco banks while decked out in knockout attire that caught the eyes of witnesses has purportedly been arrested, San Francisco and Daly City cops report. The woman -- whose name has not yet ... More >>

Examiner.com 'SF Government Examiner' Is Going to Jail

Working for Examiner.com, you'd be lucky to come into $200 anyway​A self-professed "examiner" of government officials could do worse than spending a little time in jail. Hell, we've had our share of elected officials doing time in the clink. But the real lesson of Examiner.com's "SF Government Exa ... More >>

Jacob Peter Schlildgen, 'Scarf Bandit' Busted: Suspected of Three Bank of America Heists

Not our man...​San Francisco Police and the FBI are claiming that 43-year-old Jacob Peter Schildgren, arrested yesterday shortly after allegedly knocking over a Bank of America armed only with a "gray plastic bag,"  is the "Scarf Bandit" responsible for three BofA heists. A teller says Schild ... More >>

Jerry Brown Announces $2 Billion Settlement with Wells Fargo

Hope you've got room in there for the billions you owe Californians...​The office of Attorney General Jerry Brown announced today that Wells Fargo has agreed in a settlement to offer home-loan modifications worth $2 billion, and will also pay $32 million in restitution to borrowers who lost their ... More >>

The Mad Quest of Mr. Wu

How a wannabe banking magnate from S.F. built an empire on deception.

Buster Posey to Hand out Giants Tickets at Bank of America

Buster Posey​Bank of America isn't always a favorite among those on the political left. (Or on the right.) But Buster Posey is -- at least in San Francisco, where the baby-faced Giants catcher is revered by fans for his role in the team's 2010 World Series win. Posey's hitting helped propel the Gi ... More >>

Mayor Ed Lee's New Port Commissioner Clarifies Role in 2009 S.F. Bank Failure

What did Doreen Wu Ho Know About Tommy Wu? And When Did She Know It?​Earlier this month, Mayor Ed Lee appointed a new port commissioner, which raised many eyebrows here, given that Doreen Woo Ho was a top official at the failed United Commercial Bank. In November 2011, United Commercial Bank was s ... More >>

Occupy Wall Street Protest Expands to San Francisco

12 days, plus interest ​Today marks the 12th day of the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City -- and unlike BART protests, there's no sign that this demonstration is dying down. In fact, it's spreading -- all the way to the West Coast, where California is suffering from a staggering 12 perc ... More >>

Has Bank of America Been Hacked over New Debit Card Fee?

MoneyBlogNewz via FlickrBreaking the bank​In yet another possible sign that hacking is the most popular pastime among antisocial American youth since Magic: The Gathering, the Bank of America website is experiencing technical difficulties that some are speculating could be part of a reprisal for i ... More >>

Move Your Money Day: San Francisco Residents to Dump Their Banks

​In what could be the first practical request by the Occupy Movement yet, protesters are asking everyone across the nation to take part in the "Move Your Money Day" tomorrow and divert their investments from big banks. It might seem ambitious, but considering how the mass exodus of customers from ... More >>

OccupySF: Protesters Occupy Bank of America

Ellen Huet​Update (4:05 p.m.): Protesters are being led out of Bank of America in handcuffs amid cheers from supporters around. Update (3:15 p.m): SF Weekly's Ellen Huet is at the scene and tells us that about 50 protesters set up a tent inside the Bank of America on California Street. Police are ... More >>

Occupy Tent for Sale -- Contact Bank of America

Another forclosure​Another dwelling was foreclosed on in the city's Financial District yesterday: An Occupy SF tent. The tent that was erected yesterday inside Bank of America where dozens of protesters stormed as they marched through downtown is now up for sale on ebay.Seriously, if you really wa ... More >>

Occupy Geriatrics: Seniors in Walkers Shut Down Local Bank of America

Dear Bank of America ... ​What some healthy and spry Occupy Movements across the nation couldn't quite accomplish, San Francisco geriatrics have! KCBS reports that a small group of senior citizens between the ages of 69 and 82 successfully shut down a Bank of America in Bernal Heights on Thursday ... More >>

Wild Old Women Breathe New Life into the Occupy Movement

Courtesy of occupybernal.orgWild takes on a whole new meaning when you are 80​Last week we regaled readers with a story about a small group of seniors who successfully shut down a Bank of America in Bernal Heights -- a tale that seems to have re-energized San Francisco's Occupy movement. Since the ... More >>