2011 NORTHERN COLORADO BANK FAILURES

#187; Bank of Choice, closed July 22. Assets: $1.07 billion; deposits: $924.9 million; cost to insurance fund: $213.6 million. Acquired by Bank Midwest, NA Branches on Boardwalk Drive and Drake Road, Fort Collins, Windsor and Greeley.

#187; Signature Bank, closed July 8. Assets: $66.7 million; deposits: 64.5 million; cost to insurance fund: $22.3 million. Acquired by Points West Community Bank of Julesburg. Branches in Windsor and Wellington

#187; FirsTier Bank of Louisville, closed Jan. 28. Assets: $781.5 million; deposits: $722.8 million; cost to insurance fund: $242.6 million. No acquisition, the bank closed. Branch at Centerra

#187; United Western Bank, closed Jan. 21. Assets: $2 billion; deposits: $1.65 million. Cost to insurance fund: $312.8 million. Acquired by First Citizens Bank Trust of Raleigh, NC Branch on Harmony Road, Fort Collins

(Repeats with no changes to additional clients)

* Takes 620 mln euro hit for UK insurance mis-selling

* H1 net profit 3.5 bln euros vs 4.15 bln euro f/cast

* Net interest income 15.15 bln euros vs 15.1 bln f/cast

* Drags UK arm to a loss ahead of expected 2012 IPO

* Shares down 3.3 percent

(Adds comments from conference call, updates shares)

By Sonya Dowsett

MADRID, July 27 (Reuters) – Spains Banco Santander SA
took a surprise hit to cover mis-selling of UK
insurance policies, cleaning up its British arms balance sheet
ahead of an expected flotation next year.

The euro zones biggest bank took a charge of 620 million
euros ($901 million) in the first half to cover compensation for
mis-sold payment protection insurance policies (PPI) in Britain.

British banks including Lloyds and Barclays
have between them already made billions of pounds in
provisions to cover costs related to compensation for these
policies, which meet payments on mortgages and other loans in
case of illness or unemployment.

Santander was not named in the court case about the
mis-selling and has previously said it was compensating
customers when appropriate, but it said it had seen a rise in
claims since April, when the banks lost the case and media
coverage of the issue increased.

If they are going ahead with this partial IPO in the UK,
they want to clean the books, said Neil Smith, banking analyst
at WestLB.

The euro-zones biggest bank is seeking to raise capital to
improve its solvency ratios by listing its British arm.
Santander said it still planned to go ahead with the flotation,
but not this year, given dire market conditions and regulatory
uncertainty.

We are unlikely to do it in 2011; well leave it for
later, Chief Executive Officer Alfredo Saenz told analysts in a
conference call.

Santander wants to sell about a quarter of the unit,
potentially raising over 4 billion pounds ($6.6 billion) for the
parent, sources have previously told Reuters.

He also signalled a delay in the flotation of the banks
Argentine unit, saying it was not the appropriate time for a
listing.

The UK charge plus disappointing results in Spain and Brazil
pushed its shares down 3.3 percent to 7.33 euros by 1240 GMT,
underperforming a weak European banking sector index .

Santander, the majority of whose business is in retail
banking, emerged as one of the most solvent banks in Europe in
continent-wide stress tests earlier this month.

FUNDING COSTS

However, some analysts are concerned about the weakening
effect of recent acquisitions on the banks capital ratios and
its continued exposure to Spains moribund economy, where more
than one in five is unemployed.

Bad loans as a percentage of total loans rose across the
group and in Spain during the quarter from end-March. Santander
said it expected the bad loan ratio to peak in Spain later this
year in the third or fourth quarter.

Spain remains a weak spot for the bank, despite a decade of
expansion abroad that has reduced the domestic markets
weighting to less than Brazil or Britain. Chairman Emilio Botin
said in June the Spanish unit had reached a turning point, but
analysts disagreed on Wednesday.

As far as Im concerned, the turning point has not come yet
with regard to Spain, said Smith of WestLB. You still need
more evidence that there is an improvement in quality.

The euro zone debt crisis has made access to international
money markets more difficult and more expensive for Spanish
banks.

Santanders engine of growth, Brazil, is also beginning to
stutter, with rampant inflation and measures to slow credit
growth worrying foreign investors in the booming Latin American
economy.

Profits in the Brazilian unit declined year on year over the
period as loan loss provisions increased more than expected.

Credit deterioration accelerated in the quarter across the
board, and Brazil was a disappointment as profits dropped 12
percent quarter on quarter, said Jaime Becerril at JP Morgan
Cazenove.
(Additional reporting by Steve Slater in London; Editing by
David Holmes and Will Waterman)

($1=.6884 Euro)
($1 = 0.610 British Pounds)

In the United States the federal government acts as a central point in accessing financial aid for education. Therefore, for any type of financial aid (loans, grants, work-study or even parental loans) you must fill out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which you can do online right here.

You must also fill out an FAFSA form if you wish to apply for most state and school funded programs including college loans, state-funded grants and tuition assistance initiatives. The US Department of Education has established guidelines that are used to determine your eligibility for financial aid. There are many factors that they consider, including (but not limited to):

• Your income
• Your parents income
• Your net assets
• The number of siblings in your household
• Your family expenses
• The number of siblings attending college at the same time

Even if you think you wont qualify it is important to fill out an FAFSA form. You may be surprised and you wouldnt want to miss an opportunity to access cheap funding options. There are even some forms of federal funding aid that are not dependent upon financial need, such as unsubsidized Stafford loans and PLUS loans.

Submit your FAFSA form as early in the New Year as possible as many awards are granted on a first come, first served basis. Your filing date also determines your place in the queue for school, state and federal programs. Remember that you must submit a new form for each year that you are applying for aid.

What You Need to Fill Out the FAFSA
It is a good idea to fill out the form online; however, if you dont have access, you can use a paper copy and snail mail. With the online form you will receive your Student Aid Report (SAR) quickly and you will also be able to check to make sure the form is filled out completely before submitting. This is a good idea as you dont want to be rejected because of a missed question. You can also download a worksheet to help you with the application process.

You will need the following information to complete the worksheet and the actual application itself:

• Your drivers license
• Your Social Security Number
• Your Income Tax return (Form 1040)
• Your W-2 forms and any other record of income earned. This includes Social Security, child support, welfare, pensions, veterans benefits, etc.
• Your parents Income Tax return (if you are a dependent)
• Your bank and mortgage statements
• Your record of investments (stocks, bonds, mutual funds, certificates of deposit, etc)
• Your citizenship status (if not a US citizen)

Since not everyone has their taxation information completed in January you can estimate these numbers on your FAFSA form. Remember to go back and correct the information later once your taxes are complete.

It usually only takes one to three days to get your PIN for the application, which will be supplied online, or seven to 10 days via snail mail. With a PIN, the process to submit the FAFSA for one or more schools is very quick, usually just a few days. Be sure to list the schools that you are applying to with the nearest deadline first.

Upon processing you will receive your SAR which you need to make corrections or changes to your FAFSA. This SAR will also be available to your chosen schools and processing there can take much longer (two to six weeks typically). Call your schools financial aid department for confirmation. Any funding that you are approved for is usually not available until the first week of the semester in which you are enrolled.

Tips and Hints for Filling Out the FAFSA Form

CONOR POPE and SIMON CARSWELL

ALLIED IRISH Banks has hinted that it may be willing to offer some degree of debt forgiveness to struggling mortgage customers, while the Central Bank said the banks had been given more scope to restructure unmanageable mortgages on a case-by-case basis.

Speaking at AIBs half-year results, executive chairman David Hodgkinson said the problem of mortgage arrears was industry-wide and must be resolved at that level.

However, he said the bank had submitted a number of proposals to the Central Bank aimed at tackling the issue and that these proposals would be discussed at a meeting in the Central Bank today.

He stopped short of saying that debt forgiveness was among the proposals included in its submission, but it is likely to form at least part of the solution it proposes.

I would prefer to call it debt restructuring, he said, adding that debt forgiveness could lead to moral hazard where risky behaviour by borrowers is rewarded.

Mr Hodgkinson said AIB was helping families who were struggling to repay debts to keep their homes but further measures were needed for some borrowers.

For some people, particularly those who bought at the peak of the market and lost their jobs, the current arrangements may not go quite far enough.

The bank disclosed figures showing a sharp increase in the number of borrowers missing repayments or seeking debt relief. One in five of its 44,000 Irish buy-to-let mortgages was in arrears or had been restructured to help borrowers at the end of June, compared with one in 12 of the banks 126,000 home loans.

There is no point in putting the cant pay into a position where they just remain in the hole for years, said Mr Hodgkinson.

He said he expected the Central Bank to issue a response to its proposals shortly but declined to go into detail as to what AIB had suggested. He said that if a borrower had their debt restructured they would be unlikely to retain full ownership of their home.

Mr Hodgkinson has previously said debt forgiveness was among a range of possibilities it was considering for distressed borrowers.

Any strategy agreed at an industry level will have to be approved by the Central Bank and the Government, he said.

The banks are reluctant to admit that they will forgive debts amid concerns that those who meet repayments may stop making repayments to take advantage of the changes, exacerbating the problems the banks are facing.

Separately, hundreds of property repossession cases could be struck out following a High Court ruling yesterday that there was a lacuna or gap in legislation introduced in December 2009.

Meanwhile, the Central Banks head of financial regulation Matthew Elderfield lent his support to mortgage holders in arrears and highlighted the need for reform of antiquated bankruptcy laws.

Speaking at the MacGill Summer School in Co Donegal, he said he recognised the stress and anxiety that mortgage arrears, or even the imminent threat of mortgage arrears, is having on the day-to-day lives of many people.

He said he expected a revised Consumer Protection Code on mortgage arrears by the autumn. He said with banks being conservatively capitalised, they would have more capacity to restructure mortgage debt.

Any approach to restructuring needs to take account of the risk that it creates incentives for borrowers to cease meeting their obligations.

But despite these considerations there is now more scope for the banks to take individual decisions, based on the particular circumstances of the borrower, to restructure debt, he said.

Meanwhile, the Government agreed to sell up to 37 per cent of Bank of Ireland to a group of investors for 1.12 billion which will make it the only Irish bank to avoid Government control.Canadian financial investment company Fairfax, and New York billionaire investor Wilbur Ross and Dublin firm Cardinal Capital Group, who were part of a consortium that tried to buy EBS building society, are among the investors.

• Email
• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Reddit
• |
• More

lt;stronggt;lt;span class=subheadgt;Give students a break on loanslt;/spangt;lt;/stronggt;lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;In recent debt ceiling negotiations, Republicans proposed making college students pay more interest on student loans as a way to save the government money. lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;Specifically, they said students should start paying interest right away rather than being able to defer payments until after graduation.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;Iamp;#x2019;ll be entering college this fall, and a student loan is the only way I can afford it. I know we have a deficit problem, and I understand painful decisions will have to be made to correct it, but I donamp;#x2019;t think placing an increased burden on young people who want to go to college is the way to do it. Congress should be making it easier to afford college, not harder.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;Frankly, Iamp;#x2019;m having a hard time wrapping my head around the Republican logic in these negotiations. Apparently, for them, letting millionairesamp;#x2019; tax cuts expire is off the table, but making college students pay more is just fine.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;Asking seniors, the middle class and the poor to sacrifice via cuts to Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid is acceptable, but asking our most fortunate citizens to pay any more is out of the question. Itamp;#x2019;s pretty clear whose side theyamp;#x2019;re on.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;lt;p align=rightgt;lt;stronggt;Matt Hamblinlt;/stronggt;lt;/pgt;lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;lt;p align=rightgt;lt;emgt;Overland Parklt;/emgt;lt;/pgt;

Looming Default Crisis. As the Aug. 2 deadline for increasing the federal debt limit approaches with little sign of an agreement between President Obama and Congressional Republicans, the uncertainty is growing at colleges: what happens to financial aid and federal research funds if the government defaults? Once the limit is reached, the US Treasury will no longer be able to borrow to pay all of its bills and will have to prioritize its payments, including Social Security checks, debt payments and federal financial aid programs such as Pell Grants and student loans. Were left wondering if student aid will be available, said Justin Draeger, president of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. The group received assurances from the Education Department that the aid would be disbursed, he said, but the uncertainty surrounding the situation makes it hard to believe. If the president is unsure if Social Security will be paid, how can there not be a question about student aid? [Inside Higher Ed]

Under the Microscope. In times of fiscal crisis, scientific research is a ready target for budget cutters. Members of Congress grandly and publicly trash programs they see as wasteful. But there may be another, less obvious way to cut costs. The process the government uses to determine which projects are worthy of funding is itself expensive, drawn-out, and — as some politicians argue and many researchers agree — highly ineffective. As federal funding tightens, Congress needs to increase its oversight of the review process, Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), argued at a hearing Tuesday. The purpose of the hearing was to examine ways to streamline the process of evaluating the tens of thousands of grant applications submitted each year. [Inside Higher Ed]

Representin the DREAMers. Representative Luis V. Gutierrez, a Democrat from Illinois who has become a perennial thorn on immigration for President Obama, was arrested Tuesday afternoon along with about a dozen activists in a protest outside the White House.In a letter to Gutierrez on Monday, Obama rejected his proposal to suspend deportations of undocumented immigrant college students with clean criminal records. Gutierrez said he decided to go ahead with the protest after receiving Obamas response. It didnt disappoint me as much as I was saddened, Gutierrez said in an interview after he paid a $100 fine and was released by the police. He was arrested in May 2010 in a similar protest. [New York Times]

Lots of Grads, Too Many Loans. The nations growing number of graduate students, gravitating particularly toward masters-degree programs in business and education, are leaning heavily on loans and grants to pay for their education, says a report released Tuesday by the US Department of Education. Over all, the number of graduate students has increased by 57 percent since 1988. The average annual price of attendance for full-time graduate study ranged from $28,400 for a masters program at a public institution to $52,200 for a professional-degree program at a private, nonprofit institution. Across all types of degrees and institutions, most students received some type of financial aid. Those in professional programs at private, nonprofit institutions received the highest aid, on average, at $36,200 annually. [Chronicle of Higher Ed]

Henry Taksier [@HenryTaksier]is an editorial intern atCampus Progressand an editorial board member ofThe Fine Print, a progressive publication at the University of Florida.

Confused by credit scores? The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau feels your pain.

In a report released Tuesday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) acknowledged just how challenging it can be for consumers to navigate the wide variety of credit scores offered by lenders, credit bureaus and other companies. As a result, the credit scores seen by consumers and the credit scores used by lenders are frequently very different.

A consumer, unaware of the variety of credit scores available in the marketplace, may purchase a score believing it to be his or her true (or only) credit score, when in fact, there is no such single score, the CFPB said in its 20-page report.

The report — mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law — comes just days before the year-old agency gets its teeth as a consumer watchdog agency. As of July 21, the agency will begin to police banks, credit unions, debt collectors, payday lenders and other financial services companies. On that same day, free credit scores will begin to be provided to consumers who are denied loans or given less-than-ideal terms. Consumers will then begin to see and receive many more credit scores than they had been exposed to previously, the CFPB said.

The CFPB, meanwhile, isnt finished looking at credit scores. The bureau will obtain a substantial database of consumer reporting information in order to determine whether consumers and creditors are actually seeing different credit scores and to what extent consumers are being hurt — though it remains unclear when a report would eventually be released on those findings.

Cause for confusion
Credit scores are used by lenders when deciding whether to extend credit to potential borrowers, as well as in determining the size of credit lines and amount of interest charged to approved loan applicants. Credit scores can also be used when adjusting the rates and terms for existing accounts. That combination makes credit scores important information for borrowers to know –and makes confusion over scores a real problem.

So what accounts for the confusion? The CFPB pointed to some key factors:

*The consumer may apply for a loan with a lender that uses a different scoring model than the one purchased by the consumer.

*The consumer and lender may obtain scores based on credit report data from different credit bureaus, the companies that maintain credit reports.

*The data in the consumers underlying credit report may change significantly between the time when the consumer buys his or her score and when the lender obtains the consumers score.

Some consumers lack even a basic understanding of credit scores. While acknowledging that there is little research into consumers understanding of credit scores, the CFPB report highlighted a survey released earlier this year by credit scoring company VantageScore and the advocacy group Consumer Federation of America. According to the survey, nearly half of respondents didnt know that a credit score is designed to predict the likelihood of a consumer failing to repay a loan.

Even for borrowers who understand what a credit score does,there can still be confusion that results in costly mistakes. Some consumers may settle for less favorable terms or may forgo applying for credit if the scores they purchase lead them to believe they will be viewed as poor credit risks, although the scores received by lenders would imply otherwise, the CFPB said. Alternatively, a consumer who incorrectly expects to be considered a good credit risk may apply for loans for which he or she could not qualify, leading to disappointment, wasted effort and unnecessary inquiries on a credit report, which could depress his or her score further.

Credit scoring is big business
Despite that confusion, consumers are increasingly willing to part with their cash in order to access their credit scores. According to the CFPB report, the market for sales of credit reports and scores has grown in recent years to more than $1 billion in revenue. Additionally, sales to consumers make up approximately a quarter of the US revenues of the credit bureaus and their affiliates.

Consumer advocates warn that borrowers need to be careful.Consumers should not be encouraged to spend good money on a score that is of little use to them in seeing themselves as lenders see them, says Linda Sherry, director of national priorities for the nonprofit Consumer Action.

The CFPB study on consumer versus lender-used credit scores sheds light on the fact that its very hard for consumers to go out and proactively buy or otherwise obtain the same credit scores that their lenders are using. However, its very easy for consumers to buy credit scores that have little or no meaning in the real lending world, says John Ulzheimer, president of consumer education at SmartCredit.com.

Still, credit scoring is big business. Along with credit scoring giant FICO, as well as the US credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) and their affiliated credit monitoring services, credit scores are also available from major third-party credit monitoring services:

As its next step, the CFPB plans to obtain credit reports and scores for 200,000 consumers from each of the three major US credit bureaus. Its all part of an effort to determine with greater precision and understanding the nature, range and size of variations between the credit scores most frequently sold to creditors and those most frequently sold to consumers.

More from CreditCards.com:

• New Agency Arrives with Broad Powers to Police financial products
• Obama Nominates New Consumer financial Watchdog Chief
• Your New Financial Watchdog: What it Can Do

In November when Justin Smith was voted in as Larimer County sheriff, he knew the 900-pound gorilla in the room was finding a way to fund the jail with two jail sales taxes scheduled to sunset by 2014.

I knew this was coming, he said. But Smith and others in the county got to work developing a plan to generate dollars, despite a struggling economy.

Today, county attorneys are hard at work drafting language to extend those two sales taxes through 2029.

With about three weeks of writing under their belts, attorneys will have a final draft of the ballot question for members of the Larimer County Board of County Commissioners to review in an open meeting from 9:30 to 10:30 am Aug. 23 at the Larimer County Courthouse offices, 200 W. Oak St.

In May, results of a poll of 500 registered voters showed that 67 percent, or 335 people, would support extending the two taxes, with $11 million per year going to jail operations and alternative programming and $4 million set aside for future jail expansion.

Conducted by county-contracted Ciruli Associates April 28-May 2, the poll also revealed that 200 people, or 40 percent, were strongly in favor of extending the two taxes.

The taxes, which Criminal Justice Services director Gary Darling said are necessary to preserve public safety, have a long history in Larimer County.

In 1999, voters approved a 0.2 percent sales tax to pay for a jail expansion and operations. When the expansion debt is paid off in 2013, the tax will drop to 0.15 percent and end in 2014.

The second is a 0.2 percent sales tax that will expire in 2012 and passed to fund construction of the new courthouse.

Smith was part of the group that worked to gain voters` approval for the original taxes, and now he`s back to lobby for extension.

We`re at that point where we have to rejustify the taxes, said Smith, who has 20 years with the Larimer County Sheriff`s Office.

The cost to keep an inmate at the Larimer County Detention Center is about $80 to $90 a day, Smith said, but he and others have worked to cut costs through alternative programming.

It`s not a silver bullet we came up with, Smith said, It`s a lot of smaller steps.

Over the past few weeks, county commissioners and employees have received input from citizens regarding the extensions` merits and shortcomings. Unaware of why a properly functioning jail system is important, Smith said, some questioned why money should go to it, rather than to other areas in the county budget. Overall, though, response has been positive, Smith said. But there are those who worry about spending more in an economic downturn.

This is a tax, and people are just wanting to be sure that it`s needed and that it`s going to be used appropriately, Smith said. Commissioners will have until Aug. 30 to make changes to the ballot question`s language, Darling said, after which time a final version of it is due to the county.

In the meantime, Darling said commissioners and other county employees, including Smith, would discuss the need for the tax extensions in up to 20 meetings with any group that will allow us to come, essentially.

Madeline Novey can be reached at 669-5050, ext. 516, or mnovey@

reporter-herald.com.

Obama holds another town hall on debt ceiling: How much is too much?

President Obama runs the risk of overexposure, not to mention alienating his base, if he keeps holding public chats about compromise on the debt ceiling. But hes got his reasons for being so vocal.

Wall Street, wary but expectant, awaits debt ceiling deal from DC

The markets are counting on Washington to raise national debt ceiling by Aug. 2, but thats not all. Wall Street also expects a deal that cuts the size of US budget deficit. How much is it looking for?