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iPhone has the capability to deposit checks?


Thursday August 13, 2009

Reading Time: 2 minutes

USAA Bank allows you to deposit checks using the iPhone. USAA Bank already has an App on the iPhone, as do most banks. However, USAA Bank is the the first to allow their customers to simply take a picture and send in the deposit. This feature will only be available in San Antonio, TX initially and then grow, depending on the results from the first dispatch.

Customers take a picture of the front and back of the check with the iPhone’s camera and send it directly to the clearing system. The paper check can then be thrown away or filed for your records.

Check at the App Store this week for updates to see if you are able to deposit your check as well.

Reading Time: 10 minutes

Today is the 65th Anniversary of D-Day and this past Monday Americans waited to hear the news of General Motors’ bankruptcy. Yes, the same GM whose industrial power helped our country be on the winning side in WWII. The news of this bankruptcy was startling, even though we have had so many shocking economical events in the past nine months, I feel this news hits a part of us that is not just about the economy, but our life’s memories.

If you read my Saturday post regularly, you know I am not an economist, and I do not have an MBA. I have, although, worked for major US corporations, mainly banks, and in my day was quite proficient in the automobile financing world. But today’s post is not about economics, albeit I am heartsick for all those workers impacted by this latest chapter in the American automobile industry. No, today’s blog is about my memories of GM. And so I say: Good Night GM…Que sera, sera.

For the record, my life’s memories as they relate to automobiles are not just about General Motors’ products. For example, I do remember fondly my mother learning to drive in late 1953. We had what I believe was a very used Plymouth. Then one evening in 1954 I remember my father coming home from work. When he came through the door I ran to him and grilled him, as little ones do, what had he brought us? I expected ice cream, but to my surprise, he smiled and said: “I brought you a new car!” Outside sat a brand new 1954 Plymouth sedan. It was two toned, dark brown and beige. And it was in that car in 1956 that we (our the family of six) traveled from San Diego to Great Falls, Montana, to show off our new baby brother. It was during this trip(I was 6.5 years old) that the magical car radio repeatedly played “Que Sera, Sera,” (the 1957 Academy Award winning song from the Alfred Hitchcock thriller, The Man Who Knew Too Much.)

By the time we reached Montana I had memorized this wonderful song and my father happily had me sing it for his brothers and sisters! Memories.

My days and nights with General Motors began in 1959. My father traded in the 1954 Plymouth and purchased a 1959 Chevrolet Impala. It was two toned (green and white), no accounting for taste. I never cared for the color, but it seemed so fancy. In 1964 my father traded up for the latest Chevrolet Impala, four door, a really big engine, and a pale blue(Purchase price about $3800). He was beside himself. Following the General Motors’ Mantra…my father loved to see the USA in his Chevrolet. In the summer of 1964 our family made another jaunt to Montana and the song of the summer was the “The Girl from Ipanema,” which won the Grammy for Record of the Year in 1965. I believe everyone had a love affair with this car…even Hertz featured this model in their Rent a Car ads in 1964. (I am sure the only reason I saved this ad, which you will see in my Picasa Web Slide show, from my 1965 Hilton Hotel room was because of the Impala.)

The summer of 1967 my parents drove me to college in this ’64 Impala. I wore some flowers in my hair and they dutifully dropped me at the University of San Fransisco and tried to avoid getting lost in Haight/Ashbury on their way out of town!

Here are some car facts about me:
1. Since 1968 through today I have owned 13 vehicles. 41 years…13 vehicles. Two(2) were General Motors products, three (3) were Chrysler products and eight(8) were foreign models.
2. What I love best about my General Motors vehicles is this: In 1980 we brought our new born Aaron home from the hospital in the 1979 Buick Regal and in 1984 we brought Daniel home from the hospital in our 1984 Chevrolet S10 Blazer.
3. In 1997, Dennis and I drove across country with Aaron and Daniel in our 1994 Dodge Caravan…more memories.

My friends know this about me. I am not a car person. I do not care about cars, I hate worrying about vehicle upkeep, I would love to have all of the money I have spent over the past 41 years buying, renting, leasing, insuring, and repairing vehicles. I would happily live in Manhattan, Chicago, or San Francisco and take mass transit. But I will never trade the memories of being brave enough to ride with my mother when she was learning to drive and I was only four, or my father settling in the driver’s seat for a Sunday drive in the country, or road trips to Montana, Las Vegas, Denali, Howe’s Cavern, the Bronx, Washington, D. C…and let’s not forget front bench seats, no seat belts, no A/C, crossing the desert with a canvas radiator bag.

So today, que sera, sera, whatever will be, will be. But for some reason I cannot bear to say good-bye to GM. I will remember the great ads, Dinah Shore, and my favorite from 2002.

If you are having trouble viewing the video, you can see it here.

I will say good-night to GM, savor my memories and wait and hope the reinvention is successful.

P.S. Let me hear about your GM memories and enjoy my YouTube video selections and Picasa Web Album.
P. P. S. A good friend just read this blog and he reminded me that in 1960 my father purchased a used 1940 Cadillac mourning car. It had jump seats and held about 10-12 people. It was the real fore-runner in our family for a mini-van. Go to this blog post to read about my dad and see a photo of this crazy car.

Reading Time: 10 minutes

I don’t know about all of you, but I find the current state of affairs of the banking industry exhausting. So today I thought I might offer you my personal perspective on this subject, that is: my rear view mirror of the banking industry.

Most of you know that I worked in the banking industry from 1969 through 1989. I started my banking career as a clerk and in my final position I was a Vice-President for Fleet Bank. It occurred to me today that over that 20 year span, I observed a lot of banking industry milestones. Some of these are comical and some very serious. For example:

1. In 1970, while employed with Wells Fargo, I watched as they installed some of the first ATM machines in two San Diego branches. What was comical about this process was the fact that there really was nothing automatic about these machines. Actually, they installed impressive looking equipment in the wall of the bank and issued cards. People would come up to the machine, insert their card and receive money. What the customers didn’t realize is that behind the machine, inside a little room was a real live person who would retrieve a paper transaction from the back of the machine, type on a non-electric typewriter a debit or credit to the person’s account. Then this employee would walk across the lobby and hand the typewritten transaction to a teller. Yeah! An automatic teller machine was born.

2. Also in 1970, Wells Fargo opened a branch in the Grossmont section of San Diego. They were very proud of the installation of their first pneumatic tube system which operated between the customers car and the drive up window.

3. I think the first time I remember a bank being closed by the Comptroller of the Currency was in 1973. This was U. S. National Bank of San Diego and when the Comptroller of the Currency shut it down it was the biggest bank failure in U. S. history. At the time depositor’s funds were insured up to $20,000! The bank was purchased by Crocker National Bank for $89.5 million. At the time Crocker more or less agreed to keep most of the USNB’s employees, but they did not agree to honor the pension plans that had been set up by USNB. Having later worked with some of these USNB employees when I served as a AVP for Crocker Bank, I can attest to the fact that these employees never financially recovered from this decision and they carried a resentment against Crocker. This made for a great working environment.

4. In 1978 shortly after I was hired by Crocker to be a Consumer Lender, I remember when Citibank (think Citigroup) decided to issue credit cards to what seemed like hundreds of thousands of consumers across the United States. It seemed we all received one. Every card had the same effective date. And on that date consumers were in line at their local banks to get cash advances from these cards. I remember that day, as we ran short on cash at the Wilshire-Hauser branch of Crocker Bank! Keep in mind none of these consumers actually applied for the cards. The invitation came in the mail from a banking company that none of us had heard of prior to that time. Great!

5. I believe it was around late 1979 or early 1980 that the banks across the United States decided to lure consumers with home equity lines of credit, as well as online loans. Many consumers prior to this time avoided even the thought of a second mortgage being recorded against their home. But we all went down that road and I became so proficient at explaining this product to consumers I was actually featured in a Time Magazine advertisement for Indian Head Bank of New Hampshire! I am not kidding.

6. In 1989 I watched from afar the establishment of the Resolution Trust Corporation which was formed to deal with the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s.

7. Just about the time that Fleet Bank was winding up their takeover of Indian Head Bank (1989)they decided to offer incentive pay for Mortgage Loan Officers. I remember remarking to my immediate boss at the time, “This cannot bode well for the banking industry.” He questioned my reasoning and I explained when a Mortgage Loan Officer becomes a commissioned sales person this is bound to affect their lending decisions.

The bottom line is this: even with all of my banking experience and all of the audits that I lived through with the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Federal Reserve, I am shocked at where we find ourselves today. Did these federal agencies and state banking agencies, as well, just stop performing audits? Did they just look the other way when the lending decisions seemed to be based on “fluff”? Or were these toxic loans packaged and sold so quickly on the open market that the examiners never really saw the worst?

Today as I thought about this post I went to the website for the Comptroller of the Currency, the administrator for national banks (think Wells Fargo, Bank of America, CitiGroup, etc). Their tag line on their website says: “Ensuring a Safe and Sound National Banking System for All Americans”. Are they kidding me? Visit their site: In 2007 the OCC was listed as one of the best places to work in the Federal Government. And…they say: “The OCC offers one of the best benefits programs in government. Our health and life insurance and retirement programs are among the best in government and compare well to private companies.”

Final thought for the day: “I am glad the taxpayers can afford to offer such wonderful benefits to an agency that is ensuring a safe and sound national banking system for all Americans; however, when will all Americans be assured access to the same quality health insurance coverage?”

Any thoughts?

Reading Time: 17 minutes

Forty years ago this month I entered the real work force. A real job with Wells Fargo Bank. I was all of 19, recently married and had dropped out of the University of San Francisco. This real job had the same grade and pay of a teller, but the Human Resource Officer who interviewed me thought I might be better suited to a desk job with limited “face to face” contact with the public! I was paid $370 per month. (Let me save you some time, that computes to $2.13 per hour.) I was assigned to the Monthly Payment Loan Center as a Payoff Clerk and my desk was located on the 3rd floor of the Wells Fargo Bank World Headquarter’s building at 44 Montgomery, San Francisco, Ca. The building was new, completed in 1966 and it was the tallest building in San Francisco between 1966 and 1968. While my blog today is somewhat personal regarding my resume, I want to dedicate it to Lilly Ledbetter. We should all thank Lilly Ledbetter for her relentless pursuit of justice which resulted in the eventual passing and signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. It has been a long 40 years!

If you are not familiar with Lilly’s case against Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, then I invite you to read about it. After the Equal Pay Act of 1963 was passed most Americans probably felt protected by the law, but for women in the work place there has been an undercurrent sometimes barely noticeable, nevertheless palpable. Let me explain how this phenomena works. When you are hired by a large company, a well established company (Wells Fargo was founded in 1852), there is a presumption of trust. After all this is a bank and we all know that the basis of banking is that of a fiduciary. So is a 19 year old woman suppose to see red flags when in the interview process she is asked what kind of birth control measures do you use? Should the 19 year woman question why as an employee of the company she has no maternity insurance coverage, but the wives of male employees do? Should the 19 year old woman question her manager (a man) when he reminds all employees that they will be subject to termination if they meet with union leaders?

By 1972 I did start to ask questions, but I didn’t have the time or money to fight for the cause…so I resigned from Wells Fargo and returned to college full time. By 1974 I received my B.A. in Social Work and went back into the work force, only to find myself once again in the banking industry. In 1978 I was hired by Crocker National Bank and by early 1979 (at the age of 29) I was an Assistant Vice President of Consumer Loan Administration. I worked in the Crocker Bank Tower located at 611 S. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA. By this time, no one questioned my birth control measures (except my immediate Vice-President when he promoted me to AVP and then said with a chuckle: “Now, don’t get pregnant!”), women employees now had maternity coverage, and unions just never came up in conversations.

crocker national bank

In late 1980, I gave birth to my first son, Aaron. I resigned from Crocker Bank in the Spring of 1981 and it was purchased by Wells Fargo in 1986. I did not return to the banking industry until October 1985. By then I was 36 years old and we had just relocated to Conway, New Hampshire, with our two young children. Dennis and I met with a Commercial Loan Officer of Indian Head Bank North to discuss purchasing a country inn. After reviewing our business plan and resume, the gentleman looked at me and said: “Can we set this loan application aside and talk about hiring you?” He had me! After all, we were new in this community and if one of the most prestigious banks in the state was willing to offer me a job as a loan officer, two blocks from our home with medical benefits for the whole family then why not accept it?

I worked for Indian Head Bank North, was promoted to Vice President, and continued there even after we purchased Cranmore Mountain Lodge in 1986. But in 1988 Indian Head Bank was purchased by Fleet Bank and by 1989 most of the senior officers had been offered a severance package. I resigned my position in November 1989. Fleet Bank was purchased by Bank of America in 2003.

What you need to understand is that I always suspected that I did not receive equal pay for equal work in the banking industry. And now you are probably wondering why didn’t I pursue it. The answer is complex: First, most companies use what are referred to as pay grades. According to Wikipedia a “Pay grade is a unit in systems of monetary compensation for employment. It is commonly used in public service, both civil and military, but also for companies of the private sector. Pay grades facilitate the employment process by providing a fixed framework of salary ranges, as opposed to a free negotiation. Typically, pay grades encompass two dimensions: a “vertical” range where each level corresponds to the responsibility of, and requirements needed for a certain position; and a “horizontal” range within this scale to allow for monetary incentives rewarding the employee’s quality of performance or length of service.”; Secondly, in most large companies you are subject to termination if you discuss your compensation level with other employees. So there you have it in a nut shell, put the woman in a pay grade that is the same as the men performing the same job, but start her in the bottom of the pay range and then make it clear that if she discusses her compensation she will be fired; Third, if you really want to keep her in tow, then give her a title, like Vice-President. It is all about TRUST!

Tonight I had the opportunity to read about Lilly Ledbetter’s suit. As I read through the history of the case, I finally came to the Supreme Court’s ruling against Lilly. Again, according to Wikipedia: “Justice Alito delivered the opinion of the court. The Court held that according to Title VII, discriminatory intent must occur during the 180-day charging period. Ledbetter did not claim that Goodyear acted with discriminatory intent in the charging period by issuing the checks, nor by denying her a raise in 1998. She argued that the discriminatory behavior occurred long before but still affected her during the 180-day charging period. Prior case law, the Court held, established that the actual intentional discrimination must occur within the charging period. The Court also stated that according to those prior cases, Ledbetter’s claim that each check is an act of discrimination is inconsistent with the statute, because there was no evidence of discriminatory intent in the issuing of the checks.” So basically, they ruled against Lilly because she did not file her complaint within the 180-day charging period.

As I read this decision I immediately thought of the standard operating procedure for most companies, you are subject to termination if you discuss your compensation level with other employees. That being the case how could one ever hope to meet the requirement to file a complaint within the 180-day charging period?

It took the only woman on the Supreme Court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, to point out the idiocy of this ruling by presenting the dissenting argument. Quoting from Wikipedia: “Justice Ginsburg dissented from the opinion of the Court, joined by Justices Stevens, Souter, and Breyer. She argued against applying the 180-day limit to pay discrimination, because discrimination often occurs in small increments over large periods of time. Furthermore, the pay information of fellow workers is typically confidential and unavailable for comparison. Ginsburg argued that pay discrimination is inherently different from adverse actions, such as termination. Adverse actions are obvious, but small pay discrepancy is often difficult to recognize until more than 180 days of the pay change. Ginsburg argued that the broad remedial purpose of the statute was incompatible with the Court’s “cramped” interpretation. Her dissent asserted that the employer had been, “Knowingly carrying past pay discrimination forward” during the 180-day charging period, and therefore could be held liable.”

So here’s to Lilly. She fought the fight and she won the battle (not necessarily the war). On January 29, 2009, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 (With the revised statutory language, the majority opinion’s interpretation referenced above is no longer valid, and the law now conforms to the interpretation advocated by Justice Ginsberg in her dissenting opinion). Lilly will never be financially compensated by Goodyear or any government agency. She led a fight for all of us and for that we should be thankful.

P.S. Today’s image is a collage of some more of my business cards from over the years. What a hoot…great titles, with almost always unequal pay! And for the record, over the years I fought many battles with my employers over equal treatment. In 1989, I refused to sign my severance package under threat of non-payment. The reason? It contained a clause that I was not allowed to discuss the terms of the agreement with fellow employees. I wonder why? Could it be that the packages were not equal? I knew they were not, I didn’t sign, but they paid me my severance. To think how the battles might have been waged differently with the Internet, YouTube, Facebook, Blogs, Twitter…dare to imagine!

business cards

Reading Time: 4 minutes

President Obama and his advisors face some tough decisions regarding the banks.

Paul Krugman writes for the New York Times, teaches economics at Princeton, and won a Nobel Prize. He may be too liberal for some but he lies out the problem pretty well in this Op Ed piece on the NY Times.

Lets say we have a bank with assets of $2 trillion and liabilities of $1.9 trillion. So its net worth is $100 billion. However suppose that $400 billion is overprices – mortgage backed securities and other junk They may be only worth $200 billion. So the bank has really gone bust. It may still be open and its stock may have some value, but the value is based on the hope or expectation of a government bail out.

The government needs to bail the bank out because of its importance to the national and global financial system. The government let Lehman collapse, financial markets froze, and the world financial system nearly collapsed. So the government wants to avoid a repeat.

The government could just give the bank money, say $200 billion. However that would be a giant gift and would probably encourage more irresponsible risk taking in the future.

Another idea would be to do now what was done in the 80s with the Savings and Loans. The government took over the S and Ls, moved the bad assets to the newly created Resolution Trust Corporation, made the S and Ls solvent, then sold them.

Doing this with the banks will look like the government is nationalizing the banks. So a third idea is a variation and it appears to be the most likely. The government will move the bad assets from the private banks to a new government bank. The government will pay “fair value” for the bad assets.

While this approach looks good, its not a gift because the government is getting something in return and it not nationalizing the banks. However, how do you price the bad assets. Probably at more than they are worth. The price must be high enough to keep the banks solvent for one thing. For another, if the price was not too high then the banks could probably sell the assets to someone else. So it is really a gift disguised as something else.

I expect this will play out pretty soon. Will be interesting and historical to watch.