Gangnam-gu, Seoul -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/22/2012 -- Bank of America has filed its yearly statement that includes information on executive pay, which has revealed that during the same year when Bank of America's share fell 58% and it laid off 30,000 employees, its Chief Executive Brian Moynihan surprisingly got a benefits package of over USD 8.1 million — almost four times than the previous year's USD 1.9 million. Apart from that, there's also the USD 420,000 financial and tax advice as well as his use of the Fisher Capital Management Warning News aircraft.

His overall compensation package consisted of a USD 950,000 base salary and USD 6.1 million in stock awards, most of which will not be converted to cash until the bank meets performance marks. Hence, the bulk of his 2011 earnings is actually dependent on the bank's future performance.

According to the latest data from Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, the Bank of America is the biggest bank in Northeast Florida, with 37 branches and a USD 22 billion in regional deposits for a market stake of 47%

They are concerned that BoA cannot keep its strong profits after it is done divesting assets as capital requirements. Investors' opinions on bank shares has quickly changed after being in a standstill for 3 years it has increased this year. This change in investor mindset has made a significant impact on Bank of America, with stocks increasing by more than 75%. Moreover, it has passed the latest round of stress tests by the Federal Reserve, while competitors such as Citigroup has failed. But even if the momentum appears affirmative, experts are not expecting the current strength can be maintained.

Bank of America has been effectively downgraded from "outperform" to "neutral", but also increased the price goal from USD 9 to 10. This year's earning estimate on the bank also increased from 50 cents to 65 cents, owing to a fairly good first quarter. However, estimates for the year 2013 was decreased by 10 cents due to concerns about earnings next year.

Recently, the stock market has experienced a general revival triggered by the optimistic reports on the banking sector, resulting in the mass return of investors in the market and the eventual increase of stock prices. Though BoA is in a stronger position now than they were a year ago, the future is still much of a challenge, as investors might just favor other competitors with more capital position and earning power such as JPMorgan.

The current chairman of BoA, Chad Holliday is attempting to reassure stockholders on his yearly letter that the bank is on the right track and is 'turning the corner' looking for ways to recover from a 5-year economic crisis. BoA employs 2,000 workers in Charlotte, most of whom are stationed in a call center in Piedmont Center.

He also mentioned Moynihan in the same letter, remarking that along with the XXXXmanagement team, Moynihan is 'making progress' albeit in a difficult situation.

"In 2011, the company increased capital and liquidity substantially. It sold businesses and other assets to simplify the company and make it easier to serve its customers and clients with fewer distractions," Holliday wrote.

Holliday admitted that there is still work to be done but those actions have placed the bank in an effective position when it comes to competition, creating more value and generating income that shareholders deserve. With their millions of clients, the highest quality of services from their bank is indispensable, along with an experienced leadership team.

BoA has been struggling last year as it deals with poor low profits and volatile market. In fact, US' second biggest bank has announced a mere USD 85 million in revenue for 2011. Moreover, its stock has slipped to USD 4.99 in December as investors were anxious about its condition.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Gungnum-Gu, Seoul -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/11/2011 -- Fisher Capital Management Scam Prevention News : Leaked HP Memo Tackles TouchPad Shortcomings

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2388145,00.asp

Hewlett-Packard is taking mixed reviews for its new TouchPad tablet with webOS pretty seriously, going by a leaked internal memo from the head ofHP's Palm Global Business Unit to staff that declares it will be "a marathon not a sprint" to fix the initial shortcomings of the device.

John Rubenstein, senior vice president and general manager of HP's Palm unit, sent the memo on July 1, the day the TouchPad was officially released in the U.S. It was apparently leaked by an anonymous tipster to Pre Central, a specialist tech website covering HP's mobile business.

While the memo cites The New York Times reviewer David Pogue's opinion that the TouchPad shows "signs of greatness," Rubenstein also concedes that Pogue and other "reviewers rightly note things we need to improve about the webOS experience."

That's a tacit admission that the TouchPad has a long way to go in areas like app availability and user friendliness before it lives up to one HP executive's pre-release boast that the tablet would take onApple's market-dominating iPad and "become better than number one."

PCMag's Lead Analyst for Audio and Video Timothy Gideon didn't disagree with Rubenstein's assessment (reprinted below), offering up the "general feeling that the good outweighs the bad with the TouchPad." Our full review of the tablet offers much the same sentiment.

Meanwhile, Hewlett-Packard is planning to follow up on its Wi-Fi-only, 16GB and 32GB TouchPads with a "white glossy" model due out in August that sports a more powerful processor and 64GB of internal storage, as well as a 32GB TouchPad with support for AT&T's 4G HSPA+ network in the same August timeframe, according to leaked HP product roadmap slides, also published this week by Pre Central.

Here's the leaked internal email:

"Team,

"Today we bring the HP TouchPad and webOS 3.0 to the world. The HP team has achieved something extraordinary—especially when you consider that it's been just one year since our work on the TouchPad began in earnest. Today also marks the start of a new era for HP as our vision for connected mobility begins to take form—an ecosystem of services, applications and devices connected seamlessly by webOS.

"If you've seen the recent TouchPad reviews you know that the industry understands HP's vision and sees the same potential in webOS as we do. David Pogue from The New York Times says, "[T]here are signs of greatness here." ... You've also seen that reviewers rightly note things we need to improve about the webOS experience. The good news is that most of the issues they cite are already known to us and will be addressed in short order by over-the-air software and app catalog updates. We still have work to do to make webOS the platform we know it can be, but remember—it's a marathon, not a sprint.

"In that spirit, Richard Kerris, head of worldwide developer relations for webOS, reminded me yesterday of the first reviews for a product introduced a little over ten years ago:

"...overall the software is sluggish"

"...there are no quality apps to use, so it won't last"

"...it's just not making sense..."

"It's hard to believe these statements described MacOS X—a platform that would go on to change the landscape of Silicon Valley in ways that no one could have imagined.

"The similarities to our situation are obvious, but there's also a big difference. Like David Pogue, our audiences get that webOS has the potential for greatness. And like me, they know that your hard work and passion, and the power of HP's commitment to webOS, will turn that potential into the real thing."

For the top stories in tech, follow us on Twitter at @PCMag.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Gungnum-Gu, Seoul -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/08/2011 -- Hewlett-Packard is taking mixed reviews for its new TouchPad tablet with webOS pretty seriously, going by a leaked internal memo from the head ofHP's Palm Global Business Unit to staff that declares it will be "a marathon not a sprint" to fix the initial shortcomings of the device.

John Rubenstein, senior vice president and general manager of HP's Palm unit, sent the memo on July 1, the day the TouchPad was officially released in the U.S. It was apparently leaked by an anonymous tipster to Pre Central, a specialist tech website covering HP's mobile business.

While the memo cites The New York Times reviewer David Pogue's opinion that the TouchPad shows "signs of greatness," Rubenstein also concedes that Pogue and other "reviewers rightly note things we need to improve about the webOS experience."

That's a tacit admission that the TouchPad has a long way to go in areas like app availability and user friendliness before it lives up to one HP executive's pre-release boast that the tablet would take onApple's market-dominating iPad and "become better than number one."

PCMag's Lead Analyst for Audio and Video Timothy Gideon didn't disagree with Rubenstein's assessment (reprinted below), offering up the "general feeling that the good outweighs the bad with the TouchPad." Our full review of the tablet offers much the same sentiment.

Meanwhile, Hewlett-Packard is planning to follow up on its Wi-Fi-only, 16GB and 32GB TouchPads with a "white glossy" model due out in August that sports a more powerful processor and 64GB of internal storage, as well as a 32GB TouchPad with support for AT&T's 4G HSPA+ network in the same August timeframe, according to leaked HP product roadmap slides, also published this week by Pre Central.

Here's the leaked internal email:

"Team,
"Today we bring the HP TouchPad and webOS 3.0 to the world. The HP team has achieved something extraordinary—especially when you consider that it's been just one year since our work on the TouchPad began in earnest. Today also marks the start of a new era for HP as our vision for connected mobility begins to take form—an ecosystem of services, applications and devices connected seamlessly by webOS.

"If you've seen the recent TouchPad reviews you know that the industry understands HP's vision and sees the same potential in webOS as we do. David Pogue from The New York Times says, "[T]here are signs of greatness here." ... You've also seen that reviewers rightly note things we need to improve about the webOS experience. The good news is that most of the issues they cite are already known to us and will be addressed in short order by over-the-air software and app catalog updates. We still have work to do to make webOS the platform we know it can be, but remember—it's a marathon, not a sprint.

"In that spirit, Richard Kerris, head of worldwide developer relations for webOS, reminded me yesterday of the first reviews for a product introduced a little over ten years ago:

"...overall the software is sluggish"
"...there are no quality apps to use, so it won't last"
"...it's just not making sense..."
"It's hard to believe these statements described MacOS X—a platform that would go on to change the landscape of Silicon Valley in ways that no one could have imagined.
"The similarities to our situation are obvious, but there's also a big difference. Like David Pogue, our audiences get that webOS has the potential for greatness. And like me, they know that your hard work and passion, and the power of HP's commitment to webOS, will turn that potential into the real thing."

For the top stories in tech, follow us on Twitter at @PCMag.

Fisher Capital Management Scam Prevention News : Leaked HP Memo Tackles TouchPad Shortcomings http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2388145,00.asp

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Gungnum-Gu, Seoul -- (SBWIRE) -- 06/20/2011 -- ANZ has warned of a structural shift across the economy where industries such as manufacturing, tourism and retailing need to confront to the reality of a persistently high Australian dollar.

The bank's chief executive, Mike Smith, also called on the Reserve Bank to curb any further interest rate rises, warning that parts of the economy had hit a "flat spot" with confidence levels among business and consumers still fragile.

Mr Smith made his comments as the Reserve Bank left official cash rates unchanged at 4.75 per cent at its monthly board meeting yesterday. But the bank board suggested a mid-year rise could be be possible if inflationary pressures persisted.

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Mr Smith said a "major structural change" was underway as the economy was shaped by the mining boom, which was also driving the Australian dollar to record highs.

"I don't think the magnitude of this shift is still fully understood, nor its implications for industries like manufacturing, tourism and retail where business models are clearly going to have to adapt to a lower margin, lower growth environment," he said.

Mr Smith unveiled a 38 per cent jump in ANZ's first-half cash profit to $2.66 billion, putting the big-four bank on track for a record full year.

The result for the six months to the end of March was driven by a sharp drop in bad debts, while ANZ's institutional business regained some momentum.

ANZ declared a first-half dividend of 64¢ a share, up 12¢ on the first half last year.

The bottom-line result was struck on a 19 per cent increase in first-half revenues to $8.61 billion, mostly as wealth management and trading income improved.

But this was largely offset by a 19 per cent increase in costs, which has been a continuing sore point for ANZ. A stronger Australian dollar wiped 2 per cent from profit.

The bank revealed its flagship Australian division experienced sluggish growth over the past 12 months and went backwards in the first half on an underlying profit basis.

It turned in first-half earnings of $1.32 billion, just 2 per cent higher on the previous corresponding period but down 6 per cent on the second half of last year.

ANZ's Institutional business continued its recovery from its low points with profits up 24 per cent, while New Zealand operations returned 63 per cent growth despite the effects of the Christchurch earthquakes. Much of the profit life there came from widening margins.

The Asia-Pacific division continues to expand, with profits coming in 44 per cent higher at $396 million.

ANZ recently outlined plans to generate nearly a third of group profits from its Asian operations by 2017, a doubling of current profit contribution from those divisions.

The bank's net interest margin, a core measure of profitability, dipped to 2.47 per cent from 2.50 per cent in the September half last year amid renewed pricing competition in institutional lending.

Provisions for bad debts fell 40 per cent to $660 million. The health of ANZ's lending book continued to improve, but further gains would be at a slower pace, Mr Smith said.

ANZ set aside $79 million to cover potential lending losses arising from recent natural disasters, particularly the Queensland floods.

Return on equity continued to push higher, suggesting bank profitability was inching back to pre-financial crisis levels. ANZ's return on equity of 16.7 per cent was up from 14.7 per cent a year ago.

http://www.smh.com.au/business/anz-sounds-warning-on-economy-as-profits-jump-20110503-1e6se.html

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm