A different board I follow blames this situation on hedge funds.

I'm not very savvy at financial dealings and have lived paycheck to paycheck most of my adult life. I have been paying attention to the situation involving AMC Entertainment stock and the battle against hedge funds. The gist of it is that hedge funds "naked short" stock shares of companies in order to bankrupt them and eliminate competition for their other holdings, or to take over the company. "Naked short" stocks are stocks that don't actually exist and are sold by hedge funds, who hope to buy them back at a lower price than what they sold them, for profit. Hedge funds are blamed for causing the stock market crash of 2008 because of this tactic.

Hedge funds seemingly attempted to bankrupt AMC with "naked short" stocks, which was noticed by several people. The people, in turn, started buying stock in AMC Entertainment, driving the actual stock price upwards. Now, there is a battle between hedge funds trying to drive the price of the actual stock down in order to buy back actual stock shares to make up for the fake shares they've sold, and the people buying the actual stock that hedge funds need to buy. The premise is a majority of actual stock is owned by the people, and the hedge funds have sold many millions of fake stock that will eventually need to be accounted for by buying the actual stocks held by the people. It is believed this will eventually skyrocket the price of the actual stock when the hedge funds are forced to "even the books".

It seems the deficit the hedge funds are facing because of this will eventually crash the stock market again, causing the banks to now minimize their risks of unsecured loans.

I'm pretty sure they couldn't figure out the real accounts from the fraudulent ones they created. So, they just shut them all down and maybe start over.

I think this may be a sign of something greater. Banks did the same in 2008.

Perhaps WF see things going to shit here soon and want to protect themselves from people using all of that credit here soon (that people won’t be able to pay back or, if they do pay back, will be at almost no interest).

I guess I’m the odd man out.

I’ve been a satisfied Wells Fargo customer for years. Banking and financial advice, too.

I wouldn’t buy an apple from those criminal pricks.

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
I’ve been a satisfied Wells Fargo customer for years. Banking and financial advice, too.

You're happy because the sharks have yet to eat you. You might want to consider the possibility of taking your financial affairs elsewhere. I wouldn't trust Wells Fargo with one single penny.

quote:

Originally posted by wishfull thinker:
stocks up 4.5% today.

With the Fed saying, you have 'maxed out your assets' this move made complete sense from their perspective. Once these loans are zeroed out, they have fresh space under that cap to look at more profitable business.

Now, doing it this way has "Wells Fargo" written all over it, and I do not expect any humane treatment in the process of retiring the open loans against the LOCs...that's not the "Wells Fargo Way." Glad I don't have a LOC from anyone, but particularly glad not to have one from WF.

Some bureaucrat in SF will set a goal and a deadline, and that's that. Minions will do the math, craft the policies and then set loose the machine to squeeze in cash.

RE: Wells Fargo customer. When I moved to CA I was, got fed up with fees so I switched to Crocker.
WF bought Crocker so we switched to First Interstate.
WF bought First Interstate. We gave up temporarily, until we moved to North Carolina where banked with Wachovia.
WF bought them. OK, message received, the borg has locked onto our little vessel.

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
I guess I’m the odd man out.

I’ve been a satisfied Wells Fargo customer for years. Banking and financial advice, too.

I'd never ask a banker for financial advice.

I had a Financial Advisor approach me a year ago and talk to me about me hiring him.

I say okay, are you a millionaire?

He said no.

I said then you don't know enough to be my financial advisor. The same is true of Bankers. If they were millionaires, they wouldn't be working for wages.

wow thats a cool story

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:

I'd never ask a banker for financial advice.

I never accept the advice from someone who makes a commission based on my decision.

Revolving lines of credit are many times a debt trap for those who live paycheck to paycheck.

Bank stupidity: A friend of mine in Pensacola is a dirt attorney and managing partner in a white-collar firm. After setting up a new subdivision for a well-heeled developer, he bought two empty lots; borrowing the $ from a bank headquartered in New Orleans. The recession hit. One day the lawyer received a notice from New Orleans that his loan was being called. The local guy said they were cancelling all loans secured by undeveloped property, period. The local banker then made my friend a signature loan to pay off the secured loan and dropped the interest rate two points!

Banks are parking excess liquidity into the reverse repo market for 5 basis points instead of lending to consumers at market rates. Personal lines of credit are typically lower interest than credit cards, but can still be a significant asset for retail banks. Some commentators have speculated that the reason that the reverse repo facility is being used is to prevent the 10 year Treasury from dipping to negative interest rates . There appears to be a shortage of pristine collateral required to be maintained by the banks for their money market funds.

Reverse repo market update July (Reuters)

George Gammon does some interesting commentary on the subjects of credit markets and the reverse repo facility.
https://youtu.be/-u6fCf_S4JQ

My question is, what do banks know about Q3/Q4 2021 that we do not?

I started banking with SouthTrust in the mid 1990s. I picked this bank because convenient location, a branch about five minutes from my house in Florida, and a branch very close to where I was working on a long-term project in the Birmingham area.

SouthTrust was the best of the large banks, in terms of great customer service.

Then, SouthTrust was swallowed up by Wachovia. The level of customer service went downhill a bit, but not bad enough to make me switch.

Wachovia was subsequently eaten by Wells-Fargo. Abominable service. Total arrogant assholes, rivaled only by Chase (they acquired my home mortgage when they bought another bank), and Bank of America (they acquired the loan on the V-Tail when they bought MBNA).

My wife had a personal checking account at Wells-Fargo. I was making regular deposits, in the three thousand dollar range, to her checking account with checks drawn from her business account at a different bank. These three thousand dollar were made regularly. Final straw was a counter person refusing one of these deposits because it wasn't "verified" (whatever that meant). I pointed out that this was a repeated deposit, that no check on ANY of the multiple account that we had at Wells-Fargo had ever bounced, but nope, this attempted deposit was not "verified."

I solved the problem by telling her to close all accounts immediately and give me the balances in cash. Not certified check, at that point my level of trust in Wells-Fargo was exactly zero, so I wanted cash. Verbal battle ensued, but I did walk out of there with a large bundle of cash (yeah, I was packing heat) and all accounts closed.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
I started banking with SouthTrust in the mid 1990s. I picked this bank because convenient location, a branch about five minutes from my house in Florida, and a branch very close to where I was working on a long-term project in the Birmingham area.

SouthTrust was the best of the large banks, in terms of great customer service.

Then, SouthTrust was swallowed up by Wachovia. The level of customer service went downhill a bit, but not bad enough to make me switch.

Wachovia was subsequently eaten by Wells-Fargo. Abominable service. Total arrogant assholes, rivaled only by Chase (they acquired my home mortgage when they bought another bank), and Bank of America (they acquired the loan on the V-Tail when they bought MBNA).

My wife had a personal checking account at Wells-Fargo. I was making regular deposits, in the three thousand dollar range, to her checking account with checks drawn from her business account at a different bank. These three thousand dollar were made regularly. Final straw was a counter person refusing one of these deposits because it wasn't "verified" (whatever that meant). I pointed out that this was a repeated deposit, that no check on ANY of the multiple account that we had at Wells-Fargo had ever bounced, but nope, this attempted deposit was not "verified."

I solved the problem by telling her to close all accounts immediately and give me the balances in cash. Not certified check, at that point my level of trust in Wells-Fargo was exactly zero, so I wanted cash. Verbal battle ensued, but I did walk out of there with a large bundle of cash (yeah, I was packing heat) and all accounts closed.

I still have a business checking account with them but will likely close it in the next year,

been a member since 1961,,,,, I was born in 1963, due to Dad starting an account at one back, and the subsequent mergers and buyouts,

when Dad passed, he had a Business Equity loan that was using the house and shop as collateral

when I did the right thing and notified them of his death, and started closing and moving accounts (he had 3 checking, and the equity line, as well as a house note) the stopped sending me a statement for the equity line,

I paid off the house note first, then went to pay off the equity line, and ran into a stone wall,

with telling anyone, they put the Equity line into collections,,
the Branch Manager, who was very helpful, was as flustered as I was, on why they did that, and why we could not get a statement or payoff, (I made copies of a pervious payment stub and used it to continue to make payments, ,,

took a month of the branch manager and I calling several times a week to get a payoff number,

and then another month to get all the paperwork needed to prove it was paid and out of collections,

I have Wells Fargo, and have for many years. I'm not happy with them on several levels, but haven't found any better. This morning a text awakened me, regarding transactions on my card.

I called the number on my card, and was soon speaking with someone who rattled off a series of transactions that I didn't make; most already halted and credited back, and two that had been approved.

Long and short, those have been disputed, and the card shuttered, with a new card enroute by FedEx in the next day or two. Fortunately I'm home to get the card, because normally I'm out of the country.

This has happened a few times in the past; an alert from Wells Fargo, and I've been able to stop the fraud and get it corrected quickly, thanks to the rapid alert. It's one of the few, or only things that have been good about Wells Fargo...and a few times they shut down my card when I was traveling, and it was more than an inconvenience.

Several years ago when the false accounts issue was circulating, I called Wells Fargo about something,and they mentioned an account. I didn't recognize it. They said something like don't worry, just a mistake. It wasn't until later that I realized it was probably a fake account they glossed over and made disappear, but I didn't have anything to prove it at the time.

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
I guess I’m the odd man out.

I’ve been a satisfied Wells Fargo customer for years. Banking and financial advice, too.

I'm with you Pipe.Had em in San Diego and have them here. Locations everywhere,good credit card and debit monitoring.
We have checking,savings,mortgage, and car loan. My wife is a financial type and kicks their butt when needed.