Jpmorgan Chase

Depositing money in the bank is usually a good idea - but not the way a Burlington County woman did it. Sandra Mastoris, 58, of Chesterfield, was sentenced Friday to 12 months of home confinement and five years of probation for depositing more than $700,000 in cash in amounts of less than $10,000 each to avoid having banks file reports on her deposits, federal authorities said. She earlier pleaded guilty to an indictment that charged her with structuring the cash deposits from 2008 to 2009.

Harold W. "Hal" Pote, 60, president and chief executive officer of American Financial Realty Trust, died while vacationing this week with his wife in Turkey, the company announced yesterday. In a brief news release issued last night, Lewis S. Ranieri, chairman of American Financial's board of trustees, expressed "profound sadness" and said: "Our whole AFR family mourns this tragic loss. " Mr. Pote, who lived in Center City, had served as the company's president and CEO since August after its founder, Nicholas S. Schorsch, had been ousted by the board over concerns that he was more concerned about growth than profit.

NEW YORK - Banks aren't the big job machines they used to be. One after another, major financial firms are trimming their payrolls. In first-quarter earnings announcements this month, Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley revealed that they had cut more than 31,000 jobs, or 3.5 percent of their combined workforce, in the last year. For three of those banks, it was the second straight year of cutbacks. And the pattern is being repeated around the world.

In many ways Hal Pote, 60, who died in a swimming accident off the coast of Turkey on June 26, was the typical South Jersey guy, happiest when sailing his boat in Barnegat Bay or rooting for the Phils. But in many others, Mr. Pote, pride of Penns Grove and onetime chief executive officer of Fidelity Bank, was the consummate Philadelphia banker who "led the revolution from traditional banking to futuristic financial services," according to Rosemarie Greco, former president of CoreStates Bank and currently director of the Governor's Office of Health Care Reform.

Big banks are entering the business of prepaid debit cards, as more Americans turn to reloadable plastic as an alternative to checking accounts, check-cashing stores, and other financial options. JPMorgan Chase is especially aggressive. In late June, it launched Liquid, a card that lets users load and withdraw money at Chase's extensive branch and ATM network at no charge. Some analysts call Liquid a "game changer" because most prepaid cards charge for loading, withdrawal and other services that Chase is offering free at its network.

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, a lead sponsor of 2010's Dodd-Frank financial overhaul, joined with U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren on Thursday morning to call for tighter regulation of large banks' trading risks and warn that the finance industry continues to push for weaker rules and enforcement even after JPMorgan Chase's disclosure of an embarrassing, multibillion-dollar loss from derivatives trading. Both Massachusetts Democrats were key players in efforts to reimpose stronger regulatory oversight in the aftermath of the housing bubble, financial crisis, and Great Recession.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is the biggest and most profitable bank in the United States. Its stars, led by chief executive Jamie Dimon and including top securities traders in Manhattan, London, and other financial centers, are paid millions to handle vast sums for powerful governments, big corporations, rich people. But JPMorgan is also a meat-and-potatoes lender, to U.S. homeowners and credit card users. The workers who handle those clients often labor far from the gleaming financial centers, in inland office parks and at production-oriented law firms, debt-collection agencies, and other grim contractors.

NEW YORK - Financial stocks fell broadly Thursday, left out of a late lift that pared earlier losses for most major stock indexes. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. fell nearly 3 percent after Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.) said a panel he leads found new evidence that Goldman had misled investors. JPMorgan Chase & Co. fell nearly 3 percent. Bank of America Corp. fell more than 1 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 stock index added 0.11 point, or less than 0.1 percent, to close at 1,314.52.

WASHINGTON - JPMorgan Chase and Credit Suisse have agreed to pay a combined $417 million to settle federal civil charges that ahead of the 2008 financial crisis, they sold investors risky mortgage bonds they knew could fail. JPMorgan did not warn investors that homeowners whose mortgages were tied to the bonds were behind on payments, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday. And both banks failed to properly disclose practices that allowed them to profit while investors lost millions, the SEC said.

PHILADELPHIA WILL be getting a windfall that could reach $9 million or more from JPMorgan Chase & Co., which is settling charges that it cheated the city in some bond sales about a decade ago. In reality, this "found money" won't change the city's short-term plans - it will likely just be used as a cushion if revenues come in low, or unexpected costs pop up. But we can dream, can't we? Here's how we think the city should spend the money: Build a giant air conditioner for the entire city.

NEW YORK - Banks aren't the big job machines they used to be. One after another, major financial firms are trimming their payrolls. In first-quarter earnings announcements this month, Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley revealed that they had cut more than 31,000 jobs, or 3.5 percent of their combined workforce, in the last year. For three of those banks, it was the second straight year of cutbacks. And the pattern is being repeated around the world.

NEW YORK - In an age when checks can be deposited by smartphone and almost everyone retrieves cash from ATMs, the corner bank can seem a relic, with its paper deposit slips, marble countertops, and human tellers behind glass partitions. But some banking executives say the brick-and-mortar branch is still the best way to serve existing customers and snag new ones. They're trying to rebuild the nation's neighborhood banks into hip, airy spaces where customers sign up for loans without touching a piece of paper, sign in to ATMs with a tap of their smartphones, and talk to off-site tellers by video.

NEW YORK - JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs need better plans for coping with a severe recession, the Federal Reserve said Thursday, giving the banks until September to revise them. The announcement came as part of the Fed's so-called stress tests, its annual check-up of 18 of the country's big banks. The government runs the tests to see how the banks would fare in a severe recession. As a result of the tests, it also tells each bank whether it may raise its dividend, the quarterly payout it gives to stockholders, or buy back more of its own shares.

Depositing money in the bank is usually a good idea - but not the way a Burlington County woman did it. Sandra Mastoris, 58, of Chesterfield, was sentenced Friday to 12 months of home confinement and five years of probation for depositing more than $700,000 in cash in amounts of less than $10,000 each to avoid having banks file reports on her deposits, federal authorities said. She earlier pleaded guilty to an indictment that charged her with structuring the cash deposits from 2008 to 2009.

NEW YORK - More problems for Boeing's 787 sent the aircraft maker's stock down sharply Wednesday, dragging the Dow Jones industrial average lower. Japan's two biggest airlines grounded all their Boeing 787 Dreamliners for safety checks Wednesday after one was forced to make an emergency landing. Boeing's stock sank $2.60 to $74.34, a loss of 3 percent. The Dow lost 23.66 points to close at 13,511.23. Without Boeing's drop, the Dow would have ended the day nearly flat. The Standard & Poor's 500 index inched up 0.29 to 1,472.63.

LOS ANGELES - Five of the biggest U.S. banks have cut struggling homeowners' mortgage balances by $6.3 billion, part of a total $26.1 billion in home loan relief provided under a landmark settlement over foreclosure abuses. More than 309,000 borrowers received some form of mortgage relief between March 1 and Sept. 30, according to a report issued Monday by Joseph Smith, monitor of the settlement. That translates to roughly $84,385 per homeowner, according to the report, which is based on mortgage servicers' own account of their progress as they move to comply with the settlement terms.

WASHINGTON - JPMorgan Chase and Credit Suisse have agreed to pay a combined $417 million to settle federal civil charges that ahead of the 2008 financial crisis, they sold investors risky mortgage bonds they knew could fail. JPMorgan did not warn investors that homeowners whose mortgages were tied to the bonds were behind on payments, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday. And both banks failed to properly disclose practices that allowed them to profit while investors lost millions, the SEC said.

Linda Kaat describes herself as an amateur preservationist - she has led campaigns to keep the Brandywine Battlefield open as well as to save a colonial tavern and honor the last Leni-Lenape woman of Chester County. Lately, the ex-wife of Phillies pitcher Jim Kaat has been waging the preservation war of her life, a quiet one that has been testing her considerable spirit. She's fighting to keep her own home. When the housing bubble collapsed in 2008, it landed directly on Kaat.

Four years ago, President George W. Bush signed into law the biggest corporate rescue in American history. Even as U.S. unemployment has remained above 8 percent for 43 months, the country's biggest banks are making almost as much as they ever have. The combined $63 billion in profit reported by the six largest U.S. lenders over the four quarters through June is more than they earned in any calendar year since the peak in 2006. Bank of America Corp. made more in the 12-month period than Walt Disney Co. and McDonald's Corp.

The New York lawsuit over mortgage-backed securities against JPMorgan Chase & Co., the biggest U.S. bank, will serve as a template for suits against other issuers, state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said. Schneiderman alleged that the Bear Stearns business that JPMorgan bank took over in 2008 deceived mortgage-bond investors about the defective loans backing securities they bought, leading to "monumental losses," according to a complaint filed Monday in New York State Supreme Court.