Abstract
The paper discusses the Savings and Loan crisis of the 1980s when
real estate firm American Continental Corporation bought the Californian Lincoln Savings and, under Charles Keating, made highly risky investments with depositors' money. The paper describes how American Continental Corporation went bankrupt in 1989 and caused 21,000 mostly elderly investors to lose their life savings. The paper also looks at the civil lawsuits brought against Keating and the low prison sentence he eventually received. The paper aims to bring out how, to a large degree, the savings and loan scandal was not a strange occurrence, but was simply business as usual. The paper contends that there is little difference between those people who society designates as respectable and law abiding and those people society castigates as hoodlums and thugs; the paper argues that the world of corporate finance is probably more criminogenic than any poverty-wracked slum neighborhood.

From the Paper
"William Chambliss, a pioneer in the field of Criminology, defined "state-
organized crime" as "acts committed by state or government officials in the pursuit of their job as representatives of the government" (Chambliss, 1988: 327). When governments commit acts that are defined by their own laws as criminal or when government officials break the law as part of their job, they engage in state-organized crime (Chambliss, 1986). Any government operation that is shielded from the public and hidden from Congressional oversight over a long period of time will inevitably become reliant on criminal activity to support and fund the operation. Covert operations provide the optimal environment for organized criminal activity simply because they are clandestine operations conducted with state sanction (Chambliss, 1986). Covert
intelligence activities avoid the usual law enforcement scrutiny. Sanctioned financial accounting procedures are not followed and organizers of such operations recruit individuals with the skills necessary to carry them out, most of which are criminal skills."

Tags:racketeering, conspiracy, corporate, finance, corruption

Abstract
This paper examines three on-line banking websites--Washington Mutual, Chase and Wells Fargo--by using several criteria such as overloading, consistency of image, grammar and spelling, speed of loading, functioning links, ease of use and overall impression: The Wells Fargo website was judged to be the best. The author stresses that banks must consider the requirements for protection of rights and interests of depositors, establishment of stability and confidence in financial markets and requirements for economic development in both their brick-and mortar and online operations. The paper relates that e-Business has changed the way in which banks must operate in the areas of customer relations (CRM), the banking supply chain, customer-based marketing that provides many customers services and immediately becoming an international entity through their presence on the internet.

Table of Contents
Introduction
Evaluation of Web sites
Washington Mutual
Chase
Wells Fargo
How Web Sites Differ
Washington Mutual
Chase
Wells Fargo
Bank Supply Chain in a Brick-and-Mortar Setting
Web Site Supply Chain Modifications
Marketing Tools
Washington Mutual
Chase
Wells Fargo
Customer Service
Washington Mutual
Chase
Wells Fargo
Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues
Security, Confidentiality and International Issues
Washington Mutual
Chase
Wells Fargo
Conclusion

From the Paper
"To compete successfully in the highly competitive marketplace, banking Web sites must strive every day to deliver consistent levels of performance and experience as perceived by users. Site performance must be formatted to accommodate speed reliability factors, and display what type of company they portray themselves to be. There are ten areas that Web sites are measured against: Response time (over high speed, DSL, and dial up connections), response consistency, geographic uniformity, load handling, page design, network connectivity, site reliability, and outage hours."

Tags:crm, international, competition, evaluation, customer

Abstract
This paper explains that viewing the Internet as only a marketing tool is a vast mistake because the Internet has vast applications to making the way of doing business not only easier and less costly, but also completely different than traditional banking. The author points out that Chinese banks, like the China Merchant Bank, will be able to strengthen relationships with existing customers by allowing them to access via its Website previously inaccessible decision-support information, such as detailed account reports, product specifications and interest rate comparisons at their own convenience. The paper, using many strategy analysis tools, concludes that e-banking is a viable solution to the problem of escalating costs of human tellers dealing with smaller depositors; therefore, Chinese banks, who are focused on ROI (return-on-investment) in order to prioritize and evaluate its goals, should develop an e-strategy.

Table of Contents
Introduction
Overall Review of E-Banking Industry
Customer Loyalty
Customer Needs and Meeting Them
Strategy for Building Customer Loyalty
China Merchant Bank
Risk Prevention in E-Banking of China
From the Technical View
E-Supply Chain Management
Procurement
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
From the Managerial View
Strategic Plan
SWOT Assessment
Porter Five Forces
Porters Five Force Model
Customer Bargaining Power - High
Threat of Substitute Products and Services - Emerging
Supplier Bargaining Power--low
Threat of New Entrants - Emerging
The Overall Level of Rivalry - Moderate
Value Chain Model
Conclusions

From the Paper
"Contrary to popular retail belief, customers are not looking for the lowest price. Thompson writes, "the savvy business can only be differentiated by price." Businesses need to take into an account not only the traditional way to compete with a commodity is to lower cost of manufacturing and then lower the price to drive additional sales to make it up on volume. A company should consider other factors like the value of their service or product but also to consider the value of add-ons to product. Such incentives can rationalize asking a higher price and the customer will be happy with additional quality found in the added value. Customers need to see the value, once they know it is there then the price is not an object."

Tags:cost-reduction, satisfaction, risk, swot, chain

Abstract
This paper presents an overview of how interest rates function, how the Federal Reserve manipulates interest rates as a means of exerting control of the economy and what factors affect interest rates. The paper also discusses Federal Reserve policy regarding interest rates in recent years and concludes that falling interest rates are good for both the economy and the individual.

From the Paper
"In recent months, we have heard a great deal about the importance of interest rates in manipulating our sagging economy. We know that interest rates affect what we pay on our mortgages, credit cards and educational loans. It also impacts how much money we make on the money we deposit with a bank. We have also learned about the effect of interest rates in the stock market: higher interest rates discourage businesses from borrowing money, expanding and hiring new workers, which causes their stock to either stagnate or fall in value. Interest rates have been lowered by the Federal Reserve eleven times in the past year to a four-decade low of 1.75% in an effort to salvage our hurting economy."

Tags:pays, depositor, consumer, borrows, loan, period, grows, fast, inflation, stabalize