Financial Service Info

U.S. foreclosure activity fell markedly in the first six months of the year, dropping a full 25 percent below that of the second half of 2010, although much of that was due to procedural issues rather than underlying improvements in the housing market.

That’s according to the midyear report from foreclosure tracking firm RealtyTrac, issued today. Although the overall picture looks encouraging, much of the decline appears to be due to a slowdown in processing foreclosures in states where such claims must be handled through the courts, according to a RealtyTrac official.   James Saccacio, RealtyTrac CEO, said the slowdown was particularly noticeable in states that require a judicial process for foreclosures. He noted that the 20 metropolitan areas with the largest one-year decreases in foreclosures were all in judicial foreclosure states, including New York, Maryland, Florida, Illinois and others.   Read all post…

About $600 billion of the $1.24 trillion held by U.S. businesses is in overseas accounts, a matter of debate in Washington over offering tax breaks to encourage repatriation of the money.

Moody’s said the cash stash grew even though the amount spent on capital improvements, mergers and acquisitions and dividends increased.

Moody’s also said that the U.S. corporate debt-to-cash ratio was the lowest in the last five years at 3.06.

“Even with near-record-low interest rates and high levels of corporate-debt issuance, companies are adding little debt on a net basis,” the debt rating service said.

The top 20 holders had $488 billion, accounting for more than a third of the overall total.

Moody’s reported last month that U.S. technology company’s cash holding have doubled since 2006 and is likely to double again within three years to $238 billion

Moody’s listed Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple at No. 1, with $60 billion in cash at the end of 2010. T

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Thinking about starting a business? You may also wonder about what software to use, Microsoft Office (now even available online), accounting software and so on but is that really the software you need right now?

Starting a business is a process in itself I dont want to scare anyone here, but getting this part right will increase your chances of business success by over 20%! Business Start-up Software should help you through the business start-up process, which means you want to set yourself goals, plan your cash-flow and do a SWOT (Strength-Weakness-Opportunity-Threads) analysis.

These tools will help you to think ABOUT your business and not IN your business working out if and how you can succeed is what business start-up software does!

Wells Fargo , which employs more that 3,000 in the Triad, merged in 2009 with Wachovia, long a major employer and banking giant in the region. Bank of America Bank of America Latest from The Business Journals Bank of America’s Brian Moynihan asks Congress to act on debt ceilingBond broker to pay 0K for bid riggingREAL ESTATE: FHLB Boston profits rise amid mortgage pain Follow this company employs nearly 2,000 in the Triad, mostly at a call center in High Point’s Piedmont Center.

The group pleads with Congress to act this week on a deal that will stave off default and a downgrade of U.S. debt, saying the alternative would bring about “grave” consequences. They write:

(eTN) – Never shy of controversy, the last one having been sweeping allegations over the Europe Union’s (EU) aviation black list targeting African airlines to protect their own – made days before another crash of a banned Congolese airline cost yet more lives – has AFRAA (African Airlines Association) last week in Nairobi taken aim at Gulf-based airlines but not before once again calling the EU aviation blacklist “not helpful” to improve aviation safety in Africa.

Justifiably, to a point, the question was asked as to how African carriers face traffic right restrictions and uplift limitations whereas companies like Emirates or Qatar Airways get around such non-tariff barriers with apparently great ease.

Figures submitted to the media on the occasion of Embraer’s Africa Workshop in Nairobi, show that African airlines only uplift 40 percent of traffic while 60 percent, on routes to Europe as much as 61 percent was carried by foreign airlines with no roots on the continent.

Citing also an example of staff poaching, when AFRAA named an Abu Dhabi-based aircraft maintenance organization to have recruited as many as 17 staff from Ethiopian Airlines, the organization demanded of African governments to get better equipped to deal with the complex issues of traffic rights by fully adopting the Yamoussoukro Agreement, which in fact demands that the continent opens air routes for African airlines, not make it more difficult for them to fly cross Africa routes while giving foreign carriers a competitive advantage. The Y Read all post…

The World Youth Student and Educational Travel Confederation is very pleased to announce that David Rowan will be the keynote speaker for this year’s World Youth and Student Travel Conference (WYSTC), taking place September 20-23 in Barcelona.

David will deliver a compelling keynote address that inspires the audience and sets the tone for the event. David is the editor of the UK edition of WIRED magazine, which won 2009 Launch of the Year at the British Society of Magazine Editors Awards. He also writes the monthly “Digital Life” column in GQ magazine and the “Tech Traveller” column in Condé Nast Traveller.

David spends his time hunting for glimpses of tomorrow today. But he is no geek or far-out futurologist. His speech is guaranteed to surprise – he has a broad intellectual range that takes him beyond simple tech-spotting and transitory trends. His engaging and insightful presentations have been called fascinating, memorable, and massively motivating. He is sure t Read all post…

TSYS credited improving economic conditions for helping it increase its second-quarter profit.

TSYS

The Columbus, Ga.-based outsourced payments processor credited improving economic conditions for helping it increase its second-quarter profit.

Philip W. Tomlinson, chairman and CEO of TSYS:

“We continue to see the improvements that we expected in 2011 as evidenced by our year-over-year quarterly revenue growth with and without the termination fee. Our North America Services segment had an increase in revenues before reimbursable items of 3.2 percent and operating income growth of 13 percent excluding the 2010 termination fee. In our International Services segment, revenues before reimbursable items increased 14.1 percent on a constant currency basis as a result of new business and organic growth. O

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