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The article presents the discussion on Federal Reserve warning twice-annual report on America's financial stability. Topics include financial firms operating outside of traditional banks increasing the fragility in the system; and financial stability issues focusing as central banks around the world raising interest rates in synchrony.

The article reports that banks and technology firms have helped power rally on Wall Street and mentions rise in crude oil prices and solid earnings that resulted helped lift energy firms.

The article discusses how Citigroup is planning its first ever global branding effort, which will launch on May 6, 2007. The tag line for the advertising campaign is "Let's Get It Done," which is suppose to express to customers how the bank is committed to helping them achieve their financial goals. The advertising campaign will appear in online, television, and print mediums, and is projected to cost around $30 million for its initial first two months.

The author looks at how big banks in the United States have been on a branch building binge in the last few years. However, the author suggests that the effort to grab and hold onto customers may be nearing its final frontier. It is suggested that deposit growth is expected to slow and that some banks are stealing customers from each other as opposed to enlarging the overall size of the market.

WASHINGTON -- As Congress haggles over a broad overhaul of the nation's financial regulations, officials at the Federal Reserve have mounted a highly public effort to maintain, and perhaps even expand, the central bank's regulatory powers. The effort does not appear to have been coordinated by the Fed's chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, or other members of the board of governors in Washington. Instead, presidents of the Fed's 12 district banks have been at the forefront of what amounts to a public relations offensive. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A major shift in the kinds of direct mail that banks send out occurred last quarter, according to Mintel Comperemedia, a firm that tracks direct mail advertising. Overwhelmed by delinquent debt and facing a new law that will almost certainly make credit cards less profitable, banks sent out only about 500 million credit card solicitations in the first quarter, half as many as in the last three months of 2008. That is fewer than in any year since 2000. At the same time, banks cranked out more ads for safer but less profitable products like checking accounts (up 29 percent) and stand-alone debit cards (up 96 percent). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on the efforts of the Umpqua Bank in Portland, Oregon to offer yoga classes, movie nights and sewing groups in order to stand out from other banks and deliver service to customers that is appealing. It discusses its marketing strategies in wooing customers by offering a music CD comprised of songs by local artists.

Reports that Toronto-Dominion Bank will sell 10 percent of its global discount brokerage business. Information on the brokerage business of the firm; Details on the initiative of the bank; Purpose of the bank on the sale.

Reports on the plans of Federal agencies to curb the sale of certain derivatives by banks. Details of the plans of the regulators and assessment of the proposed rules; Reasons for the move.

Looks at the Beanie Babies promotion offered by the Oxford Bank of Addison, Illinois, where a Beanie Baby is given to anyone who opens a children's saving account with $1,000. Purpose of the promotion; Paying interest of the account; How long the promotion is expected to run; Possibility Oxford may lower the minimum deposit.