Accounting, Banking & Finance Update

September, 2009

SPECIAL SECTIONS
The Buffalo News Accounting and Finance Banner September 20
Wall Street Journal Small Business September 28

EDITORIAL FEATURE
• Advisor Today – November editorial features: 2009 NAIFA President on
Trends in the Industry; NAIFA’s 2009 Convention and Career Conference;
Mutual Funds; Life Insurance
• Barron’s – September 21 editorial feature: Luxury Autos; September 28
editorial features: Retirement Quarterly; Hedge Funds Monthly Report;
October 5 editorial features: ETFs Quarterly Report; Mutual Funds Quarterly
Report
• Business Finance – October editorial features: Developing an M&A Playbook;
XBRL: Early Case Studies; IFRS: Where We Stand Now; SPECIAL ISSUE:
2009 Treasury & Cash Management Best Practices Survey; Assessing M&A
Risk And How to Mitigate It; How to Make a 21st Century Treasurer; Cutting
401K Costs
• The CFO – November editorial feature: Careers and Compensation Survey
• The Deal – September 14 editorial feature: 10TH Anniversary Issue;
September 21 editorial feature: Regional Report – Los Angeles/ Venture
Capital Deals; October 5 editorial feature: Most Admired Corporate
Dealmakers
• National Mortgage News – October 7 editorial features: MBA Annual Pre-
Convention Issue
• On Wall Street – November editorial features: Estate Planning & Philanthropy;
The Corporate Executive Client; Technology & Telecom
• Journal of Accountancy – October editorial features: Tax; Performance
Measurement; Individual Income Tax Issues
• CPA Journal – October editorial features: 2009 New York Accounting &
Technology Show Issue – Syracuse Area; Risk Management; November
editorial feature: Ethics

LAYOFFS
Assurant Specialty Property
Atlanta, GA; Santa Ana, CA; Tustin, CA; New York, NY
Assurant Specialty Property will cut 325 jobs by next January in its Santa Ana and
Tustin hazard service centers. The Atlanta-based insurer will move the work to
service centers in Georgia, Ohio and South Carolina. Another 200 jobs, however, will
remain in Orange County, said James Sykes, company spokesman.
Approximate Affected Workforce: 101-500 Orange County Register

Accenture Ltd.
New York, NY
Accenture Ltd. said it plans to cut 336 senior-level executive positions, according to
media reports. The layoffs total about 7 percent of Accenture's 4,800 senior
executives.
Approximate Affected Workforce: 101-500 Washington Business Journal

Cerberus Capital Management, LP

New York, NY; Overland Park, KS
U.S. automaker Chrysler's former financial services provider Chrysler Financial is
planning to dismiss 350 employees, equal to 9% of its workforce. It will also close a
customer service center in Overland Park near Kansas City by the end of August
2009. The firm, fully owned by Cerberus Capital Management, is restructuring its
operations as it is facing a time of credit restrictions and weak car sales.
Approximate Affected Workforce: 101-500 BMI Americas Automotive Insights

The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.

Pittsburgh, PA; Miamisburg, OH
PNC Financial Services Group will lay off 74 people at its Miamisburg mortgage
processing facility. The Pittsburgh-based bank announced in July that it will
consolidate more than 90 National City Corp. mortgage processing operations into
two, located in Pittsburgh and Chicago. PNC acquired Cleveland-based National City
in December.
Approximate Affected Workforce: 51-100 The Business Courier

Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp.

Ocala, FL
Taylor, Bean & Whitaker, the Ocala wholesale mortgage broker that ceased
processing new mortgages last week, informed the state that it had laid off 964
workers. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development last week told
Taylor Bean that it would stop processing loans under its Federal Housing
Administration and Ginnie Mae programs. The agency raised questions about loans
the company had submitted.
Approximate Affected Workforce: 501-1000 Orlando Business Journal

AIG Financial Products Corp.

Wilton, CT
American International Group's consumer finance unit announced the elimination of
900 jobs today as it also, not coincidentally, reported its sixth consecutive quarterly
loss. American General Finance widened its loss to $227.2 million from a loss of

$31.8 million last year, while its revenue tanked 32% to $491.4 million. The
company said it is closed 145 branches and cut 900 jobs in the first half of the year,
as it pared down its business in preparation to be sold.
Approximate Affected Workforce: 501-1000 TheStreet.com

TRENDS
Antic Rally In Financials Contrasts With Tepid Broad Market Action
By Bob O'Brien, Barron’s, August 28, 2009

The most-crowded trade on Wall Street persisted into Friday’s trading, and continued
to add a piquant flavor to a broad market that proved about as bland as American
cheese on white bread. Together, the two set the tone for what could prove to be a
divisive week for Wall Street, one that will see whether momentum stocks roll over,
and market averages finally capitulate to over-bought conditions, or whether critical
economic data can power those averages to new highs.

Next week’s action promises to be highlighted by several readings on economic

conditions. Some of them could further fan the flames of the recovery trade, while
others could show more reasons to be hesitant about a consumer-led rebound.

On the plus side, investors will get a glance at a key manufacturing reading Tuesday
- the ISM manufacturing index - which is expected to climb narrowly above a level of
50 when the report comes out. Fifty represents the demarcation between
manufacturing contraction and expansion. The report hasn’t shown an expansionary
environment since early 2008.

There’s also a look at pending home sales on Tuesday, a report that’s expected to
show growth for a sixth consecutive month, something that would burnish the
expectation that the housing market has stabilized, despite continuing foreclosures.

The week’s critical reading arrives amidst what could prove to be a virtual vacuum
Friday, as the Labor Department releases the August nonfarm payrolls report. It’s
expected to show that job cuts slowed further in the month, with job losses
amounting to a pedestrian - at least by recent standards - 225,000, after a reduction
of 247,000 for July. However, on the downside, the unemployment rate, which
retreated unexpectedly in July, is expected to tick back up to about 9.5%, showing
continued difficulties in the labor markets, and prospectively renewing worries about
how quickly consumer spending is going to bounce back.

The real risk, though, is that all this comes amid a week that’ll be characterized by
sluggish volume from the start, and dwindling levels as the week wears on. By the
time the jobs report hits the tape on Friday, trading desks could look like a bus stop
after the Hamptons Jittney loaded its passengers and headed east.

Not that volume proved all that powerful in this week’s trading - save for the handful
of ”at-risk” financial stocks whose bulge in trading accounted for a freakish
percentage of each day’s volume throughout the week.

The performance of the broad list matched the insipidness of the volume. The S&P
500 index (GSPC) added 3 points.

For the week. Five trading days - three of which resulted in gains - amounted to a 3-
point move cumulatively.

And in the midst of that, a handful of financial stocks traded at ridiculously inflated
levels. Shares of Citigroup (C) rose another 4% as 1.35 billion shares changed hands
in the session. American International Group (AIG) added 5%, part of what proved
to be a 53% advance this week alone that carried the stock over $50 a share. Fannie
Mae (FNM) increased 6%, part of this week’s 70% surge in the market value, which
carried the stock above $2 a share for the first time since September.
Whether the rally in these at-risk financials, which - let’s admit - traded with virtually
no tether to the underlying fundamentals this week, end up rolling over may
determine much of the character of trading in the week leading up to the Labor Day
holiday.