Bailed-out bank enjoys concerts, dinners, parties

Bailed-out bank enjoys concerts, dinners, parties

www.cnn.com

A bank that received $1.6 billion dollars of the government's bailout money sponsored what reports are calling a lavish series of events in Los Angeles, California, last weekend.


Northern Trust sponsored a Professional Golf Association tournament and associated client events.

1 of 2 Northern Trust, based in Chicago, Illinois, spent an undisclosed amount of money sponsoring a Professional Golf Association tournament and associated client events, including concerts, dinners and parties, according to celebrity Web site TMZ.com.

The bank spent millions of dollars on the event, which included -- on top of the sponsorship costs of the Northern Trust Open tournament -- concerts by Sheryl Crow and Earth Wind & Fire, a private party at music venue House of Blues and gift bags from Tiffany & Co., the Web site said.

According to TMZ.com's report, employees and clients attending the tournament dined on seared salmon and petite Angus filet and stayed at some of Los Angeles' most elegant and expensive hotels.

(visit the link for the full news article)

It sure is nice to know that these banks are enjoying themselves in times of economic hardship.

Northern Trust insists that these events came at no cost to the American tax payer stating that they are one of the "healthy" banks and they did not ask for the bailout. They just agreed to take it because thats what the government wanted.

This coming from a company who just last year layed off close to 500 employees.

These banks are off their rockers and they have not seemed to learn a damn thing from our current economic decline.



www.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Oh and guess what.
That bank/company.
Can also claim all those benefits, off of there tax bill.
So, they have been given tax money for the bail out, and they will be claiming back from there tax bill, the spending of that tax money on these lavish things.

Wining and dining clients is simply part of doing business in any field, that is an unfortunate truth. This really does not upset me much because I understand that these types of things are an operating expense, and required if you want to win over business from competitors. Now, if they had spent that money so their executives could go out and party on our tax dollars, I would be ticked!

Originally posted by defcon5
Wining and dining clients is simply part of doing business in any field, that is an unfortunate truth. This really does not upset me much because I understand that these types of things are an operating expense, and required if you want to win over business from competitors. Now, if they had spent that money so their executives could go out and party on our tax dollars, I would be ticked!

Who governs it?
I know from experience that, these things are always abused.
Wining and dining some clients sure.
But not 500 of your friends.

reply to post by BorgHoffen


Even if they had to pad the attendance with their friends or associates, if they spent a million dollars and won a multimillion-dollar client over, that is money well invested.

Ultimately I don’t see any way to police this, and really there were a number of banks which tried to turn down the Federal Bailout money. Should those banks be penalized in their ability to win over clients because of this?

You know, I'm really starting to think this whole crisis was staged just so the government could give the bankers, who already have plenty of money, more of our money.

let's be clear about what this event was.

it's called a sponsored event, but in fact the heads of purchasing or finance departments of the big business customers of the bank go for a nice weekend in LA at the banks expense. these guys then ignore the fact that the bank charges an extra .25% on interest and pays .25% less than a competitor.

this is a normal business practice, but very shadey and not widely advertised. in my opinion it is not the right way for business to be done.

surely the bank should be winning business on the back of the good job they do and the great products they offer rather than the fine food and wine they bribe "customers" with.

if someone is choosing a supplier to give their money to, they tend to look at value for money as their number one priority. if they are looking at a supplier to give someone elses money to they look for bribes, like this golf outing, as a number one priority. this is the reason this "perks of the job" culture has built up.

the thing is, it is now perfectly clear that the someone else that owns the money is invariably me and you. by hook or by crook, or more likely still, by tax return.

this may well be the traditional practice, but like many traditional practices, it's wrong. it needs to stop.

[edit on 25/2/09 by pieman]

The artice also mentions that this bank had an operating NET income of 641 million last year. So a better question would be, why did they even receive the money. The questions should be for those handing out such large sums of the tax payers money. Maybe they will start paying attention to what they are doing and not just spending our money.

Originally posted by BorgHoffen
Originally posted by defcon5
Wining and dining clients is simply part of doing business in any field

NOT ANYMORE

Tell them to get over it. There is no reasoning that can 'justify' this any longer.

If they want Hollywood lifestyles and celebrity treatment - too bad.

[edit on 25-2-2009 by Maxmars]