LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - (05/18/06) Phone services and onlinetransactions to hundreds of thousands of area residents weredisrupted overnight Monday after thieves apparently cut throughhigh-speed telecommunications lines to steal copper for scrap. Theincident knocked out phone, Internet, e-mail, fax and some wirelessservices to customers from Placerville to South Lake Tahoe and tothe North Shore of Lake Tahoe, authorities said. AT&T reportedmore than 400,000 calls were lost between 8:20 pm Monday and noonTuesday, rendering thousands of businesses unable to use phones,Internet service, ATMs, and fax machines. Authorities believe theline was cut by someone looking to steal the copper from the line,which sells for $1.10 a pound as scrap metal. A similar caseoccurred last week nearby when thieves stole 1,500 feet of copperline, knocking out power to the small town of Washington and partsof Nevada City.
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Synovus Financial demonstrated at an industry conference how it is using Microsoft's Copilot to help its staff address customers' concerns.
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The U.S. arm of Spanish banking giant Santander has hired Swati Bhatia to oversee retail banking and its digital transformation efforts. Bhatia joins at "an inflection point" for the company, which aims to be "a digital bank with branches," CEO Tim Wennes said.
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Mariya Rosberg is named Americas head of banking and financial services at Marsh McLennan's Oliver Wyman unit; startup ZayZoon raised $15 million in a new funding round; and more in the weekly banking news roundup.
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Last year, the Raleigh, N.C.-based Integrated called off a deal to sell itself to MVB Financial after bank stocks took a hit in the aftermath of the regional bank failures. Capital hopes to expand its government-guaranteed lending with the transaction.
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Once a prominent figure spurring financial institutions to engage in cryptocurrency, Bankman-Fried's downslide began with the collapse of the digital asset exchange FTX in late 2022 and hit rock bottom with his sentencing to 25 years in prison.
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But the 30-year fixed rate mortgage is still near 7%, and that remains the overhang on the housing market, Freddie Mac said.
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