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William Houlihan, a former CFO for Hudson United Bank in Mahwah, N.J., will become the top financial officer at the $3.7 billion-asset Amalgamated, the company said Wednesday.
March 20 -
Big banks are ceding more of the consumer market to small banks, says John Romano, the new No. 2 executive at Amalgamated Bank in New York.
February 14 -
The $3.8 billion-asset bank said Wednesday that Robert O'Brien had previously worked at Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, where he led the German bank's public finance group.
January 16 -
Presidential inauguration planners have named Amalgamated Bank in New York as their go-to financial institution.
January 15
A New York bank that manages assets for hundreds of pension plans has secured a $139 million settlement from News Corporation in a suit it filed against the media giant on behalf of its clients.
Amalgamated Bank filed the suit, with co-lead plaintiffs Central Laborers Pension Fund and City of New Orleans Employees' Retirement System, in 2011. A settlement was reached on April 17 and announced Monday. It is the largest-ever settlement in this type of lawsuit, called a derivate suit, Amalgamated said.
The suit alleges that News Corp.'s board has allowed Chairman Rupert Murdoch to "siphon value away from News Corp. and its shareholders for the benefit of Murdoch, his family, and his friends" and has "condoned Murdoch's habitual use of News Corp to pursue his quest for power, control and political gain." It alleges that the board refused to investigate illegal activities, including phone hacking at News of the World, that have harmed the company's profitability.
Amalgamated, which is the largest union-owned bank in the country, manages the funds or is the custodian of over 650 pension plans, including many union plans. Amalgamated's LongView funds currently hold over 450,000 shares of News Corporation stock, worth more than $14 million.
Amalgamated regularly brings suits on behalf of its clients, said President and Chief Executive Ed Grebow.
"This is the kind of thing we think more banks should do, because [it] helps the industry's reputation," Grebow said. "When we see an abusive practice by a corporation we take action to prevent it."
Amalgamated is the only bank that regularly files derivative suits on behalf of its clients, Grebow said. Among its ongoing suits are a derivatives' claim against Massey Energy over a 2010 mine explosion in which 29 miners were killed and a class-action suit against the Apollo Group alleging that its University of Phoenix subsidiary inflated enrollment statistics.
The $139 million will be paid by an insurance fund covering News Corp's board. Proceeds from derivative lawsuits are typically paid to the company rather than the shareholders.
News Corporation agreed to multiple changes as part of the settlement that are intended to improve corporate governance. Under the settlement, the company agreed to form a compliance committee, hire a chief compliance officer, set up an anonymous whistleblower hotline and disclose its political contributions, according to court filings. It will also implement policies to improve the board's independence.
Amalgamated filed the complaint two years ago after News Corporation's board approved the $615 million purchase of a business owned by Rupert Murdoch's daughter, Elizabeth. Amalgamated amended the complaint in July 2011 following reports on the phone-hacking scandal.
The settlement did not require News Corporation to admit to any wrongdoing. The company's spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment.
