Apple's iPhone replaces BlackBerry for some bankers

(Reuters) - British bank Standard Chartered is replacing the BlackBerry, currently its standard corporate communications device, with the iPhone, a move that could eventually result in thousands of bankers switching to the Apple device for business communication on the go.

Standard Chartered bankers in Asia told Reuters that the London-based lender was giving its corporate BlackBerry users the option of switching to the iPhone, with the company agreeing to continue to pay monthly billing for business-related telephone and data services.

"It's a group-wide initiative involving wholesale and consumer banks globally," said a Singapore-based spokeswoman for Standard Chartered, told Reuters. The spokeswoman declined to be identified due to company policy.

The process of migrating corporate email services from the BlackBerry to the iPhone started about a month ago, said the spokeswoman, although she did not know how many of the Asia-focused bank's 75,000 employees used company-issued BlackBerries or when the switchover could be completed.

Read the full story at Reuters by Kevin Lim and George Chen

$38 for a Cup of Coffee?

"Would you pay $38 for a cup of coffee? Clifford Phillips of Wash., did. He used his debit card to pay for a latte, not knowing there wasn’t enough money in his checking account to cover it. The bank could have declined the transaction for insufficient funds. Instead it approved the electronic payment and hit his account with a $34 overdraft fee.

At most banks and some credit unions, most checking accounts are now automatically enrolled – as a customer service – in an overdraft protection program. The financial institution lets you spend more than you have, loans you the difference (up to a certain amount) and hits you with a hefty fee."

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California foreclosures spike 228%

A new law mandating delays in foreclosure actions may create a fleeting lull, but observers wonder whether it will lead to widespread mortgage workouts.

Reporting from Sacramento and Washington -- The number of people losing their homes in California hit a record high of nearly 80,000 in the last three months, but a new state law appears to be dramatically slowing the foreclosure process -- at least for now.

Loan default notices, the first step toward foreclosure, fell to 94,240 for the three months that ended Sept. 30. That's down sharply from the record 121,673 for the previous quarter, according to research firm MDA DataQuick.

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