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(Corrects story yesterday to show Yahsi is CEO of Albaraka
Turk, not Asya Katilim in the second paragraph.)

Turkey’s Islamic banks gave most
loans to construction companies and will continue lending to
Turkish firms this year, Sabah reported.

The industry awarded 14.8 billion liras ($8 billion) of
loans to constructors as of November, 6.5 billion liras to trade
and retail companies and 3.8 billion liras to textile firms, the
Istanbul-based newspaper said citing Fahrettin Yahsi, chief
executive of Albaraka Turk Katilim Bankasi AS (ALBRK) and head of an
association representing the banks.

Islamic banks increased their lending by about 20 percent
last year, Yahsi said. Total loans, including personal loans,
were 38 billion liras at the end of November, he said. The banks
are committed to lending money without changing the loan’s terms
before maturity, Yahsi said.

Click here for web link

To contact the reporter on this story:
Mark Bentley in Istanbul at
mbentley3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Riad Hamade at
rhamade@bloomberg.net

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B. Douglas Morriss, a Clayton-based financier and the scion of
one of Ladues prominent families, has led a life of privilege.
From helicopter rides to Canadian hunting trips and tailored suits,
he has a taste for adventure and luxury.

Without a doubt, Morriss knows how to spend money. The only
question: Whose money?

In the past several years, Morriss raised tens of millions of
dollars in private equity and venture capital funds. He also serves
on the boards of a dozen companies, including some of the firms his
investment funds have bankrolled.

But last month a group of Texas investors, including
polo-playing millionaire John B. Goodman, filed a lawsuit in state
circuit court in Clayton accusing Morriss of diverting investor
funds for his personal obligations and debts.

Last week, Morriss and three of his companies filed for
bankruptcy – listing more than $35 million in debts and at least 40
creditors, including a Swiss investment banker, a leading US bank
and some of his employees.

Then on Tuesday, in a civil complaint filed in federal court in
St. Louis, the US Securities and Exchange Commission accused
Morriss of misleading and defrauding his investors.

Morriss declined to say why his business empire is in jeopardy.
During a brief interview Monday at his home in Ladue, he described
the bankruptcies of himself and his companies as minor matters of
no public concern.

There are not many people affected by this, Morriss said.
This is a personal matter. This was a personal loss. … This
doesnt involve investors.

Morriss filed petitions on Jan. 8 seeking Chapter 11 federal
bankruptcy protection for three of his firms: Acartha Group LLC,
Acartha Technology Partners LP, and MIC VII LLC. The three firms
have estimated their debts as nearly $10 million, according to
petitions filed in Delaware.

In a separate petition filed Jan. 9 in federal bankruptcy court
in St. Louis, Morriss reported that his own debts total more than
$25 million, including a personal guaranty of $14.5 million to
Tech Partners LLC of Grand Rapids, Mich., and an $8 million note to
Wells Fargo Bank NA He estimated his assets at less than
$500,000.

Phone calls to Acartha Groups offices in a 20th-floor suite in
New Brunswick, NJ, went unanswered.

The offices of Morriss Holdings Inc., a family-owned holding
company, are located on Maryland Avenue in a one-story,
octagonal-shaped brick building with two brass lanterns beside the
door. Morriss serves as the firms chairman and chief executive. No
one answered the door at Morriss offices Tuesday.

Morriss lives four miles away in a Tudor-style mansion
overlooking the golf course of the St. Louis Country Club. The
home, appraised at about $4 million, includes a swimming pool and
guest house. The homes listed owner is the BDM 2000 Irrevocable
Trust. On Jan. 9, the trust paid nearly $50,000 of state and local
property taxes on the residence.

Morriss remodeled his home in 2005. Markway Construction Co. in
Maplewood, which did some of the work, is listed as a creditor to
whom Morriss owes $29,302. Koch Brothers Decorating Inc. in
University City is a creditor for $25,256.

FAMILY LEGACY

Morriss, 49, is the son of Reuben M. Morriss III, a former
chairman of Boatmens Trust Co. Reuben Morriss, of Ladue, died in
2006. Some who know Douglas Morriss describe him as a likable man
with a magnetic personality.

John Wall, an attorney at Greensfelder, Hemker and Gale in St.
Louis who partnered with Morriss on a real estate investment in
recent years, called Morriss a brilliant businessman whose
investment firm suffered in the economic downturn. Wall said the
money he invested, while it didnt get the return he sought, was
returned by Morriss when the deal was finalized.

Hes a very decent guy who treats people well, Wall said. I
find it hard to believe that theres been any personal
malfeasance.

Others who know Morriss talk of his extravagant lifestyle. They
describe Morriss frequent hunting trips to Canada and Scotland and
his frequent dinners at St. Louis toniest restaurants.

Brian Granger, sales and dockage manager at Walstrom Marine Inc.
in Harbor Springs, Mich., recalled selling a 15-foot Chris Craft
motorboat to Morriss several years ago. It was a wooden classic,
Granger said. He liked it, he bought it.

But since then, he said, Morriss has failed to pay his winter
storage fees on the boat. As a result, the marina – to whom Morriss
owes $2,774 – put the boat up for sale last year for $21,000,
Granger said.

Granger said Morriss parents used to own a cottage in the
quaint harbor town. His family was certainly an old Harbor Springs
type of family, he said. Theyre usually bullet-proof during
these times.

Morriss also has an interest in collecting fine art, and his
list of creditors includes a $2,303 debt to the Collectors Fund of
Kansas City, which buys modern art and lends pieces to its
members.

Morriss graduated from Ladue Horton Watkins High School in 1981,
and then graduated from Drake University in Iowa in 1985. According
to a Forbes magazine profile of the Morriss family, Burton Douglas
Morris worked as a broker at Oppenheimer amp; Co. He founded a
successful company called Kinexus, which sold online wealth
management tools and services – at first to individuals, and later
to banks.

From 1998 to 2000, Morriss served as the managing member of
MIC Aircraft LLC, a Chesterfield-based firm. But the aircraft
company filed for bankruptcy less than two years after his
departure from the firm, according to documents filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission and the federal bankruptcy court
in St. Louis.

In 2003, Morriss and partners formed the Acartha Group, which
made small investments in startup and growth companies. Morriss
also served as a manager of Hela Capital Partners LLC, a leveraged
buyout fund that took one company public. And he was a partner in
the Gryphon investment funds.

In July 2004, Morriss helped take public a Chicago-based
company, Kanbay, a global provider of information technology
services with most of its employees working in India. When the
company was sold in 2006, Morriss earned about $25 million from
selling his shares and those owned by the BDM Irrevocable Trust,
according to calculations made from SEC documents.

According to its bankruptcy filing in Delaware, the Acartha
Group lists its assets between $0 and $50,000, yet owes various
debts, including $5.6 million to investment banker Eric Sarasin of
Basel, Switzerland; $376,141 to the Barbara B. Morriss marital
trust; and $43,374 to the Clayton law firm of Armstrong
Teasdale.

The Acartha Groups unsecured creditors also include several of
its employees: Morris himself ($1.05 million); his general counsel,
New York lawyer Thomas Wynne Morriss Jr. ($441,627); chief
technology officer Ameet Patel ($1.1 million); trustee Dixon Brown
of New York ($424,857); and Christian Leedy of Wildwood
($61,068).

LAVISH LIFESTYLE

In a 2005 interview with the St. Louis Business Journal, Morriss
said that two of his partners in the Acartha Group included New
York financier Nicolas Rohatyn and Bruce Rauner, who operates a
Chicago-based private equity firm. They did not return phone calls
Tuesday. Morriss served as chairman of the board.

In that interview, Morriss also said that he was on track for
raising $1.5 billion in private equity funds by 2006.

On the Acartha Groups website, Morriss subsequently spoke of
raising $350 million for an Acartha Technologies Partners/Gryphon
Holdings III LP.

The SEC has different – much smaller – numbers. The agency
claims that, from 2003 to 2011, Morriss and his investment funds
raised at least $88 million from about 97 investors.

Morriss lived a lavish lifestyle, living in a multi-million
dollar home, driving luxury automobiles, leasing a private airplane
and helicopter, and taking expensive vacations, the SEC complaint
states.

According to the SEC, in 2008 Morriss began experiencing
increasingly severe financial difficulties. As a result, he began
selling personal assets, including a lodge and hunting property in
Canada, and he relinquished his leasing interests in the use of his
personal aircraft. He also became delinquent on several million
dollars in personal loans. Due to his deteriorating financial
condition, Morriss continued to move money from the investment
entities to himself and Morriss Holdings.

By the end of 2009, the SEC alleges, Morriss owed his companies
and investment funds about $2 million. At the same time, Acartha
Group officers – including the companys former chief financial
officer – voiced concern to Morriss about the extent of his
transfers of company funds to himself.

TEXAS INVESTORS

The investor suit speaks of Morriss mounting financial
difficulties and also his cavalier disregard for the plaintiffs
investments. In court filings, Morriss has denied any mismanagement
or misappropriation of the investors funds.

The lawsuit was filed in November by Ron Nixon and Wilmington
Trust Co., who are co-trustees of the Bailey Quin Daniel 1991
Trust, JBG Interests LLC, and HEG Interests LLC based in Houston.
In 2006, these companies and trusts invested a total of $10.8
million in Morriss companies, according to the complaint.

JBG Interests is a company operated by John B. Goodman, founder
of the International Polo Club in Wellington, Fla.

The suit accuses the Acartha Group of wiring in 2011 more than
$500,000 to Morriss Holdings LLC, which is separately controlled by
Morriss. It also accuses Acartha of wiring at least $12,500 to
Morriss ex-wife, Holly Morriss, in 2011 for alimony
obligations.

In court papers, Morriss acknowledged wiring money to both
Morriss Holdings and his ex-wife, but denies any impropriety.

The suit accuses Morriss of recruiting new investors to buy an
equity share in MIC, thus diluting the plaintiffs interests
without the unanimous consent of the existing shareholders – a
breach of MICs operating agreement. Morriss denies that the
plaintiffs investment shares were diluted.

In the past year, Morriss deferred a portion of his salary and
the salaries of other Acartha directors and officers. In September,
Wells Fargo declared that Morriss was in default on loans the bank
had made to him.

Acartha may not survive without additional investors, the
investors suit alleges, which Morriss has been unsuccessfully
seeking for many months.

Personal loans are set to become highly competitive again after MS Money reduced its loan rate down to 6% APR, the lowest level for a personal loan in four years.

The 6% rate applies to loans between £7,500 and £15,000 over 12 to 60 months, with the option to deter payments for three months. However, applicants must be a UK resident aged 30 or over or a homeowner.

The last round of rate competitiveness for loans took place in the autumn, with Nationwide and Sainsbury’s both involved.

MS Money’s recent move has also triggered a response, as Tesco has slashed its rate on equivalent loans down to 6.1%. This demonstrates that, after a slow 2011, creditors are becoming interested in topping tables again for personal loan products.

Evidently, it is the financial arms of retailers and supermarkets that are leading the way, as they look to diversify on the one hand, and to increase market share through complementary products and measures of price- and non-price competition on the other. Sainsbury’s have offered lower rates to Nectar Card holders, and credit card deals similarly benefit regular shoppers at their stores.

Rates remain higher for smaller loans, however. Sainsbury’s leads the way for loans between £1,000 and £7,500 at 7.8%.

If you are searching for a smaller loan to consolidate debts, it may be worth asking yourself whether there are better options. Certainly, a personal loan can offer considerably better rates than the premium credit card rates, which average 17-18%. It is also worth noting that the best loan rates tend to favour those with perfect credit histories.

However, a 0% balance transfer credit card can now offer up to 24 months without interest to pay off an existing credit card balance (Barclaycard Platinum).

Making the right decision on large sums can save hundreds each year. Find the best personal loan deal (or credit card alternative) on Which4U this year, and make the savings that matter.

Bret Clement

It pays to save. Compare the best credit cards, home loans, savings accounts and personal loans from all the major NZ banks and institutions in one place.

The cost of taking out a personal loan has risen by a quarter at two of the largest retail banks.

Jointly owned ANZ and National banks will increase application fees for personal loans from $200 to $250 on January 23.

The hike makes the initial cost of taking out a personal loan the same at all of New Zealands major banks – including ASB, Kiwibank, Westpac and BNZ.

A spokesman for ANZ and National said the fee was changed to reflect wider market conditions and was in line with similar fees charged by its competitors.

The new fees related only to new and additional personal lending and would not affect existing loans.

The announcement follows a year of strong New Zealand profit announcements by the Australian-owned banks, prompting Consumer NZ chief executive Sue Chetwin to urge would-be borrowers to shop around for the best loan rates.

Personal loans are often used to pay for cars, holidays, appliances and other personal items at interest rates ranging from 13.1 per cent to 18.95 per cent, depending on the bank and whether the loan is secured or unsecured.

A Consumer review last year found credit unions generally charged lower application fees for personal loans than mainstream banks, however lending criteria also varied.

As of yesterday New Zealand Credit Union Aucklands advertised personal loan processing fee was $50 for loans under $2,000 and $125 for loans $2,000 and over, while The Co-operative Bank (formerly PSIS) charged $200.

ANZ, the countrys biggest bank and owner of the National Bank black horse logo, reported net profit in New Zealand of $1.08b for the year to September, up 25 per cent on the previous year – an improvement it attributed mainly to a big drop in provisions for bad debts.

In August, Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard told a NZ Shareholders Association conference that the high rates of return banks had enjoyed over the past decade were unlikely to be sustained if householders and businesses chose to curtail debt and save more.

While profits were strong, work carried out by the Reserve Bank suggested margins charged on financial products such as residential mortgages were in line with those charged in other countries, supporting the view that strong profits were due to low operating costs, he said.

Citigroups effort to sell a consumer-lending business has collapsed in recent days, as wobbly markets and a lackluster economy shut down hopes for a deal, a person with knowledge of the matter said.

Last year Citigroup began exclusive talks with a pair of private equity firms and Berkshire Hathaway, Warren E. Buffetts conglomerate, to sell OneMain, a lender that offers home equity and personal loans to risky borrowers. The talks coincided with the banks broader effort to shed noncore businesses in the aftermath of the financial crisis.

But Citi and its suitors all agreed to abandon the OneMain effort after the bidders, which included the private equity firms Centerbridge Capital Partners and Leucadia National, concluded that it would be difficult to finance the business. To do so, the firms would have had to bundle new loans and sell them as securities to investors. The securitization market for private loans has been scare since the crisis, however, as investors have balked at the risk attached to such products.

Still, Citi has not abandoned plans to sell OneMain, which remains profitable. The bank is likely to put the unit on the block again if the markets regain stability, said the person with knowledge of the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity. For now, OneMain will remain in the banks CitiHoldings division, alongside other businesses it intends to divest over time.

CitiHoldings, created in 2009 as a home for such unwanted and noncore assets, has steadily shrunk over the last two years. In 2010, in perhaps the most significant unloading of CitiHolding assets, the bank sold a student loan business to Discover for $600 million.

“The objective of Citi Holdings is to reduce noncore assets in an economically rational manner that is in the best interests of our stakeholders, Shannon Bell, a Citigroup spokeswoman, said. She declined to comment on the collapse of the OneMain deal, which was reported earlier by Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal.