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American Express is the credit card issuer of choice for the fourth year in a row, a report released Thursday showed.

Based on a 1,000-point scale, AmEx received a customer satisfaction rating of 769, which was 55 points higher than the industry average, according to a survey conducted in March and April by information services provider J.D. Power and Associates.

"They have a strong awareness among customers of the benefits and rewards of having that card," said Michael Beird, director of banking services at J.D. Power. While other issuers might offer similar rewards, AmEx uses aggressive marketing and communication to get the message across, he said.

Discover Card was the second highest rated issuer, with a score of 757. Customers were especially happy with its customer service and the ease of navigation on its site. U.S. Bank followed as the third highest ranked company with 727 points, as customers reported fewer changes to terms and smaller interest rate increases.

The lowest ranked issuer this year was HSBC, with 686 points, followed by Citi Cards and Capital One, with scores of 692 and 699 respectively.

"The folks who typically rank at the bottom have more of the riskier customers," said Beird. "Many of the customers who have lower credit scores end up paying higher fees, which means they might be complaining more."

The least-satisfying issuers were also given lower ratings because of poor communication — failing to help many customers understand their credit card terms, he said.

But overall, the survey showed that customers are happier with their credit card issuers this year, and customer satisfaction rose 9 points, to 714 from a 3-year low of 705 in 2009.

"There has been higher satisfaction with credit card terms, a reduction in complaints about payment or billing problems, and issuers seem to be doing a better job interacting with customers," said Beird payday loans no teletrack.

Another driver of satisfaction has been the CARD Act rule rolled out this year requiring issuers to warn customers in advance of any changes to their accounts, said Beird.

But aside from knowing when issuers are going to raise interest rates or make account changes, customers are still foggy about how many of the other new rules will affect them.

"The communication aspect of the CARD Act — requiring issuers to inform customers in advance of changes — is really the only part that has been seen immediately," said Beird. "It’s too early to tell what the impact of some of the other rules will be."

This uncertainty came across in the survey, with 16% of customers saying they hadn’t even received CARD Act disclosures and of those who did, only two-thirds said the information helped them understand what all the changes would mean for them.

Customers also said they are more optimistic about the economy and their own financial situations this year, according to the survey. This increase in confidence has made customers increasingly likely to shop around for a new bank, said Beird.

As a result, customers are more likely to dump their banks. The number of cardholders who say they "definitely will not switch" primary cards in the next 12 months fell to 22% from 25% last year and 30% in 2008.

"Even though overall satisfaction has improved, customers are feeling more empowered to explore other providers, since their outlook on the economy and their own personal finance has gone up," said Beird. 

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A San Francisco bankruptcy court on Friday approved the sale of disgraced Nashville Predators part-owner William “Boots” Del Biaggio’s stake in the team.

However, the team’s remaining owners have not yet finalized other matters necessary to close the deal — and an important deadline is approaching quickly.

The Predators' ownership group plans to buy Del Biaggio’s 27 percent stake in the team, which is valued at $25 million, for $15.2 million. But the deal is conditioned on a Aug. 12 closing so that the ownership group can make a $412,969 interest payment to CIT Lending Services Corp., the team’s lender, that is due Aug. 13 and otherwise would be owed by Del Biaggio’s estate.

Predators Senior Vice President Gerry Helper said he was pleased with today’s ruling because it “moved the process forward” but that “there’s other steps still to go.” Among those steps is NHL approval of the sale.

Del Biaggio, a venture capitalist and former co-owner of the San Jose Sharks, was sentenced in September to eight years in prison and ordered to pay more than $67.4 million in restitution for misappropriating funds from individual investors he advised.

Del Biaggio was charged with cheating investors out of about $100 million, and investigators said he falsified documents so it would look like he owned securities that belonged to others.

In February Del Biaggio pleaded guilty to charges that he used the money to pay off gambling debts and live lavishly, including buying a stake in the Predators.

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General Electric Co. backed away Thursday from comments reportedly made by its CEO critical of President Obama and China.

The company said Jeffrey Immelt’s remarks to Italian executives in Rome were taken out of context and didn’t reflect GE policy.

The company responded to an article in the Financial Times in which Immelt is said to have told the audience that Obama doesn’t like business and business doesn’t like Obama.

"People are in a really bad mood (in the U.S.)," the paper quoted Immelt as saying. "We (the U.S.) are a pathetic exporter … we have to become an industrial powerhouse again but you don’t do this when government and entrepreneurs are not in synch."

Immelt also said China is becoming increasingly protectionist and doesn’t want any non-Chinese businesses "to win," according to the newspaper payday loans.

"The comments attributed to GE CEO Jeff Immelt by the FT were taken out of context and, in some instances, inaccurately reported," GE spokeswoman Anne Eisele said in a statement. "Mr. Immelt’s comments at a private dinner focused on the relationship between business and government in general and did not single out President Obama."

Eisele also said the "reporting of Jeff’s comments don’t reflect GE policy."

A Financial Times spokeswoman said "we stand by the accuracy of the report." 

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DETROIT — Toyota said on Thursday that it would resume construction of a Mississippi plant that had been suspended 18 months ago because of the recession.

And in another sign that auto sales have improved considerably, General Motors said it would skip the annual summer shutdown at all but two of its United States plants to keep up with demand.

Toyota said its $1.3 billion plant in Blue Spring, Miss., was scheduled to begin building Corolla compact cars, not sport utility vehicles or hybrid cars as previously planned, in the fall of 2011.

Toyota said it would hire 2,000 people, the same number of jobs it originally planned to create at the plant, which is 90 miles southeast of Memphis.

Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi was scheduled to meet company executives on Thursday at the plant, which was 90 percent finished in December 2008 when Toyota halted the project amid plunging sales nationwide.

"Toyota appreciates the patience of Governor Barbour and all Mississippians, but we first needed to fully utilize our existing facilities as the economy slowed," Yoshimi Inaba, the president and chief operating officer of Toyota Motor North America, said in a statement.

"Now it’s time to fulfill Toyota’s promise in Mississippi," the statement said. "Toyota remains committed to making vehicles where we sell them and to maintaining a substantial manufacturing presence in North America."

GM said that operating nine of its 11 United States assembly plants for two extra weeks would allow it to build 56,000 additional vehicles. Some temporary workers might be hired.

The only plants that GM does not plan to keep running are in Lordstown, Ohio, which will soon start building the new Chevrolet Cruze compact car, and in Shreveport, La., which builds midsize pickup trucks and is scheduled to close by 2012.

The Detroit automakers have traditionally shut their plants in early July to prepare for building the next year’s models.

"This move will help buyers waiting for high-demand products such as the Buick LaCrosse, Chevrolet Traverse and GMC Acadia," Mark Reuss, the president of GM North America, said in a statement. "Our manufacturing teams are taking creative approaches to increase production and reduce the wait times for our dealers and customers."

Toyota said the Mississippi plant’s opening would mean "nearly all" Corollas sold in North America would be built in the United States and Canada. Some production of the Corolla, one of Toyota’s top-selling models, was moved to Japan in April, when Toyota closed a plant in Fremont, Calif., where it was assembled.

The California plant had been a joint venture of Toyota and General Motors, but GM withdrew after its bankruptcy filing last year, and Toyota said it could not operate the plant without a partner. Toyota now plans to build electric cars there in partnership with another automaker, Tesla.

Toyota initially planned to build sport utility vehicles at the Mississippi plant, then in mid-2008 said it would build Prius hybrid cars there after a surge in gas prices and demand for fuel-efficient vehicles. Toyota on Thursday did not address whether it would eventually build the Prius, which is imported from Japan, in North America.

Toyota said the building was "essentially complete" and that most of the remaining work involves equipment installation. About 60 people already work at the plant’s administration office.

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Oregon’s budget crisis could force the equivalent of seven weeks worth of court closures or the jobs of 277 full-time employees.

The Oregon Judicial Department projected that cutting its budget by 9 percent would require it to slash $13.2 million from its nearly $300 million general fund.

The department revealed that the cuts would only take place if several legislative and executive actions occur. Revenue forecasters projected that Oregon faces a $577 million shortfall compared to what they’d anticipated when the last legislative session adjourned. The shortfall means that the state must dramatically cut spending that lawmakers had already approved.

The judicial closures, which would affect courts in all 36 Oregon counties, would result from the loss of operating costs for the facilities and salary and benefits for court employees. The system includes circuit, tax and appeals courts low fee payday advance.

Attorneys and businesses needing to handle court cases could face legal logjams as judges determine how to handle civil cases. Criminal cases are handled before civil cases because defendants have constitutional rights to faster trials.

Such closures could further affect domestic violence victims or stalking victims who might find it more difficult to obtain restraining orders in a timely fashion, said Phil Lemman, a judicial department spokesman.

“There are many things like that that we handle every day for Oregonians,” he said. “Where would people go to take action on that?”

If the courts aren’t closed, some 277 employees who work in the buildings could lose their jobs.

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New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is launching an investigation into some of Wall Street’s top firms to determine whether they provided misleading information to credit rating agencies.

A total of eight firms are part of the probe, including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse (CS), Citigroup, UBS, Credit Agricole and Merrill Lynch, which has since been acquired by Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500).

Cuomo’s office confirmed that it is launching the investigation, which was initially reported by The New York Times, but would not comment further.

Bank of America spokesman Bill Halldin said the bank is "cooperating with the attorney general’s office on this matter," and Credit Agricole released a statement confirming it too is part of the investigation and will cooperate with authorities. Credit rating agency Fitch said it also plans to cooperate in the investigation.

Goldman Sachs, UBS and Citigroup declined to comment. Spokespeople for the other institutions named were not immediately available.

Critics have repeatedly suggested that the relationship between Wall Street firms and the credit rating agencies was a key factor contributing to the economic meltdown.

Hungry for business, rating agencies assigned top marks to securities issued by banks that would eventually turn toxic. Financial firms, on the other hand, would employ a wide variety of techniques to get higher ratings on their investment products, according to the critics.

Critics have long grumbled that the rating agencies were also slow to lower the debt ratings for troubled financial firms and warn of the risks of bonds and other securities tied to subprime mortgages.

A separate report published Thursday revealed that federal prosecutors are expanding a criminal probe into whether big banks misled investors about their participation in mortgage-bond deals, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The newspaper, citing a person familiar with the matter, said JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500), Citigroup (C, Fortune 500), Deutsche Bank (DB) and UBS (UBS) have received civil subpoenas from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

They join fellow Wall Street firms Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) and Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500), which are believed to be under the scrutiny by U.S. prosecutors and regulators.

The paper said the U.S. Attorney’s office in New York and the SEC are working together to see whether these firms made proper disclosures when they created and sold complex investments tied to home loans, better known as collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs.

The U.S. Attorney’s office in New York declined to comment on the Journal report, as did Citigroup and UBS. Spokespeople for the other institutions named in the story were not immediately available.

The reports of the widening criminal probes of Wall Street banks weighed on bank shares Thursday. Most of the companies were trading lower.

Goldman shares are down about 22% since the SEC filed fraud charges against it last month.

Morgan Stanley shares tumbled Wednesday when reports that it was being investigated first surfaced, but the stock pared losses and ended the day just 2% lower. Shares were slightly higher Thursday.

– CNNMoney.com’s David Ellis and Grace Wong contributed to this story. 

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SSM Health Care Corp. will receive $16.5 million in tax-exempt bonds to renovate and equip its hospitals and health care facilities, the Missouri Department of Economic Development announced Wednesday.

SSM Health Care a Catholic, not-for-profit health system will make improvements to Cardinal Glennon Children Medical Center in St. Louis, St. Clare Health Center in Fenton, St. Joseph Health Center in St. Charles, St. Joseph Hospital West in Lake Saint Louis, DePaul Health Center in Bridgeton and St. Mary’s Health Center in Jefferson City.

The state’s private activity bonds, provided by the federal government, are part of a greater bond issue of $581 million that will be sold in Wisconsin and Missouri, said SSM spokesman Chris Sutton.

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New Zealand interest rates needn’t rise as much if the government cuts spending and reforms the tax system to curb property investment, Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard said.

“Achieving both low inflation and balanced growth is considerably easier in an environment of fiscal discipline and where the tax system is neutral with respect to investment decisions,” Bollard said in a speech in Christchurch today. Notes of a background paper on which his speech was based were e-mailed to Bloomberg News.

Bollard, who has kept the official cash rate unchanged at a record-low 2.5 percent since April, said yesterday he didn’t expect to start raising borrowing costs until mid-2010 as the economy emerges from a recession. Government spending programs put in place last year to buoy confidence and create jobs will help the economy expand 3.1 percent this year after shrinking 1.4 percent in 2009, he forecast last month.

“A failure to gradually remove the recent fiscal stimulus would put added pressure on monetary policy over the coming period,” Bollard said today. He made no other comment on the outlook for interest rates.

Prime Minister John Key’s government last year brought forward spending on roads and schools to generate jobs, and provided companies with funds so they could keep factories open on reduced hours rather than fire workers.

The government is also considering recommendations from a review of the taxation policy that includes introducing a levy on rental properties.

“We are hopeful that the report of the Tax Working Group will lead to a more efficient and even-handed tax system,” said Bollard. “Our concerns are to minimize tax-fueled property investment and consumption that might detract from more balanced savings and growth.”

Bollard has previously called for taxes to curb property investment, which he says can create a housing bubble.

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RALEIGH, N.C. — U.S. consumers and businesses are filing for bankruptcy at a pace that made 2009 the seventh-worst year on record, with more than 1.4 million petitions submitted, an Associated Press tally showed Monday.
 
The AP gathered data from the nation’s 90 bankruptcy districts and found 1.43 million filings, an increase of 32 percent from 2008. There were 116,000 recorded bankruptcies in December, up 22 percent from the same month a year before.
 
While experts believe some of the increase is due to a natural recovery as consumers and attorneys become accustomed to a recent overhaul of bankruptcy laws, the numbers indicate clear correlations to recession-weary regions. Arizona saw the fastest increase, a jump of 77 percent from the year before, followed by Wyoming (60 percent), Nevada (59 percent) and California (58 percent).
 
Emile Harmon, who owns a law firm in Tempe, Ariz., said the firm has doubled its staff to handle the surge in bankruptcy filings. The lawyers have been steadily shifting away from their other areas of business, civil lawsuits and divorce cases.
 
"Bankruptcy is kind of swallowing the whole practice." Harmon said. "There’s little time to do other stuff."
 
There’s also no sign that things are slowing down. Harmon said bankruptcies have been coming in waves, first with those 18 months ago who had adjustable-rate mortages, then with those who lost their jobs due to the housing downturn. Now he’s finding wealthy individuals and business owners who have finally succumbed to lower incomes and shrinking home values.
 
"A lot of the people we see were in a really good financial position two years ago," Harmon said. "People really look at you and say, ‘I can’t believe I’m here business cards."’
 
For three years, filings have been steadily rising back toward levels reached early in the decade before Congress overhauled the nation’s bankruptcy laws. The 2005 alterations made bankruptcy filings more cumbersome, a move that followed fears from lenders that some consumers were abusing the system to wipe away debts.
 
Bankruptcies surged to slightly more than 2 million in 2005 as consumers rushed to file before the new law took effect but then plummeted to 600,000 in 2006. They’ve been climbing ever since and in 2009 became the seventh-highest year on record, behind only the years 1998 and 2001-2005.
 
The 2005 spike had been preceded by a steady climb from 1.5 million in 2001 to 1.6 million in 2005.
 
John Pottow, a bankruptcy professor at the University of Michigan, said the return to the highs of earlier this decade illustrates the failures of the 2005 overhaul bill. He said the measure largely made filings more costly and time-consuming by forcing consumers to undergo a paperwork-heavy test to determine eligibility for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and adding liability for attorneys who provide help.
 
"It never made sense in the first place that you could change the laws and make all these bankruptcies go away," said Pottow, who would like to see the 2005 law changes repealed. "If people are encountering financial distress, you can only scare them away for so long before they come back again."
 
While every state saw a rise in bankruptcies, Alaska (up 12 percent), Nebraska (12 percent) and North Dakota (14 percent) performed best.

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If you want to buy a house, the state of Missouri wants to give you $1,250.

And if you make the place more energy-efficient, it will give you $500 more.

State officials are poised to pass a measure next week that would give a sizable break on property taxes to most people who buy a house in 2010. It is Jefferson City’s latest bid to boost the state’s weak housing market, and the newest item on a growing menu of sweeteners to make buying a house more appealing, sweeteners that some warn could eventually cause a hangover.

The measure was pitched last month by Gov. Jay Nixon and state Treasurer Clint Zweifel as a way to spur housing sales and spur the state’s economy.

"This is so vital to our state’s economic growth," Nixon said. "We want to do everything feasible to encourage people to buy homes."

So next Friday, they will ask the Missouri Housing Development Commission — which Zweifel chairs and to which Nixon appoints most of the members — to set aside $15 million of its reserve funds for one-time property tax reimbursements for Missourians who buy a home in 2010. To qualify, St. Louis-area households must earn $95,060 or less; if they do, they can get up to $1,250 in property taxes reimbursed by the state.

Home buyers who add energy-saving appliances, new windows or other "green" improvements, can qualify for another $500. With a $15 million cap for the program, the state expects to write between 9,000 and 11,000 such checks — roughly one for every 10 homes sold in Missouri this year.

It comes on top of the $8,000 federal tax credit for first-time home buyers, which many economists say has helped prop up home sales this year. Last month, Congress voted to extend that program through April and expand it to include $6,500 for some repeat buyers. States from California to Delaware have thrown in their own incentives, too, and in January the Missouri housing commission launched a program to give an advance on the $8,000 credit, a program more than 1,200 people have used so far. Illinois launched something similar in July.

Now, Missouri plans to up the ante. If the housing commission approves, the agency will put much of its reserve funds — separate from the state’s cash-strapped general budget — toward the waivers.

"This hopefully is another tool in the toolbox," Zweifel said. "It’s important to put our dollars to work."

Still, given Missouri’s record-high foreclosure rates and a job market that is giving pause to many would-be buyers, some housing advocates wonder if the $15 million might be better spent in other ways no faxing payday loan.

"In terms of the level of need, it strikes me as a little strange," said Chris Krehmeyer, president of Beyond Housing, a St. Louis-based group that provides mortgage counseling and builds affordable housing. "We’re not seeing folks who are buying homes saying ‘I wish someone would pay my taxes next year.’ People are saying, ‘I need help to stay in the home I own.’"

Typically, the state’s housing commission finances affordable housing projects and will issue nearly $100 million in tax credits for those projects in early 2010. But, Zweifel said, the broader housing industry is a big pillar of Missouri’s economy, and supporting it, too, means creating jobs. This provides a fast way to do it.

"The goal was partially to spur home purchases, but also to find a way to quickly put $15 million to work for Missourians," he said. "We wanted to create a program that helps spur economic development and job creation, not something that’s permanent in nature."

The temporary nature of this and the $8,000 federal tax credit has some housing economists warning of trouble when the programs end. Such props must be taken down eventually, and critics point to a plunge in auto sales after the end of the government’s "Cash for Clunkers" program as a warning for what might happen to the housing market.

Then there’s the question of just how much impact it will have. Most people aren’t going to make a decision on whether to move based on $1,250, said Carlos Garriga, an economist who studies housing at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

"It’s just kind of a bonus," he said. "Even at the margins, how many people will move because of this? It’s not that big."

Still, said Mark Stallmann, chief executive of the St. Charles County Association of Realtors, it’s the sort of thing that makes it easier to buy a house. And with the real estate market as weak as it is right now, every little bit — even a $1,250 check from the state — helps.

"Anything that reduces the cost of homeownership, that’s an incentive to help families get in a home, that’s a good thing."

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