ERS Group Advises Credit Union Board Advising the board of directors of an underperforming credit union, ERS Group Special Consultant Alan Hess recommended changes in performance evaluation and monitoring procedures to improve long-run performance. Lender Liability Lawsuits ERS Group conducted more than thirty investigations of claims for damages arising in lender liability lawsuits against commercial banks and savings and loans. Insurance and Annuity Association et al. v. Sergeant Electrical ERS Group investigated the adequacy of "due diligence" undertaken by two financial institutions prior to their separate decisions to invest in a telecommunications supply and installation company. First Republic Bank Retains ERS Group Retained by directors and officers after the failure of First Republic Bank, ERS Group assessed claims of mismanagement and imprudent banking practices; analyzed the profitability and risk characteristics of major lending relationships; and analyzed transactions between the bank and its parent holding company. FDIC Retains ERS Group to Investigate Failure of Bank of New England ERS Group expert led a team including four academic economists retained by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to analyze the failure of this commercial bank and to respond to charges by holding-company bondholders that regulatory agencies arranged the fraudulent conveyance of holding-company assets to the bank. ERS Group Analyzes Mortgage Disposition Strategies An ERS Group economist analyzed the financial effects of alternative strategies for disposing of a portfolio of mortgages acquired as part of a government-assisted takeover of a failed savings bank. MasterCard International Retains ERS Group ERS Group was retained by counsel for defendant MasterCard to evaluate plaintiff’s allegation that MasterCard’s foreign currency conversion rates were unconscionable when compared to the cost to provide the service. Following testimony at trial by an ERS Group expert, the court found no violation of law based upon unconscionability. ERS Group Assists in Fifth Third Bank of Ohio v. U.S. ERS Group analyzed the economics of six "supervisory acquisitions" of failing financial institutions by a rapidly expanding thrift; analyzed the effects of changes in the regulatory treatment of goodwill arising from these acquisitions; and responded to claims for lost profits, restitution, and reliance damages.