Since 2009, Chevron has committed $7 million each year through the California Partnership, increasing Chevron’s overall investment in the state to approximately $28 million year-over-year. Chevron has also partnered with Kiva.org and the Opportunity Fund to help support entrepreneurs in California and around the world.

“The economic slowdown has made it especially difficult to secure funding for Bay Area small businesses and entrepreneurs, often a catalyst for job creation and economic growth for the state,” said Stephen Vogel, CEO of Grameen America. “Chevron’s support will help hundreds of entrepreneurs realize their dreams of starting their own businesses.”

In addition to the investment by Cheveron, San Francisco based Wells Fargo has also invested $1 million into Grameen America to support the nonprofit microlender’s expansion into the Bay Area.

Personal payments to and from India and transfers to local banks in India have been suspended while we work with our business partners and other stakeholders to address questions they have about the service

PayPal executives have been unavailable for comment on specific reasons why the service was discontinued. There is speculation that this may have something to do with new Indian government rules aimed at preventing money laundering. Last November, the Indian government introduced rules requiring financial institutions and other intermediaries to verify the identity of clients carrying out international money transfers.

Paypal has not just been blocking all their money transfer but has also not letting the Indian account holders withdraw money they already have in their accounts. For the past week, merchants have been unable to withdraw funds in Rupees to local Indian banks. shocking many Indians who have relyed on the service. The blocking started on January 28th and Paypal will only say that it is working to resolve the current situations in “the shortest span of time.”

Wells Fargo, once among the nation’s top writers of subprime mortgages, has booked 12 nights at the Wynn Las Vegas and its sister hotel, the Encore Las Vegas beginning Friday, said Wynn spokeswoman Michelle Loosbrock. The hotels will host the annual conference for company’s top mortgage officers.

The conference is a Wells Fargo tradition. Previous years have included all-expense-paid helicopter rides, wine tasting, horseback riding in Puerto Rico and a private Jimmy Buffett concert in the Bahamas for more than 1,000 employees and guests.

“I was amazed with just how lavish it was,” said Debra Rickard, a former Wells Fargo mortgage employee from Colorado who attended the events regularly until she left the company in 2004. “We stayed in top hotels, the entertainment was just unbelievable, and there were awards — you got plaques or trophies.”

While the nation’s recession has led other banks, such as Bank of America, to cancel employee recognition outings, Wells Fargo has not.  “Recognition events are still part of our culture,” spokeswoman Melissa Murray said. “It’s really important that our team members are still valued and recognized.”

Corporate retreats have attracted criticism since the bank bailout last fall. Congress scolded insurance giant American International Group Inc. for spending $440,000 on spa treatments for executives just days after the company took $85 billion from taxpayers.  AIG has since canceled all such outings.

Beginning Feb. 25, Wells Fargo’s insurance division is hosting a 40-person team meeting at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.  Murray did not immediately have details about the size or cost of the events or what was planned….

Rooms at the Wynn and the Encore are consistently among the most expensive in Las Vegas. The $2.3 billion Encore opened in December as sister hotel to the Wynn. Its decor includes a 27-foot Asian dragon made from 90,000 Swarovski crystals and artwork by Colombian artist Fernando Botero. One of the restaurants features Frank Sinatra’s 1953 Oscar.  Both properties have high-end retail stores, including Manolo Blahnik at Wynn and Chanel at Encore.

Leon G. Shahinian, senior investment officer, alternative investment management group, said in an interview that the $189.9 billion California Public Employees’ Retirement System, Sacramento, eliminated 60 partnerships from its alternative investment management program in July and August, he said. UBS assisted in the selection and sale of the private equity fund interests. Mr. Shahinian wouldn’t identify the funds or give selling prices. But according to CalPERS’ June 30 Alternative Investment Management Program Fund Performance review, funds missing from the June 30 list that had appeared on a year-end list run the gamut from buyout to venture capital to a few distressed debt funds and include the following: Technology Partners Fund VII, Thomas Weisel Capital Partners LP, Ticonderoga e-Services Fund II, TL Ventures V, Weston Presidio Capital IV, EuclidSR Biotechnology Partners, JPMorgan Partners Global, Thomas Weisel Global Growth Partners B, Thomas Weisel Strategic Opportunities, Provender Opportunities Fund II, Thomas Weisel Global Growth Partners II, Thomas Weisel Healthcare Ventures, Alta California Partners Fund II, Kohlberg Investors V, OCM Opportunities Fund V, OCM Principal Opportunities Fund III, Paladin Homeland Security Fund, Palomar Ventures III and Belvedere Capital II.

London-based private equity research firm Preqin estimated that funds sold for $2.1 billion in late 2007 in the secondary market — which trades private equity stakes between the pension funds and endowment funds that want to exit or buy. Preqin determined that the net asset value of funds sold equates to 9 percent of CalPERs overall portfolio, and calculates the remaining value of its private equity portfolio at $21.5 billion.

Calpers didn’t confirm Preqin’s calculations. The pension fund said it couldn’t specify how much more it gained from the sale in 2007, when the market was peaking, than if it had tried to sell it today.
But Leon Shahinian, Senior Investment Officer at CalPERS private equity program, said via an email from CalPERS spokesman: “In today’s market, we would have had hundreds of millions in losses.”

The pension fund said that its strategy dated back to late 2005, when its Alternative Investment Management program (AIM) presented a strategic plan to the CalPERS Board to lessen the administrative burden of having so many funds to oversee, and to optimize long-term private equity performance. In 2006, it hired UBS Investment Bank to scrub its private equity portfolio and develop a list to sell. At that time, it had investments in several hundred funds.

The inital sale of the $2.1 billion assets — which were sold in the secondary market and not all in one go — was in the third quarter of 2007, when the Dow was ranging between 13,000 to 14,000.
CalPERS said there were 80 partnerships in this portfolio and 60 different general partnership relationships, diversified over various private equity sectors such as venture capital, distressed, buyouts, etc. Sales were completed in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Japan’s largest bank my market cap sees the Union Bank branch network as a nice launch pad for its own banking ambitions in America. “We view this transaction as a first step of our growth strategies in the United States, and we will achieve greater management flexibility and aim to further strengthen our presence,” MUFG said.

MUFG unsolicited offer calls for the Japanese bank to pay $63 per share, or $2.7 billion, for the UnionBanCal shares in public hands. That was up from a previously undisclosed offer of $58 per share that the San Francisco bank’s board rejected in June as too low. The proposed transaction values the entire bank at $8.8 billion. Investors anticipate that the purchase price may be nudged higher, pushing the bank’s shares up 13 percent Aug. 12 to $65.50 at the close of New York Stock Exchange trading.

UnionBanCal operates 330 branches in California, Oregon and Washington state. Union Bank in recent years has adopted a strategy of courting business owners and affluent customers rather than trying to go head-to-head against California’s two-largest banks, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. The numbers don’t work for Union Bank to engage in that costly battle, given the larger banks’ ubiquitous branches and ATMs.