News Topic: Financial Institutions

I'm generally skeptical about corporate charitable donations.  My sense is that they are primarily a transfer of value from shareholders to managers, rather than a value-enhancing investment in goodwill.  So on the DC Metro, what did I see today, but ... Read full article

Moral hazard, moral hazard, moral hazard....  How often have we heard that as a reason for why principal reductions can't be done.  As if it were the worst thing in the world.   ... Read full article

There's been mounting pressure on the acting head of the FHFA, Ed DeMarco to order Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to undertake principal reductions. ... Read full article

Bethany McLean has a must-read article on Reuters about the role of the SEC's 2004 change in broker-dealer leverage requirements in the financial crisis.  The article thoroughly debunks the argument that "the SEC did it" by loosening ... Read full article

On January 1, 2011, Larry files a UCC-1 financing statement against David indicating David's equipment as collateral. At this point, David doesn't even know Larry, has not given him a security interest, and has not authorized this ... Read full article

Why doesn't Goldman have its employees sign non-disclosure agreements? ... Read full article

What, exactly, is so gosh-darn newsworthy and exciting about the fact that distressed debt investors exist, and want to buy claims in MF Global?  ... Read full article

Leaving one third of the historically significant insolvency case complete-ish (I count London and SIPA as the other bits). Download The Notice ... Read full article

Lost in the attention to the state-federal mortgage servicing settlement is the other major servicing fraud settlement:  the $8.5B deal between BONY as trustee for various MBS trusts and Countrywide (Bank of America) over putback claims for securitization ... Read full article

Citibank is running commercials featuring the ability to deposit checks remotely via mobile device , a process known as remote deposit capture . Citi isn't the first retail bank to roll out RDC--USAA, for example, has been doing it for a while, but ... Read full article

Last October, I wrote a post entitled "Robosigning 2.0" that discussed some job ads for outsourced OCC foreclosure reviews.  I predicted based on the job ad qualifications that the foreclosure reviews would be nothing other than a whitewash. ... Read full article

My latest column for Dealbook looks at the competing narratives regarding Dodd-Frank's OLA in the banking and bankruptcy communities. ... Read full article

Today I'm off to the Wharton Restructuring and Turnaround Conference , which looks to be a great, high level discussion of all things chapter 11ish. But it is surely a sign of the times that the keynote speaker is a banking lawyer. ... Read full article

Here's a bombshell : the San Francisco City Assessor commissioned a serious audit of foreclosure documentation filed in the past few years. The audit examined 400 foreclosures.  It found problems with 85% of them, often multiple problems. ... Read full article

For reasons that I don't quite understand, Krugman has gone all upside Taylor based on a two year old post from Economics of Contempt , and ... Read full article

For those following financial reform:   Paul Volcker dismantles the only respectable (i.e., not obviously self interested) argument against the Volcker rule. ... Read full article

In re Bank of America, N.A, 11-24503 MER, 2011 WL 2493056 (Bankr. D. Colo. June 21, 2011): Since there is no allegation Bank of America is a railroad ...  the Court accepts Bank of America's representation that it is a “bank” for purposes of § ... Read full article

What are we to make of the servicing settlement announced today with much hoopla ?  The short answer is not much.  The settlement is the large consumer fraud settlement ever, but it accomplishes remarkably little in terms of either alleviating the ... Read full article