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Morning Scan: Barclays Fined for [Insert Misdeed Here]; AML's Collateral Damage

05/23/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Another Day, Another Fine: Barclays again, $43.9 million, for manipulating gold prices. Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times

Housing: Sales of previously owned homes rose in April for the first time this year, and per "Heard on the Street," new home sales data due out Friday is expected to show a rebound from March's anemic figure. Affordability remains a challenge, though, this Journal column notes, and according to the Times, in...

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Morning Scan: Fed Is Split on the Depth of Underemployment

05/22/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Fed Discusses Labor Market: Federal Reserve Board members debated whether there is slack in the U.S. labor market, which would keep wages and inflation down. The minutes from the April 29-30 Federal Open Market Committee meeting shows Janet Yellen supporting the view that there are a large number of underemployed or unutilized workers and that means going slow on raising interest rates, according to the Wall Street Journal. But some other members...

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Morning Scan: Credit Suisse and Political Theater; Ex-JPM Big Fang Fang Arrested

05/21/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Suisse Plea, Take Two: Credit Suisse chief executive Brady Dougan said in a Tuesday conference call that he never considered stepping down during the course of the U.S. government's investigation over whether the Swiss banking giant helped Americans evade taxes. But Dougan apparently came closer to losing his job than his comments suggest. The bank's board members considered asking Dougan to step down in exchange for an assist from the Swiss government,...

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Morning Scan: Will Credit Suisse's Criminal Plea Make a Difference?

05/20/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Suisse Settles: Credit Suisse has agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiring to aid tax evasion and to pay $2.6 billion in penalties in a settlement with the Department of Justice, the Federal Reserve and the New York Department of Financial Services. Most news stories about the deal, which was announced Monday, foreground the historical significance of the Swiss lender's guilty plea. Then they acknowledge the admission of criminal wrongdoing...

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Morning Scan: Deutsche to Boost Capital; Reports of a New HUD Head

05/19/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Capital News? Deutsche Bank announced Sunday plans to raise $11 billion in capital by selling new stock to shareholders and the royal family of Qatar. The capital raise is intended to ease regulatory concerns about the German lender's ability to weather potential losses; its Tier 1 capital ratio would rise from its current 9.5% to 11.8%. But media coverage suggests that some investors may not be celebrating. Issuing 360 million new shares...

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Morning Scan: Would a $2.5 Billion Deal Be a Bargain for Credit Suisse?

05/16/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Suisse Justice: Credit Suisse is close to a $2.5 billion settlement deal with the Justice Department, according to anonymice who spoke with the Wall Street Journal. The Swiss bank would pay $1.7 billion to the Justice Department, $100 million to the Federal Reserve and $600 million to the New York State Department of Financial Services. The penalties for allegedly helping Americans dodge taxes strike some observers as a little low. "If Lawsky...

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Morning Scan: Banamex Fraud Claims Jobs; ECB May Ease Policy

05/15/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Fallout from Citi's Mexican Subsidiary Fraud: The alleged fraud at Citigroup's Mexican subsidiary, which resulted in a $400 million loss, cost 11 more employees their jobs on Wednesday. A Wall Street Journal investigation into what went wrong claims that Banamex, Citi's Mexican unit, "showered loans" on the troubled oil company Oceanografia despite warning signs of fraud that caused other major banks to pull back their lending to the company. Among the red...

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Morning Scan: FHFA Changes Tune on Fannie and Freddie; Sallie Mae Pays Up

05/14/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ... FHFA Fanfare: Federal Housing Finance Agency director Mel Watt made waves Tuesday with a speech indicating that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should help make more credit available to homeowners. While the move is intended to bolster the housing market recovery, the Wall Street Journal reports that "some economists and lenders Â... worry that regulators could be opening the way for another boom and bust." the New York Times and the WashingtonÂ...

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Morning Scan: RBS Moves to Spin Off Citizens; Fed Staffing Strains

05/13/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Citizens Split: Royal Bank of Scotland filed an initial public offering for U.S. retail business Citizens Financial Group on Monday, part of the British bank's plan to rebuild its troubled finances. Citizens, which is based in Providence, R.I., has 1,370 branches, operating in New England, the Mid-Atlantic and the Midwest. RBS previously said it would sell about one quarter of its U.S. business by the end of this year, and would exit...

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Morning Scan: Reviewing Geithner; European Banks May Face the Music

05/12/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Geithner Parsed: The Monday release of Timothy Geithner's financial crisis memoir Stress Test occasioned a lengthy profile of the former Treasury secretary in the New York Times magazine. The article by Andrew Ross Sorkin includes a number of interesting-if-not-explosive reveals, including Geithner's discomfort with criticizing Wall Street's banker bonuses and the fact that he regrets failing to get more aid for troubled homeowners. Geithner also says that the failure of Lehman Brothers...

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