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Morning Scan: Lawsky Halts Wells Deal; Barclays Gives Junior Trader Tryout at Forex Desk

02/07/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Halted: Top New York regulator Benjamin Lawsky has stopped a deal that would have seen Wells Fargo sell the mortgage servicing rights on $39 billion in loans to Ocwen Financial Corp. The Times and the Journal both report that Lawsky halted the deal out of concerns about Ocwen's ability to handle more mortgages. Lawsky's Department of Financial Services has been investigating the servicer for alleged misdeeds toward homeowners since December 2012. Per...

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Morning Scan: Lawsky Launches Forex Probe; Credit Suisse Earnings

02/06/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Lawsky Probe: Benjamin Lawsky certainly stays busy. New York's top financial regulator Â-- who recently oversaw a few days of Bitcoin hearings Â-- has launched a probe into whether banks manipulated the foreign exchange market. The Department of Financial Services head has requested documentation from more than a dozen banks, including Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Lloyds Banking Group and Standard Chartered, to investigate. Lawsky, of course, isn't the only one...

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Morning Scan: Farming Fiesta, Targeting Cyber-Security

02/05/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Farm Bill's Feast and Famine: In a rare bout of bipartisan unity, the U.S. Senate passed a farm bill that provides a cornucopia of goodies to the well-heeled and well-connectedÂ--including bankersÂ--but a lump of coal for the poor. The long-stalled bill, which represents nearly $1 trillion in spending over the next decade, passed 68 to 32. At 949 pages, it expanded crop insurance for farmers by $7 billion over 10 years and...

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Morning Scan: Lloyds' Good News/Bad News Earnings; B of A's Mostly Approved Mortgage Settlement

02/03/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

European Bank Earnings: European stocks took a hit on Monday, thanks to "some lackluster" bank earnings. Most notably, Lloyds Banking Group reported higher than expected earnings for 2013 but Â-- wait for it Â-- said it was setting aside an additional $3.1 billion to cover potential claims related to the misselling of payment protection insurance and other products. FT Lombard columnist Jonathan Guthrie called the bank's full year update "akin to a...

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Morning Scan: Emerging Market Fears Continue; Goldman's CEO Wins Big

01/31/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Emerging Markets Strained: The papers continue to raise concerns about emerging markets and foreign currencies as investors have pulled billions of dollars out of emerging market stocks and bonds since last week. The Journal says the euro hit its weakest level in 10 days "as expectations mounted that the European Central Bank will have to introduce fresh easing measures to head off the threat of falling prices." The FT says it could...

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Morning Scan: A Break in the Target Case; Work/Life Balance at Citigroup

01/30/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Get a Life: Citigroup is encouraging junior investment bankers to take weekends off and mandating they take vacation time, joining other Wall Street firms that are trying to avoid burning out their young'uns. Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Dealbreaker

SOTU, Day Two: Obama's brief mention of housing finance reform in Tuesday's State of the Union address "provided a glimmer of hope for those looking for action" on the Hill, the Times reports....

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Morning Scan: Lawsky Warms to Bitcoin; Banks Avoid Questionable Customers

01/29/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

The State of the Union: President Obama vowed to use his executive power to reduce the gap between the wealthiest and poorest Americans and jump start the economy. The president said he will sign an executive order in the coming weeks to raise the federal minimum wage for employees on new federal contracts. He also plans to create a new retirement savings program. Both the Wall Street Journal and the New York...

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Morning Scan: Bernanke's Farewells; More Credit Cards Hacked

01/27/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Farewell, Ben: Ben Bernanke's final meeting as Fed chairman, set for Tuesday and Wednesday, is previewed, with the Wall Street Journal pointing out that Bernanke's detractors admit he's achieved the goals he set. The Journal asks four asset managers to assess Bernanke's tenure. Financial Times picks three of Janet Yellen's biggest challenges in her new job, including whether to continue Bernanke's efforts at providing more public disclosures and holding press conferences. The...

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Morning Scan: JPM Board: 'Fire Jamie? Nah, Let's Give Him a Raise!'

01/24/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Teflon Jamie: Here's what the headlines are telling us about JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon, who was out-and-about at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday. He's not a fan of Bitcoin. ("It's a terrible store of value," Dimon told CNBC. "It could be replicated over and over." Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, more or less, agrees.) He thinks the "sun, the moon and the stars" have lined up for the U.S. economy....

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Morning Scan: Wells Sells Servicing Rights; Getting Tough on Foreign Banks

01/23/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Sold: Wells Fargo is selling the mortgage servicing rights on $39 billion in loans to Ocwen Financial Corp. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The move is par for the course these days as more and more large traditional banks offload mortgages to nonbank lenders to comply with new rules requiring them to hold more capital against the loans they service. Wall Street Journal, New York Times ...

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