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Morning Scan: Stress Tests to Get Tough on Leveraged Loans; QRM Rule Bashed

10/24/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ... Prepping for Stress Tests: The Financial Times and Wall Street Journal each serves up a curtain raiser on next year's Fed-conducted stress tests, playing off the instructions the Fed released on Thursday, as well as the European Central Bank's stress test results that are due to be released on Sunday. Among the stressful scenarios to which U.S. banks will be theoretically tested are oil prices rising to $110 per barrel, and increasedÂ...

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Morning Scan: New Mortgage Rules Approved; JPMorgan's China Hiring

10/23/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

New Mortgage Rules: Two Republicans on the Securities and Exchange Commission objected to relaxed mortgage rules, but the SEC approved the new rules regardless on Wednesday, as did the Federal Reserve and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. "Today's rule-making takes the untenable housing policy that injected irrational exuberance into mortgage lending and, as a result, caused a catastrophic financial crisis and chisels that failed policy into the stone tablets of...

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Morning Scan: Mortgage Lending Debate; London Whale Blame Game

10/22/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

New QRM Rule Assessed: The reviews are coming in on the final QRM rule and reaction is mixed. The American Bankers Association indicated it could live with the new rule, which doesn't require a down payment in its criteria for being exempted from risk retention, saying it "might have been more restrictive." Former FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair, however, described the final version of the risk retention rule as "unfortunate" because "if the...

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Morning Scan: Bankers Warned at New York Fed; Watt's Mortgage Plan

10/21/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Bankers Warned: Big banks, be warned (again). In closed-door meetings Monday, Federal Reserve Gov. Daniel Tarullo and New York Fed President William Dudley said big banks must clean up their acts, or face repercussions. Those consequences could include things like "performance bonds," limits on executive compensation and a central registry to track the hiring and firing of traders and other top finance officials, all of which were reported by the Wall Street...

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Morning Scan: The End of QE Approaches; Apple Pay Debuts

10/20/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

To QE, or Not to QE: Wild stock market swings, unexpected volatility in the 10-year Treasury note, and emerging global crises ranging from the Ebola virus to unrest in the Middle East won't sway the Fed from its plan to end its bond-buying program. Ahead of the Fed's Oct. 28-29 meeting, the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and New York Times all take a look at whether the Fed intends to stick...

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Morning Scan: Stock Swings Hit Banks Hard; "No Objective Reality" on Earnings

10/16/14

Receiving Wide Coverage.... Banks Take Beating in Stock Market: Wednesday's stock market swings hit banks hard as fears of a sputtering global economy took hold. "U.S. bank stocks suffered their worst one-day fall in almost two years," tumbling 3.4%, according to the Financial Times. Bank shareholders are worried that the sluggish global recovery and potential for deflation in the U.S. and Europe could keep interest rates low even longer than expected, the papers report. "People areÂ...

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Morning Scan: Citi Consumer Chief Plans to Leave As New Banamex Scandal Breaks

10/15/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Big Changes at Citi: Citigroup probably won't want to include this week in its highlights reel. Its Mexican unit, Banamex, is embroiled in another scandal; not unrelatedly, reports are circulating that Manuel Medina-Mora, the bank's head of consumer banking and chairman of Banamex, is planning to step down; and in a separate decision, the so-called "everywhere bank" is shutting down businesses in 11 countries, including El Salvador, Japan and Egypt. The Times...

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Morning Scan: JPM Earnings Leak; Regulation Guru Wins Nobel

10/14/14

Breaking News This Morning ...

Earnings: JPM, Citigroup, Wells Fargo Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Early Bird Gets the Earnings Attention: JPMorgan Chase showed a $5.57 billion profit in its third quarter, but whether that's a victory or a disappointment depends on your preferred news source. The Journal's upbeat report emphasizes the bank's return to profitability after "a year-earlier period weighed down by massive legal charges." The Financial Times, on the other hand, leads by noting JPMorgan's net income...

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Morning Scan: Bernanke's Testimony and Pseudonym; Here Come the AG's

10/10/14

Editor's note: Morning Scan will not publish on Monday, Oct. 13 in observance of the Columbus Day holiday. We'll be back on Tuesday, Oct. 14. Receiving Wide Coverage....

Bernanke, Annoyed: Unsuccessful home-refinance applicant Ben Bernanke was the final star witness on Thursday in the shareholder lawsuit challenging the federal government's bailout of American International Group. Most of his answers were terse, according to several media reports, and he was often "visibly annoyed," the Journal reported. At one...

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Morning Scan: Cyberattacks Spread; Geithner and 'Loan Sharky'

10/09/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Cyberattack Targets: JPMorgan Chase was one of at least a baker's dozen of financial firms targeted by a recent cyberattack, the Journal reports, citing unnamed sources. Others in the hackers' crosshairs may have included mutual fund giant Fidelity Investments, onine brokerage E*Trade Financial, payroll giant Automatic Data Processing and banks Citigroup, Regions Financial and HSBC. However, investigators don't know yet if the attacks on some of these other firms are related to...

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