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Fannie Sues 9 Big Banks Over Libor; Wells' Quiet Settlement with FHFA; RBS' Game Plan

11/01/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Sued Over Libor: Fannie Mae is suing nine banks for an estimated $800 million in losses it incurred as a result of alleged manipulation of benchmark interest rates, including Libor. Defendants include Bank of America, Barclays, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Rabobank, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS. Fannie is also suing the British Bankers' Association. Fannie's counterpart, Freddie Mac, filed a similar lawsuit against more than a dozen banks...

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B of A Warns of U.S. Mortgage Suit; What Did the Fed Say?

10/31/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

B of A Lawsuit Looming? And the financial crisis reckoning continues. Bank of America disclosed in a regulatory filing on Wednesday that a U.S. attorney's office (no word on which one yet) plans to recommend the Justice Department file a civil lawsuit against the bank over bad mortgage-backed securities. The bank also said it has raised its estimate of potential losses from litigation to $5.1 billion, from $2.8 billion. News of a...

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The Year of Crisis-Era Reckoning Is Upon Us; Rabobank Libor Settlement

10/30/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Sins of Financial Crises Past: The year of crisis-era legal reckoning may indeed be upon us. According to the Wall Street Journal, regulators have brokered another settlement with a financial firm over allegations it sold bad mortgage-backed securities to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac leading up to the financial crisis. No, we're not talking about JPMorgan Chase, but Ally Financial, which said on Tuesday it will take a $170 million charge in...

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Rabobank CEO to Resign; Goldman Potluck; Foreign Bank Earnings

10/29/13

Breaking News This Morning ...

Rabobank CEO to Resign: Anonymice tell the Journal that Rabobank CEO Piet Moerland is poised to step down Tuesday as the bank reaches a $1 billion settlement with global regulators over rate-rigging allegations. The expected settlement would be the second largest Libor settlement to date, behind UBS's $1.5 billion agreement last December. Receiving Wide Coverage ... ...

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Settlement with FHFA a Kind of, Sort of Win for JPM; Is P-2-P Lending Dead?

10/28/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

JPM Settlement(s) Update: In case you missed it, late on Friday, JPMorgan Chase agreed to pay $5.1 billion in a deal with the Federal Housing Finance Agency to settle allegations it sold bad mortgages to Fannie and Freddie in the years leading up to the financial crisis. The deal is part of the broader, reported $13 billion mortgage-related settlement the bank has been trying to broker with federal regulators and the Justice...

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Fed Unveils Tough Liquidity Rules; Refinancing Slump Leads to B of A Job Cuts

10/25/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Unveiled: The Federal Reserve proposed stricter liquidity rules for the biggest U.S. banks on Thursday. (American Banker's Donna Borak breaks down the proposal's specifics here.) The Journal notes the proposed rules, which will be open for public comment for 90 days and would go into full effect in 2017, are "unlikely to cause major changes at U.S. banks, which have largely improved their funding positions since the 2008 financial crisis." But the...

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Countrywide Buyer's Remorse Rolls On, as Do Hits to JPM

10/24/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ... Bank of America Found Liable: The verdict of a New York jury Wednesday holding Bank of America liable for alleged mortgage misdeeds at Countrywide may go down as an important turning point in the federal government's belated push for financial crisis accountability. The major papers list several reasons why this civil trial matters: it marks the first time a bank has been held liable for fraud in connection with the mortgage boom;…

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ECB Wants 8% Capital Buffer from Banks

10/23/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

ECB Inspections Start in November: The European Central Bank said Wednesday that it will begin a thorough review in November of the balance sheets of around 130 financial institutions from Latvia to Germany. Some news outlets are calling this a "bad loan" test. The goal is to remove doubts about the strength of European banks in the wake of the European recession. Along with stress tests, the central bank is also requiring...

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Individuals Named in British Libor Investigation

10/22/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Naming Names: British authorities have identified almost two dozen individuals at banks as possible co-conspirators in a probe into the manipulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate. The Serious Fraud Office notified the individuals last week that they had been included in court papers related to a case against Tom Hayes, a former trader at UBS and Citigroup. High Court justice Jeremy Cooke also lifted an order from last week that barred...

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JPM's Tentative Settlement; FHFA Targets B of A

10/21/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

JPMorgan Chase's Deal: Over the weekend the country's largest financial institution reached a tentative $13 billion settlement with the Justice Department over the bank's questionable mortgage practices. But despite the record penalty, the bank's board is standing firmly behind its chief executive Jamie Dimon, whose role in negotiating the settlement only seemed to cement the board's support. A phone call by Dimon to a top deputy of Attorney General Eric Holder ahead...

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