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So Much for Septaper; JPM's $920 Million 'Whale' Settlement

09/19/13

Breaking News This Morning ... 'Whale' Settlement: JPMorgan Chase has agreed to pay regulators $920 million to settle allegations related to its $6 billion 'London Whale' trading loss. Earlier estimates of the widely expected settlement pegged the penalties to total around $750 million to $800 million, but anony-mice were heralding the higher total to various news outlets late yesterday. The bank did admit wrongdoing related to poor internal controls as part of the settlement. Wall Street…

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Jamie Dimon Swears JPM Is Working on Its Compliance Problem; SEC Stays Busy

09/18/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

A Glut of (Sort of) JPM News: We say sort of because some of this, you may have heard already. For instance, more regulatory scrutiny is on the way, per JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, but, don't worry, the bank is working on it. "We have been asking our senior people to eliminate products and services that are not essential to serving our customers and are not core to our business," Dimon...

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Get Ready to Add About $800 Million (and an Admission of Guilt) to JPM's 'Whale' Losses

09/17/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

'Whale' Settlement: Anonymice are telling their favorite news outlets that JPMorgan Chase is nearing an about $750 million to $800 million settlement with U.S. and U.K. regulators related to last year's pesky $6 billion "London Whale" trading loss. In a big win for the Securities and Exchange Commission, the civil settlement, which could be announced as early as this week, is expected to include an admission of wrongdoing. This admission, part of...

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Summers Withdraws from Fed Chair Race; Hey, Remember the Financial Crisis?

09/16/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Summers Withdraws: Big news broke over the weekend when Lawrence Summers, one of the two top candidates, took his name out of consideration for the Federal Reserve chairman spot, writing in a letter to President Barack Obama "that any possible confirmation process for me would be acrimonious and would not serve the interest of the Federal Reserve, the Administration or, ultimately, the interests of the nation's ongoing economic recovery." (Full text of...

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Try to Remember the Kind of September When Lehman Failed and Markets Panicked

09/13/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

#TwitterIPO: If economics is the allocation of scarce resources, what does it mean that the company had to devote 67 of 140 characters to the disclaimer, "This Tweet does not constitute an offer of any securities for sale"? Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, Washington Post ...

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Mortgage Demand Weakens; Europe Approves New Regulator

09/12/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

New EU Regulator: Over strong German objections, the European Union went ahead Thursday with plans to create supranational agency empowered to regulate the continent's banking industry and shutter failing banks the New York Times reported. Approval of the so-called single bank resolution system represents a huge step on the road to a European banking union. Creation of such a powerful agency was important enough that it should have required changes to the...

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Hedge Fund Boss Says Dodd-Frank Is 'Fantastic' for Derivatives

09/11/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Foiled Comeback: Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's hope of staging a political comeback was halted on Tuesday when he lost the Democratic nomination for city comptroller to Scott Stringer, the Manhattan Borough president. The one-time "sheriff of Wall Street" spent more money, but Stringer, as the New York Times describes it, painted Spitzer as a rich man who saw himself as above the law. ...

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Even the NYC Elections Have a JPMorgan Chase Angle; Have You Heard How 'Strong' Its New Board Members Are?

09/10/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ... Happy Primary Day, New Yorkers! Did you vote yet? Besides eliminating some of the approximately 43 people running for mayor, you also have a chance to weigh in on the Sheriff of Wall Street's attempted return to elected office. Eliot Spitzer is vying with (and currently behind in the polls) Scott Stringer for the job of New York City comptroller, a role that entails running the city's pension funds and potentially making…

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The Meltdown Five Years Later; Brainard Considered for Fed Seat

09/09/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Time Really Flies: Five-year retrospectives of the 2008 meltdown were popular over the weekend and fed into Monday's papers. Journal economics editor David Wessel wove together a complete summary of the meltdown — from the fallout over the sharp decline in housing values to policymakers' decision-making over which firms to bail out and which to let fail. In the five years of recovery since the near collapse, "Americans could justifiably celebrate victory."...

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JPM Exits Student Loan Business; Fed Chair Frontrunner Could Face Key Senate Opposition

09/06/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

JPM Ditches School: JPMorgan Chase is dropping out of the student loan business. The Journal calls the exit "the latest development in a larger push by JPMorgan to exit businesses it no longer dominates." The government, of course, is the dominant lender in this space, accounting for over 85% of the market. Wells Fargo now stands as the only big bank still making student loans, though Discover Financial Services has widened its...

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