national-global

'Bruno from London' New Nickname for Blue Whale at American Museum of Natural History

05/14/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ... More JPMeeting Previews: JPMorgan's annual meeting is a week from today, and the curtain-raisers keep coming. "Shareholders are taking a close look at financial relationships between some J.P. Morgan Chase board members and the company they oversee," according to the Journal. For example, the bank underwrote a bond issue, provided a line of credit and made charitable contributions to the American Museum of Natural History, run by Ellen Futter, a JPMorgan director.…

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Pushovers in the Boardroom; Serial Bungling in the Foreclosure Settlement; Should Art Galleries File SARs?

05/13/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Doormat Directors: With little more than a week to go before JPMorgan's annual meeting, some shareholders are wondering whether Lee Raymond, the board's lead director, "has been an effective counterbalance" to chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon, the Times reports. If they conclude that Raymond, a former CEO of Exxon-Mobil, has been too lax in his oversight of the bank's management, these shareholders may vote to split the chairman and CEO roles. In...

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JPM Ends Long Week with New Lawsuit; RBS Names New Citizens Financial CEO; ATM Bank Heist

05/10/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ... More JPM Woes: California Attorney General Kamala Harris is suing JPMorgan Chase over alleged credit card debt collection abuses. Per the lawsuit, JPM "engaged in widespread, illegal robo-signing, among other unlawful practices, to commit debt-collection abuses against approximately 100,000 California credit card borrowers over at least a three-year period." The bank, thus far, is declining to comment on the lawsuit. Various news outlets report other enforcement actions from regulators concerning the collection…

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Foreclosure Settlement Gets Bungled ... Again; JPM's Corporate Governance Drama Revisited; Big Banks Band Together

05/09/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Another Foreclosure Error: First, the OCC and Federal Reserve oversaw a foreclosure review process that benefited independent consultants more than actual homeowners. Next, the regulators replaced this costly foreclosure review with a settlement that gave only $300 to most affected borrowers. Then some of the checks mailed to borrowers bounced. Now regulators have disclosed that nearly 100,000 borrowers received checks for less than what they were owed, due to a clerical error...

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Debate Over Dimon's Dual Role Intensifies; Judge Paves Way for AIG Suit Against B of A

05/08/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ... More Doubts Around Dimon's Dual Role: Another day, another round of worrisome headlines for JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon. Major proxy firm Glass, Lewis and Co. has come out in favor of a shareholder's proposal that would split Dimon's dual role as CEO and chairman. Scan readers will recall that yesterday, the Journal reported three of JPM's largest shareholders — BlackRock, Vanguard Group and Fidelity Investments — "remain undecided" as to how they…

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HSBC Profits Rise on Cost-Cutting; Schneiderman Set to Sue; B of A, MBIA Settle

05/07/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ... HSBC Earnings: HSBC's first quarter earnings almost doubled year over year, with pre-tax profit rising to $8.4 billion compared with $4.3 billion during the same period in 2012. The increase is attributed largely to all that cost-cutting the bank has been doing and a decline in bad debts. Expect the cost-cutting efforts to continue. Per the FT, "the bank is expected to close or sell a further eight to 10 businesses this...

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Buffett Holds Humdrum Shareholder Meeting; JPM Board Directors Under Fire

05/06/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Buffett Holds (Uneventful) Shareholder Meeting: Many members of the media spent the weekend with Warren Buffett, but the news coming out of Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting — per articles in both the Times and the Journal — is that the Oracle of Omaha managed to avoid making any "big news." Buffett did engage in a discussion with "bear" Douglas Kass, who was invited to ask questions since he is "betting that...

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JPM Free-for-All; Stevie Cohen's Chutzpah; Systemic Risk Redux

05/03/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Jamie in the Hot Seat: When the nation's two most influential dailies simultaneously run stories in which federal authorities leak word that they're gunning for a megabank, it ain't no tempest in a teapot. That's the reality JPMorgan Chase's (JPM) Jamie Dimon woke up to this morning as the New York Times and Wall Street Journal published features quoting flies on the wall who describe meetings where government officials told the bank's...

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QE3 Kremlinology; Mel Watt Has an Open Mind About Principal Reduction

05/02/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

QE3 Surprise: In a departure from recent statements, Federal Open Market Committee indicated a willingness to step up bond purchases. Previously the Fed had hinted only that it might reduce monthly purchases. Now the official line is they could go up or down, depending on inflation and job growth. The upshot of all this Kremlinology: The shift to a neutral stance means the economy is still pretty weak. Wall Street Journal, Financial...

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You Won't Have DeMarco to Kick Around Anymore; Home Prices Climb

05/01/13

Breaking News This Morning ... Obama Said to Pick Mel Watt to Run FHFA: Watt, a Democratic congressman from North Carolina, would be the agency's first official director since 2009. Ed DeMarco has toiled as the acting director since then, and his policies have been unpopular with the administration, Democrats, and housing and consumer advocates. A formal announcement is expected today, various anonymice told their preferred media outlets. Bloomberg, Huffington Post, Politico Receiving Wide Coverage ... ...

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