national-global

Executive Pay Crackdown; Review of Foreclosure Reviews Continues; Is JPM Pushing into Wealth Management to Push its Own Products?

03/04/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Executive Pay: The global crackdown on executive pay continues. Swiss voters backed a plan over the weekend that places severe limits on how companies pay their executives and directors. These limits give shareholders (including pension funds holding shares) a binding say on executive compensation, prohibit bonuses from being awarded to executives joining or leaving the firm and require "annual re-elections for directors." Firms that violate these rules could face heavy fines equal...

[more]

Reviewing the Review of the Review of Foreclosures

03/01/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ... The Sequester: It's scheduled to take effect sometime today, with a last-minute budget deal considered unlikely. For banks, that means budget cuts at regulators, further delaying Dodd-Frank rulemakings, not to mention indirect effects on the industry from the broader economic impact, as American Banker recently explained. For big-picture coverage: Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, Washington Post ...

[more]

The Bad News: JPM Is Laying People Off; The Good News: JPM Is Laying People Off

02/28/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

More on JPMorgan Layoffs: According to a story in the Post, the more than 10,000 job cuts the bank announced this week speak volumes about JPMorgan's views on the housing market, good and bad. On the bright side, "foreclosures at the bank have tumbled … which is why most of the employees receiving pink slips are those that were hired to handle mortgage defaults." But JPMorgan is also cutting jobs in mortgage...

[more]

Fed Won't Be Ceasing the Easing Until the Job Data's Pleasing

02/27/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Ease on Down the Road: Chairman Ben Bernanke defended the Fed's asset purchases and signaled they will continue until the job market firms up. He addressed concerns that by driving down interest rates for a long period of time, the Fed's easing encourages inappropriate risk-taking: While the central bank is cognizant of that danger, he said, low rates "also serve in some ways to reduce risk in the system, most importantly by...

[more]

Libor-Rigging Set Interest Rates Too Low, Too High and So Low They Were Too High

02/26/13

Wall Street Journal

The paper gives a status report on the more than 30 private civil suits against 16 large banks over Libor manipulation. Combined with the regulatory fines, these suits could cost the industry tens of billions in the coming years, a law professor says. Interestingly, while some plaintiffs claim lenders were harmed because borrowers paid too little interest as a result of Libor-rigging, others argue borrowers were harmed because they paid too much. And...

[more]

The Automatic Debit That Can't Be Turned Off and Other Consumer Loan Nightmares

02/25/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Consumer Debt Traps: The lead front-page story in Sunday's Times examined large banks' role in supporting online payday lenders that get around state interest-rate restrictions by locating offshore. At issue is the banks' automatic debiting of borrowers' accounts to pay the interest, authorized by the customers when they take out the loans. The problem is that the banks often continue to withdraw money to pay the loans even after accountholders ask them...

[more]

Citi Revamps Executive Pay Plan, Awards Corbat $11.5 Million for 2.5 Months of Work; ING Group Appoints New CEO

02/22/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Citi's Executive Pay Plan: Citigroup is revamping its executive pay plan by now linking a portion of an executive's total compensation to the "company's performance relative to other big banks." These so-called "performance share units," payable three years after the firm meets performance goals, are being introduced after investors revolted against a proposed $15 million compensation package for former (and ultimately ousted) CEO Vikram Pandit in April. The new structure "will pay...

[more]

Is the Fed Getting Ready to End QE3?; U.S. Pledges Cyber-Spying Crackdown

02/21/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Whispers at the Federal Reserve: Is the Fed getting ready to end its stimulus efforts? That's what some folks are wondering after minutes from the January Federal Open Market Committee meeting indicated "widening divisions among [Fed] officials" about the central bank's current monetary policy (which, recall, involves monthly purchases of about $85 billion in long-term bonds and mortgage-backed securities for an indefinite period). The stock market posted its biggest loss of the...

[more]

B of A's Moynihan Gets a Raise; HSBC Gets Out of Panama

02/20/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ... Moynihan's Big Payday: Brian Moynihan got a big raise in 2012. According to a regulatory filing (and one person "familiar with the matter" who was kind enough to fill in some gaps), the Bank of America CEO's overall pay package totaled $12 million. This includes a $950,000 salary and $11.1 million in restricted shares, which, together represent a 70% increase over his pay in 2011 and the "largest since he took over...

[more]

Simpson and Bowles Offer Deficit Fix (Again); Walter's SEC Agenda; Will Wall Street Ever Get More than a Symbolic Reprimand?

02/19/13

Wall Street Journal

Fourth time's a charm? The paper reports "deficit hawks" Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles plan to offer up a deficit fix to Washington sometime later today. According to the duo, this new plan "would reduce the federal budget deficit by $2.4 trillion over 10 years" primarily through reductions to Medicare and Medicaid, curbing or axing certain tax breaks, lowering caps on discretionary spending and adjusting how cost-of-living increases are calculated for Social Security...

[more]