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Bonus? Barclays CEO Would Rather Not Get into It; London Whale as Whistleblower

02/01/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Executive Pay: Morgan Stanley's CEO is receiving a higher base salary and performance-related bonus but an overall pay cut. Barclays' CEO is giving up his bonus this year to avoid "unnecessary public debate." If that were the only issue, we'd take the dough, and you could debate us all you like. Then again, Barclays has other things to deal with … like allegations that during the crisis it made an undisclosed loan...

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Economy Contracts; Fed Stays Put

01/31/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ... Economy Contracts: Private-sector demand was strong, but businesses reined in inventories and defense spending plummeted, leading to a surprise 0.1% contraction in economic activity in the fourth quarter, according to the Commerce Department's first estimate. The Journal said analysts pinned the plunge in military spending on factors like the drawdown in Afghanistan and worries that more reductions are coming. The Post said government agencies "began adopting contingency plans, instituted hiring freezes and...

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Jefferies CEO's Big Payday; Bond Losses? Fed Should Be So Lucky

01/30/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Big Payday: The best-paid financial-services CEO in 2012 was not Lloyd Blankfein or Jamie Dimon but Richard Handler, of the lesser-known investment bank Jefferies Group. He took home $45 million (or $58 million if you count shares he received) after making a deal to sell Jefferies to the industrial smorgasbord Leucadia National, which he'll run. The Journal's story is meaty, highlighting the board's use of peer comparisons in determining Handler's compensation after...

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Treasury Takes Fire on Tarp Pay; RBS Looks at Libor Plea

01/29/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Submissive on Pay: The Treasury Department failed to rein in outsize executive pay at some of the biggest bailed-out companies last year, according to a report published Monday by the special inspector general of the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Treasury officials awarded 63% of the 25 highest-paid employees at Ally Financial, AIG and General Motors total pay packages in 2012 that topped the median pay for executives at similar companies by more...

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Sabbatical for JPMorgan Risk Chief; Suggestions for Obama's SEC Nominee

01/28/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Advice for Mary Jo White: "Making Them Pay (and Confess)" is what the Times' Gretchen Morgenson would like to see from White, President Obama's nominee to head the SEC. In other words, the columnist wants White to kick the SEC's habit of allowing companies to settle charges by paying fines without admitting fault. The Post notes that the agency lacks some of the awesome powers of White's former employer, the Department of...

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Mixed Reviews for New SEC Nominee; Morgan Stanley CEO Takes a Pay Cut; A Big Win for Goldman

01/25/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

The Enforcers: Reaction to President Obama's nomination of former prosecutor Mary Jo White as the new head of the Securities and Exchange Commission is a bit of a mixed bag. While headlines acknowledge the pick sends a message to Wall Street — as White is a former top prosecutor and defense lawyer with an impressive (and aggressive) record — their accompanying stories also point out she lacks knowledge of Wall Street arcana....

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Job Cuts, Job Cuts and More Job Cuts; Is Lanny Breuer Leaving DOJ?

01/24/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Cuts, Cuts … and More Cuts: Banks continue to downsize staff. According to three separate reports from the Financial Times, Commerzbank plans to cut between 4,000 and 6,000 jobs through 2016 in order to turn around its underperforming domestic retail business; UniCredit plans to cut 1,000 jobs at its German unit HvB by 2014 for similar reasons and Lloyds Banking Group is adding another 940 positions to previously announced job cuts set...

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Bankers in Davos; Deutsche Bank Settles with FERC; Why Firms Keep 'Foreign' Cash in U.S. Bank Accounts

01/23/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Highlights from Davos: The World Economic Forum just began in Davos, Switzerland, but has already produced plenty of interesting news for bankers. According to the FT, preliminary buzz around the event is that arriving executives "are plagued with concerns about growth, restive shareholders and declining margins." The article goes on to note that Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein is attending the event for the first time since 2008, though it's unclear how...

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Bank of Japan Makes Monetary Regime Change, More Bad News for Barclays

01/22/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ... Bank of Japan Fights Deflation: The Bank of Japan took steps toward a "monetary regime change" this Monday, announcing plans "to enact an ambitious program of further monetary easing" and raise its inflation target to 2%. The plan is intended to end "years of corrosive deflation" and was enacted under pressure from Japan's new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. It involves (and this will sound familiar) "open-ended" asset purchases and a near-zero interest...

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Bank Earnings Rorschach; Geithner Postscript

01/18/13

Breaking News This Morning ... Earnings: SunTrust, Morgan Stanley, General Electric Receiving Wide Coverage ... Earnings Rorschach: Headlines foregrounded the relentless barrage of legal costs at Bank of America and Citigroup after their quarterly reports yesterday - "Citi and BofA fail to dispel concerns" in FT and "Mortgage Crisis Lingers On at Citigroup and Bank of America" in the Times. The Journal contrasted the pair's results with midsize banks like BB&T and Fifth Third: "a regionally diverse group...

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