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Schneiderman Promises More MBS Lawsuits; Bernanke Round-Up; UBS Trader Verdict

11/21/12

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Schneiderman Strikes Again: More details have emerged regarding New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's mortgage-backed securities case against Credit Suisse, now that it has formally been filed, and while there are definite nuances and different key players, the general gist of the allegations may sound a bit familiar. To surmise, prosecutors allege the investment bank misled investors about the quality of the home loans that made up its mortgage securities back in...

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JPMorgan Shuffles in New CFO; Credit Suisse Restructures; Schneiderman Set to Strike Again

11/20/12

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

JPMorgan Shuffles in New CFO: JPMorgan Chase has named Marianne Lake as its new chief financial officer. As this American Banker article points out, the appointment of a new CFO was to be expected, given Doug Braunstein's apparent demotion back in July following the more than $6 billion in trading losses caused by the London Whale. (It should be noted that, on the record, the bank's CEO Jamie Dimon is telling news...

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HSBC Looks to Streamline; Shadow Banking Becomes Task Force's Target

11/19/12

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

For Sale: HSBC is in talks to sell its stake in China's Ping An Insurance, which is worth $9 billion to $9.5 billion, depending on which paper you believe. A deal could net the bank around $7.5 billion. The FT name drops "Thai billionaire Dhanin Chearavanont, who controls the Charoen Pokphand Group" as a potential buyer. While the move is apparently not in line with HSBC chief executive Stuart Gulliver's statement last...

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'Extreme' Stress Tests; Ugly FHA Audit; Et Tu, Michael Corbat?

11/16/12

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Stress Tests: The Fed released the scenarios for the next round of modeling exercises mandated by Dodd-Frank for 30 or so large banks. The hypothetical economic shocks this time include a sharp slowdown in China. An industry lobbyist tells the Journal that these theoretical stressors are "the most extreme to date." But Times columnist Peter Eavis wonders why 1970s-style runaway inflation isn't considered in the stress tests. Remote as that scenario may...

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Talk of an FHA Bailout; FERC Zaps JPM; 'Damning' MF Global Report

11/15/12

Receiving Wide Coverage ... The Next Bailout? The Journal and the Times report today that the Federal Housing Administration's annual report, due later this week, will show that its financial condition has worsened considerably. The Journal story prominently suggests the agency may need to draw on taxpayer funds, a prospect downplayed somewhat in the Times article. If you're feeling déjà vu, it may be because on Tuesday American Banker's Kate Berry reported that the FHA was...

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Money Market Debate Drags On; Blankfein Speech as a Game of Telephone

11/14/12

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Money Market Funds Redux: Take 2 on money market funds is coming from the Financial Stability Oversight Council. The SEC couldn't get its act together on regulating money market funds — which have a longstanding tradition of telling investors they have a fixed value even though they kinda don't — so FSOC's stepping in. The council has told the SEC to pick the issue up again, though it's not being didactic. The...

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Who Needs a Bank Holding Company When You Can Be Owned by a Company That Does Meatpacking and Plastics?

11/13/12

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Basel: Following U.S. regulators' delay in implementating Basel III, the Journal presents two different views on the international capital standards' applicability in this country. In the "Heard on the Street" column, David Reilly focuses on the Basel III requirement that capital calculations include unrealized gains or losses on securities. Community banks want to be exempt from this rule (along with the rest of Basel III), arguing that since they intend to hold...

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Pandit's Payoff, Dreaming of Wealth, Blankfein's Helping Hand

11/12/12

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Burying the News 101: It's a PR trick as old as Wall Street. If you're going to release ugly news, do it when nobody's watching. That appears to be the play Citigroup (NYSE:C) called late Friday when just before Veteran's Day weekend it disclosed that its recently ousted chief executive, Vikram Pandit, will receive $6.7 million in pay for 2012. That's on top of $8.8 million for 2011, bringing Pandit's two-year total...

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With Fed Approval, JPMorgan Moves Beyond the Whale, HSBC Faces New Inquiry

11/09/12

Breaking News This Morning

HSBC Faces New Inquiry: British tax authorities say they are looking into a list of HSBC clients with bank accounts in Jersey, the largest island in the English Channel, after receiving a tip from a whistle-blower. The data allegedly shows that "drug dealers, gun runners and bankers facing major fraud investigations had accounts with the bank in Jersey," the FT reports. HSBC told the Times it was aware (and subsequently looking into)...

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The Day After the Election, Fiscal Cliff Looms; ING Plans Layoffs; Dexia Gets Bailed Out...Again

11/08/12

Breaking News This Morning Settlement: As speculated, JPMorgan Chase has reached a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission related to Bear Stearns' mortgage backed securities sales practices, Bloomberg reports. Details on the terms of the settlement are scarce, but JPMorgan did say in the filing "the agreement in principle is subject to approval by the SEC, as well as court approval." Receiving Wide Coverage ... ...

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