national-global

UniCredit Faces U.S. Probe, Romney May (or May Not) Have Issue with the Size of Big Banks

08/27/12

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Et tu, UniCredit?: You can add UniCredit to the growing list of banks under scrutiny for possible sanctions violations. The Journal reports the Italian bank is being investigated by the New York County District Attorney's Office, the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the U.S. Department of Justice concerning dealings its German unit HypoVereinsbank had with heavily sanctioned Iran. Few details regarding the probe have yet to become...

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Lessons from SEC Money Funds Standoff: If You Want Something Done, Don't Show Congress Reports About It

08/24/12

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

SEC Problems: More information is emerging on why Democratic commissioner Luis A. Aguilar decided to vote against Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro's plan to regulate money market mutual funds. Apparently, Aguilar "didn't appreciate" Schapiro's move to show Congress a report on the risks of money funds he viewed as misleading. The Journal reports Aguilar was already on the fence about the new proposal when news of the report's circulation was...

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Citi to SEC: 'Tell Nasdaq to Give Back More of the Money We Lost During Facebook IPO Debacle'

08/23/12

Receiving Wide Coverage ... Citi Blasts Nasdaq About (Not Via) Facebook: Citi is so displeased with Nasdaq's plans for making up for losses caused by the fumbling of Facebook's initial public offering, it sent the Securities and Exchange Commission a 17-page letter about it. According to the Journal, Citi told the SEC Nadsaq's proposed $62 million compensation plan would cover "only a very small fraction" of its total losses. The bank is estimated to...

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As Soon as One Probe Closes, Another Opens: Regions, RBS Under New Scrutiny

08/22/12

Receiving Wide Coverage ... Here a Probe, There a Probe: Two more banks have joined the ranks of financial institutions under investigation this summer for questionable behavior. According to the Journal, a federal grand jury is looking into the very close ties Regions Financial may have had with executive recruiting firm Fiderion Group LLC and its CEO James Norton III. Prosecutors have asked the bank to turn over information on "any gifts, trips or vacations" Fiderion...

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Brokerage Firm Auditors Fail Their Audit, Nobody Knows the Definition of Subprime

08/21/12

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Auditors Disappoint: Initial audits of the auditors who inspect the financial statements of brokerage firms didn't go so well. In a report issued on Monday, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board said it found deficiencies in all 23 of the broker-dealer audits from the 10 firms it reviewed as part of new duties allocated by Dodd-Frank. The Journal says two firms didn't adhere to Securities and Exchange Commission rules requiring independence among...

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British Lawmakers Call Barclays' Culture 'Deeply Flawed,' JPMorgan Picks Probe Leader

08/20/12

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Barclays Branded a Big Disgrace: Newly-minted Barclays Chairman David Walker has got a pretty tough job on his hands when it comes to revamping his bank's image. A new report from British lawmakers calls Barclays' steps towards rigging the London Interbank offered rate "disgraceful," says CNN. It also suggests the Libor scandal stemmed from a "deeply flawed culture" at the bank and was not simply the actions of a "small group of...

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Fannie and Freddie No Longer Have to Borrow from the Government to Pay the Government

08/17/12

Breaking News This Morning ...

The Long and Winding Road: Four years after the government bailout of Fannie and Freddie, the Treasury is restructuring the terms of its investment in the beleaguered behemoths of housing. Instead of a mandatory 10% quarterly dividend, an arrangement which at times has forced the GSEs to borrow more from the government to pay the government, the Treasury will now capture any and all profits they generate. When Fannie and Freddie...

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StanChart: 'We Are Not Backing Down.' Lawsky: 'Then I'm Yanking Your License.' StanChart: 'We're Backing Down'

08/16/12

Receiving Wide Coverage ... StanChart Redux: This morning's editions of the Journal and the FT offer behind-the-scenes accounts of the Standard Chartered saga from different perspectives. The Journal describes how New York regulator Benjamin Lawsky blindsided his counterparts in Washington and London by forging ahead with money-laundering charges against the U.K. bank while the other agencies were still investigating. The FT's story focuses on StanChart's response - the bank considered suing Lawsky for reputational damage, the...

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Did StanChart Admit Guilt? Lawsky's Statement Vague on the Matter

08/15/12

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

StanChart Settles: Standard Chartered agreed to pay $340 million to settle Benjamin Lawsky's money-laundering charges, but it's unclear how far the U.K. bank actually budged from its initial position that most of the allegedly illegal transactions were kosher. "The parties have agreed that the conduct at issue involved transactions of at least $250 billion," according to the official statement from Lawsky's New York State Department of Financial Services. This sounds to us...

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Two Nations Divided by a Common Language and a Grandstanding Regulator

08/14/12

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Still More StanChart: The money-laundering allegations against Standard Chartered have further strained relations between U.S. and U.K. financial regulators, which were already testy from recriminations after the Libor scandal, according to the Journal. In the FT, columnist Tom Braithwaite says U.K. officials come off "thin-skinned" in their rush to defend StanChart against the accusations by New York state regulator Benjamin Lawsky. "Implicit — and sometimes explicit — in the wave of London...

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