financial institutions

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CFPB Chief: Senate Vote a 'Giant Setback for Every Consumer'

GOP senators (and VP Mike Pence) just made it harder for consumers to sue financial institutions

(Newser) - A rule that would have offered consumers a powerful tool against financial institutions by allowing them to join together to sue saw its demise Tuesday night at the hands of Senate Republicans. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal report that, by a vote of 51 to 50 (with...

Bear Market Slashes Wall Street Bonuses
 Wall Street Pay Down Big-Time 

Wall Street Pay Down Big-Time

Total compensation shaping up to be lowest since 2008, experts say

(Newser) - The 1% never had it so rough—well, at least not since the economic crisis was at its worst. Thanks to a terrible year for the stock markets, Wall Street pay is down big-time. The Wall Street Journal reviewed 34 publicly traded financial firms and calculated their total compensation to...

1K MF Global Workers Sacked
 1K MF Global 
 Workers Sacked 

1K MF Global Workers Sacked

Tracking missing funds becomes mammoth task

(Newser) - The bankrupt MF Global has informed all 1,066 of its broker dealer employees that they’re out of a job, effective immediately, the firm’s court-appointed trustee said in a statement. They’ll have their salaries paid until next week, and up to 200 will be rehired to help...

Euro Crisis Fells First US Victim: MF Global

Financial firm files for bankruptcy

(Newser) - Europe’s debt crisis has reached American shores: MF Global, a financial firm headed by former New Jersey governor Jon Corzine, filed for bankruptcy this morning. The company had bet $6.3 billion on European sovereign debt, driving away investors and causing its stock to fall 67% last week. Though...

Vatican Calls for Global Market Watchdog

Markets not working for common good, Vatican report states

(Newser) - Occupy Wall Street protesters may be a little surprised to learn that the Vatican supports some of their goals. A document released by the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace calls for the creation of a world body to police financial markets in order to to crack down...

Why President Obama Can't Win on Wall Street: Annie Lowrey
 Why Obama 
 Can't Win on 
 Wall Street 



OPINION

Why Obama Can't Win on Wall Street

Incumbent gets blamed for current woes: Annie Lowrey

(Newser) - Here's a president who bailed out the big banks, protected their pay, and helped hold them together—yet "Wall Street hates Barack Obama," writes Annie Lowrey at Slate . Why? It's simple: "Wall Street is doing terribly," and in a bad economy, "everybody blames...

Layoffs Rain Down on Wall Street

Financial industry victim of excessive boom-bust cycle: analysts

(Newser) - Wall Street's typical boom-bust excess means that the current round of cuts sweeping the banks and financial companies is even rougher than in other industries, trashing morale and harming client relationships just when those financial institutions can least afford it, reports Reuters . So far this year, Wall Street has...

Big Citi Hack Reveals Ugly Truth About Banks

Firms not investing enough on protecting customers, analysts say

(Newser) - The massive data breach at Citigroup has alarmed customers, angered lawmakers, and sparked debate on whether big banks are spending enough money on protecting their customers' information, the New York Times finds. Credit card companies have devoted their resources to preventing fraud from occurring when data is stolen and not...

Inquiry Concludes: Financial Crisis Was Avoidable

Report blames mismanagement, poor regulation, excess risk

(Newser) - Corporate mismanagement, excessive risk-taking by Wall Street, and inadequate government regulation caused the 2008 financial crisis, according to a 576-page report by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, due to be released today. The report blames policies by both the Clinton and Bush administrations, Fed chairmen Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke,...

Fed Rolls Out Plan to Limit Bank Pay

It works in tandem with pay czar's new compensation rules

(Newser) - The Federal Reserve today officially announced a plan to regulate pay structures at banks, the same day the pay czar rolled out his plan to cap salaries at bailed-out firms. The administration’s double-whammy on compensation marks an unprecedented level of government involvement in the private sector, and the policies...

Wall Street Forking Out Record Pay

Pay at top firms expected to hit $140B as markets rebound

(Newser) - Major financial firms have bounced back from the brink of meltdown and are on course to hand out their biggest-ever pay packages this year. The total payout at the big banks and securities firms will hit $140 billion this year, according to Wall Street Journal projections based on revenue figures...

US, Europe Clash on Banking Reforms

G-20 agreement on capital requirements likely to remain elusive

(Newser) - The US and Europe are moving further apart on plans for post-financial crisis banking reform ahead of this week's G-20 summit, the Wall Street Journal reports. Both sides agree that banks should be required to keep more capital on hand to cushion them from crises, even at the cost of...

Meet Wall Street's Most Shameless Failures

'Mulligan Club' keeps hustling disastrous securities

(Newser) - You'd think the men who hyped and traded the financial instruments responsible for the recession wouldn't be allowed to touch another dollar. Instead, they’re “charter members of Wall Street's Mulligan Club,” Steven Pearlstein writes in the Washington Post, buying and trading the same "crappy securities" like...

Troubled Securities Threaten to Drown Banks

Feds set to seize Texas' Guaranty

(Newser) - Bad loans have been killing off banks at the fastest rate in 17 years—but now, securities purchased from other banks are a mounting threat, the Wall Street Journal reports. Thousands of banks nabbed securities dependent on mortgages and the financial industry. “Under most scenarios, they were good and...

Geithner Flips Out, Tongue-Lashes Regulators

(Newser) - The heat is apparently getting to Tim Geithner. At a meeting last week with high-level financial regulators, the treasury secretary indulged in a potty-mouthed diatribe about delays in the administration's highly touted plan to overhaul the regulatory system, declaring, "enough is enough," the Wall Street Journal reports....

Social Security Suffers as Execs' Pay Soars

Top-paid workers get a third of total US pay

(Newser) - Executives and other employees earning top dollar pull in more than a third of all US pay, the Wall Street Journal finds—and the ceiling on compensation subject to payroll taxes hasn’t risen enough accordingly, meaning the government isn’t bringing in what’s needed to plug ever-growing holes...

Wall Street Aims to Give Itself a Facelift

Trade group mounts effort to counter 'populist overreaction'

(Newser) - Wall Street’s top trade group is fighting to fix its image amid what it calls a “populist overreaction” to the financial crisis, Bloomberg reports. Top aides to former Treasury secretary Henry Paulson are leading the “city-by-city, grassroots” campaign focused on politicians and the media. The securities industry...

Obama Vows 'Light Touch' in Bank Regulation
Obama Vows 'Light Touch' in Bank Regulation
INTERVIEW

Obama Vows 'Light Touch' in Bank Regulation

Oversight measures aim for 'minimum' to avoid meltdown

(Newser) - Today Barack Obama will announce a major financial reform package that will give the Fed, Treasury, and FDIC new powers of regulation and oversight. It's the most substantial shift in financial regulations since the 1930s—but stops short of some of the most radical proposals, including tough limits on derivatives...

Obama to Launch Radical Bank Reform
Obama to Launch Radical Bank Reform

Obama to Launch Radical Bank Reform

Changes will be the most ambitious since the Great Depression

(Newser) - President Obama will unveil next week sweeping new changes to the nation’s governance of troubled financial institutions, the AP reports. Unlike Washington’s temporary ownership stake in automakers and major financial companies, the new regulatory protocol will be permanent and will present the most ambitious revision since the 1930s....

From Ashes of Recession, a Reshaped Fed Will Rise

The Fed stands to gain some powers and lose others

(Newser) - Among the myriad things that will be reshaped by the current economic crisis is the Federal Reserve, the Wall Street Journal reports. The steps the Fed has taken to stave off further economic turmoil have made it more vulnerable than it has been in years: If a lasting recovery takes...

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