banking industry

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JPMorgan: 'Sloppiness' Cost Us $2B in 6 Weeks

'London whale' loss stuns financial world, could trigger calls for more regs

(Newser) - JPMorgan Chase has stunned the financial world by disclosing trading losses of $2 billion since the beginning of April, caused by what CEO Jamie Dimon calls "errors," "sloppiness" and "bad judgment." The losses came from bad trades made by a unit that was supposed to...

Spain Takes Over 'Poster Child' Bank

Part-nationalization to cause huge losses for Bankia investors

(Newser) - Merging seven struggling banks in Spain appears to have created a big, struggling bank instead of the healthy institution authorities were hoping for. The Spanish government is now grabbing a controlling 45% stake in Bankia, the nation's fourth-largest lender and the one with the most exposure to the country'...

Trying to Refinance? Take a Number

With fewer banks, mortgage refinancing taking forver

(Newser) - Mortgage rates have been plummeting—they were at just 4.05% last month—and that, combined with Obama administration initiatives, has a lot of homeowners clamoring to refinance. There's just one problem: A lot of homeowners are clamoring to refinance. The financial crisis left fewer banks standing in the...

Bank of America Laying Off Elite Bankers

Cost-cutting to hit Merrill's top earners

(Newser) - Bank of America plans to lay off 2,000 of its highest paid employees in its investment banking, commercial banking, and non-US wealth management units, sources tell the Wall Street Journal . Those operations just happen to be the ones that expanded with BofA's acquisition of Merrill Lynch, which has...

Wall Street to Slash 21K Jobs
 Wall Street to Slash 21K Jobs 
Apr 30, 2012 7:51 AM CDT

Wall Street to Slash 21K Jobs

Downsizing binge will rival that of financial crisis

(Newser) - Wall Street's job creators aren't exactly living up to that billing. The market is soaring, and so are bank profits, but financial firms are preparing for a massive round of layoffs, analysts tell Fortune , estimating that the banks will cut nearly 21,000 jobs. That would be a...

Watchdog: TARP Profit Is &#39;Misconception&#39;
 Watchdog: 
 TARP Profit Is 
 'Misconception' 
SMALL BANKS STILL STRUGGLE
Apr 25, 2012 1:05 PM CDT

Watchdog: TARP Profit Is 'Misconception'

Hundreds of small banks struggling to repay loans

(Newser) - The Treasury Department tends to give glowing reviews to the TARP bailout, but the program's inspector general has a distinctly different view. "It is a widely held misconception that TARP will make a profit," writes Christy Romero in a new report to Congress, according to the Huffington...

Bank of America Readying New Fees

Will likely drive off free checking customers

(Newser) - The public relations disaster that was Bank of America's plan to charge customers monthly debit card fees was apparently so much fun that bank execs can't wait to try it again: In what the Wall Street Journal calls a sign of "stresses" in the banking industry, BofA...

Investment Banking Hazardous to Your Health

Long hours, stress take a toll on just about all in the field: Study

(Newser) - Becoming an investment banker might be great for your wallet but it's terrible for your health, a comprehensive new study makes clear. Think addictions, insomnia, heart trouble, eating disorders, depression, and rage. A University of Southern California researcher trailed two dozen investment bakers through their first decade on the...

SEC Letting Big Banks Skirt Fraud Penalties
SEC Letting Big Banks
Skirt Fraud Penalties
NYT analysis
Feb 3, 2012 7:13 AM CST

SEC Letting Big Banks Skirt Fraud Penalties

'New York Times' analysis finds 350 instances of banks getting free passes

(Newser) - The Securities and Exchange Commission has repeatedly allowed Wall Street's biggest banks to avoid penalties specifically intended to punish and deter fraud, a New York Times analysis of SEC records reveals. Over the past decade, the SEC has on almost 350 occasions granted waivers exempting big financial companies from...

Brits Strip Bad Banker of Knighthood

Sir no more for ex-RBS boss Fred Goodwin

(Newser) - Sir Fred Goodwin is now just Fred Goodwin—or, as critics call the disgraced former Royal Bank of Scotland chief, Fred the Shred. The British government, saying Goodwin's bungling helped trigger the worst recession in the UK since WWII, has stripped him of the knighthood he was awarded in...

Under Pressure, Bank CEO Waives $1.5M Bonus

Royal Bank of Scotland's Stephen Hester caves amid controversy

(Newser) - The chief of Britain's second-largest bank declined his $1.5 million bonus yesterday, hours after opposition lawmakers vowed to put it to a vote, reports the Scotsman . The bank's board argued that Royal Bank of Scotland CEO Stephen Hester's bonus was reasonable, especially since his base pay...

Bankers Giving Banking a Bad Name
 Bankers Giving 
 Banking a 
 Bad Name 
Nicholas Kristof
Jan 19, 2012 1:29 PM CST

Bankers Giving Banking a Bad Name

Nicholas Kristof hopes young idealists can save American capitalism

(Newser) - Nicholas Kristof was dumbfounded when, during a recent college lecture, a student asked him if banking jobs were immoral. "I've been sympathetic to the Occupy Wall Street movement, but look, finance is not evil," he writes in the New York Times . It's an essential force, allocating...

Bank of America May Pull Out of Some Areas

Bank tells Fed it'll shrink its footprint if things get rough

(Newser) - Should we start calling it Bank of Some of America? If push comes to shove, the banking giant is prepared to pull its operations out of some parts of the country, sources tell the Wall Street Journal . The unpalatable retreat is one of several contingency plans the bank drew up...

Bank Failures Far From Over
 Bank Failures Far From Over 
Jan 3, 2012 6:51 AM CST

Bank Failures Far From Over

Failures down in 2011, but weak banks are taking longer to recover or die

(Newser) - Bank failures were down significantly in 2011, but that doesn't mean banks are getting healthier—it just means sick ones are taking longer to die, the Wall Street Journal finds. Some 92 banks failed last year, down from 157 in 2010. But many of 2011's casualties were in...

Iraq's Biggest Problem: Its Corrupt Banks

Bloated state banks feed corrupt economic system: critics

(Newser) - Eight years after the US invasion, Iraq still lacks reliable electricity, postal service, public transport, you name it. But many of these problems are fueled by a corrupt banking system that rejects market economics and funnels money to scams and greedy government officials, McClatchy reports. The worst offenders, critics say,...

BofA Pays $335M to Settle Claims Over Minority Loans

It's the largest fair-lending settlement in history

(Newser) - Bank of America's purchase of Countrywide in 2008 just got more expensive. BofA agreed today to pay $335 million to settle a Justice Department complaint that Countrywide discriminated against black and Hispanic home buyers. The Wall Street Journal calls it the "largest residential fair-lending settlement in history."...

S&P Downgrades Credit Ratings of Top US Banks

Standard & Poor's applies new criteria to banks around the world

(Newser) - Standard & Poor's is adjusting the ratings on 37 of the world's largest financial institutions, and that means downgrades for the biggest banks in the US. Bank of America and its main subsidiaries were among those cut at least one notch today, along with Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan...

Beneficiary of All That Banking Hatred? Walmart

Americans turn to MoneyCenters' a la carte services

(Newser) - Americans who are mad as hell and not going to take banks' outrageous fees anymore are heading straight to ... that little mom 'n pop shop known as Walmart, reports the New York Times . The retail juggernaut—which four years ago ditched plans to get a banking charter amid an...

Bank Transfer Day Unites Fed-Up Customers

Facebook movement urges people to switch to credit unions

(Newser) - Will America's big banks feel the wrath of ticked-off customers today? It is, after all, Bank Transfer Day , a movement that sprouted from an angry Facebook post by small-business owner Kristen Christian of Los Angeles. She called on bank customers to close their accounts and move them to credit...

More Banks Scrap Debit-Card Fees

Bank of America now only bank still planning new charges

(Newser) - The people have spoken—and the banks have listened. SunTrust Banks and Regions Financial have become the latest banks to stop charging customers for using their debit cards. JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo have also scrapped testing the new charges, and several other banks say they have no intention of...

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