A new rule adopted by U.S. banks will require over thirty of the largest banks, including Citigroup (C) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM), to add another $100 billion in cash or cash-like investments to what they currently hold to make sure that the firms don’t run out of money in a…
In the last two years, millions of borrowers with mortgages have been moved from banks to nonbanks. This can result in problems for home loan borrowers. A reason for this is that a lot of banks are getting rid of their mortgage servicing rights. 14 of the leading bank servicers,…
Halliburton Co. (HAL) has consented to pay $1.1 billion to settle most of the lawsuits related to the massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. A court must still approve the deal, which covers claims for punitive damages that were filed by the commercial fishing industry and others…
Argentina has gone into default after not getting a $539 million payment to bondholders. A default has been likely since a number of New York hedge funds, demanding that the South American nation pay them back in full for government bonds that defaulted in 2001, won their claims in court.…
BNP Paribas SA (BNP) has pleaded guilty to criminal U.S. charges that it violated sanctions. As part of the plea deal, the bank will pay an $8.8 billion fine. According to the allegations, BNP processed funds involving Cuba, Iran and Sudan. The bank pleaded guilty to conspiracy, falsifying bank records,…
According to Bloomberg News, the U.S. Department of Justice is expanding its probe of the foreign-exchange industry by talking to the salespersons at the biggest banks in the world. They want to know about current sales practices, including how much customers are charged to exchange currency. Over a dozen ex-…
According to Bloomberg.com, as 401(k) rollovers continue to boom, it is the brokers who are profiting while the retirees are sustaining losses. Now, these investors are speaking out. It was in 2012 that former employees moved $321 billion from 401(K) plans to individual retirement accounts-a 60% rise from the last…
Timothy C. Davidson, a Florida investment adviser, is suing BlackRock (BLK). He says the money manager and other defendants breached their fiduciary duty by charging disproportionately high investment advisory fees for the BlackRock Global Allocation Fund (MDLOX). He says that the excessive fees had “no reasonable relationship” to the services…
Regulators belonging to the Financial Stability Oversight Council are looking at the new practices of asset managers, mortgage services companies, and insurers to search for potential threats related to certain high risk investment areas. The group just issued its yearly report to Congress, highlighting certain risks, both current and emerging…
According to InvestmentNews, some of the largest asset managers in the world are complaining that draft proposals for identifying financial institutions besides insurers and banks that may be too big to fail would employ an erroneous analysis of the investment industry. Fidelity Investment, Pacific Investment Management Co.(PIMCO), BlackRock Inc. (BLK),…