banking

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Credit Suisse Warning Revives Rogue Trader Fears

'Intentional misconduct' behind billions in writedowns

(Newser) - Investment banks got a brief lift from Wall Street results this week, but surprising reports from Credit Suisse are likely to send their confidence back into the basement, the Financial Times reports. The Swiss firm issued an unexpected first-quarter profits warning yesterday—and said “intentional misconduct” from its own...

Mortgage Meltdown Hits Small Builders

Wave of bankruptcies could in turn weaken regional banks

(Newser) - The housing market collapse that's sending homeowners into foreclosure is starting to hit small- and medium-size builders left with developments they're unable to sell, the Wall Street Journal reports. Buyers are canceling contracts and builders are missing mortgage payments on often highly leveraged projects. Small regional banks, in turn, could...

Credit Crunch Slows Spending
 Credit Crunch
 Slows Spending 
Mar 18, 2008 11:10 AM CDT

Credit Crunch Slows Spending

Consumers, businesses tighten belts just as economy needs fuel

(Newser) - Fewer credit card offers, tougher mortgage requirements, and a slowdown in business expansion all are likely because of the worsening credit crisis, reports the Washington Post. Banks are looking to limit exposure to high-risk customers and restore their own bottom lines. And that’s tough medicine for an economy that’...

France Frees Rogue Trader Kerviel
France Frees Rogue Trader Kerviel
Mar 18, 2008 8:50 AM CDT

France Frees Rogue Trader Kerviel

He'll be under 'judicial control' during probe of $8B SocGen loss

(Newser) - Jerome Kerviel, the trader accused of an $8 billion fraud that nearly brought down Societe Generale, has been freed by a Paris court after five weeks in detention, the Guardian reports. The trader, who faces charges including breach of trust and falsifying documents, will remain free while the case is...

Fed Quietly Loans Billions to US Banks

New program opens floodgates for short-term funds

(Newser) - US banks, struggling with liquidity and hesitant to lend to each other in the wake of the subprime crisis, have hit up the Fed for nearly $50 billion, the Financial Times reports. The loans, issued under a 2-month-old program that, one analyst says, lets them "borrow money against all...

Credit Suisse Cuts Profits $1B on Trader Errors

Trader 'error' prompts bank to take $2.85B writedown; shares plummet

(Newser) - Credit Suisse share prices plummeted 10% today after the bank announced that some traders had overvalued asset-backed securities, prompting the bank to take a $2.85 billion writedown and drop first-quarter profit projections by $1 billion, Bloomberg reports. Switzerland’s second-largest bank suspended the traders and said it would review...

My Teacher's Maiden Ice Cream Flavor? Huh?
My Teacher's Maiden Ice Cream Flavor? Huh?
OPINION
Jan 30, 2008 12:49 PM CST

My Teacher's Maiden Ice Cream Flavor? Huh?

Slate scribe pans online security queries

(Newser) - Odds are good that your bank has, at some point, asked for your mother’s maiden name. Security questions are as ubiquitous, Slate’s Josh Levin writes, as they are absurd. Coming up with easy-to-remember, but hard-to-guess, questions is nearly impossible. Paris Hilton’s account, for example, was hacked when...

Bank Was Warned About Rogue Trader
Bank Was Warned About Rogue Trader
Jan 29, 2008 3:19 AM CST

Bank Was Warned About Rogue Trader

Prosecutor says Kerviel was after a big bonus with mammoth trades

(Newser) - The Eurex stock exchange alerted Société Générale to positions held by Jérôme Kerviel months before the bank discovered his staggering $7 billion fraud, the Independent reports. Kerviel produced fake documents to justify his actions to the bank and was motivated by a drive to impress...

Banks Face Simpler, Tougher Times
Banks Face Simpler, Tougher Times
Dec 26, 2007 3:03 PM CST

Banks Face Simpler, Tougher Times

Effect of subprime crisis on bottom line shows no signs of abating

(Newser) - Investors waiting for the big banks to turn it around after 2007’s subprime debacle might be waiting a long time, the Wall Street Journal warns. The credit crunch has unraveled a complicated modern banking model that gave big firms nearly total balance sheet flexibility. “It was a different...

Citigroup to Bail Out Struggling $49B SIVs

Citigroup reverses course; Moody's downgrades its credit rating

(Newser) - Citigroup will take over seven subprime-plagued investment funds, with $49 billion in assets, and provide emergency support if necessary, to keep them solvent, the Wall Street Journal reports. The decision yesterday to bail out its affiliated SIVs—structured-investment vehicles—is a reversal of Citi's earlier decision to keep them off...

Subprime Waves Ripple Across Europe
Subprime Waves Ripple Across Europe
Nov 29, 2007 1:59 PM CST

Subprime Waves Ripple Across Europe

Crises at German and Norwegian banks underscore exposure to US collapse

(Newser) - The ripples from the US subprime collapse continue to rock Europe as a group of German banks agreed to bail out troubled IKB Deutsche Industriebank, reeling from additional risk from US bond investments. Meanwhile, four Norwegian municipalities scrambled to recover after they they invested $156 million in now fading US...

Same Missteps Felled 2 Wall Street Stars

Prince, O'Neal gambled they could ride out subprime storm

(Newser) - With the CEOs of two financial giants making their exits within a week of each other, the Financial Times looks at the similarities in the undoing of Citigroup's Chuck Prince and Merrill Lynch's Stan O'Neal. Both struggled unsuccessfully to change corporate cultures, making enemies along the way, and both invested...

UBS Reports $712M Q3 Loss, $4.4B in Writedowns

Subprime crisis costs bank $4 billion in writedown

(Newser) - The subprime mortgage mess claimed another casualty today: Zurich-based UBS reported its first quarterly loss in nearly five years, a $712 million hit that drove down share prices as much as 1.9%, reports Bloomberg. UBS reported $4.4 billion in losses and writedowns on mortgage securities. And more writedowns...

Shake-up Rocks I-Banking Unit After Deep Losses

Bank of America hires new unit president, announces lay-offs

(Newser) - After last week’s dismal report card for its investment arm, Bank of America replaced that unit’s president and announced a slate of reforms to recharge the business. Gene Taylor abruptly retired and will be replaced by Brian Moynihan, the bank’s president of Global Wealth and Investment Management,...

Bank of America Takes 32% Third-Quarter Dive

Investment division, big write downs, sink quarter

(Newser) - Bank of America today reported a whopping 32% drop in third-quarter net income, thanks to steep trading losses, write-downs to cover loan defaults, and larger set-asides to cover credit losses. Unlike many competitors, the nation's second-largest bank hadn’t issued loss guidance.

Bank Gives Shy Thais Condoms
Bank Gives Shy Thais Condoms
Oct 2, 2007 11:10 AM CDT

Bank Gives Shy Thais Condoms

Thailand bank fights aids with free hand outs

(Newser) - Some unusual withdrawals will be taking place later this month as Thailand's Kasikorn Bank begins giving away free condoms, branded with the bank's logo, at its 600 branches.  Called "Condoms for Confidence," the campaign to combat the spread of AIDS  seeks to alleviate embarrassment felt by many...

Citigroup Earnings Plunge 60% on Subprime Woes

Company will be latest victim of market turmoil when it reports

(Newser) - Citigroup is the latest big-name victim of the subprime crash, the company announced today, warning of a 60% third-quarter earnings drop. Full earnings will be out Oct. 15, but it appears net income will drop to $2.2 billion from the $5.51 billion reported last year. “Our expected...

Billionaire Takes Huge Stake in Bear Stearns

Josephe Lewis becomes largest shareholder with $860M buy

(Newser) - Billionaire Joseph C. Lewis has bought enough stock to become the largest single shareholder in embattled investment bank Bear Stearns, Reuters reports. The reclusive British-born currency trader bought up $860.4 million in shares over the last month, nabbing a 7% stake. Putnam Investing, the second largest shareholder, owns a...

ECB Pumps Cash Into European Markets

Key interest rates left unchanged in effort to reduce turmoil

(Newser) - The European Central Bank pumped $57.7 billion of emergency cash into the markets today and left their key interest rates unchanged, in an effort to ease the cost of borrowing and calm markets made volatile by the US subprime collapse, Bloomberg reports. The ECB action followed a day in...

The Top 10 Investors
The Top 10 Investors
Jul 18, 2007 5:16 PM CDT

The Top 10 Investors

A look at the individuals who are changing the way money changes hands

(Newser) - Not only are these investors sitting on mountains of doubloons—a sure sign of financial savvy—but they have also changed the way people think about money and investing.
  1. John Bogle, founder, the Vanguard Group. Now president, Bogle Financial Markets Research Center.
  2. Warren Buffett, CEO and chairman, Berkshire Hathaway.
  3. David
...

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