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Credit Card Firms Cut Deals With Delinquents

Newly relaxed policies allow firms to settle for portion of debt

(Newser) - With countless customers running behind on payments, credit card companies are taking it easy on delinquents, letting them off the hook in exchange for partial repayments, the New York Times reports. The firms began easing up on their previous policies last fall, experts say; now they’re letting frontline workers...

Big Losses Loom at Small Banks

(Newser) - Small and midsize banks across America could face $100 billion in losses from commercial real-estate loans next year, shrinking their capital in most cases to scary lows. The Wall Street Journal conducted worst-case-scenario stress tests on 900 banks and found crises looming far beyond Wall Street. Small and midsize banks...

Tech, Banks Push Dow Up 46
 Tech, Banks Push Dow Up 46 
MARKETS
May 14, 2009 3:16 PM CDT

Tech, Banks Push Dow Up 46

(Newser) - Markets climbed today on good performance by technology stocks and a rebound in the financial sector, the Wall Street Journal reports. A key bank index, which dipped earlier as financials sold stock to raise capital, was up almost 4%. The retail sector continued to struggle, with Wal-Mart off 1.9%....

Against Economic Tide, Norway Thrives

Often standing in contrast to Europe, strict state control puts Norway in good stead

(Newser) - While the rest of the world struggles with recession, Norway’s socialist-leaning government looks pretty smart, the New York Times reports. Norway enjoys a budget surplus of 11% and is free of debt (the US owes $11 trillion), and its economy grew 3% last year. Oil revenues are pouring in—...

'Mini-Madoff' Scammed Churchgoers, Blames Banks

(Newser) - For some, 2009 may be remembered as the year of the Ponzi scheme: Last year, federal regulators prosecuted 13 such scams, but in just the first few months of this year, they’ve already filed 22 cases, reports ABC News. One recent bust is Long Island's Peter Dawson, who stiffed...

Stress Tests Are Done: 10 Banks Must Raise $75B

(Newser) - It's official: The stress-test results are out, and the feds say 10 of the nation's 19 biggest banks need to raise a total of $75 billion in capital to weather a future downturn, the Wall Street Journal reports. The banks, five of which are regional, are:
  • Bank of America: $33.
...

Tests Replace 'Uncertainty With Transparency'
Tests Replace 'Uncertainty With Transparency'
OPINION
May 7, 2009 7:56 AM CDT

Tests Replace 'Uncertainty With Transparency'

Tests on the biggest banks will make raising capital, paying it back easier

(Newser) - In an op-ed piece in the New York Times today, Timothy Geithner positions the stress tests—whose results are released officially today—as a way to restore longer-term confidence in the aftermath of the "tentative stability" achieved by the last administration. "We chose a strategy to lift the...

Stress-Tested Banks Need Just $100B

Investors find causes for optimism in capitalization news

(Newser) - Leaked results of the stress tests on America's biggest banks separate sufficiently capitalized banks—including JPMorgan Chase, MetLife, AmEx, and Goldman Sachs—from underfunded ones such as BofA, Wells Fargo, and Citi. Bank shares rose sharply yesterday and today, and some investors said the results were better than they feared....

Top Subprime Lenders Owned by Bailout Banks

Analysis of gov't data reveals sources of the economic meltdown

(Newser) - Some 21 of the top 25 subprime lenders that triggered the global economic collapse were either owned or financed by banks that ended up needing bailouts, an analysis by the Center for Public Integrity finds. Among the backers, who make huge profits on the subprime business, were Lehman Brothers, Merrill...

Fed to Release Stress Test Results Next Week

Data will show potential losses in specific loan categories

(Newser) - The US will learn the fiscal health of its 19 biggest banks Thursday, when the Federal Reserve and Treasury release the results of the “stress tests,” the Wall Street Journal reports. Delayed somewhat, the results will contain potential loss estimates in specific loan categories for each bank, and...

British MPs Blast Bankers For 'Astonishing Mess'

Report by finance committee blames HBOS, RBS for meltdown

(Newser) - Bankers bear the majority of blame for the global economic crisis for having made "an astonishing mess of the financial system," an investigation by the British parliament's finance committee has concluded. The Treasury Select Committee said in a report that bailed-out banks such as HBOS and Royal Bank...

Banks Get Stress Test Grades
 Banks Get Stress Test Grades 
Apr 24, 2009 8:40 AM CDT

Banks Get Stress Test Grades

Pandit out at Citi?

(Newser) - The nation's biggest banks will start to learn how they did on the dreaded stress test today, reports the New York Times. Though the public won’t learn the results until May 4, analysts are predicting that many of the 19 banks will have to raise large amounts of new...

Bankers Leave Street in Rear View; Head for Academia

Execs take teaching jobs amid crisis

(Newser) - With the financial tornado buffeting Wall Street, some of its leading figures are ditching their careers for work in academia, Time reports. Merrill Lynch’s former president is teaching at Yale; Citigroup’s former merger boss headed to Berkeley; a onetime Goldman Sachs exec is now at Harvard. “It’...

Obama Will Meet With Top Bank Execs

(Newser) - Amid growing dissatisfaction with government restrictions on bailout funds, President Obama will meet with bank CEOs on Friday, Reuters reports. Several banks have indicated that they will repay their TARP loans to avoid new government rules. In the meeting with execs from Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and others, Obama will urge...

Wall St. Looks to Skirt Bonus Limits With Padded Salaries

Attempt to skirt new rules could anger shareholders

(Newser) - In a move to skirt government restrictions on executive pay for recipients of bailout cash, some Wall Street companies are discussing raising base salaries, the Journal reports. Citigroup and Morgan Stanley are considering the idea, which is gaining currency as regulators keep a watchful eye on bonuses, say industry insiders....

Officials Rage Over AIG Payments

Insurer reveals who received billions in bailout funds

(Newser) - Facing lawmakers' fury over massive executive bonuses, AIG revealed today where it shuttled most of its bailout money, the Wall Street Journal reports. About two-thirds of AIG's $173 billion bailout flowed straight to banks like Goldman Sachs and Société Générale—and other companies and municipalities—to pay...

Banks Have Gotten a Bum Rap: BofA Chief Ken Lewis

The steps already taken are working, so let the market sort it out

(Newser) - Banks have been unfairly tarred by misconceptions about the current financial crisis, Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis argues in the Wall Street Journal. It's not true that banks aren't lending, he writes. They are just doing so more responsibly, as they should. And it's not true that bad banks...

Bailed-Out Banks Cut Lending
 Bailed-Out Banks Cut Lending 
Feb 18, 2009 3:15 AM CST

Bailed-Out Banks Cut Lending

Report finds that bailout funds have failed to jolt banks into boosting lending

(Newser) - The 20 largest banks that received billions in  US government rescue funds slightly reduced their lending to consumers and businesses in the last quarter of 2008, the government said yesterday. Banks cut their mortgage and business loans by a median of 1% each, while credit card lending rose by a...

Last-Minute Switch Doomed Geithner Speech
Last-Minute Switch Doomed Geithner Speech
ANALYSIS
Feb 17, 2009 9:47 AM CST

Last-Minute Switch Doomed Geithner Speech

Old plan went bad, new one wasn't ready; he had to stay vague

(Newser) - Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was supposed to ride in on a white steed and save our financial system—only as he made his charge, the would-be knight got thrown from his horse and landed with a thud. Now the Washington Post reports that Geithner changed course only days before rolling...

Brokerages Get Tough on B-List Hedge Funds

With financing cut, look for many to merge or collapse

(Newser) - Brokerage firms are cutting their financing and support to hundreds of hedge funds, reports the Wall Street Journal, delivering a further blow to what was the highest-flying sector of American finance. As they attempt to shore up their own positions, the banks are dividing their hedge fund clients into two...

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