By Patrick Clark 9/28/12 7:52am

Morning Read

FSA to Announce New Libor Plan; Ex-Credit Suisse CDO Chief to Fight Extradition: Roundup

The British Financial Services Authority is wresting oversight of the London interbank lending rate from the British Bankers Association as part of an overhaul of the process by which Libor is set. The British government will take a more hands on role, and submissions will be delayed for three months, perhaps diminishing the temptation to rig rates for the purpose of managing perception of a bank’s health.

Right on time, The Wall Street Journal has an “analysis” that shows Libor doesn’t actually reflect banks’ borrowing costs.

Kareem Serageldin, the former head of Credit Suisse’s CDO business arrested in London on Wednesday, said he will fight extradition to the U.S. When Mr. Serageldin was charges in February for running a scheme to falsify trading positions, he expressed surprise over the indictment, noting through lawyers that he was cooperating with attorneys. When he was nabbed outside the U.S. embassy in London this week, he said through a lawyer that he was working on a plea deal, and that his capture was the result of “miscommunication.” Read More

By Patrick Clark 9/25/12 5:51am

Morning Read

RBS Libor Rigging May Have Extended Beyond Fired Traders; Smith Barney Brand Too Old Fashioned For This World: Roundup

Royal Bank of Scotland managers and traders routinely sought to influence interbank lending rates between 2007 and 2010, and the wrongdoings extend beyond the four traders fired last year, according to Bloomberg. Manipulating the bank’s submissions for Libor and other interbank lending rates would have allowed traders to boost the value of  derivatives positions held by RBS, which is 81 percent owned by the British government.

Goodbye Smith Barney: Morgan Stanley is rolling out a name-change for the 75-year-old brand, according to The New York Post. The brokerage, jointly-owned with Citigroup, will be called Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. In its heyday, Smith Barney was known for its advertising slogan: “They make money the old fashioned way: They earn it.” Read More

By Patrick Clark 9/21/12 6:08am

Morning Read

Former Gov. Pawlenty Puts Snout in Wall Street Trough; Senate Holds HFT Hearings: Roundup

When former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty was campaigning to be the Republican presidential nominee, he told reporters that his “truth message to Wall Street is going to be, ‘Get your snout out of the trough.’” Which, maybe that’s still his truth message? But instead of delivering it as co-chairman of Mitt Romney’s campaign, Governor Pawlenty will be speaking it as head of the Financial Services Roundtable, a banking industry lobby.

Somewhere, an algorithm read the coverage of yesterday’s Senate Banking Committee hearing on high-frequency trading, and figured it will take years for the government to hammer out reforms to fix market structure issues. Read More

By Patrick Clark 9/20/12 7:56am

Morning Read

Critics of High-Frequency Trading Take to Capitol Hill; Hedge Funder Asks, ‘What’s Wrong With Nimbyism?’ Roundup

The Senate Banking Committee will hold hearings on high-frequency trading today, and the Wall Street Journal meets the star witnesses: Dave Lauer, a former trader at Citadel and Allston Capital who plans to tell lawmakers that high-speed trading has made markets less fair for many participants; and Andy Brooks, head of U.S. trading for T. Rowe Price, who will say that rules governing high-frequency trading generally favor bodies with short-term profit incentives. Read More

By Patrick Clark 5/08/12 6:12pm

Sunny Disposition

deficits don't matter

DoubleLine’s Gundlach Busting on Credit Card Slogans and Just About Everything Else

Jeffrey Gundlach hosted a web presentation this afternoon, sparing no amount of bad wordplay to skewer credit card slogans and borrowers alike. There was a point to the talk—perhaps simply to contradict Dick Cheney’s 2002 assertion that “Reagan proved that deficits don’t matter”—but we were caught up in Gundlach’s masterful roiling of the sloganeers that Read More