Barclays named Antony Jenkins, head of retail and business banking at the British lender, as its new chief executive. Mr. Jenkins, who started his career at Barclays in 1983, replaces Bob Diamond, who resigned last month in the days after the bank agreed to a $450 million settlement over its alleged attempts to manipulate Read More
Whither Europe: Spain will request European aid for its failing banks on Saturday afternoon, Reuters reports. That comes after Fitch Ratings downgraded Spanish debt three notches yesterday, and ahead of Greek elections on June 17 which could thrust European markets into crisis mode. “The government of Spain has realized the seriousness of their problem,” Read More
No wonder they lost track of client money: The two trustees seeking to recover claims against MF Global provided some fascinating detail this week on how the failed broker-dealer shuttled funds.
Louis Freeh, the trustee unwinding the MF Global parent company under Chapter 11, said the firm moved some of its risky bets on European Read More
Seeking redress: The bankruptcy trustee assigned to recover claims on MF Global’s U.S. brokerage unit pointed a finger at Jon S. Corzine, erstwhile CEO of the failed broker-dealer, in a 275-page report published yesterday. James Giddens, the trustee, may pursue claims of “breach of fiduciary duty and negligence” against Mr. Corzine and other officials, Read More
Probing MF Global: Two former back-office employees at MF Global, the broker-dealer led by Jon Corzine until its collapse last year, warned superiors that the firm was using clients’ funds to cover its own obligations. The misuse continued anyway. Federal investigators are focusing on Edith O’Brien, a former treasurer at MF Global; Ms. O’Brien Read More
Citi’s country-bred whistle-blower: Sherry Hunt started her career in the mortgage business as a 17-year-old mom processing home loans in Alaska. By the age of 55, Ms. Hunt was supervising 65 loan officers in Citigroup’s mortgage unit. The year was 2004, and business was booming. Citi was buying loans from outside lenders that had been secured with phony documents, and Ms. Hunt’s reports highlighting defective loans were being buried. The housing bubble popped, of course, and Citi took $45 billion in Federal bailouts. That didn’t stop the bank from processing defective loans. In 2011, a supervisor told Ms. Hunt and a colleague that if the number of loans being classified as defective didn’t fall, it would be “your asses on the line.” The country girl turned banking executive didn’t back down. In the spirit of all great Americans, she went to court. Bob Ivry goes there too, profiling Ms. Hunt, who would ultimately win $31 million in a whistle-blower suit against the banking giant, in July’s Bloomberg Markets magazine. Read More
Austerity plans will be reexamined after elections in France and Greece, though one country is more likely to adopt radical change. Not all MF Global clients were created equal when it comes to recovering funds from the failed derivatives broker. Buffett says his investment in Goldman Sachs was just peanuts. Read about it in today’s Wall Street roundup.
Change of tide? François Hollande defeated Nicolas Sarkozy, as expected, in a runoff election, installing as French president a socialist party leader who has promised to revisit austerity plans negotiated between Mr. Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. In Greece, voters shifted support away from political mainstays to extreme parties, placing the future of austerity in that country in question. The “bitter reality” of the European economic situation may preclude Mr. Hollande from straying too far from his predecessor’s path.
In Greece, on the other hand, the election results increase chances that the country will exit the euro to 50-75 percent, according to two Citigroup economists, though they say that a broad break-up of the monetary union is unlikely.
Zero Hedge has your guide to Europe for Dummies.
Preferred customers: Some MF Global clients have recovered holdings from the failed broker, while others have yet to see a dollar, the Wall Street Journal reports. The difference: where the clients invested their money. Funds invested in the U.S. have been at repaid 72 percent, but regulatory quirks leave those with money invested overseas waiting to recover funds.
Seeking allies: Reuters digs into the state of affairs at Ally Financial, “one of the least scrutinized bailouts of the financial crisis,” and hears that mortgage-lending unit ResCap may be placed in bankruptcy within the next week. Ally, meanwhile, has been the victim of competing interests internally and lax government oversight. With indications that General Motors and Chrysler are less likely to auto loans to Ally, the Treasury’s 74 percent stake in the company could lose value. Read More
Here’s one unexpected (but tough to pity) victim of the MF Global meltdown: Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
When the brokerage filed for bankruptcy, Bloomberg LP lost 600 terminal subscribers, or about $1 million in monthly revenue, The New York Times reports, causing the company to miss target sales by 12 percent and possibly taking a toll on bonuses. Read More
Affordable Housing or Lack Thereof
