Libor-ated: The U.S. Department of Justice is building criminal cases against financial institutions and individuals involved in the manipulation of interbank lending rates, according to The New York Times. Deutsche Bank agreed to cooperate with the European Commission’s Libor investigation, reports Der Spiegel. Prosecutors in New York, Connecticut, Florida and Massachusetts are looking into whether their states were harmed by Libor-rigging. Barclays, which settled Libor-rigging charges with U.S. and British regulators last month, apologized to customers in newspaper advertisements such as this one.
Whale mis-marks: When JPMorgan announced second-quarter earnings on Friday, the firm said it would restate the previous period’s results to include an additional $459 million in losses after executives discovered that traders in the firm’s chief investment office may have intentionally overvalued positions. That explanation doesn’t make sense to some former employees of the firm, but it’s sure to interest government investigators.
Suing Goldman: A married couple that hired Goldman Sachs to sell its voice recognition software company is suing the firm for more than $1 billion.
Age of activism: Bill Ackman’s $2 billion bet on Proctor & Gamble signals a new era in activist investing, says The Wall Street Journal. Evolving corporate governance standards and impatient investors seeking better corporate results have allowed activists such as Mr. Ackman, Carl Icahn, Ralph Whitworth and Nelson Peltz to take aim at bigger companies.
Nearing settlement: Negotiations to settle a Department of Justice investigation into HSBC’s anti-money laundering efforts are picking up pace, The Journal reports. Bank executives will appear before the Senate tomorrow to testify on related issues, including how terrorist organizations and drug cartels may have taken advantage of lax compliance policies.
Bush on economy: “We can all agree that excessive risk-taking by financial institutions, irresponsible decisions by lenders and borrowers, and market-distorting government policies all played a role” in the financial crisis of 2008, former President George W. Bush writes in the forward to The 4% Solution: Unleashing the Economic Growth America Needs.
Stamp of approval: Climate certifications are coming to corporate bonds.
Teach-in: Occupy Wall Street, the summer camp.
