- Big Pay Packages Return to Wall Street
- SEC investigator raised Madoff suspicions in 2004 to no avail
- SEC’s Gaping Blind Spots Kept Madoff’s Misdeeds Out of Sight
- SEC Plan Aims to Better Foretell Risks
- Treasury to Name 9 ‘Toxic’ Managers
- Merrill exec sounds bullish on future of BofA merger
- Risk Cuts at Morgan May Lead to a Loss
- Goldman Sachs and the Case of the Mistaken Twitter Account
- CDS clearing plans not ‘bulletproof’
- Bill Miller On The Prowl Again
- Stanford CFO intends to admit fraud charges
- Singh Hangs Up Stanford Logo
- Hiring might not rebound in an economic recovery
- RBS chief tries to defuse concern over pay
- LSE set to offer volume discounts
- Mortgage Refinance Program Expands
- NYSE Cuts Trade Times to 5 Milliseconds
- GM Says Approval of Restructuring Is Urgent
- Government Makes $4 Billion ‘Down Payment’ on Project to Expand Broadband
- Facebook’s privacy changes to mimic rival Twitter
- Crabtree & Evelyn files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
Big Pay Packages Return to Wall Street – Wall Street Journal
Business is back on Wall Street. If the good times continue to roll, lofty pay packages may be set for a comeback as well.
Based on analysts’ earnings forecasts for 2009, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is on track to pay out as much as $20 billion this year, or about $700,000 per employee. That would be nearly double the firm’s $363,000 average last year, and slightly higher than the $661,000 for the average Goldman employee in fiscal 2007, according to analyst estimates reviewed by The Wall Street Journal…..
SEC investigator raised Madoff suspicions in 2004 to no avail – LA Times
An investigator at the Securities and Exchange Commission warned superiors as far back as 2004 about irregularities at Bernard L. Madoff’s financial management firm, but she was told to focus on an unrelated matter, according to agency documents and sources familiar with the investigation.
Genevievette Walker-Lightfoot, a lawyer in the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations, sent e-mails to a supervisor, saying information provided by Madoff during her review didn’t add up and suggesting a set of questions to ask his firm, documents show…..
SEC’s Gaping Blind Spots Kept Madoff’s Misdeeds Out of Sight – Washington Post
It will be the end of the summer before we learn how the Securities and Exchange Commission could have conducted at least five inquiries into Bernie Madoff’s activities over 16 years and never found a Ponzi scheme so huge that it robbed billionaires and bubbies of $13 billion and won Madoff a 150-year, all-expenses-paid trip to prison.
That’s when the commission’s inspector general will issue his report on the Madoff screwup. By then, Mary Schapiro, the SEC’s earnest and aggressive new chairman, will have done enough to restructure the agency, replace top management, expand the staff, step up enforcement and revive morale that she’ll be able to declare, with sufficient credibility, that it won’t happen again….
SEC Plan Aims to Better Foretell Risks - Wall Street Journal
The Securities and Exchange Commission proposed new rules Wednesday designed to more closely regulate executive pay.
Separately, the commission approved in a 3-2 vote a controversial rule proposed by New York Stock Exchange parent NYSE Euronext to ban brokers from voting in uncontested corporate board elections on behalf of customers who didn’t return voting instructions.
The proposed compensation rules would require public companies to disclose information about how compensation policies can lead to increased risk-taking and explain how those risks are managed…..
Treasury to Name 9 ‘Toxic’ Managers – Wall Street Journal
The Treasury Department is expected to name as many as nine investment managers to operate funds that will buy toxic securities from financial institutions, according to people familiar with the plans.
An announcement could come as soon as Thursday but may slip until next week….
Merrill exec sounds bullish on future of BofA merger - Charlotte Observer
After a 10-month span that saw the sale of the firm, some of the most tumultuous markets in generations and the departure of about 2,300 brokers, the head of Merrill Lynch’s “thundering herd” of financial advisers says the tide is turning.
The iconic New York brokerage firm, now part of Charlotte-based Bank of America Corp., has started hiring trainees again, is gradually rolling out more banking products and is finding clients more eager to test the investment waters, says Dan Sontag, head of the combined unit called Merrill Lynch global wealth management.
“People are really starting to move forward here,” Sontag said in an interview with the Observer this week. “I see my group not wanting to talk about the rearview mirror as much.”….
Risk Cuts at Morgan May Lead to a Loss – NY Times
Last year, after the financial crisis, Morgan Stanley made a decision that its biggest rivals avoided: burned by the crisis, it would take far fewer risks in its trading.
That decision is costing it — at least for now.
Unlike earnings at Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, which quickly returned to profitability by taking on risk in trading for their customers, Morgan Stanley’s earnings from those operations are predicted to be less in the second quarter….
Goldman Sachs and the Case of the Mistaken Twitter Account – Wall Street Journal
Grassroots organizations ACORN and MomsRising.org are using Twitter as weapon to get Goldman Sachs to sign onto President Barack Obama’s new Making Home Affordable (MHA) Program.
Except they got the wrong Goldman…..
CDS clearing plans not ‘bulletproof’ – Financial Times
Dealers and investors in the $26,500bn credit default swaps market have told the Federal Reserve that proposals to give investors access to centralised clearing are not “bulletproof” and legal and regulatory changes are needed to achieve significant reductions in risk.
“None of the aspiring central counterparties have an unambiguously clear regulatory disposition,” said one of the participants in the analysis of clearers submitted by dealers and investors to the Fed this week. “Each plan would benefit from various legal and regulatory changes.”….
Bill Miller On The Prowl Again - Wall Street Journal
After several years of heavy losses, Bill Miller’s diehard investors are breathing a tentative sigh of relief.
The famous Legg Mason value investor, who stumbled so badly during the stock market turmoil of the past few years, is off to a much more promising 2009. Indeed, it’s been the best first half for his mutual funds since 2003, when his 15-year streak of beating the Standard & Poor’s 500 still had 2 1/2 more years to run…..
Stanford CFO intends to admit fraud charges – Financial Times
James Davis, the chief financial officer of Stanford Financial who is facing charges related to an alleged $7bn fraud at the group, intends to plead guilty to the three charges against him, his attorney has told the Financial Times.
Attorney David Finn, who is representing only Mr Davis, told the FT there was likely to be a “procedural not guilty plea” entered at his arraignment, but that his client would plead guilty to the charges against him “once all the details are worked out”…..
Singh Hangs Up Stanford Logo – NY Post
When it comes to supporting accused Ponzi schemer R. Allen Stanford, even his most ardent supporter, Vijay Singh, has his limits.
A day after the Texas financier was remanded to a federal jail to await trial on charges he ran a $7 billion international fraud, Singh, who defiantly wore a hat bearing the Stanford Financial logo as recently as last month’s US Open in Bethpage, has given up the Stanford logo in favor of golf-club maker Cleveland Golf….
Hiring might not rebound in an economic recovery – Los Angeles Times
Even as the nation’s economy begins clawing its way out of the worst recession in 60 years, there are growing signs that this recovery could come with an unsettling twist: The wheels of commerce may begin to turn again without any substantial boost in jobs.
Not only is the national unemployment rate, now 9.4%, likely to climb into double digits later this year, but it is also expected to remain there well into 2010, economists say. That would prolong the misery of the unemployed, squeeze retailers and other businesses, and add millions of dollars in government costs and lost productivity. It could even threaten the recovery itself…..
RBS chief tries to defuse concern over pay – The Times of London
Stephen Hester, chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, has agreed to a modest concession to his potential £9.7 million pay package after it provoked outrage last week.
Mr Hester has agreed to defer by two years cashing in incentive shares that could be worth £3.4 million in an attempt to defuse concern that his package was too focused on short-term performance. Free shares under the bank’s medium-term bonus scheme would vest in June 2012, it was announced last week, but Mr Hester has agreed to hold them for at least a further two years under a deal with institutional shareholders…..
LSE set to offer volume discounts – Financial Times
The London Stock Exchange has swept aside a tariff structure introduced only nine months ago, saying that it would move to a system of volume discounts as it attempts to stem an erosion of market share.
The move is the second sign this month of how Xavier Rolet, the exchange’s new chief executive, is breaking with the eight-year tenure of his predecessor Dame Clara Furse….
Mortgage Refinance Program Expands – Washington Post
The Obama administration announced yesterday that it would loosen the eligibility requirements for a program aimed at helping borrowers with no equity in their homes to refinance into cheaper mortgages.
Acknowledging that falling housing prices have made it increasingly difficult for borrowers to qualify, officials said the program would now be open to those whose mortgage debt is up to 125 percent of their home value. The program, launched in February, was initially open only to those borrowers who owed no more than 105 percent of their home value…..
NYSE Cuts Trade Times to 5 Milliseconds – Wall Street Journal
NYSE Euronext cut order-execution times 20-fold at the New York Stock Exchange, part of an effort to catch up to faster competitors that have taken market share.
With the implementation of a new system for processing orders on the NYSE, customers will see trades executed within five milliseconds, compared with 105 milliseconds previously. As recently as 2007, the time was 350 milliseconds…..
Government Makes $4 Billion ‘Down Payment’ on Project to Expand Broadband – Washington Post
Vice President Biden yesterday announced guidelines for $4 billion in stimulus funds to expand high-speed Internet access across the nation, jump-starting a program that has been criticized for taking too long to get off the ground.
The first round of grants and loans is part of a total $7.2 billion in funds for expanding broadband networks tucked into the $787 billion fiscal stimulus package signed by President Obama in February. The administration has touted the expansion of broadband access as a way to quickly create jobs during a stubborn recession….
GM Says Approval of Restructuring Is Urgent – Washington Post
General Motors mounted a final push for its historic restructuring plan, arguing before a federal bankruptcy judge Wednesday that the U.S. government would cut off funding — in effect risking liquidation of the automaker — unless it won quick approval for the turnaround proposal.
The government has “no intention to further fund this company if the sale order is not entered by July 10,” said Harry Wilson, a member of the Obama administration’s auto task force who oversaw the government’s day-to-day dealings with GM…..
Facebook’s privacy changes to mimic rival Twitter – Financial Times
Facebook will begin encouraging users to make more of their personal information public to everyone on the web, a shift that moves the company into more direct competition with micro-messaging service Twitter.
On Wednesday, the company held a conference call to discuss new changes to privacy controls on the site, and said that in the coming weeks Facebook would ask each of its 225m members to reset their privacy settings….
Crabtree & Evelyn files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection – LA Times
Crabtree & Evelyn Ltd., maker of soaps and other bath and body products, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today.
The Woodstock, Conn., company, which operates 125 retail stores in the U.S., said day-to-day retail operations in its stores and on its website would continue as usual. It also said it was hoping to reevaluate its real estate portfolio, strengthen its brand strategies and restructure its debt…..
Tags: Allen Stanford, Autos, Bank of America, Bankruptcy, Bernie Madoff, Bill Miller, Bonuses, CDS, Compensation, GM, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, PPIP, SEC
