- Mack, Blankfein Said to Meet Fed Officials on Pay
- Fed tells banks to adopt pay rules early
- Berkshire Buys Burlington Northern in Buffett’s Biggest Takeover
- Press Release: Berkshire Hathaway Inc. to Acquire Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation (BNSF) for $100 Per Share in Cash and Stock
- Barclays Rejigs Management in Major Restructuring
- RBS, Lloyds Get $51 Billion in Second Bank Bailout
- Executive quits in Galleon case
- Bernanke Housing Gamble May Bring Pressure to Extend Fed Aid
- UBS Reports Fourth Consecutive Loss on Debt Charge
- Justices tackle case on investment fees
- Schwarzenegger Budget Chief to Quit as Deficit Looms
- CIT’s Bankruptcy Lesson
- Retailers ‘Dodge Bullet’ With CIT’s November Bankruptcy Filing
- CIT bankruptcy filing may mean tougher times for small retailers
Mack, Blankfein Said to Meet Fed Officials on Pay – Bloomberg
Wall Street’s top bankers met New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley at his headquarters today to hear they must follow the Fed’s new rules on executive compensation, people familiar with the matter said.
John Mack, Jamie Dimon and Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive officers of Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. met Dudley for about 20 minutes, the people said, speaking anonymously because the meetings were private. The three came with the heads of their compensation committees, C. Robert Kidder, Lee Raymond and James Johnson, the people said…..
Fed tells banks to adopt pay rules early – Financial Times
The Federal Reserve told big US banks on Monday that draft pay guidelines aimed at curbing excessive risk-taking will have to be followed in this year’s round of bonus payments, even though the rules do not officially come into force until 2010.
The call for a speedy implementation of the proposals underlines the Fed’s desire to change Wall Street’s pay practices and stave off a public backlash ahead of what promises to be a bumper bonus season at many banks….
Berkshire Buys Burlington Northern in Buffett’s Biggest Takeover – Bloomberg
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. agreed to buy railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. in the company’s biggest takeover under Warren Buffett.
Buffett’s firm will buy the 77.4 percent of the railroad it doesn’t already own for $100 a share, valuing the transaction at about $44 billion, including $10 billion in outstanding debt, Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire said in a statement today distributed by Business Wire. That compares with the railroad’s closing price yesterday of $76.07.
“It’s an all in-wager on the economic future of the United States,” Buffett said in the statement….
Barclays Rejigs Management in Major Restructuring – Wall Street Journal
Barclays PLC on Tuesday announced a major restructuring of its businesses that includes the surprise departure of one of its top executives, Frits Seegers, and the expansion of President Bob Diamond’s responsibilities.
Mr. Diamond will oversee the new corporate and investment banking and wealth-management division, comprising the bank’s Barclays Capital unit and commercial-bank and wealth-management activities.
One analyst called it a “land grab” by Mr. Diamond, who was reportedly approached about the top job at Bank of America Corp. last month but told the board he wasn’t interested…..
RBS, Lloyds Get $51 Billion in Second Bank Bailout – Bloomberg
Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Lloyds Banking Group Plc will receive 31.3 billion pounds ($51 billion) in a second bailout from the U.K. taxpayer as the two banks agreed to cap bonuses.
The Treasury will inject 25.5 billion pounds of capital into RBS, for a total of 45.5 billion pounds, making it the costliest bailout of any bank worldwide. The government will fund about a quarter of Lloyds’s 21 billion-pound fundraising. Both banks said they won’t pay cash bonuses to workers earning more than 39,000 pounds this year….
Executive quits in Galleon case – Financial Times
Hector Ruiz, chairman of Globalfoundries, the chipmaker, has become the highest-profile executive to step down in the aftermath of the Galleon insidertrading allegations.
The former chief executive of Advanced Micro Devices is taking an immediate voluntary leave of absence, according to a company statement…..
Bernanke Housing Gamble May Bring Pressure to Extend Fed Aid – Bloomberg
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is gambling that come March, he can stop the purchases of mortgage-backed securities that have propped up the U.S. housing market. Congress may have other ideas.
The central bank says it must eventually withdraw its unprecedented economic stimulus to avoid a surge of inflation as a recovery takes hold. Plans to buy $1.25 trillion of housing debt are the centerpiece of its program to pull the nation out of the worst recession since the 1930s…..
UBS Reports Fourth Consecutive Loss on Debt Charge – Bloomberg
UBS AG, Switzerland’s largest bank, posted a fourth straight quarterly loss as wealthy clients withdrew funds from the private bank and the company booked a charge to reflect an improvement in its debt.
UBS fell as much as 5.1 percent in Swiss trading after the third-quarter net loss of 564 million Swiss francs ($552 million) exceeded analysts’ estimates. The results included a 1.44 billion-franc accounting charge that reflects rising costs to UBS should it buy back outstanding debt….
Justices tackle case on investment fees – Washington Post
Several Supreme Court justices on Monday seemed reluctant to make the courts arbiters of whether mutual fund investment advisers are charging excessive fees for their work on what has become an essential investment tool for Americans.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Antonin Scalia were most outspoken in saying that government regulators or even consumers were better equipped at monitoring the fees…..
Schwarzenegger Budget Chief to Quit as Deficit Looms - Bloomberg
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s finance director plans to step down after four years of crafting budget proposals for a state battered by the U.S. recession.
Mike Genest, Schwarzenegger’s longest-serving finance director, will leave when a replacement is found, said H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the finance director. Genest, 62, told Schwarzenegger a month ago that he was considering departing and expected to do so before yearend, Palmer said…..
CIT’s Bankruptcy Lesson – Wall Street Journal
The $2.3 billion of Troubled Asset Relief Program money that will likely be lost in the bankruptcy of commercial lender CIT is hard to swallow, but it may be the most instructive loss taxpayers absorb all year.
Just as the Treasury Department is urging Congress to junk the bankruptcy process and hand over virtually unlimited bailout authority to the executive branch, CIT is proving two things: Bankruptcy works—even for financial firms—and the U.S. Treasury judges systemic risk out of its political hip pocket…..
Retailers ‘Dodge Bullet’ With CIT’s November Bankruptcy Filing – Bloomberg
The timing of CIT Group Inc.’s bankruptcy filing may have helped U.S. retailers avoid a holiday season with empty shelves.
“Most retailers have dodged a bullet,” said Craig Shearman, a spokesman for the National Retail Federation. “Most of the merchandise for the holiday season is at least in retailers’ distribution centers, if not already on the store shelves, and we’re not expecting to see any significant disruption for the remainder of the season.”….
CIT bankruptcy filing may mean tougher times for small retailers – Star Ledger
Small retailers and suppliers who are customers of CIT, which filed for bankruptcy protection, could have a tougher time obtaining financing after the holidays, according to retailing analysts.
Little companies were already getting squeezed by the loss of dozens of banks that went under during the recession, according to Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates, a New York retail consulting firm……
Tags: Barclays, Berkshire Hathaway, Bonuses, California, CIT, Compensation, Fed, Galleon, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Railroads, SCOTUS, UBS, Warren Buffett
