- I’m doing ‘God’s work’. Meet Mr Goldman Sachs
- Wall Street Record Bonuses Return as Big 3 May Pay $30 Billion
- Board May Reject Lewis’s Picks to Succeed Him
- Dimon dad takes job at JPMorgan
- Citigroup Asset Guarantees May Cost U.S. Taxpayers, Panel Says
- U.S., U.K. Split Over Bank-Tax Proposal at G-20
- JPMorgan to Grow Indian Investment Banking Unit, Morparia Says
- Comcast, GE Said to Set $30 Billion Valuation for NBC Universal
Blankfein talks to the Times: I’m doing ‘God’s work’. Meet Mr Goldman Sachs – The Times of London
….Luckily for him and his firm, he’s a damn good salesman. He starts with a little humility. He understands that “people are pissed off, mad, and bent out of shape” at bankers’ actions. Goldman played its part in the meltdown that almost destroyed the global financial system. It, like most other banks, lent too much money, made its first quarterly loss for more than a decade last year and ended up taking bail-out cash from Washington. “I know I could slit my wrists and people would cheer,” he says. But then, he slowly begins to argue the case for modern banking. “We’re very important,” he says, abandoning self-flagellation. “We help companies to grow by helping them to raise capital. Companies that grow create wealth. This, in turn, allows people to have jobs that create more growth and more wealth. It’s a virtuous cycle.” To drive home his point, he makes a remarkably bold claim. “We have a social purpose.”…..
Wall Street Record Bonuses Return as Big 3 May Pay $30 Billion – Bloomberg
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s investment bank, survivors of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, are set to pay record bonuses this year.
The firms — the three biggest banks to exit the Troubled Asset Relief Program — will hand out $29.7 billion in bonuses, according to analysts’ estimates. That’s up 60 percent from last year and more than the previous high of $26.8 billion in 2007. The money, split among 119,000 employees, equals $250,400 each, almost five times the $50,303 median household income in the U.S. last year, data compiled by Bloomberg show…..
Board May Reject Lewis’s Picks to Succeed Him – Wall Street Journal
….Of the three options Mr. Lewis presented to a board search committee on October 5, the first was to install 61-year-old Gregory Curl as an interim chief and give younger candidates more time to mature.
Mr. Curl, who became the bank’s chief risk officer in June, is a behind-the-scenes deal advisor who was Mr. Lewis’ point man during a series of aggressive takeovers ending with the Jan. 1 purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co. Supporters say he is well respected by Wall Street and Washington, D.C., but some investors are wary of his involvement with the bank’s mega deals that saddled the company with additional risk and absorbed precious capital….
Citigroup Asset Guarantees May Cost U.S. Taxpayers, Panel Says – Bloomberg
U.S. taxpayers may have to share in the losses on $301 billion of Citigroup Inc. loans and securities covered by federal guarantees after unemployment reached a 26-year high, according to the Congressional panel overseeing bank-bailout programs.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York projected a year ago that the Treasury Department might have to pay $3.96 billion on the guarantees if unemployment hit 9.5 percent, the panel said in a Nov. 6 report. The jobless rate rose to 10.2 percent in October, the Labor Department said last week…..
Dimon dad takes job at JPMorgan – NY Post
If Jamie Dimon ever needs fatherly advice, he can turn to his newest employee: Dad.
Theodore “Ted” Dimon, the 78-year-old father of JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, quit Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch unit yesterday to join his son’s firm, according to a person familiar with the matter. JPMorgan spokesman Darin Oduyoye confirmed the decision and said the unit had added more than 70 new brokers this year.
The elder Dimon and his five-member broker team will join Bear Stearns Private Client Services, a unit acquired by his son in the March 2008 takeover of the failed investment bank. Ted Dimon will report to Michael Lee, who heads the unit’s New York office…..
U.S., U.K. Split Over Bank-Tax Proposal at G-20 – Wall Street Journal
U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner clashed over potential taxes on bank transactions at a weekend meeting here of finance policy makers from the Group of 20 leading economies.
At the gathering, G-20 finance ministers and central-bank chiefs discussed the fragility of the global economic recovery, agreed that stimulative efforts should continue and approved a timetable for agreeing on policies to help rebalance the global economy…..
JPMorgan to Grow Indian Investment Banking Unit, Morparia Says – Bloomberg
JPMorgan Chase & Co., the second- largest U.S. bank by deposits, plans to grow its investment banking unit in India as the government prepares to sell shares in companies and local firms consider overseas acquisitions.
“We hope to see a slew of disinvestment in public sector undertakings,” Kalpana Morparia, the country chief executive officer at the bank, said while attending the India Economic Summit in New Delhi. Indian companies reviving investments and looking at cross-border acquisitions also offer opportunities for its advisory services, she said…..
Comcast, GE Said to Set $30 Billion Valuation for NBC Universal – Bloomberg
Comcast Corp. and General Electric Co. agreed to value GE’s NBC Universal at about $30 billion as they discuss creating a joint venture to own the entertainment division, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Vivendi SA, which owns 20 percent of NBC Universal, isn’t yet part of the agreement, according to one of the people, who sought anonymity because negotiations aren’t public…..
Tags: Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan, Ken Lewis, Lloyd Blankfein
