LONDON — HSBC, Europe’s biggest bank by market value, has set aside an additional $1.15 billion to cover potential US fines for failing to stop money-laundering in its Mexican unit and to compensate UK customers for improperly selling payment protection insurance....
HSBC said it is also likely to face criminal charges in the money-laundering case....
I'll believe it when I see it.
This year, HSBC paid a $28 million fine to Mexican authorities for noncompliance with money-laundering controls.
The money-laundering issue stemmed from HSBC’s acquisition of the Mexican company Grupo Financiero Bital in 2002.
Related:
Citigroup Comes Clean Over Mexican Oil Fraud
Citigroup Caused Mexican Oil $lick
Maybe they killed the monarchs.
A US Senate investigative committee reported that in 2007 and 2008, HSBC Mexico sent to the United States about $7 billion in cash. The committee report said that amount indicated ‘‘illegal drug proceeds.’’
HSBC Mexico acknowledged it failed to report 39 suspicious transactions and had been late in reporting 1,729 others.
Despite the bank’s legal problems, chief executive Stuart Gulliver was upbeat about the company’s performance, with underlying earnings — the bank’s own measure of performance — of $5 billion.
That was $2.8 billion higher than last year....
The provisions were announced Monday along with a third-quarter net profit [of] $2.5 billion....
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"Three Atlanta-area counties have filed a lawsuit asserting that British bank HSBC cost them hundreds of millions of dollars in extra expenses and damage to their tax bases by aggressively signing minorities to housing loans that were likely to fail. The Georgia counties’ failure or success with the relatively novel strategy could help determine whether other local governments try to hold big banks accountable for losses in tax revenue based on what they say are discriminatory or predatory lending practices. Similar lawsuits resulted in settlements this year worth millions of dollars for communities in Maryland and Tennessee."
At least someone is trying to hold the bastards accountable.
"HSBC to settle laundering case for $1.9b" by Ben Protess and Jessica Silver-Greenberg | New York Times, December 11, 2012
NEW YORK — State and federal authorities decided against indicting HSBC in a money laundering case over concerns that criminal charges could jeopardize one of the world’s largest banks and ultimately destabilize the global financial system.
So much for criminal charges.
Instead, authorities are expected to disclose Tuesday a record $1.9 billion settlement with the British bank, according to law enforcement officials briefed on the matter. The bank faces accusations that it transferred billions of dollars for nations like Iran and enabled Mexican drug cartels to move money illegally through its American subsidiaries.
Was that the cartel that was protected by US intelligence agencies?
While the settlement is a major victory for the government, the case also raises questions about whether certain financial institutions, having grown so large and so interconnected, are too big to indict.
Behind the scenes, authorities debated for months the advantages and perils of a criminal indictment against HSBC.
Some prosecutors at the Justice Department’s criminal division and the Manhattan district attorney’s office wanted the bank to plead guilty to violations of the federal Bank Secrecy Act, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Despite the Justice Department’s proposed compromise, Treasury Department officials and bank regulators at the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency warned against the aggressive stance, according to the officials briefed on the matter. When approached by the Justice Department for their thoughts, the regulators cautioned about the impact on the broader economy.
Why would you want to upset a $y$tem that enriches the 1% beyond belief?
After months of discussions, prosecutors decided against a criminal indictment, but only after securing record penalties and wide-ranging sanctions.
The HSBC deal requires the bank to forfeit more than $1.2 billion and pay about $650 million in fines, according to the officials briefed on the matter.
What the web version cut from my print copy:
"The inquiry — led by the Justice Department, the Treasury and the Manhattan prosecutors — has ensnared six foreign banks in recent years, including Credit Suisse and Barclays. In June, ING Bank reached a $619 million settlement to resolve claims that it had transferred billions of dollars in the United States for countries like Cuba and Iran that are under United States sanctions.
On Monday, federal and state authorities also won a $327 million settlement from Standard Chartered, a British bank. The bank, which in September agreed to a larger settlement with New York’s top banking regulator, admitted processing thousands of transactions for Iranian and Sudanese clients through its American subsidiaries.
HSBC’s actions stand out among the foreign banks caught up in the investigation, according to several law enforcement officials with knowledge of the inquiry. Unlike those of institutions that have previously settled, HSBC’s activities are said to have gone beyond claims that the bank flouted United States sanctions to transfer money on behalf of rogue nations.
HSBC was thrust into the spotlight in July after a Congressional committee outlined how the bank, between 2001 and 2010, “exposed the U.S. financial system to money laundering and terrorist financing risks.”
You really don't need to know that.
--more--"
"Decision not to prosecute HSBC is assailed; $1.9b deal for laundering cash called inadequate" by Christina Rexrodeand Larry Neumeister | Associated Press, December 19, 2012
NEW YORK — When the Justice Department last week announced its record $1.9 billion settlement with the British bank HSBC, prosecutors called it a powerful blow to a dysfunctional institution accused of laundering money for Mexico’s murderous drug cartels, Libya, and Iran.
But to some former federal prosecutors, it was only the latest case of the government’s stopping short of bringing criminal money laundering charges against a big bank or its executives, at least in part on the rationale that could cause such banks to fail.
And HSBC can cover the the record charge with three months profit and some left over.
They say it sounds a lot like the ‘‘too big to fail’’ meme that kept big but sickly banks alive on the support of taxpayer-funded bailouts. In these cases, they call it ‘‘too big to jail.’’
‘‘Shame on the Department of Justice. Shame on them,’’ said Jimmy Gurulé, a former prosecutor who teaches law at the University of Notre Dame.
‘‘These are actions that facilitated major international drug cartels to continue their operations,’’ he said. ‘‘Now, if that doesn’t justify criminal prosecution, I can’t imagine a case that would.’’
An Oregon Democrat, Senator Jeff Merkley, wrote to US Attorney General Eric Holder after the HSBC settlement, saying the government ‘‘appears to have firmly set the precedent that no bank, bank employee, or bank executive can be prosecuted even for serious criminal actions if that bank is a large, systemically important financial institution.’’
Yup.
"Attorney General Eric Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the nation’s banks had become too big to jail. “The size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them,” Holder said at a hearing Wednesday. “If we do prosecute — if we do bring a criminal charges — it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy.”
So CRIME DOES PAY after all, and it is the GOVERNMENT that is the ENABLER!
Neil Barofsky, former inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program and a former federal prosecutor, warned big banks could interpret the Justice Department’s leniency as ‘‘a license to steal.’’
They have had that for a long time.
Since 2009, several European banks have paid heavy settlements related to allegations they moved money for people or companies on the US sanctions list: Credit Suisse, $536 million; Barclays, $298 million; Lloyds, $350 million; ING, $619 million; and Royal Bank of Scotland, $500 million.
While those cases involved deals with such countries as Iran, Libya, Cuba, and Sudan, the HSBC case was notable for the government’s allegation that it also helped launder $881 million in drug-trafficking proceeds for Mexican drug cartels.
Prosecutors say they could not prove HSBC executives conspired to aid drug organizations or rogue nations. Breakdowns in security controls at the company occurred gradually, over decades, with a motive of increasing profits rather than committing crimes, they said.
But they committed crimes to increase profits.
Why is the ma$$ media acting so apologetic about.... oh, right.
Prosecutors also expressed fear of ‘‘collateral consequences’’ — that going further could have sunk a company that employs tens of thousands of people and is tied to the economies of the roughly 80 countries where it does business.
They don't care about people when they bomb.
In 2002, the huge accounting firm Arthur Andersen was convicted of destroying Enron-related documents before the energy giant’s collapse. It was forced to surrender its accounting license. Only after 85,000 people lost their jobs did the court case ultimately play out, with the Supreme Court overturning the conviction too late to save the business.
‘‘From a policy standpoint, it’s a pretty compelling argument,’’ said Kevin O’Brien, a former prosecutor. ‘‘Employees lose their jobs, towns where these businesses are located are negatively affected, stockholders which include a lot of moms and pops lose their savings.”
Then THIS ECONOMIC $Y$TEM of PRIVATE CENTRAL BANKING needs to GO!
Bill Black, a former financial regulator, scoffed at such a notion. ‘‘Seriously, you want to keep felons in charge of a bank for bank stability?’’ he said.
To critics of the government’s approach, the HSBC case is a replay of the years immediately after the 2008 financial crisis, when people most responsible for it were not really punished. No high-profile bankers went to jail, nor has there been any large-scale effort to recover the giant bonuses awarded to executives of failed or nearly failed banks.
HSBC has rescinded deferred compensation bonuses and will partially defer bonus compensation for senior executives during the next five years.
Oh, that's enough of a punishment.
‘‘The guy who filed a false tax return, he’s probably doing five years in prison,’’ Gurulé said. ‘‘And these guys — transactions with Iran, threatening to jeopardize US national security — they don’t even get prosecuted.”
And don't think we aren't angry as hell about it.
"The government's charges against HSBC sketch a picture of a bank that systemically and purposefully skirted the law. Court documents showed that the bank let over $200 trillion between 2006 and 2009 slip through relatively unmonitored, including more than $670 billion in wire transfers from HSBC Mexico, making it a favorite of drug cartels."
Who decide to cut that for the web version, and if that can't be prosecuted.... ?
--more--"
"Bank to pay $249m in foreclosure agreement" Associated Press January 19, 2013
WASHINGTON — British bank HSBC will pay $249 million to settle federal complaints that its US division wrongfully foreclosed on homeowners who should have been allowed to stay in their homes.
Does that get you the house back with damages for pain and suffering?
The agreement with the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is similar to deals with 12 other banks that ended a review of loan files required under a 2011 federal action. Combined, the 13 banks will pay $9.3 billion.
The settlements could compensate Americans whose homes were seized because of abuses such as ‘‘robo-signing,’’ when banks automatically signed off on foreclosures without properly reviewing documents. The agreement will also help eliminate huge potential liabilities for the banks.
This "deal" won't for you! It was for THEM!
Consumer advocates say regulators settled for too low a price by letting banks avoid full responsibility for foreclosures that victimized families....
That is our $y$tem, what of it?
The structure of the deal is nearly identical to the others revealed this month with Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, MetLife Bank, PNC Financial Services, Sovereign, SunTrust, U.S. Bank, Aurora, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs....
--more--"
At least they are still making billions in profit per quarter.
"Profit at HSBC falls 17 percent; Bank was fined in laundering case" by Julia Werdigier | New York Times, March 05, 2013
LONDON — HSBC, Britain’s biggest bank, said Monday that its net profit fell 17 percent last year because of a record fine to settle money laundering charges and changes related to the value of its debt.
Profit fell in 2012 to $13.5 billion from $16.2 billion a year earlier, failing to meet analysts’ expectations.
Then they covered that $1.9 billion record settlement easy, huh?
The bank also missed its own target of return on equity of 12 to 15 percent, recording only 8.4 percent on the measure last year.
Shares of HSBC fell 2.5 percent in London on Monday.
Despite the drop in earnings, HSBC disclosed Monday that 204 employees were each paid more than 1 million pounds, or about $1.5 million, last year, compared with 192 who got more than 1 million pounds a year earlier. The bank cut its bonus pool to $3.7 billion in 2012 from $4.2 billion across the entire company but slightly increased the amount it set aside to pay its investment banking staff.
But everybody got one.
Chief executive Stuart T. Gulliver earned a total of $7.4 million last year, including benefits, pension, and an annual bonus of $1.95 million, compared with $8 million a year earlier.
Douglas J. Flint, HSBC’s chairman, said in a statement that last year was ‘‘a difficult one for all at HSBC as we addressed the restructuring of the firm against a lower-growth economic backdrop and with legacy issues and regulatory challenges imposing a further set of imperatives.’’
Gulliver said he expected the market environment to remain difficult, but that HSBC would benefit from growth of the economies in China and the United States even if European markets continued to struggle.
But they did learn and change their ways, right?
To fulfill his pledge to increase profitability, Gulliver took the bank out of some markets, sold business divisions, and eliminated jobs. HSBC has closed or sold 46 businesses and investments since 2011, including four this year. The bank sold its stake in Ping An Insurance of China for $9.4 billion and sold its credit card unit in the United States to Capital One Financial for $2.6 billion. HSBC also sold its unit in Panama to Bancolombia for $2.1 billion last month.
In December, HSBC agreed to a record $1.92 billion fine to settle charges with US authorities that the bank breached rules against money laundering, including that it handled money transfers worth billions of dollars for countries under US sanctions.
The bank has also had to set aside money to pay clients who were improperly sold some financial products.
‘‘The level of complaints received was higher in volume and over a more sustained period than previously assumed,’’ the bank said in its earnings report. HSBC had to set aside more than $2 billion to compensate customers, which prompted its British operations to report a loss for last year.
HSBC, based in London, generates more than half of its profit in Asia. Growth in China has helped the bank compensate for shrinking or slower-growing income in Europe since the beginning of the financial crisis. Europe was the only region where HSBC’s earnings declined last year.
The bank said it had made solid progress on gradually reducing the size of its consumer lending and mortgage portfolio in the United States. HSBC’s fastest-growing business last year was its retail banking and wealth management operation.
It is a rich man's world.
HSBC added that it planned to increase the first three interim dividends this year by 11 percent.
--more--"
Also see:
"After two years of far-reaching cost cuts and asset sales, HSBC said Wednesday that it planned to find an additional $2 billion to $3 billion in savings by 2016 that would include the elimination of as many as 14,000 jobs. In a meeting with investors, the management team of HSBC said it aimed to increase dividends and was considering buying back stock. That would be a first among Europe’s largest financial institutions, which until now have mainly increased capital reserves to comply with stricter regulations. HSBC acknowledged that increasing revenue in the current economic environment was a challenge."
The greed is sickening.
Related: HSBC to appeal $2.46 billion judgment
They have ways of making you do stuff, too:
"Embassies hard hit as HSBC dumps clients" by Raphael Satter | Associated Press August 05, 2013
LONDON — HSBC bank has told dozens of foreign missions in London that it will close their bank accounts, an official said Sunday, news that has sent diplomats across the capital scrambling to find a new place to put their money.
Bernard Silver, an former honorary consul who serves as president of the Consular Corps of London, declined to name any specific missions, but the Mail on Sunday newspaper said that the Papal Nunciature — the Vatican’s mission to London — was affected, as was the Papua New Guinea High Commission, and the honorary consul from Benin.
Attempts to reach the Vatican’s mission, Benin’s honorary consul, and Papua New Guinea’s high commissioner were not immediately successful, but the newspaper cited an official at the latter as expressing shock at the move.
‘‘We’ve been banking with HSBC for 22 years,’’ John Belavu was quoted as saying. ‘‘For them to throw us off in this way was a bombshell.’’
HSBC spokesman Will McSheehy said Sunday that the move was part of a wider reassessment of its business started by chief executive Stuart Gulliver in 2011. As of May, the bank’s retrenchment strategy has seen 52 peripheral or underperforming units close and a loss of about 40,000 staff.
McSheehy said the changes had translated into a ‘‘significantly diminished appetite for the embassy business,’’ although he declined to reveal how many UK missions had their accounts pulled.
Foreign missions traditionally deal in large amounts of cash, something which may have raised uncomfortable questions at a bank that has been buffeted by money laundering scandals. In 2012, HSBC was slapped with a record fine after US officials revealed that its bankers had handled assets of Iran, Libya, and Mexico’s murderous drug cartels. HSBC is still struggling to clear its name, including one case involving a former employee who claims to have evidence showing ‘‘scandalous’’ levels of tax evasion and money-laundering at the company....
Poor HSBC.
--more--"
Also see:
"After two years of far-reaching cost cuts and asset sales, HSBC said Wednesday that it planned to find an additional $2 billion to $3 billion in savings by 2016 that would include the elimination of as many as 14,000 jobs. In a meeting with investors, the management team of HSBC said it aimed to increase dividends and was considering buying back stock. That would be a first among Europe’s largest financial institutions, which until now have mainly increased capital reserves to comply with stricter regulations. HSBC acknowledged that increasing revenue in the current economic environment was a challenge."
The greed is sickening.
Related: HSBC to appeal $2.46 billion judgment
They have ways of making you do stuff, too:
"Embassies hard hit as HSBC dumps clients" by Raphael Satter | Associated Press August 05, 2013
LONDON — HSBC bank has told dozens of foreign missions in London that it will close their bank accounts, an official said Sunday, news that has sent diplomats across the capital scrambling to find a new place to put their money.
Bernard Silver, an former honorary consul who serves as president of the Consular Corps of London, declined to name any specific missions, but the Mail on Sunday newspaper said that the Papal Nunciature — the Vatican’s mission to London — was affected, as was the Papua New Guinea High Commission, and the honorary consul from Benin.
Attempts to reach the Vatican’s mission, Benin’s honorary consul, and Papua New Guinea’s high commissioner were not immediately successful, but the newspaper cited an official at the latter as expressing shock at the move.
‘‘We’ve been banking with HSBC for 22 years,’’ John Belavu was quoted as saying. ‘‘For them to throw us off in this way was a bombshell.’’
HSBC spokesman Will McSheehy said Sunday that the move was part of a wider reassessment of its business started by chief executive Stuart Gulliver in 2011. As of May, the bank’s retrenchment strategy has seen 52 peripheral or underperforming units close and a loss of about 40,000 staff.
McSheehy said the changes had translated into a ‘‘significantly diminished appetite for the embassy business,’’ although he declined to reveal how many UK missions had their accounts pulled.
Foreign missions traditionally deal in large amounts of cash, something which may have raised uncomfortable questions at a bank that has been buffeted by money laundering scandals. In 2012, HSBC was slapped with a record fine after US officials revealed that its bankers had handled assets of Iran, Libya, and Mexico’s murderous drug cartels. HSBC is still struggling to clear its name, including one case involving a former employee who claims to have evidence showing ‘‘scandalous’’ levels of tax evasion and money-laundering at the company....
Poor HSBC.
--more--"
"Standard Chartered to Pay $330 Million to Settle Iran Money Transfer Claims" by NEIL GOUGH
HONG KONG – The British bank Standard Chartered said on Thursday that it expected to pay $330 million to settle claims by United States government agencies that it had moved hundreds of billions of dollars on behalf of Iran.
Standard Chartered, which earns most of its profit in Asia, said it expected negotiations to conclude “very shortly” over charges that it violated American sanctions against Iran.
The estimated settlement payment would come in addition to a $340 million settlement the bank reached in August with the New York State Department of Financial Services, which charged Standard Chartered with scheming with Iranian companies and banks for nearly a decade to hide 60,000 transactions worth $250 billion from regulators.
Standard Chartered is the latest big bank to have been caught up in a wide-reaching American crackdown on suspect money transfers.
Last month, HSBC Holdings, another major British bank, set aside an additional $800 million to cover potential fines stemming from a money laundering investigation, bringing its total provisions for the case to $1.5 billion. HSBC is still negotiating a settlement with the American authorities, but it is expected to pay the largest fine on record for money laundering and related actions, and could potentially face criminal charges in the matter.
Before announcing the August settlement, Standard Chartered had disclosed that it was reviewing transactions it handled on behalf of Iranian companies and individuals from around 2001 to 2007, and was discussing potential sanctions violations with agencies including the Justice Department, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Manhattan district attorney, in addition to the New York State Department of Financial Services.
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"US rate inquiry may turn to UK" by Kitty Donaldson and Lindsay Fortado | Bloomberg News, September 28, 2012
LONDON — Regulators from Tokyo to London to New York are probing how derivatives traders and bankers who submitted interest-rate data colluded to rig benchmarks, including the London Interbank Offered Rate. Royal Bank of Scotland Group, UBS, and Deutsche Bank are among lenders awaiting information about their fate....
Related: Deutsche Bank to pay $1.9b over mortgage securities
Related: Deutsche Bank to pay $1.9b over mortgage securities
Extradition is a concern for suspects in Britain after three British bankers who faced Enron Corp.-related fraud charges lost a three-year court battle and were sent to the United States in 2006 to face trial. The men, who worked for Royal Bank of Scotland Group’s Greenwich NatWest unit, had argued that as British citizens accused of defrauding a British bank, any prosecution against them should have been in England.
Also see: English Extraditions
Putting ISIS on Jordan
No such concern.
Also see: English Extraditions
Putting ISIS on Jordan
No such concern.
It was among cases that prompted British lawmakers to say a 2003 extradition treaty with the United States was unfair and urged Prime Minister David Cameron to renegotiate it.
‘‘The UK courts have basically turned over for extradition just about anyone the US seeks,’’ said Bradley Simon, a former federal prosecutor in Brooklyn.
Not everyone.
Simon represented British lawyer Jeffrey Tesler, who was extradited to the United States last year to face bribery charges. Tesler fought the extradition, saying because the case had strong links to the UK and British prosecutors were carrying out their own investigation, he should not be sent across the Atlantic....
--more--"
--more--"
Also see:
4th firm fined for rigging key rate
Lloyds pays $369m to settle claims it rigged key global interest rate
UBS Whistleblower Rewarded
"Royal Bank of Scotland PLC, Britain’s biggest government-owned lender, was fined $8.6 million for incorrectly reporting wholesale trades for six years."
Looks like lying to me.
Related:
Royal Bank of Scotland to sell stake in Citizens
Royal Bank of Scotland will pay $612 million in rate-rigging case
Royal Bank of Scotland sets aside $5b more for claims
Royal Bank of Scotland: $13.7 billion pre-tax loss
Royal Bank blasted for role in Libor
Royal Bank of Scotland screwed you, and yet the state-controlled bank recorded a first-half profit of $811 million.
UPDATE: Citizens Bank expands commercial lending
Let's try another bank:
"UK judge refuses Barclays’ request" Associated Press January 25, 2013
LONDON — A British court has rejected an attempt by Barclays to shield the names of more than 100 present and former employees of the bank allegedly involved in manipulating a key interest rate index or who for other reasons came to the attention of investigators.
Justice Julian Flaux ruled Thursday that granting anonymity would be an ‘‘affront to the principle of open justice.’’ He noted that many names, including former chief executive Bob Diamond, were already on the public record.
Barclays has admitted that employees, sometimes directed by senior executives, submitted false rates used for calculating the London interbank offered rate. Several global banks every day help compile the LIBOR, which is used to price trillions of dollars in global contracts. The bank has already been fined about $450 million by US and British agencies.
Flaux was ruling as part of a suit that more than a dozen firms have joined, contending that financial products Barclays sold them were affected by the manipulated LIBOR. Flaux described the suit as a test case. Barclays said the complaint is without merit.
The case is expected to go to trial late this year....
--more--"
Related:
Barclays will cut 3,700 jobs in reorganization
Barclays to get rid of 14,000 jobs this year
The bank is also streamlining geographically, closing branches in Portugal, Spain, Italy, and France, though it highlighted prospects in Africa, described as ‘‘an exciting, growing part of the world.’’
Not now.
Barclays defends bonuses amid layoffs
Barclays’ CEO again rejects a bonus
Barclays, Goldman, Merrill fined $1 million each
"Barclays said Sunday that its chief financial officer and its general counsel would resign, the latest departures after the British bank’s involvement in a series of scandals, including an investigation into the manipulation of global interest rates amid an investigation into the bank’s role in the manipulation of the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, which Barclays settled for $450 million in June."
"Royal Bank of Scotland PLC, Britain’s biggest government-owned lender, was fined $8.6 million for incorrectly reporting wholesale trades for six years."
Looks like lying to me.
Related:
Royal Bank of Scotland to sell stake in Citizens
Royal Bank of Scotland will pay $612 million in rate-rigging case
Royal Bank of Scotland sets aside $5b more for claims
Royal Bank of Scotland: $13.7 billion pre-tax loss
Royal Bank blasted for role in Libor
Royal Bank of Scotland screwed you, and yet the state-controlled bank recorded a first-half profit of $811 million.
UPDATE: Citizens Bank expands commercial lending
Let's try another bank:
"UK judge refuses Barclays’ request" Associated Press January 25, 2013
LONDON — A British court has rejected an attempt by Barclays to shield the names of more than 100 present and former employees of the bank allegedly involved in manipulating a key interest rate index or who for other reasons came to the attention of investigators.
Justice Julian Flaux ruled Thursday that granting anonymity would be an ‘‘affront to the principle of open justice.’’ He noted that many names, including former chief executive Bob Diamond, were already on the public record.
Barclays has admitted that employees, sometimes directed by senior executives, submitted false rates used for calculating the London interbank offered rate. Several global banks every day help compile the LIBOR, which is used to price trillions of dollars in global contracts. The bank has already been fined about $450 million by US and British agencies.
Flaux was ruling as part of a suit that more than a dozen firms have joined, contending that financial products Barclays sold them were affected by the manipulated LIBOR. Flaux described the suit as a test case. Barclays said the complaint is without merit.
The case is expected to go to trial late this year....
--more--"
Related:
Barclays will cut 3,700 jobs in reorganization
Barclays to get rid of 14,000 jobs this year
The bank is also streamlining geographically, closing branches in Portugal, Spain, Italy, and France, though it highlighted prospects in Africa, described as ‘‘an exciting, growing part of the world.’’
Not now.
Barclays defends bonuses amid layoffs
Barclays’ CEO again rejects a bonus
Barclays, Goldman, Merrill fined $1 million each
"Barclays said Sunday that its chief financial officer and its general counsel would resign, the latest departures after the British bank’s involvement in a series of scandals, including an investigation into the manipulation of global interest rates amid an investigation into the bank’s role in the manipulation of the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, which Barclays settled for $450 million in June."
Gotta turn to the Rothschild holding I guess.
"Canadian to head Bank of England; First foreigner to hold that post" by Julia Werdigier and Landon Thomas Jr. | New York Times, November 27, 2012
LONDON — In a surprising departure from convention, the British government selected Mark Carney, the head of the Canadian central bank, to succeed Mervyn King as the next governor of the Bank of England on Monday.
The appointment ended a months-long process in which some of Britain’s most prominent public officials vied for a post that will come with sharply enhanced powers.
The odds had appeared stacked in favor of the Bank of England’s deputy governor, Paul Tucker, getting the job. The decision to select a foreigner to lead Britain’s most storied financial institution came as a shock when George Osborne, the chancellor of the Exchequer, broke the news during a session of Parliament on Monday.
The appointment is arguably the most significant in the bank’s 318-year history in that Carney will not only be the first foreigner to lead the bank but will also take responsibility for the health of the British financial system. Besides doing the traditional job of setting interest rates, the central bank will directly regulate and oversee the country’s banks and other financial institutions. Until now, such regulation and oversight has been primarily the job of the Financial Services Authority, which will be scrapped.
Carney will assume the governor’s post in July, and the pressures facing him will be immense. Not only must he make decisions as to whether to continue the central bank’s aggressive money-printing program aimed at stimulating the economy, but he must also ensure that the institutions’ independence and reputation are not sullied by an ongoing investigation into commercial banks’ manipulation of key interest rates.
The central bank’s new heft represents a stark shift from the era of light touch regulation that held sway before the crisis, in which the Bank of England’s ability to intervene and issue warnings about financial excess were constrained.
The central bank will exercise its broader powers through a newly formed Financial Policy Committee, operating inside the central bank and presided over by the governor. It is hoped that the new powers will allow the bank to sniff out early warning signals, like excessive risk taking and borrowing by banks, and move to take action to ward off a crisis — something it was not able to do in 2007.
--more--"
"Canadian to head Bank of England; First foreigner to hold that post" by Julia Werdigier and Landon Thomas Jr. | New York Times, November 27, 2012
LONDON — In a surprising departure from convention, the British government selected Mark Carney, the head of the Canadian central bank, to succeed Mervyn King as the next governor of the Bank of England on Monday.
The appointment ended a months-long process in which some of Britain’s most prominent public officials vied for a post that will come with sharply enhanced powers.
The odds had appeared stacked in favor of the Bank of England’s deputy governor, Paul Tucker, getting the job. The decision to select a foreigner to lead Britain’s most storied financial institution came as a shock when George Osborne, the chancellor of the Exchequer, broke the news during a session of Parliament on Monday.
The appointment is arguably the most significant in the bank’s 318-year history in that Carney will not only be the first foreigner to lead the bank but will also take responsibility for the health of the British financial system. Besides doing the traditional job of setting interest rates, the central bank will directly regulate and oversee the country’s banks and other financial institutions. Until now, such regulation and oversight has been primarily the job of the Financial Services Authority, which will be scrapped.
Carney will assume the governor’s post in July, and the pressures facing him will be immense. Not only must he make decisions as to whether to continue the central bank’s aggressive money-printing program aimed at stimulating the economy, but he must also ensure that the institutions’ independence and reputation are not sullied by an ongoing investigation into commercial banks’ manipulation of key interest rates.
The central bank’s new heft represents a stark shift from the era of light touch regulation that held sway before the crisis, in which the Bank of England’s ability to intervene and issue warnings about financial excess were constrained.
The central bank will exercise its broader powers through a newly formed Financial Policy Committee, operating inside the central bank and presided over by the governor. It is hoped that the new powers will allow the bank to sniff out early warning signals, like excessive risk taking and borrowing by banks, and move to take action to ward off a crisis — something it was not able to do in 2007.
--more--"
Also see:
Bank of England reveals stiffer rules
Bank of England worker punished in currency case
Time to cash out a withdrawal.
NEXT DAY UPDATE: Banks reassess using the Libor
Because they will have to pay a fee!
