House Hits High Bonuses at Strapped Companies

Firms paid more than they made: Cuomo

(NEWSER) - The financial crisis and government bailouts did little to change Wall Street’s executive compensation habits, New York's attorney general says. All nine banks given assistance by TARP paid out bonuses in 2008—well before any paid back government loans, according to a survey ordered by Andrew Cuomo. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan Chase actually paid more in bonuses than the firms made for the year, the Wall Street Journal reports. More»

Wall Street chieftains were well rewarded for risks they took in 2003-07

(NEWSER) - More than $3 billion was paid to the chief executives of the five biggest financial firms on Wall Street in the run-up to the credit crisis, Bloomberg reports. While supervising bad mortgage-related credit bets that eventually brought the financial system to its knees, Merrill Lynch’s Stanley O’Neal took in $172 million in 2003-07, while Bear Stearns’ James Cayne took in $161 million. More»

(NEWSER) - Barclay's dropping out of a Lehman deal means that the Feds lost a game of chicken with the big banks holding Lehman mortgages, and now there will be a disorderly liquidation of Lehman assets, instead of the orderly liquidation that would have been possible with a real buyer, James Cramer writes on TheStreet.com. The question is how big a hit those owning Lehman mortgages will take. More»

The troubled Wall Street firm is taking offers for its strong fund management wing

(NEWSER) - Lehman Brothers is shopping a piece of its investment management unit, the Wall Street Journal reports, joining other large banks in shedding strong-performing businesses to offset mortgage meltdown losses. Lehman’s management business, which includes Neuberger Berman and hosts 27 mutual funds managing $22 billion in individual and institutional wealth, has been a rare bright spot for the company. More»

Swiss bank adds $19 billion in writedowns; chairman steps down

(NEWSER) - UBS announced a $12.1 billion first-quarter loss and another $19 billion in writedowns as fallout from the US subprime meltdown continued to haunt the Swiss banking giant, reports Bloomberg. Chairman Marcel Ospel, who oversaw the creation of the bank in 1998 will step down. UBS says it will ask shareholders to approve up to $15.1 billion in new funding. More»