Snappy newsletters. Simple Facebook sharing. Spirited comments. Sweet features are waiting… GET THEM NOW!

Hot on Facebook
Uproar After NC State Agent 'Fixes' Girl's Lunch Preschooler has to eat chicken nuggets instead of mom's meal »

NEWS ABOUT: investment banks

UBS Shocks With Record $17B Loss

Swiss banking giant posts worst loss in nation's history

(Newser) - UBS today announced an annual loss of $17 billion—the biggest ever by a Swiss company—despite a government bailout and a surprise tax benefit in the fourth quarter. The loss was higher than expected, but the once-mighty corporation reiterated that it would not sell off its investment banking arm,... More »

Goldman Loses Top Spot in M&A Rankings

JP Morgan uses financing advantage to end 7-year reign

(Newser) - Ascendant JP Morgan Chase has knocked Goldman Sachs out of first place in the race for mergers and acquisitions, the Wall Street Journal reports. Dealogic, a merger data provider, says Goldman advised some 295 deals totaling $755.6 billion last year, as compared to JP Morgan’s 350 deals for... More »

Wall Street Execs Still Fly Private Jets

Costly travel rationalized as time saver

(Newser) - Six ailing Wall Street firms that eagerly took bailout funds still spend thousands to operate fleets of private jets that whisk their executives to company—and personal—events, AP reports. AIG, which scooped up $150 billion from the government, beats its peers with a seven-jet fleet. Fuel alone for a... More »

Spitzer: Banks Are Too Big, Let Them Fail

Instead, back smaller entities, ex-gov says in first Slate column

(Newser) - The government has doled out trillions in rescue funds, but “so far, we are simply rebuilding the same edifice that just collapsed,” writes newly-minted Slate columnist Eliot Spitzer. For years we’ve concentrated capital, creating gigantic “financial supermarkets” that attempted to provide every service for their customers.... More »

Thrift Helped Get Us Into This Mess

"Wealth effect" is playing out in reverse

(Newser) - Three factors are playing into the financial crisis, and it's time to recognize the culprit that accompanies the burst housing bubble and banking meltdown, Robert J. Samuelson writes in the Washington Post. The wealth effect—"the tendency of people to adjust their spending as their wealth changes"—... More »

Financial Industry May Shed 350K Jobs

So far, 170,000 positions have been cut worldwide

(Newser) - Job cuts in the financial services sector could hit 350,000 worldwide by the middle of 2009, double the number so far, Bloomberg reports. "This is the financial equivalent of World War II," says the CEO of a major headhunting firm. If he's right, by summer, the industry... More »

Citi to Lay Off 10,000, Raise Credit Card Rates

Banking behemoth will shed 10,000 as it grasps for positive cash flow

(Newser) - Citigroup, seeking profitability after suffering net losses of $20 billion over the past year, is laying off at least 10,000 employees worldwide and raising rates on some credit card holders, the Wall Street Journal reports. Officials were told to trim employee compensation budgets by 25%, allowing managers to minimize... More »

Better Than a Bailout: Boost FDIC Coverage to $1M

Higher deposit insurance would bring money in, help thaw credit markets

(Newser) - Congress should stop fighting over the Paulson bailout, writes BusinessWeek economist Michael Mandel, and approve an expansion of FDIC deposit insurance to $1 million. It should also triple deposit insurance reserves to $145 billion. It would solve the immediate problem, calming the hysteria in the market, and attract funds to... More »

Execs Were Paid $3B to Lay Credit Crisis Foundation

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... More »

We Don't Really Need a Bailout

With investment banks dead, the point of this is ... what, exactly?

(Newser) - Now that all the big investment firms are no more, why exactly do we need a bailout? Paulson’s plan involves buying assets that are illiquid, but not worthless. “But regular banks hold assets like that all the time,” writes James Galbraith in the Washington Post. “They’... More »

New Wall Street: Less Risk, Less Innovation, Lower Pay

Era of investment banks ends

(Newser) - When Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley ditched the investment banking model, it didn’t just mark the end of an era, it marked the end of Wall Street as we know it, the Wall Street Journal declares in an editorial today. And with investment banks gone, the US financial system... More »

Hedge Funds Poised to Profit as Banks Shun Risk

Private equity eyes trading territory ceded by changes at Goldman, Morgan Stanley

(Newser) - With the last two large US investment banks going commercial in an effort to stay afloat, private-equity and hedge funds are stepping into the void, the Wall Street Journal reports. Taking on roles previously filled by the likes of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, hedge funds like Citadel and private-equity... More »

As US Firms Stumble, Japanese Banks Step Up

Failing only a few years ago, Japanese institutions rescuing US system

(Newser) - Japan's big banks, themselves near collapse a few years ago, are reemerging as global powerhouses, Reuters reports, just in time to snap up stakes in foundering US banks.They've largely escaped Wall Street's credit meltdown by shying away from riskier investments since their own "near death," when they... More »

Fed Allows Goldman, Morgan to Become Full Banks

(Newser) - Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the nation's last two major independent investment banks, have gotten permission to become bank holding companies, the Federal Reserve said tonight. A fundamental rearrangement of Wall Street, the move will allow them to create commercial banks, which would bolster their resources, while inviting increased regulation.... More »

Wall St. Ads Must Stop Lying

Time for banks to level with customers

(Newser) - You may see some ironic ads by flicking on CNBC. Financial companies have spent decades advertising their stability and trustworthiness, but these days such claims seem ridiculous, writes Paul Farhi of the Washington Post. As recently as Monday, AIG was running ads with the slogan “The Strength to Be... More »

Treasury Taps $50B to Insure Money Market Funds

As investor confidence dims, a backing from the government

(Newser) - The US Treasury moved today to temporarily insure investors against losses on money-market funds, Bloomberg reports. As much as $50 billion from the government’s Exchange Stabilization Fund will be used to back for a year funds that pay to participate in the program. Money-market funds, in which investors normally... More »

Morgan Stanley Likely Shopping for a Merger

No. 2 investment bank looks to avoid Lehman's mistakes

(Newser) - Morgan Stanley is rumored to be considering whether to merge with a deposit-taking bank, reports CNBC, in the wake of Lehman's collapse after repeatedly shunning buyout offers. And while the company hasn’t yet found a partner, insiders say that its sliding stock price makes survival unlikely without a well-capitalized... More »

Denial Exacerbated Meltdown

Banks, like homeowners, refused to believe how bad things really are

(Newser) - The collapse of Lehman Brothers and the fire sale of Merrill Lynch are stunning developments, Joe Nocera writes in the New York Times, as is the fact Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are the only big investment banks standing. But the turmoil isn’t simply the result of complex trading... More »

Goldman Profit Drops 70%, Still Beats Estimates

Revenue cut by half, but firm helped by less mortgage exposure

(Newser) - Amid the financial industry's meltdown, survivor Goldman Sachs reported that third-quarter profit plunged by 70% —the sharpest decline in its history as a public company, but still enough to beat estimates of $1.71 per share. The bank dipped 7% in New York trading, Bloomberg reports, after reporting an... More »

Wall Street Rumbling Means Little on Main Street

Financial meltdown has small effect on 'real economy': Kaletsky

(Newser) - Fannie and Freddie have been nationalized, Lehman has collapsed, Merrill Lynch has been bought out—an economic disaster, right? Not really, Anatole Kaletsky writes in the Times of London: The US economy is actually showing signs of improvement. More than ever, "there is no contradiction between expecting a recovery,... More »

Stories 21 - 40 | << Prev   Next >>
NEWS FROM OUR PARTNERS
Other Sites We Like:   24/7 Wall St.   |   Betty Confidential   |   BuzzFeed   |   Cracked   |   Fark   |   Timelines   |   The Frisky   |   Geek Sugar   |   NewsOne