investment banks

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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....

Wall St. Ads Must Stop Lying
 Wall St. Ads Must Stop Lying 
OPINION

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...

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...

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...

Denial Exacerbated Meltdown
 Denial Exacerbated Meltdown 
ANALYSIS

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...

Goldman Profit Drops 70%, Still Beats Estimates
 Goldman Profit Drops 70%, 
 Still Beats Estimates
EARNINGS REPORTS

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...

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,...

10 Banks Form $70B Fund to Stave Off Crash

Paulson brokers twin public-private liquidity measures

(Newser) - Ten of the world's largest banks have formed a massive liquidity fund to mitigate the effects of the Lehman Brothers meltdown, reports the Financial Times. All the investment banks will be able to borrow up to a third of the $70 billion fund in order to reduce volatility and stay...

Tough Times Ground Hedge Fund High-Fliers

Specialized investment industry dragged back to earth by shaky market

(Newser) - The recent market turmoil has taken a good deal of the shine off of hedge funds, as managers are unable to reproduce their heretofore exemplary results in poor market conditions, the New York Times reports. The average hedge fund lost 4% this year, the worst overall results in the industry’...

Lehman to Sell Off Assets; Faces Record $3.9B Loss

Company to dump commerical real estate holdings, slash dividens

(Newser) - Facing a record third-quarter loss of $3.9 billion, beleaguered investment bank Lehman Brothers is planning a fire sale of assets to help shore up its sagging capital base, reports the Wall Street Journal. The company said it would spin off its commercial real estate holdings, and auction of a...

South Korean Banks Offer $5.3B for Stake in Lehman

Newspaper says Korea Development Bank plans a consortium to pay for the deal

(Newser) - Korea Development Bank—which in August backed out of negotiations to acquire struggling Lehman Brothers—is back with bid for a 25% stake in the capital-starved bank for as much as $5.3 billion, reports the AP. The state-owned lender says it will form a consortium of South Korean banks...

Korean Bank Warned Off Lehman Bros. Buy

Firm may be too big a risk: official

(Newser) - The Korea Development Bank was warned today of rushing into a bid for Lehman Brothers by South Korea’s top banking official, the Financial Times reports. A Lehman investment may constitute too much risk for a state-owned bank, Jun Kwang-woo warned after last week’s news that, though KDB’s...

Secret Lehman Sale Talks Fail
Secret Lehman Sale Talks Fail

Secret Lehman Sale Talks Fail

South Korean, Chinese investors balk at hefty $5B price for half of troubled bank

(Newser) - Secret talks earlier this month to sell up to half of struggling US investment bank Lehman Brothers to South Korean or Chinese buyers fell apart after last-minutes squabbles over details, the Financial Times reports. The bank, which is expected to announce up to $4 billion in writedowns next month, was...

Lehman Shops Key Unit in Quest for Cash

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,...

Banker Predicted Georgian Invasion 2 Days Early

(Newser) - An investment banker in Kiev predicted the Georgian conflict two days before it occurred, Reuters reports. "So whaddaya think?,” Geoff Smith wrote on Aug. 5 to a fellow strategist at Renaissance Capital. “I say Saakashvili is going to 'restore the territorial integrity of Georgia' five minutes before...

Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan on Auction-Rate Probe Hot Seat

List of banks buying back bonds gets longer

(Newser) - As New York AG Andrew Cuomo's office continues applying heat, banks are scrambling to react to the auction-rate securities crisis, the Wall Street Journal reports. Morgan Stanley said yesterday it will buy back about $4.5 billion of the illiquid securities—but a Cuomo spokesman called the move “too...

UBS Agrees to $19.4B Auction-Rate Bond Buy-Back

(Newser) - UBS, pressured by state and federal authorities, has agreed to buy back $19.4 billion in risky auction-rate securities that were widely sold as cash-like and safe, the Boston Globe reports. The market for the securities, which are a type of bond sold by non-profits, art institutions and local governments,...

Paramount Loses $450M Funding Deal

The failure is part of a larger trend as liquidity dries up

(Newser) - A $450-million deal with Deutsche Bank that would have financed up to 30 films for Paramount is off the table, the Financial Times  reports. Perhaps an unlikely casualty of the credit crunch, Paramount walked after a lack of enthusiasm in the market led to terms that were unattractive, persons familiar...

Baffled Execs Say Rumor Killed Stearns
 Baffled Execs Say
 Rumor Killed
 Stearns 
glossies

Baffled Execs Say Rumor Killed Stearns

They claim hedge funds, Goldman Sachs invented bad news for profit

(Newser) - Bear Stearns' collapse and shotgun marriage to JP Morgan were sparked by little more than a rumor, Vanity Fair reports. True, the investment bank had stumbled—a $1.6 billion bailout of troubled funds hurt its image—but whispers of liquidity problems were false: Bear had $18 billion in cash...

Battered Citigroup Plans Major Layoffs

Firm will cut 10% of its investment-banking group

(Newser) - After being in the red for two quarters, Citigroup will this week hand out pink slips in its investment-banking division, looking to sack 10% of the group’s 65,000 employees. The move, which would eliminate entire trading desks worldwide, is unusually severe, the Wall Street Journal says. CEO Vikram...

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