financial crisis

Deutsche Bank's Push to Be a Banking Giant Is Dead

The Frankfurt-based bank began cutting 18K jobs on Monday

(Newser) - Germany's Deutsche Bank on Monday began cutting 18,000 jobs, marking the end of a long, failed attempt to compete with the planet's investment banking giants. The bank plan unveiled Sunday aims to take Deutsche Bank "back to our roots" by refocusing on traditional strengths like serving... More »

10 Years After Lehman, 4.8M Fewer Babies

An Awful Anniversary Arrives on Wall Street

It's been 10 years since the collapse of Lehman and the start of the financial crisis

(Newser) - Saturday marks 10 years since the largest bankruptcy in American history, or what CNN calls "the most terrifying moment for business and the US economy since the Great Depression." It might feel like ancient history given today's surging economy. But the scars of Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy filing... More »

Goldman Sachs Will Pay $5B Over Sketchy Mortgages

Time to pay the piper for the crash

(Newser) - The Justice Department announced a $5 billion settlement with Goldman Sachs over the sale of mortgage-backed securities leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, reports the AP . The deal announced Monday resolves state and federal probes into the sale of shoddy mortgages before the housing bubble and economic meltdown; Reuters... More »

Bernanke: Wall Street Execs Deserved Jail for Crisis

'It would have been my preference to have more investigations of individual actions'

(Newser) - Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says some Wall Street executives should have gone to jail for their roles in the financial crisis that gripped the country in 2008 and triggered the Great Recession. Billions of dollars in fines have been levied against major banks and brokerage firms in the... More »

Greek Couple Left Penniless in NYC on Honeymoon

Their Greek-issued debit, credit cards were declined due to country's debt crisis

(Newser) - Newlyweds Valasia Limnioti and Konstantinos Patronis' long-planned "dream trip" to the US ended in New York City, where their three-week honeymoon quickly turned into a nightmare: Their Greek-issued credit and debit cards were suddenly declined and they were left penniless. The couple's US adventure started after their June... More »

Judge Sums Up Banks' 2008 Behavior in 8 Words

'The magnitude of falsity, conservatively measured, is enormous'

(Newser) - If you had to name two banks guilty of selling lousy mortgage packages during the financial meltdown of 2008, it's doubtful you'd tick off the names Nomura Holdings of Japan and the Royal Bank of Scotland. But as Reuters reports, a federal judge yesterday declared that both lied... More »

BofA, Feds Near Biggest Settlement in US History

Justice Dept. deal would cost bank $16B-$17B for foreclosure mess

(Newser) - Bank of America is headed toward the biggest settlement to arise from the 2008 financial crash, a deal with the Justice Department reportedly worth $16 billion to $17 billion over its role in the sale of mortgage-backed securities, a source directly familiar with the matter tells the AP . The tentative... More »

Study: Most US Teens Can't Read Their Own Pay Stubs

Survey says American teens aren't great at complex or basic financial tasks

(Newser) - There’s nothing wrong with encouraging our nation’s teens to get jobs. But it turns out we’d better make sure we also teach them how to decipher their pay stubs and figure out how much money they lose to Uncle Sam—because most American teens appear to be... More »

Iceland Jails Bank Bosses

Execs inflated share price before financial collapse

(Newser) - Iceland has done something highly unusual with some of the bank chiefs blamed for the country's 2008 financial collapse: put them on trial and sent them to prison. Four former Kaupthing Bank bosses have been sentenced to between three and five years for market abuses relating to a deal... More »

JPMorgan Agrees to Record Financial Crisis Penalty

Company officially strikes $13B settlement

(Newser) - Quick, somebody #AskJPM how it feels to pay the largest civil settlement in history . JPMorgan Chase & Co. has reached a record $13 billion deal with federal and state authorities, resolving claims over the bank's sales of mortgage-backed securities that collapsed during the US housing crisis. It is the... More »

US Default Would 'Blow Lehman Out of the Water'

US has 23 times the debt

(Newser) - If you think we saw a global financial disaster with the collapse of Lehman five years ago, just wait and see what happens if the US government defaults on its debt, warn financial experts. Lehman was $517 billion in debt—the US owes $12 trillion. The unprecedented event would cripple... More »

Why Lehman Brothers Wasn't Prosecuted

The SEC's special division wasn't in favor

(Newser) - When SEC chief Mary Schapiro heard that her eight-member Lehman Brothers team had decided not to file charges for the bank's role in the financial crisis, she held a tense, private meeting with New York branch chief George Canellos. "I don't get it. Why is there no... More »

S&P Says Lawsuit Is Feds' Revenge for Downgrade

Justice Department calls claim 'preposterous'

(Newser) - Standard & Poor's is claiming that the Justice Department's massive lawsuit against it is simply "retaliation" for the rating agency's 2011 decision to downgrade the US credit rating . In a court filing yesterday, S&P argued that the downgrade was "free speech" and that hence... More »

SEC: Giving Up on Financial Crisis Prosecutions?

Commission passes on prosecuting major hedge fund

(Newser) - You might want to stop holding your breath waiting for the SEC to bring the hammer down on more financial crisis ne'er do wells, because the commission appears to be winding down crisis-related investigations. That's what the Wall Street Journal has concluded after getting word from sources that... More »

Cocaine the True Cause of Financial Crisis: Claim

Ex-UK drugs adviser David Nutt claims it made bankers 'overconfident'

(Newser) - Forget all those complicated economic explanations. The real reason for the financial crisis was simple: Bankers were doing too much coke, says a professor and former UK government drugs adviser. The drug made bankers "overconfident," prompting them to take "more risks," says David Nutt. Cocaine fueled... More »

Banks' Bad Behavior Costing Them Big: $100B

Fallout from Libor scandal could push legal tab even higher

(Newser) - Big banks are paying dearly for their recent bad behavior: to the tune of $100 billion and counting, reports the Wall Street Journal . The top four US banks alone have paid $61.3 billion in financial crisis- and mortgage-related settlements over the past three years, and analysts don't expect... More »

As Deadline Looms, Cyprus Prez Threatens to Quit

Fraught negotiations under way in Brussels with European finance ministers

(Newser) - Things are getting testy in Brussels, where Europe's financial powers that be are hunkered down in furious negotiations to determine Cyprus' fate ahead of tomorrow's deadline to finalize a $10 billion bailout. Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades has threatened to quit, reports Reuters , in a fraught meeting with Eurogroup... More »

Cyprus OKs Bailout Fund, Still $4B Short

Parliament passes last-minute measures

(Newser) - Facing a Monday deadline, lawmakers in Cyprus approved two crisis maneuvers to quell its banking crisis and renew confidence across the eurozone, the BBC reports. The moves: passing a "national solidarity fund," and approving capital controls to protect the island's banks from a catastrophic run. This should... More »

JPMorgan Covered Up Bad Loans, Emails Show

Lawsuit alleges that firms smoothed over analysis to boost profit

(Newser) - JPMorgan Chase papered over or ignored analysis showing that the loans it was pumping into the financial system were "defective," according to emails and other documents filed as part of a lawsuit against the company. In September 2006, an outside assessment found that "nearly half the sample... More »

Why Aren't We Prosecuting Singing S&P Fraudsters?

William Greider wonders if this is Obama's Watergate

(Newser) - The Justice Department's lawsuit against Standard and Poor's looks pretty damning. According to the suit, S&P knew its ratings on mortgage bonds were too loose, proposed upgrading them in 2004—and then decided not to because it would hurt the bottom line, Fortune explains. The suit makes... More »