Article: THESE ARE THE TEN BIGGEST BANK FINES OF 2020

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THESE ARE THE TEN BIGGEST BANK FINES OF 2020

ValueWalk, 07 May 2021

Banking regulators around the globe were busy last year despite the Covid-19 pandemic. Like any other year, the regulators imposed heavy fines on banks and financial institutions for a range of indiscretions, including money laundering, tax evasion and market manipulation. It is estimated that total bank fines amounted to more than $14 billion in 2020, with the U.S. accounting for the majority of them with 12 bank fines. Anti-money laundering (AML) breaches were the most common violation last year. Detailed below are the ten biggest bank fines of 2020. Continue reading “Article: THESE ARE THE TEN BIGGEST BANK FINES OF 2020”

Article: BofA Hit Hardest as EU Fines Bond-Trading Trio $34 Million

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BofA Hit Hardest as EU Fines Bond-Trading Trio $34 Million

Aoife White, 28 April 2021

Bank of America Corp. Credit Suisse Group AG and Credit Agricole SA were fined about 28.5 million euros ($34 million) by European Union regulators for colluding on trading of U.S. supra-sovereign, sovereign and agency bonds.

Bank of America got the largest individual penalty of 12.6 million euros, while Credit Suisse was fined 11.9 million euros and Credit Agricole was ordered to pay more than 3.9 million euros. Deutsche Bank AG participated in the cartel but dodged a potential penalty of about 21.5 million euros because it was the first to inform the EU about the illegal behavior. Continue reading “Article: BofA Hit Hardest as EU Fines Bond-Trading Trio $34 Million”

Article: UBS Joins Morgan Stanley With Surprise $861 Million Archegos Hit

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UBS Joins Morgan Stanley With Surprise $861 Million Archegos Hit

Marion Halftermeyer, 27 April 2021

UBS Group AG disclosed an $861 million hit from the implosion of Archegos Capital Management and vowed to improve risk management, joining Morgan Stanley in blindsiding investors who’d been kept in the dark for weeks about the size of the losses.

The loss, mostly booked in the first quarter, overshadowed a better-than-expected profit, with strong performance in the key wealth management business. Chief Executive Officer Ralph Hamers said while the bank will require more transparency from clients to prevent such losses in the future, he defended the business with hedge funds as “strategic” and said he had no plans to follow rival Credit Suisse Group AG in cutting back lending.

“Clearly, we are very disappointed at this situation,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. “We are reviewing the different prime brokerage relationships, as well as the GFO — the family office relationships.” Continue reading “Article: UBS Joins Morgan Stanley With Surprise $861 Million Archegos Hit”

Article: End of Libor stirs anger on Wall Street

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End of Libor stirs anger on Wall Street

JOHN DIZARD , 24 April 2021

Ending the use of dollar Libor, the scandal-tinged benchmark bank funding rate, was always going to be problematic. Some Libor traders went to jail for collusion and self-enrichment. The Fed and its fellow regulators put together a public-private committee on Libor replacement big enough to swamp a ferry boat.

That hasn’t entirely worked. The use of Libor as a base rate for funding costs is bigger than ever — around $225tn of derivatives, consumer loans, corporate loans and cash investments. Nevertheless, the use of Libor is supposed to end, mostly, on December 31 for some Libor rates and by mid-2023 for those remaining.

The process of finding practical ways to replace it have led to increasingly audible shouting and blame trading between the major dealing banks and the Fed, along with the central bank’s entourage of agencies, academics, policy wonks and whisperers. Continue reading “Article: End of Libor stirs anger on Wall Street”

Article: Banks Raise $34 Billion to Comply with SEC Rule, Effective Today

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Banks Raise $34 Billion to Comply with SEC Rule, Effective Today

Tim Fries, 22 April 2021

Having the collateral to cover stock trading is important to oil the market cogs. With margin trading, it is critical, a lesson learned the hard way from “Bill” Hwang last month. From today, the SEC will decide which brokerages failed to cover their securities trading, and what punishments it will dish out.

What is SEC Rule 15c3-3?
Even free market absolutists understand that rules of the playing field have to be followed to maintain the ecosystem. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is the final arbiter in this arena. Although this regulatory agency too suffers from the “revolving door” syndrome, on paper, the SEC is in charge of ensuring market participants play fairly. Continue reading “Article: Banks Raise $34 Billion to Comply with SEC Rule, Effective Today”

Article: JPMorgan forced out trader who cooperated with fed probe: lawsuit

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JPMorgan forced out trader who cooperated with fed probe: lawsuit

Kathianne Boniello, 17 April 2021

JPMorgan Chase treated indicted employees better than an executive who cooperated with federal investigators, according to a lawsuit.

Commodities trader Donald Turnbull claims in court papers he was abruptly canned from the bank’s precious metals trading group as soon as JPMorgan execs discovered the extent of his cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice. Continue reading “Article: JPMorgan forced out trader who cooperated with fed probe: lawsuit”

Article: Bernard Madoff, criminal financier, 1938-2021

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Bernard Madoff, criminal financier, 1938-2021

Brooke Masters , 16 April 2021

When Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme collapsed in December 2008, $65bn vanished overnight, devastating tens of thousands of small investors, charities and religious groups who continue to struggle to this day.

The former chair of the Nasdaq stock market’s confession that his fabled investment company was “one big lie” came at the depths of the financial crisis and riveted global attention. Amid an alphabet soup of opaque financial products that had crashed the world economy, people could understand this crime.
Continue reading “Article: Bernard Madoff, criminal financier, 1938-2021”

Article: JPMorgan Traders Fired in Spoofing Probes Sue Bank in N.Y., U.K.

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JPMorgan Traders Fired in Spoofing Probes Sue Bank in N.Y., U.K.

Jonathan Browning, 14 April 2021

Ex-JPMorgan Chase & Co. traders who were fired in connection with recent U.S. Justice Department inquiries into market manipulation have a message for their former employers: give us our jobs back.

In separate lawsuits in London and New York, two of the bank’s former traders are saying they were unfairly dismissed and are asking to be reinstated. Both men had proximity to spoofing tactics that wound up being prosecuted by U.S. authorities but neither was charged. They both maintain they did not engage in the manipulative conduct themselves.

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Article: JPMORGAN EYEING BITCOIN’S CONTANGO, RELEASES BULLISH REPORT

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JPMORGAN EYEING BITCOIN’S CONTANGO, RELEASES BULLISH REPORT

DYLAN LECLAIR, 10 April 2021

In a report titled “Why Is The Bitcoin Futures Curve So Steep?” JPMorgan Chase analysts examined the growing futures and derivatives market surrounding bitcoin, provided insights as to why the contango is so steep and explored what the future holds for the monetary asset as it becomes increasingly financialized.

Here are some of the highlights from the report. Continue reading “Article: JPMORGAN EYEING BITCOIN’S CONTANGO, RELEASES BULLISH REPORT”

Article: Archegos Exposes SEC Blind Spots, Dithering on Market Oversight

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Archegos Exposes SEC Blind Spots, Dithering on Market Oversight

Robert Schmidt and Benjamin Bainx, 10 April 2021

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was supposed to be able to spot a whale like Bill Hwang by now. As the financial world knows, it didn’t. Will the agency be able to catch the next one?

The collapse of Hwang’s Archegos Capital Management represents one of the most spectacular failures of risk-management and oversight in recent memory. For the SEC, it caps a decade of foot-dragging on protections that were meant to avert, or at least minimize, just such a blowup. Continue reading “Article: Archegos Exposes SEC Blind Spots, Dithering on Market Oversight”

Article: Top Carbon-Credit-Seller Launches Internal Probe After Selling “Worthless” Offsets To JPMorgan, Disney

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Top Carbon-Credit-Seller Launches Internal Probe After Selling “Worthless” Offsets To JPMorgan, Disney

Joen Coronel, 09 April 2021

Back in December, Bloomberg published a sweeping expose that raised serious questions about the ESG investing craze sweeping the world. In the piece, Bloomberg detailed how the Nature Conservancy, the world’s biggest environmental group and a prominent seller of carbon offsets, had sold “worthless” credits to JPMorgan, Disney and BlackRock as the corporations sought to finance the protection of carbon-absorbing forest land to absolve them of their sins tied to fossil fuel usage. Continue reading “Article: Top Carbon-Credit-Seller Launches Internal Probe After Selling “Worthless” Offsets To JPMorgan, Disney”

Article: Hong Kong stock exchange to extend circuit breakers to futures products to temper wild gyrations in equities and derivatives

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HKEX incoming CEO Nicolas Aguzin

Hong Kong stock exchange to extend circuit breakers to futures products to temper wild gyrations in equities and derivatives

Yahoo Finance, 09 April 2021

The move will add to similar controls put in place since August 2016, first on extreme gyrations in equities and a year later on derivative products. They followed a series of events that provoked regulatory probes into market misconduct such as price manipulation and pump-and-dump scandals.

“The volatility control mechanism (VCM) has worked as intended without any negative feedback from the market,” said Tom Chan Pak-lam, chairman of Hong Kong Institute of Securities Dealers, the local brokerage industry body. “In many cases, sharp and sudden price movements were smoothed out as the cooling-off periods allowed participants to react while trading continued.”

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Article: Is Another Family Office Blowing Up: JPM Dumps 9MM Share Block Of ASO After Hours

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Is Another Family Office Blowing Up: JPM Dumps 9MM Share Block Of ASO After Hours

TYLER DURDEN, 07 April 2021

In the aftermath of the Archegos blow up, the biggest nightmare on Wall Street – where there is never just one cockroach – is that (many) more Archegos-style, highly levered “family office” blow ups are waiting just around the corner.

Well, in a transaction after the close that is sure to spark much heated controversy tonight and tomorrow morning, Bloomberg announced that JPMorgan was offering a 9 million block of Academy Sports and Outdoors (ASO) stock. Since this is virtually identical to what happened two Fridays ago when similar public BWICs by Goldman and other banks proceeded to unwind the Archegos portfolio, the immediate question on everyone’s lips is whether a second highly levered family office has blown up. Continue reading “Article: Is Another Family Office Blowing Up: JPM Dumps 9MM Share Block Of ASO After Hours”

Article: BCH Price Prediction: Bitcoin Cash risks a price decline towards $500 as selling spree looms

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BCH Price Prediction: Bitcoin Cash risks a price decline towards $500 as selling spree looms

Robert Githinji, 07 April 2021

Over the past few days, Bitcoin Cash has been recording significant price surges, appreciating by over 30 percent in value. Despite the impressive bull run, Bitcoin Cash recently experienced a price correction towards the $600 region. At present, multiple technical indicators are showing BCH could experience further price declines. Continue reading “Article: BCH Price Prediction: Bitcoin Cash risks a price decline towards $500 as selling spree looms”

Article: JPMorgan’s Dimon Admits “Something Has Gone Terribly Wrong” In America… And China Knows It

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JPMorgan’s Dimon Admits “Something Has Gone Terribly Wrong” In America… And China Knows It

TYLER DURDEN, 07 April 2021

As his bank tries to offload big blocks of Manhattan real estate, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon proclaimed in his latest annual letter to shareholders, published Wednesday morning, that the economic expansion in the US could run through 2023, which would justify lofty equity valuations which recently pushed the S&P 500 north of 4K.

And the CEO who once called for the US to raise taxes on the rich and adopt more explicitly socialist policies to expand access to higher education, housing and child care, praised the federal government’s response to the economic crisis caused by the COVID pandemic. Consumers who are now flush with savings will help drive an economic boomDimon wrote in his 34K-word missive.

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THE DOLLAR HAS NO INTRINSIC VALUE : DO YOUR ASSETS?