A Better 2012 for BigLaw (With Big Asterisks)
The UK and EU made a significant breakthrough early this morning to “unlock” Brexit divorce negotiations. The still-rough agreement would see Britain repaying $53 billion and addressed in at least vague terms thorny issues...more
The U.S. Supreme Court resolved a federal circuit split in favor of banks and finance companies by holding that firms collecting debts purchased for their own account are not subject to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act...more
Coach is looking to appeal to a younger generation (hint, big sales running nearly all the time would help), and it’s decided that buying is the way to go, announcing yesterday that it’s snapping up Kate Spade for $2.4...more
It may lack some of the flourish of a BBG missive, but you can be sure that plenty of insiders are paying close attention to Mr. Buffet’s annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders....more
Blackstone is spinning off a new housing maintenance and rental venture in the form of Invitation Homes LP, which could see an IPO as early as January 2017. Invitation Homes is the culmination of a four-year, $10 billion...more
The Financial Stability Board—that Swiss-based grand collection of central bankers and regulators from the world’s biggest economies—has upped the systemic importance ranking for three of America’s biggest banks, including...more
Wyatt Earp died this week. Not the original Wyatt Earp who died in 1929 but the Wyatt Earp of my lifetime, who was actor Hugh O’Brian. O’Brien portrayed Earp in the long running television series Wyatt Earp which ran in the...more
The 2d Circuit’s nixed a bid by investment fund SRM Global Master Fud LP to revive its $200 million securities fraud suit against Bear Stearns and Deloitte over alleged lies about Bear’s pre-collapse financial health. The...more
On Tuesday, the SEC announced that Citigroup would pay $7 million and admit that it submitted “inaccurate trade data” to the Commission over a period of 15 years in order to resolve claims that it left out “thousands of...more
Hedge fund managers—not that long ago the titans of Wall Street, thanks in part to their “2 and 20 model” that saw them receiving fees of 2% of assets under management and 20% of any gain in any year—are reeling from the loss...more
A lawsuit over an alleged Ponzi scheme involving a fund pushed by MetLife agents is raising hard questions for the insurance giant over the reaches of corporate liability...more
New evidence uncovered by the digital security firm Symantec suggests that the recent series of Swift-based bank hacks may be linked to North Korea in what “appears to be the first known case of a nation using digital attacks...more
On June 18, 2015, Justice Marcy Friedman of the New York Supreme Court dismissed RMBS fraud claims brought by Commerzbank AG London Branch (“Commerzbank”) against UBS, Nomura Holdings Inc., Barclays Bank PLC, Citigroup and...more
In Oklahoma Firefighters Pension & Ret. Sys. v. Citigroup Inc., No. CV 9587-ML (VCN), 2015 WL 1884453 (Del. Ch. Apr. 24, 2015), a Delaware Chancery Court judge found that Del. Code Ann. tit. 8, § 220 (“Section 220”) permitted...more
On December 22 and 23, U.S. Bank National Association, as trustee for three RMBS trusts, filed three separate summonses with notice in the Supreme Court of the State of New York. U.S. Bank alleges that Citigroup...more
If there is one industry that needs an ethics overhaul, it has to be the financial industry. The list of transgressions continues to grow – AML/sanctions, LIBOR, Foreign Exchange Currency Cartels and Market Manipulations,...more
On August 29, Judge Louis L. Stanton of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York granted a motion by JPMorgan, Citigroup and several other banks for judgment on the pleadings, dismissing a...more
Fed Issues Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households - On August 7, the Fed provided a snapshot of the self-perceived financial and economic well-being of U.S. households and the issues they face, based on...more
With the mortgage crisis almost a decade in the rear-view mirror, some harmed homeowners are just now starting to see reparations for the transgressions of the country’s largest financial institutions. ...more
FMLC Publishes Response on Bail-in Powers - In response to a consultation by HM Treasury, the UK's Financial Markets Law Committee (FMLC) published a letter on June 4 relating to the bail-in powers introduced by the...more
Agencies Apply Increased Leverage Ratio to Large U.S. Banks - On April 8, the Fed, FDIC and OCC adopted the final rule to increase the leverage ratio for the largest U.S. banks. The final rule applies to U.S. bank...more
Competition authorities around the world are investigating whether banks manipulated WM/Reuters rates, which are used as a benchmark for foreign exchange (“FX”) rates for trillions of dollars of investment transactions. ...more
On November 1, U.S. Bank National Association, acting in its capacity as trustee for Citigroup Mortgage Loan Trust 2007-AHL2, filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court for the State of New York against Citigroup Global Markets...more