News

FierceFinance covers finance industry news with a focus on the major Wall Street firms, including news on Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, the SEC, and more.

Congressman under investigation for insider trading

The media has gone to town on the issue of insider trading by powerful Congressmen. The chief culprit according to media reports has been Rep. Spencer Bauchus. Bachus reportedly received a...

@GSElevator not a real Goldman Sachs employee

Recall that supposed Goldman Sachs employee has been Tweeting via @GSElevator about the very funny things he hears riding the elevators at the gilded bank, recounting, for example, talk about the...

Deal's narrow immunity sparks concerns

The mortgage settlement between the top five mortgage banks and state attorneys general may indeed be a net positive in the short term, as it offers more certainty about the myriad state inquiries...

Banks face limited mortgage settlement fallout

The bottom-line impact of the ballyhooed $25 billion settlement between five big mortgage banks and nearly all states will likely be limited. Bank of America will contribute the majority of the...

JPMorgan: additional settlement reserves not necessary

Banks had already reserved against losses stemming from the mortgage settlement that was hammered out with state and federal regulators. We suggested that those reserves were probably adequate....

The future of NYSE Euronext

At NYSE Euronext, the question is: What now? It invested so much--some might say it bet the farm--on inking a deal with Deutsche Bourse, that it must now fight the perception that it is merely...

States, banks finally ink $26B mortgage settlement

People were starting to wonder if this was ever going to happen. After more than a year of talking, state attorneys general inked a $26 billion deal with banks to settle a litany of residential...

Goldman Sachs might benefit from Volcker Rule

The conventional wisdom on the Volcker Rule is that it would hit trading-intensive firms the hardest. A JPMorgan analyst last year estimated that the rule would reduce U.S. bank’s revenue by up...

Impact of Wall Street clawbacks

Clawbacks have been in the news for much of the last year. But UBS kicked the discussion into a higher gear when it announced that it would be clawing back some bonuses paid for work in 2010. The...

Deutsche Bank caps bonuses

Deutsche Bank has taken a page from Morgan Stanley playbook on capping bonuses. But they have deferred bonuses awards (cash and stock) in excess of 200,000 euros, or about $265,000. Recall that...

Goldman Sachs' same-sex marriage support

Goldman Sachs has raised brows by throwing its support behind the Human Rights Campaign's effort to legalize same-sex marriages. For the movement, this is a big deal, as the firm ranks as one of...

Michael Klein wins on both sides of big deal

DealBook notes the rise of a one-man boutique, a highly specialized shop built on the enviable contacts of Michael Klein, the former Citigroup vice chairman. In 2008, he left the bank at the ripe age...

Goldman Sachs “shameless” in deal conflict

The DealProfessor takes a look at Goldman Sachs’ multi-sided role in Kinder Morgan’s proposed acquisition of the El Paso Corporation. At the time the deal talks got underway, Goldman...

New York AG’s cancels press conference

Once again, New York has found itself in the middle of a storm regarding the proposed settlement between states and big mortgage banks. In a surprising development, New York’s AG Eric...

Bank of America seeks magic with new ad campaign

It was big news when Bank of America put its advertising account up for review. For all its woes, the bank still ranks as a top 20 advertiser. Winning a piece of the account would be quite a coup and...

Goldman Sachs may reduce CEO pay

It’s hard to assess the compensation of top bank CEOs right now, as we don’t have full information yet. The news only drips out as various pieces of compensation are disclosed at...

Shuttered LPS unit hit with criminal charges

In the great mortgage meltdown that continues to afflict banks, MERS and its bank-owners attracted a massive volume of criticism, which allowed Lender Processing Services to fly under the radar of...

John Paulson fares well in January

John Paulson is off to a great start in his quest to get his top two funds back to their high water marks. Recall that his Advantage fund and the leveraged version, the Advantage Plus fund, both...

Fed to rule on Capital One-ING deal

The Federal Reserve Board will likely decide the fate of the proposed Capital One deal for ING Direct when it convenes on Wednesday. The $9 billion deal will create a bank with 1.5 percent of total...

New snags hinder mortgage settlement deal

Monday was the deadline for states to sign onto a deal hammered out with big mortgage companies to settle a litany of fraud charges. More than 40 states have agreed to the deal, but the effort to get...