Wall Street is now winding their way through the swiss cheese loophole maze financial reform is. Remember credit default swaps, those deadly, bad math, bad computation derivatives which were behind the financial crisis?
The Department of Justice filed a civil lawsuit against Standard and Poor's for fraud. Will the DOJ finally nail credit rating agency Standards and Poor's for slapping AAA ratings on rigged CDOs backed by mortgage toxic waste? Or will justice be just another slap on the wrist?
Have you ever noticed that large corporations can get away with pretty much anything? Over and over again a major scandal breaks and in the end the fines are pennies on the dollar for the profits gained by these nefarious financial activities.
Banks can launder money with impunity and the consequences are a small fine in comparison to the profits made. No matter how egregious there are no criminal chargers or revoking of the bank's charter.
The British bank Standard Chartered said on Thursday that it expected to pay $330 million to settle claims by United States government agencies that it had moved hundreds of billions of dollars on behalf of Iran.
The manipulation of the LIBOR scandal just keeps growing. Ever since Barclays was busted for manipulating this key critical interbank interest rate, more outrageous details keep pouring out.
Europe wants to make such evil financial dealings criminal. Yes, that's right, already manipulating a key interest rate is being classified as not criminal by this announcement.
Europe's top regulatory official intends to propose new rules that would criminalize the manipulation of benchmarks such as Libor.
The U.K. Serious Fraud Office opened a criminal probe into the attempted rigging of interest rates that led to a record fine against Barclays Plc (BARC), adding to pressure on banks already under investigation by regulators around the globe.
Supposedly the U.S. opened a criminal probe in February 2012:
Several major global banks, including Citigroup Inc, HSBC Holdings Plc, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and UBS AG, have disclosed that they have been approached by authorities investigating how Libor is set.
Barclays was busted for manipulating the LIBOR. The London Interbank Offered Rate is the interest rate banks charge to lend to each other. This key interest rate sets most banking transactions, including retail. Manipulating the Libor is like being a casino with crooked roulette wheels and loaded dice.
Barclays has been fined £290m ($450m) for trying to manipulate a key bank interest rate which influences the cost of loans and mortgages.
Marcus Agius will step down from Barclays as soon as Monday, amid fallout from the bank's $453 million settlement of probe into Libor manipulation.
On Wednesday the U.K's Financial Services Authority announced to the world Barclays manipulated the Libor and was fined. Below is some of the FSA's press release:
The FSA has today announced that it has found serious failings in the sale of interest rate hedging products to some small and medium sized businesses (SMEs). We believe that this has resulted in a severe impact on a large number of these businesses. In order to provide as swift a solution to this problem as possible we have today confirmed that we have reached agreement with Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and RBS to provide appropriate redress where mis-selling has occurred.
Seems the infamous mathematical probability distribution function, the Gaussian Copula, is at the forefront of controversy once again. It seems those financial engineers, the Quants, the ones who use advanced probability and statistics to model financial markets, upon whose work many derivatives are based, knew the use of Gaussian Copulas was fundamentally flawed.
Moody's downgraded 15 banks, primarily because banks are busy placing bets in the great capital markets gambling casino. As a result of these downgrades, banks borrowing costs will increase and they will have to pony up more collateral to cover their holdings and trades.
This one man apology show is about the $2 billion or greater trading loss JPMorgan Chase incurred due to speculative derivatives.
Truth be told the hearing was softball, not a grilling. This should be no surprise since JPMorgan Chase gives a lot of campaign contributions including those on the Senate Banking Committee.
Dimon revealed very little about the trade and not much more about his knowledge of it. He refused to discuss details of it, lest he reveal secrets to competitors -- who already know all about the trade and have been hammering JPMorgan on it, adding to the bank's losses. But the committee didn't challenge him on that, even after he turned down an offer to close the hearing to the public.
Welcome to the weekly roundup of great articles, facts and figures. These are the weekly finds that made our eyes pop.
Corporations Park Over 60% of Their Cash Offshore
Large multinationals literally park 60% of their cash offshore. Don't let these facts argue for a corporate tax holiday. Cash would just be distributed to shareholders, not used to hire American workers or invest in America.
Large U.S. companies are holding at least 60% of their cash overseas with some keeping nearly all of their cash balances offshore, according to a study from J.P.Morgan accounting analysts published Wednesday.
In a review of disclosures, the bank’s analysts found that out of the $974 billion in cash on the balance sheets of 602 U.S. multinationals, at least $588 billion, or 60%, is sitting in foreign accounts.
“Foreign subsidiaries are becoming much more important in a lot of businesses, especially with companies that have substantial amounts of intellectual property,” JP Morgan accounting analyst Dane Mott told CFO Journal, noting that many of the companies with significant overseas cash stockpiles were in the technology and pharmaceutical industries.
J.P. Morgan found that Apple had the highest offshore corporate cash balance, with $74 billion held overseas, representing 67% of its total cash holdings. But as a percentage of total cash, J.P. Morgan said the company had a smaller amount sitting offshore than many of its tech rivals, including Microsoft, Cisco, and Hewlett-Packard, which had 89% or more of their cash overseas.
Have you ever noticed that large corporations can get away with pretty much anything? Over and over again a major scandal breaks and in the end the fines are pennies on the dollar for the profits gained by these nefarious financial activities. 
The manipulation of the LIBOR scandal just keeps growing. Ever since 
Barclays was busted for 
The Senate Committee on Banking held a hearing, 
Welcome to the weekly roundup of great articles, facts and figures. These are the weekly finds that made our eyes pop.
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