BFCSA Blog

HSBC Bank Executives Face Charges in $3.5 Billion Currency Case By ALEXANDRA STEVENSON JULY 20, 2016 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/21/business/dealbook/hsbc-foreign-exchange-investigation-currency.html?smid=tw-dealbook&smtyp=cur&_r=1         Mark Johnson, center, following his arraignment, with his attorney, Frank Wohl, on Wednesday.  Louis Lanzano for New York Times    The global banking giant HSBC has repeatedly found itself in the cross hairs of American regulators and prosecutors in recent years. To settle allegations of money-laundering and mortgage abuses, it has paid billions of dollars — but has not been criminally charged. That has spurred an outcry that the bank is “too big to jail.” But now two senior executives of HSBC of HSBC face criminal charges, accused of a currency manipulation scheme that federal prosecutors say generated $8 million in profits and fees. The global head of HSBC’s foreign exchange cash trading desk, Mark Johnson, a Briton, was arrested by federal agents Tuesday night at Kennedy International Airport as he...

There will be no soft landing in China. By Harry Dent, Senior Editor, Economy & Markets: by Harry Dent • August 2, 2016 http://wolfstreet.com/2016/08/02/chinas-property-bubble-echoes-subprime-crisis/   The menacing fury of economic triggers that began piling up after the Great Recession are only getting larger and we can’t do much but watch it unfold and stay alert. I wrote about this in a letter late last year, but now here we are more than halfway through the year and it’s only getting worse. So much worse that the Chinese property bubble is now the catalyst that will reset markets – and will likely be one large event that cascades across the globe. I’m convinced that what finally puts an end to central banker madness and the incessant stream of QE will be the Chinese real estate bubble. Massive doesn’t even begin to describe the situation with China’s property market, but that’s somewhat expected...

As a simple retired person and obviously not business savvy, even I cannot get over the gall and unmitigated temerity of the Big 4 banks not to pass on the RBA rate cut in full. This is in direct defiance of the P.M. a former banker himself warning them pre election to get their houses in order. Poor Malcolm is torn between his loyalty to his brothers in arms to that of his own political future. The banks have had a fore taste of the Australian public howling for openness and transparency in our financial system, has their combined greed over shadowed common sense? Malcolm and his cohorts only just got in by the skin of their teeth and with Labor promising a Royal Commission it would only take one or two pollies to die or retire with by elections to follow to upset the apple cart. The fact the PM...

From a blog....   Ireland to Prosecute Former Anglo Irish Bank CEO for 2008 Economic Catastrophe July 28th, 2016 | by Vandita http://anonhq.com/ireland-prosecute-former-anglo-irish-bank-ceo-2008-economic-catastrophe/   Last year, Iceland set precedent by sentencing 26 top bankers to a combined 74 years in prison, for causing the 2008 global financial crisis. The unprecedented conviction of bad bankers sent a strong message across the world (none of America’s top bankers went to jail for the crimes that caused the 2008 financial crisis) that no individual is too big to investigate, and that it was possible to prosecute fraudulent bankers. Taking cue from Iceland, Ireland is going to prosecute the 2005-2008 CEO of Anglo Irish Bank, David Drumm, on 33 criminal charges. These include two charges of conspiracy to defraud and false accounting relating to €7.2 billion in deposits placed in Anglo Irish Bank accounts by the then Irish Life and Permanent, between March and September...

You have to seriously think bank computer systems are rigged gaming machines!   Italy’s Monte Paschi Flunks Stress Test, Plans to Raise Capital John Glover JohnEGlover Sonia Sirletti ssirletti Alessandro Speciale aspeciale July 30, 2016 — 6:02 AM AEST Updated on July 31, 2016 — 3:31 AM AEST http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-29/monte-paschi-capital-wiped-out-in-european-bank-stress-test#media-1 The world’s oldest bank is also Europe’s riskiest.Italy’s Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA was the only one of 51 lenders tested by European regulators to have its capital wiped out in the exam’s toughest scenario. The bank, which has been bailed out twice by the government since 2009, said it plans to sell as much as 5 billion euros ($5.6 billion) of stock if it can offload a bad-loan portfolio. The European tests released Friday showed that most lenders would keep an adequate level of capital in a crisis. Among the region’s biggest banks, London-based Barclays Plc fared worse than...

Goldman Bond Deals With 1MDB Under Singapore Central Bank Review   31 July 2016 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-30/goldman-bond-deals-with-1mdb-under-singapore-central-bank-review   Singapore’s central bank said a “supervisory examination” of a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. unit’s involvement in bond deals by 1Malaysia Development Bhd. is ongoing. "Monetary Authority of Singapore will take decisive regulatory actions against any financial institution or individual in Singapore that has breached regulations or failed to meet the expected anti-money laundering standards,” it said in the statement on Saturday.  Edward Naylor, a Hong Kong-based spokesman for Goldman Sachs, declined to comment. The New York-based bank received subpoenas from the U.S. Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission for documents related to the Malaysian investment fund known as 1MDB, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the matter who wasn’t identified. Reuters earlier reported Singapore’s probe into Goldman Sachs’ involvement in 1MDB bonds. The Singapore central bank on July 21...

Did Jamie Dimons’ secret meetings with competitors violate anti-trust laws?   By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: July 22, 2016 http://wallstreetonparade.com/2016/07/did-jamie-dimons-secret-meetings-with-competitors-violate-antitrust-laws/   A mere three months after JPMorgan Chase and three of its competitors (Citicorp, Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland) pleaded guilty to a felony charge of conspiring to rig foreign currency trading and paid criminal fines totaling over $2.5 billion, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, began meeting in secret with his competitors in the asset management field. On February 1 of this year, the Financial Times reported that “secret summits” had been held beginning in August 2015 between “asset management bosses” including Jamie Dimon, Abby Johnson of Fidelity, Larry Fink of BlackRock, and Tim Armour of Capital Group. The article went on to report that Dimon and Warren Buffett had convened the sessions at JPMorgan’s headquarters in New York to discuss “a statement of best practice...

Japan’s “Helicopter Money” Play: Road to Hyperinflation or Cure for Debt Deflation? Posted on July 25, 2016 by Ellen Brown   https://ellenbrown.com/2016/07/25/japans-helicopter-money-play-road-to-hyperinflation-or-cure-for-debt-deflation/   Fifteen years after embarking on its largely ineffective quantitative easing program, Japan appears poised to try the form recommended by Ben Bernanke in his notorious “helicopter money” speech in 2002. The Japanese test case could finally resolve a longstanding dispute between monetarists and money reformers over the economic effects of government-issued money. When then-Fed Governor Ben Bernanke gave his famous helicopter money speech to the Japanese in 2002, he was talking about something quite different from the quantitative easing they actually got and other central banks later mimicked. Quoting Milton Friedman, he said the government could reverse a deflation simply by printing money and dropping it from helicopters. A gift of free money with no strings attached, it would find its way into the real economy and trigger...

Trump's GOP wants to break up big banks Trump following Democrats' lead By Heather Long Published 07/19 2016 http://www.everythinglubbock.com/news/politics/donald-trump-plan-will-break-up-big-banks-1   NEW YORK (CNNMoney) Donald Trump wants to crack down on Wall Street.  At Trump's urging, the GOP formally endorsed breaking up America's big banks Monday. It's almost like the Republicans were taking a page from liberal senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren who have advocated for exactly that to ensure no bank is "too big too fail." The official Republican platform for 2016 calls for bringing back the Glass-Steagall Act, a law put in place during the Great Depression to restrict banks from serving both Wall Street and Main Street. President Bill Clinton repealed the law in 1999.  In a sign of just how unpopular Wall Street is in America right now, reinstating the Glass-Steagall Act is in both the Republican and Democratic platforms. Trump's campaign manager Paul Manafort told reporters...

RBA governor Glenn Stevens presses for difficult policy decisions Australian Financial Review Apr 20 2016 12:39 PM John Kehoe   Reserve Bank of Australia governor Glenn Stevens has urged political leaders to adopt the country's economic reform playbook of the 1980s and 90s, by educating the community on why difficult policy changes are necessary and relentlessly prosecuting the case. After warning in a set speech that easy money policies of central banks were reaching their limits, Mr Stevens called on governments around the world to take more responsibility for reviving growth, including through sound infrastructure investments financed by ultra low borrowing costs. Responding to questions from investors in New York, the governor invoked the economic reform success of Australia in past decades, to encourage politicians to pursue tough policies to boost weak productivity and living standards. "In my limited experience, countries that have had successful reform, I think it's a combination...

Here too???   Feds may toss out forced arbitration clauses 6 March 2016   http://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/personal-finance/2016/03/06/feds-may-toss-forced-arbitration-clauses/81415152/   If you’ve got a credit card, you’ve been forced to kiss away your constitutional right to sue the card issuer. But it’s looking increasingly likely that this is about to change.  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is examining so-called arbitration clauses in terms and conditions for financial products. Earlier this month, the head of the bureau, Richard Cordray, sent the strongest signal yet that the regulatory whip soon will come down on banks and other lenders denying customers their day in court if they feel mistreated. “By inserting an arbitration clause into their contracts, companies can sidestep the legal system, avoid big refunds and continue to pursue profitable practices that may violate the law and harm consumers,” he said in a speech to the American Constitution Society. “Companies should not be able to place themselves...

13 ETHICAL OBLIGATIONS AND THE MANAGER: CASE STUDIES by Paul Rogers   http://www.thomsonreuters.com.au/product/AU/files/720502412/chapter_13.2_case_studies.pdf   Case Study: National Australia Bank.............Although the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority’s (APRA) report into the situation concluded that the losses were due to the collusive behaviour of the traders, it also stated:  “However, it can also be contributed to an operating environment characterised by lax and unquestioned oversight by line management; poor adherence to risk management systems and controls and weaknesses in internal governance procedure” (Buck).  APRA also found that there was an exclusive focus on process and documentation rather than looking at the substance of issues and taking responsibility for them.............In response to this, the National Australia Bank’s CEO made a number of statements on values and culture in NAB’s Concise Annual Report 2004 (http://www.nabgroup.com/vgnmedia/downld/Concise_NAB04.pdf). The fifth paragraph under the heading “Our Strategy” reads:   “A new Board and executive team is committed to leading culture change by example.  A...

Big Banks and Drug Money January 4, 2013 by Helen Redmond http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/01/04/big-banks-and-drug-money/ The illicit drug trade relies heavily on money laundering because it is almost exclusively a cash business. Drug interdiction, while an essential component of attacking the illicit drug trade cannot, standing alone, reverse the tide of illicit drugs. Combating money laundering, combined with strong interdiction efforts, offers a more effective law enforcement response.– Money Laundering in Florida: Report of the Legislative Task Force, 1999 Stuart Gulliver, the Chief Executive of the London-based international banking giant HSBC said: “We accept responsibility for our past mistakes. We have said we are profoundly sorry for them and we do so again… What happened in Mexico and the US is shameful, it’s embarrassing, it’s very painful for all of us in the firm…The HSBC of today is a fundamentally different organization from the one that made those mistakes.”..........  What was Mr. Gulliver apologizing for and...

Sounds familiar! Bank of Canada not responsible for record debt Central bank governor tells Washington, D.C., audience that borrowers and lenders are '1st line of defence' CBC News Posted: Oct 13, 2015 http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/stephen-poloz-says-bank-of-canada-not-responsible-for-record-debt-1.3268738   It's not the Bank of Canada's job to fix bad decisions consumers make with regard to debt loads in the current low rate environment, Stephen Poloz says.  In his last scheduled public appearance ahead of Monday's election and the central bank's latest interest rate decision on Wednesday, Canada's top central banker told a Washington, D.C., banking audience on Monday that the bank's main job is to fight inflation — not clean up any messes in the consumer debt market. Poloz said the central bank is the last line of defence against "bad decisions" in consumer debt, behind lenders and borrowers themselves and various regulatory bodies. But the bank is keenly aware of the impact its policies can have on the...

FOWLER LIES, COVERS UP, MOORE ALLEGES By Leanne Mason http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/129100365 The Managing Director of Westpac, Stuart Fowler, had told lies, Independent MLA, Michael Moore told the ACT Legislative Assembly last night. “Mr. Fowler is living up to his reputation in lying to the Courts, to Parliament”, he said. His minions act entirely without ?: conscience, bullying witnesses, gagging, attempting to gag the Senate: and political interference.” Mr. Moore told the Assembly....”about a Federal Court case, Australian Bank Employees’ Union v Westpac Banking Corporation.  It was about the “dismissal of the manager of Westpac’s Kingaroy branch in Queensland following an incident involving the Premier of Queensland, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen”. “The incident was related to a payment of $400,000 from the Bond Corporation to Sir Joh that subsequently leaked to the press. “The manager of the branch, Mr. Nuttall was sacked by the Chief General Manager, Mr. Stuart Fowler – Mr. Fowler has since...

http://www.genworth.com.au/downloads/4-2-3-Spotlight/spotlight-series-low-doc.pdf   Introduction of the low-doc loan has created a unique opportunity for mortgage lenders and the self-employed borrower. Introduced to Australia in 1999, low-doc loans revolutionised mortgage lending for a key sector of the market..........   “While the number of lenders offering low-docs is quite saturated – most banks and non-banks have a number of variants in their portfolio – the changing face of Australia’s workforce will continue to drive demand.” says Peter Hall, Country Executive & Director, Genworth Financial Australia and New Zealand.     Attachments area   Preview attachment Genworth spotlight-series-low-doc.pdf     Genworth spotlight-series-low-doc.pdf              ...

The 47 scandals that prove governments would be mad to go soft on banks 19th November 2015 http://www.ianfraser.org/why-well-all-end-up-paying-for-the-feeble-response-to-the-banking-crisis/ In an important speech given at the Finance Watch conference in Brussels on Tuesday,Robert Jenkins — a former member of the Bank of England’s financial policy committee — highlighted the dangers of a two-tier justice system in which senior bankers are effectively ‘above the law’. He also said that 47 banking scandals and the feeble nature of most post-crisis financial reforms suggest that governments around the world would be ill-advised to cave in to the demands of bankers and finance sector lobbyists seeking a return to ‘business as usual’  .........As you have heard I had the honour to serve at the Bank of England. It was an exciting time. The banking system was undercapitalized. Greece threatened the eurozone. The eurozone threatened the banking system. The bankers threatened the politicians – lest the politicians threaten the bankers....

Date December 1, 2015 Clancy Yeates http://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/nab-anz-and-westpac-cut-deposit-interest-rates-20151201-glcegq.html   Three of the country's big banks quietly cut interest rates for online savings accounts last month, as lenders try to limit a crunch on their profit margins being caused by stiff competition and soft economic conditions. National Australia Bank, ANZ Bank and Westpac all reduced rates for popular online savings accounts in November, the same month in which customers also started paying higher mortgage rates ANZ Bank cut the base rate on its online saver account by 0.2 percentage points to 1.8 per cent, while NAB reduced its iSaver base rate by 0.1 percentage point, also to 1.8 per cent, interest rate comparison website Mozo said. As well as cutting base rates – the long-term rates paid to customers outside "bonus" or limited-time promotional offers – lenders also cut their limited-time "introductory" rates used to lure new customers. NAB reduced its four-month introductory...

Study Connects Credit Default Swaps to Mortgage Delinquencies   May 25, 2015 http://www.utdallas.edu/news/2015/5/25-31558_Study-Connects-Credit-Default-Swaps-to-Mortgage-De_story-wide.html Researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas recently published the first empirical investigation connecting credit default swaps to mortgage defaults that helped lead to the 2007-2008 financial crisis.   The study, authored by finance and managerial economics professor Dr. Harold H. Zhang and associate professor Dr. Feng Zhao, was published in the April issue of The Journal of Finance. The researchers found that the presence of credit default swaps further stimulated the strong demand for mortgage-backed securities, which led to lax lending standards in the mortgage origination market and encouraged predatory lending and borrowing practices. Lenders increasingly offered subprime mortgages, which inevitably drove much higher mortgage default rates. “There are many media reports that to some extent link the financial crisis to the housing market crash, and subsequently, research has confirmed that,” Zhang said. “One of the issues that people have paid particular...

Aussie Home Loans John Symond on foreign investment’' 7 August 2015 http://www.news.com.au/finance/real-estate/house-prices-aussie-home-loans-john-symond-on-foreign-investment/story-fndban6l-1227474826422 AUSTRALIAN real estate needs foreign investors but regulators may be giving them an unintended advantage over local investors, says Aussie Home Loans founder John Symond. Changes to property investment rules may put Australian investors at a disadvantage to cashed-up foreign buyers, Mr Symond told a parliamentary inquiry into home ownership on Friday. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority announced the changes last year in a bid to contain overheated property speculation. “It’s very easy to play at the edges and talk about APRA tightening up lending restrictions for investors, but what about the 20 to 25 per cent, in some areas 30 per cent, of foreign buyers who predominantly don’t borrow here?” Mr Symond told a hearing in Sydney.  “They are getting an easier go to come and gobble up what they want.  “I’m really concerned that there will be unintended consequences...