Barclays Settles Libor Suit; Lending Club Woes

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Barclays settles again: Barclays Bank agreed to pay $100 million to settle charges by 43 states and the District of Columbia that it tried to manipulate the London interbank offered rate thereby defrauding government entities and nonprofits out of millions of dollars. The settlement comes roughly four years after the British bank paid $450 million to settle similar claims brought by federal and British authorities. Wall Street Journal, New York Times

TIAA to buy EverBank: As expected, TIAA, the big pension and retirement investment manager, announced it agreed to buy Florida's EverBank for $2.5 billion in cash. The deal is aimed at capturing young customers, and EverBank's digital technology and mortgage business were the main attractions for TIAA. "This acquisition puts us 10 years ahead of what we would have done if we were growing organically," said Roger Ferguson, TIAA's chief executive officer. Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, American Banker

More bad news at Lending Club: Marketplace lender Lending Club reported an $81.4 million loss for the second quarter compared to a year-earlier loss of $4.1 million. It also said CFO Carrie Dolan was leaving the company. This quarter's loss included a $35.4 million write-down related to its April 2014 acquisition of health-care lender Springstone Financial. Overall loan volume dropped nearly 30% to $1.96 billion from the previous quarter. The company's founderand CEO Renaud Laplanche left the firm in May. Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, American Banker.

Trump offers economic plan: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump outlined his economic plan for the U.S. The program includes a reduction in the corporate income tax to 15% from 35%, including a one-time 10% tax on repatriated profits now held overseas to avoid higher U.S. tax rates. The plan also calls for a temporary moratorium on new regulations. Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, American Banker

Wall Street Journal

Installment lending grows: The government crackdown on payday lenders is proving to be a boon to the installment loan business. Like payday loans, installment loans often carry triple-digit interest rates, but are usually larger and have longer repayment periods. The market is consumers with low credit scores who can't get cheaper credit elsewhere. Lenders extended nearly $24.2 billion in installment loans in 2015, up nearly 80% from the prior year and nearly triple the amount in 2012. Needless to say, that growth has triggered concerns at the CFPB, which is looking into "potential evolution in these markets."

Free FICO at Wells: Wells Fargo, the largest mortgage lender in the country, said it is providing free FICO scores to its 30 million mortgage customers as well as those with home equity lines of credit, private student loans, personal loans and certain auto loans. The bank rolled out the program last March to its credit card customers. The program is part of a partnership with Fair Isaac, the creator of the FICO scores, which has similar deals with more than 45 lenders.