George Yacik

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Too friendly?: Jay Clayton, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to run the Securities and Exchange Commission, "is expected to end the streak of aggressive regulators and litigators overseeing the country's top markets," the Wall Street Journal reports, describing Clayton in the headline as "a 180" from the outgoing chair Mary Jo White. The nomination of Clayton, a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell who has represented the likes of Goldman Sachs and Barclays, "signals Republicans prefer an SEC chairman who is attuned to the needs of Wall Street firms," the Journal added. That contrasts with the record of White, "a former prosecutor who presided over the SEC in a period when the agency collected record amounts of penalties and disgorged profits from wrongdoers." Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, Washington Post, American Banker

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Bitcoin boost: While the Dow Jones Industrial Average struggles to reach the 20,000 mark, a different financial milestone was hit on New Year's Day. On Sunday bitcoin broke through the $1,000 mark for the first time, and kept climbing to $1,022 on Tuesday. The digital currency gained about 123% in value in 2016, due to global uncertainty and inflation fears. "The currency had faded from the public eye through early 2016 as prices stalled and traders battled about the structure of the approximately eight-year old market," the Wall Street Journal reports. "Now, with trading volumes rising sharply and some countries such as India making large cash payments more difficult, higher demand has pushed the bitcoin price up." Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post

Receiving Wide Coverage ...He's back: Anshu Jain, the former co-CEO of Deutsche Bank, is joining Cantor Fitzgerald as group president, a newly created position, where he will help oversee Cantor's overall strategy and expansion efforts. His appointment comes 18 months after Jain resigned from Germany's largest bank "as concerns mounted over Deutsche's financial health and the many investigations it was facing," the New York Times said. He joined Deutsche in 1995, becoming co-CEO in 2012 before being replaced, along with co-CEO Jrgen Fitschen, by John Cryan. Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times

Editor's note: Morning Scan will publish next on Jan. 3, 2017. Happy holidays from all of us at American Banker and SourceMedia.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Pay up: The European Court of Justice ruled that Spanish lenders must reimburse mortgage borrowers for charging them excess interest payments on variable-rate mortgages. The ruling, which can't be appealed, follows a 2013 decision by Spain's highest court that outlawed "mortgage floor" agreements on loans because banks didn't pass along the savings from low rates to customers. The ECJ confirmed the Spanish court decision but also said borrowers could seek reimbursement for all excess payments dating back to 2009 when the loans were introduced. Under the ruling, Spanish banks may have to refund 4.5 billion euros, or about $4.68 billion, to customers. Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Collecting: The federal government is increasingly garnishing student loan borrowers' Social Security checks to recover unpaid student debt "most of it borrowed years ago to cover their own educations but some used to pay for their children's schooling," according to a report from the Government Accountability Office. Since 2001, the government has collected more than $1 billion from Social Security recipients of all ages to cover unpaid student loans, with $171 million coming in fiscal 2015 alone. That one-year total is up 440% since 2002. Most of the affected recipients are over age 50 and collecting disability benefits, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Breaking News This Morning ...Deal: Lloyds Banking Group agreed to buy Bank of America's U.K. credit card business, called MBNA Limited, for about $2.4 billion. The deal, which includes about $8.7 billion in assets, would boost Lloyd's share of the British card market from 15% to 26%, about the same share as market leader Barclays. "The deal culminates years of upheaval and reorganization at the bank, which the British government bailed out in the middle of the 2008 global financial crisis," the New York Times said.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Still in charge: Almost forgotten in last week's senior management shakeup at Goldman Sachs is that the man who fills the corner office is still there and not going anywhere. "While Goldman [last] week underwent its most dramatic management reshuffling in a decade, Lloyd Blankfein remains firmly ensconced as chief executive — and appears likely to stay, having outlasted an impatient deputy and effectively restarted the clock on his new successors-in-waiting," the Wall Street Journal reports. "That means Goldman's strategy isn't likely to change much from the course set out in recent years: cautiously expanding into new areas while hawkishly defending its turf in the core businesses of trading and corporate banking."

Wall Street JournalIncentives dropped: Wells Fargo said it will stop offering bonuses to its securities brokers for urging customers to take out loans, including mortgages, securities-backed loans and other consumer lines of credit. "Such bonuses usually come in the form of deferred compensation and can add several thousand dollars to a broker's annual pay," the Journal said. Erik Karanik, a managing director at Wells Fargo Advisors, said the move brings the brokerage unit in line with the rest of the bank, which has changed its sales incentives in the wake of the phony accounts scandal.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Confirmed: As expected, Goldman Sachs named David Solomon and Harvey Schwartz as presidents and co-COOs to replace Gary Cohn, who is leaving to join the Trump administration. The naming of two co-presidents to replace Cohn "raises questions about the structure and strategic direction of the company," the Financial Times says, and suggests "a return to a traditional structure that pits an executive from the trading side of the business against one from investment banking." While the New York Times suggests it's "a new generation."