George Yacik

Wall Street JournalSoFi to sell insurance: Marketplace lender SoFi, which got its start in 2011 refinancing student loans and has since expanded into mortgages and other financial products, is now gearing up to sell life insurance. The San Francisco-based company obtained a license in its home state in September to sell insurance on behalf of Protective Life Insurance, a Japanese-owned company that had $767 billion of insurance in force at the end of last year. SoFi has since obtained licenses in several other states, according to the Journal.

Breaking News This Morning ...UBS profits fall: Unlike other large international banks, which have mostly been reporting better-than-expected earnings for the third quarter, UBS reported its net profit dropped more than 60%. Net profit fell to 827 million Swiss francs from 2.1 billion francs in the same quarter last year. Analysts were expecting 945 million francs. Last year's figure was inflated by a large one-time tax benefit. The Swiss bank said it continued to experience "client risk aversion" as well as the effects of low and negative interest rates that reduce revenue.

Breaking News This Morning ...Deutsche Bank reports: Deutsche Bank reported a profit of €278 million in the third quarter, compared to a loss of €6.02 billion in the year earlier quarter. Analysts had been expecting another loss. The big German bank said it was making progress on turning around its business even as it seeks to negotiate a reduced penalty with the U.S. Justice Department to close a probe related to mortgage securities. Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times

Receiving Wide Coverage ...OCC seeks data: The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has sent formal letters to large and regional banks it regulates seeking information about their sales practices and incentive-compensation plans following the Wells Fargo scandal. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Santander USA were among the banks getting letters. Comptroller Thomas Curry told the Senate Banking Committee last month the regulator will "review the sales practices of all the large and midsize banks the OCC supervises and assess the sufficiency of controls with respect to these practices."

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Court hears SIFI appeal: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia heard arguments from the federal government on Monday that MetLife is a "systemically important financial institution" and requires stricter regulation. The Financial Stability Oversight Council voted in December 2014 that the insurance company was a "SIFI" but was overruled by a U.S. district court judge earlier this year. The FSOC is now appealing that decision. "Beyond issues related to MetLife directly, the case holds broader significance," the Wall Street Journal commented. "The ability to bring large financial companies such as MetLife under tougher rules was an important piece of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial overhaul. The law created the council to … tag financial companies for stricter oversight if it determined their failure could put the broader economy at risk." Wall Street Journal, American Banker, New York Times

Breaking News This Morning ...Discount brokers to merge: TD Ameritrade is buying rival Scottrade for $4 billion. The combined company will have $944 billion in client assets and execute 600,000 client trades a day. TD says the merger will enable the two companies to cut costs by $450 million a year. Wall Street Journal, Financial Times

Receiving Wide Coverage ...More pressure on Wells: Two Democrat senators, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Robert Menendez of New Jersey, asked Wells Fargo's chairman if the board had sufficiently questioned Timothy Sloan about his knowledge of the bank's phony accounts scandal before appointing him chief executive officer. "It is difficult to believe that he had no knowledge of or bears no responsibility for the actions of thousands of Wells Fargo employees creating fake accounts," the senators' letter to Wells Chairman Steven Sanger said. "We continue to have questions about who is being held accountable at Wells Fargo."

Receiving Wide Coverage ...More trouble for Wells: The California Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation into Wells Fargo to determine if bank employees engaged in criminal identity theft and false impersonation to open accounts for customers without their permission. "There is probable cause to believe that employees of Wells Fargo Bank unlawfully accessed the bank's computer system to obtain the PII [personally identifiable information] of customers," the state's affidavit said. "The bank's employees then used the unlawfully obtained customers' PII to commit false impersonation and identity theft by opening unauthorized accounts, credit cards, and various other products that resulted in the accumulation of fees and charges for Wells Fargo."

Breaking News This Morning ...Morgan Stanley beats estimates: Morgan Stanley reported a third quarter profit of $1.6 billion, or 81 cents a share, up 57% from $1.02 billion, or 48 cents a share, in the year ago period. That easily beat the median Street forecast of 63 cents. Revenue rose 15% to $8.91 billion from $7.77 billion, also beating analysts' estimates of $8.17 billion. As with its peers on Wall Street, which reported earlier, the bank's results were helped by a rebound in securities trading. Return on equity jumped to 8.7%, up from 5.6% a year ago. Wall Street Journal, Financial Times

Breaking News This Morning ...Goldman's earnings soar: Goldman Sachs's third quarter earnings jumped 47% versus the year-ago period as trading revenue rose 17%. The bank earned $2.09 billion, or $4.88 a share, easily beating analysts' estimates of $3.82 a share. A year earlier it earned $1.43 billion, or $2.90 a share. Revenue rose 19% to $8.17 billion from $6.86 billion, well above Street forecasts of $7.42 billion. Return on equity climbed to 11.2%, up from 7% in the year-earlier quarter and the first time the ratio exceeded 10% since early 2015. Wall Street Journal, Financial Times