Wall Street Journal
Pushing the envelope: Auto lenders are “tinkering with loan terms in an effort to gain more consumers,” including extending more loans past five years and giving more credit to riskier customers. “The latest underwriting efforts show that lenders, faced with conflicting signals about the health of the U.S. consumer, are engaged in a delicate balancing act to
Not as attractive: On the investment side, municipal bonds held by banks fell by nearly $16 billion in the first quarter, the first decline in nine years, “a sign of how much new U.S.
Preying on the weak: “Don’t hold your breath” for any big bank mergers in Europe, “which are a distant prospect” even if the idea behind them is a good one, the Heard on the Street column says. But that’s good news for American banks, which “can just grow stronger” and help “
Rejected: Less than a quarter of Swiss voters supported a referendum Sunday that would have changed how lending works in that nation. The Vollgeld Initiative, also known as Sovereign Money, would have “
Financial Times
Not enough: Fresh off their recent legislative victory, small and midsize American
Good times: The world’s biggest investment banks made more money last year than before the financial crisis, earning a combined $78.4 billion, compared to $75.4 billion in 2007. “The solid profitability shows investment
Fired: Blair Fleming, the head of Royal Bank of Canada’s U.S. investment banking and capital markets operations and “its most prominent executive in the U.S.,” was fired for having an affair with an employee and violating the bank’s
Growth mode: Following “almost a decade of declining revenues,” the new CEO of HSBC said the bank will be investing $15 billion to $17 billion in “growth and technology” businesses even as it maintains its current dividend and share buybacks. “After a period of restructuring, it is now time for HSBC to
Washington Post
Déjà vu: The growing debt burden among U.S. corporations is “adding a
Quotable
"[If] you only took on the financing for the top echelon of the super prime ... [it’s]