Receiving Wide Coverage ...
A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall: U.S. stock markets are closed today as Hurricane Sandy approaches the Northeast. The financial district in lower Manhattan (including American Banker's office) has been evacuated, the transit system has been shut down and flights are being canceled. Federal offices and the Metro in D.C. are also closed. So if you're in California and someone in New York or Washington doesn't return your call today, don't take it personally. Our colleagues at American Banker report that banks are bracing for the storm's arrival with the goal of avoiding interruptions in operations. For general stories read the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, Washington Post, and of course weather.com.
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UBS Restructuring: The Swiss bank is slashing 10,000 investment banking jobs, in a move that the FT says "will put pressure on other subscale [investment] banks to restructure." Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Bloomberg News
Wall Street Journal
Almost exactly a year ago, MF Global filed for bankruptcy protection and more than $1 billion of customer funds went missing. Now the Journal has unearthed a company email showing that "Employees at MF Global couldn't keep track of exactly how much money it had at any given moment, even before the company began to wobble." The House Financial Services Committee, meanwhile, plans to release a report in coming weeks focused on regulators' handling of MF Global.
Bank of China, the third-largest bank in its home country, denied that it provided wire transfers to the terrorist group Hamas, as alleged in a lawsuit filed by families of students killed in a shooting in Jerusalem.
Financial Times
"US money market funds have increased their exposure to eurozone banks, in the latest sign of returning confidence in the stability of Europe's monetary union."
"US and UK enforcers are pushing to agree multinational settlements with at least one and possibly two more banks by the end of the year over allegations they tried to fix Libor," anonymous sources tell the FT. Royal Bank of Scotland is the definite one; Citigroup is one of the possibilities for the second.
New York Times
Gretchen Morgenson starts her weekly column with the Justice Department's suit against Bank of America and Countrywide and breezily segues to an academic study measuring the costs the financial sector imposes on society and questioning the benefits.
