FDIC Sues Three Banks; Marketplace Lenders' Achilles Heel

Wall Street Journal

JPMorgan Chase has hired a recently retired general as senior adviser. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno will offer the bank advice on cybersecurity as well as the physical risks involved in operating in a range of countries. The paper reports that Ordierno served in the Persian Gulf and Iraq wars and worked closely with Gen. David Petraeus on the 2007 military surge in Iraq.

The former acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency is looking for a leader who can make headway on housing finance reform. Edward DeMarco names two changes he says should happen on the double: Congress should require Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to shift the bulk of mortgage credit risk to private markets and expand the ability of other firms to issue mortgage-backed securities.

Banks shouldn't hold their breath waiting for a long-awaited rate hike to boost earnings, according to John Carney of "Heard on the Street." Now that the Federal Reserve seems less certain about the timing of a rate increase, "it is possible banks could even see their interest income contract next year."

Financial Times

The Lex team sees a major vulnerability in marketplace lenders' business model: what if they have to obey state caps on interest rates? This argument was sparked by a recent court ruling that found a debt-collection company had not inherited the originating bank's right to override conflicting state rate caps with federal law.

U.S. authorities were able to reopen a probe into potential sanctions violations by Standard Chartered with the help of a whistleblower, according to anonymice. "The whistleblower helped point authorities to certain pieces of evidence and transactions that have helped make the case against the bank," the paper reports somewhat vaguely.

New York Times

Americans' credit scores are on the upswing. The average credit score has reached its highest point in at least a decade, and seriously delinquent payments are down. However, a Fair Isaac Corp. analyst includes the caveat that average scores may be up because more subprime borrowers have dropped out of the traditional credit market.

Washington Post

If you're not worried about the implications of the Ashley Madison breach, you should be, according to the paper's Michelle Singletary. She says the exposure of men and women who used the adultery-promoting site is less about cheaters getting their comeuppance and much more about hackers invading people's right to privacy — which serves as a reminder that less salacious information like Social Security numbers can easily be put in jeopardy, too.

Move over, American Express: Discover beat out AmEx in J.D. Power's customer satisfaction survey for the first time in nine years.

Elsewhere ...

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is suing three banks for allegedly neglecting to fulfill their duty as bond trustees overseeing the mortgage-backed securities owned by a failed bank. The FDIC took more than $695 million in losses when it sold the shoddy securities owned by Guaranty Bank in Austin, Texas, according to the report.

Visa is making a $21 billion bid to buy its European sister company, according to British media outlet Sky News. Reports of a potential merger had circulated on Bloomberg and other media sources earlier this year.

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