Lehman Pay Out Hits $80 Billion; Wal-Mart Vs. Visa

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Lehman Payout: Lehman makes its fifth semi-annual payout to creditors next week, a bigger-than-expected $17.9 billion, pushing its total payments to creditors above $80 billion. The Wall Street Journal notes that most of the money to be distributed "involves money Lehman entities owe each other." Reuters says, "The payout will include $12.8 billion to third-party creditors and affiliates, plus $5.1 billion to other Lehman debtors and affiliates." Creditors will now reap 26.9 cents on the dollar, up from the expected 21.1 cents. Wall Street Journal, Reuters

Wal-Mart vs. Visa: The giant retailer extended its long-running battle against Visa, filing a $5 billion lawsuit this week against the payments network for allegedly conspiring with banks to charge inflated "swipe fees." Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post

More on Fed and Citi: Second day stories on the Fed's rejecting Citi's capital plan. The Journal offers a blow-by-blow description from the time CEO Michael Corbat received a call in South Korea that forced him to race back to the U.S.. The Times' Dealbook says Citi's board expressed "bafflement and surprise" that regulators refused to approve its plan to increase dividends and stock buybacks. The broader problem may be is Citibank "simply too big to manage." Bank executives and investors lashed out at the Federal Reserve calling the stress tests "opaque," the FT says. Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Financial Times

Wall Street Journal

JPMorgan will pay $1.25 million to settle a lawsuit and release $14.1 million of the $16 million in Peregrine-related it holds in a deal reached with the firm's bankruptcy trustee. JPMorgan was accused of improperly transferring millions of dollars to founder Russell R. Wasendorf Sr. before his Iowa financial firm collapsed in 2012. (Wasendorf is now serving a 50-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to charges he stole $215 million from clients.)

The latest housing reform bill will provide more support to the current housing-industrial complex, writes Josh Rosner in an op-ed. Rosner finds a critical loophole in the Johnson-Crapo bill, one that will hand a "massive taxpayer backstop to the nation's largest banks." If sufficient private capital "doesn't magically appear" to take the first loss position, the bill allows regulators to waive the "first loss" requirement and commit the full faith and credit of the U.S. to support the housing market. So much for a free market.

Financial Times

"Fed stress test results to hit RBS's Citizens division hardest."

British banks face a big tax bill under a new government plan.

Washington Post

Ally Financial's IPO could raise more than $3 billion.