Receiving Wide Coverage ...
More Headaches for Barclays: British bank Barclays and its regulator are investigating the possible theft and sale of personal data affecting at least 2,000 customers. Barclays believes based on an initial investigation that the breach was limited to customers from its financial planning business, which it closed in 2011. Customers have begun to be notified that their information might have been stolen. The security breaches followed a less than lackluster earnings report on Monday. Barclays experienced a sharp fall in underlying profit. The company chose to disclose its earnings on the eve of its full year results after earnings estimates had been published by the Financial Times. Still, a new partnership between the city of London police and UK banks claims to be stopping hundreds of attempts to hack into bank accounts. The partnership has prevented the theft of hundreds of millions of dollars in the past nine months. Wall Street Journal, New York Times
Wall Street Journal
A top regulator is weighing having fewer examiners at the sites of some of the largest banks in the U.S. Departing from its post-crisis approach, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which supervises large national banks, launched a formal review of the policy last month and is expected to make a decision within the next several months.
Stanley Fischer, an Obama nominee to serve as vice chair of the Federal Reserve Board, may face an uphill battle in his confirmation hearing. The Wall Street Journal reported that senators from both sides of the aisle are expected to grill him this month at his confirmation hearing over his three year tenure as vice chairman of the Citigroup Inc.
Financial Times
The eurozone's new top bank regulator is ushering in a tougher approach for bank supervision. She said some of the region's banks that have no future should be allowed to fail. In an interview with the FT, Danièle Nouy said she wants to weaken the link between governments and their banks and force financial institutions to hold capital against sovereign debt.
Prices of Bitcoin stumbled 16% after one of the world's largest exchanges of the online currency said it had suspended withdrawals because of a software flaw. Japan's Mt Gox said the defect was making it possible for users of the network to alter transaction details, making it seem as if a transfer had not taken place.
New York Times
A previously unreported email shows that a top Chinese regulator asked JPMorgan Chase's chief executive Jamie Dimon to hire an applicant as a "favor." The applicant was hired. The document, which has recently been turned over to the federal government, is part of an investigation into hiring at the bank. While Dimon says he had nothing to do with the hiring decision, the episode underscores the pressure facing U.S. banks to hire family and friends of China's elite.
