Receiving Wide Coverage ...
Confirmed: The Senate voted 56 to 26 to confirm to approve Janet Yellen as the first Federal Reserve chairwoman. Yellen's historical confirmation was by "the thinnest margin of Senate approval for a Fed chairman in the central bank's history," reports the Times, though it's worth noting that a few lawmakers missed the vote due to inclement weather (See: polar vortex.) Yellen will take office on February 1 and "will immediately be forced to grapple with questions over whether the economy that is on the mend can withstand further dialing back of the Fed's latest bond-buying program," notes the Journal. She'll also have to deal with some unfinished banking regulation business. (More of how that story is likely to play out can be found here, courtesy of American Banker reporter Donna Borak.)
Exiting: Glenn Hadden, Morgan Stanley's head of interest rate trading, is leaving the investment bank due, essentially, to irreconcilable differences with management. The FT notes Hadden's open remarks regarding his departure "highlight the internal resistance to changes driven by James Gorman, Morgan Stanley chief executive, who, some traders believe, is intent on reducing risk taking so significantly that it threatens the bank's competitive position." Morgan Stanley named Jakob Horder and Mitch Nadel, two fixed-income executives, to immediately replace Hadden as co-heads of global rates. According to the Journal, Hadden, who previously spent 14 years at Goldman Sachs, has "no intention of retiring
and plans to continue his career in investment finance."
Probed: The U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority announced on Monday that they are officially investigating Co-operative Bank, the beleaguered British firm that bailed itself out largely by ceding control to institutional investors after suffering a £1.5 billion capital shortfall in June. Scan readers will recall the U.K. Treasury launched its own probe into the bank shortly after former Co-op chairman Paul Flowers was arrested as part of a drug investigation in November. The probes will examine how the bank was run in the years leading up to its current crisis. New York Times, Financial Times
Wall Street Journal
Anonymice tell the paper that JPMorgan Chase officials "won't be penalized" as part of the expected $2 billion-plus, Bernie Madoff-related settlement with U.S. regulators.
Here's some bad news for/from Wall Street, ahead of next week's bank earnings: "lackluster markets could lead to year-over-year declines in fixed-income, commodities and currency trading revenue." And the slump, exacerbated by new regulations that have prompted many firms to exit "once-lucrative" commodities businesses, could be permanent.
U.S. securities regulators are poised to propose a "long-delayed" set of rules to rein in municipal bond advisers. "Most advisers are unaffiliated with banks and were previously unregulated," the paper notes.
Financial Times
Leaked excerpts from a report by German watchdog BaFin has renewed pressure on Deutsche Bank to "make senior management changes" in response to the London Interbank offered rate scandal.
