Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

Receiving Wide Coverage ...TD Bank: CEO Ed Clark will retire next year and hand the reins to Bharat Masrani, who has overseen the Canadian bank's expansion in the U.S. over the last six years — a hint of where TD's growth ambitions lie. The story in today's Journal leads with an anecdote suggesting customer service has worsened at the former Commerce Bank operations since the Canucks took over "America's Most Convenient Bank." Somewhere, Vernon Hill is saying "muahahaha." (Speaking of ol' Vernon, while on holiday in London last week, we passed by a branch of his Metro Bank and did a double take. It was a dead ringer for the old Commerce branches.) Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times

Receiving Wide Coverage ...BOJ Goes for Broke: ...Or, perhaps, will go broke trying. Haruhiko Kuroda, the newly installed Bank of Japan governor, unveiled a package of easy-money policies Thursday that might make even Ben Bernanke blush. "This is an entirely new dimension of monetary easing, both in terms of quantity and quality," Kuroda said. "Our stance is to take all the policy measures imaginable at this point to achieve the 2% [inflation] target in two years." The program is "so aggressive in scale and tactics that it surprised investors," according to the Wall Street Journal's analysis of the markets' initial reaction to the announced doubling of central bank holdings of government bonds and the amount of yen in circulation. All told, the bond-buying program is 60% larger than the Fed's as a percentage of GDP. The BOJ has been facing intense pressure from the nation's new political leader, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, to go big. Its contribution to Abenomics echoes moves by the Fed: aggressive buying of long-term securities, accompanied by clearly stated targets and bold talk of commitment from the central bank chief, the Journal said. Curiously, the BOJ is both joining other major central banks in testing the limits of the ability to stimulate an economy by firing up the printing presses and also going where no major central bank has gone before. The new territory involves the fact that, at more than two times GDP, Japan's debt is already exorbitant. That's true even by ultra-hocked-up modern measures. What's more its easy-money policy and near-zero interest rates are already long in the tooth. Risks abound for the BOJ and central banks worldwide. Asset bubbles, inflation and falling currency values are among them. The yen was down sharply on word of Kuroda's move. "Doubling the monetary base will weaken the yen and promote risk-taking such as stock buying," the Financial Times declared. Certainly the financial world's big thinkers have their doubts that the BOJ will be able to keep the bus on the highway. Currency speculator extraordinaire George Soros took to CNBC to warn that "If the yen starts to fall, which it has done, and people in Japan realize that it's liable to continue and want to put their money abroad, then the fall may become like an avalanche." Pimco's Bill Gross, appearing on Bloomberg TV, questioned whether other industrialized nations will permit Japan to pursue an export-driven, beggar-thy-neighbor cheap yen policy to the extent necessary to stoke 2% domestic price gains. "I'm not sure that other G-7 countries are willing to permit that," he said. We won't even venture a guess as to what David Stockman would say. Wall Street Journal

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Lobbying for Dimon's Dual Role: JPMorgan Chase board members certainly support Jamie Dimon as bank CEO and chairman. Now, they're working hard to ensure shareholders feel the same way ahead of a vote on a nonbinding proposal to take away Dimon's chairman title. The proposal, which has been voted on by shareholders before, is expected to get more support this year due to the continued fallout from the London Whale trading debacle and concerns over succession planning. Per a representative for one activist shareholder group quoted by the Journal, "I can't think of another company where independent board leadership would be a more useful correction for CEO hubris." But other shareholders believe splitting the roles could create more problems than it solves, reports Dealbook. Those interested in the general debate around having the same CEO and chairman should check out this American Banker video.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Confirmed: As expected, the Senate confirmed former federal prosecutor turned corporate defender Mary Jo White as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. She's set to start at the SEC any day now, but already has her hands full. On the SEC's (and as such White's) to-do list, per Dealbook: "complete new rules for Wall Street," "take aim at financial fraud," "confront the growing world of high-frequency trading … and money market funds." The Post reports, before she was confirmed White told Senator Al Franken "she would consider reforming the credit rating agency industry." She'll also need to address growing hostility over the SEC's delays in "establishing the rules to implement new online crowdfunding portals" authorized as part of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act last April.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Mortgage Settlement Checks to Be Mailed: Regulators announced yesterday that the first round of checks related to their $8.5 billion settlement with banks over alleged foreclosure processing mistakes will soon be in the mail. Many news outlets led with the stats. The Fed and the OCC "are set to dole out roughly $1.2 billion in the first batch of payments," Dealbook reports. "By April 12, the regulators expect to mail 1.4 million checks." Others focused on just how little the borrowers are actually getting. As the opening paragraph of the Wall Street Journal article notes, "The vast majority of borrowers … will get $1,000 or less apiece, a sobering coda to a protracted attempt to help those who may have been placed into foreclosure as a result of banks' mistakes." Or, as the American Banker headline summarizes, "Foreclosure Review Amounts to Peanuts for Most Borrowers." Regulators' attempts to address this issue have long been on the receiving end of criticism. American Banker readers will recall that the settlement replaced a "bungled" foreclosure review process that appeared to benefit consultants more than the involved homeowners. More big picture coverage on the soon-to-be mailed settlement checks can be found here: Bloomberg, Reuters

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Chairman and CEO?: Goldman Sachs' Lloyd Blankfein has successfully skirted a vote that could have split up his role as CEO and chairman after striking a deal with the investment group putting forth the proposal. The deal beefs up the role of lead director James Schiro, who will, moving forward, "set the agenda for the board, instead of merely approving it" and "write his own letter to shareholders in the proxy statement," Dealbook reports. Now the world waits to see what happens to JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who faces a nonbinding vote on a similar issue at his bank's annual shareholder meeting next month. Dimon, the FT reports, "will not get off so easily" largely due to a little thing called the London Whale. This may be why, as the Journal reports, Dimon's annual letter to shareholders "lacked the feisty tone of years past." In the 30-page letter, Dimon "renewed his apologies" for the trading debacle, calling it "the stupidest and most embarrassing situation I have ever been a part of" and pledged to focus on compliance control. One analyst told Bloomberg earlier this week that Dimon may leave JPM "maybe not immediately but within the year" if the vote doesn't go his way. After all, he has all that new office space.

Breaking News This Morning ...JPM Earnings: JPMorgan Chase kicked off earnings season today by announcing a 33% rise in net income in the first quarter. The bank reported a profit $6.53 billion, or $1.59 a share, besting analyst expectations of about $5.4 billion in net income. Per the Journal, "strong investment-banking results offset declining mortgage revenue." Per some live-tweeting, JPM CEO Jamie Dimon dodged questions regarding the shareholder proposal to break up his role as CEO and chairman during the earnings call. "You guys can ask me this question 15 times. This is an earnings call." American Banker's Maria Aspan reported in a tweet. "JPM's Dimon really doesn't want to talk chairman/CEO split proposal." More big picture coverage: Financial Times, Washington Post, New York Times, American Banker

Breaking News This Morning ...Earnings: Citigroup, M&T, First Republic, Webster

Breaking News This Morning ...Earnings: U.S. Bancorp, Comerica, Goldman Sachs, Northern Trust

Breaking News This Morning ...Earnings: Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon, Huntington, PNC