| US: Big Banks Paid Billions in Bonuses Amid Wall St. Crisis by Louise Story and Eric Dash, New York Times July 30th, 2009 Nine of the financial firms that were recipients of federal bailout money paid about 5,000 of their traders and bankers bonuses of more than $1 million apiece for 2008, according to a report released Thursday by the New York attorney general. The report is certain to intensify the growing debate over how, and how much, Wall Street bankers should be paid. |
| US/ANTIGUA: Texas Financier and Antiguan Official Charged With Fraud by Clifford Krauss , New York Times June 19th, 2009 A U.S. Justice Department indictment unsealed Friday accused R. Allen Stanford of Stanford International Bank, based in the Caribbean money haven of Antigua, of operating a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme with the help of Antigua’s top banking regulator, Leroy King. |
| UK: Shell faces investor fury over pay, pollution and human rights by Terry Macalister, The Guardian May 17th, 2009 |
| UK: Shell at risk of investor pay revolt by Kate Burgess and Ed Crooks, Financial Times May 5th, 2009 Royal Dutch Shell is facing the risk of a shareholder rebellion over pay for the second successive year after two influential investor advisory groups raised concerns about discretionary pay awards made to board-level executives. |
| UK: Shareholders vote against RBS pay BBC Online April 3rd, 2009 More than 90% of Royal Bank of Scotland shareholders voted against the bank's pay and pensions policy at its annual general meeting in Edinburgh. RBS does not have to make any changes as a result, saying it was a "substantive" protest at Sir Fred Goodwin's £703,000 a year pension. Sir Philip blamed RBS's difficulties on its acquisition of the Dutch bank ABN Amro in 2007. |
| US: Bonus Money at Troubled A.I.G. Draws Heavy Criticism by EDMUND L. ANDREWS and PETER BAKER, New York Times March 15th, 2009 American International Group, which has received more than $170 billion in taxpayer bailout money, is to pay executives in the business unit that brought the company to the brink of collapse last year $165 million in bonuses. The bonuses will go forward because lawyers say the firm is contractually obligated to pay them. |
| US: Undisclosed Losses at Merrill Lynch Lead to a Trading Inquiry by Louise Story and Eric Dash, New York Times March 6th, 2009 Bank of America chief executive, Kenneth D. Lewis, is trying to bridle Merrill Lynch traders, whose rush into risky investments nearly brought down the brokerage firm. But questions over the Merrill losses — in particular, who knew about them, and when — keep swirling. |
| UGANDA/IRAQ: Why 10,000 Ugandans are eagerly serving in Iraq by Max Delany, Christian Science Monitor March 6th, 2009 Hired out to multibillion-dollar companies for hundreds of dollars a month, 10,000 Ugandans risk their lives seeking fortunes protecting US Army bases, airports, and oil firms in Iraq for as little as $600 per month. Many are looking to go to Afghanistan as the Obama administration increases contracts there. |
| US: Ex-Leaders at Countrywide Start Firm to Buy Bad Loans by Eric Lipton, New York Times March 3rd, 2009 Countrywide Financial made risky loans to tens of thousands of Americans, helping set off a chain of events that has the economy staggering. So it may come as a surprise that a dozen former top Countrywide executives now stand to make millions from the home mortgage mess, buying up delinquent home mortgages that the government took over, sometimes for pennies on the dollar, at newly-formed PennyMac. |
| CHINA: Morgan Stanley’s Chinese Land Scandal by David Barboza , New York Times March 1st, 2009 In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Morgan Stanley said it had fired an executive in its China real estate division after uncovering evidence that he might have violated the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bars American business people from bribing foreign officials. |
| SWITZERLAND: UBS Names Grübel as New CEO by Carrick Mollenkamp, Wall Street Journal February 26th, 2009 UBS AG, the Swiss bank battered by massive write-downs and its role in a U.S. tax-evasion scheme, announced the surprise departure of chief executive Marcel Rohner. Mr. Rohner's sudden departure comes after UBS agreed earlier this month to a $780 million settlement with the U.S. Justice Department of a criminal inquiry into the bank's role in the tax evasion. |
| UK: Politicians pile pressure on bailed-out RBS to abandon plans for a £1bn bonus for staff by Allegra Stratton, The Guardian (UK) February 9th, 2009 Politicians from all sides rounded on the state-supported Royal Bank of Scotland yesterday as the row intensified over the failed bank's apparent determination to share £1bn of bonuses among staff. |
| US, CANADA: Business aircraft makers face severe test by Kevin Done, Financial Times February 8th, 2009 Business jet makers reeling from the US political attack on some of their highest profile corporate high fliers are being forced to make drastic cuts in production and jobs in the face of the deepening global recession. |
| US: Bank of America Board Under Gun From Critics by Louise Story and Julie Creswell, New York Times January 27th, 2009 As Bank of America's board meets next week, shareholders have turned up the pressure on CEO Kenneth D. Lewis. Their scrutiny has also turned an unusual spotlight on the oversight role played by the bank's board members. |
| US: Rubin Leaving Citigroup; Smith Barney for Sale by Eric Dash and Louise Story, New York Times January 9th, 2009 Robert Rubin will resign from the beleaguered Citigroup. As Treasury secretary during the Clinton administration, Mr. Rubin helped loosen Depression-era banking regulations that made Citigroup's creation possible. He also helped beat back tighter oversight of exotic financial products during that time. |
| US: On Wall Street, Bonuses, Not Profits, Were Real
by LOUISE STORY, The New York Times December 17th, 2008 As regulators and shareholders sift through the rubble of the financial crisis, questions are being asked about what role lavish bonuses played in the debacle. Scrutiny over pay is intensifying as banks like Merrill prepare to dole out bonuses even after they have had to be propped up with billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money. |
| US: In Factory Sit-In, an Anger Spread Wide by MONICA DAVEY, New York Times December 7th, 2008 In a glimpse at how the nation’s loss of more than 600,000 manufacturing jobs this year is boiling over, workers laid off from Republic Windows and Doors, said they would not leave, after company officials announced that the factory was closing. The workers were owed vacation and severance pay and were not given the 60 days of notice generally required by federal law in lay-offs. |
| US: No Bonuses for 7 Senior Executives at Goldman
by BEN WHITE, The New York Times November 16th, 2008 As public scrutiny of Wall Street pay intensifies, one bank has already decided what it will award in bonuses to its top seven executives this year: nothing. |
| US: U.S. May Take Ownership Stake in Banks by Edmund L. Andrews and Mark Landler, New York Times October 8th, 2008 In fresh efforts to stem persisting turmoil in the credit markets, the US Treasury Department is considering partial nationalization of numerous U.S. banks. Insurance giant A.I.G. will also receive a further injection of $37.8 billion. |
| US: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Takeovers Cost U.S. Banks Billions by John Hechinger, Wall Street Journal September 23rd, 2008 About a quarter of the nation's banks lost a combined $10 to $15 billion in the wake of the federal government's takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The losses are galling to small bankers because they took pains to avoid the exotic loans and loose underwriting standards that have hobbled Wall Street titans and some huge banks. |