Former Citigroup Inc. Chief Executive Officer Charles O. “Chuck” Prince said he wasn’t aware of the mortgage-related securities that caused the bank’s biggest losses until the financial crisis struck. Neither was Robert Rubin, the former U.S. Treasury secretary who headed the bank’s executive committee in the decade leading up to the crisis, he said at a hearing today [...]

Bank failures, citi, credit, structured products, subprime, US Hide

DAVOS, Switzerland: Bankers on Wednesday hit out against over-regulation, with the head of British giant Barclays warning that cutting big banks down would hurt employment and the economy. While politicians including French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he backed US clampdown plans, others like China’s deputy central bank chief Zhu Min saw no reason for the [...]

Bank failures, recovery, unemployment, US Hide

LONDON : Britain on Monday led a push for a global deal on reforming the banking sector that could include widespread agreement for an extraordinary tax on lenders amid concerns that the US may go it alone. Paul Myners, the minister charged with overseeing Britain’s financial services sector, said international agreement on the issue “would [...]

Bank failures, taxes, UK Hide

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama on Thursday announced a plan to limit the size and scope of US banks and finance firms in a populist bid to roll back corporate excess and limit dangerous risk-taking. “Never again will the American taxpayer be held hostage by a bank that is too big to fail,” Obama said, at [...]

Bank failures, US Hide

Layers of money managers that don’t bear the brunt of losses but walk away with big payouts when things go well have turned the US economy to a type of “ersatz capitalism,” Joseph Stiglitz, Columbia University professor and Nobel laureate, told CNBC Tuesday. “An awful lot of people are not managing their own money,” Stiglitz [...]

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WASHINGTON: Top US bankers on Wednesday acknowledged mistakes that led up to the global financial crisis as a special commission launched its inquiry into the economic calamity. The congressionally mandated 10-member panel, which has been compared to the 9/11 panel that studied the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States, began its first [...]

Bank failures, investment banks, US Hide

Iceland’s president has told the BBC’s Newsnight it will pay its debt to the British and Dutch governments. The country’s willingness to refund the money those governments paid to citizens who lost money in the banking crisis has come under question. The president, Olafur Grimsson, stunned observers on Tuesday when he refused to sign off [...]

Bank failures, debt, Euro, UK Hide

FRANKFURT : Around 30 million high-tech German bank cards could leave owners high and dry, bank associations warned Tuesday as the feared Y2K computer bug cropped up 10 years later than expected. The problem that hit cardholders trying to use cash machines or make payments throughout Germany and abroad stems from computer chips unable to [...]

Bank failures, consumers, technology Hide

Dubai was supposed to be a new model for economic development in the Persian Gulf, and in the world. And like so many recent “new models,” Dubai is proving to be a lemon. The theory was that Dubai would be a competitive, free oasis in a region generally hostile to the open market. Lacking oil [...]

Bank failures, Dubai, lehman Hide

Patrick Hosking and David Robertson, Times UK Fears of a dangerous new phase in the economic crisis swept around the globe yesterday as traders responded to the shock announcement that a debt-laden Dubai state corporation was unable to meet its interest bill. Shares plunged, weak currencies were battered and more than £14 billion was wiped [...]

Bank failures, Dubai Hide