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From Scott Reckard at the LA Times: 3 big banks nearly halt foreclosure sales after U.S. tweaks orders Sales of homes in foreclosure by Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. ground nearly to a halt after regulators [...]]]>  

Report: Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup “nearly halt foreclosure sales”

From Scott Reckard at the LA Times: 3 big banks nearly halt foreclosure sales after U.S. tweaks orders Sales of homes in foreclosure by Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. ground nearly to a halt after regulators revised their orders on treatment of troubled borrowers during the 60 days before they lose their homes.

via: www.calculatedriskblog.com

Anger over the financial affairs of multinationals such as Google, Amazon and Starbucks is gathering momentum in Westminster. Now the UK is poised to lead the debate about international tax reform at next month’s G8 summit Huge orange and green cranes [...]]]>  

Fury at corporate tax avoidance leads to call for a global response

Anger over the financial affairs of multinationals such as Google, Amazon and Starbucks is gathering momentum in Westminster. Now the UK is poised to lead the debate about international tax reform at next month’s G8 summit Huge orange and green cranes hover over a vast building site at King’s Cross, London. Over the next three years, 2.

via: www.guardian.co.uk

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English: Platts logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Some of the world’s biggest oil companies may have a new mess on their hands.

The European Commission raided the offices of Shell, BP and Norway’s Statoil this week as part of an investigation into suspected attempts to manipulate global oil prices spanning more than a decade.

None of the companies have been accused of wrongdoing, but the controversy has brought back memories of the Libor rate-rigging scandal that rocked the financial world last year.

UBS (UBS), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Barclays (BCS) have already reached settlements with regulators in the U.S. and U.K. over Libor-rigging, paying over $2.5 billion in fines after admitting to attempts to manipulate interest rates to appear more credit-worthy and to benefit trading positions. Roughly a dozen other global banks remain under scrutiny over rate-rigging, and three people have been arrested so far.

Reams of email and instant-message transcripts disclosed in the settlements so far reveal how the banks’ scheme worked, and experts have since warned that influential pricing data from publishers serving the oil market could be similarly vulnerable to manipulation.

A review ordered by the British government last year in the wake of the Libor revelations cited “clear” parallels between the work of the oil-price-reporting agencies and Libor.

Libor-setting is overseen by the British Bankers Association, an industry trade group, though U.K. law was changed last month to allow financial regulators to supervise the process.

Oil-price benchmarks are set by independent “price-reporting agencies,” the most influential of which is Platts, a division of McGraw-Hill (MHFI). Platts’ data is used help set prices for billions of dollars’ worth of physical oil and derivatives contracts.

As the Libor scandal gathered force last year, Platts and its fellow price-reporting agencies, Argus and ICIS, issued a joint statement emphasizing what they called the “fundamental differences” between their “reliable and robust” methods and those used in calculating Libor. Some observers, however, say the processes are similarly vulnerable.

There are also concerns about the fact that reporting to Platts is done by traders voluntarily. In a report issued in October, the International Organization of Securities Commissions — an association of regulators — said the ability “to selectively report data on a voluntary basis creates an opportunity for manipulating the commodity market data” submitted to Platts and its competitors.

Responding to questions from IOSCO last year, French oil giant Total said the price-reporting agencies, or PRAs, sometimes “do not assure an accurate representation of the market and consequently deform the real price levels paid at every level of the price chain, including by the consumer.” But Total called Platts and its competitors “generally… conscientious and professional.”

“While there is the risk of market actors voluntarily submitting false data to the PRA assessment process, most PRAs have effective processes to verify submissions and generally avoid this problem,” Total said.

Platts describes its methods as “structured” and “highly transparent,” saying the submissions it collects must reflect verifiable transactions or executable bids and offers. The agency vets submitters and restricts them from altering their bids and offers beyond defined increments to mitigate against sudden price swings.

Platts declined to comment in detail on the European Commission investigation, saying only that investigators visited its office in London on Tuesday and that it is “cooperating fully” with the probe.

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• Oil price manipulation: The next Libor scandal?

Be prepared for the next great transfer of wealth. Buy physical silver and storable food. Most people either don’t realise or don’t want to accept that state-run China will continue to become more important telegraph.co.uk / By Jim O’Neill / May 17, 2013, [...]]]>  

Global growth could accelerate, but China’s fortunes hold the key

Be prepared for the next great transfer of wealth. Buy physical silver and storable food. Most people either don’t realise or don’t want to accept that state-run China will continue to become more important telegraph.co.uk / By Jim O’Neill / May 17, 2013, 6:02PM BS In the last three decades, the world economy has grown by a remarkably similar rate.

via: silveristhenew.com

The Commerce Department said on Thursday that starts at building sites for [...]]]>

Us dept of commerce building (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ground-breaking for new U.S. homes plummeted more than expected in April from an almost five-year high, but applications to build new homes shows the housing sector could still contribute to the strengthening economic recovery.

The Commerce Department said on Thursday that starts at building sites for homes fell 16.5 percent last month to a 853,000-unit annual rate. That was below analysts’ expectations of a 945,000-unit rate.

The housing recovery, driven by growing demand and record-low mortgage rates, has started to boost other sectors of the economy in the first part of the year.

Builders appear to be ramping up for more construction projects. Newly issued building permits, a gauge of future construction, rose 14.3 percent from a month earlier to an annual rate of 1.017 million, the highest level since June 2008.

Permits for single-family homes, which comprise about two thirds of the total, rose 3 percent to a 617,000-unit rate, the highest since May 2008.

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• U.S. April housing starts plummet, but permits rise

The Obama administration is forecast to turn a record $51 billion profit this year from student loan borrowers, a sum greater than the earnings of the nation’s most profitable companies and roughly equal to the combined net income of the four largest U.S. banks by assets.

Figures made public Tuesday by the Congressional Budget [...]]]>

The Obama administration is forecast to turn a record $51 billion profit this year from student loan borrowers, a sum greater than the earnings of the nation’s most profitable companies and roughly equal to the combined net income of the four largest U.S. banks by assets.

Figures made public Tuesday by the Congressional Budget Office show that the nonpartisan agency increased its 2013 fiscal year profit forecast for the Department of Education by 43 percent to $50.6 billion from its February estimate of $35.5 billion.

Exxon Mobil Corp., the nation’s most profitable company, reported $44.9 billion in net income last year. Apple Inc. recorded a $41.7 billion profit in its 2012 fiscal year, which ended in September, while Chevron Corp. reported $26.2 billion in earnings last year. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo reported a combined $51.9 billion in profit last year.

The estimated increase in the Education Department’s earnings from student borrowers and their families may cause a political firestorm in Washington, where members of Congress and Obama administration officials thus far have appeared content to allow students to line government coffers.

The Education Department has generated nearly $120 billion in profit off student borrowers over the last five fiscal years, budget documents show, thanks to record relative interest rates on loans as well as the agency’s aggressive efforts to collect defaulted debt. A spokesman from the Education Department did not respond to a request for comment. A Congressional Budget Office spokesman could not be reached for comment after normal business hours.

The new profit prediction comes as Washington policymakers increasingly focus on soaring student debt levels and the record relative interest rates that borrowers pay as a potential impediment to economic growth. Regulators and officials at agencies that include the Federal Reserve, Treasury Department, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Federal Reserve Bank of New York have all warned that student borrowing may dampen consumption, depress the economy, limit credit creation or pose a threat to financial stability.

At $1.1 trillion, student debt eclipses all other forms of household debt, except for home mortgages. It’s also the only kind of consumer debt that has increased since the onset of the financial crisis, according to the New York Fed. Officials in Washington are worried that overly indebted student borrowers are unable to save enough to purchase a home, take out loans for new cars, start a business or save enough for their retirement.

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• Obama Student Loan Policy Reaps Bigger Profit Than Exxon

Wall Street Wins Rollback in Dodd-Frank Swap-Trade Rules By Silla Brush – 2013-05-16T20:42:42Z JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM) ., Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS) . and the world’s largest banks won rollbacks in final Dodd-Frank Act rules that promise to transform the private swaps [...]]]>  

Wall Street Wins Rollback in Dodd-Frank Swap-Trade Rules – Bloomberg

Wall Street Wins Rollback in Dodd-Frank Swap-Trade Rules By Silla Brush – 2013-05-16T20:42:42Z JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM) ., Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS) . and the world’s largest banks won rollbacks in final Dodd-Frank Act rules that promise to transform the private swaps market by increasing competition.

via: www.bloomberg.com

Lobbyists for the nation’s biggest banks have persuaded federal regulators to soften a proposed rule under the Dodd-Frank Act, the financial overhaul law passed after the crisis of 2008. The rule, which regulators plan to approve on Thursday, could protect Wall Street’s control over the $700 trillion derivatives [...]]]>  

Compromise Seen on Derivatives Rule

Lobbyists for the nation’s biggest banks have persuaded federal regulators to soften a proposed rule under the Dodd-Frank Act, the financial overhaul law passed after the crisis of 2008. The rule, which regulators plan to approve on Thursday, could protect Wall Street’s control over the $700 trillion derivatives market,…

via: dealbook.nytimes.com