Banking

Citigroup Offers New "Pick Pocket" Derivative

According to trade magazine RiskNet, credit specialists at Citigroup are considering launching the first derivatives intended to pay out in the event of a financial crisis. These types of derivatives function like an insurance policy, allowing parties to hedge against risk.

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Citibank Sticks It to Customers -- and Congress

fist of money Citibank is dodging newly-enacted federal laws aimed at protecting consumers from unfair credit card company practices. The new law prohibits credit card companies from raising interest rates whenever they like, on short notice or no notice, and for no particular reason.

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Goldman Accused of Rigging "Robin Hood Tax" Vote

It's really unbelievable. The way that Goldman Sachs keeps sticking its foot in it is simply unbelievable. Let's not review their gross profits and bonuses, or their many failed public relations schemes to gloss over unseemly profits, a practice we have dubbed "greedwashing". Let's simply recap this week's news.

On Sunday, the New York Times detailed in a front-page expose' how Goldman may have hastened the demise of AIG, and perhaps the global economy, by betting that the housing market would collapse and jacking up its insurance for mortgage securities with AIG to extract more and more money from the firm as the housing market went south.

The "Committee for Truth in Politics"?

A group called the Committee for Truth in Politics (CTP) is running ads in selected states opposing the "Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act," which would overhaul the country's financial sector, more tightly regulate consumer financial products like home mortgages, car loans and credit cards, and help prevent another Wall Street meltdown.

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Megabankers "Educate" Hill Staffers on Writing Financial Rules

Last September, when President Barack Obama gave a major speech on Wall Street urging bankers to support financial reform, the CEOs of the nation's megabanks didn't bother to show up -- a move widely interpreted as a sign of disrespect.

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Groundhogs Day on Wall Street

On the day that Punxsutawney Phil emerged to predict a long hard winter, Americans picked up the newspaper to read that AIG, the bankrupt insurance giant, was going to pay out $100 million in bonuses to its failed financial products division. Kenneth Feinberg, President Obama’s pay czar, announced that these were “grandfathered” retention payments and that the unit had taken a $20 million dollar reduction in bonuses.

Like Bill Murray in the classic film Groundhog Day, we are being forced to live this day over again.

Golden Throne Award Goes to Tim Ryan, Spinmeister for U.S. Securities Industry

T. Timothy Ryan, Jr.The Center for Media and Democracy and BanksterUSA are pleased to present our Golden Throne Award to T. Timothy Ryan Jr., President and Chief Executive Officer of the Securities Industries and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA). SIFMA is the leading behind-the-scenes lobby group representing big banks and investment firms, as well as broker-dealers and other peddlers of financial instruments, which Warren Buffett labeled "weapons of mass destruction." SIFMA lobbies Congress and financial regulators, and handles securities-related press for some of the biggest players in the financial crisis--Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, AIG, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, and Fidelity Investments.

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