First, it was the chairman of the board said he was leaving his post; now it's the big man, Barclays CEO Bob Diamond who's stepping down effective immediately. The London-based financial services giant is accused of rigging the level of a key interest rate along with nearly two dozen other banks.
Barclays Bank, based in London, is paying $450 million to settle securities investigations in the U.S. and the U.K. Regulators accused the bank of manipulating a critical interest rate — the so-called "Libor" rate — to its own advantage.
The credit rating agency Moody's slashed the ratings of 15 of the world's biggest financial institutions, including Citigroup and Bank of America here in the U.S. and Barclays and Credit Suisse in Europe.
After U.S. markets closed yesterday, the rating agency Moody's delivered more bad news — this time to 15 of the world's largest banks, including the biggest American banks. The fine print of the downgrade hints at more bank bailouts down the road.
Global markets are down about a percent this morning after the rating agency Moody's downgraded the credit ratings of 15 of the largest banks in the world. Among them, European institutions — but also big American banks like JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America.
If yesterday was all about Greece, today belongs to Spain. Concern about Spanish banks has pushed the government's borrowing costs over 7 percent. That's a level that pushed other smaller European countries — like Greece — over the edge.
This week, Bank of America became the latest bank to make a sustainability pledge. The New York Times suggests this a way for Wall Street to restore its image. But, instead, could it just be a savvy investment strategy?
The CEO of JPMorgan has been summoned to Capitol Hill today. According to his prepared remarks, Dimon will apologize, saying he feels "terrible" about the $2 billion blunder.
