Category Archives: Banking industry

Lawsuit Against California’s Robbing Homeowners of National Mortgage Settlement Funds Has Very Good Chance of Success

Late on Friday, a coalition of African-American, Latino and Asian-American groups sued California Governor Jerry Brown, demanding that he return $350 million stolen from the state’s share of the National Mortgage Settlement to plug a budget hole.

California is far from the only state to divert money given as a penalty for homeowner abuse into the General Fund; in fact, less than half of the $2.5 billion given to states in the settlement actually went to housing (and that’s a generous rendering which counts things like North Dakota spending to increase housing stock in oil country for police officers, when that has nothing to do with compensation for abuse). In fact, consumer groups in Arizona already tried to sue to force $50 million that went to their state’s General Fund back into the hands of homeowners. But a Maricopa County judge ruled that the language of the consent order was sufficiently broad to allow the diversion of funds.

Does that mean that this California lawsuit is nothing more than a show of vanity, destined to fail? Absolutely not. In fact, by a strict reading of the case law and the documents in the case, the plaintiffs should win in a walk.

Why the Justice Department Inspector General Report on Mortgage Fraud Matters

Hello, folks! As Yves is off explaining the world to Washington, I’m manning the controls for a couple days.

This allows me to ensure that NC has that whole Justice Department IG report on mortgage fraud covered. I know that Yves heaved the written equivalent of a sigh at the news, and she wasn’t wrong. Nothing tangible is likely to happen for the borrowers victimized by the abusive practices that DoJ willfully neglected to prosecute. And there’s surely a seat being kept warm at Covington & Burling for Eric Holder’s post-government career; this won’t hurt him a bit.

But because I don’t feel the coverage so far has plumbed the depths of this corruption, and because it’s still happening, it’s not worth going silent just yet. It’s probably spitting into the wind, yes, but I’ve got the time and the spit, so I want to note a few things.

Banker Farce: Spanish Bank CEO Launches Moral Crusade Against Political Corruption

“We have to fight corruption in order to build a new model of more sustainable and fairer growth.”

These laudable words came from the least likely of mouths – that of Francisco González, CEO of Spanish banking giant Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA). González was speaking at the bank’s annual shareholder meeting, held last week in Bilbao.

BBVA is Spain’s second biggest bank with operations in more than 30 countries including the U.S., China, Argentina, Columbia and Mexico. It has about 107,000 employees, 47 million customers worldwide, a million shareholders and now, it seems, a moralizing CEO.

Philip Pilkington: Bank of England Endorses Post-Keynesian Endogenous Money Theory

Yves here. Not only is the Bank of England siding with Post-Keynesian ideas about money, but it has even taken to creating layperson-friendly videos about the nature of money.

Is UCC Article 9 Going to Kill the Use of Bitcoin by US Businesses?

Warning to Bitcoin enthusiasts: if you airily try dismissing UCC Article 9 as a nothigburger, you’ve just established you are unqualified to comment on commercial transactions in the US. Read what follows and be warned.

New Lawsuit Alleges That Wells Has a Manual for Mass Fabrication of Foreclosure Documents

Catherine Curan of the New York Post has an important new story on a Federal lawsuit that looks to have unearthed a smoking gun about systematic document fabrication at Wells Fargo.

Bill Black at TED Explains How Insiders Rob Banks and Cause Crises

A presentation by Bill Black disproves that TED only features elite-flattering conventional wisdom.

New In-Depth Study Shows How Debt Collectors Abuse Legal System and Borrowers

The Loyola Consumer Law Review has just released an important paper by Peter Holland of the University of Maryland Francis School of Law. It’s a large scale statistical study, the first of its kind. Its conclusions are not pretty.

Chinese Bond Default Rattles Markets; Harbinger of More Credit Woes?

A corporate bond default should hardly be a headline dominating-event unless the default in question is of a particularly large concern, or is tightly coupled (as in could, Lehman-style, trigger more distress) or is a precursor of things to come.

JP Morgan/Madoff Case Puts Spotlight on Use of Lawyers as Investigation-Blockers

Whenever a scandal of sufficient magnitude arises at a bank, it’s standard practice to hire an “independent” third party to conduct an investigation and give a report to senior management and the board. But now even bank friendly regulators are starting to suspect that banks are hiring attorneys do to this work, not to come clean, but to facilitate a cover-up.

Steve Keen: Godzilla Banks are Good for You?

Yves here. Although Keen’s use of the Godzilla metaphor is fun, the unvarnished facts he presents are plenty alarming. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney is actually gleeful at the prospect that England’s banking sector might grow to be as large relative to its economy as Iceland’s and Cyprus’ on the eve of their busts. But even worse, Carney’s enthusiasm for a banking sector that continues with its cancerous (or as Keen would have it, monstrous) growth gives license to bank lobbyists in the US and Europe to press for high rates of growth in their finance sectors so as to defend their national champions.

Yes, Virginia, Banking Contributes a Lot Less Value Than You are Led to Believe

One thing we’ve discussed repeatedly is that the activities of large banks, as presently constituted, are purely extractive. And to add insult to injury, GDP calculations exaggerate what in the way of value they arguably do add.

Vermont Citizens Push to Form a State Bank, But Will Ratings Agencies Kill the Idea?

Martha R wrote to tell me that a serious effort is underway in Vermont to launch a state bank.

Quelle Surprise! Banks Are Opposed to More Liquid Markets When They Don’t Make Enough From Them

Bloomberg has an intriguing story about a bit of lobbying the big dealer banks are engaged in via a group called the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee, which represents 15 out of the total of 22 primary dealers (a primary dealer, among other things, gets to bid for its own account at Treasury bond auctions). Of course, the object of their efforts is to improve their profitability, here by putting parties they regard as competitors at more of a disadvantage.