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Swiss private bank Julius Baer says it plans to cut about 1,000 jobs from Merrill Lynch's wealth management operations outside the United States following a deal to buy the unit from Bank Of America.

The U.S. brokerage unit and a European unit of the former Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc said they settled a dispute over $38 billion in asset claims, a major step toward customers and creditors recovering money.

The institution is accelerating its cost-cutting strategy, planning to pare its operations so much that it will lose its spot as the nation’s largest bank employer, falling behind the likes of JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup.

Regulators, led by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, are said to be close to taking action against JPMorgan Chase for insufficient safeguards.

The new federal agency charged with enforcing consumer finance laws is emerging as an ambitious sheriff, taking on companies for deceptive fees and marketing and unmoved by protests that its tactics go too far....

Late last week, a research report by the Susquehanna Financial Group got the market buzzing about the possibility of Wells Fargo acquiring Discover Financial Services. Such an acquisition would no doubt be in line with Wells Fargo’s strategy of focusing on traditional banking services for growth. And the bank has made it clear in the recent past that it will not shy away from opportunities to grow inorganically. So, is there really value to be gained from such a merger between the fourth largest U.S. bank in terms of assets and the fourth largest payments firm?

Morgan Stanley and Citigroup settled a dispute Tuesday over the value of the brokerage firm Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, which they jointly own.

Barclays has moved quickly to fill the void at the top. The bank Thursday named Antony Jenkins, the head of its retail and business banking unit, to succeed Robert Diamond, who was forced to resign July 3 after the Libor rate-rigging scandal.

Here’s something that may (or may not) surprise about you about banks: They’re raking in profits like it’s 2007. It's not such a rosy environment for banks once you cut a little deeper into the numbers. The latest data from the FDIC show banks taking in net income of $34.5 billion in the second quarter of 2012, that’s up $5.9 billion from from the second quarter of 2011.

Investigators are expected to conclude that sloppiness, not criminal intent, was the main driver behind the disappearance of customer money.