Banks, Financial Institution | featured news

Insurer AIG says it will not join a $25bn (£16bn) lawsuit against the US government, which alleges that the terms of its rescue deal were unfair.

Next year, $1.5 trillion of bank deposits will lose an unlimited government guarantee granted during the financial crisis, and boutique firms are offering new shelters for the cash.

UBS on Wednesday became the first big global bank in more than two decades to have a subsidiary plead guilty to fraud. UBS, the Swiss bank, scrambled until the last minute to avoid that fate. A week ago, in a bid for leniency over interest-rate manipulation, the bank’s chairman traveled to Washington to plead his case to the Justice Department, according to people briefed on the matter. Knowing the long odds, the chairman, Axel Weber, asked the criminal division for a lighter punishment.

The Swiss financial giant UBS is close to finalizing a settlement with authorities over the manipulation of interest rates, a deal that is expected to include at least $1 billion in fines.

HSBC, the British banking giant, will pay $1.9 billion to settle a money-laundering probe by federal and state authorities in the United States, a law enforcement official said Monday.

Bank of America has shelved plans for new fees that could have hit at least 10 million customers by the end of this year, skirting a potential replay of a 2011 uproar over consumer-banking charges.

Since the financial crisis Citigroup has managed to firm up its balance sheet and fence off most of the toxic assets that brought the bank to its knees. Some shareholders want the firm to go further though, and the latest call for a breakup comes from an unlikely source.

Jefferies will continue to operate as a full-service global investment banking firm in its current form, the companies said.

Former chief executive of Citigroup Vikram Pandit receives $15m after resigning from the banking giant last month.

...The boom in resource markets that started 10 years ago attracted many big banks to trade oil, metals and agriculture, but the 2008 financial crisis forced a painful retreat and tighter regulation now means some banks may throw in the towel.