LyrArc Article Gist
Kathryn Ruemmler is legal counsel at Goldman Sachs, and adviser to the CEO. The WSJ looks at Epstein file releases by the US Justice Department on Ruemmler's connections to Epstein in 2019 as a legal adviser. Some of it is after FBI arrested Epstein. Other files released show Ruemmler had consulted with Epstein on jobs she was interviewing for with Goldman, and potential jobs at Google, Facebook and Citadel, according to this report. This aspect is similar to what is reported in the media about Mandelson having consulted with Epstein for job offers at large financial companies. In the case of Mandelson he described his access to influence in Labour government decisions. The Mandelson connections are rocking the British government of PM Keir Starmer for his poor judgement in appointing Mandelson as UK ambassador to the US and lack of due diligence on his background.  WSJ report says Ruemmler had helped try Enron executives and this brought her attention that led to her going to the White House as Barrack Obama's counsel. She left in 2014 and was a white collar defense lawyer at Latham and Watkins.  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Parussini describes the different style of new RBI Governor Urjit Patel, who is no rock star economist like his predecessor Raghuram Rajan. Rajan is quoted as once saying; "My name is Raghuram Rajan and I do what I do." Rajan engaged widely with the media. At his first press conference Patel made a short statement thanking RBI staff, and turned it over to staff at RBI who talked about financial supervision, banking regulation and other issues. Patel's answers were short without follow-up questions, the whole event over in 20 minutes. Patel was chosen by the new government of prime minister Modi to run RBI in 2016.

LyrArc Article Gist
Anantha Nageswaran of the CEA tells Sansad TV that the RBI estimate of 6.4% is close to the government's estimate of growth. He says RBI's estimate is based on oil prices of $95 per barrel higher than it is today. He says India's financial system is in much better shape than in the previous decade and the corporate sector is deleveraged, MSME's are in good shape with government support, giving the government confidence in its figures for growth.

LyrArc Article Gist
Working culture and attitudes towards women change as three women, the new CBI director general and two other women, represent CBI before the business and trade select committee of parliament in UK. Conduct towards women became an issue for the CBI leading to departure of companies from the organization which represents British industry.

LyrArc Article Gist
A French Appeals Court upholds a 2019 verdict of penalty on Swiss bank UBS for helping wealthy clients in France evade taxes. The court ordered UBS to pay $2 billion, reducing the earlier penalty from $5 billion.

LyrArc Article Gist
A $50 billion infusion from the Swiss central bank does not stabilize Credit Suisse. The next step is for the Swiss central bank to arrange for UBS bank to take over Credit Suisse. For many years Credit Suisse management has taken outsize risks. 

LyrArc Article Gist
Swiss regulators engineer UBS buying Credit Suisse for over $3 billion in an emergency rescue. This happened after the Swiss central bank made and infusion of $50 billion into Credit Suisse that failed to stabilize the Swiss bank. With outflows of $10 billion Swiss Francs in the week recently Swiss regulators had to quickly arrange UBS buying out Credit Suisse for over $3 billion.  In its early days in the nineteenth century Credit Suisse helped build the Swiss electricity grid and the Swiss rail system. After World War II it was part of the reconstruction effort in Europe. After 1990 it merged with banks in the US and engaged in international acquisitions, investment banking operations, and wealth management. This led to problems and the company had to make settlements for each of its businesses in the last three decades, leading to the current crisis. The bank is seen as lacking good governance, and taking on excessive risk in the pursuit of profit. A bank that was known for setting up key infrastructure in Switzerland in the nineteenth century succumbed to poor management and risk taking over one hundred years later as it fumbled in each of its businesses. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The FBI search at Mar Lago Mr. Trump's Florida home is part of an investigation into Mr. Trump's handling of classified information.

LyrArc Article Gist
The overhaul at the Confederation of British Industry after issues with its working culture and problems about how women were being treated at the CBI.

LyrArc Article Gist
The governor of India's central bank, the RBI, says cryptocurrency are a threat to the economy and stability and savings of ordinary Indians. He believes private cryptocurrencies should be prohibited. He recently launched RBI own digital currency to combat the problem of private cryptocurrency firms. There is no proper regulatory oversight for cryptocurrency leading to abuses as most recently seen in the dramatic collapse of FTX in the US which was based in the Bahamas. It is covered by the WSJ.

LyrArc Article Gist
UBS buys Credit Suisse for $3 billion in a takeover arranged by the Swiss National Bank, central bank of Switzerland. The Swiss government also stepped in to provide 9 billion Swiss francs in support which would come into effect if UBS losses exceed 5 billion francs on this takeover. UBS CEO Colm Kelleher makes it clear that a very different Credit Suisse operation will emerge from this that will be "aligned to our conservative risk culture." Risk reduction for Credit Suisse will take place and its investment banking operations reduced, so that the combined operations in investment banking for both banks when integrated will be less than 20% of all its assets. The Swiss government waived shareholder approval because of the emergency nature of the takeover to calm financial markets when stock exchanges open on Monday.

LyrArc Article Gist
Swiss shareholder activist Ethos Foundation called for personnel changes at UBS. Dominique Biedermann, head of Ethos called for the replacement of Kaspar Villiger and Carsten Kengeter, who head UBS investment bank. Biedermann said UBS should leave investment banking and former Deuthche Bundesbank President, Axel Weber, should join UBS as chairman earlier than the planned 2013 date. He suggested Hugo Baenziger, current chief risk officer at Deutsche Bank, rather than interim CEO Sergio Ermotti, who is an investment banker, as the right person for the CEO position at UBS.

LyrArc Article Gist
RBI says the Rupees 2000 notes have a life of 4-5 years and they are being withdrawn because they are reaching the end of their life.

LyrArc Article Gist
New UBS CEO, Sergio Ermotti, plans to scale down UBS investment banking operations because of stricter regulations and a changing market environment. He said in an interview that UBS will go back to what it was in the 1990's, that he now sees the investment banking boom of the last ten years as an aberration. He also sees rival banks taking the same route. The plan is to shrink risk-weighted assets from 300 billion Swiss francs today to 145 billion Swiss francs by scaling back or exiting in areas such as asset securitization, complex fixed income structured products and trading in some equity products. UBS will cut 2000 investment banking jobs to 16,500 in 2013. The focus will shift to foreign exchange, commodities and mergers and acquisitions. Investment banking made a profit for only one of the last 4 years, taking up two thirds of the bank's capital and earning 26% of the group's the pretax profit in the last year. The new plan will reduce the size of the investment bank so that it makes up less than half of the group assets by 2016....

LyrArc Article Gist
Christopher Wray was appointed as FBI Director by president Trump. He sought to give the FBI a role above the politics of the time. After Mar Lago search of the Trump house the FBI finds itself in the middle of the partisan politics that is seen in the US.

LyrArc Article Gist
UBS interim CEO Ermotti's career in investment banking and efforts to move UBS away from investment banking.

LyrArc Article Gist
Simon Nixon points out the problems investors had with UBS before the Oct 2012 decision to drastically reduce the size of the investment banking operations. UBS had three fourths of its capital engaged in investment banking earning only about 5% return. Private bank and wealth management businesses earned far better returns of 25%-40%. Under the new plan core Tier 1 ratio on a fully applied Basel III basis would be 13% in 2014. And return on equity under CEO Ermotti's plan would increase to over 15% by 2015. UBS would put emphasis on the private bank and wealth management businesses under the new plan and shrink the investment banking operations with large job cuts.

LyrArc Article Gist
In another one of the unusual twists in the early days of the Trump presidency, Trump says president Obama ordered wiretapping of Trump Towers. Media analysts say this is an effort to deflect criticism of Attorney General Jeff Sessions for meeting Russian officials during the election campaign. The FBI says this claim of wiretapping by Obama should be withdrawn. Obama refutes the allegation.

LyrArc Article Gist
Francesco Guerrera of the WSJ interviews Sergio Ermotti, CEO of Swiss bank UBS, and Andrea Orcel, the head of UBS investment bank. He asks Ermotti why the drastic restructuring at UBS, especially the downscaling of its investment banking operation. Ermotti says its because it was time to stop throwing money away on activity that did not cover the bank's cost of capital and the unhappiness of shareholders with the way UBS was operating. The string of bad news from UBS with legal settlements, trading scandals and huge losses have created a special situation at UBS which required drastic action. UBS was able to take the action also because of its successful wealth management business, which will become the core of its future business. Other banks such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley with large fixed income, currency and commodity (FICC) businesses, get more of their earnings from this unit and are less likely to follow UBS.

LyrArc Article Gist
Testifying at Southwark Crown Court in London, UBS trader Adoboli said: "I absolutely lost control. I was no longer in control of the decisions around the trades we were doing... My ability to think rationally and deeply was gone." The trades led to losses of $2.3 billion for UBS.

LyrArc Article Gist
An account of Kweku Adoboli's trading activities at UBS leading to the loss of $2 billion. The failure of risk management systems at UBS.

LyrArc Article Gist
Axel Weber, former Deutsce Bundesbank president, will becomes the new chairman of UBS bank in 2013.

LyrArc Article Gist
U.S., UK and Swiss regulators charged UBS AG with conspiracy to rig the London Interbank Offered Rate or LIBOR. LIBOR is the interest rate at which large banks lend to each other and is determined from daily reports made by 16 banks to the British Banking Association, giving the rate at which the bank borrows from its peer banks. This rate helps determine the rate for trillions of dollars in securities, home and auto loans, swaps and derivatives. A tiny movement in LIBOR can affect trading profits, and it influences perceptions of a bank's health particularly in a crisis such as the 2008 financial crisis. Every day a 16 bank panel reports this rate to British financial authorites. UBS took full responsibilty and pleaded guilty to criminal fraud. UBS settled the charges for $1.5 billion. Barclays PLC, a UK bank, settled charges for LIBOR manipulation in mid 2012 for $450 million, ending in the departure of the bank chairman and CEO. Britain's regulator the Financial Services Authority, FSA, says in its report that rigging the rate was "routine and widespread" at UBS in order to increase trading profits, done with the knowledge of senior managers, and included cash awards or trading opportunities to employees at other banks to participate in manipulating the LIBOR rate. During one period of 18 months UBS paid 15000 British pounds to a firm of outside brokers every 3 months. FSA says LIBOR and versions of it are "at risk of being improperly influenced " between Jan. 2005-2010. What this means is other large settlements with other banks can be expected. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may have lost $3 billon from this manipulation of LIBOR, according to an internal report from the inspector general of the Federal housing Finance Agency, which also says Fannie and Freddie should sue the banks responsible. The whole issue of LIBOR came to light after an article was published in the WSJ, April 16, 2012, and a WSJ study on LIBOR using credit default insurance to track LIBOR rates, on May 29, 2012....

LyrArc Article Gist
Swiss bank UBS plans to make 10,000 job cuts in the next 3-5 years. Most of the job cuts will come at the investment banking operations which has 16,432 employees. Carsten Kengeter will be made chief of investment banking to concentrate on the downsizing effort. Andrea Orcel, who was brought in by new CEO Sergio Ermotti to be co-head of investment banking will run the remaining businesses of advising on mergers and equity underwriting. Trading businesses, especially fixed income, will be closed down. A third of the employees and 15 lines of business in the investment banking operation will be cut. The strategy is focus on businesses that do not require much capital to run and to build on its competitive advantages. This means focussing on its strong points in wealth management operations and the asset management division, which combined have $2 trillion under management. This move away from capital intensive business is part of an effort by Mr. Ermotti to dispel notions that UBS is not adequately capitalized. UBS suffered losses of $50 billion during the early part of the 2008 financial crisis, followed by the rogue bets by a trader in the London office leading to a loss of $2 billion in 2012. Following the most recent losses Sergio Ermotti was hired to replace Oswald Grubel in 2012. UBS now provides an example for other banks to overhaul their banking operations and downscale the importance and risks of investment banking....