Well, that didn’t last very long. After howling in indignation over accusations it laundered money for Iran, Standard Chartered bank caved in, agreeing to a whopping $340 million settlement with New York’s Department of Financial Services.
Peter Sands, CEO of U.K. bank Standard Chartered, got to live the fantasy of every bank CEO whose institution is accused of wrongdoing by regulators. He hit back. You could almost hear the cheering erupt from Wall Street and the City of London. But will his defense hold?
After being silent for most of the week, Knight Capital Group CEO Tom Joyce spoke to the Wall Street Journal today. He emphasized the firm’s rebound in business activity since a trading glitch stung the firm with a $440 million loss. The interview will help shift the focus toward Knight’s future, not its painful recent […]
After its skillful communication the day following an embarrassing trading debacle, Knight Capital Group has gone quiet. That’s odd, because the firm seems to have stabilized itself, with news reports saying it secured fresh financing and dealers resumed routing trade orders to the firm. But without more communication from Knight, speculation about its future is […]
Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini recently was drawn into a public argument about health insurance when Arijit Guha, a 31-year-old cancer patient, challenged the company over its refusal to pay his medical bills once he reached his plan’s coverage limit. Guha’s campaign went viral, and Bertolini ultimately agreed to cover the bills. To most observers, Bertolini […]
Responding to a sudden trading loss is never easy, but Knight Capital Group deserves high marks for handling the turmoil around a technology error that disrupted equity markets and produced heavy losses for the firm.
The Royal Bank of Scotland Group is reportedly in negotiations with regulators to settle charges the bank manipulated Libor. It would follow a similar settlement with Barclays just weeks ago, which ultimately led to the ouster of its CEO, Bob Diamond. But RBS chief executive Stephen Hester is no Bob Diamond.
In the wake of the Libor-rigging scandal, U.S. regulators are looking at how a key benchmark rate in the $3 trillion U.S. municipal bond market is determined. Maybe regulators read the RiskMatters blog?
Remember Ed Breen? No? He took over a well known company after it was rocked by scandal, pilloried by Congressmen and editorial writers and later had its senior executives sent to jail. He adopted a radical strategy and engineered a brilliant turnaround. It’s a lesson for banks today.
One of the serious misjudgments by Barclays CEO Bob Diamond in the Libor scandal was his belief that regulators’ praise for the bank’s cooperation during the investigation would shield it from criticism. It did not. Diamond should have learned from Ken Lewis that you can’t count on regulators’ goodwill to protect you when things get […]