BFCSA Blog

Go here for Introduction to ReportGo here for Section 1 Greed for Securitisation Profits Spawned Rampant Predatory Lending Section 2. UNDISCLOSED RISK TO BORROWERS “Almost 50 years ago, admittedly in the context of exclusion clauses, the courts propounded the fundamental principle that the more unreasonable a clause, the greater the notice which must be given of it. Lord Justice Denning, in the English Court of Appeal, expressed the principle eloquently in a well-known dictum, observing that ‘some clauses, which I have seen, would need to be printed in red ink on the face of the document, with a red hand pointing to it before the notice could be held to be sufficient’.  
It seems difficult to argue convincingly that this principle should not apply equally to bringing the risks of securitisation to the attention of home loan borrowers today.”  Doctor Pelma Jacinth Rajapakse1. Australia “… no-one who has a loan secured...

You wouldn’t want to have your money tied up in Australian bank's   shonky hydrid bonds!    No wonder it’s back to re-financing and securitisation!    What Would it Cost a Country to Leave the Euro? That’s What Everyone Suddenly Wants to Know by Wolf Richter • Feb 7, 2017    http://wolfstreet.com/2017/02/07/what-would-it-cost-a-country-to-leave-the-euro-thats-what-everyone-suddenly-wants-to-know/   It’s the closest the Eurozone has come to falling apart. Marine Le Pen, the leader of the National Front, will get enough votes in April during the first round of the French presidential election but will be defeated in the second-round runoff in May, according to the polls. So at least hopes the French political class, and by extension the European establishment. They’re hoping Le Pen would be defeated because she is campaigning on taking France out of the euro (after holding a referendum) and re-denominating the entire €2.4 trillion pile of French government debt into new franc....

Sound familiar In Australia?  Doesn’t take much to know why our banks now all have internal customer advocates to control what suits them to investigate internally and what suits them to be investigated by the FOS!   Hope for bank fraud victims: 'We were robbed of £47,000 – but the ombudsman took our side' 3 September 2016 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/hope-for-bank-fraud-victims-we-were-robbed-of-47000--but-the-omb/   In what could be a breakthrough ruling for victims of banking fraud, the financial ombudsman is to order a high street bank to repay an elderly couple who lost tens of thousands of pounds in a conveyancing scam. The ombudsman, which settles disputes between customers and financial services firms, will tell Lloyds Bank to repay £47,508 plus interest to Donald Kelly, a retired professor, and his wife, Patricia. Its decision was based on what Lloyds knew about the fraudsters. Banks are supposed to check the credentials of all customers when they open an...

Bad business decisions are not a criminal offence but selling stolen goods off the back of a truck is...i.e. the real crime is securitisation...   This is a complete list of Wall Street CEOs prosecuted for their role in the financial crisis   By Neil Irwin Wonkblog September 12, 2013   https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/09/12/this-is-a-complete-list-of-wall-street-ceos-prosecuted-for-their-role-in-the-financial-crisis/   Five years after Lehman fell, taking the global economy along with it, a roll call of Wall Street CEOs serving time for their role in the crisis looks something like this: Thanks, Dangerz0ne.   So, yeah. Zero Wall Street CEOs are in jail. But we did promise you a list:   1. No one. 2. LOL. 3. Wall Street's lawyers are amazing. 4. Etc. Etc. It's not that federal government tried to prosecute a bunch of them but lost the cases. There were no serious efforts at criminal prosecutions at all. Which isn't to say nobody is in jail....

Does the S&P Settlement change EVERYTHING? 16 February 2015 https://peopleriskmanagement.com/2015/02/16/does-the-sp-settlement-change-everything/ The S& P saga rumbles on. Having been hammered by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in January [1], S&P has received a knock-out blow, and a $1.375 billion fine, from the US Department of Justice and 20 State governments [2]. And in what might the first of many private actions, S&P also reached a separate $125 million settlement with the huge pension fund California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CALPERS) [3]. What has received little publicity, however, are the implications of the S&P settlement with regard to Corporate Governance, in general, and Codes of Conduct in particular. In justifying the huge fine, the Justice Department said that “as part of the resolution, S&P admitted facts demonstrating that it misrepresented itself to investors and the public, allowing the pursuit of profits to bias its ratings”. In the many fines against banks,...

Wells Fargo CEO resigns, bank president succeeds   Published time: 12 Oct, 2016 21:59 Edited time: 12 Oct, 2016 22:06   https://www.rt.com/usa/362564-wells-fargo-ceo-john-stumpf-resigns/   Chairman and CEO of Wells Fargo & Co. John Stumpf has retired under pressure amid a scandal involving fraudulent sales tactics. Some two million accounts were created without customers’ permission. President and COO Timothy J. Sloan will replace him.   Stumpf stepped down from both of his leadership posts Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a person close to the situation.   Wells Fargo, which until recently had been the most valuable big bank in the US for years, settled a lawsuit with regulators and a city official last month for $185 million.   To meet sales quotas, the bank created accounts for unwitting customers, some of whom paid fines and fees on them. It is estimated that millions of customers were impacted. More than 5,000 Wells...

Revealed: Treasury Given Confidential Information About RBS Investigation Ahead Of Share Firesale   “This information is not in the public domain and we would be grateful if you could ensure it is kept confidential.”   13 October 2016   https://www.buzzfeed.com/tomwarren/keep-it-confidential?utm_term=.tljMzPQvB#.siLYgkA7P   Top Treasury officials obtained confidential information about a regulatory investigation into the taxpayer-owned Royal Bank of Scotland in order to help fix the timing of a massive sale of government shares, BuzzFeed News can reveal.   Internal emails show that John Kingman, second in command at the Treasury, sought and received information that was not publicly available about the timing of the Financial Conduct Authority’s ongoing investigation into RBS’s alleged abuse of small businesses from the head of the regulator, Martin Wheatley.   The tip-off “in the light of potential sales of RBS shares” was used to help time the shotgun sale of a £2.1 billion stake in the bank at...

The Dash For Cash: Leaked Files Reveal RBS Systematically Crushed British Businesses For Profit   The RBS Files expose the bank’s secret scheme to boost revenues during the financial crisis by draining businesses of cash and stripping their assets, blowing apart its previous statements to the public and parliament.   10 October 2016   https://www.buzzfeed.com/heidiblake/dash-for-cash?utm_term=.ni8qxYDzN#.re4L5OexB   The Royal Bank of Scotland killed or crippled thousands of businesses during the recession as a result of a deliberate plan to add billions of pounds to its balance sheet, according to a leaked cache of thousands of secret documents.  The RBS Files – revealed today by BuzzFeed News and BBC Newsnight – lay bare the secret policies under which firms were pushed into the bank’s feared troubled-business unit, Global Restructuring Group (GRG), which chased profits by hitting them with massive fees and fines and by snapping up their assets at rock-bottom prices.  The internal...

Here too?   The £4bn battle on Costa del Claims: New hope for thousands of British buyers who lost fortunes in Spanish property crash By Laura Shanon for the Mail on Sunday Published: 04:33 +10:00, 12 June 2016 | Updated: 20:25 +10:00, 12 June 2016 http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-3636595/4bn-battle-Costa-del-Claims-s-British-investors-seek-court-ruling-gives-new-hope-thousands-lost-fortunes-Spanish-property-crash.htmlRuling by the Supreme Court in   Madrid points to a reversal of fortune Spanish banks that held their deposits are to be held to account Stephanie Davis lost more than £60,000 when Spanish purchase collapsed   British investors who lost big deposits in the Spanish property crash have been given fresh hope of getting back their money.  Around 100,000 people in the UK are thought to have paid big sums towards ‘off-plan’ properties in Spain – ones which were yet to be built.   Demand was high a decade ago, when around 800,000 holiday homes a year were being built in Spain.  But after the...

No wonder our banks are going mad issuing more hybrid bonds!   Exclusive: Wall St. banks ask Fed for five more years to comply with Volcker rule 9 August 2016 http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fed-volcker-exclusive-idUSKCN10M2E4   http://www.reuters.com/video/2016/08/15/breakingviews-foot-dragging-on-wall-stre?videoId=369573918&feedType=VideoRSS&feedName=Breakingviews&videoChannel=117766 Big Wall Street banks are asking the U.S. Federal Reserve to grant them an additional five-year grace period to comply with a financial reform regulation known as the Volcker rule, people familiar with the matter said.  If the Fed agrees, the extension would give banks more time to exit fund investments that are difficult to sell, but no longer allowed by the law. The added grace period, which follows three one-year extensions, would start next year and run through 2022. The law on Volcker rule implementation says banks can ask for an extra five-year extension for "illiquid" funds, where banks had contractual commitments to invest.  In deciding whether to grant Wall Street more leeway, the Fed has asked...

From Facebook/BFCSA John MacFarlane will be one of many former Banking Chiefs and insiders to banks who are disgusted at today's corrupt banking system. Insider Bank staffer has told us...:"Bank chief and execs incredibly nervous at work prior to election, terrified that Labor would win. Colleagues and I voted Labor for first time. We were sold the same loans. Shocking what is going on. Yes needs Royal Commission. We are prevented from speaking out."     https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/aug/10/labor-credit-card-rates-banking-commbank-profit-statement Former Reserve Bank board member John Edwards joined the chorus of critical voices last week in calling for some type of inquiry into the banks, saying their relative power had increased significantly in recent years and it had to be reckoned with. “Their authority in [funds management] is becoming vastly bigger than it was, even a decade ago,” Edwards said. “I think that’s where we need to get a better idea of what the...

HSBC Bank Executives Face Charges in $3.5 Billion Currency Case By ALEXANDRA STEVENSON JULY 20, 2016 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/21/business/dealbook/hsbc-foreign-exchange-investigation-currency.html?smid=tw-dealbook&smtyp=cur&_r=1         Mark Johnson, center, following his arraignment, with his attorney, Frank Wohl, on Wednesday.  Louis Lanzano for New York Times    The global banking giant HSBC has repeatedly found itself in the cross hairs of American regulators and prosecutors in recent years. To settle allegations of money-laundering and mortgage abuses, it has paid billions of dollars — but has not been criminally charged. That has spurred an outcry that the bank is “too big to jail.” But now two senior executives of HSBC of HSBC face criminal charges, accused of a currency manipulation scheme that federal prosecutors say generated $8 million in profits and fees. The global head of HSBC’s foreign exchange cash trading desk, Mark Johnson, a Briton, was arrested by federal agents Tuesday night at Kennedy International Airport as he...

There will be no soft landing in China. By Harry Dent, Senior Editor, Economy & Markets: by Harry Dent • August 2, 2016 http://wolfstreet.com/2016/08/02/chinas-property-bubble-echoes-subprime-crisis/   The menacing fury of economic triggers that began piling up after the Great Recession are only getting larger and we can’t do much but watch it unfold and stay alert. I wrote about this in a letter late last year, but now here we are more than halfway through the year and it’s only getting worse. So much worse that the Chinese property bubble is now the catalyst that will reset markets – and will likely be one large event that cascades across the globe. I’m convinced that what finally puts an end to central banker madness and the incessant stream of QE will be the Chinese real estate bubble. Massive doesn’t even begin to describe the situation with China’s property market, but that’s somewhat expected...

As a simple retired person and obviously not business savvy, even I cannot get over the gall and unmitigated temerity of the Big 4 banks not to pass on the RBA rate cut in full. This is in direct defiance of the P.M. a former banker himself warning them pre election to get their houses in order. Poor Malcolm is torn between his loyalty to his brothers in arms to that of his own political future. The banks have had a fore taste of the Australian public howling for openness and transparency in our financial system, has their combined greed over shadowed common sense? Malcolm and his cohorts only just got in by the skin of their teeth and with Labor promising a Royal Commission it would only take one or two pollies to die or retire with by elections to follow to upset the apple cart. The fact the PM...

From a blog....   Ireland to Prosecute Former Anglo Irish Bank CEO for 2008 Economic Catastrophe July 28th, 2016 | by Vandita http://anonhq.com/ireland-prosecute-former-anglo-irish-bank-ceo-2008-economic-catastrophe/   Last year, Iceland set precedent by sentencing 26 top bankers to a combined 74 years in prison, for causing the 2008 global financial crisis. The unprecedented conviction of bad bankers sent a strong message across the world (none of America’s top bankers went to jail for the crimes that caused the 2008 financial crisis) that no individual is too big to investigate, and that it was possible to prosecute fraudulent bankers. Taking cue from Iceland, Ireland is going to prosecute the 2005-2008 CEO of Anglo Irish Bank, David Drumm, on 33 criminal charges. These include two charges of conspiracy to defraud and false accounting relating to €7.2 billion in deposits placed in Anglo Irish Bank accounts by the then Irish Life and Permanent, between March and September...

You have to seriously think bank computer systems are rigged gaming machines!   Italy’s Monte Paschi Flunks Stress Test, Plans to Raise Capital John Glover JohnEGlover Sonia Sirletti ssirletti Alessandro Speciale aspeciale July 30, 2016 — 6:02 AM AEST Updated on July 31, 2016 — 3:31 AM AEST http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-29/monte-paschi-capital-wiped-out-in-european-bank-stress-test#media-1 The world’s oldest bank is also Europe’s riskiest.Italy’s Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA was the only one of 51 lenders tested by European regulators to have its capital wiped out in the exam’s toughest scenario. The bank, which has been bailed out twice by the government since 2009, said it plans to sell as much as 5 billion euros ($5.6 billion) of stock if it can offload a bad-loan portfolio. The European tests released Friday showed that most lenders would keep an adequate level of capital in a crisis. Among the region’s biggest banks, London-based Barclays Plc fared worse than...

Goldman Bond Deals With 1MDB Under Singapore Central Bank Review   31 July 2016 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-30/goldman-bond-deals-with-1mdb-under-singapore-central-bank-review   Singapore’s central bank said a “supervisory examination” of a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. unit’s involvement in bond deals by 1Malaysia Development Bhd. is ongoing. "Monetary Authority of Singapore will take decisive regulatory actions against any financial institution or individual in Singapore that has breached regulations or failed to meet the expected anti-money laundering standards,” it said in the statement on Saturday.  Edward Naylor, a Hong Kong-based spokesman for Goldman Sachs, declined to comment. The New York-based bank received subpoenas from the U.S. Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission for documents related to the Malaysian investment fund known as 1MDB, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the matter who wasn’t identified. Reuters earlier reported Singapore’s probe into Goldman Sachs’ involvement in 1MDB bonds. The Singapore central bank on July 21...

No need to be a rocket scientist to know why phase 2 of the AML act was never introduced.....looks as if not just in Australia either! What’ll Suffocate these Housing Bubbles: US Government Mucks up Money-Laundering in Real Estate by Wolf Richter • July 27, 2016 http://wolfstreet.com/2016/07/27/us-government-money-laundering-real-estate-housing-bubbles-ny-miami-san-francisco-silicon-valley-los-angeles/   Manhattan and Miami already get mauled. Now expanding to San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Southern California, even Texas! Cash sales of homes – mostly the domain of foreign and affluent buyers – fell to 32% of total home sales in April, down 2.8 percentage points from a year ago, according to a new report from CoreLogic. For the first four months, cash sales dropped to 34%, the lowest since 2008. In Florida, the number one destination for foreign homebuyers, cash sales accounted for 46% of sales, and in New York, for 44%, both decreasing as well. The “strong dollar” and “global uncertainty” were blamed....

Did Jamie Dimons’ secret meetings with competitors violate anti-trust laws?   By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: July 22, 2016 http://wallstreetonparade.com/2016/07/did-jamie-dimons-secret-meetings-with-competitors-violate-antitrust-laws/   A mere three months after JPMorgan Chase and three of its competitors (Citicorp, Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland) pleaded guilty to a felony charge of conspiring to rig foreign currency trading and paid criminal fines totaling over $2.5 billion, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, began meeting in secret with his competitors in the asset management field. On February 1 of this year, the Financial Times reported that “secret summits” had been held beginning in August 2015 between “asset management bosses” including Jamie Dimon, Abby Johnson of Fidelity, Larry Fink of BlackRock, and Tim Armour of Capital Group. The article went on to report that Dimon and Warren Buffett had convened the sessions at JPMorgan’s headquarters in New York to discuss “a statement of best practice...

Japan’s “Helicopter Money” Play: Road to Hyperinflation or Cure for Debt Deflation? Posted on July 25, 2016 by Ellen Brown   https://ellenbrown.com/2016/07/25/japans-helicopter-money-play-road-to-hyperinflation-or-cure-for-debt-deflation/   Fifteen years after embarking on its largely ineffective quantitative easing program, Japan appears poised to try the form recommended by Ben Bernanke in his notorious “helicopter money” speech in 2002. The Japanese test case could finally resolve a longstanding dispute between monetarists and money reformers over the economic effects of government-issued money. When then-Fed Governor Ben Bernanke gave his famous helicopter money speech to the Japanese in 2002, he was talking about something quite different from the quantitative easing they actually got and other central banks later mimicked. Quoting Milton Friedman, he said the government could reverse a deflation simply by printing money and dropping it from helicopters. A gift of free money with no strings attached, it would find its way into the real economy and trigger...

  Najib Cracked Down on Free Speech to Limit 1MDB Fallout, Journalist Says June 06, 2016, 05:55:00 AM EDT By Dow Jones Business News   http://www.nasdaq.com/article/najib-cracked-down-on-free-speech-to-limit-1mdb-fallout-journalist-says-20160606-00085   A senior Malaysian journalist who quit his job at a leading newspaper said Prime Minister Najib Razak's government has cracked down on freedom of speech as it tries to limit the fallout from a graft scandal surrounding a state investment fund. Mustapha Kamil, the former group editor of the English-language New Straits Times, which is controlled by Mr. Najib's ruling party, took a rare public stance by saying that an increasingly "authoritarian" stand by the government toward media was the reason he quit the newspaper in April. He had worked there for more than a quarter-century. Mr. Mustapha initially remained quiet after stepping down, but last week posted the reasons for his action on his Facebook page—an unusual act in the closed world of...

London Housing Bubble Melts Down by Wolf Richter • July 18, 2016 But don’t just blame Brexit. http://wolfstreet.com/2016/07/18/london-housing-bubble-set-for-collapse-dont-just-blame-brexit/ In Central London – the 30 most central postal codes and one of the most ludicrously expensive housing markets in the world – eager home sellers are slashing their asking prices to unload their properties. But even that isn’t working. In the 12 days after the Brexit vote, cuts to asking prices have soared by 163% compared to the 12 days before the vote, according to the Financial Times. Yet sales have plunged 18% from before the Brexit vote. Sales had already taken a big beating before then and are now down a mind-boggling 43% from where they’d been a year ago! So Brexit did it? Um, well, sort of. But it’s more than Brexit. Home prices on a £-per-square-foot basis had peaked in Q2 2014, according to real-estate data provider LonRes. Since...

So it’s back to how it used to be and should always have been in NZ...makes you wonder who will swoop and buy up all the damaged collateral! Bank boss warns of property market mess 4:30 PM Wednesday Jul 20, 2016   http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11678082   The chief executive of New Zealand's largest bank has warned that house prices are over-cooked and the market may face a "messy end". In an unusually outspoken article ANZ chief executive David Hisco joins several leading establishment figures in calling for stronger action on housing. Yesterday's Reserve Bank lending restrictions did not go far enough, he says. The bank has lifted deposit requirements for investors to 40 per cent. Hisco says he would like to see them lifted to 60 per cent even though that would mean less business for ANZ. He also warns that regardless of Reserve Bank lending restriction local banks may not be able...

THE Battle for the ROYAL COMMISSION into Banks and the Finance sectors is far from over for BFCSA Members.    In April this year I sent a letter to Opposition Leader Bill Shorten begging for a Royal Commission into the banking System (wide TOR)  based upon an estimated 1.5 million families severely affected by sub prime lending to the point the "asset-lends" to pensioners meant elderly people would be thrown out of their own homes.   Over $300 billion of toxic loans are out there sloshing around in the Low Doc Market and economists from LF Economics backed up these concerns in their submission # 63 to the  Senate Inquiry into white collar crime.  BFCSA also furnished submissions to the Dastyari Inquiry 2015. And, BFCSA Sub # 23 (Mch 2016) into White Collar Crime being conducted by Senator Peter Whish-Wilson. Earlier I had sent similar letters of warnings to PM Mr Abbott and later the new...

Home Loan Mortgage Arrears Rising and Rents falling The proportion of Australian home owners falling behind on their mortgage repayments has increased, according to ratings agency Standard & Poor's.   http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-19/home-loan-mortgage-arrears-rising/7638528   The global credit ratings giant said May was the seventh consecutive month where mortgage arrears had increased. So-called prime mortgages have an arrears rate of 1.21 per cent, up from 1.14 per cent in April and 1.07 per cent a year earlier. These are mortgages to borrowers with full documentation around their income, savings and assets. The arrears rate for "nonconforming" loans jumped from 4.25 per cent in April to 4.71 per cent in May, but remains well off a peak of 17 per cent in 2009. "Nonconforming" loans include those with limited documentation, so-called low-doc loans, which are often given to small business owners or contractors who have limited evidence of their earnings. Both measures are for those borrowers...