Regulators say loan quality improving
The credit quality of large loan commitments owned by financial institutions regulated in the U.S. improved in 2012 for the third consecutive year in 2012, according to a review by the Federal Reserve and two other regulators released Monday.
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Fed Economists Play Down Effect of Cutting Interest on Excess Reserves
Lowering the interest rate the Federal Reserve pays on excess reserves wouldn’t have a meaningful effect on the overall money supply, two economists argued in a Federal Reserve Bank of New York blog post Monday.
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Swiss bank will not curb property boom
Financial Times
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FDIC Updates Stress Testing Implementation Timeline for Large Banks
Press Release
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) today announced it is considering changes to the implementation timeline for the annual capital-adequacy stress tests required by section 165(i)(2) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The changes under consideration would delay implementation until September 2013 for covered institutions with total consolidated assets between $10 billion and $50 billion.
http://jlne.ws/QLe3ku

BLS: From 2009-11, 6.1 million workers were displaced from jobs they held for at least 3 years
From January 2009 through December 2011, 6.1 million workers were displaced from jobs they had held for at least 3 years, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. This was down from 6.9 million for the survey period covering January 2007 to December 2009. In January 2012, 56 percent of workers displaced from 2009-11 were reemployed, up by 7 percentage points from the prior survey in January 2010.
http://jlne.ws/Ny8R38

Libor Scandal’s Potential Costs Exploding To $88 Billion Or More
The Huffington Post
Funny thing about the Libor scandal: Even when there doesn’t seem to be a lot going on, the cost to banks just keeps on rising.
http://jlne.ws/TklS2N

ECB’s Asmussen Reiterates Conditions for Bond Buys
WSJ
The European Central Bank will only buy government bonds in parallel with the euro area’s bailout programs, an executive board member for the central bank said Monday.
http://jlne.ws/OmLPgw

We need much simpler rules to rein in the banks
Nicholas Brady – FT.com
Congress, lobbyists and editorial writers have been engaged in an intense debate over how to provide effective governance for the US banking system in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and, more recently, JPMorgan Chase’s billion-dollar derivatives losses. It is a complex subject and, not surprisingly, the language has been at times as opaque as the derivatives themselves – and the inability of the public to understand the system is contributing to a decline in trust and confidence. I believe the real solution lies in formulating a simpler, not a more complex, set of regulations.
http://jlne.ws/PUTiqf

CME May Add Rates Trading in U.K. After Currencies
Bloomberg
CME Group Inc. , the owner of the world’s biggest futures exchange, may offer interest-rate trading in Europe , once the marketplace that it’s developing in London has established liquidity in currency contracts.
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Merkel tries to calm storms over Greece, ECB policy
Reuters via Yahoo! News
Angela Merkel tried to calm a growing storm over euro zone crisis strategy on Sunday after the Bundesbank likened ECB bond-buying plans to a dangerous drug and a conservative ally of the German leader said Greece should leave the currency bloc by next year.
http://jlne.ws/PUTkym

Citigroup’s Pandit Says Regulators Should Avoid Product Control
Bloomberg
Citigroup Inc. Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit said regulators shouldn’t dictate what banks can sell to clients because such controls risk undermining financial stability and have no clear economic benefit.
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Former Chase head Willard Butcher dies at age 85
Associated Press via Yahoo! News
Former Chase Manhattan Bank chairman and CEO Willard Butcher has died at 85.
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Investment banking staff fall by 10,000 in a year
Richard Partington – Financial News
The number of investment banking jobs at the world’s largest banks has fallen by around 5.6% over the past 12 months, according to Financial News analysis, as financial institutions look to stave off the impact of increased costs and declining fee revenues.
http://jlne.ws/PUTohz

Swiss bank employee arrested in data theft case
Associated Press via Yahoo! News
Swiss private bank Julius Baer says a Zurich-based employee has been arrested on suspicion of stealing confidential client information that was later passed to German tax investigators.
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Deutsche Bank Unit Sued by FHFA Over Mortgage Securities
Bloomberg
A Deutsche Bank AG unit was sued by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which seeks the repurchase of loans backing mortgage securities.
http://jlne.ws/PUToy3