Financial Industry | featured news

The financial sector ranks just behind the health industry in lobbying Congress this year: $223 million has been spent to influence financial reform efforts, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

But Politico reports that the lobbying frenzy over "re-regulation" efforts is just beginning.

The Fed should be in charge of regulating financial institutions, but a council of regulators could monitor broader risks, the Fed chairman said.

It's 12 months later and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is $3 billion richer. One year ago today, on September 23, 2008, with the financial world still reeling from the collapse of Lehman Brothers just days before, Buffett stunned Wall Street with a massive vote of confidence for Goldman Sachs.

Financial stocks led a stock-market rally after the jobs report. AIG surged 20% and American Express led blue chips.

American International Group Inc's former Chief Executive Hank Greenberg agreed to pay $15 million to settle regulators' allegations of improper accounting transactions, the Securities and Exchange Commission said on Thursday.

U.S. regulators closed seven small banks on Friday, a pace matching a one-day total seen earlier in July and bringing the number of failures so far this year to 64.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke squared off Friday in a public dispute on who should become the nation’s top consumer watchdog.

AP - Morgan Stanley said Wednesday it lost more than $1.2 billion in the second quarter as it took charges to cover continuing losses in its real estate investments and its repayment of government bailout money.

Several major U.S. banks, led by Wells Fargo & Co, said the troubled economy drove credit losses higher, reducing profitability in the second quarter.

CIT Group Inc is in talks with a group of bondholders for $2 billion to $3 billion in rescue financing as it tries hard to avoid bankruptcy, a source close to the company said late on Friday.