Banks, Billion | featured news

Bank of America has reported a sharp rise in profits after it shed costs and set aside less money for bad loans. The bank reported first quarter net income of $2.3bn (£1.5bn), after making $328m in the same quarter a year ago.

A judge on Tuesday approved a set of settlements among Lehman Brothers entities that will allow the company's defunct brokerage to pay back about $15 billion in customer claims.

Bank customers may complain about hefty overdraft fees, but they’re using the service more and paying the price. A new report from Moebs Services, a respected economic research firm, shows overdraft revenue at banks, credit unions and thrift institutions totaled $32 billion last year. That’s an increase of $400 million or 1.3 percent from 2011.

Europe has spent hundreds of billions of euros rescuing its banks but may have lost an entire generation of young people in the process, the president of the European Parliament said.

Citigroup Inc posted $2.32 billion of charges for layoffs and lawsuits in its first financial report under new Chief Executive Michael Corbat, who said the bank needs to do better for shareholders.

A lawsuit claims that the rescue by the government deprived A.I.G.'s shareholders of tens of billions of dollars and took private property for public use without appropriate compensation.

Ten major banks and mortgage companies agreed Monday to pay $8.5 billion to settle federal complaints that they wrongfully foreclosed on homeowners who should have been allowed to stay in their homes.

Bank of America agreed on Monday to pay more than $10 billion to Fannie Mae to settle claims over troubled mortgages that soured during the housing crash, mostly loans issued by the bank's Countrywide Financial subsidiary.

A $10 billion settlement to resolve claims of foreclosure abuses by major lenders is expected to be announced on Monday, several people with knowledge of the discussions said.

HSBC, the British banking giant, will pay $1.9 billion to settle a money-laundering probe by federal and state authorities in the United States, a law enforcement official said Monday.