Banks, Billion | featured news

Small banks still owe $11 billion of taxpayer money under TARP, and the government is threatening to unload its stakes in them at big discounts to new investors. Nearly four years after Washington bailed out Wall Street, small banks have yet to repay $11 billion of taxpayer money.

A potent mix of dense disclosures, clever accounting and naive customers made for a big bank payday, despite pushes for reform.

Swiss banking giant UBS said Thursday that a rogue trader has caused it an estimated loss of $2 billion, stunning a beleaguered banking industry that has proven vulnerable to unauthorized trades. Police in London said they arrested a 31-year-old UBS trader, Kweku Adoboli, in the alleged fraud. UBS declined to confirm his name.

Big U.S. banks in talks with state prosecutors to settle claims of improper mortgage practices have been offered a deal that may limit their legal liabilities in return for a multibillion-dollar payment, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.

Top Bank of America Corp lawyers knew as early as January that American International Group Inc was prepared to sue the bank for more than $10 billion, seven months before the lawsuit was filed, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Bank of America Corp is selling about half its stake of China Construction Bank to a group of investors for $8.3 billion in cash, the bank said on Monday.

Warren Buffett is coming to the rescue of another fallen giant. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. announced Thursday that it would invest $5 billion in Bank of America Corp., giving a much-needed vote of confidence to the beleaguered bank. The news sent the bank's stock soaring 9 percent.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. must face a $10 billion lawsuit over the toxic remnants of Washington Mutual Bank, a federal judge ruled.

Mortgage finance giant Fannie Mae said it would ask for an additional $5.1 billion from taxpayers as it continues to suffer losses on loans made prior to 2009.

The nation's largest mortgage companies are operating on the assumption that they will have to pay as much as $20 billion to resolve claims of widespread foreclosure abuse, an amount four times what they had originally proposed, the top federal official overseeing the discussions told state officials Monday, according to people who participated in the conversation.