In the latest news on Wells Fargo & Co.'s unauthorized accounts scandal, a source told Reuters that the beleaguered company has set up a four-member committee to conduct an internal probe into the scandal. Chairman Stephen Sanger and Vice Chair Elizabeth Duke are two of those chosen to head the committee.
Speaking about Wells, three of its former branch managers filed a lawsuit against two higher-ups — Lefky Mansi, a Los Angeles area president, and Shabnam Ebrahimi, a district manager — claiming that the two explicitly told employees to "make up a business need" to gain access to accounts, Bloomberg News reports, citing court documents.
Time Inc. has reportedly hired Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Corp. to solicit takeover or partnership offers from interested parties, sources told The Wall Street Journal.
Renasant Bank paid the FDIC $4.8 million as consideration for the early termination of all loss-share agreements. The bank expects to record a corresponding after-tax charge of about $1.4 million, or 3 cents per share, in the fourth quarter.
Commissioner J. Christopher Giancarlo, who Reuters say is "in line to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission" once President-elect Donald Trump takes office next month, intends to move past from the Dodd-Frank Act and shift the focus to current trends in financial markets, such as cyber threats, liquidity risks, market concentration and de-globalization. Technological innovation is one such area that Giancarlo sees as a forward-looking agenda for the CFTC, which he says is "stuck in a 20th Century time warp."
In regulatory news, the Office of Financial Research, an ex-officio member of the Alternative Reference Rates Committee, has been collaborating with the Federal Reserve to explore LIBOR alternatives. Richard Berner, director of the OFR, said the ARRC has narrowed the list of potential alternatives to two: a secured repurchase agreement rate; and an unsecured rate, the Overnight Bank Funding Rate.
In other parts of the world
Asia-Pacific: Chinese exchanges eye Pakistan bourse stake; ANZ to sell finance unit
Europe: ECB to extend but cut QE; France's Cahuzac handed jail term over tax fraud
Middle East & Africa: Creditors call in Saudi Oger debt; 2nd South African exchange to debut
The day ahead
Early morning futures indicators pointed to a higher opening for the U.S. market.
In Asia, the Hang Seng slipped 0.44% to 22,760.98, while the Nikkei 225 increased 1.23% to 18,996.37.
In Europe, around midday, the FTSE 100 was up 0.21% to 6,946.08, and the Euronext 100 was up 0.51% to 911.86.
On the macro front
The consumer sentiment report and the wholesale trade report are due out today.
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