It's a mea culpa from , which finalized a$1.2 billion settlement and admittedto lying about mortgage loans' FHA-insurance eligibility.

Meanwhile, JamieDimon's call forbanks of all sizes to pull together got a "Thanks,but no thanks" from the audience, according to Bloomberg News. "Justbecause [JPMorgan Chase & Co.'sCEO] says 'Let's sing kumbaya' doesn't mean community banks are going to justline-up like a Greek chorus," responded Independent Community Bankers ofAmerica's Camden Fine.

Elsewhere in banking, Piper Jaffray's Kevin Barkerreiterates concerns over lower recovery values on regional banks' delinquentauto loans. He noted the "moderately increasing delinquencies in deepsubprime markets," based on the Manheim used vehicle price index for March.

Out West, bankexecutives "have generally suggested that their local economies remainrelatively healthy and continue to generate strong broad-based loan demand,"writes RBC Capital Markets' Joe Morford. "That said, many of [them] havealready been operating at cyclelow levels of losses and problem assets and willlikely bounce around the bottom here for at least the next few quarters."

In LittleRock, Richard O'Brien, who was recently named head of , has left thecompany, as well as its unit HeartlandBank where he was president and CEO, Arkansas Business reports. Both entities are currently without a CEOand were, just in February, dealing with the issue of a $5.5 million energyloan that more than doubled when Axys Capital Income Fund assigned its share ofthe loan to Heartland.

Sequoia Fundis introducing some retail investors to the practice of redemptionsin kind (getting shares of stock instead of the cash you tried towithdraw), after the mutual fund washit hard by its stake in Valeant, say sources for The Wall Street Journal.

In the mortgage REITspace, Annaly Capital ManagementInc. will buy HatterasFinancial Corp. in a cash-and-stock deal valuing the latter at$15.85 per share.

A renewed focuson loan quality and a paucity of new investments has online lenders suchas , Marlette Funding LLC and cutting back ontheir advertising for newloans, the Journal reports.

In the fintech sphere, CoreLogic Inc. reduced its initial cash considerationfor FNC Inc. to $400 millionfrom $475 million,although the difference will still be paid out if revenue targets are met.

And look —bankers are "pleased" with the CFPB. The American BankersAssociation, in a letter to Reps. Blaine Leutkemeyer and Randy Neugebauer, saidthat while the TILA-RESPAIntegrated Disclosure rule was "not workable for all programs orproduct lines" and the group remained "uncertain about the validityof the substantial amount of unofficial, often verbal, agency staff guidancethat has accumulated since the final rule was issued," the ABA and othergroups were happy about Director Richard Cordray's "verbal commitments toprovide clarifications" and his "openness regarding the TRID issues."

In other parts of the world

Saudi Arabia'sCapital Market Authority named the nine foreign institutions qualified toinvest directly in SaudiArabian stocks, Bloomberg reports. They are , two entities, , twoAshmore Group Plcunits, Silchester InternationalInvestors LLP, Unlu Menkul Degerler AS and .

The day ahead

Earlymorning futures indicators pointed to a higher opening for the U.S. market.

In Asia, theHang Seng rose 0.35% to 20,440.81, while the Nikkei 225 declined 0.44% to15,751.13.

In Europe,around midday, the FTSE 100 was up 0.10% to 6,210.78; the Euronext 100increased 0.68% to 854.67.

On the macro front

Nonotable reports are due out today.

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