The sheer inappropriateness of the vessel, the breathtaking audacity of the messenger, can oddly confer authority on an idea. If even the creator of Citigroup now believes that the giant banks should be broken up, who could not believe it?
His belated conversion is only the latest from the “corner office to Zuccotti Park†banking crowd. The former merger aficiona do Philip J. Purcell, who headed up the pithily named Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Discover, wrote a recent Wall Street Journal opinion article suggesting that shareholders should break up the banks. Sallie Krawcheck, a former top-ranking Wall Street executive, recently criticized big banks. Two other former top executives, David H. Komansky and John S. Reed, have attacked the current financial system.
These converts tend to have followed a similar path. They participated in the merger frenzy and pushed deregulation when the getting was good. They departed from finance's sweet embrace sometimes involuntarily, ousted in power struggles. And they stayed quiet, or did little, throughout the debates on how to fix the system when the nation was struggling over the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory overhaul.
DealBook '
MF Global Trustees Differ Over Amount Customers Will be Repaid  | An MF Global trustee damped hopes that customers would recover all of their missing money from the bankrupt brokerage firm, telling lawmakers on Wednesday that a $1.6 billion gap remained.
In testimony before the Senate Agriculture Committee, James W. Giddens predicted that clients could recoup in the “90 percent range†of their cash. Mr. Giddens, the trustee tasked with plugging the gap in customer money, has so far retrieved about 80 percent of the funds.
“We'd very much like to pay every customer 100 percent, however, it will be a time-consuming, difficult and uphill battle,†he told lawmakers. Mr. Giddens also updated lawmakers on his concern about wrongdoing at the top rungs of MF Global.
DealBook '
Goldman Sachs to Invest in New York City Jail Program  | The city will test “social impact bonds,†allowing Goldman to invest nearly $10 million in a jail program with the promise that the firm would profit if the program successfully reduced recidivism rates, The New York Times reports.
NEW YORK TIMES
Former Treasury Official Headed to Romney Campaign  | Michele Davis, a former aide to Henry M. Paulson Jr., has told colleagues she plans to join the Romney campaign to mount a public relations defense of the candidate's record at Bain Capital, BuzzFeed reports, citing an unidentified person.
BUZZFEED
ING Considers Sale of British and Canadian Divisions  | The Dutch financial services firm ING said it was “reviewing†its online banking units in Britain and Canada in advance of a possible sale, The Associated Press reports.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Apple's Quiet Deal for AuthenTec  | When Apple acquired AuthenTec last week, neither company issued a statement or a news release on the deal, which underscores the hard bargaining tactics of the technology giant, the Deal Professor writes.
DealBook '
Coca-Cola Said to Explore Bid for Asian Beverage Business  | Coca-Cola is considering bidding for the beverage business of Singapore's Fraser & Neave, a move that could pit it against Kirin Holdings, Bloomberg News reports, citing unidentified people with knowledge of the matter.
BLOOMBERG NEWS
J.G. Wentworth Said to Be For Sale  | The private equity owner of the financial firm J.G. Wentworth is looking to sell it for as much as $1 billion, The New York Post reports, without naming sources.
NEW YORK POST
South Korea Shelves Sale of Woori  | After failing to drum up interest, South Korea is suspending the sale of its $5.2 billion controlling stake in Woori Finance Holdings, Reuters reports.
REUTERS
Plaza Hotel Sold to Indian Conglomerate  | Elad Properties, a real estate company that owns New York's Plaza Hotel, said it agreed to sell a controlling stake in the property for $570 million to Sahara India Pariwar, a conglomerate based in Lucknow, India, according to The New York Times India Ink blog. The deal will reduce the minority stake in the hotel owned by Kingdom Holdings of Saudi Arabia.
DealBook '
Flood of Errant Trades Is a Black Eye for Wall Street  | An automated stock trading program suddenly flooded the market with millions of trades on Wednesday, spreading turmoil across Wall Street and drawing renewed attention to the fragility and instability of the nation's stock markets. The runaway trading suggests that regulators have not been able to keep up with electronic programs that increasingly dominate the supercharged market and have helped undermine investor confidence in stocks, Nathaniel Popper reports in The New York Time s.
DealBook '
Convenient Myths on Wall Street  | Simon Johnson writes on the Economix blog that three big banks that recently have been tarnished by scandal, JPMorgan Chase, HSBC and Barclays, “are forced to fall back on perpetuating three myths.â€
NEW YORK TIMES ECONOMIX
BNP Paribas Profit Falls 13% in Second Quarter  | Europe's deepening debt crisis curbed trading revenue at the French bank, pushing its net profit down by 13 percent, to $2.27 billion, in the second quarter.
DealBook '
Morgan Stanley's Former Housing Chief Starts Investment Firm  | Oliver Chang, who formerly ran housing st rategy at Morgan Stanley, has started a firm to acquire distressed homes, with plans to spend up to $1 billion over the next two years, Reuters reports.
REUTERS
Wall Street Firms Reduce Headcount in Japan  | Nine global securities firms, including Goldman Sachs, reduced their staffs in Japan by 7.3 percent in the fiscal year ended March 31, more than double the previous year's percentage reduction, Bloomberg News reports.
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Credit Suisse Names DeNunzio as Global Chairman of M.&A. Â |Â Credit Suisse on Wednesday named David DeNunzio, one of its veteran deal makers, as the global chairman of its mergers and acquisitions group. The news follows the departure of Steven Koch to serve as a deputy mayor of Chicago .
DealBook '
BlackRock Expands Management Committee  | The giant asset manager BlackRock is adding eight executives to its global executive committee, bringing the total to 21, as it looks to stem withdrawals from its funds, Bloomberg News reports.
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Alternatives to Bank Lending Can Be Expensive  | Small businesses have turned to alternative sources of financing as banks pull back on lending in the aftermath of the financial crisis. But many of these methods are substantially more expensive than traditional bank loans, The New York Times writes.
NEW YORK TIMES
< span class="title">Bain to Buy Stake in Computer Services Firm for $1 Billion  | Bain Capital agreed to buy a roughly 30 percent stake in Genpact, which handles technology services for businesses, from General Atlantic and Oak Hill Capital Partners, Bloomberg News reports.
BLOOMBERG NEWS
British Buyout Firm Plans a Brazilian Push  | Amid a lackluster private equity environment in Europe, 3i is preparing to invest an average of $100 million per year in Brazilian companies, The Wall Street Journal reports.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
3i Announces Plans for Debt Management Business  | The British private equity firm 3i said it was forming a joint venture with the fund manager WCAS Fraser Su llivan Investment Management to start a debt management business, Reuters reports.
REUTERS
Private Equity P.R. Campaign Focuses on Jobs  | In its latest installment of a months-long campaign, the industry is highlighting Thoma Bravo, which invested in a Cleveland, Ohio-based software company called Hyland Software in 2007.
DealBook '
Third Point's Flagship Fund Posts a Decline  | Third Point Offshore, the main fund of Daniel S. Loeb's firm, declined 2.5 percent in the second quarter, Reuters reports, citing a letter to investors.
REUTERS
DealBook '
British Hedge Fund Sues Indian Government  | The lawsuit by the Children's Investment Fund is the latest salvo in the hedge fund's struggle with the state-backed energy company Coal India, The Financial Times reports.
FINANCIAL TIMES
Hartford Financial Reports a 2nd-Quarter Loss  | The Hartford Financial Services Group, the insurer whose largest investor is the hedge fund manager John A. Paulson, said it lost $101 million in the second quarter, compared with a profit a year earlier, Bloomberg News reports.
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Facebook Continues to Make Investors Nervous  | Shares of the social network declined steadily this week, after a disappointing earnings report last Friday, to reach $20.88 on Wednesday, nearly half of what they were worth when the company went public in May, The New York Times reports.
NEW YORK TIMES
After Buying Facebook Shares, Fidelity Funds Head for the Exit  | The Wall Street Journ al reports: “Twenty-one Fidelity funds sold more than 1.9 million public Facebook shares combined in June, with 16 of them selling more than a quarter of their stakes in the company, according to investment-research firm Morningstar.â€
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Groupon Partners With Nokia to Promote Deals  | Nokia is promoting Groupon offers through the maps on its smartphones, allowing users to buy offers from their phones, Reuters reports.
REUTERS
Yelp's Results Beat Expectations  | Yelp reported a loss that was lower than expected, as its revenue increased 67 percent in the second quarter, Reuters reports.
REUTERS
Much-Hyped Chat Service Gets Uncertain Start  | Airtime, the video-chatting site introduced by the star entrepreneurs Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning in June, “does not appear to be taking off among users,†the Bits blog writes.
NEW YORK TIMES BITS
Start-Ups Turn to Washington for Board Members  | Some young companies are recruiting Beltway insiders for their expertise in regulations affecting the technology industry, The Wall Street Journal reports.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Twitter Introduces a Political Feature  | A feature called the Twitter Political Index monitors political sentiment on Twitter, mining hundreds of millions of tweets for opinions about the 2012 presidential candidates, the Bits blog writes.
NEW YORK TIMES BITS
Federal Reserve Defers New Action to Spur Economy  | The Federal Reserve took no new steps on Wednesday to support the economy, despite saying that growth had slowed. But the central bank did say it was ready to act if job growth did not improve, The New York Times writes.
NEW YORK TIMES
Fed Chairman Considers His Next Move  | Bloomberg Businessweek writes: “With the global financial crisis over (for now), Bernanke is groping for a second act, like a monetary Bob Dylan who peaked too young.â€
BLOO MBERG BUSINESSWEEK
A.I.G. Said to Be Looking to Buy Back Shares From U.S. Â |Â The bailed-out insurer A.I.G. is looking to reduce the ownership stake held by the United States government by buying back shares, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing unidentified people familiar with the company's thinking.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
British Officials Said to Consider Nationalizing R.B.S.  | The Financial Times, citing unidentified people close to the bank, reports: “Senior government figures are discussing the possibility of buying out private investors in Royal Bank of Scotland and fully nationalizing it amid mounting frustration at banks' failure to lend to British businesses.â€
FINANCIAL TIMES
Former Morgan Stanley Official Sues Over Ouster  | Clifford Jagodzinski, a former risk officer for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, said he was unfairly fired after reporting questionable trading that was “obviously designed to bilk investors,†Bloomberg News reports.
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Trustee for Madoff Victims Challenges Settlement  | Irving H. Picard, the trustee seeking money for victims of Bernard L. Madoff, asked the Federal Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan on Wednesday to block New York State's settlement with a hedge fund manager accused of steering client money to the Ponzi scheme, Reuters reports.
REUTERS
UBS Whistleblower Is Released From Prison  | Bradley Birkenfeld, a former UBS executive who told United States authorities about efforts by the Swiss bank to help American citizens avoid taxes, served nearly 30 months of a 40-month prison sentence, The Wall Street Journal reports.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
