Oct. 12, 2010 at 5:09 p.m.
Filed under:
Chicago executives,
Management,
Pharmaceuticals
By Bruce Japsen
Baxter International Inc. Chief Executive Bob Parkinson shook up his management team, disclosing this afternoon the departure of two senior executives and a plan to combine the company’s renal and medication delivery businesses into a “single global unit.”
The move essentially turns Baxter into a company focused on two divisions: medical products and bioscience treatments. The medical products business will include medication delivery devices such as intravenous systems while the bioscience business will include drugs to treat immune system disorders and blood diseases such as its flagship drug Advate to treat people with hemophilia. Get the full story »
Oct. 1, 2010 at 9:49 a.m.
Filed under:
Exchanges,
Regulations
By Reuters
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission proposed new limits on Friday on the control banks and other large firms can exert over venues where over-the-counter swaps will soon have to trade and clear.
The futures regulator, rolling out some of the sweeping Wall Street reforms authorized by Congress, is trying to strike a tricky balance between opening up the opaque $615 trillion OTC swaps market without exposing clearinghouses, exchanges and swap execution facilities to undue risk. Get the full story »
Sep. 30, 2010 at 11:04 a.m.
Filed under:
Bank failures,
Banking,
Policy,
Politics,
Small business
By Becky Yerak
A Chicago-area bank whose chief executive met with President Obama last December to discuss small-banking matters has been ordered by the nation’s thrift regulator to maintain certain capital levels, among other things.
Matt Gambs, who in 2008 joined Schaumburg-based Diamond Bank as its new chief executive, said that earlier this week members of its board of directors, including existing investors, pumped $1 million in fresh capital into the closely held lender, which also has a branch near the intersection of Clark and North in Chicago. Get the full story »
Sep. 29, 2010 at 4:28 p.m.
Filed under:
Investigations,
Real estate
By Mary Ellen Podmolik
The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation has asked Ally Financial to freeze all foreclosures and not initiate any new ones against Illinois homeowners until an investigation of its foreclosure practices is complete.
According to the state, more than 100,000 Illinois homeowners have mortgages that are serviced by the company, including 78,500 first mortgages.
An Ally employee testified in a Florida court case that he signed at least 10,000 affidavits a month to process foreclosures without reviewing the underlying paperwork and that those documents were then filed with the court as evidence of Ally’s rights to foreclose on the homes. Get the full story »
Sep. 27, 2010 at 2:29 p.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing,
Food
By Julie Wernau
POM Wonderful isn’t quite as wonderful as it claims, the Federal Trade Commission said Monday, after filing a complaint that challenges the company’s statements that pomegranate can prevent and treat everything from heart disease to erectile dysfunction.
The agency called the claims — found in advertisements in print publications and on the Internet — “false and unsubstantiated” and based on flawed medical research.
In a story this March, the Tribune named POM Wonderful as one of several products on the market that made health claims in its advertising that are permissible only for FDA-approved drugs. Yet, POM Wonderful has staked its name on the fruit’s health benefits. According to POM Wonderful, since 1998 the company has paid $34 million to support pomegranate-related research at universities and by other scientists, yielding approximately 55 published studies. Get the full story »
Sep. 27, 2010 at 11:51 a.m.
Filed under:
Airlines,
Airplanes,
Airports,
Consumer news,
M&A
By Sara K. Clarke, Orlando Sentinel | Orlando-based AirTran Airways said today it has agreed to be bought by Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, which is the busiest carrier at Orlando International Airport. What does this mean for customers and shareholders? Read on to see: Get the full story »
Sep. 24, 2010 at 6:44 p.m.
Filed under:
Bank failures,
Banking,
Policy,
Regulations,
Updated
By Becky Yerak
A $7 billion-asset Warrenville credit union that suffered massive losses in mortgage-backed securities was one of three critically undercapitalized institutions seized Friday by the U.S. government.
Members United Corporate Federal Credit Union was one of three “wholesale,” or “corporate,” credit unions put into conservatorship by the National Credit Union Administration. Get the full story »
By Reuters
Goldman Sachs chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein at the Senate hearing on the role of investment banks during the financial crisis, Apr. 27, 2010. (Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/MCT)
The timing of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s case against Goldman Sachs Group Inc. was “suspicious,” the federal regulator’s watchdog said Wednesday.
The SEC filed civil fraud charges against Goldman in mid-April, the same day the watchdog group released a damning report that accused the SEC of mishandling its probe of Allen Stanford’s alleged Ponzi scheme.
The report, authored by SEC Inspector General David Kotz, said the SEC had suspected as early as 1997 that Stanford was running a Ponzi scheme, but did nothing to stop it until late 2005. Get the full story »
Sep. 17, 2010 at 12:02 p.m.
Filed under:
Exchanges,
Regulations
By Reuters
CME Group Inc. told the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that CME’s ban on a type of trade that would help rival ELX Futures LP easily capture business from CME is not anti-competitive.
In a 70-page letter posted on the regulator’s website on Friday, CME asked the CFTC to reconsider its endorsement of so-called exchange for futures trades, or EFFs, repeating its view that there is no compelling reason for it to allow them. Get the full story »
Sep. 17, 2010 at 11:16 a.m.
Filed under:
Banking,
Regulations
By Reuters
Securities regulators voted unanimously on Friday to propose rules for companies to disclose more information about their short-term borrowings.
The agency is trying to crack down on financial companies that use accounting gimmicks to bolster their balance sheets, particularly at the end of a quarter. Get the full story »
Sep. 15, 2010 at 4:48 p.m.
Filed under:
Exchanges,
Regulations
By Reuters
CME Group Inc., the biggest U.S. operator of futures exchanges, may need to add more staff to adequately oversee its markets, regulators said on Wednesday after a review of CME’s enforcement activities.
CME should review its staff size, report to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission about what it found, and take ongoing steps to make sure staff is “increased appropriately when necessary” to handle more volume and any other relevant developments, the CFTC said after its review. Get the full story »
Sep. 13, 2010 at 7:55 a.m.
Filed under:
Banking,
International
By Associated Press
The building of the Bank for International Settlements, BIS, in Basel, Switzerland. (AP/Georgios Kefalas)
Bankers and analysts said new global rules could mean less money available to lend to businesses and consumers, but praised a decision to give them plenty of time — until 2019 — before the so-called Basel III requirements come into full force.
The rules, which will gradually require banks to hold greater capital buffers to absorb potential losses, are likely to affect the credit industry by imposing stricter discipline on credit cards, mortgages and other loans. Get the full story »
By Associated Press
Some airline pilots would fly fewer hours and others would fly longer under proposed rules to help prevent dangerous fatigue, transportation and labor officials said Friday.
The proposal would set different requirements based on the time of day, number of scheduled flight segments, flight types, time zones and likelihood that a pilot is able to get enough sleep, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in his blog. The proposal is being released Friday. Get the full story »
Sep. 2, 2010 at 11:22 a.m.
Filed under:
Bank failures,
Banking,
Consumer news,
Investing
By Becky Yerak
Urban Partnership Bank, the successor to the recently failed ShoreBank, has already boosted the interest rates on a couple of savings accounts for its online ShoreBank Direct.
The ShoreBank Direct Online Savings Account now pays a 1.25 percent annual percentage rate with a $100,000 minimum balance, up from 1.19 percent. It also pays 1.2 percent for balances of less than $100,000, up from 1.03 percent.
The rate hikes were first reported by www.depositaccounts.com, a tracker of bank account trends. Get the full story »
Sep. 1, 2010 at 5:46 p.m.
Filed under:
Consumer news,
Health care,
Pharmaceuticals,
Policy
By Los Angeles Times
The prescription diet drug sibutramine, sold under the brand name Meridia, should be taken off the market because it raises the risk of heart attacks and strokes in some patients, the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine said Wednesday.
Those risks, published in January on a government clinical-trials website and now in full in the journal, outweigh the modest benefits of the medication, said Dr. Gregory D. Curfman, the journal’s executive editor and lead author of an editorial that accompanied the study. Get the full story »
