Friday, August 28, 2015

This Week in Bank Failures

Workers at HSBC in the U.K. were working late tonight to fix a failed payments system that had dropped an estimated 275,000 payments. Most of the payments were direct deposits of paychecks, so it was a high-profile gaffe from a bank that has faced more than its share of problems this year.

The U.S. Department of Labor has tentatively declined to recommend waivers for three giant banks that manipulated base rates, and in one case, also manipulated stock prices. Without the waivers, the banks will have to stop managing retirement accounts.

Bad loans are starting to pile up in China, according to the latest reports from the largest banks there. Construction companies have long been credit risks in China, but factories and retailers are starting to miss payments too as the manufacturing sector slows.

Bloomberg reported on a fake Goldman Sachs in China. A leasing company using the Goldman Sachs name, but not connected to the real Goldman Sachs, is said to have links to organized crime.

A credit union was liquidated today. State regulators in Iowa put SCICAP Credit Union, with around 1,000 members, into receivership. The NCUA then transferred most assets and member accounts to Community 1st Credit Union.