Posts belonging to Category Barclays



Wall Street Firms Apparently Planning Massive Job Cuts

 

Wall Street banks could soon cut as many as 21,000 jobs in New York alone, say Wall Street consultants and recruiters. Worldwide cuts could be even larger (“Large layoffs loom on Wall Street,” Stephen Gandel, CNN Money). While the stock market is up this year, and many smaller investment banks have been hiring, and the […]

Wall Street: Under Siege and Contracting

 

The securities industry in New York City has lost 22,000 jobs since January 2008, and will lose another 10,000 by the end of next year, according to a report by New York City’s Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. If his predictions are correct, Wall Street will have lost 17% of its jobs. Wall Street has shed […]

Job Cuts at UBS – A Microcosm of What’s Happening on Wall Street

 

Jobs at Wall Street banks are being eliminated at an increasingly rapid pace and this bodes ill for many employed in the financial services sector. Bloomberg’s recent article “UBS Bankers Face Dwindling Options for Jobs” underscores this situation. Those pushed out at UBS will doubtless find few opportunities on Wall Street. The bigger story, however, […]

Reverse Convertible Securities More Likely to Become Toxic as Market Swoons

 

The current free fall in the stock market is likely to activated the ticking time bombs that are hidden away in some investors’ portfolios. These time bombs are embedded in a type of structured product called Reverse Convertible Notes or Reverse Exchangeable Notes. The problem has to do with the way these products are structured.

Securities Industry Employment Disputes on the Increase as Wall Street Cuts Jobs

 

The jobs crisis is starting to hit Wall Street banks and brokerage firms, according to a series of Wall Street Journal articles (“Wall Street Wielding the Ax,” by Aaron Lucchetti and Liz Rappaport; “Credit Suisse Set to Ax 600 Jobs,” by Katharina Bart; and “Here’s Why Wall Street Is Cutting Jobs”). A regulatory crackdown on […]

Study: Structured Products Pose Huge Risks to Investors’ Portfolios

 

Simply stated, senior investors (in fact, all investors) should be very leery of high-risk structured products. Author John Wasik, in conjunction with Demos and The Nation Institute, has published a white paper entitled “How Safe Are Your Savings? How Complex Derivative Products Imperil Seniors’ Retirement Security.” The paper’s focus is on structured products and how […]

Regulators Widen Probe of Reverse Convertibles – SEC Also Jumps into the Fray

 

Securities regulators are expanding their investigation Wall Street’s sales of reverse convertibles, according to Jean Eaglesham’s Wall Street Journal article entitled, “Complex Bond Faces Regulators’ Scrutiny. Earlier this week the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced it was conducting “sweeps” of certain firms to gather information about their advertising for these structured products.

Victims of Investment Malpractice or Other Financial Misconduct During the Recent Financial Crisis May Be on the Verge of Losing Legal Rights

 

If you are an investor who lost money in the financial crisis, your stockbroker or investment advisor may owe you money. There are a variety of legal claims that can be brought for investment malpractice, ranging from fraud and misrepresentation to making unsuitable investment recommendations. But there are also legal deadlines for bringing such claims, […]

Wall Street Whistleblower Program Already Paying Off

 

The new whistleblower program that pays big cash rewards for tips about investment fraud has already resulted in a large number of high quality tips to the SEC, according to a news story this week on CNBC. According to the report, the SEC expects to receive 30,000 tips this year?just one year after the program […]

Barclays Hit with $108 Million Charge

 

The U.K. bank Barclays PLC was handed a $12.2 million fine and will be required to pay up to $96 million to customers who were improperly sold two stock-and-bond funds, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal by Margot Patrick. The settlement arose out of an investigation by the U.K.’s Financial Services Authority. […]