There is little doubt that finance has had just as many cases of sexual predation as other industries, and perhaps more. Finance is a male-dominated industry and the few women who manage to enter it, and to climb its ranks, often become the targets of the men who work there.
.. Renée-Eva Fassbender Amochaev, a broker who successfully sued Smith Barney for gender discrimination in a subsequent case when it was part of Citigroup, told me that the way Wall Street firms resolve sexual harassment cases continues to protect perpetrators and firms. Large settlements are paid, but the men who either committed the bad behavior or who effectively condoned it, often remain. “No one gets fired,” she said. “Everyone on the inside knows the system is rigged.” And, because the settlements are confidential, the incidents are kept quiet.
.. members of her department went to Scores, a topless dance club in Manhattan, to celebrate a colleague’s promotion.
.. Managers placed all the women’s desks together, and that part of the floor was known as the “pink ghetto.” The rest of the office was decidedly more masculine. “It was a locker room,” she said. “It was horrible, but I just sucked it up for a year.”
.. Carnoy said she thought about suing Bear Stearns because what went on there was so “despicable,” but then she thought better of it. “I remember thinking, ‘Wow, I can sue them but I want to be in this industry for the next thirty years’,”
.. An executive’s annual bonus can be in the millions of dollars and if a woman experienced egregious harassment or criminal sexual assault on Wall Street, the settlement would also be in the millions.
.. Pao told me that she thought part of the reason might be because that while women had won a few legal victories—and had received cash settlements—their careers had stalled afterward.
.. the broader #MeToo moment is strengthening an “underground” movement, or whisper network, where women who work in finance help each other. “What Wall Street still underestimates is that the ‘underground’ is still alive and well and growing stronger with this new movement,” she said. “These women find me, contact me, call me—for twelve solid years now. We plot, we organize in secret and effect change through an underground, which is how you, and countless women, have found me. It’s all we have right now.
IMF Identifies Nine Big Banks Likely to Struggle With Profitability
Projects Deutsche Bank, Citi, Barclays and others could deliver subpar profits by 2019
The International Monetary Fund said some of the world’s largest financial institutions—including Deutsche Bank , DB -0.38% Citigroup , C +0.05% Barclays BCS -0.36% and a few Japanese institutions—could struggle in coming years to remain sufficiently profitable.
“About a third of banks by assets may struggle to achieve sustainable profitability, underscoring ongoing challenges and medium-term vulnerabilities,” the IMF said, referring to the world’s most important financial institutions.
The report named nine financial institutions in all—
- Barclays BCS
- Citigroup,
- Société Générale , SCGLY -0.43%
- UniCreditUNCFF -0.54% Group,
- Deutsche Bank, Barclays,
- Standard Chartered , STAN -0.30%
- Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group , SMFG +0.25%
- Mizuho Financial Group MFG +0.00%and
- Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group MTU +0.45% —
as likely to deliver subpar profits.
.. “Institutions that are not profitable might not be able to generate enough capital in the future should adverse shocks hit,” Tobias Adrian, the director of the IMF’s monetary and capital markets department, told reporters. “It might become a financial stability risk not to be profitable.”
.. The IMF said the consensus among private-sector bank-industry analysts was for a return on equity of less than 8% for each of those nine banks in the year 2019.
.. Deutsche Bank’s stock, for example, trades at less than half of its book value, or net worth, and has traded well below this level since 2010.
Trump Couple, Now White House Employees, Can’t Escape Conflict Laws
“Donald Trump can evade legal responsibility even if the conflicts of interest remain,” said Noah Bookbinder, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a liberal nonprofit group. “His daughter and son-in-law don’t have that escape hatch.”
Mr. Kushner did resign from more than 200 positions in the partnerships and limited liability companies that make up the family-run multibillion-dollar real estate business. But the financial disclosure report shows that Mr. Kushner will remain a beneficiary of most of those same entities.
.. the Kushner Companies’ deals have become a magnet for opaque foreign money — often from parts of the world that present thorny policy questions, such as China, where Mr. Kushner’s company has actively sought investors, as well as the Middle East and Russia.
.. Mr. Kushner, by contrast, continues to hold multimillion-dollar lines of credit from institutions such as Citigroup and Deutsche Bank, while companies he is still a beneficiary of have billions of dollars in additional loans from heavily regulated institutions.
.. “The one thing Jared really ought to stay completely away from is anything having to do with Dodd-Frank,”
.. Even Mr. Bannon’s aide Julia Hahn, who is 25, reported investments worth between $1 million and $2.1 million
.. Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, had assets worth between $11 million and $44 million.
Oil-Price Rebound Gives Banks New Reason to Cheer
The higher oil prices stemming from OPEC’s agreement to cut crude production should give some banks a boost.
.. In particular, higher oil prices could mean that banks will release some of the reserves they set aside earlier this year to protect themselves against soured energy loans. Such releases would increase banks’ earnings.
.. Bank of America Corp. rose more than 4% on the day, Wells Fargo—2%, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.—1.6% and Citigroup Inc.—1.6%.
.. Fifteen of the largest U.S. banks amassed a combined $6 billion in reserves for energy loans, according to a Barclays analysis.