The fall of MF Global, and the discovery that hundreds of millions of dollars were missing from the firm’s customer accounts, have cast a dark cloud over Jon S. Corzine’s legacy.

More here:
DealBook: In Corzine Comeback, Big Risks and Steep Fall

Top executives from Goldman Sachs , J.P. Morgan Chase , General Electric and other firms sat on the boards of regional Federal Reserve banks while their firms benefited from the central bank’s policies during the financial crisis, creating an appearance of a conflict of interest, a federal watchdog said Wednesday. Read full article > >

Read more:
GAO: Executives’ seats on Fed boards as firms benefit give appearance of conflict

The first loss at Goldman Sachs since the financial crisis points to what could be a more lasting shift in the financial industry.

Continued here:
DealBook: Goldman Loss Offers a Bad Omen for Wall Street

NEW YORK — Goldman Sachs Group Inc. reported a third-quarter loss of $428 million Tuesday, only the second quarterly loss since the investment bank went public 12 years ago. Revenue from underwriting stocks and bonds plunged as businesses, unnerved by political wrangling in Washington and volatile markets, held off on new stock and bond offerings. Goldman also lost nearly $3 billion on investments in stocks, bonds and a stake in a Chinese bank. Read full article > >

Go here to read the rest:
Rough markets slam Goldman Sachs; firm loses $428 million in third quarter

In an effort to secure lucrative brokerage and trading business, big banks like Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America have become powerful recruiting forces for their biggest hedge fund clients.

More:
DealBook: For Hedge Funds, Free Recruiting Is Wall St. Perk

It is “likely” that the SEC got rid of “some documents” from inquiries it decided not to pursue involving Bernard Madoff and such major financial firms as Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Lehman Brothers and SAC Capital , a senior SEC official said Wednesday. But the official, enforcement director Robert Khuzami, said agency officials “do not believe that current or future investigations have been harmed” by the SEC’s long-running practice of purging files of inquiries that were closed without a full-fledged investigation. Read full article > >

More here:
File purging not harmful, says SEC official

It is “likely” that the SEC got rid of “some documents” from inquiries it decided not to pursue involving Bernard Madoff and such major financial firms as Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Lehman Brothers and SAC Capital , a senior SEC official said Wednesday. But the official, enforcement director Robert Khuzami, said agency officials “do not believe that current or future investigations have been harmed” by the SEC’s long-running practice of purging files of inquiries that were closed without a full-fledged investigation. Read full article > >

See the rest here:
File purging not harmful, says SEC official

Bank of America, seeking to snap this year’s stock plunge, will pay billionaire Warren Buffett $300 million a year to do what he did for Goldman Sachs during the credit crisis: bolster confidence. The $5 billion sale of preferred equity, which initially sent the shares up 26 percent, may improve investor perceptions without meaningfully affecting the source of their concern, the bank’s capital, analysts said. The deal gives Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway warrants — or the right to buy stock at a specific price — that could make it the lender’s largest stockholder. Read full article > >

Read more:
Buffett bolsters Bank of America

The SEC has violated federal law by destroying the records of thousands of enforcement cases in which it decided not to file charges against or conduct full-blown investigations of Wall Street firms and others initially suspected of wrongdoing, a former agency official has alleged. The purged records involve major firms such as Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and hedge-fund manager SAC Capital, the former official claimed. At issue were suspicions of actions such as insider trading, financial fraud and market manipulation. Read full article > >

See the original post here:
SEC accused of dumping records

Groupon Inc. is filing for its IPO, hoping to raise up to $750 million. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and Credit Suisse are the lead underwriters for the IPO of the company. Groupon earned $644.7 million in revenue for the first quarter of…

See the rest here:
Groupon Files for IPO

Groupon Inc. is filing for its IPO, hoping to raise up to $750 million. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and Credit Suisse are the lead underwriters for the IPO of the company. Groupon earned $644.7 million in revenue for the first quarter of…

Read more:
Groupon Files for IPO

Some of the world’s most sophisticated banks and investment firms rushed to do business with Moammar Gaddafi’s government in Libya after the United States rescinded the country’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism five years ago, according to an internal financial document obtained by The Washington Post. HSBC, Goldman Sachs and other top banks took on hundreds of millions in cash deposits. Hedge funds and private investment firms, including the Washington-based Carlyle Group, sold Libya’s investment authority complex financial products. The Libyan sovereign wealth fund bought more than $1 billion in U.S. Treasury bills, effectively giving Libya a chance to underwrite U.S. debt. Read full article > >

Continued here:
Libyan gold rush followed end to sanctions

Goldman Sachs executives say they expect U.S. prosecutors to serve them with

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is seeking records from three major Wall Street banks as part of a broad investigation into the mortgage crisis that fueled the recession, an official familiar with the issue said Tuesday. Schneiderman is meeting with representatives of the Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, according to the official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Those meetings are expected to focus on mortgage securities operations during the boom on Wall Street that ultimately cost banks billions of dollars. Read full article > >

Continued here:
NY attorney general’s mortgage meltdown probe seeks big banks’ records, official says

The acquisition, an effort to gain a foothold in voice and video communications, would be Microsoft’s largest ever.

Originally posted here:
DealBook: Microsoft in Talks to Acquire Skype for $8.5 Billion