atlantic international partnership: Atlantic International Partnership Headlines:Group...

atlantic international partnership: Atlantic International Partnership Headlines:Group...: Lightbank, the seed fund created by Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell, is investing $1.5 million in Benzinga.com, a Michigan-based real-time ...

Atlantic International Partnership Headlines:Groupon Founders Turn To Financial News With Benzinga Investment

Lightbank, the seed fund created by Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell, is investing $1.5 million in Benzinga.com, a Michigan-based real-time financial news site with trading tips, as well as aggregated content from other sites such as TheStreet.com and WSJ.com, parent site of this blog.

“We like the proposition of an actionable trading information network, and we like the entrepreneurs behind Benzinga,” said Lightbank partner Paul Lee, who joined the fund earlier this year. “We think there has to be a certain brand connotation with these kinds of sites and we see that in Benzinga’s founder.”

Atlantic International Partnership Headlines: Royal Bank of Scotland to fight US mortgage action

The Royal Bank of Scotland says it will vigorously defend itself against US government claims it misrepresented the quality of mortgages it sold.

The US Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has filed lawsuits against 17 banks, including RBS, Barclays and HSBC, over mortgage-based investments.

Values plunged during the financial crisis and a bailout of mortgage firms cost US taxpayers billions of dollars.

RBS says it has “substantial” legal and factual defences to the US claims.

A spokesman said: “We believe we have substantial and credible legal and factual defences to these claims and will defend them vigorously.”

HSBC and Barclays declined to comment to the BBC on the legal action.

‘Improper actions’

Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Nomura, Citigroup, and Societe Generale are among the other banks facing legal action from the FHFA.

BBC business correspondent Joe Lynam says it is believed the financial institutions are being sued for a sum in the tens of billions.

The FHFA said in a statement that there had been “improper actions by the firms and individuals”.

“Based on our review, FHFA alleges that the loans had different and more risky characteristics than the descriptions contained in the marketing and sales materials provided to the Enterprises for those securities,” the statement said.

The FHFA oversees mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which act as guarantor for most home loans in the US.

The two firms lost more than $30bn (£18.5bn), partly because of their investments in sub-prime mortgages, and were bailed out by the US government.

Since the rescues, US taxpayers have spent more than $140bn to keep the firms afloat.

Alistair Heath of the financial newspaper City AM told the BBC the importance of the FHFA’s lawsuits against the financial institutions should not be downplayed.

“Regardless of the validity or otherwise of these allegations, a lot of these big banks are likely to end up paying billions of dollars in compensation to the US government.

“So it’ll be quite a costly settlement at best for these firms and it comes at quite a difficult time for the banking industry.”

Major banks are already negotiating with the attorneys general of all 50 states to settle mortgage abuse claims.

The banks were looking for a comprehensive deal that would protect them from future litigation.

But the FHFA’s action may complicate attempts to reach a deal with the states.

atlantic international partnership: Atlantic International Partnership

atlantic international partnership: Atlantic International Partnership: Services Retirement Planning In today’s economic climate retirement is becoming an important concern for all of us. On average we are livi...

Atlantic International Partnership

Services

Retirement Planning

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What are the costs of retirement:

1. Projected living costs

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3. Current savings and investment programs

4. Projected rates of inflation

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atlantic international partnership: Atlantic International Partnership Headlines: On t...

atlantic international partnership: Atlantic International Partnership Headlines: On t...: Tent-city activists hold live video chat with Madrid’s ‘May 15’ protesters, jointly prepare for next month’s int. anti-bank ‘Day of Rage’. ...

Atlantic International Partnership Headlines: On the corner of Rothschild and Madrid

Tent-city activists hold live video chat with Madrid’s ‘May 15’ protesters, jointly prepare for next month’s int. anti-bank ‘Day of Rage’.

Talkbacks (8)

Fighting bad lighting and a spotty Internet connection, activists at the Rothschild tent city held a live chat Wednesday night with leaders of the “May 15” anti-government protests that have brought hundreds of thousands into the streets across Spain, since they began over three months ago.

Organizers said that the online meet-up, billed as “Live From Madrid” was called so thatactivists from the two movements could interact with one another and share ideas for upcoming protest events, including the international anti-bank “Day of Rage” protests scheduled for September 17, and the international anti-government protest day, called for October 15.

The live chat was also meant as a way for Rothschild protesters to learn from the May 15 activists, who have accrued a bit more experience to share with the younger July 14 movement.

The meeting was held at the “Rothschild corner of Tahrir” tent near Sheinkin street, and was attended by a few dozen protesters and curious passersby. On the Madrid side, about half-a-dozen Spaniards sat smiling and waving, making “jazz hands,” the symbolfor applause in American Sign Language.