Lehman Brothers Investigation Causes a Stir

The report on an investigation into wrongdoing at Lehman Brothers before the company collapsed has caused quite a stir among regulators and the financial industry.

The comprehensive report, which was authored by Anton R. Valukas, an examiner appointed by court to investigate the company’s bankruptcy has blamed Lehman’s top management and auditor Ernst and Young of using accounting gimmicks to hide troubled assets. The most controversial was the use of an accounting trick known as Repo 105 that allowed the company to shift a massive $50 billion of toxic assets. [Read more…]

Report on Lehman Brothers Collapse Blames Executives

The report on the collapse of Lehman Brothers has come out and it has blamed the company’s executives, its auditors and its rivals of wrong doing. The 158 year old Wall Street bank went bankrupt in 2008, triggering a huge financial crisis.

Anton R. Valukas, who was appointed by the court as an examiner to understand what went wrong in the last few days of the company authored a 2,200 page report detailing his findings. He claims that the senior management of the company indulged in balance sheet manipulation to hide its insolvency. [Read more…]

Bill Proposed to Limit Risk Taking by Banks

In the aftermath of the financial crisis, the Obama administration has been trying to bring in measures to avoid a similar crisis in future. In another such effort, the administration has proposed a bill that would reduce risk taking by large financial companies.

The bill aims to ban financial companies from involving in risky trades for the benefit of the company itself. This kind of trading, known as proprietary trading, is done to make profits for the bank and not for its customers. The bill would also prevent banks from investing in hedge funds and private equity funds. However, all these rules would apply only on companies that use federally insured deposits. [Read more…]