Foreign Firms Got Feds’ Cash (WSJ)
Among the biggest loans from a Fed commercial-paper lending program was one to Swiss banking giant UBS AG, which tapped it for $37 billion in October 2008. Barclays PLC, the British bank that declined to rescue Lehman Brothers but later bought much of it from bankruptcy, tapped the Fed for roughly $10 billion in commercial-paper loans in October 2008.

Bank of America Becoming Bank Of Asia As Revenue Rises 30% (Bloomberg)
Bank of America is headed for its best year advising on mergers and acquisitions in Asia-Pacific since 2005, and arranging initial public offerings since 2007. The combined companies have generated 30 percent more revenue from traditional investment-banking businesses in the region than they did as separate entities, according to a person with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified because the figures aren’t public.

Kinnucan Won’t Keep Quiet After Refusing To Wear A Wire For Feds (Bloomberg)
“It is a larger story at work here about the proper role of the SEC and its mandate as I understand it to provide guidance to the investment community,” Kinnucan said in an interview. “The Justice Department evidently would like to retroactively criminalize research activities which have been complicitly condoned by the SEC for years. If I don’t raise my voice, nobody will because everyone has gone underground.” Andrew Stoltmann, a securities lawyer in Chicago said: “He’s violating rule number one: don’t do anything that might upset the prosecutors. When someone talks to the FBI, he usually goes as far underground as possible. He’s not helping himself.”

ECB to Keep Unlimited Liquidity, Bond Hints Awaited (Reuters)
“They will probably say something to the effect that they stand ready to increase purchases in government securities if they considered this necessary,” said Frank Engels at Barclays Capital. “I think that would be slightly disappointing.”

Single Trader Holds Bulk Of LME Copper (WSJ)
That trader, whom the exchange hasn’t identified, owns between 50% and 80% of the 355,750 metric tons held in LME-listed warehouses. This amounts to more than 177,875 metric tons of copper, valued at about $1.5 billion. The exchange first disclosed the large position on Nov. 23 in its daily inventory holder report.

Peter Orszag Close to Joining Citigroup (FT)
Buds from the old neighborhood.

SEC, Banks Discuss CDO Settlement (WSJ)
The Securities and Exchange Commission, after issuing subpoenas for documents and interviewing officials from nearly every bank that was a major player in creating, selling or trading CDOs, has begun negotiating with the companies, these people said.

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/thomas-hoenigs-war-shrinking-behemoth-banks/“>Too Big To Succeed (NYT)
Thomas Hoenig: “A competitive, accountable and successful domestic economic system, supported by many innovative financial firms, would restore the United States’ economic strength. More financial firms — with none too big to fail — would mean less concentrated financial power, less concentrated risk and better access and service for American businesses and the public. Even if they were substantially smaller, the largest firms could continue to meet any global financial demand either directly or through syndication. Crises will always be a part of our capitalist system. But an absence of accountability and blatant inequities in treatment are why Americans remain angry. Without accountability, we cannot hope to build a national consensus around the sacrifices needed to eliminate our fiscal deficits and rebuild our economy.”