Opening Bell: 03.30.10
RBS Fined for Breaching Competition Law (WSJ)
£28.59 million ($42.8 million) for colluding with Barclays on loan pricing, in one of the largest U.K. fines against a single company and the largest for a bank.
The Issue of Liquidity Bubbles Up (NYT)
Andrew Ross Sorkin ate cookies with Tim Geithner on Friday and they talked about liquidity.
Hawaii takes steps toward legalizing cockfights (NYDN)
Just putting it out there.
RBC Capital Aims To Be Among Top Ten US Investment Banks (Bloomberg)
“Our goal over the next two to three years is to be top 10 in the U.S. market,” said Blair Fleming, who heads the U.S. investment-banking unit of Royal Bank of Canada in New York.
Elizabeth Warren: Half of Commercial Mortgages to Be Underwater (CNBC)
As a result, the economy will face another “very serious problem” that will have to be resolved over the next three years, she said, adding that things are unlikely to return to normalcy in 2010.
RNC Fires Staffer Over Bar Tab (WSJ)
Apparently this sort of thing is frowned upon: "The Republican National Committee said Monday that it had fired an employee involved in running up a bar tab of nearly $2,000 at a risqué Los Angeles-area nightclub that was later charged to the committee. The announcement came after a political Web site reported that the RNC's February financial filing showed it had paid the bar bill at the club, Voyeur. The item in The Daily Caller caused a small tempest and threatened to become a distraction for RNC Chairman Michael Steele, whose leadership and spending decisions have been criticized by party officials and rank-and-file members."
Lehman: Creditor Claims Should Be Cut (Reuters)
Lehman Brothers Holdings aid on Monday it believes claims from creditors against its bankruptcy estate should be cut to $605 billion, according to a document filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The bankrupt investment firm has been contending with more than 64,000 claims from creditors. Last November, Lehman Chief Executive Bryan Marsal said the claims had a face value of more than $820 billion and that it was possible the claims could reach $1 trillion.