Lloyds To Set Up European Arm If UK Loses Access To Single Market (FT)

The London-based bank, which focuses most of its business on the UK, is the only British high street lender without a subsidiary in another EU country. Lloyds is now drawing up plans to ensure that it can maintain its relatively small number of German and Dutch retail clients and keep access to the European payment system.

3 Men Made Millions by Hacking Merger Lawyers, U.S. Says (NYT)

Law firms that advise on mergers once had to worry about a rogue employee trading on deal tips. Now, they have to worry about hackers doing the same. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have charged three Chinese citizens with making more than $4 million by trading on information they got by hacking into some of the top merger-advising law firms in New York.

The Fed Has Given Trump Cover To Unwind A Key Wall Street Rule (BI)

The Fed released a staff paper on December 22 focused on the Volcker rule, which bans proprietary trading, and its effect on market liquidity. In short, the staff paper found that the rule had had a negative effect on corporate bond liquidity, or the ease with which buyers can find sellers and vice versa.

Wells Fargo Is Trying to Fix Its Rogue Account Scandal, One Grueling Case At a Time (WSJ)

Wells Fargo is attempting a fix-it project with little precedent in the banking world, after being accused by federal regulators of forcing thousands of banking products on its unwitting customers. The bank is employing thousands of employees and consultants costing millions of dollars to solve these riddles. They are tough to crack.

As Populists Won 2016 Ballots, World’s Richest Made $237 Billion (BBG)

Triggered by disappointing economic data from China at the beginning, the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union in the middle and the election of billionaire Donald Trump at the end, the biggest fortunes on the planet whipsawed through $4.8 trillion of daily net worth gains and losses during the year, rising 5.7 percent to $4.4 trillion by the close of trading Dec. 27, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Outrage Over the Economy Doesn’t Explain Surging Global Populism (BBG)

The concerns of people from the U.S. Midwest to Greece, where a populist, anti-austerity government has been in power for almost two years, are only partially rooted in a sense of abandonment in a global economy. There’s a deeper discontent with the way they are governed that a fiscal stimulus program, import tariffs or a stock-market rally won’t quickly soothe.

Donald Trump’s Economic Inheritance In 7 Charts (FT)

Donald Trump will enter the White House presiding over one of the stronger US economies any president has inherited in recent history. An analysis of economic metrics paints a picture of an economy finding solid footing after the financial crisis. Unemployment stands at a nine-year low, the S&P 500 continues to break records, and home sales hit their highest rate since 2007.

After Uncertain Year, New Administration Portends Shift in Wall Street Scrutiny (NYT)

Among the coming changes will be a new administration in Washington that portends a shift in the types of cases investigated and the crimes prosecuted. New leadership at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission means that the markets will have to adjust to a different view of what constitutes a violation — and perhaps a reduced emphasis on enforcement as a primary tool to regulate trading and corporate misconduct.

Dude Getting Hit in the Balls With Guillotined Spray Paint Is Strangely Poignant (Gizmodo)

Watching an unsuspecting victim get nailed in the nuts by a paint chopped in half by a guillotine is everything you could possibly want in a YouTube video—dramatics, destruction, pain, humor born out of sadness, the element of surprise.