HSBC to Pay $765 Million to Settle Crisis-Era Mortgage Probe

HSBC Holdings Plc will pay $765 million to settle allegations that it sold defective residential mortgage-backed securities, resolving one of the last remaining U.S. investigations stemming from the mortgage meltdown a decade ago.

The sum, announced Tuesday by U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer in Colorado, is substantially lower than the billions paid by other banks to resolve misconduct linked to these toxic securities. London-based HSBC wasn’t a major player in the market. read more »

Danske shares slide as U.S. criminal inquiry spooks investors

Danske Bank’s (DANSKE.CO) deepening money laundering scandal dragged its shares to a four-year low on Friday as Denmark’s biggest bank sought to calm investors over the impact of a U.S. criminal investigation into its Estonian branch. read more »

Crypto Industry on ‘Brink of an Implosion,’ Researcher Says

Echoing sentiments of mainstream economists, Juniper Research is warning that many of the metrics in the cryptocurrency world are pointing to a market implosion.

Industry bellwether Bitcoin had seen its daily transaction volumes fall from an average of around 360,000 a day in late 2017 to just 230,000 in September 2018. Meanwhile, daily transaction values were down from more than $3.7 billion to less than $670 million in the same period, Juniper said in the study, The Future of Cryptocurrency: Bitcoin & Altcoin Trends & Challenges 2018-2023. read more »