Finance

Geithner, Brown Split on Transaction Tax as G-20 Seeks Rebalanced Economy Group of 20 governments split on whether to tax financial trading as part of a broader strategy to ensure the global economy’s expansion is less crisis-prone.

Big Banks Still Too Optimistic About Their Health, G20 Leaders Are Told The world’s biggest banks are still too optimistic about the state of their own finances and authorities should be wary of allowing some to exit government support, the Financial Stability Board said.

Societe Generale Has Repaid French State Aid of $5 Billion, Regulator Says Societe Generale SA, France’s second- largest bank by market value, earlier this week repaid the 3.4 billion euros ($5 billion) of state aid it received in the financial crisis, according to the national market regulator.

AIG Taps $4.2 Billion From Treasury for Mortgage Insurer, Plane-Lease Unit American International Group Inc., the insurer rescued by the U.S., tapped the Treasury Department for another $4.2 billion to help restructure its money-losing mortgage guarantor and the plane unit it’s trying to sell.

Credit Agricole Chief Executive Georges Pauget May Be Replaced by Chifflet Credit Agricole SA Chief Executive Officer Georges Pauget may leave next year and be replaced by Jean-Paul Chifflet, currently secretary general of the bank’s largest shareholder, three people familiar with the matter said.

UCBH Holdings' Bank Is Seized, Becomes 120th U.S. Lender Closed This Year UCBH Holdings Inc.’s United Commercial Bank, a San Francisco-based lender with $11.2 billion in assets, was seized by regulators, becoming the 120th U.S. bank to fail this year.

Fannie Mae Bid to Sell Tax Credits Vetoed by U.S., Thwarting Goldman Sachs Fannie Mae’s request to sell $2.6 billion in low-income housing tax credits would be a bad deal for taxpayers and won’t be allowed, the U.S. Treasury said.

Buffett's `Wake-Up Call' to Berkshire Managers May Signal More Cost Cuts Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s managers may deliver more cost cuts to Chief Executive Officer Warren Buffett after the billionaire replaced Richard Santulli as the head of a money-losing plane-leasing unit.

Lehman U.K. Administrator Can't Distribute Assets to Creditors, Court Says Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s U.K. bankruptcy administrators can’t go ahead with an expedited plan to distribute as much as $8.9 billion in assets to creditors, an appeals court ruled.

JPMorgan Said to Detect Kiener's K1 Fraud That Stung Banks, Bought Planes JPMorgan Chase & Co. found an unsettling fact buried in the books of newly acquired Bear Stearns Cos. last year: The brokerage had loaned millions of dollars to a German money manager for bets on hedge funds no one had ever heard of.