Briefs

Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo have been warned by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that they may face civil claims tied to sales of mortgage-backed securities. Almost four years after mounting mortgage defaults threatened the survival of a host of financial institutions, regulators are still examining how banks packaged and sold home loans to investors. The banks reported the warnings in filings with the SEC and said they are cooperating with the investigations. Regulators are examining whether the banks made proper disclosures to investors when bundling bonds backed by pools of mortgages.

Huawei Technologies, China’s largest phone equipment maker, is closing the gap with European rivals. In 2011 the private company’s revenue grew an estimated 11 percent, to $32 billion, a board member says. That’s $2 billion less than Sweden’s Ericsson and double that of France’s Alcatel-Lucent. The company is adding cloud computing and business computing services to its offerings as it works toward a goal of generating $100 billion in sales. Huawei expects to double its workforce, to more than 20,000, this year.