Bank Traded Assets Hot Record

US Bank Traded Assets Hit Peak

US banks’ holding of traded assets hit $1 trillion at the end of the third quarter. This represents the highest level since 2008, the year of the global financial crisis. The Dodds Frank Act prohibits banks from taking speculative bets on such assets. One has to assume that they are being held to facilitate client business. JP Morgan holds $509 billion of these assets with $190 billion held in vanilla equities.

JP Morgan Sues Construction Company

JP Morgan is suing Marbank, a UK construction company, for £21.5 million. The lawsuit relates to a building the bank uses to store precious metal in East London. The bank alleges that poor work on the water tanks and service yard led to consequential losses. Marbank acknowledges the defects but disputes the losses and argues it was not given the opportunity to remediate the defects. What is unusual is that JP Morgan should disclose the location of its precious metals storage facility.

Hargreaves Woodford Claimants Soar

Five thousand investors have now filed a claim against Hargreaves alleging negligence in relation to losses sustained via their investment in the collapsed Woodford funds. Neil Woodford’s equity fund collapsed as a result of poor performance and inadequate diversification. A High Court group claim has been lodged. The number of claimants has doubled in the last two years. They asset that retail investor platform, Hargreaves, continued to recommend the fund even though it was aware of the problems. Three hundred thousand investors lost money with £1.6 billion of the £3.7 billion losses sustained by investors coming via Hargreaves.

L&G Announces Cuts

L&G has announced that it will be making a number of cuts in its asset management division. Twenty investment roles will disappear as well as a number of support staff. The organization employs 12,000 people globally.