British banking giant HSBC Holdings PLC is to pay more than US$600 million to US authorities for its abusive mortgage lending and foreclosure practices in the housing market, officials said on Friday.
HSBC, Europe’s largest bank, is to pay US$470 million to settle the allegations by the US government, 49 US states and the District of Columbia, the US Department of Justice said in a statement.
“This agreement is the result of a coordinated effort between federal and state partners to hold HSBC accountable for abusive mortgage practices,” Acting Associate Attorney General Stuart Delery said in the statement.
Separately, the US Federal Reserve announced it had fined HSBC US$131 million for “deficiencies in residential mortgage loan servicing and foreclosure processing.”
Under the settlement agreement, HSBC is to pay US$370 million in consumer relief by July to help homeowners struggling with their mortgages. Part of the payment is to be used to reduce the amount of principal owed by homeowners at risk of default.
The bank is also to pay US$100 million, including US$59.3 million that would go into a fund run by US states to help borrowers who lost their homes to foreclosure between 2008 and 2012.
In addition, HSBC are required to implement new standards aimed in part to prevent the foreclosure abuses of the past, including robo-signing, the practice of approving mortgage applications with minimal to no vetting.
Abusive lending practices were a key factor in the subprime crisis that led to the collapse of the US housing market in 2006, which in turn led to the 2008 financial crisis and international recession.
Real estate agent and property developer JSL Construction & Development Co (愛山林) led the average compensation rankings among companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) last year, while contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) finished 14th. JSL Construction paid its employees total average compensation of NT$4.78 million (US$159,701), down 13.5 percent from a year earlier, but still ahead of the most profitable listed tech giants, including TSMC, TWSE data showed. Last year, the average compensation (which includes salary, overtime, bonuses and allowances) paid by TSMC rose 21.6 percent to reach about NT$3.33 million, lifting its ranking by 10 notches
Popular vape brands such as Geek Bar might get more expensive in the US — if you can find them at all. Shipments of vapes from China to the US ground to a near halt last month from a year ago, official data showed, hit by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a crackdown on unauthorized e-cigarettes in the world’s biggest market for smoking alternatives. That includes Geek Bar, a brand of flavored vapes that is not authorized to sell in the US, but which had been widely available due to porous import controls. One retailer, who asked not to be named, because
SEASONAL WEAKNESS: The combined revenue of the top 10 foundries fell 5.4%, but rush orders and China’s subsidies partially offset slowing demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) further solidified its dominance in the global wafer foundry business in the first quarter of this year, remaining far ahead of its closest rival, Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. TSMC posted US$25.52 billion in sales in the January-to-March period, down 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its market share rose from 67.1 percent the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, TrendForce said in a report. While smartphone-related wafer shipments declined in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, solid demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices and urgent TV-related orders
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic fuel stations are this week to rise NT$0.2 and NT$0.3 per liter respectively, after international crude oil prices increased last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices last week snapped a two-week losing streak as the geopolitical situation between Russia and Ukraine turned increasingly tense, CPC said in a statement. News that some oil production facilities in Alberta, Canada, were shut down due to wildfires and that US-Iran nuclear talks made no progress also helped push oil prices to a significant weekly gain, Formosa said
RSS