The news at a glance

last updated 8 January 2015

Banks: JPMorgan settles mortgage suit

It’s official, said Peter Eavis in The New York Times. JPMorgan Chase and the Justice Department have agreed to a $13 billion settlement “that will bolster the government’s claims that justice was done” over the bank’s toxic mortgage bonds. JPMorgan has also agreed to pay $4.5 billion to investment firms that bought the faulty bonds. While those deals sound huge, some experts say “the settlement payouts may not be adequate.” The $25 billion the bank “has paid or set aside” to deal with claims over its bad loans amounts to just 2.5 percent of the $1 trillion in mortgages sold between 2004 and 2007 by JPMorgan and by Washington Mutual and Bear Stearns, which it later bought.

But it’s not over yet, said Devlin Barrett and Dan Fitzpatrick in The Wall Street Journal. While the record-setting settlement “resolves a number of legal headaches for the largest U.S. bank,” Attorney General Eric Holder said the government’s probes into big banks are “far from over.” In the meantime, $9 billion of JPMorgan’s payout will be split among states and federal agencies, while the remaining $4 billion will target affected homeowners by restructuring mortgages, writing down the principal on underwater mortgages, originating new loans for low- and moderate-income borrowers, and funding “anti-blight work in distressed neighborhoods.”

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Tesla is in for a rough ride, said Chris Woodyard in USA Today. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched a formal investigation into Tesla’s Model S electric car this week, after a pair of “undercarriage strikes” sparked battery fires. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has stood behind the cars’ safety, but said the company will give the cars “higher ground clearance to make them less likely to strike road debris” and will amend the warranty “to cover damage due to fire.”

The Tribune Co. is slimming down again, said Walter Hamilton in the Los Angeles Times. This week the owner of the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times “unveiled a restructuring plan” that would cut 700 jobs—nearly 6 percent of its workforce—over the next year. While the Tribune Co. said the layoffs “will come primarily from the company’s beleaguered newspaper unit,” they will largely involve advertising and circulation personnel, whose roles “will be consolidated into single units across the company.”

Is J.C. Penney rebounding? asked Maria Halkias in The Dallas Morning News. The troubled retailer posted “a wider-than-expected third-quarter loss” this week, but its shares jumped almost 9 percent as the company voiced an optimistic fourth-quarter outlook. “Our strategies to reconnect with customers are beginning to take hold, and this became increasingly clear as the quarter progressed,” said CEO Myron Ullman. The retailer blamed its net loss of $489 million in the third quarter on “higher levels of clearance merchandise sold due to the company’s transition to a promotional pricing strategy.”

The European Central Bank’s deposit rate may go “negative for the first time,” said Jana Randow and Jeff Black in Bloomberg.com. The ECB is reportedly considering whether to start charging commercial lenders at a rate of 0.1 percent for parking excess cash at the ECB. The bank’s governing council has “said that a negative deposit rate is a potential tool for warding off deflation,” but warned that it could have unintended consequences. Earlier this month, ECB President Mario Draghi said the central bank is “technically ready” for a negative deposit rate if inflation in the EU doesn’t pick up soon.

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