Derivative Securities

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration's suit against the rating agency Standard & Poor's makes for riveting headlines and lousy history. We want to blame the financial crisis and Great Recession on greed and dishonesty. The charge that S&P rigged bond...

Franklin Financial Services Corp. CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. — The board of directors of Franklin Financial Services Corp. declared a $0.17 per share regular quarterly dividend for the first quarter of 2013. The first-quarter 2013 cash dividend remains...

Federal and state prosecutors sued the credit rating agency Standard & Poor's this week for allegedly defrauding investors by giving inflated ratings to complex mortgage-backed securities that proved all but worthless after the housing bubble burst. The...

California has filed suit against Wall Street's biggest credit rating agency, Standard & Poor’s, charging the firm with violating the state's False Claims Act by using “magic numbers” and “guesses” to inflate ratings that...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government is accusing the debt rating agency Standard & Poor's of fraud for giving high ratings to risky mortgage bonds that helped bring about the financial crisis. The government filed a civil complaint late Monday...

WASHINGTON -- Justice Department officials and attorneys general from California and several other states were set Tuesday morning to announce a landmark civil suit against Standard & Poor's Corp. concerning the company's credit ratings of troubled...

WASHINGTON -- Standard & Poor's Corp. helped cause the financial crisis by misleading investors with falsely high credit ratings on bonds backed by toxic subprime mortgages, federal officials alleged Tuesday in announcing a civil suit against the company....

The Justice Department is accusing Standard & Poor's of defrauding investors with optimistic ratings of mortgage-backed securities and derivatives prior to the financial crisis. While investors are entitled to answers about those conflicts, compensation...

A legislative committee gave its endorsement today to expanding the method for calculating a state-chartered bank’s loan or credit limit in South Dakota.   The goal is to cover the more-exotic transactions conducted by many banks throughout the...

A prominent Chicago business leader who founded one of the nation’s largest discount futures brokerages has died. Barry Lind, of Winnetka, died in a California emergency room early this morning after he was struck by a car in Rancho Mirage...

Bar the door, Nelly — the Fed has abandoned all restraint and will now print money to finance the federal deficit. To support the weak recovery, the Federal Reserve continues to keep short-term interest rates near zero, purchase mortgage-backed...

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Reserve, maintaining its aggressive efforts to stimulate a slow-growing economy burdened by high unemployment, said it would continue its large-scale bond-buying programs in the new year and, for the first time, announced...