UBS pays $445M to settle federal probe
UBS Group AG has paid $445 million to settle National Credit Union Administration claims that the bank contributed to the collapse of corporate credit unions by selling them faulty mortgage-backed securities, the regulator said in a statement Monday.
The federal agency said the settlement -- which Zurich-based UBS agreed to without admitting or denying wrongdoing -- closes a lawsuit filed in 2012 and is the latest in a series of deals struck with banks accused of improper sales to five corporate credit unions that failed. The agency had already recovered $79.3 million from UBS last year in a related claim.
"With today's settlement, another legacy matter has been resolved," said Peter Stack, a UBS spokesman.
The settlement is tied to losses at U.S. Central Federal Credit Union and Western Corporate Federal Credit Unions, institutions that provided loans and other services to customer-facing credit unions before they were taken into conservatorship in 2009 and later shuttered.
-- Bloomberg News
Bid to rehear net-neutrality case denied
The Federal Communication Commission's net-neutrality rule barring broadband providers from slowing or blocking rivals' content won't be re-examined by a U.S. appeals court that upheld it last year.
The Washington-based court issued the ruling Monday.
Its decision follows meetings between FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and broadband-industry leaders urging him to kill the Obama-era regulations and with online-company leaders asking him to preserve them.
The court's earlier ruling was a triumph for the Obama administration and for companies such as Netflix Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google, but a substantial loss for conglomerates AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and Comcast Corp., which lost the opportunity to slow or even block the transmission of disfavored content.
-- Bloomberg News
1st U.S. offshore wind farm's grid grows
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The nation's first offshore wind farm is powering more of Rhode Island.
The Block Island Power Co. said it shut down its diesel generators and transferred the island's electrical grid Monday, a savings of nearly 1 million gallons of diesel fuel annually.
Deepwater Wind's five turbines began generating power for the mainland grid in December. Block Island had to be connected with a new cable.
The power company said the early morning transfer was the final step in a process that began more than a decade ago, when the cost of fuel for the generators drove electrical costs to more than 60 cents per kilowatt hour.
It said Block Island's 2,000 electric customers now have access to cheaper and cleaner energy at stable prices.
-- The Associated Press
Fox, Blackstone said to craft Tribune bid
Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox Inc. is teaming with Blackstone Group LP to make an offer to acquire TV-station owner Tribune Media Co., rivaling a planned bid by Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., people familiar with the situation said.
The all-cash bid would be funded by Blackstone while Fox would contribute its TV stations to the joint venture that would acquire Tribune, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. The two sides are in talks about a deal ahead of a deadline this week for final bids. No agreement has been reached, and talks may still fall apart.
Fox has been approached in recent weeks about backing an alternative to a takeover by Sinclair, which has been looking to acquire Chicago-based Tribune for a price said to be in the high $30s a share.
A combination of Tribune and Sinclair, two of the country's biggest TV station owners, would give Sinclair a stronger negotiating hand with Fox about how to split fees from cable providers. Yet Fox has a say in Tribune's destiny because it has to consent to the transfer of the company's affiliate agreements to a new owner, people familiar with the situation said previously.
Sinclair has been looking to finalize a deal by the time Tribune reports first-quarter earnings, which it's to do next week.
-- Bloomberg News
Mississippi, Memphis health systems join
JACKSON, Miss. -- Mississippi Baptist Health Systems and the larger Baptist Memorial Health Care of Memphis have completed a merger, creating the largest hospital group in Mississippi.
Executives of the two systems announced the merger Monday, saying it had been completed last month.
Jackson-based Mississippi Baptist had run into trouble in its efforts to computerize health records, with credit rating agencies saying the four-hospital system was having trouble managing patient stays and would have to spend more money. As part of the merger, the four hospitals are installing the system used by Baptist Memorial.
Officials say no layoffs are planned from the combined 16,000 employees.
Mississippi Baptist has hospitals in Jackson, Carthage, Kosciusko and Yazoo City.
The Memphis system has six hospitals in Mississippi, 10 in Tennessee and one in Jonesboro.
-- The Associated Press
Mnuchin bets on 3% growth in 2 years
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Monday that an overhaul of the tax system, regulatory changes and better trade deals will help produce 3 percent U.S. economic growth within two years.
Returning health in the U.S. job market, a 12 percent rise in stock prices since Donald Trump's election and consumer sentiment at the highest in 16 years are painting an optimistic picture of the economy. Even so, the economy expanded at its slowest pace in three years at 0.7 percent in the first quarter -- underlining the challenges of an administration aiming for 3 percent or higher annual growth.
It'll probably take two years to reach 3 percent growth "and then we can have a sustained level," Mnuchin said in a conversation with Fox Business Network editor Maria Bartiromo at the Milken Institute Global Conference on Monday in Los Angeles.
The Trump administration has placed an overhaul of the tax system at the top of its legislative agenda.
-- Bloomberg News
Business on 05/02/2017