Financials Down As Investors Respond To Reports On Money Laundering -- Financials Roundup

Shares of banks and other lenders and money managers fell sharply as investors responded to an expose of investigations into global banks.

BuzzFeed and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists analyzed thousands of leaked documents seemingly showing that some $2 trillion worth of illicit funds were moved and laundered through the U.S. financial system over two decades.

Shares of Deutsche Bank, a firm that has long fought allegations of loose governance protocols, fell by almost 10%. Shares of JPMorgan Chase, the largest U.S. bank by assets, which also featured prominently in the leaked documents, fell by more than 3%.

Asia-focused British bank HSBC Holdings shares sank to a 25-year low as the corruption reports combined with separate revelations that the lender could face restrictions on its business in China, and fears that the U.K. market could go into a second lockdown to counter rising coronavirus cases, proving a toxic mix for the bank's shareholders.

The net worth of American households and nonprofit organizations jumped 6.8% in the second quarter from the first, to $118.96 trillion. That is about $380 billion more than at the end of 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic wiped out more than $7 trillion of household wealth.

Goldman Sachs Group's three merger heads stepped down, handing over the investment-banking reins to executives Stephan Feldgoise, based in New York, and Mark Sorrell, in London.

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas leader Robert Kaplan said the U.S. central bank's new guidance on the future of interest rates may complicate officials' future decision making and stoke risk-taking in financial markets. The comments hinted that central bankers are watching the speculative activity on financial markets.

A new exchange backed by Wall Street banks, electronic-trading firms and asset-management giant BlackRock, known as the Members Exchange, or MEMX, launched Monday, introducing a new, low-cost competitor to the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq.

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