Financial Freedom. Best business news.

J. Kyle Bass, whose Hayman Advisors LP made $500 million amid the U.S. subprime crisis, said the Bank of Japan will have to

Smartphones are increasingly popular not only with consumers, but also with thieves who see the devices as another way to tap into bank accounts and other sensitive information, experts say.

Many consumers simply don’t realize how vulnerable their Androids, iPhones and other devices can be. An April study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta said threats are proliferating, ranging from “phishing” — where consumers click a phony email or text message and are tricked into handing over personal information — to consumers’ reluctance to use security protections they normally have on home computers, like a password.

The study said there are several things that can make smartphones an easy target. Vast amounts of personal data are stored in emails, texts and other applications, and personal information is increasingly easily found on social media. Organized crime operations also see smartphones as the most vulnerable entry point into the electronic financial system, according to the Federal Reserve.

“We have some very bad characters who would like to take our money, take our identification, and run away with it,” said Marie Gooding, first vice president of the Atlanta Fed. 

Research the Fed cited, done by Boston-based Trusteer Inc., involved 20 computer servers that were used to send out more than 100,000 “phishing” emails. By studying the server records, Trusteer found that about 2,200 of the 3,000 responses the scam artists received came from smartphones.

Doug Johnson, vice president of risk management for the American Bankers Association, said he expects those numbers to get worse.

“This is one more platform criminals will continue to exploit as the channel grows,” he said.

The Fed helps operate the industry’s Automated Clearing House, a system that processed 21 billion transactions last year. While banks are required to adhere to authentication standards for ACH transactions, those protections are often unknowingly compromised by consumers.

“A lot of it has to do with all of the players making sure they have the strongest security controls they have, and then consumers being aware of what those controls are, and making use of them,” Gooding said.

Miami attorney Andrew Carter learned the hard way, after misplacing his phone amid the hubbub of a Christmas vacation. He had a mobile banking app installed on his phone, but had turned off his passcode lock because he found it annoying to enter whenever he wanted to use the phone.

“That was a big mistake,” he said. “I knew it intellectually, but I hadn’t really intuitively grasped that I had to be able to be a lot more secure with it.”

Weeks later, Carter found $2,000 had been withdrawn from his account by someone in Texas, possibly through emails retrieved from his phone. He also found someone trying to hack his Facebook account. 

Today, he keeps his phone locked and changed to a brand that allows him to remotely erase phone data — something he couldn’t do with his old phone.

Several manufacturers are planning new “biometric” technology, such as fingerprint scanners, that can make phones more secure. But even with those safeguards, consumer behavior can still lead to danger.

Vikram Thakur, principal security response manager for security software giant Symantec, said attackers can get complete control of a phone simply by getting people to click on a link. Without actually having the phone in their hands, the hackers can access messages, phone calls and personal information.

“The amount of information we’re storing on mobile phones these days kind of incentivizes the attackers to go after the platform,” he said.

Source

Chinese industrial companies

Europe braced for renewed turmoil as outrage in Cyprus over an unprecedented levy on bank deposits threatened to derail the nation

Japan

One thing’s for sure on the day after the election: the 2010 law to reform Wall Street isn’t going away.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney had pledged to repeal the sweeping Dodd-Frank Act, the Democrats’ response to big banks’ risky behavior that led to the 2008 financial crisis. The law put curbs on banks’ ability to make risky investments and introduced new rules safeguarding some complex financial bets that spurred the bailout of insurer , Fortune 500).

It’s unlikely that House Republican attempts to roll back the reforms — efforts they’ve made since recapturing the chamber in 2011 — will get anywhere. Besides a re-elected President Obama and his veto power, Democrats retain the Senate with the help of a major champion of Wall Street reform, Harvard University professor Elizabeth Warren.

“This puts to bed any notion that Dodd-Frank will be repealed, so then the question becomes: Are we going to make changes around the margins?” said Mark Calabria, an economist at the libertarian Cato Institute who used to work for Republicans on the Senate Banking panel.

All signs point to yes.

Sen. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, said in an October speech at the Bipartisan Policy Center that “there’s clearly a lot of additional work to be done.”

While some Wall Street reforms, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, are churning away, the law pushed to regulators a number of big decisions. They included how much cash banks should hold aside as capital cushions and stopping banks from making speculative bets, a provision named the Volcker rule after its chief proponent, former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker.

The result is that regulators have struggled to agree on the more controversial measures no fax cash advance. As of Nov. 1, regulators had missed 61% of their deadlines implementing parts of Dodd-Frank, according to the law firm Davis Polk.

For example, there’s still disagreement among regulators about whether the Volcker rule should allow banks the ability to take on some risk when setting up big, market-making bets on behalf of clients.

That’s a big deal for taxpayers, who would be on the hook if the Fed decides it’s in the nation’s interest to bail out a troubled bank whose risky bets arranged for a client go sour and threaten the financial system’s stability.

But a big unknown is how a second-term Obama administration could change the tone at federal banking agencies.

All indications are that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will step down. Rumors have swirled that Securities and Exchange Commission chief Mary Schapiro could step down before her term ends in 2014. Commodity Futures Trading Commission chief Gary Gensler’s term was up in April, although he can legally serve through 2013. And Fed chief Ben Bernanke’s term is up in 2014.

Obama won office with little to no support from Wall Street, which could make him think twice before he considers candidates from that sector to run financial regulatory agencies this time around.

And the pressing deficit and budget concerns could make divert the Treasury Department’s attention from anything else.

“If Obama goes with a budget person for Treasury Secretary, I think a lot of this financial regulation really starts to fall to the back burner,” Calabria said.

Source

American Airlines’ pilots have overwhelmingly rejected a tentative labor agreement, making it more likely the bankrupt carrier will impose even harsher concessions on the 8,000 pilots than the deal proposed.

The result, announced Wednesday, came as mechanics and other American (, Fortune 500) employees represented by the Transport Workers Union barely ratified their own tentative agreement. Cuts among the mechanics will be steeper than the ones facing the pilots, with much of the airline’s heavy maintenance work being outsourced.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Sean Lane is set to rule next week on the airline’s request to void the existing contract with the Allied Pilots Association — a move likely to open the door to even deeper concessions.

But while American management is likely in the driver’s seat in its request to the bankruptcy court, Joe Schwieterman, a professor at DePaul University, said the pilots’ opposition and the split among mechanics is bad news for the airline’s hopes of putting its labor problems behind it.

The labor unrest could make it more likely a hostile bidder, such as US Airways (, Fortune 500), could end up making a play for American, either during the bankruptcy process or as it emerges from bankruptcy, he said.

US Airways is on record as saying that it is interested in American, and has reached tentative agreements with the carrier’s unions that would give them better terms and conditions than American management offered. A US Air spokesman had no comment on Wednesday’s votes.

American, which filed for bankruptcy in November, has said it’s engaged in a review of "the full range of strategic alternatives" and is in contact with several potential bidders. But US Airways won’t get a chance to present its case to the bankruptcy court until after the judge rules on the pilots’ contract.

Even if American remains independent, labor unrest at an airline can lead to service problems and lost business, he said.

"The days operating a dysfunctional airline are pretty much over," said Schwieterman Same day payday loans. "You can’t survive in this market place with labor dragging its feet. They’re playing with fire."

Still American is in stronger position in relation to its unions, at least in the near term.

"We are pleased that the ratification of the [TWU] agreements allows us to move forward now, and we are, of course, disappointed with the outcome of the pilot vote on that tentative agreement," said Bruce Hicks, spokesman for American.

The rejected offer would have preserved all 8,000 pilots’ jobs at the airline. If the bankruptcy court agrees to void the current contract, management has signaled it plans to eliminate about 5% of pilots’ jobs.

By comparison, the TWU contract is likely to eliminate about 5,500 of the 24,000 unionized ground workers at the airline, and 2,300 flight attendants out of 17,000. A contract ratification vote by flight attendants is still pending.

TWU spokesman Jamie Horwitz said accepting those job losses and other concessions was a better deal than they could hope for if they had "thrown themselves on the mercy of court."

With the vote, the pilots passed up the airline’s offer to own 13.5% of the stock in the airline when it emerges from bankruptcy. The pilots also would have received immediate pay increases. Among the concessions were the termination of one pension plan and the freezing of another. There are also changes in the cost of medical insurance and limits on sick and vacation days in the two proposals.

The pilots union’s board was itself split on the deal, passing it by a 9-to-7 vote. While the board did not specifically urge members to vote for the deal, it warned that the best way to control their own destiny was to keep it out of the hands of the bankruptcy judge. 

Source

Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama formally extended an invitation to Canada to join the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations, a proposed trade deal that includes the U.S., Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam (Mexico was also added last week). Supporters have lauded the TPP as potentially the world

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Dennis Lockhart said falling Treasury yields take pressure off the central bank for further action as policy makers prepare for a meeting next week.

Lockhart, in a speech in Chicago, said recent U.S. economic data indicate the recovery may be losing steam, and that policy makers will need to take more steps to stimulate the economy if it becomes clear growth is slowing.

Spain called for outside funds for the first time to battle its financial crisis as Budget Minister Cristobal Montoro said European