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Andrew Cuomo, attorney general of New York, has filed a civil fraud lawsuit against accounting firm Ernst & Young, accusing it of helping Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. disguise its financial situation for years before Lehman's collapse.

Prolonged low interest rates in the U.S. may be affecting some banks' profit margins and pension funds' returns, which may eventually prove detrimental to the economic recovery.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s second-quarter profit fell 40% to $1.9 billion, while revenue dropped 28% to $8.9 billion from $12.37 billion a year ago. Net revenue from Goldman's investment-banking operations rose 24% to $1.12 billion.

A weak economy, volatile markets, and regulatory changes may lead to a wave of job cuts among banks and securities firms. Securities-industry employment has dropped 6.7% since 2007.

Wall Street firms will have to reduce the size of their operations to abide by new government regulations, but the impact on profit could be less severe than expected as companies rush to reintegrate their most talented employees into different areas.

Byline: LIZ RAPPAPORT CREDIT CRISIS Lewis says U.S. ordered silence on deal Fed chairman Ben Bernanke and then-Treasury chief Hank Paulson told Bank of America Corp. to not discuss its [...]

Byline: LIZ RAPPAPORT FINANCIAL CRISIS Fifteen AIG executives to return bonus payments New York state Attorney-General Andrew Cuomo said late yesterday that 15 of the top 20 recipients of $165-million [...]

Byline: SERENA NG AND LIZ RAPPAPORT The U.S. Federal Reserve starts making loans to American corporations today, a historic step meant to calm nerves in the short-term debt markets and [...]

Entrepreneur Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. will invest $3 billion, and possibly as much as $6 billion, in General Electric Co. in the form of preferred stocks from which Berkshire will receive $300 million in annual dividends. Berkshire also gains the option of buying $3 billion in GE common stock at $22.25 per share. Article discusses GE's stock value, relations with investors, access to capital, and planned realignment of operations.

Byline: TOM LAURICELLA, SERENA NG AND LIZ RAPPAPORT The government's plan to take over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may help the housing market and boost the value of the [...]

Byline: JENNIFER LEVITZ AND LIZ RAPPAPORT; WALL STREET JOURNAL STAFF With allegations of wrongdoing over its sales of auction-rate securities mounting, UBS AG has agreed to buy back nearly $19-billion [...]

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. may face financial losses derived from its private-equity branch GS Capital Partners' investments in student-loan company First Marblehead Corp. Article discusses corporate funding in a troubled capital market, and First Marblehead's financial standing, stock value, and relations with Goldman Sachs.

Bankers are fearing a precipitous fall off in debt issuance in the second half of the year after a strong start in the first six months. The flood of issuers [...]

Banc One Capital Markets, the investment banking division of Chicago-based Bank One, over the last three months has snagged several first-time book running spots on debt offerings from commercial clients. [...]

Pepco Holdings plans to issue $700 million of debt and use the proceeds to reduce its outstanding commercial paper. The utility holding company filed a $700 million universal shelf registration [...]

Several investment banks, including Merrill Lynch, are working on structures that would allow Canadian income trust-like securities to be sold in the U.S. The hybrid securities, currently issued via a [...]

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is close to filing a case of civil fraud against auditor Ernst & Young L.L.P. The firm is accused of contributing to the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. by doing nothing as the investment company deceived investors about the state of its finances.

For its failure to disclose that two of its employees, Fabrice Tourre and his boss, Jonathan Egol, had received Wells notices in relation to Securities and Exchange Commission investigations into its Abacus CDO 2007-AC1, the Goldman Sachs Group Inc. was fined $650,000 by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

Alan Hevesi, once the state comptroller of New York, is close to entering a guilty plea in the case of corruption surrounding the state's public employee pension fund. The three-year investigation has focused on activities of Hevesi's aide David Logisci and Hank Morris, his political adviser, who both allegedly required payments be made by money managers to Morris in order to secure contracts from the pension fund.