VENTURE CAPITAL POST

With activist investors amassing wealth because of their campaigns, investment banks are now providing clients investment advice that would enable companies to anticipate and foil the efforts of activist investors, Bloomberg reported.

Commerzbank is anticipating opportunities to expand its wealth management business after Swiss Credit Suisse Group sold its private bank in Germany to Bethmann Bank last month.

Financial information provider SNL Financial in a report said that the five largest lenders in US control 44.2% of the industry's assets. JPMorgan Chase & Co, Bank of America,Citigroup,Wells Fargo & Co, and US Bancorp have a total of $6.46 trillion in assets.

RJ Lane filed a case against Deutsche Bank, BDO Seidman and a former partner of BDO Seidman over claims that they formed a fraudulent tax shelter that caused him losses, Bloomberg reported.

The New York Federal Reserve Bank filed a motion in a federal court in the Southern District of New York seeking a dismissal of the lawsuit filed by former employee Carmen Segarra.

Harbinger Capital Partners, controlled by American investor Philip Falcone, has asked the US Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan to reject Dish Network Corp.'s $2.2 billion takeover bid for bankrupt satellite firm LightSquared Inc.

JPMorgan Chase & Co settled a lawsuit brought against it by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh involving the losses it sustained from mortgage securities it bought from the bank, Bloomberg reported.

Ontario, Canada-based clay brick manufacturer Brampton Brick Ltd said it has closed the previously announced $40 million long-term loan for asset purchases and other general corporate purposes.

The data released in a report by the European Central Bank on Friday saw the hesitation of financial institutions in extending credit to households and businesses despite the economic recovery of the Euro Zone.

Through a joint venture formed with Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co formed in 2012, US-based Silicon Valley Bank looks to meet the demand of investors for China funds.

Square 1 Bank completed the acquisition of Silicon Valley-based Sand Hill Finance, a financing solutions provider for emerging growth firms. Financial terms about the transaction were not disclosed.

A statement from the office of the British Prime Minister David Cameron revealed that 6,000 mortgage applications, with over 80% of them as first-time buyers, applied for home loans under the government's Help-to-Buy program.

The top dealmaker for Canadian retail mergers and acquisitions for 2013 is the Royal Bank of Canada, data from Bloomberg revealed. RBC has held the top spot for the third straight year.

The DealBook said in its report that banks in China are steadily making strategic acquisitions offshore and opening its businesses outside of the mainland, thanks to recent economic reforms.

The American Bankers Association, a representative of majority of the community banks in the US, said the provision on banning investments in collateralized debt obligations will result to the lenders losing $600 million in the process.