As per the federal agreement, HSBC has agreed to pay $470 million to provide relief to abused mortgage loan borrowers. The payment will be directed towards mainly Virginia, along with 48 other states. The bank, accused of malpractices like robosigning and bad loan designs, will now be monitored by an independent body to ensure it adheres to the revised banking standards and settlement terms.

Contrary to earlier bullish predictions for 2016, several Wall Street strategists have started lowering their forecasts on S&P 500 stocks. The Chinese economy slowdown, volatile oil prices and interest rates are the major reasons for drop in forecast. The gap between highest and lowest forecast has been widening.

Android users can experience the new system update since 2015. Some remarkable new features include security improvement, performance management, user interface, storage improvement, and support to new innovations including the Type-C USB.

China's foreign exchange reserves had declined reaching to trillions. However, the government made efforts to support the local currency from dropping further.

Messaging app Wiper has raised a total of $4.5 million seed funding from its investor Michael Choupak adding $2 million dollars. The service launced $4.99 monthly subscription fee to preview and watch thousands of original short and long, inexpensive indie films that can be compared to expensive Hollywood movies.

The failure of Takata's airbag inflators are keeping pressure on several automobile giants. Volkswagen and Audi will recall Tiguan and Q5 model vehicles for defective airbags made by Takata. Dealers of automobile companies will replace the defective side airbags of Takata at free of charge.

It was confirmed by Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam that Verizon is interested in acquiring Yahoo. The Internet search company had difficult times in the past years as many other companies had their market share in the online and mobile business. This promts Yahoo to reconstruct its business including cutting jobs.

The office of Swiss Attorney General began criminal investigation in August 2015 into former officers of Malaysia's Development Fund 1MDB. Charges relate to bribery of foreign officials, dishonest mismanagment of public interest and others. The Attorney General's office has revealed serious indications of $4 Bil having been misappropriated from State Companies of Malaysia.

Venture capital (VC) funding activity seems to be heading towards pre-recessionary mark. The VC activity recorded robust growth phase for over seven years. The sluggish financial markets are discouraging VC funding and raising money.

Mexico is receiving $400-loan from World Bank for rural development and will formally sign an agreement. Mexican government will utilize the funds for extending financial lending to farmers and fishermen in rural areas. The small and medium enterprises (SMEs) will also get financial support from the Mexico's national agricultural financing agency FND.