Settlements

As part of a settlement with federal regulators, 13 lenders this week are to begin paying $3.6 billion to more than 4 million troubled borrowers whose homes were in foreclosure proceedings in 2009 and 2010. A chart released Tuesday by the regulators showed most of the borrowers would receive $300, the minimum allowed under the settlement terms. The maximum of $125,000 was to be paid to 1,135 borrowers whose homes were seized while they were serving in the military or were current on their payments.

Banks aren't living up to pledges they made as part of a $26-billion settlement of government investigations into mortgage servicing and foreclosure abuses, according to an advocacy group's survey of California housing counselors and lawyers. The survey, the ninth in a series conducted by the California Reinvestment Coalition, also found that providers of mortgage customer service are violating consumer-protection provisions in the California Homeowner Bill of Rights, the package of foreclosure-prevention laws sponsored last year by state Atty.

NEW YORK -- Attorneys have asked a federal judge to set aside hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors' record $616-million settlement for investors -- and not to transfer the sum to the U.S. Treasury. Attorneys for plaintiffs in a separate case have asked that the Securities and Exchange Commission set aside the massive sum in a so-called Fair Fund for investors. When the SEC collects civil penalties, the agency generally either sets aside the money to compensate defrauded investors or transfers the money to the U.S. Treasury.

A toxic waste dump near the San Joaquin Valley farming community of Kettleman City has agreed to pay $311,000 in fines for failing to report 72 hazardous materials spills over the last four years, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control announced Wednesday. Brian Johnson, the department's deputy director of enforcement, described the fines as "a substantial and aggressive penalty. " The penalties were part of a settlement that capped an investigation into the Chemical Waste Management facility, the only one in California licensed to accept polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, a carcinogen.

President Obama will arrive in Israel on Wednesday for his first visit since being elected in 2008. We wish him the best, but frankly, we have very low expectations. Indeed, it's hard to figure out why he's making the trip at all. The peace process has been at a standstill for years. Israelis and Palestinians are stuck, at the moment, on the issue of settlements - there are now more than 300,000 Israeli settlers living in the West Bank, and the Palestinians have refused to reopen negotiations unless Israel agrees to a settlement freeze.

President Obama is visiting Israel this week, the first foreign trip of his second term. Some commentators have criticized the tour as a diversion from the president's intention to pivot toward the Asia-Pacific region. Why go to Israel now, they ask, and anger the Arabs at a time of rising Middle Eastern turmoil? Others claim that the trip is merely a maneuver designed to achieve some memorable photo-ops rather than to advance crucial American interests. Indeed, the president could have traveled farther east and to a less controversial country.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has begun posting online more than 200 previously undisclosed settlements related to bank failures that accompanied the financial crisis. The revelations come in response to a Los Angeles Times story last week that examined the FDIC's policy of quietly settling civil claims involving failed banks, sometimes with "no press release" clauses to help bankers avoid embarrassment. The first three settlements, involving Florida banks that failed in 2008 and 2009, were put online Friday at FDIC.gov.

JERUSALEM - As President Obama prepared for his first official trip to Israel, he made a point of referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by his affectionate nickname, "Bibi," in a TV interview. In Israel, Netanyahu geared up to greet Obama on Wednesday at the airport in Tel Aviv, ensuring that the first images show the two reelected leaders smiling and shaking hands. But after four years of public clashes, private entreaties and largely unsuccessful attempts to outmaneuver each other, no amount of backslapping is likely to alter perceptions that the personal rapport between Obama and Netanyahu has ranged from awkward to dysfunctional.

NEW YORK -- Citigroup's $730-million legal settlement likely won't be the bank's last whopping payout as private and government attorneys force Wall Street to do penance for the financial crisis. At the end of 2012, Citi estimated it could face approximately $5 billion in future legal expenses, up from about $4 billion a year ago. The massive settlement, which a federal judge in Manhattan must still approve, likely won't be  the last huge sum Citi shells out, but much of the worst may be behind the New York-based bank, according to Erik Oja, a banking analyst at S&P Capital IQ. “These things will continue for a while, but we're much more than halfway through,” Oja said.