Morning roundup: Foreclosure settlement could be imminent

Here's a look at what's news in banking and finance this morning:

• A $19 billion settlement between five large lenders and a number of federal agencies and state attorneys general over mortgage practices like robo-signing could be imminent, the Wall Street Journal reports. The deal seemed to have been weakened in recent weeks when California left negotiations. Should the state rejoin, the settlement figure likely would be higher.


• The "pain may not be over for U.S. banks," Reuters says in an analysis piece this morning. When stock prices hit the kind of lows that the financial industry has seen this year, investors tend to snap up what they deem bargains. But that's not happening amid ongoing worries about Europe and compressed revenue.


• Fed chairman Ben Bernanke's second four-year term ends in 2014, and sources tell the Wall Street Journal he is unlikely to seek another. These last two years will be critical in defining his legacy, the Journal says.


• Ivy League branches of Occupy Wall Street are targeting recruiting efforts by the top-level financial firms, Bloomberg reports. Goldman Sachs cancelled visits to Harvard and Brown last week after earlier incidents.