SENATE SCRUTINIZES CREDIT SUISSE OVER HIDDEN ASSETS | A Senate panel criticized Credit Suisse at a hearing on Wednesday, contending that the Swiss bank helped as many as 22,000 Americans hide an estimated $10 billion to $12 billion in assets from the United States tax authorities, Annie Lowrey writes in DealBook. The Senate hearing, the result of a two-year investigation into practices at the bank from 2001 through 2008, followed a scathing report issued on Tuesday by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that at times read like a legal thriller for its bizarre details on the lengths the bank went to aid Americans in tax evasion. But Brady W. Dougan, the chief executive of Credit Suisse, said that only a small number of employees were involved in actively recruiting American clients and helping them hide money offshore. “Some Swiss-based private bankers went to great lengths to disguise their bad conduct from Credit Suisse executive management,” Mr. Dougan told the panel. “While that employee misconduct violated our policies and was unknown to our executive management, we accept responsibility for and deeply regret these employees’ actions.” The bank said that Swiss law prevented them from disclosing certain client information. The Swiss bank wasn’t the only entity under attack at the hearing. Senators also criticized the Justice Department for dragging its feet in prosecuting or settling with Swiss banks under investigation.

R.B.S. POSTS $15 BILLION LOSS | The Royal Bank of Scotland Group on Thursday reported a net loss of 9 billion pounds — about $15 billion — for 2013, nearly 50 percent larger than the £6.1 billion loss it reported a year earlier, David Jolly writes in DealBook. The loss grew as the bank set aside £3.8 billion for possible legal bills and wrote down the value of assets by £4.8 billion. The bank said it would cut £5.3 billion from costs over the medium term, partly by simplifying its operating structure to focus on its home market in Britain. It also said it had reduced its bonus pool for 2013 by 15 percent. “Even by recent standards, 2013 was a difficult year,” Ross McEwan, the bank’s chief executive, said in a statement.

TAMING BITCOIN | For its entire existence, Bitcoin has been free from the tethers of formal oversight. But now, after the collapse on Monday of the prominent Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, authorities around the world are scrambling to figure out how to regulate the virtual currency, Hiroko Tabuchi and Rachel Abrams write in DealBook. Japan’s top government spokesman said in Tokyo on Wednesday that agencies there were collecting information on the country’s Bitcoin trade with an eye toward regulatory action. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have formed a partnership with the Internal Revenue Service and other federal agencies to crack down on companies using Bitcoin exchanges to support drug trafficking. In addition, New York State’s top financial regulator, Benjamin M. Lawsky, has also been vocal about regulating the virtual currency, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the F.B.I. are examining their authority over Bitcoin exchanges. From Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, in a letter: “I write to express my concerns about Bitcoin. The virtual currency is currently unregulated and has allowed users to participate in illicit activity, while also being highly unstable and disruptive to our economy. For the reasons outlined below, I urge regulators to take appropriate action to limit the abilities of this highly unstable currency.” “While it is disappointing that the world leader and epicenter of the banking industry will only follow suit instead of making policy, it is high time that the United States heed our allies’ warnings. I am most concerned that as Bitcoin is inevitably banned in other countries, Americans will be left holding the bag on a valueless currency.” From Felix Salmon at Reuters: “As far as the public is concerned, Mt. Gox was Bitcoin. Most of us who never bought any Bitcoins in the first place feel as though we likely dodged a bullet. And we have no particular desire to enter that war zone now, even if it is marginally safer than it was before.“

ANOTHER HEADACHE FOR OCWEN | Ocwen Financial, one of the nation’s largest mortgage servicing companies, is facing scrutiny over conflicts of interest. The claims are the latest hurdle for a company that has increasingly come under regulatory fire as large banks have sought to shed the servicing of their most problematic subprime loans, Michael Corkery writes in DealBook. The concerns were disclosed in a letter to Ocwen released on Wednesday by New York State’s top financial regulator, Benjamin M. Lawsky. Mr. Lawsky wrote that potential conflicts of interest between Ocwen and four other publicly traded companies of which William C. Erbey is chairman could “harm borrowers and push homeowners unduly into foreclosure.” Ocwen has said that it maintains an arm’s-length business relationship with other companies, which rent foreclosed houses and sell houses online and that Mr. Erbey has recused himself from any discussions where the businesses of the five companies overlap.



ON THE AGENDA | Janet L. Yellen, the chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, testifies in front of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on monetary policy at 10 a.m. Weekly jobless claims are out at 8:30 a.m. January’s durable goods orders are released at 8:30 a.m. Richard W. Fisher, the president of the Dallas Fed, is on a panel in Frankfurt, Germany, at 10:30 a.m. discussing the post-financial crisis role of central banks. Dennis P. Lockhart, the president of the Atlanta Fed, and Esther George, the president of the Kansas City Fed, speak at the Atlanta Fed’s annual banking conference at 3:15 p.m. Frank Keating, president and chief executive of the American Bankers Association, is on CNBC at 7 p.m. Kevin Roose, the author of “Young Money,” is on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” at 11 p.m.