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In mid-December, a posting appeared on the Internet site Pastebin offering six million account records, including passwords and login data for clients of Morgan Stanley, the New York Times reported today. Two weeks later, a new posting on the information-sharing site offered a teaser of actual records from 1,200 accounts, and provided a link for people interested in purchasing more. The link pointed to a website that sells digital files for virtual currencies like Bitcoin. In this case, the files were being sold for a more obscure currency, Speedcoin. The offer was quickly taken down the same day, Dec. 27, after Morgan Stanley discovered the leak. In short order, the bank traced the breach to a financial adviser working out of its New York offices, a 30-year-old named Galen Marsh. Marsh, who had been with Morgan Stanley since 2008, was quickly fired and is currently the subject of a criminal investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is also examining the matter.

U.S. officials are taking their first crack at writing rules for payday loans, responding to concerns that the short-term, high-rate debt can trap consumers in a cycle of borrowing they can’t afford, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is exploring ways to require payday lenders to make sure customers can pay back their loans. The bureau is seeking to establish the first federal regulations for the $46 billion industry, which has historically been overseen by states. Consumer-advocacy groups say the loans are deceptive because borrowers often roll them over several times, racking up fees in the process. They also criticize high annual interest rates that can range from less than 200 percent to more than 500 percent, depending on the state, according to research by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Puerto Rico appealed a court ruling that Doral Financial Corp., the holding company for the commonwealth’s second-largest mortgage lender, is entitled to a $229.9 million tax refund from the cash-strapped island’s government, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday. The San Juan-based financial firm, which hasn’t posted an annual profit since 2005, won an order requiring Puerto Rico’s Treasury Department to refund the full amount it claimed. Puerto Rico’s credit rankings were dropped to speculative grade in February by the three largest credit-rating companies as concerns rose on whether it can repay $73 billion in debt.

The successor company to bankrupt clothing retailers Syms Corp. and Filene's Basement has struck a deal for up to $50 million in financing to pay off its remaining creditors, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Trinity Place Holdings Inc. emerged from the ashes of Syms's and Filene's chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2012. Sterling National Bank and Israel Discount Bank of New York are providing an initial $40 million loan with the option for another $10 million.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc could pay a fine to settle claims of misconduct in its handling of U.S. mortgage securities as early as this quarter, Bloomberg News reported today. The lender is bracing to settle Federal Housing Finance Agency accusations it sold faulty mortgage bonds to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from 2005 to 2007. RBS could pay a fine of as much as $8 billion, Chirantan Barua, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd., wrote in a note today. Chief Executive Officer Ross McEwan has seen a series of fines, such as for rigging currency markets, undermine his plan to return the 80 percent taxpayer-owned lender to private ownership. RBS and Nomura Holdings Inc. are last to settle among 18 banks sued by the FHFA to recoup taxpayer costs after the U.S. seized control of the mortgage-finance companies in 2008.

Some 40,298 transactions — worth nearly $3.5 trillion — were announced worldwide in 2014, according to Thomson Reuters, the biggest year in deals since 2007, the New York Times DealBook blog reported today. Many of the factors responsible for the rebound in mergers activity since the tumult of 2008 have existed for years. Debt financing is cheap and plentiful, and stock prices have climbed steadily, giving corporate buyers a more valuable currency to offer potential targets. Perhaps the biggest change, deal makers say, is that corporate boards and management teams have come to realize that their ability to expand their companies on their own has become more difficult. A substantial move, like acquiring a major competitor or complementary business, is now seen as necessary to move the needle.

Real estate investment trusts were among the hottest stocks of the year, propelled to their biggest gains in nearly a decade by low interest rates and an improving economy, the Wall Street Journal reported today. REITs, which own properties as diverse as office buildings, apartments and warehouses, are sensitive to changes in interest rates because many investors see them as an alternative to fixed-income investments like bonds. When interest rates fall, REITs look more attractive and vice versa. In 2015, a stronger economy and increased mergers-and-acquisitions activity could overshadow rate rises, helping to power REIT returns, analysts predict. If that turns out to be true, 2015 could be the first year since 2009 that REITs outperform the broader stock market even as rates rise. For 2014, real-estate stocks have produced a total return of 32.3 percent, including dividends, according to the FTSE Nareit Equity REITs Index, which tracks 148 property companies. That is the highest total return since 2006, the year before real-estate values peaked, when REITs returned 35 percent to investors.

Morgan Stanley is in talks with the U.S. to resolve an investigation into the bank’s creation and sale of mortgage-backed bonds, the latest in a string of Wall Street cases tied to the 2008 financial crisis, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. An agreement could be reached within the first few months of 2015, though the amount of a possible settlement isn’t clear. A settlement would add Morgan Stanley to a growing list of banks to face federal sanctions over mortgage practices in the run-up to the collapse in housing prices. In August, Bank of America Corp. agreed to pay $16.7 billion for misrepresenting the quality of bonds backed by home loans. Citigroup Inc. reached a $7 billion deal in July, while JPMorgan Chase & Co. struck a $13 billion accord last year.

A trove of emails and confidential documents, filed in court, reveal the extent to which one of Wall Street’s leading banks, Morgan Stanley, actively influenced New Century’s push into riskier and more onerous mortgages, and brushed aside questions about the ability of homeowners to make the payments, the New York Times reported today. “Morgan Stanley is involved in almost every strategic decision that New Century makes in securitized products,” a Morgan Stanley internal report from late 2004 said, referring to the loans the bank packaged into mortgage bonds. The Justice Department is currently examining the relationship between New Century and Morgan Stanley, and the bank’s sale of mortgage securities in the run-up to the financial crisis. After winning tens of billions of dollars from other banks, the Justice Department has turned its focus to Morgan Stanley, and is aiming to reach a settlement early next year.

Wells Fargo & Co., HSBC Holdings Plc, Bank of New York Mellon Corp. and Deutsche Bank AG were sued by an Irish securities firm that claims the banks failed to protect investors in their role as trustees of securities backed by home loans that defaulted after the 2008 credit crisis, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. Phoenix Light SF Ltd. accused the banks of failing to safeguard the interests of investors as required by their contracts. The securities were sold from 2005 to 2007. Phoenix Light and related investors sued Deutsche Bank over 21 securitization trusts on which they claimed $183 million in losses. BNY Mellon was sued over 27 offerings for claimed damages of $269 million. Wells Fargo was sued for $237 million in losses on 12 securitizations and HSBC for $170 million on 11 securitizations.