Also Gary Cohn, IEX, volatility and Uber.

Mortgage brokers.

Here’s a quiz: In what year did a 25-year-old Calvin Klein salesman turned mortgage broker say this about how he got into the subprime mortgage business?

“I knew a mortgage was a loan for a house,” said Mr. Boyd, who was recruited by his boss, Jon Maddux, after selling him a Calvin Klein suit at a local outdoor mall. “I came in just a blank slate.”

If your guess was “2006, that is the most 2006 thing that anyone could ever say,” I see your point, but nope, it was now, it’s happening now:

• Event raises money for Glide to aid homeless in San Francisco
• Winner gets to dine with billionaire at New York steakhouse

A bidder pledged $2.68 million to a San Francisco charity in exchange for a lunch date with billionaire investor Warren Buffett.

The winner of the online auction that concluded Friday on eBay Inc.’s website chose to remain anonymous. The final price fell short of last year’s $3.46 million winning pledge, which tied the previous record.

• Main stock index had its worst weekly performance since 2014
• Yields jump on most liquid dollar bonds as S&P cuts rating

Investors in Qatari stocks, bonds and currency forwards were saddled with losses since the country was thrust into the epicenter of an unprecedented spat with its neighbors.

The country’s stock market shrank by about $11 billion in value on Tuesday, the most since 2010, after Middle Eastern countries including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates cut ties with the Gulf nation. The country’s most liquid bonds tumbled last week as its sovereign rating was cut and bets against its currency surged. Contracts to protect against a potential default are now at a higher level than those of Peru and Slovenia…

• Heather Brownlie started at the money manager on Monday
• Derivatives expert Jim Hill joins firm to advise ETF business

BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest provider of exchange-traded funds, has tapped Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s Heather Brownlie as U.S. head of fixed-income ETFs, a new role at the money manager.

Brownlie will oversee product creation, sales and capital markets in BlackRock’s debt ETF business as the company looks to accelerate the growth of these funds, according to Melissa Garville, a spokeswoman for New York-based BlackRock. Brownlie, who started Monday, was previously the global head of fixed-income for private wealth management in Goldman Sachs’s investment management division…

• Central bank flags worries about uninsured mortgages
• Governor downplays financial stability, inflation conflict

The Bank of Canada said vulnerabilities associated with household debt have increased amid surging prices for homes in Toronto and Vancouver, though not enough to threaten a financial system that is being aided by a recovering economy.

In its semi-annual report on the financial system, Canada’s central bank painted a picture of a housing market in which recent government mortgage tightening measuresare working, although they’re being offset by the escalating costs of homes in the country’s two biggest markets. In particular, policy makers cited risks around growth of uninsured mortgages…

The fund was advised by Northwood Investors. Newmark Knight Franks Boston-based debt team oversaw financing for the transaction and NKF has also been retained as the exclusive leasing and management arm for the property.

A German investment fund has made its first acquisition in the United States, acquiring Tower Point @ A Street, a 157,000-square-foot office and retail property in Boston’s Upper Seaport District, for $86.85 million.

Universal-Investment-Gesellschaft mbH, on behalf of the BVK-US-Value-Immobilienfonds, bought the restored 117-year-old building from Rockpoint Group. The fund was advised by Northwood Investors. It was the Frankfurt-based fund’s first U.S. investment, according to DLA Piper, the global law firm that represented Universal-Investment-Gesellschaft mbH…

• Purchase of Popular signals bolder approach by chairman
• Banks had been called in to look Popular over weeks ago

As dawn broke in Madrid on Wednesday, Ana Botin embarked on the boldest move of her almost three-year tenure as chairman of Banco Santander SA, Spain’s largest bank.

Botin, better known for accumulating capital and emphasizing internal growth than doing deals, took a page from her late father’s playbook. She agreed to acquire failing Banco Popular Espanol SA for the knockdown price of 1 euro, while absorbing the 37 billion euros ($42 billion) of non-performing assets that laid its rival low…

One of the major reforms to avoid the recurrence of the severity of the financial crisis was a set of mechanisms by which the regulators could wind down failed banks or restructure them if they were still viable.

The House of Representatives is set to vote to repeal this measure and replace it with a bankruptcy that only the bankers themselves could decide to enter. These are dangerous actions that can risk turning a tumultuous bank failure into a deep and full financial crisis, like that of the 2008-9 financial panic. Bankruptcy alone cannot handle a financial crisis emanating from collapsed banks…

• Percentage of overdue debt has risen for last two quarters
• Consumer companies say their customers are under stress

After bingeing on credit for a half decade, U.S. consumers may finally be feeling the hangover.

Americans faced with lackluster income growth have been financing more of their spending with debt instead. There are early signs that loan burdens are growing unsustainably large for borrowers with lower incomes. Household borrowings have surged to a record $12.73 trillion, and the percentage of debt that is overdue has risen for two consecutive quarters. And with economic optimism having lifted borrowing rates since the election and the Federal Reserve expected to hike further, it’s getting more expensive for borrowers to refinance…

It has offices in a sleek Manhattan skyscraper. Its bonds are accessible to millions of American investors. And it holds ties to some of New York’s biggest banks.

Despite this presence on Wall Street, detailed in previously unreported financial records, Vnesheconombank, or VEB, is no normal bank. It is wholly owned by the Russian state. It is intertwined with Russian intelligence. And the Russian prime minister is, by law, the chairman of its supervisory board…

Bank at Center of U.S. Inquiry Projects Russian ‘Soft Power’

On Friday, former Deutsche Bank commodities trader David Liew pleaded guilty to spoofing precious metal futures as wells as front-running customer orders. While the CFTC case documents include the usual tidbits of spicy and incriminating chats from the scene of the crime – “i can hunt with u,” he tells a trader at another firm – the real story is Liew’s online trail of illuminating and at-times poignant career advice.

According to what appears to be Liew’s personal WordPress site, the former trader has long enjoyed the avocation of personal memoir. Though his blog has since been taken down, we can still peruse what we assume to be Liew’s ruminations thanks to Google Cache…

For the last few months, the legal team at JPMorgan has been doing its utmost to shoo away Good Technology, a onetime software unicorn and investment banking client that ended up selling itself to BlackBerry in an acquisition so fantastically good for the latter – “an absolutely fire sale fantastic deal,” one venture capital backer said – that Good investors began to grow a bit suspicious. Their fear, according to a suit filed last year, was that JPMorgan pawned off Good on the cheap in order to deepen its relationship with BlackBerry…

JPMorgan Pays $35 Million To Make Good Technology Go Away

Summit Hotel Properties Inc. acquired Courtyard by Marriott Fort Lauderdale, which also included a 0.8-acre vacant land parcel and 6,200 square feet of retail space, for $85 million.

Located at 440 Seabreeze Blvd., the 261-key hotel recently underwent renovations and the company plans to invest $1.6 million over the next year for public space improvements and a patio bar redesign. Summit estimates a capitalization rate of 7.8 percent based on management’s current estimate of the hotel’s net operating income during the first year of ownership.

• Invesco report shows institutions plan to underweight U.K.
• Investors question future of Britain as an investment hub

Sovereign wealth funds and central banks may look to cut their U.K. assets in 2017 after sentiment toward the country slumped since Britain voted to leave the European Union, according to an Invesco Ltd. report.

About 41 percent of institutions, who together oversee about $12 trillion in assets, said they expect to introduce new underweight positions in the U.K. this year, a survey published on Monday showed. Britain was also deemed to be the least attractive developed market, scoring 5.5 out of 10 in 2017, the report said. That’s down from 7.5 in 2016…

U.S. lenders are sliding in 2017 as their European counterparts rally, on course to reverse a trend that’s been in place for the past seven years. The KBW Bank Index slumped more than twice as much as the Euro Stoxx Banks Index on Wednesday after Wall Street banks signaled a decline in markets revenue. All may not be lost: The recent underperformance has led JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst Kian Abouhossein to recommend U.S. lenders over their European peers, citing better valuations and more scope for gains…

U.S. Bank Stocks Lag Europe After Years of Outperformance: Chart

When a Chinese tech company with global ambitions began to run short of cash last year, it sought billions of dollars from new investors. One of them was a music teacher.

Li Shenghong, who teaches out of a mall storefront in southern China, was already a fan of the smartphones and televisions sold by the company, an internet-and-gadgets conglomerate called LeEco. When LeEco also began selling investment products online, Mr. Li snapped them up, even though the company said little about where the money would go.

PARIS — President Emmanuel Macron’s justice minister François Bayrou presented legislation on Thursday that would drastically rein in abuses in French politics, and would amount to a vigorous reinforcement of the existing ethics apparatus.

The announcement came just 10 days ahead of crucial legislative elections, and hours after a public prosecutor announced an investigation had been opened into the financial dealings of a recently appointed minister.

Mr. Bayrou announced a number of measures, some of which will require a revision of the country’s constitution. They include: imposing a limitation on public mandates; forbidding nepotism; reinforcing scrutiny over the financing of public parties and the use of public money; imposing stronger penalties against culpable politicians; as well as creating a public bank to finance political parties…

On a warm morning early last year, a start-up founder named Matt Burton addressed a group of 175 investors and executives at the sleek glass IAC building in Chelsea.

Mr. Burton described how his company, Orchard Platform, already a provider of loan data to financial institutions, would soon unveil its own trading platform for loans…

Behind the Scenes at Orchard Platform, a Struggle to Innovate

We’re following major developments in the markets throughout the day.

John Deere Maker Buys Wirtgen Group

Deere & Company, the maker of John Deere equipment, said on Thursday that it had agreed to acquire Wirtgen Group, a privately held German maker of road construction equipment, for 4.36 billion euros, or about $4.9 billion.

The transaction would expand Deere’s global footprint and its offering of construction equipment…

Movers: Deere to Expand Global Footprint, and China Guides Currency Higher

• JPMorgan, Bank of America estimates reflect reality: Gorman
• Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman speaks in Beijing interview

Morgan Stanley Chief Executive Officer James Gorman indicated his firm is seeing similar trading declines as competitors JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp., which said second-quarter trading revenue is on pace to drop at least 10 percent.

The estimates from JPMorgan and Bank of America “are reflecting reality and I don’t think we’re very different,” Gorman said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Tom Mackenzie in Beijing. “We all have similar clients, if not the same clients.”…

FRANKFURT — Some banks go to the international markets when they need money for a big deal. Monte dei Paschi di Siena, one of Italy’s biggest lenders, tapped its own loyal customers.

“The bank has always been a gold mine and the pride of the city,” said Paolo Emilio Falaschi, a lawyer in Siena who represents several aggrieved clients.

The aftershocks of that strategy have presented European leaders with their first major too-big-to-fail moment, as authorities on Thursday gave the initial greenlight for a bailout of Monte dei Paschi…

Bailout for Italy’s Oldest Bank Tests Too-Big-to-Fail Rules

Uber has spent billions to upend the transportation industry. Now, at least for the moment, it is burning slightly less cash in that effort.

The company said Wednesday that it lost $708 million over the first three months of the year on revenue of $3.4 billion, not counting expenses like employee stock compensation. That is a narrowing of the previous quarter’s loss of $991 million, on revenue of $2.9 billion.

Uber said it was still sitting on $7.2 billion in cash, roughly the same amount it held at the end of 2016…

Uber Limits Loss to $708 Million in First Quarter

• Moelis’s proposal calls for raising $180 billion in capital
• Investment firm authored plan as adviser to GSE shareholders

Paulson & Co. and Blackstone Group LP are among investors backing a proposal that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac be recapitalized and released from U.S. control without legislation. Taxpayers would receive as much as $100 billion, according to the plan, which could also deliver a windfall for shareholders.

The blueprint released Thursday was developed by investment bank Moelis & Co. in its capacity as a financial adviser to Paulson & Co., Blackstone GSO Capital Partners and other investors, according to people familiar with the matter. The plan would let Fannie and Freddie build capital before the government sells its stakes in the mortgage-finance giants…

Allied Irish Banks’ initial public offering is as large as it is political.

Ireland plans to sell 25 percent of the nationalized bank in a dual Dublin-London stock listing. The question is whether the Irish government can persuade investors to pay more than book value for a bank that is still a work in progress.

Allied Irish is an almost pure play on the Irish economy, one of the fastest-growing in the eurozone. Only 14 percent of its loans were in Britain by the end of 2016, compared with 40 percent at its domestic peer, Bank of Ireland. It also has a leading 36 percent market share in Irish mortgages, which are a growth business. And crucially, it is the first domestic Irish lender to resume paying a dividend since the financial crisis…

Uber Technologies Inc.’s revenue increased to $3.4 billion in the first quarter and losses narrowed, even as hundreds of thousands of people deleted the company’s ride-hailing app from their phones.

The company also said its head of finance, Gautam Gupta, is leaving. Gupta, who has long served as de facto chief financial officer even though he never earned the title, helped oversee investor calls and run the finance team. But there had been persistent questions from employees and investors about whether he had the experience to lead Uber through an eventual initial public offering. Uber said it’s now searching for a true CFO who can woo Wall Street…

• English soccer club signs facilities with HSBC, Goldman, BoAM
• Move will more than double matchday revenue for London team

Tottenham Hotspur Ltd., the Premier League soccer club that’s clawed itself up to become one of England’s elite teams, announced a 700 million-pound ($900 million) plan to fund a new 61,500 seater stadium.

Tottenham, based in London and commonly known as Spurs, has signed a 400 million-pound facility with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and HSBC Holdings Plc, the club said in a statement on Wednesday. That replaces an interim 200 million-pound deal that was put in place in December 2015, of which 100 million pounds has been drawn to date. The financing was arranged by Rothschild & Co…

Venezuelan bonds would seem to be an unlikely target for global investors.

The country is in near revolt and has barely enough ready cash to feed its people, much less pay the billions of dollars in debt that the government owes to its foreign lenders.

Yet bonds issued by Venezuela’s national oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, or Pdvsa, have attracted some of world’s most sophisticated investors. They are betting that the government will use its dwindling supply of dollars to pay bondholders instead of importing food and medicine for its people…

Goldman Buys $2.8 Billion Worth of Venezuelan Bonds, and an Uproar Begins

• Zloty gains help keep inflation at bay by reducing import cost
• Annual price growth stayed at 2% for third month, survey shows

One of this year’s standout currencies in emerging markets is keeping Poland’s economy up and its inflation down. Not surprisingly, the central bank wants more of the same.

The zloty is off to the second-biggest surge against the euro among developing nations in 2017, making the central bank’s job easier by driving down the cost of imports. The appreciation has helped stop inflation in its tracks after a rebound that started late last year. May data due on Wednesday will show the annual price index remained unchanged at 2 percent for a third month, according to the median of 26 estimates in a Bloomberg survey…

• Central bank releases semi-annual Financial Stability Report
• New Zealand remains vulnerable to offshore risks, RBNZ says

New Zealand’s central bank said risks to the nation’s financial system have receded after house-price inflation slowed and global dairy prices recovered from a slump.

“New Zealand’s financial system remains sound and the risks facing the system have reduced in the past six months,” Reserve Bank Governor Graeme Wheeler said in the bank’s semi-annual Financial Stability Report Wednesday in Wellington. Still, he warned that global uncertainty remains elevated and that New Zealand would be vulnerable if a sharp reversal in risk sentiment drove up borrowing costs for banks…

• Cohen’s family office has made no money this year, people say
• The new fund would raise about half the money from outsiders

Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management has made no money this year and barely posted a gain in 2016. Even so, he’s set an audacious goal: raising close to $10 billion in outside capital next year.

Cohen plans to combine the new money with most of his family war chest of $11 billion, bringing the total to about $20 billion, according to people familiar with his family office. If successful, it would be the biggest hedge fund launch ever and the billionaire would manage more money than he did at his peak…

• Central bank deputy governor says 5.2% growth more realistic
• Investment-grade score should serve as inspiration for reforms

Indonesia’s central bank said economic growth of 5.4 percent this year is too optimistic and the nation should aspire for higher credit ratings to catch up with Southeast Asian peers.

“In our view, the 2017 growth rate should be higher than 2016,” Bank Indonesia Senior Deputy Governor Mirza Adityaswara said in an interview in Jakarta on Friday. “Maybe 5.4 percent is still a bit too aggressive, but we think 5.1 percent to 5.2 percent is still a possible number to achieve in 2017.”