Abercrombie & Fitch's Downward Spiral Hits 10 Straight Quarters

Aug 28 (Reuters) - Teen apparel retailer Abercrombie & Fitch Co's same-store sales declined for the tenth straight quarter as it struggled to attract customers who held back discretionary spending amid wage cuts and fewer jobs.

The company's shares were down 6.5 percent before the bell.

Abercrombie and rivals Aeropostale Inc and American Apparel Inc have struggled to keep teen shoppers from moving to cheaper and trendier "fast fashion" chains such as Forever 21, Inditex's Zara and Sweden's H&M.

Abercrombie's same-store sales decreased 7 percent in the second quarter ended Aug. 2 - more than the 4.1 percent dip expected by analysts polled by research firm Consensus Metrix.

U.S. same-store sales fell 5 percent.

Net sales decreased 6 percent to $890.6 million.

Net income rose to $12.9 million, or 17 cents per share, from $11.4 million, or 14 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, the company earned 19 cents per share.

Analysts on average had expected a profit of 11 cents per share on sales of $909.2 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Abercrombie Shares, which have risen 34 percent this year closed at $44.83 on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday. (Reporting by Ramkumar Iyer in Bangalore; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

Goldman Sachs Nearing $1.1 Billion Settlement With U.S. Housing Regulator

Aug 22 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc could pay about $1.1 billion to settle claims from the U.S. housing finance regulator that it sold bad mortgage-backed securities (MBS), the Financial Times reported.

Negotiations between Goldman and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) could be concluded as early as next week, the business daily reported, citing people familiar with the matter. (http://on.ft.com/1q2eaOS)

The proposed amount would be almost double of what the Wall Street bank paid to the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2010 over similar issues. (http://reut.rs/1t0fepd)

Goldman and FHFA were not immediately available for comment.

Goldman and Morgan Stanley are also in preliminary discussions with the U.S. Department of Justice about settling allegations that they mis-sold MBS, the British newspaper reported, citing three people with knowledge about the issue.

In its lawsuit, the FHFA said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bought $11.1 billion of mortgage-backed securities from Goldman, unaware that "significant percentages of the underlying mortgage loans... had materially poorer credit quality than was represented in the registration statements."

On Thursday, Bank of America Corp reached a $16.65 billion settlement with U.S. regulators to settle charges that it misled investors into buying troubled mortgage-backed securities. (Reporting By Sudarshan Varadhan; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

Meet The First Openly Gay CEO Of A Publicly Traded Bank

Trevor Burgess was upfront about his sexuality on the first resume he ever put together after college. And when it came time for his company to file documents to go public, he again made no secret about being gay.

Burgess, 41, just became the first openly gay CEO of a publicly traded bank, as first noted by the New York Times.

"I’ve been openly gay since I was 19 years old," Burgess, the CEO of C1 Bank, told The Huffington Post in an email Friday morning.

.@C1Bank CEO Trevor Burgess banks on the #NYSE for #IPO day! #NYSEIPO $BNK pic.twitter.com/9NWzrz2qJZ

— NYSEcam (@NYSEcam) August 14, 2014

While corporate America on the whole has evolved to be pretty gay-friendly in recent years, with more and more companies offering health benefits to same-sex couples and protection against discrimination, there are still no openly gay CEOs at any of the 1,000 biggest companies in the U.S. (though the term "openly" has been the subject of some controversy.)

Burgess made history on Thursday morning when he rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange to kick off the public offering of shares in C1 Financial, the parent company of a small regional bank that has 29 locations in Florida, a state that doesn't recognize same-sex marriages. Burgess indicated his husband, Gary Hess, owns shares in the company in its IPO filing with the SEC.

"I rose through the ranks because I was really good at what I did and that’s the real lesson," Burgess told HuffPost. He worked for 10 years as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley where he was one of the first openly gay managing directors.

Part of what's stopping LGBT people from rising in the ranks is the lack of gay people at the top, experts say.

"When people see that 90 percent of companies have nondiscrimination policies in place, that's great. But to me, a better indicator, is, how many senior leaders are there who are gay and who are out?" Todd Sears, a former banker who founded the LGBT leadership organization Out Leadership told HuffPost in June. "If LGBT people look around and they don't see other LGBT people who are out, if they don't hear inclusive messages, they're not going to feel valued."

But Burgess thinks the tides are turning.

"It’s only a matter of time before openly gay people, people like me who have been authentic their entire adult lives, rise through the ranks to the C-suite," he told HuffPost. "We have great examples in basketball, soccer, football and many other walks of life and now the [New York Stock Exchange]!"

Other banks were quick to congratulate Burgess.

"Leaders who feel comfortable being open about their sexual orientation are more productive and engaged, which directly impacts the success of their organizations," Irene Dorner, the president and CEO of HSBC, said in a statement released by Out Leadership. "HSBC offers sincere congratulations to Trevor on leading the way with this IPO, and our best wishes for continued success."

(Hat tip: New York Times)