Stakes High as E.C.B. Tests Banks

FEB. 23, 2014

The New York Times

A lot is riding on the cleanup of euro zone banks that is being overseen by the European Central Bank. The progress so far is encouraging. But clarity is needed on a few points to ensure that lenders really do get a good scrubbing and so are able to support the zone’s fragile economic recovery.

The E.C.B. is in the midst of a so-called comprehensive assessment of euro zone banks. This has two elements: an “asset quality review,” or A.Q.R., to determine whether the loans and other assets held on their balance sheets are valued properly, and a “stress test” to check whether they could withstand a severe economic downturn.

Greece resumes bailout talks with lenders, no hard figures discussed

BY HARRY PAPACHRISTOU AND LEFTERIS PAPADIMAS

(Reuters) - Greece resumed bailout talks with its international lenders on Monday, hoping to end six months of wrangling over the release of new rescue loans it needs to avoid default.

At stake is the disbursement of funds to repay 9.3 billion of bonds maturing in May, the biggest single debt redemption Greece faces in the next three decades, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon data.

They held a first round of talks but no hard numbers were discussed. "Talks are tough, a lot of issues are open," a senior Finance Ministry official said, declining to be named.

Piraeus Port Becomes Hub in Greek Logistics-Industry Push

By Jonathan Stearns  Feb 25, 2014 2:01 AM GMT+0200

Bloomberg

The Greek port of Piraeus could become one of Europe’s top five container-shipping hubs as the government spurs logistics activities in a bid to kick-start economic growth, said Development Minister Kostis Hatzidakis.

Piraeus, now the 11th-largest container-shipping port in the European Union, is expanding as China-based Cosco Pacific Ltd. (1199) operates one of two piers, builds a third and prepares to offer cargo-train shipping to multinational companies including Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) and Huawei Technologies Co.

Εντοπίσθηκαν ταμειακά διαθέσιμα ύψους 3 δισ. ευρώ στον δημόσιο τομέα

ΣΩΤΗΡΗΣ ΝΙΚΑΣ

Καθημερινή

«Λευκή» τρύπα 3 δισ. ευρώ έχει εντοπίσει το υπουργείο Οικονομικών στον αχανή δημόσιο τομέα. Τα κεφάλαια αυτά μπορούν να αξιοποιηθούν ως «ρεζέρβες» για τα κρατικά ταμεία, με το οικονομικό επιτελείο να κινείται προς αυτήν την κατεύθυνση για να καλύπτει –όποτε αυτό απαιτηθεί– κενά στο χρηματοδοτικό πρόγραμμα της χώρας.

Billionaire Soros considers investing in European banks: paper

FRANKFURT Sun Feb 23, 2014 7:27am EST

(Reuters) - George Soros wants to invest in Europe's financial sector, according to a German magazine's interview with the billionaire investor on Sunday.

"I believe in the euro," weekly Der Spiegel quoted him as saying.

"Therefore my investment team is looking forward to make a lot of money soon in Europe by, for example, pumping money in banks which urgently need capital," he added, noting the euro zone needs this kind of private investment right now.

Greece resumes protracted bailout talks with lenders

BY HARRY PAPACHRISTOU AND LEFTERIS PAPADIMAS

ATHENS Mon Feb 24, 2014 3:02am EST

(Reuters) - Greece resumes bailout talks with its international lenders on Monday, hoping to end six months of wrangling over the release of new rescue loans it needs to avoid default.

At stake is the disbursement of funds to repay 9.3 billion of bonds maturing in May, the biggest single debt redemption Greece faces in the next three decades, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon data.

The review by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund has dragged on since September, with disagreements about the extent of savings and reforms Athens must make to comply with the terms of its bailout.

Stocks slip as Fed rate talk spooks some investors

By Associated Press, Thursday, February 20, 2:04 AM

NEW YORK — Stocks fell Wednesday as investors were left uneasy by news that some Federal Reserve policymakers were willing to start raising short-term interest rates sooner than previously expected.

The market was mixed most of the day, then turned lower after 2 p.m., when the Fed released the minutes from its January policy meeting.

The minutes revealed that some policymakers “raised the possibility that it might be appropriate to increase the federal funds rate relatively soon.”

China training for ‘short sharp war’ with Japan, Navy official says

The Washington Times

Capt. James Fannell, the chief of intelligence of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, believes that China is training for war with Japan.

A recent training exercise by the Chinese military included an amphibious invasion geared toward securing Japanese resources in the East China Sea, the U.S. Naval Institute News reported.

Fed Closes a Loophole for Banks Overseas

By PETER EAVIS

The New York Times

Updated, 8:51 p.m. | Foreign banks with a major presence on Wall Street will no longer be allowed to avoid many of the tougher rules that the United States introduced after the financial crisis to prevent banking failures and bailouts.

The Federal Reserve, a leading bank regulator, approved a final rule on Tuesday that will force the American operations of foreign banks to follow many of the same rules as American banks. In doing so, the Fed closed a gaping loophole that roughly half the big firms on Wall Street were able to exploit simply because their headquarters were overseas.

Πλεόνασμα 1,2 δισ. στο ισοζύγιο τρεχουσών συναλλαγών το 2013

Για πρώτη φορά από το 1948

Τετάρτη, 19 Φεβρουαρίου 2014 11:20

Η Ναυτεμπορική

Πλεόνασμα ύψους 1,2 δισ. ευρώ παρουσίασε το ισοζύγιο τρεχουσών συναλλαγών το 2013, έναντι ελλείμματος 4,6 δισ. ευρώ το 2012, σύμφωνα με στοιχεία που έδωσε στη δημοσιότητα η Τράπεζα της Ελλάδος .

Πρόκειται για την πρώτη φορά από το 1948 που η χώρα εμφανίζει πλεονασματικό ισοζύγιο τρεχουσών συναλλαγών, σε ετήσια βάση.

Στην εξέλιξη αυτή συνέβαλε κατά κύριο λόγο η σημαντική μείωση του εμπορικού ελλείμματος κατά 2,4 δισ. ευρώ καθώς και η αύξηση των πλεονασμάτων των ισοζυγίων τρεχουσών μεταβιβάσεων κατά 3 δισ. ευρώ και υπηρεσιών κατά 1,7 δισ. ευρώ. Αντιθέτως, αυξήθηκε το έλλειμμα του ισοζυγίου εισοδημάτων.

Fed adopts tough capital rules for foreign banks

Tue, Feb 18 2014

By Douwe Miedema

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve on Tuesday adopted tight new rules for foreign banks to shield the U.S. taxpayer from costly bailouts, ceding only minor concessions despite pressure from abroad to weaken the rule.

Foreign banks with sizable operations on Wall Street such as Deutsche Bank and Barclays had pushed back hard against the plan because it means they will need to transfer costly capital from Europe.

The Fed, which oversees foreign banks, gave them a year longer to meet the standards, and applied it to fewer banks than in a first draft, but the rule was largely unchanged from when it was first proposed in December 2012.

A Test Europe’s Banks Mustn’t Fail

By FRANCESCO GIAVAZZI and ANIL K. KASHYAPFEB. 17, 2014

The New York Times

Europe is lurching toward an overhaul of its banking system. Later this year, the European Central Bank is set to assume the authority to supervise the 130 largest banks in the euro zone — a momentous process of centralizing financial regulation in Frankfurt aimed at preventing another round of the bank failures that contributed to the 2007-8 global financial crisis.

In preparation for the handoff, the E.C.B. will conduct a “stress test” to gauge how the banks would fare if economic conditions deteriorated. But the central bank’s point person for these efforts, Danièle Nouy, appears to have misdiagnosed the problem, suggesting that “insufficient transparency regarding the balance sheets of the European banks” is the critical problem.

Laser-sparked fusion power passes key milestone

NEWSCIENTIST

12 February 2014 by Jacob Aron

CLEAN energy inspired by the stars is the dream of scientists pursuing nuclear fusion, in which atomic nuclei fuse together and release energy. In a first for laser-driven fusion, scientists at a US lab say they have reached a key milestone called fuel gain: they are producing more energy than the fuel absorbed to start the reaction.

But the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in Livermore, California, is still a long way from sparking a self-sustaining fusion reaction with an overall gain in energy – a process called ignition. Currently, the reactor as a whole needs more energy to operate than the amount that is produced.

A workable euro zone fitness regime

February 17, 2014 @ 9:42 am

By Hugo Dixon

Reuters

The euro zone has gone from the emergency room to rehab. As often with patients, the question is how to maintain a stiff exercise regime now the immediate danger is over.

Germany has an idea. At December’s summit, it got the rest of the zone to agree in principle to what are called “partnerships for growth, jobs and competitiveness”. The idea is that governments will sign contracts committing them to do things like reform their labour markets, liberalise product markets and improve the efficiency of their public sectors. Countries such as Greece and Cyprus, which are already in bailout programmes, wouldn’t be covered.

France and Germany Lead Euro Zone to Higher Growth

By DAVID JOLLYFEB. 14, 2014

The New York Times

PARIS — The euro zone economy grew slightly faster than expected in the last three months of 2013, an official report showed on Friday, bringing welcome news for the global economy amid signs of slowing in the United States and China.

Although growth in the 18-nation currency union is still weak, at a 1.1 percent annualized rate, it was the euro zone’s third straight quarter in positive territory, indicating that the bloc is well beyond the year-and-a-half recession that ended in mid-2013.

Regling: euro-zone banks in good shape before stress test: newspaper

BERLIN Sun Feb 16, 2014 5:55pm EST

(Reuters) - The head of the euro zone's bailout funds, Klaus Regling, said that he believes banks in Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, Greece and Ireland are in good shape and that there will not be any surprises in European Central Bank stress tests due later in 2014.

Banks in London Devise Way Around Europe’s Bonus Rules

FEBRUARY 13, 2014, 7:32 PM

The New York Times

By JENNY ANDERSON and PETER EAVIS

A battle over banker bonuses is building in this financial capital.

Since the 2008 crisis, regulators around the world have tried to rein in bonuses, worried that big payouts encourage excessive risk-taking by bankers and traders. The European Union has gone further than most, limiting bankers to bonuses equal to one or two times their salaries.

But the bank giants operating in London — including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Barclays — are seeking to outflank the new restrictions. Responding to the law, they are structuring new pay packages that try to satisfy both their emboldened regulators and their very expensive employees.

It's The Euro, Stupid

Frances Coppola, Contributor

I write about banking, finance and economics.

FORBES

A few days ago the German constitutional court referred the question of the legality of the ECB’s Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT) to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), claiming that the ECB was straying into fiscal policy that was beyond its mandate and that OMT breached EU treaty directives outlawing monetary financing of governments.

Eurozone watchdog says some banks should go under: FT

FRANKFURT/LINKOPING, Sweden Mon Feb 10, 2014 2:04pm EST

(Reuters) - Some of the euro zone's lenders have no future and should be allowed to go under if they fail a health check, the bloc's new banking supervisor told the Financial Times, underscoring a tougher approach to banking oversight.

Daniele Nouy told the newspaper that if any of the region's participating banks fail the European Central Bank's comprehensive assessment then they could be wound down, and that merging them in order to save them was not an option.

River Thames Bursts Banks, Flooding Homes Near London

Flooding Follows Wettest January Since 1776

The Wall Street Journal

By NICHOLAS WINNING

Updated Feb. 10, 2014 7:46 p.m. ET

LONDON—Hundreds of homes have flooded and hundreds more are at risk to the west of London after the River Thames burst its banks on Monday as England continued to suffer from one of the wettest winters in more than two centuries, authorities said.

With waters predicted to rise further this week, Prime Minister David Cameron said the government would do all it could to assist those affected as he visited flood-hit areas in the southwest of England.