Financial News
Global regulator proposes standards to allow bank comparisons
Investors and regulators faced a near impossible challenge during the financial crisis trying to compare the health of banks in one country to their counterparts in another – a problem global regulators are now attempting to fix.
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, which is responsible for drawing up new rules that will affect the world’s largest financial institutions, is proposing a set of standards that would create a universal method for reporting capital levels at banks around the globe.
When the financial crisis hit in 2007-2008, a multitude of different reporting standards made it hard for the market to judge which banks had adequate capital to backstop their lending and trading operations, the Switzerland-based committee said in documents released Tuesday.
That meant investors and regulars couldn’t easily compare the capital situations of banks in Europe with those in Canada or the United States.
“During the financial crisis, many market participants and supervisors have attempted to undertake detailed assessments of the capital positions of banks and comparisons of their capital positions,” the Basel Committee document says.
“The level of detail of the disclosure and the lack of consistency in the way that [capital] was reported typically made this task difficult and often made it impossible to do with any accuracy. It is often
Gingrich to Release Tax Return in Days
Newt Gingrich says he is ready to release his income tax return and will do so on Thursday, just two days ahead of the South Carolina primary—and he thinks Mitt Romney would do well to follow his example. “Gov. Romney, if he plans to stay in the race, ought to plan to release his records,” Gingrich said on Meet the Press yesterday. “The country deserves accountability and deserves transparency,” the former speaker added, according to CNN. “These are big issues and not issues you can hide from,” especially if youre going head-to-head against Barack Obama, Gingrich said.
Business news: Alcoa earnings, HP contract competition, Novartis factory idle
Alcoa reports loss, stock stays strong
Alcoa, the largest U.S. aluminum producer, reported its first quarterly loss in more than two years after prices tumbled for the lightweight metal.
Alcoa posted a fourth-quarter loss of $191 million, or 18 cents a share, compared with $258 million, or 24 cents, a year earlier, the New York-based company said today in a statement. Sales rose 6 percent to $5.99 billion from $5.65 billion.
The loss is Alcoas first since the second quarter of 2009, which followed a slump in aluminum prices amid the global financial crisis.
Aluminum fell in 2011, with the benchmark three-month price in London averaging 11 percent lower in the fourth quarter than a year earlier.
SET index rises 10.89 points
The Stock Exchange of Thailand main index went up 10.89 points or 1.06% to close at 1,036.21 points at the end of trading session on Wednesday Afternoon.
Walmart Pepper Spray Suspect Surrenders
A woman who may have pepper-sprayed Walmart shoppers over an Xbox yesterday turned herself in last night but refused to discuss the details, the AP reports. Hours after a woman sprayed several customers in a “competitive shopping” incident, an unidentified woman showed up at an LA-area police station—and refused to talk, invoking her right against self-incrimination. The cops have let her go pending further inquiry.
In another Black Friday incident, a 61-year-old man collapsed while shopping at a Target in South Charleston, West Virginia—and lay there while shoppers ignored him. An ER nurse eventually noticed Walter Vance, and he was rushed to hospital, where he later died, possibly from heart problems that have dogged him for years, WSAZ reports. “Wh
U.S. stocks rise on strong economic report, positive signs on Europe
U.S. stock indexes mostly rose early Friday on a strong report on future economic activity and signals that fiscal pressure on some European countries is easing.
The Conference Board said its index of leading economic indicators rose 0.9 percent last month, better than Wall Street estimates and the 0.1 percent increase it had in September.
Borrowing costs for Italy and Spain declined, a signal that bond investors are less fearful of a default by those countries.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 29 points, or 0.3 percent, to 11,800 in the first half-hour of trading. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 2, or 0.1 percent, to 1,218. The Nasdaq composite index fell 6, or 0.2 percent, to 2,582.
Spain and Italy have had to pay high interest rates because bondholders fear that that they will default.
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