DTN News - 2012 BRICS SUMMIT: BRICS Countries Ink Pact To Trade In Local Currencies

DTN News - 2012 BRICS SUMMIT: BRICS Countries Ink Pact To Trade In Local Currencies
*Announce joint working group on common development bank
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Nayanima Basu / New Delhi Mar 30, 2012, 00:26 IST - Business Standard
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - March 29, 2012: A major outcome of the fourth BRICS summit, which concluded here on Thursday, was the signing of an agreement on providing credit facility in local currencies. 

This would seek to reduce the demand for fully convertible currencies for trade transactions among BRICS countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The leaders of these five rapidly emerging economies also agreed to explore ways to establish a development bank for financing projects in these, as well as other developing countries.

Addressing the media after the conclusion of the summit, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, “The agreement signed today by development banks of BRICS countries will boost trade among us by offering credit in our local currencies.”

A ‘multilateral letter of credit confirmation facility agreement’ was signed among the five participating banks — Brazil’s Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Economic e Social, Russia’s State Corporation Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs (Vnesheconombank), Export-Import Bank of India, China Development Bank Corporation and Development Bank of Southern Africa.

“We have agreed to examine in greater detail a proposal to set up a BRICS-led South-South Development Bank, funded and managed by the BRICS and other developing countries,” Singh said, adding the five BRICS countries had directed their respective finance ministers to set up a joint working group for an in-depth analysis of the proposal.

The joint Delhi Declaration, issued after the meeting, underscored the concerns of the BRICS countries — “the slow pace of quota and governance reforms in the IMF(International Monetary Fund.” The leaders agreed on giving more powers in the form of greater voting rights to developing economies. The leaders said the process of selecting candidates for the top posts in the World Bank or the IMF should be an “open and merit-based” one. “The new World Bank leadership must commit to transform the Bank into a multilateral institution that truly reflects the vision of all its members, including the governance structure that reflects current economic and political reality. Moreover, the nature of the Bank must shift from an institution that essentially mediates North-South cooperation to an institution that promotes equal partnership with all countries as a way to deal with development issues and to overcome an outdated donor-recipient dichotomy,” the leaders stated.

Earlier, Prime Minister Singh had highlighted the need to prioritise easier business visa norms to take full advantage of such a group. “We should promote greater interaction amongst our business communities. Issues such as easier business visas must be prioritised. As large trading countries, BRICS have a strong interest in removing barriers to trade and investment flows and avoiding protectionist measures,” he said.

The leaders said volatility in commodity prices posed risks, especially in food and energy. They called for improved regulation of the derivatives market to avoid destabilising impacts on food and energy supplies.

The leaders also agreed to make the UN Security Council more effective, efficient and representative.

They said the situation in Iran should not be allowed to escalate into a full-fledged conflict and expressed concern on the human rights violations in Syria.

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*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Nayanima Basu / New Delhi Mar 30, 2012, 00:26 IST - Business Standard
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*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
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DTN News: Saudi Prince Urges U.S. To Sell Citigroup Stake ~ Report

DTN News: Saudi Prince Urges U.S. To Sell Citigroup Stake ~ Report *Source: DTN News / Reuters (NSI News Source Info) ISTANBUL, Turkey - October 5, 2009: Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a big investor in Citigroup, urged the U.S. government to sell its stake in the bank as soon as this year to boost investor confidence, Emerging Markets magazine reported. People walk beneath a Citibank branch logo in the financial district of San Francisco, California July 17, 2009. "The earlier the U.S. government exits its investments in those companies, the better," as long as the withdrawal is not done in a way that hurts the prices of U.S. banking stocks, the Saudi billionaire was quoted as saying in an interview published on Sunday. "We need to give confidence back to the shareholders and investors that these companies are moving along without government support." A series of bailouts during the financial crisis has left the U.S. government with a 34 percent stake in Citigroup, after the bank obtained $45 billion from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program. Sources told Reuters last month that Citigroup was talking to U.S. officials about how the government should shed its 7.7 billion shares in the bank. Alwaleed, who owns part of Citigroup through his investment firm Kingdom Holding Co, has said little in recent months about the stake. Kingdom owned 3.6 percent of the bank in July 2007 and five months later Alwaleed said he was among investors who agreed to put more money into the bank. OPERATING PROFIT Citigroup is expected to return to the black on an operating basis next year at the earliest, Alwaleed was quoted as saying in the interview. "Citigroup has learned a huge lesson. The worst is behind them right now," Alwaleed said, adding that the bank's $100 billion of tangible common equity, "the highest in the industry," and the large scope of its operations meant its future was "very bright." The bank has been profitable on a net basis in each of the last two quarters because of one-time gains and accounting items, but has not posted a quarterly profit from its main operations since 2007. In the wake of the financial crisis, U.S. regulators have been discussing the problem of banks becoming "too big too fail" -- since the collapse of a big institution could undermine the entire banking system, governments can find themselves forced to spend huge sums supporting debt-ridden and unprofitable banks. But Alwaleed said the solution to this problem was not breaking up big banks, and that he did not expect the U.S. government to decide to do this. "Any failure of a broken-up bank is still going to impact the whole system. You need to fix the problem, not a symptom of the problem," he was quoted as saying. (Reporting by Andrew Torchia)

DTN News: G20 Finance Minister's Summit At The Treasury in Westminster, London ~ G20 Agrees To Curb Bankers' Bonuses

DTN News: G20 Finance Minister's Summit At The Treasury in Westminster, London ~ G20 Agrees To Curb Bankers' Bonuses

*Source: DTN News / Int'l Media (NSI News Source Info) LONDON, England - September 5, 2009: Finance officials from the world's largest 20 economies have agreed to curb excessive bankers' bonuses. But the agreement falls short of European demands, as the U.S. and Britain declined to impose a bonuses cap. (L-R front) Elena Salgado, Spain's finance minister, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of China's central bank, Mehmet Simsek, Turkey's finance minister, Martin Redrado, governor of the Central Bank of Argentina, Agustin Carstens, Mexico's minister of finance, Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, Mulyani Indrawati, Indonesia's finance minister, Timothy Geithner, U.S. treasury secretary, Alistair Darling, U.K. chancellor of the exchequer, Christine Lagarde, France's finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee, India's finance minister, Guido Mantega, Brazil's finance minister, Mario Draghi, governor of the bank of Italy, Axel Weber, president of Deutsche Bundesbank, Ibrahim al-Assaf, finance minister of Saudi Arabia, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Singapore's finance minister, pose for a group picture during the G20 finance Minister's summit, at the Treasury in Westminster on September 5, 2009 in London, England. British PM Gordon Brown has warned against withdrawing support for the global economy too soon, stating it could undermine tentative recovery signs, during a G20 meeting. Finance ministers are in London for a two-day meeting to map out rules to prevent a repeat of the crisis that brought the financial system to the brink of collapse. In a joint statement issued at the end of their meeting in London, England, the assembled finance ministers also said they would continue stimulus programs designed to boost government spending and keep interest rates low. They warned that any recovery in the global economy is tentative, and said fiscal and monetary policy will remain "expansionary" until the chances of a double-dip recession have abated. Going in to the meeting, European countries had asked for the G20 to enforce an official cap on individual payouts and collective bonuses at financial institutions. However, Britain didn't support the idea of an official cap. The U.S. was focused on pursuing a global agreement to get banks to hold larger capital reserves. But the G20 statement did not address that proposal. The group also agreed to start sanctions against tax havens that don't comply with new transparency rules by March 2010. The ministers also confirmed their intention to give developing countries a greater say over the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Speaking at the summit, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said worldwide economies are "not out of the woods yet," despite the first signs of recovery from the global financial crisis. Flaherty said officials agree that while the global economy is stabilizing, more work needs to be done to ensure complete recovery from the worst recession in decades. "There's a remarkable degree of consensus among the G20 finance ministers that the global economy is stabilizing but that recovery is not established," Flaherty told CTV News Channel in a telephone interview on Saturday morning. "We're all agreed that we're not out of the woods yet and that we must stay the course, including the stimulus spending." According to Flaherty, the Group of 20 finance ministers are encouraged by the signs of economic recovery. Japan, Germany, France and Australia all experienced growth in the second quarter. Figures released late last month by Statistics Canada showed that the Canadian economy grew 0.1 per cent in June, the first monthly gain since July 2008. Britain's economy is projected to grow in the third quarter. But officials are also concerned about making decisions that will trigger a slide back into recession, as well as high unemployment numbers, Flaherty said. "We need to continue what we're doing and that means good government, it means continuing the stimulus spending, it means starting to have some discussions about an exit strategy, but not implementing an exit strategy until it's absolutely clear that the stimulus spending has worked and that we are out of the woods," Flaherty said. Officials from the G20, which represents 80 per cent of the world's output, are meeting in London to discuss potential actions to further economic recovery, as well as lay the foundation for the G20 leaders' summit in Pittsburgh later this month. Earlier Saturday, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned officials against "complacency or overconfidence" in the wake of the promising economic news. Brown, who chose to speak at the meeting in place of the host, Treasury head Alistair Darling, urged the world's economic powers to continue to develop initiatives that will boost economic growth worldwide, despite signs of recovery. "Given the risks we face, this is not the time for economic complacency or overconfidence, the stakes are simply too high to get these judgments wrong," Brown said. "To decide now that it is time to start withdrawing and reversing the exceptional measures we have taken would in my judgment be a serious mistake."

DTN News: Three New Bank Failures Bring To 72 Number Of Collapsed US banks

DTN News: Three New Bank Failures Bring To 72 Number Of Collapsed US banks

*Source: DTN News / AFP (NSI News Source Info) WASHINGTON - August 9, 2009: US authorities have closed three more US regional and local banks, bringing the total of failed US banking institutions to 72 this year, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation announced. The banks include First State Bank of Sarasota, Florida, which had total assets of 463 million dollars and total deposits of approximately 387 million.

Stearns Bank, N.A. agreed to purchase approximately 451 million dollars of these assets. The FDIC will retain the remaining assets for later disposition, the agency said Friday. Also shut down was the Community National Bank of Sarasota County, Venice, Florida, which had total assets of 97 million dollars and total deposits of approximately 93 million. In Oregon, authorities closed the Community First Bank of Prineville, which had total assets of 209 million dollars and total deposits of approximately 182 million.