Eight US banks come under fresh scrutiny
Friday, 14 May 2010
From Fazle Rashid
NEW YORK, May 13: New York state attorney general Andrew Cuomo has initiated a separate investigation, one different from the federal enquiry of eight banks, to determine whether these banks provided misleading information to rating agencies in a bid to inflate their grades.
The banks that have come under scrutiny are Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Credit Agricole and Merrill Lynch now part of Bank of America, the New York Times (NYT) in a front page report said today. The rating agencies the S&P, Moody's and Fitch Ratings have come under severe criticism for over stating the quality of many mortgage securities.
Besides, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other agencies not'ably the Justice Department, FBI and Financial Crisis Enquiry Commission may soon swing into action to probe irregularities. A Whistle Blower (one who reveals underhand dealings) at the JP Morgan Chase Bank, Ms. Jennifer Sharkey has filed a case against the bank.
She claimed she was fired for alerting superiors of a questionable dealing by a top client. She alerted her seniors which remained ignored.
Paradoxical though, it may sound the United States recorded upward growth both in its exports and imports trades in March yet its trade deficit surged to $40.4 billion from $39.4 billion in February. The export fetched $147.87 billion and imports totalled $183.3 billion. An increase in oil import accounted for overall trade deficit.
Wall Mart, world's largest retail outlet, announced a donation of $2.0 billion in cash to boost country's food bank. Wall Mart which has in its inventory readymade garments from Bangladesh, became the largest corporate donor on record. The Wall Mart will distribute 1.1 billion pound of foods to food banks and provide $250 million to assist them to procure refrigerated trucks, improve storage and develop better logistics.
Hunger is just a huge problem and as the largest grocer we need to be at the head of the pack in doing something about it , the NYT quoted the Wall Mart chief as saying. More than 37 million people a year rely on food banks. Wall Mart's food for hungry programme began in 2005. Meanwhile, in Asia good news are emanating with many countries there reporting big rise in domestic consumption. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said the recent surge in economic turnaround has been caused by increased domestic demand. The ADB projects the Asian economies to record a growth rate of 7.5 per cent in 2010. It said central banks in 10 biggest Asian nations reduced an average of 234 basic points from interest rates, thus, injecting massive liquidities into their economies.
In the US immigrant workers have started sending more money to their home after sharply cutting last year. Remittance to Latin America have rebounded after an 18-month slowdown, another sign of global economy is showing resilience. The remittances dropped to mere one per cent. The World Bank projects remittance to grow by over 6.0 per cent in 2010. India receives more of the remittances which was about $47 billion last year slightly more than the Chinese did.
NEW YORK, May 13: New York state attorney general Andrew Cuomo has initiated a separate investigation, one different from the federal enquiry of eight banks, to determine whether these banks provided misleading information to rating agencies in a bid to inflate their grades.
The banks that have come under scrutiny are Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Credit Agricole and Merrill Lynch now part of Bank of America, the New York Times (NYT) in a front page report said today. The rating agencies the S&P, Moody's and Fitch Ratings have come under severe criticism for over stating the quality of many mortgage securities.
Besides, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other agencies not'ably the Justice Department, FBI and Financial Crisis Enquiry Commission may soon swing into action to probe irregularities. A Whistle Blower (one who reveals underhand dealings) at the JP Morgan Chase Bank, Ms. Jennifer Sharkey has filed a case against the bank.
She claimed she was fired for alerting superiors of a questionable dealing by a top client. She alerted her seniors which remained ignored.
Paradoxical though, it may sound the United States recorded upward growth both in its exports and imports trades in March yet its trade deficit surged to $40.4 billion from $39.4 billion in February. The export fetched $147.87 billion and imports totalled $183.3 billion. An increase in oil import accounted for overall trade deficit.
Wall Mart, world's largest retail outlet, announced a donation of $2.0 billion in cash to boost country's food bank. Wall Mart which has in its inventory readymade garments from Bangladesh, became the largest corporate donor on record. The Wall Mart will distribute 1.1 billion pound of foods to food banks and provide $250 million to assist them to procure refrigerated trucks, improve storage and develop better logistics.
Hunger is just a huge problem and as the largest grocer we need to be at the head of the pack in doing something about it , the NYT quoted the Wall Mart chief as saying. More than 37 million people a year rely on food banks. Wall Mart's food for hungry programme began in 2005. Meanwhile, in Asia good news are emanating with many countries there reporting big rise in domestic consumption. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said the recent surge in economic turnaround has been caused by increased domestic demand. The ADB projects the Asian economies to record a growth rate of 7.5 per cent in 2010. It said central banks in 10 biggest Asian nations reduced an average of 234 basic points from interest rates, thus, injecting massive liquidities into their economies.
In the US immigrant workers have started sending more money to their home after sharply cutting last year. Remittance to Latin America have rebounded after an 18-month slowdown, another sign of global economy is showing resilience. The remittances dropped to mere one per cent. The World Bank projects remittance to grow by over 6.0 per cent in 2010. India receives more of the remittances which was about $47 billion last year slightly more than the Chinese did.