Posts Tagged ‘European Union’
TEHRAN | Sun Jan 29, 2012 2:22pm EST
(Reuters) – Iran sent conflicting signals in a dispute with the West over its nuclear ambitions on Sunday, vowing to stop oil exports soon to “some” countries but postponing a parliamentary debate on a proposed halt to such sales to the European Union.
The Islamic Republic declared itself optimistic about a visit by U.N. nuclear experts that began on Sunday but also warned the inspectors to be “professional” or see Tehran reducing cooperation with the world body on atomic matters.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspection delegation will seek to advance efforts to resolve a row about nuclear work which Iran says is for making electricity but the West suspects is aimed at seeking a nuclear weapon.
Tensions with the West rose this month when Washington and the European Union (EU) imposed the toughest sanctions yet in a drive to force Tehran to provide more information on its nuclear program. The measures take direct aim at the ability of OPEC’s second biggest oil exporter to sell its crude.
In a remark suggesting Iran would fight sanctions with sanctions, Iran’s oil minister said the Islamic state would soon stop exporting crude to “some” countries.
Rostam Qasemi did not identify the countries but was speaking less than a week after the EU’s 27 member states agreed to stop importing crude from Iran from July 1.
“Soon we will cut exporting oil to some countries,” the state news agency IRNA quoted Qasemi as saying.
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EU DATA PROTECTION OVERHAUL TO IMPOSE NEW BURDENS ON BANKS
Financial services firms and credit card processors will be obliged to report incidents of lost or stolen data within 24 hours of a breach, according to new EU rules set to be introduced Wednesday.
Full story: http://www.finextra.com/news/fullstory.aspx?newsitemid=23347
EUROPEAN EXCHANGES AND VENDORS DEVELOP POST-TRADE STANDARDS
A consortium of exchanges and technology suppliers have developed a set of common standards designed to restore post-trade transparency in the European equity markets.
Full story: http://www.finextra.com/news/fullstory.aspx?newsitemid=23348
COMMERZBANK AND CAPCO BID TO MODEL IT COMPLEXITY
Commerzbank has embarked on a project with consultancy Capco to develop an ‘IT complexity model’ that can be used by CIOs to measure and then master their organisation’s technology.
Full story: http://www.finextra.com/news/fullstory.aspx?newsitemid=23346
MASTERCARD MOBILE APP LETS AUSSIE MOVIE-GOERS ORDER FOOD FROM THEIR SEAT
MasterCard has teamed up with Commonwealth Bank and cinema group Hoyts to pilot a mobile payments application that lets movie-goers order food and drinks directly from their seats.
Full story: http://www.finextra.com/news/fullstory.aspx?newsitemid=23345
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By Associated Press,
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s parliament will begin debating a draft bill requiring the government to immediately halt oil exports to Europe, a prominent lawmaker said Wednesday, as Tehran weighs its options following the European Union’s decision to stop importing oil from the country.The EU embargo, announced on Monday, was the latest attempt to try to pressure Iran over a nuclear program the United States and its allies argue is aimed at developing nuclear weapons but which Iran says is for purely peaceful purposes. It came just weeks after the U.S. approved, but has yet to enact, new sanctions targeting Iran’s Central Bank and, by extension, its ability to sell its oil.
Many Iranian lawmakers and officials have called for an immediate ban on oil exports to the European bloc before its ban fully goes into effect in July, arguing that the 27 EU nations account for only about 18 percent of Iran’s overall oil sales and would be hurt more by the decision than Iran. China, a key buyer of Iranian crude, has blasted the embargo.
“The bill requires the government to stop selling oil to Europe before the start of European Union oil embargo against Iran,” lawmaker Hasan Ghafourifard told the parliament’s website, icana.ir. Debate on the bill is to begin on Sunday, he said.
The U.S. sanctions had outraged Iranian officials, prompting repeated threats from various officials that the country could shutter the vital Strait of Hormuz if measures are enacted that affect its oil exports. Roughly a fifth of the world oil passes through the narrow waterway, and the U.S. and others have warned Iran they will not allow it to impede the free flow of traffic in the area.
Iran is OPEC’s fourth largest producer and most of its crude goes to Europe and Asia.
Iranian officials have said the sanctions will have no effect on the economy and they will find other willing buyers. Analysts and diplomats also have played down the likelihood that Iran will actually move to close the strait — a step that could bring it into direct conflict with U.S. and other Western naval and ground forces stationed in and around the Persian Gulf.
“The door to dialogue remains open for Iran,” German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in Berlin Wednesday. “But it also is clear that we in the world cannot accept Iran’s government reaching for nuclear weapons. So the sanctions are necessary.”
“If they are applied comprehensively and supported by as many as possible in the world, that makes the probability of success all the greater,” Westerwelle said after meeting his Australian counterpart, Kevin Rudd.
The sanctions debate comes at a time when the country’s economy and currency are under increasing pressure following a series of other economic sanctions that already have been imposed.
The rial has shed about 50 percent of its value relative to the dollar over the past month, a decline that the central bank governor, in a moment of rare candor, attributed at least partially to the “psychological effects” of the U.S. sanctions. The currency, which was trading at 15,000 rials to the dollar on the black market at the start of the year, hit a record low of 22,000 rials to the U.S. currency by the weekend.
After weeks of criticism over his inaction, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad approved a decision by monetary authorities that would raise the interest rates on bank deposits to roughly 21 percent, the official IRNA news agency reported, quoting Economic Minister Shamseddin Hosseini.
The move was a reversal of his earlier opposition to the decision by Iran’s Money and Credit Council that would have boosted the interest rates to a level above the inflation rate. Economists said such a step was crucial to absorbing market liquidity and buoying the rial.
Banks would be instructed to enact the new rates starting Thursday, Hosseini said.
The market reacted to the announcement immediately, with the rial trading at 19,000 rials to the dollar within hours of Hosseini’s remarks.
Ahmadinejad’s refusal to sign off on the council’s decision stoked a rift between fiscal authorities and the president, with Central Bank Gov. Mahmoud Bahmani warning earlier in the month he may quit if the government continues to interfere in shaping monetary policies and does not approve an increase in bank deposit interest rates.
Bahmani was quoted on state television on Wednesday as saying that a single foreign currency rate will be offered within the next 48 hours as part of the central bank’s measures to stabilize the currency exchange market.
Analysts say that the main reason behind the currency’s depreciation was a decision to lower interest rates on one-year deposits to 14 percent from 17.5 percent. The rate cut prompted Iranians to pull their money out of banks and buy gold and foreign currency, instead.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/ahmadinejad-approves-higher-interest-rates-to-support-iranian-currency/2012/01/25/gIQAfYmiPQ_story.html
Image by marc falardeau via Flickr
By PALASH R. GHOSH: December 12, 2011 12:27 PM EST
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has declared that there are now “two Europes” following the United Kingdom’s refusal to support a new European Union (EU) treaty that was backed by all other twenty-six members of the economic bloc.
In an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde, Sarkozy also said that he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel did everything in their power to urge Britain to endorse the new treaty, which calls for increased fiscal and economic integration among EU members.
“But unfortunately, [now] there are clearly two Europes,” Sarkozy told the paper.
“One is for greater solidarity and regulation between members while the other is attached to the logic of the single market.”
However, during the interview, Sarkozy maintained that Britain will remain an integral part of the EU.
“We need Britain and it would impoverish the EU if they were to leave,” he said.
“With London we share an attachment to nuclear energy and we have strong agreements on defense.”
British Prime Minister David Cameron has defended rejecting the treaty because he felt it would hurt Britain’s financial interests. Reportedly, Cameron sought to exempt UK financial services companies from certain new regulations and taxes that the treaty envisions — but Sarkozy and Merkel refused to do so.
“The crisis was brought about by a lack of financial regulation, and we could not accept what would be a step backwards. Europe must move towards greater regulation,” Sarkozy told Le Monde.
Cameron explained his decision in a speech before the British Parliament.
“We went seeking a deal at 27 [EU members] and I responded to the German and French proposal for treaty change in good faith, genuinely looking to reach an agreement at the level of the whole of the European Union with the necessary safeguards for Britain,” he told MPs.
“Those safeguards on the single market and on financial services were modest, reasonable and relevant.
However, Cameron is now coming under increasing fire for his veto of the treaty.
Olli Rehn, the EU’s Economic Affairs Commissioner, told reporters on Monday: “I regret very much that the UK was not willing to join the fiscal compact. I regret it not only for the sake of Europe, as for the sake of British citizens. We want a strong and constructive Britain in Europe and we want Britain to be at the centre of Europe, not on the sidelines.”
Rehn added: “If this move was aimed at preventing bankers and financial corporations of the City [of] London from being regulated, that’s not going to happen. We must all draw the lessons of the crisis and help to solve it and this goes for the financial sector as well.”
http://www.ibtimes.com/
~this says it a little better~jude
DURBAN, South Africa—Two weeks of meetings that often descended into meteorological minutiae culminated Friday evening in a last-ditch effort to salvage a global climate deal, pitting the U.S. against emerging powers China and India over whether to hold each other accountable for greenhouse-gas emissions.
Late into Friday in this humid port city, delegates from the world’s major economies met in closed conference rooms to pore over drafts of potential agreements. The outcome is critical for developing countries, particularly in Africa, where agrarian economies are particularly vulnerable to climate change and governments lack the funds to help people adapt.
In the corridors of the convention center, dozens of young activists from Greenpeace and other environmental organizations waved signs imploring delegates not to “kill Africa” and repeated chants demanding “climate justice now.”
“A lot of people are freaked out, they are petrified at what’s happening—and what’s not happening—here,” said Adam Greenberg, a 23-year-old recent graduate of Global College of Long Island University.
A pledge to work toward a deal binding them to limit emissions after 2020 was in doubt even after two major emerging countries, Brazil and South Africa, agreed to support a pact.
The European Union, long a champion of a legally binding international accord, was lobbying the U.S., India and China to accept such an arrangement. Under its road map, developed countries that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol would agree to extend the emissions cuts it dictates beyond their scheduled expiration at the end of next year. In the meantime, the U.S., China and India, major economies that aren’t subject to the Kyoto Protocol, would negotiate a binding emissions-reduction pact by 2015 that could begin after 2020.
China and India have said binding emission cuts would curb development that is lifting millions out of poverty, and punish them unfairly for the emissions industrial nations have produced over decades.
Published December 10, 2011| FoxNews.com
United Nations climate envoys have proposed the creation of a global “climate court” that would be responsible for enforcing a sprawling set of rules requiring developed countries to cut emissions while compensating poorer countries in order to pay off a “historical climate debt.”
The proposals are contained in a draft document pieced together for the climate conference in
Durban, South Africa. Representatives at the conference are struggling to come up with a compromise that negotiators from 194 nations can agree on.
But the draft document, one of many floating around the conference, gives a glimpse into the long-term vision some nations hold for the creation of an international legal framework on climate change.
In the bowels of the document is a provision calling for “an international climate court of justice.”
The proposal is meant to “guarantee the compliance of Annex I Parties with all the provisions of this decision.”
Annex I countries are mostly developed countries, covering the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and much of Europe — including countries that are struggling financially such as Greece and Portugal.
The rules of the road the court would presumably enforce are based on the view that these developed countries owe developing countries a “debt” over climate change, and must provide financial aid in addition to taking major steps toward cutting emissions.
In one section, the document calls for developed countries to help poorer countries with “finance, technology and capacity building” so they can “adapt to and mitigate climate change” while helping eliminate poverty. Another section provides that developing countries should receive an amount of money equal to the amount “developed countries spend on defense, security and warfare.”
Yet the document also calls for a guaranteed end to warfare altogether — for the sake of curbing climate change.
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* Big auditors face being split up, rebranded
* New rules likely to take effect within 3-5 years
* Mandatory joint audits dropped, dismays small auditors
* Big auditors say plans won’t improve audit quality
By Huw Jones
LONDON, Nov 30 (Reuters) – The world’s top four audit firms will have to split up and rename themselves under a far-reaching draft European Union law to crack down on conflicts of interest and shortcomings highlighted by the financial crisis.
“Investor confidence in audit has been shaken by the crisis and I believe changes in this sector are necessary,” Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier said on Wednesday.
The big auditors said the plans would bump up costs and would not improve audit quality, while smaller rivals accused Barnier of a climbdown.
Policymakers have questioned why auditors gave a clean bill of health to many banks which shortly afterwards needed rescuing by taxpayers as the financial crisis began unfolding.
Barnier said recent apparent audit failures at AngloIrish and Lehman Brothers banks, BAE Systems and Olympus “would strongly suggest that audit is not working as it should”.
More robust supervision is needed and “more diversity in what is an overly concentrated market, especially at the top end”, he said of his plans trailed for over a year.
EU states and the European Parliament have the final say on Barnier’s draft law, a process that involves haggling over the next 12-18 months which often dilutes or strengthens elements.
“There could be significant unintended consequences if we legislate more than absolutely necessary,” said Syed Kamall, a centre-right EU lawmaker from Britain, who will sponsor the measure in parliament.
Just four audit firms — Ernst & Young, Deloitte , KPMG and PwC — check the books of 85 percent of blue-chip companies in most EU states, a situation the Commission said was “in essence an oligopoly”.
UK data shows the Big Four profit margins are 50 percent higher than the next four audit firms, the commission said.
The plans echo a push by Barnier to inject more competition into credit ratings where the “Big Three” firms dominate.
Under Barnier’s plan, the four top firms will have to separate EU based audit activities from non-audit activities, such as tax and other advisory services — “to avoid all risks of conflict of interest”.
REBRANDING
There would have to be legal separation of audit and non-audit services if over a third of revenues from auditing comes from large listed companies and the network’s total annual audit revenues are more than 1.5 billion euros in the EU.
Industry sources said it was unclear if an employee would have to give up being a partner in one side of the business.
Claire Bury, one of Barnier’s top officials, said these conditions, if approved by EU states and the European Parliament, would alter all the Big Four’s business models and even one or two of the next tier down in some member states.
“They will have to change names as well. I suppose we will have branding issues at the end of the day,” Bury told a press briefing.
KPMG’s European head Rolf Nonnenmacher said: “The capability of firms to provide quality audits will be diminished if auditors are separated from wide-ranging advisory expertise including, crucially, risk management in the financial sector.”
PwC’s UK Chairman Ian Powell said Barnier has not provided “any concrete evidence for any positive impact of these proposals on audit quality or properly assessed the additional cost burdens for business.”
Deloitte said the plans would create an audit regime in Europe inconsistent with those in other markets while Ernst & Young said they would have minimal impact in preventing future financial crises.
The Commission said it was difficult to quantify the costs.
Public tendering of audit work by listed companies would be compulsory and include consideration of second-tier auditors.
Commission officials indicated that as the measure dealt with major structural reform of the market, the industry would need time to adapt but they hoped the new rules would be in place within three to five years.
“It’s not something that can be rushed through,” Barnier’s spokeswoman said.
BDO, one of the next tier audit firms, criticised the Commission for ditching mandatory joint audits following “lobbying and extensive influence of the largest firms”.
“The remaining proposals appear to be worse for the market than no proposals at all,” senior BDO audit partner James Roberts said.
ROTATE
Barnier, under pressure from some fellow commissioners, dropped at the last minute a key element of his plans — mandating “joint audits” of listed companies as a way to improve audit quality and help smaller auditors have experience of checking the books of big companies.
Instead, a sole auditor would only be allowed to audit the same firm for up to eight years but, if a joint audit was being done, this mandate could be extended up to 12 years.
An audit firm would not be allowed to offer non-auditing services, such as tax and other consultancy services, to a company it is auditing.
UK accounting body ACCA said both elements will be hard to implement and could prove counter-productive.
The EU plan bans so-called loan covenants whereby banks lend money to companies on condition the Big Four audit them.
In the UK, where PwC and Deloitte would have to split up if the EU rules go through unchanged, the Competition Commission is probing the sector and Britain said it will consider how the EU proposals fit in with this. Regulators in the United States are looking at audit firm rotation as well.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/30/eu-auditors-idUSL5E7MU21G20111130
By STEPHAN FARIS – Sun Nov 13, 12:40 am ET
The voice of the people isn’t something the markets seem to want to hear these days. First there was Greece, the cradle of democracy itself, where early this month, the merest mention of a referendum offering its citizens a say in a series of severe austerity measures was enough to send the markets into a tailspin. The ultimate result: the collapse of Prime Minister George Papandreou’s ruling coalition, the rejection of any notion of bringing the proposal before the people, and the installation of a caretaker government under the leadership of Lucas Papademos, a former vice president of the European Central Bank and, until earlier this week, a visiting professor at Harvard.
Then came Italy. As Athens threatened to go under, Rome found itself under pressure not so much for its level of debt — which though high is generally considered within the limits of sustainability — as much as for the erratic behavior of its flamboyant prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi. On Monday, investors seemed to make the collective decision that he could no longer be trusted at the helm of the euro zone’s third largest economy and sent Italy’s cost of borrowing up towards crisis levels. By the end of the week, not only was Berlusconi finished, so was the very idea of holding a vote to replace him. The markets had spoken, and they didn’t like the idea of going to the electorate. “The country needs reforms, not elections,” said Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council on a visit to Rome Friday.(See the top 10 worst Berlusconi gaffes.)
By Ian MorrisProfessor, Stanford University
Eurozone leaders have brought their begging bowl to China, looking for help in boosting their bailout fund. So what does this say about the shift in the global balance of power?
In October 1911, China rose up in revolution. Four months later the last emperor had fallen and European moneymen were flocking to Beijing, eager to finance the bankrupt new republic.
In October 2011, another European moneyman headed for Beijing. But Klaus Regling, head of the European Financial Stability Facility, did not go there to lend to China. He was there to borrow, asking China to save Europe from economic disaster.
In just one century, China has gone from financial basketcase to the world’s banker, and Europe has made the same trip in the other direction. It is one of the biggest turnarounds in history. How did it happen? And, more to the point, what does it mean?
The turnaround is part of a much longer story.
“Start Quote
The average Briton or American earns 10 times as much as the average Chinese. But China is catching up”
Ian Morris
It begins around 1600, when China was the richest nation on earth and Europeans, anxious to trade with China, were building new kinds of ships. For millennia, the Atlantic Ocean had been a barrier cutting Europe off from the rest of the world, but Europe’s new ships effectively shrank the ocean, turning it into a commercial highway. By 1700, the resources of the Americas were feeding a European take-off.
Greek political leaders have resumed talks on appointing a new PM and interim coalition government.
They hope to clear the way for an EU bailout package which would save Greece from imminent bankruptcy.
PM George Papandreou agreed to stand down after days of upheaval caused by his call – now revoked – for a referendum on accepting the bailout.
Greece is under huge international pressure to resolve its political crisis, in order to calm the markets.
Eurozone finance ministers meeting are in Brussels on Monday, adding pressure on Greece to find an early solution to the political deadlock.
The Greek socialist government and opposition conservatives are now in discussions on what framework the unity government will have.
Mr Papandreou is to remain in post for now but will stand down once the new government is formed.
The names of Lucas Papademos, a former deputy president of the European Central Bank (ECB), and Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos have been floated as potential candidates to be prime minister.
Greece’s new political roadmap envisages elections being held – possibly on 19 February – once the new government has approved an EU bailout package.
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