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Lloyd’s of London profit halves on record claims
The Lloyd’s of London insurance market revealed that record claims from disasters including the Chilean earthquake and US oil spill halved its profits, and said it saw no respite from a steady decline in prices. Lloyd’s, which traces its origins back 322 years to a London coffee house where wealthy merchants insured ships, has posted a pretax profit of £628m ($994m) for the first half of 2010, down from $1.32bn a year earlier. Lloyd’s, a cluster of competing insurance syndicates which specialise in covering large-scale risks, said it had to absorb more claims in the first half than in any other six-month period. The market was also hit... -
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Europe in $2.5trn pensions shortfall
European workers have put aside $2.5trn less than they need to fund their retirement, condemning many to a penurious old age unless they start saving more, British insurer Aviva said. The shortfall is equivalent to one-fifth of the EU’s annual economic output and reflects savings habits that have failed to keep pace with lengthening lifespans, according to a study published by Aviva. Britain’s pensions gap of 26 percent of GDP, is the EU’s biggest, followed by Germany and Spain, whose deficits are equivalent to 24 percent and 18 percent of GDP respectively, the study shows. Aviva said that without increased saving, European workers will... -
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EU to include commodities in new markets rules
The European Commission has said it intends to use a its plan to reform financial markets to rein in speculation on commodities markets, notably by reinforcing controls and extend the market abuse legislation. The European Commissioner in charge of financial reform services Michel Barnier made the announcement in the opening speech of a conference on the revision of the Market in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) in Brussels, along with his colleague, EU Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos. “The revision of MiFID is one of the key elements of an ambition reform of the raw materials markets,” the EU’s financial markets chief sai... -
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France takes dig at PE, hedge funds
In a week in which French president Nicolas Sarkozy defended his country’s treatment and exportation of a substantial number of dislocated Romas, the same government has stirred controversy within the world of alternative investment. And much like the emigration situation, there are those comparing the Sarkozy administration’s attitude toward the proposed legislation as archaic and stubborn. The draft bill, first proposed to the European Commission in April of last year, has been held up by French representatives, who argue that it would reduce the influence a European state would have over fund managers based outside of but operating wit... -
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Iran CB to open accounts at South Korean banks
Iran’s central bank has agreed to open won accounts at two South Korean state-owned banks to avert disruption in bilateral trade despite international sanctions, Seoul’s finance ministry has announced. The Iranian central bank plans to open the accounts with the Industrial Bank of Korea and Woori Bank by the end of this month so that exporters and importers from both countries can settle their transactions in won, it said in a statement. Trade with Iran accounts for less than 1.5 percent of South Korea’s trade but Iran is an important supplier of crude oil to South Korea, which imports all of its crude needs. The two countries have sett... -
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Potash working on China-led buyout to top BHP
Potash Corp is trying to stitch together a consortium led by China to back a management buyout to trump BHP Billiton’s $38.6bn hostile offer, according to the Globe and Mail. Potash Corp has said ever since BHP launched its bid nearly a month ago that it was working to find a white knight, and worries in China about BHP getting control over the market for a key crop nutrient have spawned talk that China would try to block BHP. Citing unnamed sources, Canada’s Globe and Mail reported on its website the bid being considered would include a big element of capital from a Chinese resource company or investment fund, with smaller contributions ... -
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Economic strength, political timetable behind yuan rise
At times like this, both can claim to have right on their side. The yuan’s rise against the dollar on September 14 to the highest level since it was revalued in July 2005 comes on the heels of another bumper trade surplus, which central bank deputy governor Hu Xiaolian recently identified as a major determinant of the exchange rate. But the People’s Bank of China is, tellingly, allowing the yuan’s appreciation to gather pace in the very week when US lawmakers are scheduled to grill Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner over what many of them see as a substantial undervaluation of the exchange rate. IMF economists recently estimated the yu... -
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German central banker in race row resigns
A German central bank board member who caused outrage with remarks about Muslim immigrants and Jews has resigned after coming under pressure from political leaders including Chancellor Angela Merkel. The Bundesbank said Thilo Sarrazin, 65, who accused Turks and Arabs of exploiting the welfare state, refusing to integrate and lowering the average intelligence, would leave his post at the end of the month. “Dr Sarrazin has asked the president to relieve him of his duties,” the bank said in a brief statement and Sarrazin himself confirmed he had stepped down during a book reading in Potsdam near Berlin. He had already been relieved of some o... -
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US trade gap narrows more than expected in July
The US trade deficit narrowed more than expected in July, as imports retreated and exports shot to their highest since August 2008, according to a government report that could lift hopes for third-quarter economic growth. The monthly trade deficit shrank 14 percent to $42.8bn, which was smaller than the mid-point forecast of $47.3bn from economists surveyed before the Commerce Department report. Exports rose to 1.8 percent to $153.3bn, led by strong overseas demand for US civilian aircraft, machinery, computers and other capital goods. Imports fell 2.1 percent to $196.1bn, after a three percent rise in June that had caught many analysts by su... -
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Police beat customers at crisis-hit Afghan bank
Afghan security forces used batons on unruly customers scrambling to withdraw their savings from a branch of the graft-hit Kabulbank, the country’s biggest private financial institution. Officers from the National Security Directorate struggled to maintain control of up to 200 people outside one branch in the capital as desperate customers tried to take out money ahead of a three-day Muslim holiday. The crisis in Afghanistan’s top private bank developed after the company’s top two directors quit amid unproven media allegations of corruption. The central bank ordered the assets of Kabulbank’s former chairman Sher Khan Farnood and chief...
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