Entries Tagged 'Finance' ↓

France made 11 billion euro (15 billion dollars) available to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help the fund “fight new crises,” the French Minister of Economy, Christine Lagarde, said today.

The funding represents a contribution of the French government to increase of IMF resources, committed by leaders at the G20 Summit in April in London.

“The IMF Executive Board approved on Monday a loan agreement by which France made available to the Fund an amount of 11.06 billion euro, to enable the institution to play a full role in efforts to combat the crisis. These funds will be not transferred immediately, but only at the request of the IMF” said Lagardère.

Leaders of the largest developed and emerging economies of the world, the G20 group, agreed in April to triple the financial resources of the IMF, by increasing the funds available to the institution from 250 billion dollars to 750 billion dollars.

The measure aims to increase the capacity of institutions to combat the global finance crisis. EU member states have promised to contribute, in total, 75 billion to the global effort.

Lagardère has also stated to France is the first EU Member State which received the opinion of the IMF for additional contribution. Separately, Lagardère announced that France will provide the Fund of one billion dollars for financing lending agreement to poor countries, especially in Africa.

More banks in Switzerland, including ZBK and Mirabaud, are turning away clients from the United States because of pressure from the U.S. authorities on UBS, Reuters announced.

Financial institutions have responded to the U.S. Government attitude towards UBS, which seeks to compel the bank to publish a list of hundreds of American clients suspected of defrauding the U.S. Government by opening accounts overseas.

Various media are reporting that ZKB intends to stop doing business with all customers who are domiciled in the United States by the end of this year. This decision affects less than 1% of assets held by ZKB.

Yves Mirabaud, executive director of the Swiss financial group, Mirabaud, said: “Now we try to renounce to some customers in the U.S. that we have.”

According to the newspaper “TagesAnzeiger”, HSBC bank wrote in September 2008 that more customers and managers must give up the banking secrecy of Swiss accounts held by them. HSBC is the third largest bank in Switzerland and manages approximately 200 billion francs.

Russian Premier Vladimir Putin asked heads of major banks in Russia to allocate a larger number of loans to help overcome a recession and credit crunch. This is despite the fact that Russia is currently faced with a wave of loans with late payment or non-payment, writes Financial Times.

Putin asked the state banks to allow the granting of new credits worth 16 billion dollars (11, 4 billion euro), to stimulate the economy.

Lately, head of Kremlin government has made a habit of public appearances in which criticism the failure of wages, or prices are too high, that local chain stores practice and that the Russians people are compelled to bear from their pocket.

Putin interrupted a meeting of government on the retail sales to lead the members of the government to a store Perekrestok, which is one of the largest supermarket chains in Russia.

PM Russian explored district with supermarket managers, but also with multiple manufacturers in the food industry, asking why the products are sold at a so high price, in the conditions in which production costs are much lower.

One of seven people in Britain, the most active consumers in Europe, will not benefit anymore from loans by the biggest banks in the country until the end of next year, growing a legion of sub-creditors.

British number that were rejected by traditional lenders will climb to 9 million next year or 15% more than at the end of last year, said Jonathan MacDonald, an analyst in Datamonitor.

Sub-lending market will grow by 11%, to 10.1 billion pounds (16.4 billion dollars), up to the end of this year, he said.

“Sub” Interest of 350% per year

Banks including Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland owned by the government which deal with losses, decline a growing number of consumers after tightening lending criteria. Instead, sub – customers are accepted by the lenders that charge interest of up to 350% per year.

“We are worried because people are forced to resort to more dangerous types of lending where interest rates are very high,” said Frances Walker, spokesperson of Consumer Credit Counseling Service.

HSBC, the biggest European bank, closed it British Beneficial Finance sub-division and announced its intention to close 100 of the 125 branches. In this way HSBC follows example of Deutsche Bank and Barclays, who have withdrawn from the sub market in 2007 and 2008 in the slowing condition of economic growth and increasing volume of bad loans.

“If we don’t exist, all clients should receive money from somewhere, may be appealing to illegal lenders, “said CEO Provident Peter Crook.

A loan of four billion dollars for the insurance needs of Ukraine’s natural gas was discussed by the European Union, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), according to an article published yesterday in the daily newspaper” Times.

According to the publication mentioned, the state energy company of Ukraine, Nak Naftogaz Ukrainy, has no money to pay natural gas that must be delivered next month, till the deadline July seven. In these conditions the utility companies are afraid that the Russian Gazprom will close taps pipes which transit Ukraine.

Moreover, the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin threatened that in case Ukraine will not pay until July 7, Russia “reserves right to act according to contract”.

The European Commission will organize, at the end of this week, a meeting that will participate a series of international financial institutions and gas companies, in the hope that will be able to avoid the interruption of the deliveries in July.

Last days, European Commission President: Jos Manuel Barroso, called on the most vulnerable states to put in place emergency plans and prepare for the worst. In the next period Ukraine should buy about 19 billion cubic meters of natural gas, which will be stored to cover the consumption in the winter period, but funds awarded to Kiev under a loan agreement with the IMF have finished, and the government has recognized that cannot pay the gas bill for July.