World Bank sees risks to growth in EU tightening
December 12, 2011--Europe's solutions to the eurozone crisis could hit growth around the world and especially in neighboring countries where EU banks are strong, World Bank President Robert Zoellick warned Monday.
Zoellick called the world financial system and economy "fragile" and vulnerable to slashed government spending and contracting bank lending -- likely results from Friday's EU pact on tighter fiscal discipline.
"As I start to look into the end of the year and 2012, I think it's a pretty dicey situation overall. And there's not much room for people to make missteps," Zoellick told CNBC television.
read more
Source: EUbusiness
Moody's to review EU states in first quarter of next year
December 12, 2011--Moody's said on Monday it will review the credit ratings of all EU countries in the first quarter of next year, commenting that an EU summit last week failed to deliver "decisive policy measures".
Fellow ratings agency Standard and Poor's had already announced that it is considering downgrading the debt of 15 of the 17 eurozone countries, including the bloc's Triple-A-rated champions like France and Germany.
read more
Source: EUbusiness
NASDAQ OMX Commodities and Nord Pool Spot-
December 12, 2011--Highlights physical November 2011:
POWER:
Nord Pool Spot market share of Nordic consumption was 72.8 per cent in November.
The total Nordic preliminary consumption for November was 33.1 TWh compared to 31.3 TWh in October.
Volumes traded in the day-ahead and intraday markets were 26.6 TWh in November compared to 24.6 TWh in October 2011.
The average system price for November was 41.18 EUR/MWh compared to 27.96 EUR/MWh in October 2011.
The value of turnover in the day-ahead and intraday markets for November was EUR 1.17 billion.
MEMBERS:
Nord Pool Spot: 338 memberships in total.
read more
Source: NASDAQ OMX Commodities
FESE European Equity Market Report - Year 2011 Updated With November Figures
December 12, 2011--FESE has published the ‘European Equity Market Report’ which gathers data from all the market segments operated by FESE members (including Regulated Markets and Multilateral Trading Facilities) as well as from the major MTFs operated by investment firms in the European market. The FESE Statistics Methodology used in the Report has been agreed by all the trading venues involved, both RM and MTFs.
view the 2011 European Equity Market Report - Year 2011 (updated with November figures)
Source: FESE
The Council increases co-financing rates for EU funds to counter crisis
December 12, 2011--The Council today adopted1 a regulation providing for a temporary increase of EU cofinancing
rates from structural funds and the cohesion fund for member states under
financial difficulties (66/11 + 18038/11 ADD 2 REV 1). This follows a first-reading agreement with the European Parliament. The main objective of the new rules is to facilitate the use of funding from the EU cohesion policy and to alleviate herewith the impact of the financial crisis on the real economy, the labour market and citizens.
By adopting the new regulation the Council responds to an invitation of the heads of state and government of the euro zone from 21 July 2010 to strengthen "efforts to improve the
capacity to absorb EU funds in order to stimulate growth and employment, including through a temporary increase in co-financing rates".
The new rules provide for an increase of the EU co-financing rates by ten percentage points above the usual co-financing rates. They apply to member states which benefitted from the European financial stabilisation mechanism (Greece, Ireland, Portugal) and from financial assistance for member states' balances of payments (Hungary, Latvia and Romania). They may be applied retroactively from 1 January 2010 and are limited until 31 December 2013.
read more
Source: Council Of the European Union
FSA Board publishes report into the failure of the Royal Bank of Scotland
December 12, 2011--The Report concludes that RBS’s failure amid the systemic crisis ultimately resulted from poor decisions made by the RBS management and Board. But deficiencies in the global capital regime and liquidity regulations made the crisis much more likely. In addition, flaws in the FSA’s supervisory approach provided insufficient challenge to RBS.
Specifically, the Report concludes that the failure of RBS can be explained by a combination of six factors:
significant weaknesses in RBS’s capital position, as a result of management decisions and permitted by an inadequate global regulatory capital framework;
over-reliance on risky short-term wholesale funding, which was permitted by an inadequate approach to the regulation of liquidity;
concerns and uncertainties about RBS’s underlying asset quality, which in turn was subject to little fundamental analysis by the FSA;
substantial losses in credit trading activities, which eroded market confidence. Both RBS’s strategy and the FSA’s supervisory approach underestimated how bad losses associated with structured credit might be;
the ABN AMRO acquisition, on which RBS proceeded without appropriate heed to the risks involved and with inadequate due diligence; and
an overall systemic crisis in which the banks in worse relative positions were extremely vulnerable to failure. RBS was one such bank.
read more
Source: FSA.gov.uk
Exchange Council appoints Peter Reitz to the Management Board of the Exchange – French Futures switched to financial settlement – Report on EUA Primary Market Auction – Election committee appointed
December 12, 2011--In the meeting of the Exchange Council of the European Energy Exchange (EEX) chaired by Dr. Günther Rabensteiner, Verbund AG, in Vienna on 1 December 2011, Peter Reitz was appointed a further Managing Director of the Exchange.
In August of this year, Peter Reitz was appointed the Chief Executive Officer of EEX AG and European Commodity Clearing AG (ECC). As a result, the exchange is now represented by two managing directors again. In addition to Peter Reitz, Oliver Maibaum represents EEX as Managing Director Exchange. He has held this office since 2004 and was confirmed in office by the Exchange Council in 2009.
In the meeting, the Management Board of the Exchange reported on the further development of the French Power Derivatives Market. On 24 November 2011, the exchange switched the physically settled French Power Futures to contracts with financial settlement. The trading participants now have three months to close open positions in the physical contracts and open positions in the new financial contracts via OTC registration. The members of the Exchange Council welcomed the switch of the contracts. These will bring financial trading participants, such as banks and trading houses, to the exchange and, hence, contribute to higher liquidity. The new French Financial Futures have also been tradable for the Eurex participants admitted to EEX since November.
read more
Source: European Energy Exchange (EEX)
More Europe is the only way out of the crisis
December 12, 2011--On 8 December 2011, at the 476th plenary session of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) President Staffan Nilsson, the three interest groups making up the EESC and Jean-Paul Delevoye, President of the French Economic, Social and Environmental Council agreed that deeper European integration was the only way out of the crisis. In the lead up to the European Council, the EESC President's statement tackled key aspects of the crisis such as fiscal discipline, the discussion on stability bonds and regulation of the financial sector.
The plenary session was opened by President Nilsson with a serious warning: "The European Union is in a profound crisis – a financial crisis, an economic crisis, a sovereign debt crisis, a social crisis with almost 23 million unemployed, but also a fundamental crisis of European integration itself". His statement on "Overcoming the crisis – towards a policy programme for sustainable recovery" sets out the Committee's stance on various aspects of the economic crisis and the possible solutions.
According to Mr Nilsson, there is only one way out of the crisis for the EU: to create the right conditions for boosting growth and employment. The Community Method has to be reasserted and the Commission's legislative initiative must guarantee that the crisis is tackled by stepping up integration.
"More Europe, a new Europe will require a fundamental pooling of resources and sharing of responsibilities", said Mr. Nilsson, specifying that this could only be achieved if Member States respected fiscal discipline in the framework of the so-called "six pack", the agreed reform package. However, the austerity/growth deadlock can only be broken if these commitments are accompanied by stability bonds, proper regulation of the financial sector and, crucially, a long-term strategy for assuring sustainable growth. In this regard, the institutions have already developed a tool to generate confidence, not just for the markets, but, what is more important, for citizens: the Europe 2020 strategy, where the focus is on proper implementation.
read more
Source: European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)
FSA Board publishes report into the failure of the Royal Bank of Scotland
December 12, 2011--The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has published its Board’s Report into ‘The failure of the Royal Bank of Scotland’ (RBS).
The Report concludes that RBS’s failure amid the systemic crisis ultimately resulted from poor decisions made by the RBS management and Board. But deficiencies in the global capital regime and liquidity regulations made the crisis much more likely. In addition, flaws in the FSA’s supervisory approach provided insufficient challenge to RBS.
Specifically, the Report concludes that the failure of RBS can be explained by a combination of six factors:
significant weaknesses in RBS’s capital position, as a result of management decisions and permitted by an inadequate global regulatory capital framework;
over-reliance on risky short-term wholesale funding, which was permitted by an inadequate approach to the regulation of liquidity;
concerns and uncertainties about RBS’s underlying asset quality, which in turn was subject to little fundamental analysis by the FSA;
view the The failure of the Royal Bank of Scotland: Financial Services Authority Board Report
Source: FSA.gov.uk
The Russian economy is recovering, but faster modernisation needed, OECD says
December 12, 2011--The Russian Federation must further modernise its economy to meet long-term development and income inequality challenges, according to the OECD. A combination of sound macroeconomic management, improved business climate, effective social policies and greater energy efficiency is required.
These are key conclusions of two newly published reports – a Review of Labour Market and Social Policies in the Russian Federation and the latest Economic Survey of the Russian Federation – launched in Moscow today by OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría and Russian Minister of Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina.
view the Overview of the Economic Survey of the Russian Federation
Source: OECD
If you are looking for a particuliar article and can not find it, please feel free to contact us for assistace.