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While the UPA government is unlikely to push any pending bills aimed at reforms in the financial sector --- banking, insurance and pension --- for Parliament approval before the general elections, the BJP underlined that "this is not the right time for reforms" in the wake of the global developments.
Once the 14th Lok Sabha is dissolved next year, all pending bills in Parliament would automatically lapse. This means that the same bills would have to be re-introduced, if at all there is political will, after the new Parliament is formed post the Lok Sabha poll. "This is a time when we are grappling with the (global economic) situation and we have to allow this to blow over," a senior BJP member said, adding that reforms in the financial sector must wait.
Though Congress insiders said that the UPA would want to wait and watch before taking any step towards reforms, party spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that "not reforming can never be good or desirable." However he added that "reforms would have to be tailored to the context and must take a good fit between the problem, panacea and the objective." He also pointed out that Parliament's meeting time from now to the general elections is only a few weeks and it may not be possible for the UPA to take up the crucial bills. However, he added that although it will be "utilised for maximum legislation, time consideration will be there."
In other words, any Bill requiring Parliamentary approval will be shelved.
Country's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank filed a complaint against some brokers and websites that were creating panic among depositors and shareholders by spreading rumours about the financial health of the bank.
The complaint filed before Additional Commissioner of Police Economic Offense wing of Mumbai Police said that certain people were acting in concert to spread ‘malicious rumours’ through various media to gain financial benefits by hurting the bank reputation.
SAN FRANCISCO - Northville, Mich.-based Main Street Bank and Eldred, Ill.-based Meridian Bank became the latest victims of the ongoing financial crisis on Friday, when they folded and their deposits were transferred by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The closures are the 14th and 15th bank failures so far this year. The FDIC said in a prepared statement that Main Street Bank had $98 million in total assets and $86 million in total deposits as of Tuesday. All of Main Street's deposits were assumed by Monroe, Mich.-based Monroe Bank & Trust, the FDIC said.
The FDIC said that Meridian Bank had total assets of $39.2 million and $36.9 million in total deposits as of Sep. 25. National Bank will buy roughly $7.6 million of Meridian's assets, while the FDIC will "retain the remaining assets for later disposition," according to its statement. All of Meridian Bank's depositors, "including any with deposits in excess of the FDIC's insurance limits," will automatically become depositors of Hillsboro, Ill.-based National Bank, the FDIC said.
The FDIC said Main Street Bank's failure will cost its insurance fund between $33 million and $39 million, while Meridian's failure will cost the fund between $13 million and $14.5 million.
The US government lent insurance major AIG an additional US $37.8bn. The insurer was seized last month and lent US $85bn. The company's executives, meanwhile, got a rough ride in Congress for spending US $440,000 at a fancy resort the week after AIG was bailed out.
Bank of America reached a settlement with those states, including California and Illinois, that had brought lawsuits against the lending practices of Countrywide Financial, a beleaguered lender bought by the bank this year. The settlement rejigs the mortgages of around 400,000 homeowners and could cost up to US $8.6bn. Separately, Bank of America raised US $10bn in a share sale and said it would halve its dividend.
SAP, the world's largest maker of software for business, said it had experienced a very sudden and unexpected drop in demand. And figures showed that the rate of growth in revenue from online advertising in the US in the first half of 2008 was considerably lower than in the same periods in 2007 and 2006. IBM, however, reported a 22% increase in quarterly profit.
The world economy is decelerating quickly—buffeted by an extraordinary financial shock and by still-high energy and commodity prices—and many advanced economies are close to or moving into recession, the IMF says in its latest World Economic Outlook (WEO).
The October 2008 report which was released two days prior to the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings in Washington, said that growth in emerging economies is also weakening after years of strong growth, though it will still drive global growth.
Speaking at the WEO press conference, IMF Chief Economist Olivier Blanchard emphasized the importance of implementing joint financial and macroeconomic policies at this point "to stem the negative momentum on multiple fronts." On the financial side, "this implies the design of comprehensive programs to deal with systemic problems," while on the macroeconomic side, "this implies the use of monetary and fiscal policies to support growth and break negative feedback loops between the financial and real sectors," he said.
A story from Bloomberg News on Saturday reported Fannie and Freddie began telling bond traders last week that each company needs to buy $20 billion a month in mostly subprime, Alt-A and non-performing prime mortgage securities, Bloomberg said, citing three unidentified people familiar with the situation. The purchases would be separate from the U.S. Treasury's $700 billion bailout plan, which was signed into law earlier this month, Bloomberg noted.
Fannie and Freddie were taken over by the U.S. government in early September, in the first of several bailouts the government has launched recently to try to halt the spread of the mortgage-fueled credit crisis.
Regulators initially restricted Fannie and Freddie's growth when they seized control. To "promote stability" and lower mortgage costs to borrowers, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the two companies would be allowed to "modestly increase'' their mortgage portfolios to as much as $1.7 trillion through the end of next year and said they would no longer be run "to maximize shareholder returns."
Less than two weeks later, Fannie and Freddie were told to ramp up their mortgage bond purchases as the financial crisis deepened and credit activity came to near standstill, Bloomberg said. Fannie and Freddie own or guarantee almost half of all home loans in the U.S., so they're vital to the health of the residential real estate market.
Battered by rumours casting doubts about its financial health, ICICI Bank on Sunday received a shot in the arm with global rating agencies Moody's and S&P giving it a thumbs up saying its overseas arms have no significant sub-prime risks.
"ICICI Bank's UK subsidiary has no high risk sub-prime securities and enjoys robust asset quality and liquidity," Moody's said in its latest credit report.
Separately, another leading rating agency Moody's said that the Indian lender's credit fundamentals remain sound and any mark-to-market loss would not have any significant impact on its credit profile.
These ratings assume importance in the wake of reports that it was over-exposed to risk caused by the global meltdown and that the bank's loan profile was not fully secured and credible.
Interestingly, Morgan Stanley in one of its recent reports had said that among Asian banks, ICICI Bank has the largest exposure to weak global markets.
Moody's also said that ICICI continues to have highest rating for senior debt among Indian banks and it has "no high risk sub-prime securities in ICICI Bank UK investment book." At the same time, S&P's senior director, financial institutions ratings, Asia, Ritesh Maheshwari, said that "credit fundamentals of ICICI Bank continue to remain sound despite the reports on its exposure to Lehman Brothers or the Bakerie group."
"These have to be seen in the context of the USD 10 billion capitalisation of the bank and USD one billion of profits, Maheshwari said.
He added that while the overseas investment portfolio might be subject to mark-to-market valuation loss but it should not be significant enough to hurt ICICI Bank's credit profile.
Moody's retained its ICICI Bank UK rating at 'Baa1' for senior debt, which is higher than the foreign currency senior debt rating of any Indian bank.
The rating reflects the bank's improving core banking activities and robust asset quality, as well as the developing franchise within the UK, Moody's said, adding that the corporate banking business is centred on providing services to Indian corporates which are in the UK, including merger and acquisition advice, forex business and syndicating Indian paper.
"It has robust asset quality ratios with no loans classified as impaired. It has also stated that ICICI Bank UK maintains a rather conservative investment policy and does not hold any sub-prime assets, nor does it have exposure to CDOs, SIV/SIV Lites and leveraged loans.
"The mark-to-market impact in its investment book is not associated with any structured or high-risk sub-prime related securities but is due to the general widening of the credit spreads due to the global market conditions," the agency said.
It further asserted that ICICI Bank UK has a robust liquidity position and that ICICI UK has a relatively high level of capitalisation, with total capital adequacy at 19 percent at March 31, 2008 and ICICI UK has a strong backing from its parent ICICI Bank Limited.
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Earlier, The U.K. government last week said it would invest at least 50 billion pound ($87 billion) to recapitalize Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Barclays Plc and at least six others. Reports said Edinburg based RBS , market cap of 11.9 billion pounds, seeks 10 billion pound help from Investor and UK Government. A similar move is taken by Barclay;s Plc who asks for 3 billion pound cash call. U.K. Treasury officials have been working with the banks on the program and tomorrow will begin outlining details of a related plan to guarantee about 250 billion pounds of interbank loans though an insurance system.
The move would make the government the biggest shareholder in at least two banks, HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland, the newspaper said on its website. It did not give a named source for its information.
The Sunday Times said the bank rescue could leave the government owning 70 percent of HBOS and 50 percent of Royal Bank of Scotland, and as a result it could take board seats at both banks and exercise control over future dividend payments.
Noted that British Finance Minister Alistair Darling, attending a G7 finance ministers' meeting in Washington, said on Saturday the government was to give more details early this week about its already announced 400 billion pound banking rescue plan.
The package of measures included a 50 billion pound cash injection, guaranteeing interbank lending by 250 billion sterling to help unfreeze wholesale markets, and extending a Bank of England scheme that swaps banks' risky assets for government debt to provide 200 billion pound of cash to the system.
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