The Riddle of Base Oil Prices

Over the past four to five months, the base oil market has been an enigma. Especially in Europe, the market has been stubbornly immune to factors that should have pushed prices up or down.For example, when crude and feedstock prices fell below U.S. $90 per barrel for Dated Brent, base oil prices remained high, in some cases rising even higher. Producers cited two factors as justification. First, they claimed that base oil availability was limited....

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Dallas sees dividends from visa program for foreign investors

Dallas is gaining another laurel for bragging rights in business development. Local officials say the city is leading the nation in attracting foreign investment through a reinvigorated federal immigration program that gives permanent residency status to wealthy foreigners who put at least $500,000 into local development projects. The program has raised $119 million here in the past 2½ years, giving a number of local projects a boost at a time when commercial loans were scarce. The money has created 2,380 jobs; funded all or part of...

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How Much Life Insurance Do You Need?

In Canada, two out of every 1,000 persons age 40 are expected to die in any one year. No one can determine exactly which two will die. However, if all 1,000 paid $100 for the mutual protection, the two that did die would each leave their estate $50,000. This is the basic premise on which insurance is based. The insurance companies act as the intermediary and holder of these funds until they are paid out. The premiums you pay are based on your perceived...

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What Happens if You Die Without a Will?

If you do not have a will, each provincial government has an “Intestate Succession Act” which will tell the administrator (appointed by the government) who will inherit your estate.  Do not assume that if you are married, that your spouse would receive your estate. In Alberta, the Intestate Succession Act divides up your estate according to the following table. If your wishes will be carried out by the terms of the Intestate Succession Act,...

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Diamond Bank introduces new mobile banking truck service

Nigeria based commercial lender Diamond Bank has introduced a new mobile banking truck service, known as Diamond–in–Motion, with an aim to offer banking services right at the customers’ door step. Targeting existing as well as potential customers, the new service has initially been rolled out at its corporate headquarters in Lagos and will gradually be launched in other parts of the country. The new service allows customers to open new accounts, pay bills, save money, use ATM as well as make cash/cheque deposits and withdrawals....

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Sterne Agee adds new head for depository investment banking

US based privately-owned investment banking and brokerage firm Sterne, Agee & Leach has appointed Daryle DiLascia as the new senior managing director in charge of depository investment banking affairs for financial institutions and investment banks. Working from the company's New York office, DiLascia will also oversee the firm's depository investment banking initiatives. Prior to accepting the current role, he was working with Keefe Bruyette & Woods (KBW) as executive vice president & co-head of equities. Having...

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MainSource Bank acquires American Founders Bank Branch

US based community lender MainSource Bank has completed the acquisition of American Founders Bank branch in Shelbyville, Kentucky, for an undisclosed sum. On completion of the transaction, which was inked in August this year, the purchaser will get nearly $35m in deposits and $27m in selected loans, the bank said. The acquisition of branches will enable the acquirer to strengthen its footprint in Kentucky and Shelbyville regions. The lender currently manages four offices in Mercer, Franklin and Anderson counties in Kentucky. MainSource...

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BofA to dispose of Japanese private banking JV stake to Mitsubishi UFJ BBR Staff Writer

Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofA) has agreed to dispose of its stake in Japanese private banking joint venture (JV) to Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, as part of its strategy to focus on global banking business. Under terms of the agreement, BofA will transfer all of the shares, which represents 49.02% of the JV, to the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, and Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Holdings. The transaction, which is expected to complete on 26 December, would be valued at approximately JPY40bn ($487m). Following the sale...

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SEC penalizes hedge fund manager for insider trading in Chinese bank stocks BBR Staff Writer

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has sued Sung Kook ‘Bill’ Hwang, the founder and portfolio manager of Tiger Asia Management and Tiger Asia Partners, over insider trading by short selling three Chinese bank stocks. According to the SEC's complaint filed in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, the accused conducted a pair of trading schemes involving China Construction Bank and Bank of China stocks and earned $16.7m in illicit profits. The SEC has also sued Raymond Y H Park for his involvement in the above said schemes as...

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Canadian Household Finances and the Housing Market

The most important domestic risk to financial stability in Canada continues to stem from the elevated level of household indebtedness and stretched valuations in some segments of the housing market. These fragilities could themselves trigger financial stress or significantly amplify the adverseeffects of other shocks on the financial system.In the past six months, the growth of household credit has continued to moderate, although credit still increased...

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Umpqua Bank opens new homebuilder finance division

US based Umpqua Bank has launched a new homebuilder finance division to help expand its commercial real estate businesses in the Pacific Northwest. The new group will offer construction and development loans to Oregon- and Washington-based residential regional homebuilders and developers. The lender has also appointed Kelly Warter to serve as senior vice president and homebuilder finance manager of the new venture. Based in Seattle and reporting to John Swanson, senior vice president and head of Umpqua Bank's commercial...

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Greece launches bond buyback in effort to cut national debt

ATHENS, Greece - Greece plans to spend up to €10 billion ($13 billion) in a bond buyback program that it hopes will help stabilize its mountainous debt, the government revealed Monday. The buyback is part of efforts to reform Greece's moribund economy and reduce its debt to sustainable levels, and is among steps the country is taking to secure the disbursement of vital international rescue loans. If implemented on time, the new measures "are positive developments, which create plausible expectations of a recovery of the Greek...

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Irish financial system

Short-term risks to the Irish financial system remain high. The international financial environment has experienced tighter credit, rising forbearance, capital flight from some vulnerable euro area countries and, especially for these countries, a diminishing pool of unencumbered assets to draw from for collateralised borrowing. Monetary policy has been eased aggressively by many central banks and unconventional policies are being pursued. This has...

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Why Investors Should Skip Top Dividend-Yielders

Income investing used to be easy. A retiree who plunked $1 million into 10-year Treasury notes during the past half century locked in, on average, a yearly income of around $67,000. But with interest rates at record lows, that same investment recently paid less than $15,000 a year. Some investors are looking to stocks with high dividend yields to recoup this lost income. Standard & Poor's 500-stock index yields 2.2 percent, but its top 50 stocks, by dividend, yield an average of 5.5 percent. That's enough to turn that $1 million...

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Time to Buy Into Real Estate?

To most people, U.S. real estate still stinks. More than a third of all mortgages are under water, with their holders owing more than their houses are worth. Home prices continue to fall in many areas of the country, and thousands of foreclosed homes are still waiting to be sold. Yet an investor no less than Warren Buffett recently said that if he could, he would buy up a couple of hundred thousand single-family homes. To Buffett and others with short memories or long time horizons, the investment opportunity created by the housing bust...

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The income illusion

With interest rates at all-time lows, investors are desperate for yield. But focusing only on income can often lead to a bad outcome. Investors have a lot to worry about these days but if you’re trying to live off the proceeds of your portfolio, one concern trumps all others: low interest rates. As of mid-August, 10-year Government of Canada bonds were paying about 1.8%, not even enough to outpace inflation. “I feel for people,” says Alan...

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Reserve Bank of Australia. Financial Stability Review – September 2012

The euro area sovereign debt and banking crisis has continued to weigh on global financial conditions in the period since the previous Financial Stability Review. Although fears of a liquidity crisis in the euro area were generally assuaged earlier in the year following the European Central Bank's (ECB's) large-scale lending to banks, concerns about the resilience of sovereign and bank balance sheets in the region have persisted. Developments...

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Fall in repo contracts highlights banks’ dependency on ECB funds

The market for a key funding instrument for banks in Europe has shrunk, highlighting how reliant financial institutions in the region have become on European Central Bank support. The market for European repurchase – repo – transactions contracted by an estimated 14.2 per cent year-on-year in the six months to June 30, based on constant samples over the period.The total value of outstanding repo contracts – in which banks pledge their securities as collateral for short-term loans from money market funds or other investors – stood at €5.6bn in...

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Ex­Barclays trader probed over Rabobank links

A trader at the centre of ratemanipulation allegations levelled at Barclays communicated with counterparts at Rabobank, the Dutch bank, about trading positions related to Euribor, the Financial Times has learnt.Regulators are examining communications between Philippe Moryoussef, a senior euro swaps trader at Barclays until 2007, and Rabobank, according to people familiar with the investigation. The involvement of Rabobank, which until June was...

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