US Senate begins debate on new Wall Street regulation

The Senate has begun debating proposals for the most significant reforms to financial regulations since the 1930s. After days of deadlock, Republicans and Democrats began arguing over a bill aimed at bringing accountability to Wall Street and avoiding another financial meltdown. Republicans had blocked debate on the bill for three consecutive days, but eventually relented on Wednesday. But they also promised a hard fight to make changes to the reform bill.

The key battlegrounds of the debates will be measures to restrict trades in complex financial instruments, called derivatives, and the powers proposed for a new agency to protect consumers. Despite agreeing to a debate, Republican Senator Richard Shelby, who led the blocking campaign, appeared in no mood to compromise on his opposition to the consumer protection agency.

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The above article was extracted from Skyline updates of Skyline College. Skyline College is amongst the top MBA and BBA institutes in Delhi, Gurgaon (NCR).

European stocks soar 7.4% on massive bailout plan

European shares posted their biggest daily rise in more than 17 months on Monday after European central banks started to buy eurozone government bonds under a $1 trillion rescue package. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top shares surged 7.4% to close at 1,038.91 points --the index’s biggest one-day percentage gain since 24 November 2008 -- while volumes were more than two and a half times the index’s 90-day average volume.

Stocks bounced back after tumbling 8.9% last week on worries that Greece’s debt crisis would spread to other eurozone countries. Financial stocks were the most spectacular risers, with the STOXX Europe 600 banking index jumping 14% following a 14% drop last week. BNP Paribas, Banco Santander, BBVA, Societe Generale and UniCredit rose between 20.9 and 23.9%

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The above article was extracted from Skyline updates of Skyline College. Skyline College is amongst the top MBA and BBA institutes in Delhi, Gurgaon (NCR).

New regulations likely as US probes big stock dive

President Barack Obama has said that regulators would look for ways to prevent a repeat of Thursday’s mysterious stock market meltdown, adding to expectations the US government will make new regulations to curb runaway computer trading.

More than a day after a nearly 1,000-point drop in the Dow, the government had not publicly pinpointed the reasons. Growing concern about the Greek debt crisis, exacerbated by a spike in the Japanese yen, may have caused computerized trading programs to dump US stocks. Initial theories had focused on an individual trader erroneously entering an order, known as “fat finger” on Wall Street.

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The above article was extracted from Skyline updates of Skyline College. Skyline College is amongst the top MBA and BBA institutes in Delhi, Gurgaon (NCR).

Eurozone economies post weak growth for start of 2010

The eurozone economies made a weak start to 2010, posting only modest growth that was lifted by better figures from Italy. Growth to between January and March was 0.2%, after being flat in the previous three months. Compared with the same quarter in 2009, the combined economies of the 16 countries that use the euro grew 0.5%.

Throughout the 27-nation EU as a whole, which includes the UK, the first quarter also showed 0.2% growth. The figures, from the European Union's statistics office, Eurostat, showed that Greece's economy shrank by 0.8% in first quarter of 2010. Italy reported the fastest growth, of 0.5%, making up for a 0.1% drop over the previous quarter.

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The above article was extracted from Skyline updates of Skyline College. Skyline College is amongst the top MBA and BBA institutes in Delhi, Gurgaon (NCR).

Standard Life sells healthcare division

Edinburgh-based finance firm Standard Life is to sell its private medical insurance arm for £138m to the South African group Discovery Holdings. Standard Life said its healthcare arm was not core to its UK strategy and it would focus on the long-term savings and investments market.

A total of 562 employees will transfer to the new company as part of the transaction. The deal needs regulatory approval but should go ahead by 31 July. Standard Life Healthcare is the fourth largest provider of private medical insurance (PMI) in the UK and last year made a profit before tax of £9.4m.

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The above article was extracted from Skyline updates of Skyline College. Skyline College is amongst the top MBA and BBA institutes in Delhi, Gurgaon (NCR).

Estonia 'can adopt euro' in 2011 - EU Commission

The Baltic republic of Estonia, a country of 1.3 million people, is on course to adopt the euro in January 2011, the European Commission says. The recommendation still requires the approval of all 27 EU member states, 16 of which are in the eurozone. The Commission assessed the potential of nine EU countries to adopt the euro, and found that "Estonia stands out... fulfilling the criteria clearly". Crucially, Estonia's public finances were found to be in a healthy state. The other eight countries included much bigger ex-communist neighbours in Eastern Europe, such as Poland and Hungary.

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The above article was extracted from Skyline updates of Skyline College. Skyline College is amongst the top MBA and BBA institutes in Delhi, Gurgaon (NCR).

Universities say students may face earlier loan payback

Graduates may have to start paying back their student loans earlier and at a higher rate of interest, a group of leading universities has suggested. The Russell Group says this would be one way to tackle a predicted £1.1bn deficit in its funding by 2013.

The group says the financial sustainability of the UK's top universities is "severely at risk". The claims come in the group's submission to England's official review of student finance and fees. The review will make recommendations to the government later this year. The Russell Group represents the 20 most research-intensive universities in the UK.

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The above article was extracted from Skyline updates of Skyline College. Skyline College is amongst the top MBA and BBA institutes in Delhi, Gurgaon (NCR).

Global recovery moving faster than expected, says G20

The global economy is emerging faster than expected from the deep recession, finance ministers from the world's leading economies, the G20, have said. After talks in Washington, they said the pace of the recovery was largely due to the huge amounts of government money pumped into national economies.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said he welcomed the greater sense of urgency being shown over Greece. The country has asked for an EU-IMF bailout of its debt-ridden economy. Greece's finance minister is due to take part in IMF talks on Saturday. Earlier this month, a deal was agreed under which eurozone nations would make available to Greece emergency loans of up to 30bn euros ($40bn; £26bn) in the first year, with a further 10bn euros coming from the IMF (International Monetary Fund).

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The above article was extracted from Skyline updates of Skyline College. Skyline College is amongst the top MBA and BBA institutes in Delhi, Gurgaon (NCR).

EU wants member countries to co-ordinate budgets

The European Commission wants EU countries to co-ordinate plans for national budgets in a move to strengthen financial co-operation. It would involve submitting budgets to the EU for a "peer review", possibly before they go to national parliaments.

Some reports suggested the proposal would involve just the 16 countries using the euro currency, though this has not been made clear. The Commission said its aim was to help prevent another EU financial crisis. But the move, controversial as it would mean encroaching on sovereign territory, was immediately criticized by Sweden's prime minister.

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The above article was extracted from Skyline updates of Skyline College. Skyline College is amongst the top MBA and BBA institutes in Delhi, Gurgaon (NCR).