SECRET SUMMIT OF TOP BANKERS

THE world's top central bankers began arriving in Australia yesterday as renewed fears about the strength of the global economic recovery gripped world share markets. Representatives from 24 central banks and monetary authorities including the US Federal Reserve and European Central Bank landed in Sydney to meet tomorrow at a secret location, the Herald Sun reports.
Organised by the Bank for International Settlements last year, the two-day talks are shrouded in secrecy with high-level security believed to have been invoked by law enforcement agencies.
Speculation that the chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Dr Ben Bernanke, would make an appearance could not be confirmed last night.
The event will be dominated by Asian delegations and is expected to include governors of the Peoples Bank of China, the Bank of Japan and the Reserve Bank of India.
The arrival of the high-powered gathering coincided with a fresh meltdown on world sharemarkets, sparked by renewed concerns about global growth and sovereign debt.
Fears countries including Greece, Portugal, Spain and Dubai could default on debt repayments combined with disappointing US jobs data to spook investors.
Australia's ASX 200 slumped 2.4 per cent, to a its lowest close since November 5, echoing a sharp fall on Wall Street.
Asian share markets were also pummelled, with Japan's Nikkei 225 down almost 3 per cent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng slumping 3.3 per cent.
The damage was also being felt by European markets last night with London's FTSE 100 down sagging 1 per cent in early trade.
Sovereign debt fears rippled through to the Australian dollar which was hammered to a four-month low of US86.43 and was trading at US86.77 cents last night.
"This does feel like '08 and '07 all over again whereby we had these sort of little fires pop up and they are supposedly contained but in reality they are not quite contained,'' said H3 Global Advisors chief executive Andrew Kaleel.
"Dubai should have been an isolated incident and now we are seeing issues with Greece, Portugal and Spain.''
It wasn't all bad news with the RBA yesterday upping its Australian growth forecasts and flagging more interest rate rises this year.
The central bank estimates the economy grew 2 per cent in 2009, and will expand by 3.25 per cent in 2010, and by 3.5 per cent in 2011.
The outlook for global growth is likely to be a key theme of the high level central bank talks.
The gathering also comes at an important time for the BIS as it initiates an overhaul of the global banking system which will include new capital rules applying to banks and more stringent standards regulating executive pay.
A key part of the two-day talkfest will be a special meeting of Asian central bankers chaired by the governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia, Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz.
Influential BIS general manager Jaime Caruana is also expected to take a prominent role in the talks.
Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan will address the central bank officials at a dinner on Monday night.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/business/secret-summit-of-top-bankers/story-e6frfm1i-1225827289543#ixzz21hrXhybd

SHIVER ME TIMBERS! THE BANKERS ARE BOARDING

Mon Jun 25, 2012 5:48am EDT

* Banks seizing ships from defaulting owners

* Banks putting in ship operators to avoid selling at loss

* Shipping market in fourth year of turmoil

* Ship values hit by overcapacity

By Jonathan Saul

LONDON, June 25 (Reuters) - With the crisis in the shipping market now in its fourth year, bankers are putting to sea and seizing ships to protect the value of their loans to struggling shipowners.

Lenders to the shipping trade, themselves lashed by the euro zone crisis, are recruiting management companies to take over and operate defaulting owners' ships rather than sell them at a heavy loss or take a writedown on their loan books.

Earlier this month, Credit Suisse and a group of Chinese banks seized seven tankers from Singapore's Dongfang Shipbuilding to pay outstanding debts of around $250 million after the Singapore Supreme Court ruled in favour of the creditors.

"The banks have so many problem loans today - at a time of extreme political, social and regulatory pressure - that they don't know which way to turn," said Nigel Prentis, head of research, consulting and advisory with HSBC Shipping Services Ltd.

UK-headquartered Bibby Ship Management is among companies aiming to capitalise on the slump by offering to run vessels for a fee, including chartering out a ship on behalf of a bank. The group said it was in talks with a number of European banks.

"What we do is come in and provide technical management of the vessel and provide a full crew to run the vessel and get it to a standard where it is fit for resale by the bank or whatever they want to do," said Bibby's business development manager Brian Williams.

Bibby has teamed up with asset recovery specialist Marine Risk Management (MRM), whose staff includes former special forces personnel, which can arrest a vessel from its owner on behalf of a bank and sail it to another jurisdiction with a letter of authority from an admiralty court.

"The biggest difference to the 1980s, which was the last major crisis, is the value of the assets could be up to 10 times higher (than then), which is why banks have been reluctant up to now to force anything in the hope that the market was going to recover. Clearly that's not going to happen, and banks are looking at taking other action now," MRM's chief executive John Dalby said.

"We are providing them with an option to technically and commercially manage a vessel and then sell it as a going concern subsequently. The alternative is writing off massive loans, which is not something anyone wants to do in this climate."

OVERCAPACITY

Surplus capacity due to brisk ordering during the boom years has pushed the nominal resale value of a supertanker, used to transport crude oil, has fallen to around the $90 million level from $162 million in 2008.

The value of a capesize ship, one of the largest carriers of dry bulk commodities such as iron and coal, has also slumped to $44 million from just under $100 million in 2008.

"Many banks are thought to have contingency plans to take over ships and run them through the cycle rather than further undermine values with an auction process," said HSBC's Prentis said.

"The correction in values has been enough to wipe out equity in many cases, meaning that many ships will be worth less than the outstanding loan: negative equity. Hence, this is a problem for many European banks. Faced with big writedowns, on top of haircuts on peripheral euro zone bonds, they have generally chosen forbearance."

European lenders in particular are under growing pressure to cut their exposure to risky and dollar-denominated assets such as ship and trade finance to meet tougher capital rules and shore up reserves.

Global syndicated lending to the shipping sector slumped to $245 million in the second quarter of this year, down from over $1.6 billion in the first quarter and over $3.9 billion in the second quarter of 2011, Thomson Reuters LPC data showed.

"There is still pain on the horizon because of the deliveries and because of the slowing economy," said Harris Antoniou, managing director, energy, commodities & transportation with ABN AMRO Bank.

German ship operator Oldendorff Carriers is another group in talks with banks over providing them with options.

"These days we are offering banks to 'park' the ships with us ... where we effectively take care of the technical and commercial management," said its chairman Henning Oldendorff.

"It is very straightforward and transparent. If the banks want to sell the ship, we can terminate the charter."

A number of European banks, including France's two biggest listed banks Societe Generale and BNP Paribas , are looking to wind down their shipping books.

Industry officials say short-term asset plays such as hiring managers buys more time for banks.

"Banks are not ship owners, and therefore do not want to own lots of ships," said Keith McRae with DVB Bank's restructuring and asset management unit. "You may have to warehouse a ship for a period of time, but that's not a business plan for a bank - it's an expedient measure."

One of Germany's biggest lenders Commerzbank has already acted, mandating shipping firms to run vessels for the bank.

"We have seen a few ships which have been transferred to special purpose vehicles with the purpose of getting them into service again so that they can earn money and pay down loans," a spokeswoman with its shipping arm Deutsche Schiffsbank said.

"Naturally, we would like to see external shipping companies in such a company as they have the best knowledge of how to run these ships."

SHIP ARRESTS TO RISE

While banks have aimed to avoid ship seizures, the worsening conditions and growing frustration will lead to more vessel arrests, industry sources say.

An arrest occurs when a ship is detained by a court order to secure a maritime claim. The arrest may ultimately result in a judicial sale of the ship to pay the claim.

"Arresting vessels is an action of last resort for banks," said Basil Karatzas, chief executive of Karatzas Marine Advisors & Co, which is active on the bank advisory side.

In another sign of worsening conditions, Newlead Holdings Ltd said in May four vessels in its fleet were seized by lenders to pay for debt as part of restructuring efforts by the struggling Greek shipping group.

"Banks are starting to realise that it's going to get worse and they must change their game plan," MRM's Dalby said.

'All hands on deck' is the lenders' new rallying cry.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/25/banks-shipping-idINL5E8GMEG220120625

THE MONEY THAT IS SOLD ABROAD IS YOU

ublished on Jul 2, 2012 by johndcqr Websites: http://www.youtube.com/user/stefbot?feature=results_main http://www.freedomainradio.com/

FED MEMBERS GAVE THEIR OWN BANKS FOUR TRILLION DURING BAILOUT

A report just released by the US Government Accountability Office explains how the Federal Reserve divvied up more than $4 trillion in low-interest loans after the fiscal crisis of 2008, and the news shouldn’t be all that surprising.

When the Federal Reserve looked towards bailing out some of the biggest banks in the country, more than one dozen of the financial institutions that benefited from the Fed’s Hail Mary were members of the central bank’s own board, reports the GAO. At least 18 current and former directors of the Fed’s regional branches saw to it that their own banks were awarded loans with often next-to-no interest by the country’s central bank during the height of the financial crisis that crippled the American economy and spurred rampant unemployment and home foreclosures for those unable to receive assistance.

Although the crisis continues to have an effect on Americans that were devastated by the recession, the banks that survived the near meltdown were largely able to do so because some of their CEOs sat on the same Federal Reserve board the decided on how to dish out trillions of dollars.

“This report reveals the inherent conflicts of interest that exist at the Federal Reserve,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) says in a statement about the report. “At a time when small businesses could not get affordable loans to create jobs, the Fed was providing trillions in secret loans to some of the largest banks and corporations in America that were well represented on the boards of the Federal Reserve Banks,” adds Mr. Sanders. “These conflicts must end.”

The GAO’s report is believed to mark the first time that the Fed’s records about their major bailout identifying the parties involved to the public.

In a press release published on the official US Senate website for Mr. Sanders, the lawmakers singles out JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon over an alleged conflict of interest that could have contributed to the bailout his bank received through the Fed. Sanders also calls out General Electric CEO Jefferey Immelt for sitting on the same Federal Reserve board that approved massive funding to GE during a time of financial insecurity in the United States.

Sen. Sanders’ office has released a report summarizing the information published by the GAO in a four page document hosted on his website titled “Jamie Dimon Is Not Alone.”

“Jamie Dimon, the Chairman a CEO of JPMorgan Chase, has served on the Board of Directors at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York since 2007,” the report mentions. “During the financial crisis, the Fed provided JPMorgan Chase with $391 billion in total financial assistance. JPMorgan Chase was also used by the Fed as a clearinghouse for the Fed’s emergency lending programs.”

One year later, the report notes, the Fed handed Dimon’s bank $29 billion to help acquire Bear Stearns. In the case of General Electric’s Immelt, Sanders recalls that the Fed handed over $16 billion in low-interest financing to GE during the five-year span that the company’s CEO sat on the Federal Reserve’s board of directors.

Other Fed members that benefited by the bailout include officials at the top of Citigroup, Lehman Brothers, SunTrust Banks and PNC, among others.

Testifying before the US Senate Banking Committee this week, Dimon apologized for a recent JP Morgan Chase in-trading gaffe that cost the institute billions.

Firm	Bailout amount
Citigroup	$2.5 Trillion
Goldman Sachs	$814 Billion
JP Morgan	$391 Billion
Lehman Brothers	$183 Billion
State Street Corporation	$42 Billion
KeyCorp	$40 Billion
Marshall & Ilsley	$21 Billion
Citibank	$21 Billion
General Electric (GE)	$16 Billion
Sun Trust	$7.5 Billion
PNC	$6.5 Billion
Texas Capital Bank	$2.3 Billion
Webster Bank	$2.2 Billion
Popular Inc	$1.2 Billion
Wilmington Trust	$550 Million
LegacyTexas	$5 Million

Here’s the text of the PDF summary released by Senator Sanders highlighting the culprits identified in the GAO audit on the Federal Reserve’s conflicts of interest.

Jamie Dimon Is Not Alone

During the financial crisis, at least 18 former and current directors from Federal Reserve Banks worked in banks and corporations that collectively received over $4 trillion in low-interest loans from the Federal Reserve.

U.S. Senator Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.) Washington, D.C. June 12, 2012

1. Jamie Dimon, the Chairman and CEO of JP Morgan Chase, has served on the Board of Directors at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York since 2007. During the financial crisis, the Fed provided JP Morgan Chase with $391 billion in total financial assistance. JP Morgan Chase was also used by the Fed as a clearinghouse for the Fed’s emergency lending programs.

In March of 2008, the Fed provided JP Morgan Chase with $29 billion in financing to acquire Bear Stearns. During the financial crisis, the Fed provided JP Morgan Chase with an 18-month exemption from risk-based leverage and capital requirements. The Fed also agreed to take risky mortgage-related assets off of Bear Stearns balance sheet before JP Morgan Chase acquired this troubled investment bank.

2. Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, served on the New York Fed’s Board of Directors from 2006-2011. General Electric received $16 billion in low- interest financing from the Federal Reserve’s Commercial Paper Funding Facility during this time period.

3. Stephen Friedman. In 2008, the New York Fed approved an application from Goldman Sachs to become a bank holding company giving it access to cheap Fed loans. During the same period, Friedman, who was chairman of the New York Fed at the time, sat on the Goldman Sachs board of directors and owned Goldman stock, something the Fed’s rules prohibited. He received a waiver in late 2008 that was not made public. After Friedman received the waiver, he continued to purchase stock in Goldman from November 2008 through January of 2009 unbeknownst to the Fed, according to the GAO. During the financial crisis, Goldman Sachs received $814 billion in total financial assistance from the Fed.

4. Sanford Weill, the former CEO of Citigroup, served on the Fed’s Board of Directors in New York in 2006. During the financial crisis, Citigroup received over $2.5 trillion in total financial assistance from the Fed.

5. Richard Fuld, Jr, the former CEO of Lehman Brothers, served on the Fed’s Board of Directors in New York from 2006 to 2008. During the financial crisis, the Fed provided $183 billion in total financial assistance to Lehman before it collapsed.

 

6. James M. Wells, the Chairman and CEO of SunTrust Banks, has served on the Board of Directors at the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta since 2008. During the financial crisis, SunTrust received$7.5 billion in total financial assistance from the Feds 

7. Richard Carrion, the head of Popular Inc. in Puerto Rico, has served on the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York since 2008. Popular received $1.2 billion in total financing from the Fed’s Term Auction Facility during the financial crisis.

8. James Smith, the Chairman and CEO of Webster Bank, served on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Directors in Boston from 2008-2010. Webster Bank received $550 million in total financing from the Federal Reserve’s Term Auction Facility during the financial crisis.

 

9. Ted Cecala, the former Chairman and CEO of Wilmington Trust, served on the Fed’s Board of Directors in Philadelphia from 2008-2010. Wilmington Trust received $3.2 billion in total financial assistance from the Federal Reserve during the financial crisis.

10. Robert Jones, the President and CEO of Old National Bancorp, has served on the Fed’s Board of Directors in St. Louis since 2008. Old National Bancorp received a total of $550 millionin low-interest loans from the Federal Reserve’s Term Auction Facility during the financial crisis.

11. James Rohr, the Chairman and CEO of PNC Financial Services Group, served on the Fed’s Board of Directors in Cleveland from 2008-2010. PNC received $6.5 billion in low-interest loans from the Federal Reserve during the financial crisis. 

12. George Fisk, the CEO of LegacyTexas Group, was a director at the Dallas Federal Reserve in 2009. During the financial crisis, his firm received a $5 million low-interest loan from the Federal Reserve’s Term Auction Facility. 

13. Dennis Kuester, the former CEO of Marshall & Ilsley, served as a board director on the Chicago Federal Reserve from 2007-2008. During the financial crisis, his bank received over $21 billionin low-interest loans from the Fed. 

14. George Jones, Jr., the CEO of Texas Capital Bank, has served as a board director at the Dallas Federal Reserve since 2009. During the financial crisis, his bank received $2.3 billion in total financing from the Fed’s Term Auction Facility.

15. Douglas Morrison, was the Chief Financial Officer at CitiBank in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, while he served as a board director at the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank in 2006. During the financial crisis, CitiBank in Sioux Falls, South Dakota received over$21 billion in total financing from the Federal Reserve.

16. L. Phillip Humann, the former CEO of SunTrust Banks, served on the Board of Directors at the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta from 2006-2008. During the financial crisis, SunTrust received$7.5 billion in total financial assistance from the Fed. 

17. Henry Meyer, III, the former CEO of KeyCorp, served on the Board of Directors at the Federal Reserve Bank in Cleveland from 2006-2007. During the financial crisis, KeyBank (owned by KeyCorp) received over $40 billion in total financing from the Federal Reserve. 

18. Ronald Logue, the former CEO of State Street Corporation, served as a board member of the Boston Federal Reserve Bank from 2006-2007. During the financial crisis, State Street Corporation received a total of $42 billion in financing from the Federal Reserve.

http://worldtruth.tv/fed-members-gave-their-own-banks-4-trillion-during-bailout/