Visa Sued in Australia for irregularities

For the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC, English acronym) announced today that sued Visa, the largest credit card network in the world, for alleged irregularities related to the service DCC (Dynamic Currency Conversion).

 

 

"The ACCC is concerned that Visa has sought to stop the growth of the service of dynamic currency conversion and, as a result, has limited the options available to consumers," said the chairman of the regulator, Rob Sims.

 

In a press statement, the ACCC said it believes Visa abused his powers in the market to prevent the spread of DCC to new retail stores in Australia and retail outlets that provide service oceanic DCC at ATMs to compete provided with Visa.

 

The DCC service gives the possibility to the holder of an international card to choose whether your transaction is processed in the currency of your country or in the shops or foreign ATM where the financial transaction performed.

 

When choosing a DCC, fixing the currency conversion for that moment and gives information to the holder of the credit card at the time of the transaction, which reduces the risk of possible changes in the exchange rate.

 

Presumably Visa implemented a series of measures to prevent the spread of DCC services between May and October 2010 in various parts of the world, including Australia, according to the ACCC.

In addition, Visa is believed to October 2007 banned the use of DCC in transactions at ATMs in Australia, the statement added.

Volvo buys famous London black cabs

The Chinese firm Geely, one of the leading private manufacturers of your country which in 2010 acquired the Swedish brand Volvo, now the British bought Manganese Bronze, which produces the famous London black cabs.

 

As announced by the company itself in a statement, the Chinese firm will with Manganese-which was associated since 2006 and which already controlled a quarter-by 11 million pounds (12.6 million euros, 17.2 million).

 

Geely says it plans to keep production and jobs in the UK today.

The British firm, whose taxis cruise the streets of London since 1948, had to withdraw from the London Stock Exchange and to be administered by an external auditor-PricewaterhouseCoopers-last October, prompting fired 300 of its employees.

 

According to Geely said in his statement, his priority will now "restore the functioning of the firm as a manufacturing, sales and after-sales services, generally on the basis of how it worked before" the arrival of the managers of the audit, but did not mention going to rehire dismissed workers.

Investor confidence in euro zone improved for the sixth straight month

The improved investor confidence in the euro zone for the sixth straight month in February and expectations reached its highest level since June 2007, before the onset of the financial crisis and debt, according to research group Sentix.

  The Sentix monthly index for the euro zone rose to -3.9 in February from -7.0 in January, but was below a Reuters forecast of -3.0. "The general sentiment shows that the euro area economy is poised to grow again," Sentix said in a statement, adding that the index should return to positive numbers soon, maybe next month.


  "Investors have needed some time to recognize that since last summer (with comments from the ECB and politicians on the euro) has been a fundamental and positive change," he added. A sub-index on expectations rose to 15.8 in February, its highest level since June 2007, compared to 12.0 in January.

The current conditions index improved to -21.8 from -24.3 in February. The confidence index for Germany rose to 24.3 in February, its highest level since July 2011, and above the previous 17.7, while expectations were up to 22.1 from 14.6.

Cover up in Spain EconomíaDesempleo new record in January

Registered unemployment in Spain rose in January to a record high amid the country's deep economic weakness, hitting particularly hard the job market, according to figures released Monday by the Ministry of Employment.

Unemployment rose by 132,055 people to 4.98 million from 177,470 people increased in January 2012, with a rise of 2.72 percent compared to December.

"They are bad data, but in line with what was expected and continue delving into a framework of intense recession in the early stages of the year," said Nicolas Lopez, director of market analysis and M & G Securities.

The Employment Department said that permanent contracts grew by over 28 percent compared to January last year.

In seasonally adjusted terms, unemployment fell in January to 4.87 million people, representing 10,577 unemployed unless the value of the seasonally adjusted unemployment in December.
The Secretary of State for Employment, Engracia Hidalgo, said that the January data maintain the trend of a slowdown in the rate of increase in unemployment.

"The rate of annual increase, which in May 2012 reached a value close to 13 percent, continues to decline since then and now stands about 8.0 percent," said Hidalgo, quoted the work report.

By sector, 82 percent of the increase in unemployment in January was between workers from the services sector with an increase of 108,982 people, equivalent to a 3.64 percent increase.
They were followed by workers from agriculture with increased 15,303 persons, an increase of 8.15 percent.

In industry saw an increase of 7,763 people, or 1.43 percent. In construction, the registered unemployment increased by 3477 people, up 0.46 percent.

Meanwhile, the number of contracts registered in January totaled 1,101,819, an increase of 59,625, an increase of 5.72 percent over the same month of 2012.

Registered unemployment accounts for almost one million fewer people on unemployment that the Quarterly Survey (LFS), compiled by the National Institute on Statistics.

Registered unemployment - which unlike the EPA does not produce a rate of unemployed population - are data from the Public Employment Service based on the records of public employment offices, while the EPA is a survey of people aged residents working in family homes.

The EPA recently released by INE showed nearly 6 million people out of work in the last quarter of 2012, with an unemployment rate of 26.02 percent.

UP 6.0 PCT YEAR PERFORMANCE
As for unemployment benefits in December 2012 - this data is one month behind the registered unemployment - 831,075 were processed high, equivalent to an increase of 6.0 percent over the same month in 2011.

According to the Department of Employment, existing beneficiaries at the end of the month was 2,957,378, an increase of 1.0 percent over the same month last year.
The coverage of the unemployment protection system during the month of December was 64.05 percent.

Total expenses December 2012 amounted to 2.645 million euros, with an increase of 2.4 percent over the same month last year.

DESCENT OF AFFILIATION

The average number of Social Security members in January decreased 263,243 people, or 1.60 percent, bringing the overall number of employed in 16,179,438.
"January is a great month seasonal fall apart because many of the contracts made in the heat of the Christmas season," said Santiago Sanchez Guiu economy coordinator Instituto Flores de Lemus Carlos III University.

"But it does seem that we are far from the worst job losses data we saw throughout 2012," he added Guiu.

According to the Secretary of State for Social Security, January is a month traditionally bad for employment.
"This behavior serves a normal picture (but) no negative deepens that record," said Tomas Burgos, quoted the job ticket.

U.S. Federal Reserve is on track to expand monetary stimulus

The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to announce on Wednesday a new round of bond purchases as part of its efforts to support the fragile economic recovery threatened by the deadlock in negotiations on the government budget.

The central bank would extend its purchases of mortgage-backed debt and replace another stimulus program to expire with a new building campaign money.

 

Policy makers probably repeated the promise to continue buying bonds until the labor market prospects improve substantially.

 

A drop in the unemployment rate to 7.7 percent in November from 7.9 percent in October was driven by workers who left the labor force, a fact that surely disappointed the Fed

"The economic environment is conducive for those who support the Fed continuing accommodation," said Victor Li, professor at the Villanova School of Business and a former Fed economist of St. Louis.

 

At a time when the last program of Treasury bond purchases, known as Operation Twist, comes to an end, officials look set to replace it with a new series of purchases that would amount to 45,000 million dollars a month.

 

Unlike Twist, whose funding was based on sales and redemptions of short-term debt, new bond purchases would expand further the balance sheet of the Fed's $ 2.8 trillion.

Economists also expect the central bank to keep the purchase of 40,000 million dollars a month in mortgage-backed securities announced in September, keeping pace purchase monthly total assets of $ 85,000 million - a figure the Fed said in its last policy statement.

 

"We want to see continued improvement in the labor markets in the short term, monetary policy should encourage faster economic growth to achieve this goal", said last week Eric Rosengren, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

 

The central bank will announce its decision around 1230 local time (1730 GMT), and the Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, discussed at a news conference at 1415 local time (1915 GMT).

Five years of global economic crisis: the subprime crisis on the euro

In the five years since the August 9, 2007, Spain has been growing at a rate of 4% to a negative rate expected this year of 1.5%, the Spanish stock market has depreciated more than 50%, the corporate profits have plummeted and, above all, the Spanish ability to borrow from abroad has become an ordeal.

The risk premium, index of investor confidence in the sovereign debt of a country is measured by the spread between ten-year national bond and German the same period, went from complete anonymity to become the essential ingredient the Spanish economy. In August 2007 the risk premium of Spain, or extra costs demanded by investors for buying Spanish sovereign debt compared to Germany, was 12 basis points, compared to over 630 and has a record this summer.

The trigger for the crisis was temporarily suspending three funds net asset value of BNP Paribas, the August 9, 2007, through the effects of the mortgage crisis "subprime" or high risk in the U.S.. Many U.S. financial institutions diversify the risks of these mortgage loans through securitization, traspasándolos to other banks in the credit derivatives market.

The financial storm has brought down the government, big banks and wreaked havoc, particularly in so far harmless OccidenteLas securitization involved the transformation of an asset or a non-negotiable right to payment (eg a mortgage) on debt securities or homogeneous bonds, standardized and open to negotiation on organized securities markets. Thus, financial institutions pierced the risks to the point that there was no way to know the total value of these toxic assets and who was exposed to them.

The contagion in financial markets collapsed and forced the European Central Bank (ECB), the Federal Reserve and other central banks to take extraordinary measures. Specifically, the day the ECB ran a hitherto unprecedented extent and injected through a rapid funding auction, called "fine tuning", 94.841 million euros, one third more than the 69,300 million euros injected on 12 September 2001, a day after the attacks in New York.

The storm started by some U.S. mortgage finance became a gale that has so far razed governments like Greece, Italy or France, mortgage finance Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the investment bank Bear Sterns and the giant Wall Street Lehman Brothers. It has also led to the almost bankrupt countries like Greece, Portugal or Ireland, and has challenged the ability of Spain and even Italy to join the euro area.

The financial crisis of confidence and credit has led to recession after another in the developed world and has slowed the growth in emerging markets like Brazil or China, but mostly has jeopardized the survival of the single European currency and the evidence lack of a common European project. Germany has emerged as a defender of orthodoxy European tax break even at the expense of the euro, which just ten years after its creation is weaker by far than does the ECB president, Mario Draghi, repeat that is "irreversible": the output of countries like Greece or Spain is no longer taboo.