EU nations are building a “co-ordinated” plan to recapitalize banks to avoid contagion from the debt crisis, which has forced the dismantling of Franco-Belgian bank Dexia, the European Commission said on Tuesday.
“There is an increasingly shared view that we need a concerted, co-ordinated approach in Europe while many of the elements are done in the member states,” the EU’s Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Olli Rehn told the Financial Times. “There is a sense of urgency among ministers and we need to move on.”
“Capital positions of European banks must be reinforced to provide additional safety margins and thus reduce uncertainty,” Rehn said in comments run on the British newspaper’s Web site.
That uncertainty was evident on Tuesday as panic selling driven by the Greek debt impasse and a troubled European bank swept the markets.
On Tuesday, investors dumped shares in Dexia as news of its breakup emerged, while accountholders in the troubled Franco-Belgian bank withdrew 300 million euros (US$399.5 million), Belgian economic daily De Tijd said yesterday.
The paper said the withdrawals, a small fraction of savings in Dexia accounts, were far below the amounts pulled out during the 2008 crisis.
Belgium’s central bank on Tuesday moved to reassure accountholders, saying the central banks of both Belgium and France “fully support” Dexia.
“In the framework of Dexia’s restructuring, the governments of France and Belgium, in coordination with our central banks, will take all necessary steps to ensure the protection of depositors and creditors,” they said. “To this end, they undertake to guarantee any finance raised by Dexia.”
Shares in the Franco-Belgian bank plunged more than 37 percent in early trade on Tuesday, later trimming to a closing loss of about 20 percent, as French and Belgian finance ministers issued a statement of support.
After an emergency late-night meeting, Belgium approved the creation of a so-called “bad bank” to house Dexia’s riskiest debts, while protecting its core business — so confirming its dismantling.
Belgian Minister of Finance Dider Reynders told journalists “all that concerns the past, notably long-term loans that were struck with local authorities, will be guaranteed by the two countries.”
French Minister of Economy, Finance and Industry Francois Baroin yesterday confirmed that the Caisse de Depots, a state-run long-term investment fund, and the Banque Postale, the banking arm of the French post office, were readying an intervention to take over loans to local governments.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained