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World Business Quick Take

■ FINANCE

Regional US banks collapse

Two more regional US banks, this time in California and Texas, have collapsed amidst the worst finance crisis since the Great Depression, bringing to 19 the total number of US banks that have gone under in this year alone. The latest two victims were the Houston-based Franklin Bank and the smaller Los Angeles-based Security Pacific Bank, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) said. Franklin Bank was closed by the FDIC and the Texas Department of Savings and Mortgage Lending. Its deposits were assumed by Prosperity Bank. Security Pacific was closed by the California commissioner of financial institutions and the FDIC. Its assets were acquired by Pacific Western Bank, the FDIC said.



■AUTOMAKERS

GM to up stake in venture

General Motors Corp, the biggest overseas automaker in China, is in talks with a local partner to increase its stake in a venture that produces vans and light trucks under the Wuling brand. The US automaker is seeking to buy additional shares in SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co, SAIC Motor Corp (上海汽車) chairman Hu Maoyuan (胡茂元) said on Saturday in Tianjin. SAIC is the majority shareholder of the venture with 50.1 percent, GM owns 34 percent and Liuzhou Wuling Motors Co holds the rest. GM is seeking to boost market share in China, where the venture based in Guangxi Province accounts for about half its local sales.



■RETAIL

Li & Fung cutting costs

Li & Fung Ltd (利豐), the Hong Kong-based supplier of toys and clothing to Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Target Corp, will freeze hiring, trim jobs and cut travel expenses as it reviews costs, the company said. “Worsening economic conditions” led the company to review its costs, Li & Fung said in a statement e-mailed late on Saturday. Job cuts will be the last resort and a “limited number” of workers in operations where customers have had the worst impact will be released. The hiring freeze will be imposed in most locations, the statement said.



■AUSTRALIA

Treasurer Swan pessimistic

The domestic economy will be hit as emerging economies get sucked into the global financial crisis, Treasurer Wayne Swan said yesterday. “This [slowdown] is now spreading to the developing world, that emerging economies are now much more dramatically impacted by the global financial crisis,” Swan told reporters in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where he is attending a meeting of finance ministers. “Developing economies, particularly in our region, will most probably slow more dramatically than many had thought, and that will have a further knock-on impact on Australian growth.” Swan quoted a World Bank report presented at the meeting which gave a bleak picture of global prospects. He said it showed emerging economies “have entered a dangerous new zone.”



■INTERNET

Spam getting worse

Spam is becoming more dangerous, said analysts at Sophos, a German security software firm. During the third quarter, one out of every 416 e-mails contained a potentially dangerous attachment compared with one in every 3,333 e-mails in the second quarter, Sophos said. The increase can be linked to a large series of malware-spam attacks over the summer. Fake mails were doctored to appear as if they were coming from delivery company UPS and designed to steal money or online identities.


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