■BANKS
Citigroup plans bonuses
Citigroup Inc could pay commercial and investment banking bonuses for last year that are similar to 2008 levels, and may cap individual cash payouts at about US$60,000, according to people that have been briefed on the plan. Some details of the bonus plans are still being ironed out, and the payouts will vary across businesses and countries, people said. But many employees have been briefed about the likely shape of their bonuses, which are set to be paid out in coming weeks. According to a July report from New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Citigroup as a whole paid US$5.3 billion of bonuses for 2008. For last year, Citigroup is likely to pay up to 40 percent of bonuses in the form of deferred cash and stock, sources said. Citigroup declined to comment.
■AUTOMOBILES
Bosch to close parts factory
German engineering giant Bosch said it was set to close a British car parts factory with the loss of 900 jobs, blaming the economic downturn, which has hit the automotive industry hard. The division in charge of the plant near Cardiff, Wales, will recommend to the firm’s board that production be phased out at the factory, which makes alternators for the motor industry. A consultation period runs to the end of next month so all involved can agree terms for the phase-out of production before a final confirmation from the board. Bosch, the latest in a long line of automotive firms caught up in the fierce global downturn, said on Thursday demand for the alternator had dropped dramatically and the firm was on track to make its first loss for six decades. A union representative described the news as a “terrible blow” for hundreds of workers.
■AID
IMF prepares aid package
The IMF said on Thursday it had reached tentative agreement on a US$2.35 billion aid package for Jamaica, hit hard by the global financial crisis. IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said fund staff and the Jamaican authorities reached agreement on Thursday on an economic program supported by a US$1.25 billion loan under a 27-month stand-by arrangement. The program could go to the IMF executive board for approval “in the next few weeks, pending some prior actions to be taken by the Jamaican government,” he said in a statement. Approval of the program was expected to catalyze about US$1.1 billion in funding from other international financial institutions, he said. Among key elements of the program were a fiscal consolidation strategy to streamline expenditure and reform the public sector and a debt management strategy to reduce the government’s interest bill and a reform, the statement said.
■UNITED STATES
Bernanke takes on Senate
US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke waged a fresh battle against Senate efforts to strip the Fed from banking supervision. Bernanke, in a paper to Congress released on Thursday, argued that stripping the Fed of such power would deprive the central bank of information that factors into the setting of interest rates to influence overall economic activity. During the most recent financial crisis, information from banking supervisors helped Fed officials better understand the depths of credit problems, leading them to lower interest rates more quickly and aggressively than they otherwise would, the paper said. Information on the health of banks will factor into Fed decisions about when to start boosting interest rates and reeling in other stimulus to prevent inflation from taking off, it said.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2