| Business: Bank secures major account
A SWEDISH bank which has just opened its doors for business in Coventry city centre has secured the business of one of the area's most successful local house builders. Handelsbanken, which moved into its new Coventry office at 6 The Quadrant, beat off competition from the major banks to win the account of rapidly expanding Ian Neale Homes Ltd. The management team at Handelsbanken's Coventry office have excellent career track records with the UK's major banks but believe Handelsbanken with its emphasis on building personal relationships with its customers, will offer a different perspective in commercial banking to the local business community. The Swedish bank already has more than 600 branches worldwide and more than 40 in Britain. Ian Neale will be a customer of the new Handelsbanken Coventry branch.
Bank helps bring troops home for holidays
BancFirst, along with Governor Brad Henry and state military and veteran affairs leaders, are supporting the statewide initiative "Operation Holiday Homecoming," which aims to bring home National Guard troops for the holidays. Gov. Henry urged Oklahomans to support the cause with donations that will allow members of the 45th Infantry Brigade, currently training at Fort Bliss, Texas, to be transported home for the holidays, all expenses paid, before the troops' deployment to Iraq in January 2008. BancFirst is the official depositor of the project, and donations can be made at any BancFirst location to the "Operation Holiday Homecoming" account. .
Susquehanna, Community bank workers to lose jobs
Six branches of Susquehanna and CommunityBanks will close over the weekend and more than 80 people - most of whom work in Hanover - will lose their jobs. The moves result from Susquehanna's purchase of CommunityBanks earlier this year. Branches of both banks will begin operating Monday under the Susquehanna name. Two Community Bank branches in the Hanover-Adams area - including one on Wetzel Drive in Conewago Township - will close. But no other bank branches in the Hanover-Adams area will close, they will just operate under the Susquehanna name, said Steve Trapnell, spokesman for Susquehanna Bancshares. Four jobs are being lost due to this weekend's branch consolidation; the rest are being lost at a CommunityBanks' operations center in Hanover. "Those are the kinds of operations that tend to see consolidation more," said Trapnell.
Wachovia Unveils Single Sign-On for Wholesale Services, Advancing Vision of Globally Integrated Online Delivery
Wachovia today unveiled a single sign-on capability for Wachovia Connection, its online global treasury management portal. Clients now login once and have access to all of their online services with Wachovia, offering a single entry point to cash management, trade services and currency risk management products. .
Liberia: Crisis Rocks Public Agenda Newspaper
The wise saying - Conflict is an integral part of the human race and can in no way be escaped by any man or institution, has become a reality in the instance of a Liberian newspaper, the Public Agenda. According to information, the Managing Editor, Gibson W. Jerue and the Publisher/Board Chairman of Mayaba Communication Inc., Abrahim Donzo, who also owns the paper, are reportedly involved in sour relationships, a development with latent propensity to drag the paper into public ridicule. .
G20 urges more currency flexibility in countries with current account surpluses
In their communique following this weekend's meeting here the G20 agreed that an orderly unwinding of global imbalances is a "shared responsibility", involving among, other things, "greater exchange rate flexibility in a number of surplus countries". China, which is crucially part of the G20, was not mentioned by name, but its currency policy has been the biggest source of tension in currency markets at a time when the value of the US dollar has fallen heavily. While the Chinese yuan has barely budged, other currencies like the euro, the Canadian dollar and the commodity currencies have all surged on foreign exchange markets in recent weeks and months. The fortunes of the dollar, which has shed around 30 pct of its value in the last three years on a trade-weighted basis, and the resulting strains on the world's currency system was a key element in this week's discussions even though it was not directly mentioned in the communique.
Nigeria: How Country Lost 75 Banks to Poor Corporate Governance
Unbelievable! Nigeria has lost 75 banks since the advent of banking in the country in 1914. Interestingly, the distress and eventual collapse of these banks was occasioned by factors relating to corporate governance. The banks did not collapse due to lack of customers or patronage but due to how they were managed and governed. For example, a study conducted by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) listed the factors that caused severe distress in these banks as follows: economic depression (25%), political crisis (17.9%), bad credit policy (25%), interference of board members (32.1%). .
Fear of foreign capital
The shift of large amounts of capital to developing countries over the past two decades has posed a major challenge to old ideas about foreign control of important national companies. China and Abu Dhabi tested America's tolerance for foreign control over some industries deemed off-limits by the U.S. Congress - oil and ports - and came away badly bruised. In France, the mere rumor of a bid by PepsiCo for the yogurt maker Danone ran into emotional public opposition all the way up to the prime minister. In Germany and Britain, potential investments by Russia's Gazprom in the energy grids were actively discouraged. Yet all the while foreign exchange reserves continue to be accumulated by developing countries, especially those exporting oil. With the exception of Norway, all of the countries with large surpluses are developing countries.
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