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Unions opposed to cuts are subject to law, says KennyTeacher unions and others that remain opposed to €300m public sector pay cut proposals will be subjected to laws cutting higher salaries and other work changes, Enda Kenny said yesterday.
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Woolwich terror killing: Security services face probeThe British parliament is to investigate if security services could have done more to prevent the murder of a soldier hacked to death in a London street after it emerged that his suspected killers were known to intelligence officers.
Woolwich killing: Further arrests as spotlight turns on security servicesBritish police arrested two more people yesterday in a hunt for accomplices of two British men of Nigerian descent accused of hacking a soldier to death on a London street in revenge for wars in Muslim countries.
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Noonan examining ways to capitalise banks It is believed the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan told the IMF that he will look to Contingent Convertible Capital (CoCo) Notes if the banks need additional capital buffers following the stress tests.
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The magic is in the anticipationULSTER SFC QUARTER-FINAL:Donegal v Tyrone For too long, we've been decrying the anti-climactic starts to thevarious provincial championships. Now we have a genuine no-holds barred contest in Ballybofey.
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Time for governments to take on the banks
By Paul Mills
The Basel-based Bank for International Settlements which is owned by 60 central banks “fosters international monetary and financial co-operation and serves as a bank for central banks” states Wikipedia.
According to its own description, BIS “co-ordinates regulations in the fields of financial services to promote international financial stability”.It all sounds so very important and, given the events of recent years, also very virtuous, but where was it when we needed it most?
BIS hosts policy-making groups such as the Basel committee on banking supervision and the financial stability board.
Why is it in the news? The reason is that it released its annual report on Jun 24 and the reported parts make for very interesting reading. Indeed, its words are in sharp contrast to what is really happening at the very senior levels in the global banking community.
The following are a few gems from that report, seen in Monday’s Irish Examiner. “Banks will need a healthy push by governments to fix balance sheets, abandon risky businesses and serve the public to avoid prolonging the financial crisis. Lenders still hold over-valued assets and are postponing necessary recapitalisations while relying on official funding.”
The next one is of particular interest given all that has happened: “Banks are also returning to risks akin to those that led to the crisis.”
In that case, the report added “governments needed to put more pressure on the banks by enacting” and, even more importantly, “enforcing new rules”.
It said that “public policy must move banks to adopt business models that are less risky, more sustainable and more clearly in the public interest”.
The bottom line in all of this is that, as far as the banks are concerned, it is business as usual. Sure they may have missed a beat in the short term but that’s all over now, in their view, and it’s time to get back to the big bonuses.
Bailing out the banks may have been necessary in the short-term, but now appears to be seen by the banks as the bottom line.
The philosophy seems to be, if it goes wrong and we mess up yet again, we are not going to suffer — the taxpayers will, yet again.
Ulster Bank and RBS computers fail and thousands of people are unable to access their own funds.
How could this happen? Could it, perchance, be that bankers choose not to upgrade or maintain systems or actually subcontract it out to companies who may or may not have the ability to do the necessary job? Is their agenda to artificially inflate profits and garner bigger bonus pay days as a result?
Over the last few months, shareholder anger at the remuneration of senior bankers has led to investor revolts. Yet such inflated pay levels continue.
Research undertaken by a US research group shows very senior bankers received an average 12% increase last year and earnings now average €10.2m.
All of this contrasts sharply with banking performance, with widespread falls in profits and in share prices. One company suffered a €2bn trading loss while its boss got an 11% increase in remuneration.
Not only our Government but right acrossEurope, governments have been making big noises about what should be done and what they will do only to end up doing nothing.
It gives us all a clear impression that our politicians and senior public servants are in thrall to these guys or worse still, in their pockets.
Whatever it is, they are afraid to take the bankers on. For all of our sakes, these people needed to be shown where they really fit in. They are not the masters of the universe. They, by and large, create nothing. They are service providers.
* business@examiner.ie
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