Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan's chief portrait by Hocried on Flickr
LONDON – “The United States should consider pulling out of the Basel group of global regulators,” said Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JP Morgan Chase, an American multinational banking corporation of securities, investments and retail, in an interview with the Financial Times.
Although Dimon says he is supportive of “forcing banks to have more capital” he argues that moves to impose an additional charge on the largest global banks go too far, particularly for US lenders and called it “anti-American”.
“I’m very close to thinking the US shouldn’t be in Basel anymore. I would not have agreed to rules that are blatantly anti-American,” he said in the interview.
In 2010 the Swiss-based Basel Committee on Banking Supervision also known as Basel III rules, set bank capital requirements, the ratio of highest-quality assets that banks hold against future losses. The Committee also established reserves of 7 percent in common equity and 10.5 percent in total capital.
Dimon said there was a threat that Asian banks in particular could overtake the US market because of the combination of US domestic and global rules.
According to the FT, Dimon also criticised global liquidity rules arguing that regulations that viewed covered bonds – a European market feature – as highly liquid but discounted government-backed mortgage-backed securities in the US, were unfair.
Renato Brunetta, Italy's waste minister
Austerity is coming home to Italy’s government officials, some 90,000 of whom are about to lose their limos in a crackdown on perks, if the country’s waste minister, Renato Brunetta, has his way. Brunetta told the Financial Times a recent census his ministry has undertaken shows the fleet and its 60,000 drivers are probably costing Italians €4.5 billion.
He has published the results on his website, inviting the public to add their own calculations, and saying he intends to see legislation put in place to limit the money spent on the cars.
“So far the justice ministry seems to be the main beneficiary with 1,562 cars and drivers. Mr Berlusconi’s office has reported that it has 30. Some are Maseratis,” that cost €150,000 each, reports the FT. According to a May FT article, the Italian media had estimated there are well over 600,000 limos in use
UBS New York headquarters
Update 2 Florida, USA; Bern and Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The bell hasn’t yet quite tolled for anyone in the US court case where the IRS is asking for names of UBS bank clients. Judge Alan Gold in Miami late Friday 7 August, Swiss time, gave the two governments another week, until 12 August and at their request, to hammer out details of an out of court settlement.
Reactions were mixed, with the Financial Times reporting that “Friday’s setback caused confusion” for investors, arguing that the “failure” to reach an agreement will hurt UBS shares. Swiss media were more phlegmatic, viewing the delay as an acceptance that a resolution of several technical issues requires more time, which the judge has given.
Rupert Murdoch, head of News Corp, one of the UK’s main media businesses, says that with advertising revenues nosediving the company will begin to charge readers for online news and other services starting in the summer of 2010. The news was woven into the Times’s own story on the company’s financial results: News Corp posted a £2 billion loss for the year ended 30 June, in part the result of the recession but with writedowns for acquisitions that included Dow Jones (which owns the Wall Street Journal) and Fox Interactive Media. The Guardian and the Financial Times made the web-news-for-fee the headline. A flurry of comments in the Guardian disputed Murdoch’s comment, picked up by the Guardian, that “quality news” costs money and readers must pay for it. BBC
The US risks losing its AAA financial rating held since 1917 if it does not bring its ballooning financial imbalance under control, writes David Walker in the FT. The United States is facing very serious financial problems, and the current crisis and the government’s resolve to fix it have burdened the country with huge additional costs. The country must show clear signs that it is ready to face “tough spending, tax and budget control choices” once the crisis is over, or face a progressively deteriorating financial situation, according to the FT.
The Financial Times offers a video forecast with charts for China’s renminbi, with its impact on oil and dollar prices.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - “Families have this idea they are different – they see themselves as unique. In our early years we said to them right away, ‘No, you’re not different!’ and they had a tough time accepting that,” laughs Joachim Schwass, co-director of business school IMD’s Family Business Center in Lausanne. As a result IMD has developed a popular and effective set of modules to help some of the world’s top family businesses see in what ways they truly are unique and in what ways they resemble every other family business on the planet. Once they reach this point they are better able to focus on securing the future of the business and the role of the family, says Schwass.
Starting Saturday 21 June, 37 family business students will test that theory in Lausanne. They are the latest group to attend IMD’s “Leading the Family Business” stream, a week-long set of classes and meetings. Some will also participate in the “Orchestrating Winning Performance” programme, a global business programme for executives and one of the reasons IMD was named one of the world’s top schools for executive education in 2008 by the Financial Times.
The families represent 16 nationalities, including the USA, Peru, India, Scandinavia, Switzerland, Chile and Croatia, and the oldest family firm among them dates back to before 1800.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A lead article in today’s Financial Times about a campaign to unseat Peter Kurer as the proposed chairman of the board of troubled UBS, and the bank’s own announcement this morning of a stock dividend in place of a cash payout to shareholders are two signs of the pressure the bank is facing. UBS in 2007 and in the first three months of 2008 lost more than $37 billion. The FT interviewed Kurer about the appropriateness of his appointment after former UBS president and financial markets investor Luqman Arnold began to buy shares in the bank and stepped up a campaign to convince the board to find another successor to Marcel Ospel. Ospel stepped down in early April 2008. Arnold argues that Kurer, as a lawyer, is not well qualified for the job, and that he is an “insider” at a time when the bank needs an independent person to lead it. Shareholders vote 23 April at the bank’s annual general meeting on proposed changes to the board.
The stock dividend offers shareholders one new share for each 20 they now own, rather than a cash dividend.
Related articles:
- “UBS cuts shareholder payout in stock dividend,” Reuters, 16 April
- “UBS: Deux ans pour rebatir une marque,” TSR (Fre), 16 April 2008
- “More withdrawals, fewer deposits at UBS,” WRS radio, 15 April 2008
