Monday, October 27, 2014

Egypt Corporate Lawyers: European Central Bank Stress Tests Results

Egypt Corporate Lawyers: European Central Bank Stress Tests Results: EURUSD gapped higher at the open as the euro responded positively to the ECB’s stress tests. The official report confirmed the data that w...

European Central Bank Stress Tests Results

EURUSD gapped higher at the open as the euro responded positively to the ECB’s stress tests. The official report confirmed the data that was leaked on Friday, with 25 banks across the eurozone failing the test with a total shortfall of EUR24.6bn. This is based on banks’ end-2013 balance sheets and many of these banks have recapitalised since then. Post-recapitalisations there’s only around 10bn in shortfall across 13 banks, which isn’t overly concerning. 
None of Europe’s largest banks failed the test, nor did any banks in France or Spain (there was one technical failure in Germany). Italian and Greek banks fared the worst in the test, with 9 banks in Italy and 3 banks in Greece failing the test. There were also 3 banks in Cyprus that failed the tests.
Overall, the results are slightly encouraging but are by no means game changing. The relatively small number of failures may cause the market to once again question the effectiveness of these tests. The ECB in our view should restucture such test, in order to avoid bank failures, for the history not to repeat itself, and in order to raise the necessary red flags early on, or we will continue to see big to fail banks, that are paid by taxpayer's money to prevent them from liquidation because simply they are oo big to fail. More importantly, the review does almost nothing to assess the ability of these banks to increase lending in the region, without which growth is going to remain in the doldrums.


Despite that  Switzerland has settled down of the mortgage-back securities and bank liquidity problem that sparked the crisis in the first place, plenty of potential pitfalls remain as countries scramble to repair their battered finances. 

The most pressing of these is a fear that some European countries, most notably Greece, could default on government debts. Nervous glances have also been cast at some eastern European emerging economies that were popular investment markets before the crash and have suffered more than most countries during the global recession.
The financial crisis, culminating in the collapse of US bank Lehman Brothers in 2008, sparked a rush by many countries to impose greater restrictions on banking operations in an effort to avoid a repeat scenario.
Proposed tightening of regulations have centered on increasing the size of assets banks must keep in reserve to buffer against losses, improving the quality of those assets and restricting the amount of debt (leverage) banks use to conduct their business.
Other aspects to come under the regulatory microscope have been restricting bonuses and the counter-party exposure banks have to the potential liabilities of rivals.
In this respect, Switzerland has been ahead of the curve, already demanding tougher conditions for its two main banks, UBS and Credit Suisse, back in 2008.
“Swiss banks are quite resilient and have been traded as safe havens in the last few months,” Bank Sarasin analyst Daniel Bischof told swissinfo.ch. “They have low exposure to southern European countries [such as Greece], above average liquidity and high capital ratios.”



EURUSD
EURUSD jumped to a resistance zone around 1.2700 at the open, before drifting back towards Friday’s close. This isn’t surprising given that the market had time to prepare after the information that was leaked on Friday. Also, USD strength, perpetrated by a push higher in USDJPY, may be flowing in EURUSD. From here, we may have to wait until European markets open to assess the long-term impact these tests will have on the euro. A slight positive reaction from banking stocks this evening may bolster the common currency.

Mohamed Shahin

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Fwd: Facebook sues DLA Piper for ‘fraudulent lawsuit’



Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone

Begin forwarded message:

From: "The Lawyer" <thelawyer@mail.thelawyer.com>
Date: 21 October 2014 12:14:31 pm EET
To: <mshaheen2000@gmail.com>
Subject: Facebook sues DLA Piper for 'fraudulent lawsuit'
Reply-To: "The Lawyer" <reply-fec812717662057b-1092_HTML-60838317-6191353-99@mail.thelawyer.com>

Lawyer News Daily -
 
Tired of firms' talk of commitment to the partnership gender balance while seeing scant evidence of change, five female lawyers have launched Women in Law London (WILL) to empower women to take the initiative themselves
THE LAWYER

Tuesday, 21th October 2014

Lawyer News Daily

Facebook sues DLA Piper for 'fraudulent lawsuit'

Forget Hurricane Gonzalo. A bigger storm is brewing in the States between two giants. One side is tech titan Facebook; on the other, legal behemoth DLA Piper.

Facebook has launched a lawsuit in New York claiming that DLA Piper, along with a number of other firms, conspired to file a "fraudulent lawsuit" based on "fabricated evidence"  (see story).

DLA Piper, along with US firms Milberg, Paul Argentieri & Associates and Lippes Mathias Wesler Friedman variously represented internet entrepreneur Paul Ceglia in 2010.

DLA Piper began advising Ceglia in 2010. He claimed he had been promised a stake in Facebook on the basis of a 2003 contract, which was later indicted as a fraudulent document.

Facebook is now alleging that DLA Piper, which later withdrew from the case, "publicly staked its reputation on the veracity of Ceglia's allegations".

DLA Piper is not taking this lying down. Quite the contrary: it's calling out the move as "a tactic to intimidate lawyers from bringing litigation against Facebook" and calls the suit "entirely baseless".

Stormy times ahead.

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