Saturday, May 9, 2009

US asks 10 banks to raise $75 bn additional capital

Press Trust of India / Washington May 08, 2009, 14:55 IST

The US Federal government has directed the country's 10 leading banks to boost their capital by $75 billion, following the rigorous stress tests.

The much-awaited results of the stress tests on the nation's 19 largest Bank Holding Companies (BHCs) showed that 10 of them need more capital to the tune of $75 billion while the remaining including Goldman Sachs and American Express are well-capitalised.

The stress tests were aimed at determining capital buffers sufficient for the 19 entities to withstand losses and sustain lending -- even if the economic downturn is more severe than is currently anticipated.

Among the entities being asked to boost their capital, Bank of America needs the most of $33.9 billion while Wells Fargo has to raise $13.7 billion, the US Federal Reserve said in a statement late Thursday.

The auto financing arm of General Motors -- GMAC LLC, and Citigroup have to increase their respective capital by $11.5 billion and $5.5 billion, respectively.

According to the Federal Reserve, the losses at the 19 firms could be a whopping $600 billion, if the economy were to become more worse during 2009 and 2010.

Other entities which have been ordered to come up with additional capital are Regional Financial Corp ($2.5 billion), SunTrust Banks ($2.2 billion), Morgan Stanley ($1.8 billion), KeyCorp ($1.8 billion), Fifth Third Bancorp ($1.1 billion) and PNC Financial Services Group ($0.6 billion).

Following the Supervisory Capital Assessment Program (SCAP), better known as stress tests, the 10 companies are required to bolster their capital buffer by November 9, 2009.

Apart from Goldman Sachs and American Express, the stress tests have found that seven more entities does not have to boost their capital. They are US Bancorp, State Street Corp, MetLife, JPMorgan Chase, Capital One Financial Corp, Bank of New York Mellon and BB&T Corporation.

The 19 BHCs together hold two-thirds of assets and more than one-half of the loans in the US banking system.

Commenting about the stress tests, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S Bernanke said that these examinations were not tests of solvency.

"... We knew already that all these institutions meet regulatory capital standards... The examiners found that nearly all the banks that were evaluated have enough Tier 1 capital to absorb the higher losses envisioned under the hypothetical adverse scenario," Bernanke noted.

A detailed plan about raising more capital should be submitted to the Federal authorities by June 8.

"... If the economy were to track the more adverse scenario, losses at the 19 firms during 2009 and 2010 could be USD 600 billion.

"The bulk of the estimated losses --approximately $455 billion -- come from losses on the BHCs' accrual loan portfolios, particularly from residential mortgages and other consumer-related loans," the statement said.

Going by the Federal Reserve, the estimated additional capital buffer would be about $185 billion at the end of 2008. Since then, the concerned companies have begun assets sales and initiated restructuring measures, among others.

In addition, the "pre provision" net revenues of many of these firms have exceeded nearly $20 billion, considering the adverse economic scenario.

"The effects of these transactions and revenues rendered the additional capital needed to establish the SCAP buffer equal to $75 billion," the statement noted.

The stress tests were conducted by the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Review: Internet Explorer 8 is new and improved -- is it back on top?

 Internet Explorer 8 has shipped in its final version and is ready to take on its rivals. This latest version of Microsoft's browser leapfrogs its closest competition, Firefox 3, for basic browsing and productivity features -- it has better tab handling, a niftier search bar, a more useful address bar, and new tools that deliver information directly from other Web pages and services. IE8 has also been tweaked for security and includes a so-called "porn mode," new anti-malware protection, and better ways to protect your privacy.

This final version differs little from last January's RC1 release, aside from some speed improvements and bug fixes. What follows is a comprehensive review of all the ways that IE8 differs from IE7. If you've abandoned Microsoft's browser for a rival, you may -- or may not -- want to return.

Improved tabs and address bar

For basic browsing, the biggest improvement in IE is its tab handling, which is exemplary. It's the kind of feature you may not notice much at first, but it's one that goes a long way toward making your browsing life far easier.

If you commonly use multiple tabs, you'll particularly welcome the way IE handles them. When you open a new tab from an existing page, the new one opens directly to the right of the originating one, and both tabs are given the same color. That way, all related tabs are automatically grouped and color-coded. If you open a new tab from a page that is already part of a group, it will open at the far right of the group, rather than just to the right of the originating tab. It will also be color-coded.

This subtle change in tab behavior may have a major effect on your productivity. For example, if you write a blog and need to preview it before posting, the preview page typically opens in a new tab. Previously, and with other browsers, the tab opened all the way on the right -- often several tabs away from the originating tab -- and switching between the two was often confusing. With color-coding and grouping, it's far easier to switch between related tabs.

It's easy to move a tab between groups -- just drag it, and it becomes part of the new group, taking on its color. Right-click on any tab to control its entire group -- that includes closing the group, closing all tabs except for those in the group, and ungrouping the chosen tab from the group. You can also perform actions on any individual tab from the right-click menu. It would have been nice to be able to reopen an entire tab group, but that feature isn't here.

Also welcome is the new (for IE) ability to reopen tabs. To reopen the last tab you've closed, you press Ctrl-Shift-T. To see a list of recently closed tabs and choose which to open, you right-click any tab, select Recently Closed Tabs, and pick the one you want to open

IE8
In IE8, you can perform actions on an entire group or individual tabs, such as closing a group or reopening closed tabs.

New tabs open showing multiple links (allowing you to open pages you've recently closed), an InPrivate Browsing session (more commonly called "porn mode") and an "Accelerator" that lets you grab content from a Web page (more on this later). You can also perform certain tasks, such as sending e-mail with a Web-based service, or do a search.

IE8
Opening a new tab brings you a page that lets you reopen closed tabs, browse in InPrivate mode, or use the "Accelerator."

Each tab is isolated from the others, so if one tab crashes, the entire browser doesn't go down. You can then restore the crashed tab, and when you do, it reloads with the information that had been in it when it crashed, such as a partially written e-mail. And if you were watching a video, the video will start playing at the point the tab crashed, not at the beginning of the video.

For more info here is the link http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=Networking+and+Internet&articleId=9129906&taxonomyId=16&pageNumber=1