Get Loans

Reykjavik, Iceland (AHN) – Iceland will start repaying a $3.45 billion (EUR 2.6 billion) from Britain in 2016. Reykjavik owed the amount to London after the online Icesave Bank failed two years ago.

The agreement to repay ends two years of dispute over interest rates between the two countries after Iceland’s financial system collapsed in October 2008. Following the failure of Icesave’s parent company Landsbanki, the U.K. treasury had to bail out 300,000 British depositors, including 108 English, Scottish and Welsh councils that have high-interest accounts in Icesave.

The International Monetary Fund also extended a $2 billion loan, while Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark provided another $2.5 billion loan to Iceland.

According to the European Economic Area regulations, Iceland was supposed to pay each account holder $29,158 (EUR 22,000), but because of the financial straits in Iceland, Britain and the Netherlands offered the country a loan. Landsbanki also had a number of Dutch depositors.

Icelandic and British officials initially agreed a year ago to set the interest rate at 5 percent. However, 93 percent of Iceland residents rejected the agreement because they considered the interest rate too high.

The new agreement sets interest rate between 3 percent for the Netherlands and 3.3 percent for Britain on repayments from 2009 to 2016. The debt should be fully paid back by 2046.

The deal, however, needs the seal of approval from Iceland’s Parliament, president and government. If the agreement is approved, ratings agency Moody’s said Reykjavik’s credit rating could be raised and it may pave the way for Iceland joining the European Union.

View full post on Politics Stories

London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) – Anger is growing throughout Britain over the refusal by the Financial Services Authority to publish the result of its investigation of the Royal Bank of Scotland failure. The FSA commissioned PricewaterhouseCoopers to probe the RBS, which needed a $67.5 billion (GBP 45 billion) government bailout after the bank purchased ABN Amro for $73.5 billion (GBP 49 billion) and an $18 billion (GBP 12 billion) rights issue.

FSA cited the Financial Services and Markets Act of 2000 as the reason behind the non-publication of the investigation result. The FSA instead released Thursday a short press release that acknowledged mistakes were made by the bank administration, but said there was no law broken nor was there dishonesty among bank officials that led to the crisis.

Britons are clamoring for more transparency on the result of the probe because 83 percent of RBS is owned by taxpayers. Even Chancellor George Osborne and the current management and board of RBS have seen the report.

Because of this development, the FSA ordered a review of the Financial Services Authority’s rules. The Liberal Democrat Party joined the call that a copy of the PricewaterhouseCoopers report be furnished the parliamentary library.

What also angered the public was that Sir Fred Goodwin, the former chief executive of RBS, whose leadership of the bank was heavily criticized, got a multi-million pound pension when he left the bank.

Aside from the RBS probe, the FSA also had the two other major financial crisis players HBOs and Bradford & Bingley investigated, but the details of the two inquiries have also not been released by the agency.

View full post on Politics Stories

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The United States Secret Service disclosed this week that its investigation resulted in the indictment of a Malaysian national and uncovering of a history of compromising computer servers belonging to financial institutions, defense contractors and major corporations, and selling or trading the information obtained from these businesses.

“An international investigation into hacked computer systems has resulted in a federal indictment against Lin Mun Poo, a resident and citizen of Malaysia,” said the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York in a communique, announcing the indictment.

The four-count indictment charged Poo, 32, with hacking into a computer network of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Ohio. He is also charged with possessing more than 400,000 stolen credit and debit card account numbers allegedly obtained by hacking into various computer systems of other financial institutions.

“As today’s technology continues to evolve, cybercriminals use these advances and enhancements to perpetrate an expanding range of crimes,” said Brian Parr, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service New York Field Office.

“These crimes not only affect our nation’s financial infrastructure, but are also an ongoing threat to our national security. The Secret Service is committed to deploying cutting edge investigative practices and technology in order to bring these offenders to justice,” Parr added.

According to the communique, Poo was arrested on October 21, 2010, after traveling to the U.S. to obtain additional stolen financial account information from other hackers.

Hours after arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport, Secret Service agents arrested Poo and seized his heavily encrypted laptop.

Among the results of a forensic examination of the seized laptop were huge quantities of alleged hacked information from FedComp, a data processor for federal credit unions, detailing “financial account data and personal identifying information,” and from “Federal Reserve Bank in Cleveland, Ohio,” and the computer systems of a defense contractor.

View full post on All Stories

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The United States Secret Service disclosed this week that its investigation resulted in the indictment of a Malaysian national and uncovering of a history of compromising computer servers belonging to financial institutions, defense contractors and major corporations, and selling or trading the information obtained from these businesses.

“An international investigation into hacked computer systems has resulted in a federal indictment against Lin Mun Poo, a resident and citizen of Malaysia,” said the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York in a communique, announcing the indictment.

The four-count indictment charged Poo, 32, with hacking into a computer network of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Ohio. He is also charged with possessing more than 400,000 stolen credit and debit card account numbers allegedly obtained by hacking into various computer systems of other financial institutions.

“As today’s technology continues to evolve, cybercriminals use these advances and enhancements to perpetrate an expanding range of crimes,” said Brian Parr, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service New York Field Office.

“These crimes not only affect our nation’s financial infrastructure, but are also an ongoing threat to our national security. The Secret Service is committed to deploying cutting edge investigative practices and technology in order to bring these offenders to justice,” Parr added.

According to the communique, Poo was arrested on October 21, 2010, after traveling to the U.S. to obtain additional stolen financial account information from other hackers.

Hours after arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport, Secret Service agents arrested Poo and seized his heavily encrypted laptop.

Among the results of a forensic examination of the seized laptop were huge quantities of alleged hacked information from FedComp, a data processor for federal credit unions, detailing “financial account data and personal identifying information,” and from “Federal Reserve Bank in Cleveland, Ohio,” and the computer systems of a defense contractor.

View full post on All Stories

The World Bank has approved two loans, totaling US$800 million, to support priority reform programs of the Indonesian government.

View full post on All Stories

The lenders rescued in a $4 billion bailout last year have rallied in recent weeks amid optimism over the start of operation of AMCON, a state “bad bank” which will soak up non-performing loans, and…

View full post on All Stories

By Mark Reynolds

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Former state Sen. Christopher B. Maselli pleaded guilty to eight counts of bank fraud in U.S. District Court Wednesday morning after a judge warned him that he could spend 240 years in prison.

Maselli admitted that he lied about his income, doctored tax returns and also tampered with bank statements in a scheme to obtain various home mortgages and loans.

Maselli issued the plea after Chief Judge Mary Lisi informed him that she could impose a maximum sentence of 240 years imprisonment and $8 million in fines.

Federal prosecutors did not request any changes in the conditions of Maselli’s bail and he left the courthouse with his lawyer.

His sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 10.

View full post on All Stories

With inflation still above its comfort zone, India’s central bank Tuesday hiked both its short-term borrowing and lending rates by 25 basis points each that could trigger higher interest rates on housing, auto and corporate loans.

View full post on All Stories

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Fitch Ratings assigns an ‘AA’ rating to the following New York City general obligation (GO) bonds: –Bank bonds corresponding to $60 million fiscal 2003 series C, subseries C-3A adjustable rate bonds; –Bank bonds corresponding to $30 million fiscal 2003 series C, subseries C-3B adjustable rate bonds; –Bank bonds corresponding to $110 million fiscal 2003 series C, subseries C-4 adjustable rate bonds. The Rating Outlook is Stable. The rating is being assigned in connec

View full post on All Stories

BUFFALO, N.Y., Oct. 25 /PRNewswire/ — M&T Bank ranked as the #1 SBA lender in the Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia districts and finished 6th nationally ranked by total loans made through the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) most popular smal

View full post on All Stories