esmeraldadhqmon-blog

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UPDATE 1-Irish banks must tackle mortgage arrears: c.bank

By Padraic HalpinDUBLIN, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Ireland's banks need to accelerate their efforts to deal with the problem of mortgage arrears and have sufficient capital to write off losses on unsustainable home loans, the country's central bank governor said on Thursday.Around 32,000 households are in arrears for more than six months on their mortgages after a devastating property crash and the problem, which is growing, is preventing a recovery in the banks, the domestic economy and the real estate market."To date banks have restructured relatively few loans," Patrick Honohan told a conference on the mortgage market. "It's clearly time for the banks to ramp up their efforts in dealing with truly unsustainable situations.""Enough capital has been injected into banks to absorb what I call unavoidable losses from unsustainable mortgages. Inefficiency of capital cannot be a reason to delay action."The government, which has a direct exposure to the arrears problem after taking over large parts of the banking sector, published recommendations for dealing with arrears on Wednesday that could see thousands of indebted borrowers lose ownership of their homes and rent the properties instead.The state ruled out a blanket debt or negative equity forgiveness scheme, at an estimated cost of around 14 billion euros, which would have heaped further losses onto the banks' balance sheets and be far too expensive for the state.Honohan said it was crucial that banks and the state were able to distinguish between borrowers who cannot pay and those who will not."Making that triage between the truly unsustainable situation and the can but won't pay is one of the key operational challenges for banks and other public authorities going forward."

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ATM group sues Visa, MasterCard over price fixing

* Suit seeks class action status for ATM operatorsOct 12 (Reuters) - A group representing operators of automated teller machines filed a lawsuit against Visa and MasterCard alleging that the credit and debit card issuers violated antitrust laws by fixing the price of ATM access fees.The suit, which seeks national class action status, was filed on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of the National ATM Council and several independent ATM operators.The suit, charging restraint of trade, alleges that Visa and MasterCard network rules prohibit ATM operators from offering lower prices for transactions over PIN-debit networks that are not affiliated with Visa or MasterCard.The suit alleges that the price fixing artificially raises the price consumers pay for ATM services, limits ATM operator revenue, and violates antitrust laws.It claims that rules by the card issuers prevent an operator from offering consumers a discount for ATM transactions not completed over Visa or MasterCard networks."Visa and MasterCard are the ringleaders, organizers, and enforcers of a conspiracy among U.S. banks to fix the price of ATM access fees in order to keep the competition at bay," Jonathan Rubin, of the Rubin PLLC law firm which represents the plaintiffs, said in a statement.The proposed class, should the case be granted class action status, would be comprised of independent operators of some 200,000 ATMs in the United States, Rubin said.Visa declined to comment. MasterCard did not immediately return calls seeking comment on the lawsuit.The case is The National ATM Council, Inc et al v. Visa, Inc et al and MasterCard Inc et al, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia, 11-cv-01803.

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ATM group sues Visa, MasterCard over price fixing

* Suit seeks class action status for ATM operatorsOct 12 (Reuters) - A group representing operators of automated teller machines filed a lawsuit against Visa and MasterCard alleging that the credit and debit card issuers violated antitrust laws by fixing the price of ATM access fees.The suit, which seeks national class action status, was filed on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of the National ATM Council and several independent ATM operators.The suit, charging restraint of trade, alleges that Visa and MasterCard network rules prohibit ATM operators from offering lower prices for transactions over PIN-debit networks that are not affiliated with Visa or MasterCard.The suit alleges that the price fixing artificially raises the price consumers pay for ATM services, limits ATM operator revenue, and violates antitrust laws.It claims that rules by the card issuers prevent an operator from offering consumers a discount for ATM transactions not completed over Visa or MasterCard networks."Visa and MasterCard are the ringleaders, organizers, and enforcers of a conspiracy among U.S. banks to fix the price of ATM access fees in order to keep the competition at bay," Jonathan Rubin, of the Rubin PLLC law firm which represents the plaintiffs, said in a statement.The proposed class, should the case be granted class action status, would be comprised of independent operators of some 200,000 ATMs in the United States, Rubin said.Visa declined to comment. MasterCard did not immediately return calls seeking comment on the lawsuit.The case is The National ATM Council, Inc et al v. Visa, Inc et al and MasterCard Inc et al, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia, 11-cv-01803.

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On the Move: Moelis hires DeGhetto for power sector

DeGhetto joins Moelis from Credit Suisse , where he was co-head of the power and renewable energy group. Prior to Credit Suisse, DeGhetto worked at JPMorgan , where he was a managing director in the power and pipeline group within the investment bank.He previously spent more than seven years as a managing director in the global utilities group at UBS , Moelis said.

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New Issue-Sampo prices 1.0 bln euro 2016 bond

Borrower Sampo Housing Loan BankIssue Amount 1.0 billion euroMaturity Date October 19, 2016Coupon 2.75 pctReoffer price 99.834Reoffer Yield 2.786 pctSpread 66 basis pointsUnderlying govt bond Over Mid-swaps, equivalent to 139.25bpOver the 1.75 pct 2016 OBLPayment Date October 19, 2011Lead Manager(s) BNP Paribas, Danske, Royal Bank of Scotland,UBS & UnicreditRatings Aaa (Moody's)Listing LuxFull fees UndisclosedDenoms (K) 100-1For ratings information, double click onFor all bonds data, double click onFor Top international bonds newsFor news about this issuer, double click on the issuer RIC,where assigned, and hit the newskey (F9 on Reuters terminals)Data supplied by International Insider.