Top Interest Rate Headlines 10-14-2011: U.S. Budget Deficit Rose to $1.3 Trillion in Fiscal 2011

U.S. Budget Deficit Rose to $1.3 Trillion in Fiscal 2011
By Vincent Del Giudice and Ian Katz, Bloomberg Businessweek
The U.S. government posted its third consecutive annual budget deficit in excess of $1 trillion in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30.
http://jlne.ws/njhrZ9

S&P downgrades French bank BNP Paribas amid funding, liquidity concerns
The Associated Press
Standard & Poor’s has downgraded its long-term rating for leading French bank BNP Paribas, citing concerns about funding and liquidity across France’s banking sector.
http://jlne.ws/neXJlz

FRB: At $2.843 trillion, the Fed's balance sheet was unchanged for the week ending Oct. 12 http://jlne.ws/nUcCi1

Bloomberg First to Connect to All Repo Agencies & Meet Fed Reforms
Press Release
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Investors in the U.S. tri-party securities repurchase (repo) market can now use Bloomberg technology to match and confirm repo trades with both clearing banks, Bank of New York Mellon (BNY) and JP Morgan. Bloomberg's fixed income group announces the first agency-neutral platform that allows investors to process and confirm repo trades with either clearing bank as mandated by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (The Fed).
http://jlne.ws/o2FScq

Federal Reserve Bank of New York: Historical Echoes: The 1960s View of Modern Banking
In 1961, the Merchandise National Bank of Chicago produced a film presenting the newest development in leading-edge banking technology: computers. The computers enabled bank employees to process checks in a fraction of a second as well as access customer information saved in databases. This modern machinery included magnetic reel-to-reel tape and an automatic typewriter, among other space-age tools, and processed 30,000 transactions in three-to-four hours of computing time. This film provides an illuminating view of the early days of electronic banking. Since then, banking has experienced a number of revolutions. Check clearing has evolved into an increasingly electronic format with the introduction of the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act. Most checks are now presented to financial institutions as electronic images, changing the way that the majority of checks are processed. For more on current check clearing practices, read about the New York Fed’s role in check processing.
http://bit.ly/r4gMYg

How euro zone can get more bang for bailout
By Jan Strupczewski, Reuters
The euro zone is under intense pressure from financial markets and other major economies to come up with a more aggressive response to its debt crisis and is considering ways to boost the firepower of its bailout fund without putting up more money.
http://jlne.ws/qiASNT

US consumer sentiment sags in Oct, expectations sour 
Reuters
U.S. consumer sentiment unexpectedly slumped in early October as worries about declining incomes drove consumer expectations back down to the lowest level in more than 30 years, a survey released on Friday showed.
http://jlne.ws/okSnu6

Many economic sectors don’t have much more room to fall
By Neil Irwin, The Washington Post
The U.S. economy has been through a lot in the past few months — an unprecedented downgrade of the government’s credit rating, a debt crisis in Europe that threatens to spread across the Atlantic, and a steep decline in financial markets. Yet most economic indicators have pointed to continued, albeit slow, growth.
http://jlne.ws/nO4zgI