Top Interest Rate Headlines 02-11-11: New York Fed Adds 32 Money Market Funds To Counterparty List For Reverse Repurchase Agreement Operations

New York Fed Adds 32 Money Market Funds To Counterparty List For Reverse Repurchase Agreement Operations
Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland
The New York Fed added another 32 money market funds to the counterparty list for reverse repurchase agreement operations. The new additions come from 19 different investment managers, some of whom already had money market funds on the list. No operations were conducted. The Term Deposit Facility conducted a $5 billion auction of 28-day deposits
http://jlne.ws/dHsQrR

Long road ahead for Obama housing overhaul plan
By Corbett B. Daly and David Lawder, Reuters
The Obama administration nailed a 'condemned' sign on the wrecked U.S. housing finance system on Friday but did not offer a clear blueprint for a rebuilding project that promises to take years.
http://jlne.ws/dM4JI4

Turkish Bonds Gain First Week in Five After Bank Regulator Steps
By Selcuk Gokoluk, Bloomberg
Turkish bonds and stocks gained on bets that an increase by the industry regulator in provisions for banks’ non-performing loans may mean the central bank won’t hike reserve requirements for the third time and cause banks to raise funds by selling bonds.
http://jlne.ws/ePgtCJ

Mubarak resignation cheered by world markets
By CARLO PIOVANO, The Washington Post
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's decision to hand power to the military boosted stocks around the world on Friday as hopes grew for a peaceful transition of power.
http://jlne.ws/hCTJWY

Egypt ETFs Surge, Credit Default Swaps Fall as Mubarak Resigns
By Jason Webb, Bloomberg/Businessweek
Egypt’s default risk dropped and shares rallied as Hosni Mubarak stepped down as the country’s president and handed power to the military, bowing to the demands of protesters.
http://jlne.ws/fCGqcO

Geithner on GSE Reform
CNBC - Video
http://jlne.ws/hJX9lG

Our G-Zero World by Nouriel Roubini - Project Syndicate
Nouriel Roubini - Our G-Zero World
We live in a world where, in theory, global economic and political governance is in the hands of the G-20. In practice, however, there is no global leadership and severe disarray and disagreement among G-20 members about monetary and fiscal policy, exchange rates and global imbalances, climate change, trade, financial stability, the international monetary system, and energy, food and global security. Indeed, the major powers now see these issues as zero-sum games rather than positive-sum games. So ours is, in essence, a G-Zero world.
http://jlne.ws/e7Sy9H

Obama Administration Calls for Winding Down Fannie, Freddie
By Lorraine Woellert and Rebecca Christie, Bloomberg
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner presented Congress with a set of options for weaning the $11 trillion mortgage market from its dependence on the government, while calling for changes to be phased in “responsibly and carefully” to avoid economic disruptions.
http://jlne.ws/eoqcAi

Stark, Weidmann front-runners to head Bundesbank
Reuters
Axel Weber will step down as head of the Bundesbank with effect from April 30, a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday, and a decision on his successor will be announced next week.
http://jlne.ws/fDZK6s

Milestone Dodd-Frank Compliant CDS Trade Completed
By Katy Burne Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- The first credit-default-swap trade that is believed to be compliant with new swap trading rules being proposed by U.S. regulators as a result of the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law was completed Thursday.
http://jlne.ws/ewg22e

BlueMountain, Deutsche Bank Trade Swaps in U.S. Market Preview
By Matthew Leising, Bloomberg
BlueMountain Capital Management LLC and Deutsche Bank AG electronically traded and cleared credit- default swaps today on Tradeweb LLC’s system as the $26 trillion market prepares to be regulated later this year. “Today’s trade represents the first-ever transaction to fit within what many market participants expect to be the new model for central clearing and electronic execution of derivatives,” Scott Beardsley, head of operations at New York- based BlueMountain, said in a statement e-mailed by Tradeweb.
Clearinghouses owned by CME Group Inc. and Intercontinental Exchange Inc. backed the trades, Tradeweb said.

Moody’s cuts Irish bank ratings to junk status
By John Murray Brown, Financial Times
Moody’s cut the ratings of Irish banks to junk status on Friday following Dublin’s decision to defer previously agreed capital increases until after this month’s general election. The downgrade means the unguaranteed unsecured senior bonds at Ireland’s six banks are now rated as non-investment grade, or junk.
http://jlne.ws/gepGEw

Paulson Says Better Fed Oversight May Have Helped Avoid Crisis
Bloomberg
John Paulson , whose Paulson & Co. hedge fund made $15 billion betting against subprime mortgages in 2007, said better oversight of home loans by the Federal Reserve System would have helped prevent the crisis.
http://jlne.ws/fphSTQ

Soros Joins Paulson Saying Fed Did Too Little to Prevent Financial Crisis
Bloomberg
George Soros and John Paulson , who oversee two of the world's largest hedge funds, say the Federal Reserve helped cause the financial crisis through inaction and lack of oversight, according to interviews released yesterday.
http://jlne.ws/hqjN7Y

Barclays Capital Rolls Out Electronic Credit Default Swaps Trading
Dow Jones
Barclays Capital announced Thursday it has introduced a service allowing customers to trade credit default swaps electronically.
http://jlne.ws/gYovGf

Blankfein Sought U.S. Blessing on Executive Pay, Feinberg Says
Bloomberg
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein sought the U.S. government's blessing on the pay of top employees -- even though he didn't have to, according to a former Treasury Department official.
http://jlne.ws/h82Df4

Buffett Says Goldman Deal Was a Bet on Fed, Treasury
BusinessWeek
Billionaire Warren Buffett said his $5 billion investment in Goldman Sachs Group Inc. at the depths of the financial crisis was a wager that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and then-Treasury Department Secretary Henry Paulson would take on debt to prop up the economy.
http://jlne.ws/eZLSsU

Goldman Sachs goes too public
Canadian Business
The media frenzy over its Facebook offering threatens the secondary market.
http://jlne.ws/fDWo0O

ECB Weber Should Wait Year Before Taking Private Job-Government Lawmaker
Dow Jones
If Axel Weber leaves his job as president of the Deutsche Bundesbank, he should wait at least a year before taking a job at Deutsche Bank AG (DB) or any other private bank, Joachim Pfeiffer, the economics speaker in Germany's parliament for the governing Christian Democrats, said Thursday.
http://jlne.ws/eDE8QZ

George Osborne, Financial Wizard
WSJ
Only Merlin could know how much banks should be lending.
On Wednesday the top executives of bailed-out British banks Lloyds and RBS accepted multimillion-pound bonuses. It's too bad for George Osborne that the payouts are deferred—Her Majesty's Treasury could use the 50% of those bonuses that would come back in tax.
http://jlne.ws/gnayY4

BTA Bank Wins Court Bid to Block Ex-Chairman's Conspiracy Claim
Bloomberg
Mukhtar Ablyazov , ex-chairman of the bailed-out Kazakh lender BTA Bank JSC, can't use allegations of a presidential conspiracy to avoid bank claims he embezzled as much as $4 billion, a U.K. judge ruled.
http://jlne.ws/gjeqo1

MTS To Launch Bond Market For Czech Republic
Press Release
MTS, Europe’s premier facilitator for the electronic fixed income market, today announces that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic to launch of an electronic interdealer market for local government debt in accordance with the Funding and Debt Management Strategy for 2011. MTS will also provide real-time market data for the platform.
http://jlne.ws/f33vjm