Top Interest Rate Headlines 03-02-11: Fed's Bernanke: Budget cuts could trim 200,000 jobs

Fed's Bernanke: Budget cuts could trim 200,000 jobs
By Mark Felsenthal, Reuters
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday a Republican spending cut plan would not cause a big dent to U.S. economic growth, but could cost around 200,000 jobs.
http://jlne.ws/i6VTZ9

Bank Leumi to buy 13.5% stake in food firm Tnuva
Reuters
Israel's Bank Leumi (LUMI.TA) said on Wednesday it signed a deal to buy a 13.5 percent stake in Tnuva, Israel's largest food company, for 388.5 million shekels ($107 million).
http://jlne.ws/esCgCE

US CFTC urged to clarify anti-manipulation rule
By Ayesha Rascoe, Reuters
The U.S. futures regulator must provide more guidance on how it plans to enforce its new anti-manipulation rules or it will be vulnerable to legal challenges, a former commission official said on Tuesday.
http://jlne.ws/i7GgUv

Bernanke Repeats Testimony
The Bond Buyer
Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben S. Bernanke's testimony before the House Financial Services Committee was identical to yesterday's monetary report to the Senate.
http://jlne.ws/foktsO

Spain's Caja Madrid merger relaunches as Bankia
By Jesus Aguado and Sonya Dowsett, Reuters
Spain's biggest savings bank by assets, the Caja Madrid-led merger of seven lenders, relaunched under the name Bankia on Wednesday in the latest step of Spain's banking overhaul.
http://jlne.ws/i0fGbd

U.S. private payrolls up 217,000 in February
By Ruth Mantell, MarketWatch
U.S. private-sector employment jumped in February, and the recent pace of gains has been speeding up, according to Automatic Data Processing Inc.’s employment report released Wednesday.
http://jlne.ws/erG6XN

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac May Be Profitable in 2011, Rosner Says
By Lorraine Woellert, Bloomberg
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored entities that got more than $154 billion in U.S. aid, may return to profitability in 2011, according to Graham Fisher & Co. Managing Director Joshua H. Rosner.
http://jlne.ws/hwigoW

Quantitative Brokers Introduces Cointegration Model for Algorithmic Execution of Eurodollar Futures
Quantitative Brokers, a fixed-income algorithmic executing broker, released a cointegration model for clients trading Eurodollar futures using its Bolt and Strobe algorithms. The model monitors the prices of the front two years of the Eurodollar complex to look for short-term departures from equilibrium. It then generates a price prediction signal for each individual Eurodollar contract, which is dynamically updated throughout the trading day and applied to the algorithms’ real-time order placement logic.
http://jlne.ws/e7mTD4

Fitch Assigns SSgA USD Government Liquidity Fund 'AAAmmf' Rating
01 Mar 2011 1:25 PM (EST)
Fitch Ratings-London-01 March 2011: Fitch Ratings has assigned the newly launched State Street
Global Advisors Liquidity PLC - SSgA USD Government Liquidity Fund managed by State Street
Global Advisors (SSgA) a 'AAAmmf' rating.

Fitch Ratings-London-02 March 2011: Fitch Ratings has assigned the following offshore money
market funds managed by State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) 'AAAmmf' ratings:
State Street Global Advisors Liquidity PLC - SSgA EUR Liquidity Fund
State Street Global Advisors Liquidity PLC - SSgA GBP Liquidity Fund
State Street Global Advisors Liquidity PLC - SSgA USD Liquidity Fund

NYSE Plan to Take On CME in Rate Futures to Begin March 21
(Bloomberg) -- NYSE Euronext’s plan to compete with
CME Group Inc. by allowing investors to reduce margin for
offsetting interest-rate futures and U.S. Treasury positions
will begin March 21. New York Portfolio Clearing, the venture between NYSE
Euronext and the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp., received
approval from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to
offer investors the margin offset, the company said in a
statement today. It’s targeting CME Group’s 98 percent share of
U.S. futures trading. Chicago-based CME Group said two days ago
that it would offer the same type of margin reduction between
futures and cash Treasury positions by the end of the month.

NFA hires Edward Dasso as new Vice President to head surveillance program for swap execution facilities
Press Release
March 1, Chicago - National Futures Association has hired Edward Dasso as Vice President of Market Regulation, a new position created to oversee the surveillance of swap execution facilities (SEF). Dasso comes to NFA from the InterContinental Exchange, where he served as the Manager of Market Regulation. Dasso previously spent several years at NFA as the Managing Director of Trade Practice and Market Surveillance (TPMS).
http://jlne.ws/ikAZ0Z

US regulators discuss tougher mortgage rules
By Suzanne Kapner in New York - Financial Times
Regulators have tentatively agreed on stringent new rules that will require lenders to retain a greater portion of loans they originate, instead of selling most of them to investors, a practice that helped to create the housing bubble, according to a person familiar with the situation.
http://jlne.ws/dNyFv9

DTCC Receives SEC Approval for Transformational One-Pot Margining
Business Wire
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--DTCC announced today that the SEC has approved the "one-pot" cross-margining arrangement between FICC and NYPC.
http://jlne.ws/eDdlqs

King pledges radical change on bank scrutiny
By Brooke Masters, Chief Regulation Correspondent - Financial Times
The Bank of England will take a “radically different approach” to supervising the UK’s biggest financial institutions by calling on senior officials to challenge executives on strategic decisions, Mervyn King, the Bank’s governor, said.
http://jlne.ws/gaePHV

Bankers bonuses down, but Europe still crying
By Denny Thomas and Rachel Armstrong - Reuters
HONG KONG (Reuters) - The rancor over bank bonuses means investment bankers across the globe are now getting a higher level of fixed pay but industry groups in Europe still feel their financial sector is facing much tougher rules than the rest of the world.
http://jlne.ws/e47qQ4

Credit Suisse Banker Bagios Helped Cheat IRS While at UBS
Bloomberg
Credit Suisse Group AG banker Christos Bagios helped 150 American clients hide as much as $500 million in assets from U.S. tax authorities when he worked at UBS AG , according to a criminal charge made public yesterday.
http://jlne.ws/f4iNBN

Citigroup Says Four Executives Received $32.4 Million for 2010
BusinessWeek
Citigroup Inc., the third-biggest U.S. bank by assets, said it paid four top executives salaries and bonuses totaling $32.4 million last year.
http://jlne.ws/gEUJ9g

HSBC halts US foreclosures over paperwork errors
Seattle Times
HSBC Holdings PLC is suspending foreclosures in the U.S. after a government review of the lender's procedures revealed problems with the way it handled some home repossessions.
http://jlne.ws/ihxgRC

Buffett's Goldman Investment Was Leaked by Gupta, SEC Says
BusinessWeek
Warren Buffett's decision to invest in Goldman Sachs Group Inc. during the financial crisis was leaked to a hedge fund by Rajat K. Gupta, who was then on the bank's board, U.S. regulators said.
http://jlne.ws/ePsTGI

Market Vectors Fixed Income ETFs Announce February 2011 Distributions
Business Wire
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Market Vectors ETF Trust announced regular monthly distributions today for its five municipal bond ETFs and the Market Vectors Emerging Markets Local Currency Bond ETF*. The following dates apply to today's distribution declarations: Ex-Date Record Date Payable Date March 1, 2011 March 3, 2011 March 7, 2011 Distribution Distribution Amount FUND Ticker Frequency Per ...
http://jlne.ws/hI5oQy

TOKYO AIM Announces Draft Rules for the TOKYO PRO-BOND Market
Press Release
TOKYO AIM, Inc. (“TOKYO AIM”) today published the draft rules and regulations for its new bond market for professional investors, the TOKYO PRO-BOND Market. The rules and regulations as well as a Q&A document were developed based on the comments made during the initial public consultation period on the outline framework published on November 10, 2010.
http://jlne.ws/geMQhH

Credit Card Data Tells Mixed Story
By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD - NY Times
While the average debt on credit cards in December decreased by 4 percent compared with the same month a year before, Americans still carried an average of $4,284 on credit card statements in December 2010, according to data released this week by the credit monitoring company Experian.
http://jlne.ws/hScXa5