 Credit and debit card fees levied on businesses and consumers are pushing up prices by about 2.5% across the EU, the European Commission has said. Depending on where customers live in the EU, they could pay up to double in annual fees for a Visa or Mastercard. Likewise, the fee banks levy on business for processing a credit card transaction - also varies widely across the EU. The EU Competition Commission said the card market lacked competition. "The payment cards industry in Europe remains national and some local players are preventing competition from developing," said Neelie Kroes, the EU's competition commissioner. "This pushes up payment card costs for consumers and businesses," Ms Kroes added. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk
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Editor - 08:40:00 04-12-06
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 China makes US trade concessions |
China has made a number of trade concessions to the US ahead of President Hu Jintao's visit next week. Eager to smooth the way before Mr Hu's trip, Beijing has agreed to remove its ban on US beef and make it easier for US firms to bid for public contracts. Also promising to clamp down on pirated goods, China's Vice-Premier Wu Yi made the pledges at talks in Washington. It was separately announced that China is buying 80 additional 737 planes from US giant Boeing worth $4.6bn (£2.6bn). US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez welcomed the successes of the latest Sino-US Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade meeting, but cautioned that proof would be in the implementation. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4901858.stm
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Editor - 08:37:00 04-12-06
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| Audit shows lost Nigeria oil taxes |
An audit of Nigeria's oil industry has found giant gaps between the amount of tax that firms say they paid and what authorities say they received. The discrepancies - totalling hundreds of millions of dollars - have been discovered by a government-backed anti-corruption agency. Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) looked at payments from 1999 to 2004. Its report stopped short of saying what might have happened to the cash. "We found some strange situations," said Chris Nurse, managing director of audit firm Hart, which carried out the study for the NEITI. "For the year 2002, there were $250m (£142m) that the companies say they paid to the central bank that do not appear in central bank records." Mr Nurse added that there were also discrepancies between figures provided by different arms of the government, and that accounting standards were low across the board. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4902474.stm
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Editor - 08:34:00 04-12-06
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| Scandal At Goldman Sachs |
Authorities say two Goldman Sachs employees made more than $6.7 million through insider trading by enlisting an analyst who provided information on Wall Street deals and a forklift driver who leaked copies of a market-moving magazine. Prosecutors called it one of the most extensive insider trading cases in decades, and it has no shortage of salacious details. The case includes allegations that the men tried to get strippers to coax stock tips from investment bankers who had inside knowledge of pending mergers and acquisitions. "We've never seen before a case involving so many different attempts to obtain information illegally," said Mark Schonfeld, regional director of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which brought civil charges against 13 people. ...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/12/business/main1491229.shtml?source=RSS&attr=U.S._1491229
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Editor - 08:32:00 04-12-06
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| Anti-Boogieman grant to probe bingo halls criticized |
A Washington watchdog group is complaining about a homeland security grant to investigate whether money is being embezzled from Kentucky bingo games by terrorists or other criminals, and the group took its complaint directly to Frankfort yesterday and held a protest at the state Capitol. "The problem we have is $36,000 going to keep bingo halls safe from terrorists. We don't see that as a wise use of money," says Ed Frank, spokesman for the Americans for Prosperity Foundation. "Anti-terrorist funding need to go to places where there are more likely victims of a terrorist attack, and I don't think Kentucky bingo halls are at the top of anyone's list," Mr. Frank says. Officials in the sleepy Southern state, however, say the $36,000 grant to the Kentucky Office of Charitable Gaming is not that far-fetched. ...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20060411-115930-6028r.htm
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Editor - 08:30:00 04-12-06
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| 6 charged in scheme to employ illegal aliens |
Two temporary-employment agencies and six company officials were charged yesterday in a suspected $5.3 million scheme involving the employment of illegal aliens, mail and wire fraud, and money laundering, according to a federal indictment unsealed in Ohio. Agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Labor Department's Office of the Inspector General and the FBI arrested three persons in Philadelphia, one in New York City and another in Columbus, Ohio. A sixth person agreed to turn himself over to federal authorities, while three remain at large. ICE spokesman Dean Boyd said those arrested conspired to employ illegal aliens, as well as legal aliens who had no authorization to work in the United States. He said the officials also conspired to provide transportation and housing for the aliens and help them obtain fraudulent documents, profited from the scheme and laundered millions of dollars in proceeds. ...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20060411-115928-9518r.htm
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Editor - 08:28:00 04-12-06
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