Peru's central bank tightens reserve requirements for fourth time this year

LIMA, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Peru's central bank tightened reserve requirements on Tuesday to control high liquidity and a rapid credit expansion as low interest rates abroad have encouraged investments in Peru's emerging economy. The new rules, which go into effect November 1, raise reserve requirementson foreign and local currencies 0.75 percentage points, slightlymore than the 0.50 increase the bank put in place three times this year. "This measure seeks to preventatively act to moderate the rate of credit expansion at a time of high liquidity abroad and exceptionally low interest rates in international markets," thebank said in a statement. The local sol currency has been trading around its highest level in more than15 years as the central bank has been intervening in the local currency spot market daily to control its gains against the dollar. The monetary authority has held its benchmark interest rate at 4.25 percent for the past 17 months

Royal Bank of Scotland to Pay Fine to Settle Libor Investigations

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc , Britain’s biggest taxpayer-owned lender, said it expects to pay a fine in the coming months to settle regulators’ probes into allegations the lender tried to manipulate Libor. Whether the penalty exceeds the record 290 million pounds ($467 million) Barclays Plc paid in June or not “it will still be a miserable day in RBS’s history,” Chief Executive Officer Stephen Hester told reporters on a call today as the bank posted third-quarter operating profit that beat analyst estimates. “I’d be disappointed if we were talking to you at our full-year results in February without having had more news.” RBS is one of more than a dozen banks worldwide facing regulatory probes into allegations that they manipulated the London interbank offered rate, thebenchmark for more than$300 trillion of securities. The Edinburgh-based lender has fired at least four traders following an internal probe, and last month suspended its head of rates trading for Europe and the Asia- Pacific region, the first senior manager to be put on leave. Libor is the biggest regulatory obstacle to overshadow Hester’s attempts to overhaul the company after it received the biggest banking bailout in history in 2008. RBS said today it would set aside a further 400 million pounds to compensate clients wrongly sold loan insurance and derivatives,bringing the total the bank has earmarked to 1.7billion pounds.

Thomas Cook (India),MasterCard to unveil Borderless Prepaid Card

Thomas Cook (India) has collaborated with US based MasterCard, to roll out a prepaid foreign exchange travel card named as Borderless Prepaid Card. The card facilitates travelers to load approximately eight currencies, including US Dollars, British Pounds, Euro, Australian Dollars, Canadian Dollars, Swiss Francs, Singapore Dollars & Japanese Yen. Designed with an embedded chip and PIN forsecure transaction, the smart multi-currency card allows the travelers to spend the specific currency in the country, where they are visiting. According to a Consumer Segmentation study by MasterCard in July 2011, India recorded 514 points on the International Travel Index, which indicated that 36.7% affluent Indians want to go aboard for a holiday. Thomas Cook delivers a variety of services such as Foreign Exchange, CorporateTravel, MICE, Leisure Travel, Insurance, Visa & Passport services and E-Business. Trading in more than 210 geographies, MasterCard manages the world's fastest payments processing network, connecting consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses.

SMFG to acquire 9.9% stake in Bank ofEast Asia

Japan based Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation are set to acquireup to 9.9% of the shares of Hong Kong based Bank of East Asia (BEA). Acquisition in the bank, which has also been approved by the US Federal Reserve System, is a part of Sumitomo Mitsui's strategy toboost its presence in Beijing, as reported by The Financial Times. The banking group already held 4.5% stake in the HongKong based bank and the increase in percent of the voting shares will not enablethem to exercise a controlling influence over BEA or any of its subsidiaries. Japanese banks are trying to recover from the effect of natural disaster, which struckthe country last year by strengthening their presenceand streamlining their operations in other Asian countries. Bank of East Asia had Rmb1.3bn in net profit and assets of Rmb153bn ($24.5bn) as of the end of 2011, according to KPMG. Bank of China currently holds a small stake in BEA, which recently sold its Canadian and US branches to ICBC. The Hong Kong bank engages primarily in retail and commercial banking, wealth management, and insurance services in People's Republic of China, North America, the UK, and Southeast Asia.

Chevron profit drops on lower oil output, maintenance

(Reuters) - Chevron Corp posted a 33 percent drop in quarterly earnings as maintenance exacerbated a steady decline in output from oil and natural gas wells over the past year and as a huge fire at one of the company's California plants hit the refining business. The second-largest U.S. oil company said on Friday that third-quarter net income had fallen to $5.25 billion, or$2.69 per share, from $7.83 billion, or $3.92 per share, a year earlier. Increasing output has been astruggle for many big oil companies , including Exxon Mobil Corp and Royal Dutch Shell Plc . With oil and gas assets tightly controlled by the countries where they arelocated, the majors are left todrill in pricier regions on land and offshore. Chevron's third-quarter oil and gas production fell to 2.52 million barrels of oil equivalent per day from 2.60million bpd a year earlier. On quarter-to-quarter basis, the production number fell for the third period in a row. Earnings dropped 17 percent to $5.1 billion in the oil and gas production business and plunged 65 percent to $689 million in the refining, or downstream, operation. " Crude oil prices were down, and we had a heavy period of planned oil field maintenance which temporarily reduced oil and gas production in several locations," Chief Executive Officer John Watson said in astatement. A storm cut into Gulf of Mexico production, while planned maintenance in Kazakhstan and the United Kingdom caused the majorityof the decline in production outside the United States, Chevron has said. The company had already warned last month that the crude unit at its oldest refinery in Richmond, California, would remain offline through the fourth quarter after it was badly damaged in an August 6 fire. Shares of Chevron were down 0.6 percent at $110.75in trading before the market opened.

Income bond

Income bond – Generally income bonds promise to repay principal but to pay interest only when earned. In some cases unpaid interest on an income bond may accumulate as a claim against the corporation whenthe bond becomes due. An income bond may also be issued in lieu of preferred stock

Indenture

Indenture – A written agreement under which bonds and debentures are issued, setting forth maturity date, interest rate and other terms

Hypothecation

Hypothecation – The pledging of securities as collateral - for example, to secure the debit balance in amargin account

ndex

Index – A statistical yardstickexpressed in terms of percentages of a base year oryears. For instance, the NYSE Composite Index of all NYSEcommon stocks is based on 1965 as 50. An index is not an average

Holding company

Holding company – A corporation that owns the securities of another, in most cases with voting control.