Greece's Piraeus Bank tops minimum recap target in rights issue

Greece's Piraeus Bank will raise more than 19.5 percent of the funds it needs to plug a 7.33 billion euro capital hole from private investors in a rights offering that ends later on Tuesday, a senior bank official told Reuters.
Piraeus is the third major Greek lender, after Alpha and National Bank, to raise at least 10 percent of its common equity issue from private investors, a requirement under a recapitalization program forbanks to stay privately run.
"Private sector take-up willbe more than 19.5 percent,near 20 percent," said a senior banker at Piraeus who declined to be named. Meeting the minimum threshold meansPiraeus will not need to resort to issuing costly contingent convertible bonds, or CoCos.

UBS AG will surrender its Indian banking license and close its banking unit, covering fixed income, forex operations and credit services,

(Reuters) - Swiss bank UBSAG will surrender its Indian banking license and close its banking unit, covering fixed income, forex operations and creditservices, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Saturday.
However, UBS will continue its corporate client service business, which includes mergers and acquisitions, equities and debt capital market services, said the source, who declined to be identified as the information was not yet public.
"That doesn't mean that we are closing down our India operations. We will be closing a very small business unit, to focus on our key strength," said thesource. "It's part of our global strategy."
A UBS spokesman declined to comment.
UBS has a full-fledged banking license in India with a single branch in Mumbai and was focusing on the wealth management business, covering foreign exchange, fixed income and credit services.
Indian newspapers reported on Saturday that UBS would surrender its banking license.
Earlier this year, Morgan Stanley sold its private wealth management business to Standard Chartered, in a sign of growing consolidation of Asia's wealth management industry, which is struggling with rising regulatory costs and wafer-thin advisory fees.. (Reporting by Indulal PM; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Basic elements of the unqualified audit report.

(a) Basic elements of the unqualified audit report.

Describe clearly the circumstances in which an adverse opinion and a disclaimer of opinion would be appropriate and give two examples, one each, to illustrate your answer. (A full audit opinion is not required).

1. Title
Audit reports should be addressed to the members of the company on whose behalf the audit is undertaken.

2. Introductory paragraph
It identifies the financial statements audited to distinguish such information from other documents that have not been subject to audit e.g. chairman’s report.
This paragraph also refers to the accounting convention under which the financial statements have been prepared.

3. Statement of responsibility of directors and auditors. This states that it is the responsibility of the directors to prepare financial statements that show a true and fair view.

4. Basis of opinion (scope paragraph)
Audit carried out in accordance with IAS, ISA and Company’s Act requirement and other statutory requirements.

5. A statement that the audit was planned and performed to obtain reasonable assurance that financial statements are free from material misstatements.

6. It should describe an audit as including:

a. Examining on a test basis evidence to support the financial statement amounts and disclosures.
b. Assessing the accounting policies used in preparing the financial statements
c. Assessing the significant estimates made by directors in preparation of financial statements.
d. Evaluating the overall financial statement presentation.

7. It should clearly state the auditor’s opinion as to whether the financial statements give a true and fair view in accordance with financial reporting framework and their compliance with statutory requirements. In particular whether the balance sheet and the profit and loss account show a true and fair view of the state of the financial position of the company and its financial performance.

8. It should date the report as of audit completion date i.e. when the auditor receives all evidence required to support his opinion.

9. It should be signed in the audit firm’s name and should name the audit firm office.

b) The ISA attempt to ensure that the report of the auditors is clearly understood by giving guidelines to auditors as to how the report should be constructed and what details it

US Jobless Rate Rises To 7.6% as Economy Adds 175,000 Jobs

WASHINGTON -- U.S. employers stepped up hiringin May, a sign the economy was growing modestly but not strong enough to convince the Federal Reserve to scale back the amount of cash it is pumpinginto the banking system.
The United States added 175,000 jobs last month, just above the median forecast ina Reuters poll, Labor Department data showed on Friday.
The unemployment rate ticked a tenth of a percentage point higher to 7.6 percent, with the increase actually giving a relatively hopeful sign as it was driven by more workers entering the labor force.
Still, after a winter in which the economy seemed to be turning a corner, May was the third straight month that payrolls outside the farm sector increased by less than 200,000. That could heighten concerns government austerity this year is sapping vigor from the economy, andmight dampen speculation the Fed might soon trim bond purchases aimed at lowering interest rates and boosting employment.
"The labor market may not be as strong as we thought," Kevin Cummins, an economist at UBS in Stamford, Connecticut, said ahead of the data's release.
Officials at the U.S. central bank have intimated they could be close to reducing bond purchases despite modest economic growth, which is not expected to pickup until late in the year when the sting from government spending cuts begins to fade.
Budget cuts have led to hiring freezes at many government agencies, and attrition could be slowly reducing payrolls. Government payrolls declined by 3,000 in May.
Lasting Damage
About 4.4 million Americans have been unemployed for more than six months, roughly 3 million more than pre-recession levels. The longer workers are out of a job , the greater the risk theybecome essentially unemployable. That could deal lasting damage to the economy and has lent urgency to the Fed's efforts to stimulate growth.
Still, May's pace of job growth is right around the average for the prior 12 months. Over that period, the jobless rate fell about half a percentage point and the ranks of the long-term unemployed declined by about 1 million people.
"It's progress that's too slow,but it's progress nonetheless," Guy Berger, aneconomist at RBS, also in Stamford, said before the data was released.
More: Suicide Rate Jumps, Economy To Blame?
Even the increase in the unemployment rate had a bright side. The share of the population in the labor force -- which includes people who are either employed or looking for work -- rose to 63.4 percent. That was driven by 420,000 workers entering the work force. Thatis good news because some of the recent drop in the jobless rate has been due to workers leaving the labor force, either because they retired, went back to school or gave up looking for a job.
The report showed the length of the average workweek held steady at 34.5 hours, although total hours worked in the economy ticked 0.1 percent higher.
At the same time, U.S. factories are feeling the pinch from Europe's debt crisis, which has sent a chill over the global economy. Manufacturing employment declined by 8,000 jobs last month.
After barely growing in the last three months of 2012, the U.S. economy expanded at a moderate 2.4 percent annual rate in the first quarter but lost momentum as the quarter drew to a close. Most economists look for growth of around 1.5 percent in the current quarter.Fed officials next meet June 18-19 and are widely expected to keep purchasing $85 billion in bonds a month. Many economists don't expect the job market to be strong enough for the Fed to beginscaling back its bond purchases before December.

United States's yawning annual budget deficit narrowed in April

THE United States's yawning annual budget deficit narrowed in April as government coffers brimmed with the largest monthly surplus in five years, official data shows.
The federal budget had a surplus of$US112.9 billion ($A112.39 billion) forthe month of April, astax payments surged ahead the mid-month due date for annual income tax filings for 2012, according to Treasury Department numbers released on Friday.
The surplus was almost double the$US59.1 billion surplus registered in April 2012.
Over the first seven months of the fiscal year, the US budget deficit was $US487.6 billion, 32 per cent smaller than the October-April 2012 period.
Revenues leaped 28 per cent in April froma year ago, to$US406.7 billion, helped in part by January 1 increases inpayroll and other taxes.
Expenditures fell a hefty 13 per cent to$US293.8 billion in the second month of severe "sequester" spending cuts, aimed at slashing $US85 billion through September.
"The improved budget deficit will give the Treasury more wiggle room tofinance government programs should Congress fail to raise the debt ceiling whenthe current suspension of this limit on government borrowing expires onMay 19," said Sal Guatieri of BMO Capital Markets.

Debt Equity Finance information: Closed-End Investment Fund

Debt Equity Finance information: Closed-End Investment Fund: An investment trust that issues a fixed number of securities that trade on a stock exchange or in the over-the-counter market. Assets of a c... <24heght>

Bain Capital and Golden GateCapital Buys BMC for $6.9 Billion

Under the deal terms, the buyers’ group, which includes the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation and InsightVenture Partners, will pay $46.25 a share in cash.
That represents a 14 percent premium to BMC’s share price on May 11, 2012, the last business day before the company disclosed that Elliott Management had taken a big stake – now up to about 9.6 percent – and was urging a sale.After initially resisting Elliott, the two sides reached a compromise, with Elliott gaining two board seats and BMC beginning to explore a sale last fall.
A number of buyout firms emerged during the auction process overrecent months, though by last week the Bain and Golden Gate consortium took the lead.
“After a thorough review of strategic alternatives, the BMC board of directors is pleased to reach this agreement, which provides shareholders with immediate and substantial cash value, aswell as a premium to our unaffected share price,” Robert E. Beauchamp, BMC’s chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.
Jesse Cohn, the Elliott portfolio manager who led the firm’s campaign,added: “Elliott applaudsthe BMC Software boardand executive leadership for delivering this value-maximizing outcome for stockholders, which both contains a go-shopprovision and reflects what we believe is a substantial premium to BMC’s unaffected stock price.”
As part of the deal, BMCwill have 30 days to try to find higher bids.
Credit Suisse , the Royal Bank of Canada and Barclays will provide debt financing.
BMC was advised by Morgan Stanley , Bank ofAmerica Merrill Lynch and the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen& Katz. The investors received financial advice from Qatalyst Partners, the boutique bank run by Frank P. Quattrone ; Credit Suisse;RBC Capital Markets; and Barclays.
The investor group was counseled by Kirkland& Ellis and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

European Central Bank has cut rates to a record low .

The central bank, meeting in Bratislava, cut its benchmark interest rate to 0.5 percent from 0.75 percent, which was already a record low. It was the first change in interest rates since July 2012 and the bank’s fourth cut since Mario Draghi took over as its president in November 2011.
The central bank will continue providing unlimited loans to banksat the benchmark interest rate “as long as needed” and at least until mid-2014, Mr. Draghi said at a news conference after the announcement.
Even at its new low of 0.5 percent, the European Central Bank’sbenchmark rate remainshigher than the 0.25 percent rate the FederalReserve has had in place since late 2008. On Wednesday, the Fedsaid it would maintain its stimulus campaign , buying $85 billion a month in Treasury and mortgage-backed securities. The Fed added that it would consider adjusting its efforts to spur growth and reduce unemployment in the United States.
A cut by the European Central Bank was widelyexpected after a series of economic indicators in recent weeks foreshadowing an extended downturn in the euro zone, with recession even threatening the seemingly unstoppable German economy. On Thursday, two stalwarts of corporate Germany, BMW and Siemens, warned of lower profits for 2013 because of the downturn in European markets.

Tips to Prevent Credit Card Fraud

credit card fraud hasbecome a $6 billion problemfor businesses, increasing by 87 percent since 2010. As incidents of data breaches and credit card fraud continue to grow, businessesmust be more aware in protecting themselves.
To help businesses guard against such issues, Rob Bertke, senior vice president of research and development at Sage North America, offers the followingtips to businesses of all sizes to help them stay protected.
Immediately deal with any breach — It's critical to understand that even if all cautious, conservative steps are taken, and the best payment-processing securityis installed, a breach can still occur.
If it does, you must have detailed credit card sales records to refer back to as a means of retracing your steps. This will help in determining when and where the breach took placeand therefore mitigate the potential for additional losses. Furthermore, a properassessment of the initial attack may ultimately provide a trail back to the source of the data breach .
Maintain PCI Compliance — Not only is it against card brand regulations if you're not Payment Card Industry (PCI)-compliant when accepting credit or debit cards, but it's also an absolute must in today's economic climate.
Make certain your payment-processing software security is current and is PA-DSS (Payment Application Data Security Standard)-certified, and that your business receives its PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) certification.
PCI certification provides a level of confidence and assurance that a processor has followed and passed a robust set of best practices for securing the information being processed when credit card payments are made.
Use end-to-end encryption for all sensitive data — End-to-end encryption (E2EE) essentially boils downto scrambling the data sent from one device to another. It starts with your payment capture devices, and goes allthe way to the transaction being authorized.
E2EE technology prevents the card account data from being stolen electronically and lessens the cost and impact for your business to become PCI-certified. A company's mobile payment devices, credit card terminals, software applications and online payment portals need built-in encryption functionality when transmitting customer information.
Prevent tampering — Make certain all employees tasked with the responsibility of accepting credit and debit cards from customers have a working understanding of the looks and functionality ofthe payment processing equipment they're using.
Scammers often try to tamper with a business's payment processing equipment in an effort to steal credit card information. Altered equipment usually consists of a small piece of hardware physically attached to the terminal itself.
An attentive employee who knows what to look for should be able to easily identify an extra attachment to the device or oddly functioning software.
Refrain from storing credit card numbers — To avoid one of the biggest PCI compliance risks, you shoulddo everything in your powerto not store credit card numbers. Look for a payments provider whose platform is designed so credit card information is never stored at your business site or on your business software.
Your provider should be able to process the transaction and then store your customers' card information in a secure vault in the cloud. They should provide you with an encrypted ID,

Risky Asset (defintion)

An investment with a return that is not guaranteed. Assets carry varying levels of risk . For example, holding a corporate bond is generally lessrisky than holding a stock . Government bonds are generally not considered risky assets. A risky asset should not be confused with a risk asset .