The growing prospect of new European Union sanctions against Russia knocked the rouble back to 90 per euro for the first time in a week on Friday as the central bank kept interest rates unchanged and hinted at a tighter policy on the horizon.
By Reuters Staff
2 Min Read
Feb 11 (Reuters) - New York-based municipal bond insurer MBIA Inc’s unit MBIA Insurance Corp entered an agreement to settle a litigation it filed in 2009 against lender Credit Suisse and certain affiliated entities over property debt in the United States.
The settlement followed a post-trial decision by a court awarding MBIA about $604 million in damages, MBIA said in a statement on Thursday.
Pursuant to the settlement, Credit Suisse has paid MBIA Corp $600 million, it said. But following the settlement agreement, the court dismissed the action, it added.
MBIA sued Credit Suisse, the second-biggest bank in Switzerland, in 2009 over hundreds of millions of dollars it paid out to compensate investors after thousands of property mortgages failed in the United States.
5 Min Read
Feb 11 (Reuters) - A slower-than-expected vaccine rollout and the rise of coronavirus variants may make attaining herd immunity against COVID-19 difficult, but that should not stop the economy from rebounding, according to a U.S. central banker Thursday.
“I don’t think the economy requires herd immunity,” Richmond Federal Reserve Bank President Thomas Barkin told Reuters Thursday. “Consumers who get vaccines, who have money in their pockets.are going to be free to spend,” he said.
Analysts have long predicted economic activity will pick up as more people are vaccinated, but hopes for a quick path to a fully immunized populace have faded amid vaccine shortages and other roadblocks. President Joe Biden said earlier this week it will be “challenging” for the economy to reach herd immunity by summer’s end. Barkin’s remarks signal a growing understanding that an economic rebound and an ongoing pandemic are not mutually exclusive realities.
(Adds Yellen meeting with Biden)
PARIS, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Group of Seven finance ministers are likely to back a new allocation of the International Monetary Fund’s own currency, or special drawing rights, to help low-income countries hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, when they meet online on Friday, sources said.
A new issuance is similar to when a central bank prints money as the new SDRs give each IMF member more reserves to draw on in proportion to their shareholding in the Fund.
Officials from the United States, the IMF’s biggest shareholder, have signalled they are open to a new issuance of $500 billion, sources said - a clear shift in position under the administration of new U.S. President Joe Biden.
According to Greek myth, the multi-headed Hydra would immediately regrow a head after one was chopped off. The serpentine creature, eventually slain by the wily Hercules, comes to mind as governments and medical professionals grapple with mutations of Covid-19. Though vaccines.