more than 240 lives. the heavy rains that began falling in august have stopped for now but aid agencies in pakistan's government are struggling to help the victims. those are the top stories from cnn, the world's news leader. "world business today" starts right now. hello and a warm welcome. >> i'm nina dos santos at cnn london. these are the top stories on friday, september 16th. finance ministers arrive for a high-level powwow in poland as they try to bring europe's debt crisis to a close. >> ubs, it reels from a fallout of a $2 billion loss. the swiss bank is facing a major overhaul. and a memo leaked to cnn warns of more job losses to come at rbs on top of 27,500 axed. the euro zone finance ministers meet in poland today. the hope is they'll show the same degree of unity and coordination that many of the world's key central bankers did on thursday in confronting europe's debt crisis. the central banks of britain, japan and switzerland move to pump dollars into europe's commercial lenders. it was all an effort to shore up liquidity. that's given stock markets a welcome boost. nina, what are you seeing over there? >> yeah, manisha, broadly speaking they are up except for the cac 40, down by 0.25%. the green arrows demonstrate what could happen when the world central bankers get together and act in unity. that's particularly interesting because we'll see euro zone finance minister's meeting later today. we take a look at the impact of the cash injection on what it might mean for europe's debt crisis later on in the very show when we go over to jim bolden. this is how the markets are reacting, broadly speaking positive, with the exception of the cac 40 that just continues to fall as i talk. let's take a look at how the currency markets are faring. the euro is down by 0.5%. the currency rose a full cent against the u.s. dollar when we had news about the concerted central bank action to pump more liquidity into euro zone banks. the pound has slipped against the green back in today's session, taking a look at the yen, that replains flat against the u.s. currency trading at 76. 6 at the moment. this thing you were eluding to, the idea that the central banks were coordinated and if we see the same thing from eco fin, that would be a great booster. the evidence shows coordinated action internationally is what the markets needed. a pep up here is very much an echo of what we're seeing in europe so far. i think the numbers can tell it all, really. you've got some indexes here where some the key bellwether stocks are exposed to that european market in particular. you have the nikkei, big exporting country there. eyes on what's happening in the currency markets. a huge boost in sentiment given the action we saw from the central banks this week. obviously people are looking for more. another interesting thing to mention, gold. coming down more than 4.5% this week. gold, normally people flock to it in terms of uncertainty. interesting it should be pulling back this week, nina. >> interesting indeed. the fact that u.s. markets look set for a slightly lower open when trading begins. this is where we stand in terms of the premarket action. must stress we're a number of hours away from the opening bell on wall street. after some pretty substantial gains on some of the u.s. markets yesterday, because we had that con certified action coming out around about the time of the opening bell, that market seems poised for profit-taking, albeit down by about 0.3%. >> the inflow of cash into europe's beleaguered banks may have lifted the markets but christine lagarde isn't mincing her words when it coming to describing the severity of the economic problems the world is facing. >> i was certainly living through very troubled time at the moment with great economic anxiety. exactly three years ago after the collapse of lehman brothers, the economy skies today look troubled. they look turbulent, as global activity slows and downside risks increase. we have entered into a dangerous phase of the crisis. >> you've been warned. lagarde says the global economy is mired in a crisis of confidence. and that the problem is being made worse by, quote, policy indecision and political dysfunction. she's calling on european leaders to take bold, collective action to deal with the debt problems that are threatening to strangle europe's already anemic economic recovery. >> and ms. lagarde will have an eye on that meeting of the euro zone finance ministers in poland where the continent's debt crisis will be top of the agenda. timothy geithner will be joining those european finance ministers at that very get-together. that's an indication of just how seriously the united states is taking europe's sovereign debt problems. cnn's jim bolden is in poland and joins with us a preview of what's going on there and what we can expect. i had there, jim. lagarde, fighting talk from the former french finance minister whoin tre who interestingly enough was trueing to draw a consensus there this time last year. >> she is looking for a consensus or a consensus statement out of the people meeting here over the next two days. what's so interesting really is that the euro zone finance ministers have been meeting for several hours. they kicked off very early on friday morning. the reason for that they wanted to have four or five hours of meetings with the euro group and go into the larger meeting with the others. it's going to be very important for the markets to get some sense that there is a sense that these people here will do something bold, some action, some words, maybe even more than words to go along with what we saw the central banks do. yesterday, the unity from the certa central banks. those meetings are already under way. then in the afternoon, that's when you see the imf and timothy geithner joining with the larger group. here's a bit of a preview of what we might expect. >> the finishing touches have been added to this convention center, ahead two of days of meetings between europe's financial big wigs. it's an informal meeting of the 27 eu finance ministers and central bank governors. they happen often and mostly go unnoticed. this time it's different. the fear of greece defaulting on its debt have shined a bright light on this gathering and brought u.s. treasury secretary timothy geithner back to europe for the second time in a week, to the delight of the meeting's host. >> i think it's very important that he's coming. you'll have to talk to him about his intentions. we're extremely pleased. we think it's very important we have an outside view. >> the polish finance minister says the euro zone only has a matter of months to try and restore confidence in the euro, the very foundation of the european union as an institution. >> this is why we have to really mobilize ourselves and make sure none of these threats materialize. >> talk will not help greece pay its bills. the country's leaders vow they will meet deficit targets in order to get an already agreed upon second bailout. europe's finance ministers here will be asked if their countries will keep pushing for increased bailout funds for greece and other indebted countries. these finance ministers remember all too well the financial market chaos caused by the failure ever lehman brothers investment bank three years ago this week. >> and nina, timothy geithner isn't just coming here to listen. there's a lot of talk on the wires that he's going to come with an idea, a plan similar to what they did in the u.s. after lehman's collapse, that they'd be able to help the bailout fund grow even larger and use the bailout fund in a more sophisticated way. meaning a lot more money would be available for greece, portugal and ireland. nina. >> more money, hopefully not too much more talk. jim bolden, from poland, where he's covering that all-important meeting. an internal memo leaked to cnn suggests that royal bank of scotland is about to cut even more jobs. this is on top of or potentially part of thousands that the company's already eliminating. the e-mail was sent to staff at the bank's market division across europe, the middle east and also africa on thursday. and inside it, peter nielson, the global head of markets says and i quote, we are now pro-prosing further head count reductions across the market and gbm treasury group. i appreciate these would be unsettling times but would ask you to focus on execution and stay close to your clients since being handed the biggest bailout in financial history in 2008, this is a company that's announced no less than 27,500 layoffs worldwide over 21,000 of those will be across the united kingdom. since the credit crisis first started, the financial sector has been hemorrhaging jobs. european banks say the industry needs to shed about 270,000 positions, aside from the likes of rbs, hsbc already announced it will be cutting about 30,000 positions by the year 2013 when it comes to barclays and other uk lenders, it will be losing some 3,000 workers. and cnn's sources also say ubs is headed for a major shake-up after a lone trader allegedly ran up a multibillion dollar loss. insiders tell us this may be the catalyst for a sweeping overhaul at the swiss bank. that could include carving its investment and private banking businesses in two. all of this comes after derivatives trader was arrested in the uk on thursday. reuters and other british outlets identify him as kweku abodoli. his last message on facebook reads, need a miracle. that account has since been removed from the site. to give you an idea of the amount of money here, ubs says it could put it in the red next quarter. it will also cancel out any savings that the bank hoped to make from the 3,500 job cuts made last month. nina? >> manisha, very unpopular times for investment banking. one former board member of ubs told me, quote, unquote, we all know the glory days of investment banking have gone and a lot of these job cuts at rbs, ubs, hsbc are often coming from the investment bank iing. subs now on review for a possible downgrade because it's worried about how this bank handles its risk. many people are wondering how that $2 billion trading loss actually slipped through the cracks. >> the products are so complicated these days that only the traders kind of understand them. the chance that management understands it is already a lot smaller and that top management understands it is pretty remote. i think the products are too complicated, the banks are too large. it doesn't serve anybody. >> will this lead to more regulation, do you think? >> i think regulation is kind of in place and everybody's trying to do the best they can. the problem is, the products are so complicated that the management doesn't understand it and they can't be regulated almost. they're too complicated. so i think the only way to solve this is to make the banks smaller, for them to be, you know, smaller beasts almost. >> parliament is debating whether it should further regulate the country's banks by tightening the balance sheets. ubs was bailed out at the height of the crisis. had to raise 4 billion as a result of losses linked to the credit crunch. if you want to read more about the huge loss at ubs, what caused it and what it could mean in terms of big changes in the way the bank operates, i've been blogging about that subject online. you can find it at cnn.com/biz360. logon and let us know what you think. >> do check out the blogs. they're fascinating. this is "world business today." stock prices moved up on that word that central banks will make dollars available. what does the liquidity plan boil down to in the long term? we'll find out. that's just ahead. in a matter . hi. hi. you know i can save you 15% today if you open up a charge card account with us. you just read my mind. 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[ male announcer ] while no one can stop all identity theft, if the criminals do manage to steal your information, lifelock is there to help fix it with our $1 million service guarantee. that's right. a $1 million service guarantee. don't wait until you become the next victim. call now to try lifelock risk free for 2 full months. that's right, 60 days risk free. use promo code: norisk. if you're not completely satisfied, notify lifelock and you won't pay a cent. order now and also get this document shredder to keep your personal documents out of the wrong hands. a $29 value, free! get the protection you need right now. call or go to lifelock.com to try lifelock risk free for a full 60 days. use promo code: norisk. plus get this document shredder, free! but only if you act right now. call now! lifelock service guarantee cannot be offered to residents of new york. live from cnn hong kong and london, this is "world business today." a warm welcome back. let's go back to one of our top stories this hour. stock indices worldwide have been moving up with news that several major central banks plan to loan u.s. dollars to commercial bankers. let's take a closer look at this particular move. the coordinated liquidity response will make sure that nonu.s. banks have access to all the dollars they need as american lenders back away from europe's debt crisis in lending to some european banks. the money will be made available throughout ecb in a series of three-month loans. it all kicks off as of the 12th of october, my birthday. concerns over the ability of european banks to borrow dollars has been a major factor in some of the sliding share prices we've seen. as you probably well know, this has taken a huge hit on companies like societe generale and others. >> he points out that the restored confidence is helpful but doesn't really change the fundament fundamentals. >> it is a very bold step taken by the ecb, the federal reserve and some other central banks around the globe. not 100% sure it really ends the euro crisis despite the excitement on wall street and in europe in terms of shares of big banks soaring on this news. it will help restore confidence in the fragile big european banks, particularly the french banks that got hit by a credit downgrade. but it doesn't really change the fundamentals in terms of greece still being very loaded with debt and facing a possible default if there is no swift action taken to help get greece in better financial shape. despite all the talk from european officials, including germany's angela merkel, this doesn't really make a difference, i think, in the sense that you still need greece to be dealt with. if they default, how is that handled? is it done in an orderly way? if it's not orderly, all this liquidity that's provided to the big banks, it may last for a few weeks or months even at most. that really didn't do the anything to change the negative picture for big european banks and that's something i think a lot of people still need to be worried about. >> at a basic level things haven't really changed. that was paul la monica speaking from cnn money there. take a look at the cnn money website. right now it has a great read on the $76 billion cash pile apple is signature on and why it's not sharing the wealth with investors. take a look. on cnnmoney.com. manisha, it's quite possible some of our viewers will be looking that up on a tablet computer. with growth of nearly more than 300%, tablet computers are a hot trend. when we come back, we'll take a look at the ball are for market share in this booming sector. nationwide insurance, what's up ? what's vanishing deductible all about ? guys, it's demonstration time. let's blow carl's mind. okay, let's say i'm your insurance deductible. every year you don't have an accident, $100 vanishes. the next year, another $100. where am i going, carl ? the next year... that was weird. but awesome ! ♪ nationwide is on your side good to have you with us. it's "world business today." here are some of the other top business stories we're following for you throughout the course of this show. the computer giant hewlett-packard may be facing a class-action lawsuit from shareholders. investors are furious about a series of major decisions such as, for instance, the closing of its touchpad line which caused hewlett-packard stock to plunge 20% in just one day. here's a horror story from the movie rental netflix. its customer base is shrinking thanks to rising prices. the company boasted almost 26 million customers at the end of the last quarter. three months later, it's forecasting 24 million customers. the company says its price increases are necessary to offset higher licensing costs. netflix ended thursday's trading session down almost 19%. research in motion watched its share price wither on the vine after it announce ed grim second quarter earniningearning. smartphone sales were also down for the period and now, rim's stock price is now just under $24 a share in after-hours trading. so say plunging on the back of that news. well, let's talk more about tablet computers. they'll expand their share of the market pie to 17% this year. this is according to idc, the london-based research firm. the growth in tablet computer sales was 303% in the second quarter of 2011. it's a very big number. now, in the same time frame, personal computer sales grew at just a paltry 2.6%. but that growth in tablet sales doesn't mean an equal spread of wealth among companies. ramy inocencio has been looking at all of this and has details for us. it's ridiculous. i have two tablet computers. one has more tech than the other. >> you're driving up those numbers right there, manisha. looking at the big picture, tablet sales are set to keep that up growth trend. we see one big winner while others shrink or disappear from the tablet world. the 10.8 inch and 59.5 inch galapagos will no longer be sold, it's said. the line was only launched in december. they samed to sell 1 million tablets but consumers haven't been all that interested. because they're just hasn't been much content developed for them. now, the shrinking of sharp follows hp's announcement just last month to totally stop production of its touchpad tablets. it's probably no surprise why sharp and hp are falling away. it's because of one company and that, of course, is apple. a recent report shows when consumers think that buy a tablet pc, they actually think of the ipad and that's about 85% of them. samsung's galaxy comes in at number two, just about 4% here. the touch pad and the playbook, not too far behind with just about 2% right here. research firm idc is april to june sales do bear out this statistic right here. nearly seven of every ten tablets sold in the second quarter of the year were ipads, that's up from about 66% in quarter one. meantime, android's market share was this amount, 26.8% in the second quarter. down from 34% in the first quarter and this is expected to fall, actually, because of what's happening with the hp touchpad. and finally, research in motion, com