BISCOM News

It's more than a decade since the OECD began its attacks on "unfair tax competition" in concert with the Financial Action Task Force and the supposedly independent Financial Stability Forum. But now, as industrialised countries plan a meeting in London to further batter the so-called-tax havens, the resolve of some countries is weakening - and threatens to pull down many of the benefits of investing outside one's own country.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's case against Allen Stanford is making slow progress: but the FBI's case is seemingly going even more slowly. Yesterday, the FBI was reduced to advertising for anyone claiming to be a victim to come forward. Usually, victims are rushing to be heard, so this is very different.

The rotting corpse that is HBOS is beginning to poison Lloyds. The newly renamed Lloyds Banking Group's shares are plunging, there is talk of a full nationalisation and the chairman of the Financial Services Authority has appeared to suggest that there might have been other ways of saving HBOS instead of the shotgun takeover.

One of Obama's first steps was to freeze pay for senior government servants. Now his Treasury has formed a scheme to limit pay for senior executives in financial institutions that receive state aid. It will be a major shock to many.

A report published yesterday says that almost 90% of Malaysians think that those embroilled in corruption scandals should be barred from public office.

Four former deputy governors of Indonesia's central bank are now on trial on charges of embezzlement and corruption.

The government of Zimbabwe has surrendered to the loss of confidence in the Zimbabwe dollar and announced that the parallel use of foreign currency is now permitted. Nigel Morris-Cotterill explains that this is good news - but there is a significant downside, too.

Welcome to www.BankingInsuranceSecurities.Com. We've been around since 2002 as WMLRO.Com. With more industry sectors, more subject areas and more news, WMLRO.Com has quietly migrated from a niche publication to one of much broader appeal. The change of name reflects the new approach.

Welcome to The Year Of The Ox. We are on annual leave for Chinese New Year. But when we return on 28th January, we will come back as BankingInsuranceSecurities.Com - your new destination for financial sector news, opinion and more.

Bank of America was hailed as the saviour of the universe, or at least that little bit of it that is Merrill Lynch when it agreed to buy out the bull last year. But deep down in the creatures bowels, something nasty was stirring. And now the question is, who's going to muck out the bull ring after B of A had to ask the US Government to allow it emergency funding because Merrill's figures were, er,... well, you get the picture.