Source: www.nytimes.com

LONDON, March 23 In the snow-covered mountains of Davos, Switzerland, top executives of Barclays, the British bank, and ABN Amro, a Dutch rival, ran into each other at the World Economic Forum in January.

Among other things, they shared their sense of intrigue at the
possibility of working together to create a global banking group that
might rival HSBC Holdings.
With growth limited at home, particularly as regulators move to block
local takeovers, numerous large European banks are finding that buying
rivals abroad can be a more viable route to expansion.

But as with previous such discussions between ABN and Barclays over the
last two years, nothing happened. Then along came the Children�s
Investment Fund, a London hedge fund that is known for building up a
sizable stake in an underperforming company to put pressure on
management to turn around its performance. Now Barclays and ABN are on
the verge of a deal.

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Gov. Haley Barbour on Thursday signed a new law designed to shore up
Mississippi’s insurer of last resort and to bring economic stability to
a state still recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

After Katrina plowed across the state Aug. 29, 2005, insurance prices for
homeowners and businesses increased sharply in some areas, stagnating
redevelopment on the coast.

The bill Barbour signedThursday is designed to strengthen the Mississippi Windstorm
Underwriting Association, often called the wind pool. The association
provides coverage in areas insurance companies deem too risky. The bill
became law immediately.

One of our goals here, one of the purposes of the wind pool, is to
make insurance available and to make it affordable, Barbour said. By
keeping these rates lower, we not only keep rates lower for people on
the coast, we keep rates lower for people all over the state.

The law gives the state’s roughly 32,000 wind pool policy holders a price
break on premiums, which Barbour said would lower rates statewide.
Lawmakers had estimated the relief would be $500 a year for each policy
holder. It will be provided for four years from taxes paid on insurance
policies throughout the state.However, Barbour said at the bill signing that he was not sure how much of a break each policy holder could expect.

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The Australian residential
property market has slowed down, with demand for home finance falling
sharply under the combined impact of three rate hikes in 2006 and
deteriorating home loan affordability.

The Housing Industry
Association (HIA) said rising interest rates have dampened home
building activity and high land prices and regulatory costs are making
houses more unaffordable.

First home buyers have been most badly
affected by deteriorating affordability and higher interest rates, with
the share of all dwellings financed by first home buyers at 17.4 per
cent in September, compared with an historic average of 21.8 per cent.

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In a country that breathes and sleeps cricket its ubiquity pans across ordinary people to the who�s who of the land. While they are busy running their businesses, they also take time off to cheer for their men in blue, some mixing business with pleasure. Sulekha Nair and Banasree Purkayastha find out some of the honchos westward and how they intend to get the most out of the World Cup

I am off for the World Cup. You cannot be not supporting India even if you believe that they may not be the best team? So, I will be true to the men in blue!" says Jiggy George, director, Cartoon Network Enterprises. With the level of enthusiasm for the World Cup increasing by the day, no wonder corporate India is busy seeing off its honchos heading for sun, sand and cricket, not necessarily in that order.

While the distance and the lack of awareness regarding the Caribbean may have been an initial dampner, corporate executives are working out travel plans in the US to pack in a few matches in the midst of swinging deals. Says Sunil Jhangiani, CEO, Chemistry, part of ESJ House, which export garments, who is going to Antigua for a week. "I will be be in New York in the last week of March.

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Jeffrey A. McDermott, one of three global heads of investment banking at UBS, will leave June 30 after six years at the bank, according to a company memo.

Mr. McDermott, 48, is leaving �to pursue outside entrepreneurial opportunities,� according to a memo sent to employees yesterday.

The memo�s contents were confirmed by Rohini Pragasam, a spokeswoman in New York, who declined to comment further.

UBS�s global investment banking division, which advises clients on takeovers and equity and debt underwriting, is jointly led by Mr. McDermott, J. Richard Leaman III and Alexander Wilmot-Sitwell, who is based in London. Mr. Leaman and Mr. Wilmot-Sitwell will continue as co-heads of the division, the memo said.

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It�s true that many in the Korean financial industry are either excellent in their professional skills but poor in English or excellent in English but poor in their professional skills.

A report from the Swiss International Institute for Management Development (IMD) also noted that among 60 countries that it had surveyed, Korea ranked only 48th in terms of the level of the professional expertise of its workers in the financial industry. Only 8.9 percent of the workers in the industry have a good command of English in addition to finance-related degrees or certifications and five-to-six years job experience, as compared to 51 percent in Singapore and 43 percent in Hong Kong. This clearly shows how far behind Korea is compared to other Asian countries in terms of the development of capable financial specialists.

As in any other industry, the financial sector is so dependent on manpower that the development of skilled finance professionals and the effective utilization of their skills are generally believed to be the bases of success in this field. This is especially true in the insurance industry, which traditionally has a weaker professional-human-resources pool compared to the securities and banking industries. In the insurance industry, obtaining enough skilled professionals is the top priority.

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