Wednesday Papers: Accounting change set to burden companies - other news

Financial Times

* Under a radical overhaul of lease accounting proposed by US and international standard setters, the liabilities of many companies would increase as they are forced to move rented assets such as aircraft, ships, shops and even photocopiers on to their balance sheets.

* Emmet Sullivan, US district judge, on Tuesday criticised Barclays’ $298m deal with the US authorities to settle charges of facilitating payments that violated sanctions against countries including Cuba and Iran.

* Aegon on Tuesday announced that it had agreed to a series of commercial controls in return for final approval from Brussels of the €3bn bail-out it received from the Dutch government during the financial crisis.

* FTEN, a privately held risk management company, on Tuesday said it had been awarded a patent for technology that would allow market participants and regulators a way to monitor risk in “real-time”, across market platforms.

* The Mannheim-based ZEW institute said on Tuesday that its economic sentiment indicator for Germany had fallen by a further 7.2 points to 14 points in August, the lowest since April 2009.

* The FTSE All-World stock index is up 1.1%; the S&P 500 index closed up 1.2%; the Nikkei 225 average fell 0.4%; Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index is up 0.1%; the S&P/ASX 200 index added 0.9%.

* The US should tread cautiously as it seeks to overhaul Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Tim Geithner, Treasury secretary, said on Tuesday.

* China will allow foreign central banks and overseas lenders substantially to increase investment in its domestic interbank bond market.

* Crime gangs target insider dealing as they cash in on financial fraud.

* Inflation fell to 3.1% in July but remained more than one percentage point above the Bank of England’s target, forcing Mervyn King, Bank governor, to write to the chancellor to explain why inflation is so high.

* The City jobs market is proving remarkably buoyant, despite concerns that economic recovery may be faltering, according to Morgan McKinley.