Business news in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“The general trend is still positive, and that’s consistent with a pickup in the overall

economy.We look for things to pick up.” Scott Brown, Raymond James & Associates Inc. chief economist, on the improving job market Article, 1DEU reaches deal on bank-failure agency

European Union lawmakers Thursday struck a deal on legislation to create a single agency to handle failing euro-area banks after a night of negotiations ahead of a summit of European Union leaders that started Thursday in Brussels.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble was drawn into the talks just before dawn Thursday as the discussion pressed on and negotiators appealed to nations that had taken the hardest line against speeding up decision-making and funding for the proposed Single Resolution Mechanism. Lawmakers emerged later in the morning with a deal, which now will need formal approval by the European Parliament and by national governments.

“The elements agreed will help to ensure that the system cannot become a hostage to political power games and can deliver swift and credible decisions,” the European People’s Party, the European Union assembly’s biggest group, said in a statement.

Schaeuble welcomed the agreement, which he said addresses legal questions that had held up the negotiating process. “Our goal was a sensible decision-making mechanism with effective control of the resources and a minimization of risks to taxpayers,” he said in a statement.

Euro-area banks will fill the new agency’s companion fund over eight years under the agreement struck after 16 hours of talks. Funds will stay in national compartments during that transition period. After three years, about 70 percent of the fund will be available to all participating nations.

30-year mortgage rate falls to 4.32%

WASHINGTON - Average U.S. rates on fixed mortgages declined last week, edging closer to historically low levels.

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate for the 30-year loan fell to 4.32 percent from 4.37 percent last week. The average for the 15-year mortgage eased to 3.32 percent from 3.38 percent.

Mortgage rates have risen about a full percentage point since hitting record lows roughly a year ago.

The increase was driven by speculation that the Federal Reserve would reduce its $85 billion-a-month bond purchases, which have helped keep long-term interest rates low.

The Fed said after its latest two-day policy meeting that even after it raises short-term interest rates, the job market strengthens and inflation rises, the central bank expects its benchmark short-term rate to stay unusually low.

To calculate average mortgage rates, Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., surveys lenders across the country between Monday and Wednesday each week. The average doesn’t include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. One point equals 1 percent of the loan amount.

The average fee for a 30-year mortgage was unchanged at 0.6 point. The fee for a 15-year loan also held steady at 0.6 point.

Payments made to NYC-blast victims

NEW YORK - Con Edison has made compensation payments to nearly 90 survivors and residents displaced by the fatal explosion last week in New York City.

The company said the payments were made March 13, a day after the blast.

This week, federal investigators found a leak in the gas main near one of the two East Harlem apartment buildings that were leveled.

Eight people were killed, and more than 60 people were injured.

Con Ed spokesman Robert McGee says the company made 87 payments to people who were injured or lost their homes. He declined to provide the average amount paid for each victim.

He told the Wall Street Journal that the payments were made after “one-on-one” meetings with the victims.

  • The Associated Press

IT firm to digitize Vatican manuscripts

VATICAN CITY - A Japanese information technology company has agreed to digitize 3,000 Vatican manuscripts in a deal to make some of the Catholic Church’s most historic documents available online.

The Vatican Apostolic Library says it hopes Thursday’s announced agreement with Tokyo-based NTT Data Corp.

would protect fragile manuscripts for perusal by scholars worldwide.

NTT Data said it would digitize 3,000 manuscripts totaling 1.5 million pages over the next four years in a contract worth $22.6 million.

The company’s president, Toshio Iwamoto, told a Vatican press conference he hoped NTT ultimately would make 82,000 manuscripts totaling 41 million pages accessible by computer.

The Vatican Library, founded in 1451, is one of the world’s most important research libraries. It has 180,000 manuscripts; 1.6 million books; and 150,000 prints, drawings and engravings.

  • The Associated Press

Madoff aides’ trial delayed over ill juror

Jury deliberations in the trial of five former aides to Bernard Madoff accused of aiding his $17.5 billion Ponzi scheme were delayed a second day Thursday because of a sick juror, prompting the judge presiding over the case to call a hearing in Manhattan federal court.

The panel had met for two days before the juror became ill. The defendants are charged with using millions of fake account statements and trade confirmations to trick customers of Madoff’s investment firm into believing they owned shares in the world’s biggest companies.

For decades, the victims’ money was used to enrich the firm’s wealthiest clients, give employees exorbitant pay and keep the Ponzi scheme in business, the government alleged. During the five-month criminal trial, the first stemming from the scheme, prosecutors claimed each defendant was essential to keeping the fraud going.

If convicted, the defendants face as long as 20 years in prison on the most serious count of securities fraud.

Madoff pleaded guilty but declined to cooperate with the government. He is serving a 150-year prison sentence.

  • Bloomberg News

Business, Pages 28 on 03/21/2014

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