March 17, 2011
By NICK BUNKLEY
DETROIT — General Motors said Thursday that it would temporarily shut a truck plant in Louisiana because it could not get enough Japanese-made parts, the first in what analysts say could be widespread disruptions at auto plants in North America because of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis half a world away.
That it was G.M. — rather than one of the Japanese automakers, which depend on many parts from their home country — that succumbed first to the shortage shows how much the industry depends on far-flung suppliers. But Toyota and Honda have shut their plants in Japan until next week as they try to repair damaged facilities, assess the state of their suppliers and determine how to restart production safely.
“The modern auto industry has never faced a natural or human calamity on the scale of today’s crisis in Japan,” Michael Robinet, the director of global production forecasts for the research firm IHS Automotive, wrote in a report Thursday.
G.M. said its assembly plant in Shreveport, La., which makes a pair of compact pickup truck models, would be closed for at least a week, starting Monday.
The company said it would resume operations there as soon as possible, but gave no estimated date for doing so.
“Like all global automakers, we will continue to follow the events in Japan closely to determine the business impact, working across the organization to maximize flexibility, supply the most critical operations and effectively manage cost,” G.M. said in a statement.
Production at Ford Motor has not been affected, but officials are still assessing the situation, Mark Fields, the president of Ford’s Americas division, said Thursday. “It’s literally an hour-by-hour, day-by-day type of thing that’s going to unfold,” he told reporters at an event to commemorate the start of production of the new Ford Focus compact car near Detroit. “We have to first understand what is the situation there, and then we’ll determine the appropriate actions that we need to take.”
So far, all auto plants in North America have stayed open despite the troubles in Japan, although Toyota and Subaru have canceled overtime shifts to slow production and avoid depleting part inventories.
In Japan, most plants remain closed. Mitsubishi began bringing plants back up Wednesday, and two Nissan plants in Kyushu restarted operations on Thursday, but Nissan was uncertain whether it could keep them running for more than a few days.
Toyota has said its Japanese plants would remain closed through at least Tuesday. Mr. Robinet said he expected the shutdowns across Japan to extend through the middle of next week, if not longer.
Each lost workday for the carmakers in Japan costs them a total of about 37,000 vehicles, Mr. Robinet said. He estimated a total loss of more than 285,000 vehicles, assuming most plants can be restarted within a week.
Every automaker faces slightly different circumstances. At Volvo, for example, about 10 percent of the parts come from 33 Japanese suppliers, seven of which were in the catastrophe area, including one on the edge of the nuclear security zone.
John Hoffecker, managing partner of AlixPartners, a consulting firm based in Detroit, said determining the viability of the supply base was extremely complicated and time-consuming. A plant that ships parts directly to a carmaker might have avoided physical damage, but it still cannot operate if a lower-tier supplier cannot fill orders.
An average vehicle has about 20,000 parts and depends on thousands of suppliers, and the sudden loss of any one could be enough to stop production, Mr. Hoffecker said.
“It’s a real scramble for everybody,” he said. “It could be a chemical plant that got hurt that supplies material to make plastic that goes into a door panel that goes to someone.”
For parts that are shipped by boat to North America, shortages could take about a month to materialize. But for lightweight, high-value parts like microchips that travel by plane, problems could crop up much faster.
G.M. declined to identify the parts in short supply at Shreveport or their manufacturer. A person with direct knowledge of the situation said just one part was involved and it was also used in other G.M. models built elsewhere in North America. G.M. is diverting parts that would have gone to Shreveport so it can continue building models that are more important or in shorter supply, said this person, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter and so spoke anonymously.
G.M. has more than two months’ worth of the Shreveport-made pickup trucks, the Chevrolet Colorado and the GMC Canyon, in its inventories, so halting their production is unlikely to hurt the company or its dealers in the short term. They are far less popular than G.M.’s full-size pickups, the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra; G.M. sold 32,634 Canyons and Colorados in 2010, down 26 percent from the previous year, compared with about 500,000 of its larger trucks.
In general, automakers do not reveal many details about their supplier network, and several declined to say this week how many of their parts come from Japan. John Fleming, Ford’s executive vice president for global manufacturing and labor affairs, said parts were imported from Japan for “a lot of our products,” without elaborating.
About 20 percent of the parts used by Hino Motors Manufacturing, a Japanese company that makes components for three Toyota models at a plant in Arkansas, come from Japan, according to Shinichi Sato, treasurer and secretary of Hino’s United States operations.
Liz Alderman contributed reporting from Paris, and Motoko Rich from Marion, Ark.
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17/03 Interests of Saudi Arabia and Iran Collide, With the U.S. in the Middle
March 17, 2011
By HELENE COOPER and MARK LANDLER
WASHINGTON — The brutal crackdown in Bahrain poses the greatest Middle East democracy dilemma yet to the Obama administration, deepening a rift with its most important Arab ally, Saudi Arabia, while potentially strengthening the influence of its biggest nemesis, Iran.
Relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia have chilled to their coldest since the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. Saudi officials, still angry that President Obama abandoned President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt in the face of demonstrations, ignored American requests not to send troops into Bahrain to help crush Shiite-led protests there. A tense telephone call between Mr. Obama and King Abdullah on Wednesday, Arab officials said, failed to ease the tensions.
“King Abdullah has been clear that Saudi Arabia will never allow Shia rule in Bahrain — never,” an Arab official who was briefed on the talks said. He said King Abdullah’s willingness to listen to the Obama administration had “evaporated” since Mr. Mubarak was forced from office.
The Saudi position is rooted in the royal family’s belief that a Shiite uprising next door in Bahrain could spread and embolden Saudi Arabia’s own minority Shiite population and increase Iranian influence in the kingdom, a fear that American officials share. But where Mr. Obama and King Abdullah have parted ways, administration officials say, is on how to handle the crisis.
American officials want Saudi Arabia and Bahrain to allow political reforms that could lead to more representation for Shiites under Sunni rule. During his telephone conversation with the Saudi king, Mr. Obama called for an end to the violence that has accelerated in Bahrain over the last few days.
He asked for a “political process as the only way to peacefully address the legitimate grievances of Bahrainis and to lead to a Bahrain that is stable, just, more unified and responsive to its people,” according to Jay Carney, the White House press secretary.
But “there’s not too much listening going on,” a senior administration official said, noting that Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton were forced to cancel visits to Saudi Arabia in recent days because the king was not willing to host them. (The official reason given was that he was ill.) “There appears to be a great deal of annoyance still,” added the official, speaking only on condition of anonymity.
A senior administration official noted Thursday that some Shiite opposition leaders had vowed not to respond in kind to the violent crackdown by the government, and to remain peaceful, raising hopes among members of the Obama administration that the Shiite opposition has not become radicalized and might still be amenable to political dialogue. “It suggests to me that the radicalization on the part of the moderate Shia has not yet occurred,” the official said.
But, he added, “Without question, there are people on the extreme end of the opposition who have been in touch with Iran.” He said that the Obama administration had tried to convey to its allies in the Persian Gulf that the governments were most at risk if they approached the unrest only from a standpoint of their own government security.
For the administration, the stakes are higher in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia than in any other Arab country facing unrest now.
“In terms of concrete American national security interests, Bahrain-Saudi Arabia is the place,” said Robert Malley, the Middle East and North Africa program director with the International Crisis Group. Saudi Arabia is the second largest foreign supplier of oil to the United States, and Bahrain is home to the United States Navy’s Fifth Fleet.
Even if the United States could wean itself from dependency on Saudi oil, the kingdom, home to the world’s largest petroleum reserves, still can rock global markets and slow economic recovery in the United States and around the world.
Beyond that, the United States has long viewed Saudi Arabia as a last bulwark against an ascendant Iran in a crucial region, and does not want Tehran stepping in to back Shiites in Bahrain or Saudi Arabia.
But where the United States and the Saudis split is over how to prevent Iran from gaining traction. While American officials say the Saudi and Bahraini governments can head off trouble by making political reforms, the Saudis believe that political reforms would only open the door to greater instability.
“Our message to Saudi Arabia is that if you want to avoid the fate of Mubarak, you need to move toward genuine and gradual reform,” said Mr. Malley of the Crisis Group. “But what the Saudis are hearing instead is that reform is actually the path to Mubarak’s fate.”
In many ways, Mr. Malley and other Middle East experts say, the crisis in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia makes dealing with Egypt and Tunisia look easy. While Egypt is another crucial American ally, Mr. Obama could publicly side with the protesters in Tahrir Square without roiling global oil markets or inviting in Iran.
The Obama administration has vested a lot of its hopes of resolving the conflict in Bahrain with the crown prince, Sheik Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, who is leading government efforts to start a dialogue with the protesters.
The prince, a 1992 graduate of American University in Washington, was described in a 2009 diplomatic cable made public by WikiLeaks as “very Western in his approach.”
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Opposition Leaders Arrested in Bahrain as Crackdown Grows
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By HELENE COOPER and MARK LANDLER
WASHINGTON — The brutal crackdown in Bahrain poses the greatest Middle East democracy dilemma yet to the Obama administration, deepening a rift with its most important Arab ally, Saudi Arabia, while potentially strengthening the influence of its biggest nemesis, Iran.
Relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia have chilled to their coldest since the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. Saudi officials, still angry that President Obama abandoned President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt in the face of demonstrations, ignored American requests not to send troops into Bahrain to help crush Shiite-led protests there. A tense telephone call between Mr. Obama and King Abdullah on Wednesday, Arab officials said, failed to ease the tensions.
“King Abdullah has been clear that Saudi Arabia will never allow Shia rule in Bahrain — never,” an Arab official who was briefed on the talks said. He said King Abdullah’s willingness to listen to the Obama administration had “evaporated” since Mr. Mubarak was forced from office.
The Saudi position is rooted in the royal family’s belief that a Shiite uprising next door in Bahrain could spread and embolden Saudi Arabia’s own minority Shiite population and increase Iranian influence in the kingdom, a fear that American officials share. But where Mr. Obama and King Abdullah have parted ways, administration officials say, is on how to handle the crisis.
American officials want Saudi Arabia and Bahrain to allow political reforms that could lead to more representation for Shiites under Sunni rule. During his telephone conversation with the Saudi king, Mr. Obama called for an end to the violence that has accelerated in Bahrain over the last few days.
He asked for a “political process as the only way to peacefully address the legitimate grievances of Bahrainis and to lead to a Bahrain that is stable, just, more unified and responsive to its people,” according to Jay Carney, the White House press secretary.
But “there’s not too much listening going on,” a senior administration official said, noting that Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton were forced to cancel visits to Saudi Arabia in recent days because the king was not willing to host them. (The official reason given was that he was ill.) “There appears to be a great deal of annoyance still,” added the official, speaking only on condition of anonymity.
A senior administration official noted Thursday that some Shiite opposition leaders had vowed not to respond in kind to the violent crackdown by the government, and to remain peaceful, raising hopes among members of the Obama administration that the Shiite opposition has not become radicalized and might still be amenable to political dialogue. “It suggests to me that the radicalization on the part of the moderate Shia has not yet occurred,” the official said.
But, he added, “Without question, there are people on the extreme end of the opposition who have been in touch with Iran.” He said that the Obama administration had tried to convey to its allies in the Persian Gulf that the governments were most at risk if they approached the unrest only from a standpoint of their own government security.
For the administration, the stakes are higher in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia than in any other Arab country facing unrest now.
“In terms of concrete American national security interests, Bahrain-Saudi Arabia is the place,” said Robert Malley, the Middle East and North Africa program director with the International Crisis Group. Saudi Arabia is the second largest foreign supplier of oil to the United States, and Bahrain is home to the United States Navy’s Fifth Fleet.
Even if the United States could wean itself from dependency on Saudi oil, the kingdom, home to the world’s largest petroleum reserves, still can rock global markets and slow economic recovery in the United States and around the world.
Beyond that, the United States has long viewed Saudi Arabia as a last bulwark against an ascendant Iran in a crucial region, and does not want Tehran stepping in to back Shiites in Bahrain or Saudi Arabia.
But where the United States and the Saudis split is over how to prevent Iran from gaining traction. While American officials say the Saudi and Bahraini governments can head off trouble by making political reforms, the Saudis believe that political reforms would only open the door to greater instability.
“Our message to Saudi Arabia is that if you want to avoid the fate of Mubarak, you need to move toward genuine and gradual reform,” said Mr. Malley of the Crisis Group. “But what the Saudis are hearing instead is that reform is actually the path to Mubarak’s fate.”
In many ways, Mr. Malley and other Middle East experts say, the crisis in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia makes dealing with Egypt and Tunisia look easy. While Egypt is another crucial American ally, Mr. Obama could publicly side with the protesters in Tahrir Square without roiling global oil markets or inviting in Iran.
The Obama administration has vested a lot of its hopes of resolving the conflict in Bahrain with the crown prince, Sheik Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, who is leading government efforts to start a dialogue with the protesters.
The prince, a 1992 graduate of American University in Washington, was described in a 2009 diplomatic cable made public by WikiLeaks as “very Western in his approach.”
More in World (22 of 51 articles)
Opposition Leaders Arrested in Bahrain as Crackdown Grows
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17/03 F.D.I.C. Sues Ex-Chief of Big Bank That Failed
March 17, 2011
By ERIC DASH
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation sued the former chief executive of Washington Mutual and two of his top lieutenants, accusing them of reckless lending before the 2008 collapse of what was the nation’s largest savings bank.
The civil lawsuit, seeking to recover $900 million, is the first against a major bank chief executive by the regulator and follows escalating public pressure to hold bankers accountable for actions leading up to the financial crisis.
Kerry K. Killinger, Washington Mutual’s longtime chief executive, led the bank on a “lending spree” knowing that the housing market was in a bubble and failed to put in place the proper risk management systems and internal controls, according to a complaint filed on Thursday in federal court in Seattle.
David C. Schneider, WaMu’s president of home lending, and Stephen J. Rotella, its chief operation officer, were also accused of negligence for their roles in developing and leading the bank’s aggressive growth strategy.
“They focused on short-term gains to increase their own compensation, with reckless disregard for WaMu’s long-term safety and soundness,” the agency said in the 63-page complaint. “The F.D.I.C. brings this complaint to hold these highly paid senior executives, who were chiefly responsible for WaMu’s higher-risk home lending program, accountable for the resulting losses.”
In addition, the complaint says that Mr. Killinger and his wife, Linda, set up two trusts in August 2008 to keep his homes in California and Washington out of the reach of the bank’s creditors. Months earlier, in the spring of 2008, Mr. Rotella and his wife, Esther, made similar arrangements. The F.D.I.C. is seeking to freeze the assets of both couples and named the wives as defendants in the lawsuit.
In unusually vigorous denials, Mr. Killinger and Mr. Rotella came out swinging against the F.D.I.C. Mr. Killinger said the agency’s claims were “baseless and unworthy of the government” and its legal conclusions were “political theater.” Mr. Rotella said the action “runs counter to the facts about my relatively short time at the company,” calling it “unfair and an abuse of power.” He said the trust was for normal estate planning purposes and was set up before the bank’s downfall. Mr. Schneider, who is represented by the same lawyer as Mr. Rotella, did not release a public statement.
Although the F.D.I.C. is mainly known for its role in shuttering failed lenders, the agency has a legal obligation to bring lawsuits against former directors and officers when it finds evidence of wrongdoing.
So far, the F.D.I.C. has brought claims against 158 individuals at about 20 small banks that failed during the recent crisis. The agency is seeking a total of more than $2.6 billion in damages. But the $900 million case against the former WaMu officials is its biggest and most prominent action to date.
Federal regulators have come under fire for failing to hold executives responsible for their involvement in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Last fall, the Securities and Exchange Commission reached a settlement with Angelo R. Mozilo, the former chief executive of Countrywide Financial, to pay a $22.5 million penalty over misleading investors about the financial condition of the giant mortgage lender.
The New York attorney general’s office has brought a civil suit against Kenneth D. Lewis over improper disclosures related to the 2008 rescue of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America, of which he was chief executive.
But several investigations into the actions of executives at the American International Group, Lehman Brothers and other financial firms have stalled — especially criminal cases, which have a much higher burden of proof.
The F.D.I.C., meanwhile, has been under intense pressure to recoup as much money as possible on behalf of Washington Mutual bondholders, who were outraged over its sale in September 2008. Critics said the agency moved too quickly to seize the troubled bank, and then allowed JPMorgan Chase to snap up its assets and branches for a mere $1.8 billion. Ever since, they have unleashed a wave of litigation and asked lawmakers to hold hearings about the controversial rescue.
In his statement, Mr. Rotella suggested the lawsuit was a way for the F.D.I.C. to extract a windfall from directors’ and officers’ insurers, which would want to settle any claims.
The F.D.I.C. complaint says that Mr. Killinger and his top lieutenants took “extreme and historically unprecedented risks” as the savings bank plunged headlong into risky mortgage lending near the height of the housing boom. As experienced bankers, they should have tempered this growth strategy and improved risk management systems to reduce potential losses if the real estate market fell, according to the complaint.
Instead, according to the complaint, they ignored the warnings of the bank’s risk managers and sank deeper into the risky subprime lending and hot real estate markets, like Florida and California. Indeed, the complaint lists more than 26 areas in which they acted recklessly, including a failure to put adequate limits on the concentration of mortgages and employee compensation programs that encouraged high loan volume at the expense of loan quality. The complaint quotes Washington Mutual’s own chief risk officer as telling Mr. Killinger, just weeks before it was seized, that the “risk chromosome” was missing from the bank’s DNA.
In lengthy statements, Mr. Killinger and Mr. Rotella disputed the basic thrust of the F.D.I.C.’s case and reiterated their belief that Washington Mutual was prematurely and unfairly seized. They also insisted that they behaved prudently, acted with constant oversight of banking regulators and took strong action to shore up the bank’s finances when market conditions worsened in late 2007 and early 2008.
“Those initiatives — once applauded by the regulators as diligent and responsible management — have, through the alchemy of Washington, D.C., politics been turned into allegations of gross negligence,” Mr. Killinger said in a statement.
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By ERIC DASH
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation sued the former chief executive of Washington Mutual and two of his top lieutenants, accusing them of reckless lending before the 2008 collapse of what was the nation’s largest savings bank.
The civil lawsuit, seeking to recover $900 million, is the first against a major bank chief executive by the regulator and follows escalating public pressure to hold bankers accountable for actions leading up to the financial crisis.
Kerry K. Killinger, Washington Mutual’s longtime chief executive, led the bank on a “lending spree” knowing that the housing market was in a bubble and failed to put in place the proper risk management systems and internal controls, according to a complaint filed on Thursday in federal court in Seattle.
David C. Schneider, WaMu’s president of home lending, and Stephen J. Rotella, its chief operation officer, were also accused of negligence for their roles in developing and leading the bank’s aggressive growth strategy.
“They focused on short-term gains to increase their own compensation, with reckless disregard for WaMu’s long-term safety and soundness,” the agency said in the 63-page complaint. “The F.D.I.C. brings this complaint to hold these highly paid senior executives, who were chiefly responsible for WaMu’s higher-risk home lending program, accountable for the resulting losses.”
In addition, the complaint says that Mr. Killinger and his wife, Linda, set up two trusts in August 2008 to keep his homes in California and Washington out of the reach of the bank’s creditors. Months earlier, in the spring of 2008, Mr. Rotella and his wife, Esther, made similar arrangements. The F.D.I.C. is seeking to freeze the assets of both couples and named the wives as defendants in the lawsuit.
In unusually vigorous denials, Mr. Killinger and Mr. Rotella came out swinging against the F.D.I.C. Mr. Killinger said the agency’s claims were “baseless and unworthy of the government” and its legal conclusions were “political theater.” Mr. Rotella said the action “runs counter to the facts about my relatively short time at the company,” calling it “unfair and an abuse of power.” He said the trust was for normal estate planning purposes and was set up before the bank’s downfall. Mr. Schneider, who is represented by the same lawyer as Mr. Rotella, did not release a public statement.
Although the F.D.I.C. is mainly known for its role in shuttering failed lenders, the agency has a legal obligation to bring lawsuits against former directors and officers when it finds evidence of wrongdoing.
So far, the F.D.I.C. has brought claims against 158 individuals at about 20 small banks that failed during the recent crisis. The agency is seeking a total of more than $2.6 billion in damages. But the $900 million case against the former WaMu officials is its biggest and most prominent action to date.
Federal regulators have come under fire for failing to hold executives responsible for their involvement in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Last fall, the Securities and Exchange Commission reached a settlement with Angelo R. Mozilo, the former chief executive of Countrywide Financial, to pay a $22.5 million penalty over misleading investors about the financial condition of the giant mortgage lender.
The New York attorney general’s office has brought a civil suit against Kenneth D. Lewis over improper disclosures related to the 2008 rescue of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America, of which he was chief executive.
But several investigations into the actions of executives at the American International Group, Lehman Brothers and other financial firms have stalled — especially criminal cases, which have a much higher burden of proof.
The F.D.I.C., meanwhile, has been under intense pressure to recoup as much money as possible on behalf of Washington Mutual bondholders, who were outraged over its sale in September 2008. Critics said the agency moved too quickly to seize the troubled bank, and then allowed JPMorgan Chase to snap up its assets and branches for a mere $1.8 billion. Ever since, they have unleashed a wave of litigation and asked lawmakers to hold hearings about the controversial rescue.
In his statement, Mr. Rotella suggested the lawsuit was a way for the F.D.I.C. to extract a windfall from directors’ and officers’ insurers, which would want to settle any claims.
The F.D.I.C. complaint says that Mr. Killinger and his top lieutenants took “extreme and historically unprecedented risks” as the savings bank plunged headlong into risky mortgage lending near the height of the housing boom. As experienced bankers, they should have tempered this growth strategy and improved risk management systems to reduce potential losses if the real estate market fell, according to the complaint.
Instead, according to the complaint, they ignored the warnings of the bank’s risk managers and sank deeper into the risky subprime lending and hot real estate markets, like Florida and California. Indeed, the complaint lists more than 26 areas in which they acted recklessly, including a failure to put adequate limits on the concentration of mortgages and employee compensation programs that encouraged high loan volume at the expense of loan quality. The complaint quotes Washington Mutual’s own chief risk officer as telling Mr. Killinger, just weeks before it was seized, that the “risk chromosome” was missing from the bank’s DNA.
In lengthy statements, Mr. Killinger and Mr. Rotella disputed the basic thrust of the F.D.I.C.’s case and reiterated their belief that Washington Mutual was prematurely and unfairly seized. They also insisted that they behaved prudently, acted with constant oversight of banking regulators and took strong action to shore up the bank’s finances when market conditions worsened in late 2007 and early 2008.
“Those initiatives — once applauded by the regulators as diligent and responsible management — have, through the alchemy of Washington, D.C., politics been turned into allegations of gross negligence,” Mr. Killinger said in a statement.
More in Business Day (8 of 22 articles)
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16/03 みずほ銀、５７００億円未処理 ２日連続システム障害 震災とは無関係か
2011.3.16 21:44
. みずほ銀行は１６日、２日連続で発生したシステム障害の影響で、企業や個人から受け付けた約４４万件、総額約５７００億円の振り込みなどの手続きが未処理になっていることを明らかにした。現金自動預払機（ＡＴＭ）とインターネットによる振り込みサービスなどを停止し、未処理手続きを急ぐが、１７日中に完了するかどうかは不透明だ。
みずほ銀は１６日午前、外貨預金の取引を除くオンラインシステムが復旧したと発表していたが、夜間処理のシステムが正常に稼働していないことがわかった。原因は調査中としているが、東日本大震災との関連はないとみられる。
. みずほ銀行は１６日、２日連続で発生したシステム障害の影響で、企業や個人から受け付けた約４４万件、総額約５７００億円の振り込みなどの手続きが未処理になっていることを明らかにした。現金自動預払機（ＡＴＭ）とインターネットによる振り込みサービスなどを停止し、未処理手続きを急ぐが、１７日中に完了するかどうかは不透明だ。
みずほ銀は１６日午前、外貨預金の取引を除くオンラインシステムが復旧したと発表していたが、夜間処理のシステムが正常に稼働していないことがわかった。原因は調査中としているが、東日本大震災との関連はないとみられる。
18/03 みずほ銀、給与入金６２万件できず 障害４日連続
2011年3月18日12時49分
.ＡＴＭのシステム障害について頭を下げる、みずほ銀行の西堀利頭取（中央）＝１８日午前１０時２９分、東京都中央区、上田潤撮影
みずほ銀行は１８日、システム障害が４日連続で起き、同日朝に予定していた給与振り込み約６２万件（約１２５６億円分）のほとんどが、処理できなかったと発表した。この日は、店舗での通常の振り込みも処理できなくなった。
約６２万件は、企業がみずほ銀に、社員の給与振り込み口座への振り込みを１８日付で依頼した取引の全件数。同行に振り込み口座を持つ人への振り込みが２３万１千件（計５３６億円）、他行に口座がある人への振り込みが３８万９千件（７２０億円）ある。
給与振り込みなどが集中する、いわゆる「５・１０日（ごとおび）」の直近は２０日。この日は休日なので、週末の１８日付での給与振り込みが通常より多くなることが予想されていた。ほかの取引を制限してでも、給与振り込みの処理を優先するはずだったが、実施できなかった。
同行のシステム障害が起きた１５日から１７日までに、現金振り込みだけで計約５０万件（計約６５００億円）が処理できず、手続きが滞っている。この中にも、件数は不明だが給与振り込みが含まれているという。処理できていない現金振り込みは少なくとも計１１２万件（計約７７５６億円）にのぼる。１８日は給与振り込み以外も処理できていない取引があり、未処理の件数はさらに増えそうだ。
一方で、コンビニエンスストアでの設置分なども含めた現金自動出入機（ＡＴＭ）約３万９千台は、１９～２１日の３連休中ずっと止める。この３日間は、全店舗の窓口を午前９時から午後５時まで開け、１人当たり１０万円を上限に現金引き出しに応じる。
１８日は、同行店舗内のＡＴＭは午後７時まで現金の出し入れだけできるようにするが、昨夕から止まっているコンビニなど店舗外のＡＴＭ約３万５千台は終日使えない。
システム障害の原因はまだ分かっていない。１８日午前に記者会見した西堀利頭取は経営責任について、「まずは今の事態を回復させるのが私の責任」と述べた。
.ＡＴＭのシステム障害について頭を下げる、みずほ銀行の西堀利頭取（中央）＝１８日午前１０時２９分、東京都中央区、上田潤撮影
みずほ銀行は１８日、システム障害が４日連続で起き、同日朝に予定していた給与振り込み約６２万件（約１２５６億円分）のほとんどが、処理できなかったと発表した。この日は、店舗での通常の振り込みも処理できなくなった。
約６２万件は、企業がみずほ銀に、社員の給与振り込み口座への振り込みを１８日付で依頼した取引の全件数。同行に振り込み口座を持つ人への振り込みが２３万１千件（計５３６億円）、他行に口座がある人への振り込みが３８万９千件（７２０億円）ある。
給与振り込みなどが集中する、いわゆる「５・１０日（ごとおび）」の直近は２０日。この日は休日なので、週末の１８日付での給与振り込みが通常より多くなることが予想されていた。ほかの取引を制限してでも、給与振り込みの処理を優先するはずだったが、実施できなかった。
同行のシステム障害が起きた１５日から１７日までに、現金振り込みだけで計約５０万件（計約６５００億円）が処理できず、手続きが滞っている。この中にも、件数は不明だが給与振り込みが含まれているという。処理できていない現金振り込みは少なくとも計１１２万件（計約７７５６億円）にのぼる。１８日は給与振り込み以外も処理できていない取引があり、未処理の件数はさらに増えそうだ。
一方で、コンビニエンスストアでの設置分なども含めた現金自動出入機（ＡＴＭ）約３万９千台は、１９～２１日の３連休中ずっと止める。この３日間は、全店舗の窓口を午前９時から午後５時まで開け、１人当たり１０万円を上限に現金引き出しに応じる。
１８日は、同行店舗内のＡＴＭは午後７時まで現金の出し入れだけできるようにするが、昨夕から止まっているコンビニなど店舗外のＡＴＭ約３万５千台は終日使えない。
システム障害の原因はまだ分かっていない。１８日午前に記者会見した西堀利頭取は経営責任について、「まずは今の事態を回復させるのが私の責任」と述べた。
16/03 A Republican Fund-Raiser Is Indicted in a Ponzi Scheme
March 16, 2011
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
LOS ANGELES — A prominent Republican fund-raiser was charged Wednesday in a federal grand jury indictment with orchestrating a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors of hundreds of millions of dollars.
The fund-raiser, Timothy Durham, 48, was arrested early in the morning at his West Hollywood home and charged with 12 counts of securities and wire fraud in federal court here.
Prosecutors accuse Mr. Durham of taking money investors trusted to his business, the Fair Finance Company, and using it make loans to himself and his businesses; earlier investors were repaid with money from newer ones.
From 2002 to 2009, more than 5,000 investors were defrauded out of more than $200 million, the indictment said. The company later filed for bankruptcy.
The bankruptcy trustee for Fair Finance told creditors in August that much of the $54 million Mr. Durham had lent himself helped finance his lavish lifestyle — at his Indianapolis home, a 45-car garage housed an Aston Martin designed to look like the car James Bond drove in “Goldfinger,” while in Miami he kept a four-bedroom yacht.
Mr. Durham donated more than $800,000 to the Republican Party and candidates in Indiana, including almost $200,000 to Gov. Mitch Daniels. Neither Mr. Durham’s lawyer nor Mr. Daniels’s campaign responded to requests for comment.
Two of Mr. Durham’s business associates, James F. Cochran, 55, and Rick D. Snow, 47, were also charged with security and wire fraud on Wednesday.
More in U.S. (1 of 32 articles)
Report Finds Wide Abuses By Police in New Orleans
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By THE NEW YORK TIMES
LOS ANGELES — A prominent Republican fund-raiser was charged Wednesday in a federal grand jury indictment with orchestrating a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors of hundreds of millions of dollars.
The fund-raiser, Timothy Durham, 48, was arrested early in the morning at his West Hollywood home and charged with 12 counts of securities and wire fraud in federal court here.
Prosecutors accuse Mr. Durham of taking money investors trusted to his business, the Fair Finance Company, and using it make loans to himself and his businesses; earlier investors were repaid with money from newer ones.
From 2002 to 2009, more than 5,000 investors were defrauded out of more than $200 million, the indictment said. The company later filed for bankruptcy.
The bankruptcy trustee for Fair Finance told creditors in August that much of the $54 million Mr. Durham had lent himself helped finance his lavish lifestyle — at his Indianapolis home, a 45-car garage housed an Aston Martin designed to look like the car James Bond drove in “Goldfinger,” while in Miami he kept a four-bedroom yacht.
Mr. Durham donated more than $800,000 to the Republican Party and candidates in Indiana, including almost $200,000 to Gov. Mitch Daniels. Neither Mr. Durham’s lawyer nor Mr. Daniels’s campaign responded to requests for comment.
Two of Mr. Durham’s business associates, James F. Cochran, 55, and Rick D. Snow, 47, were also charged with security and wire fraud on Wednesday.
More in U.S. (1 of 32 articles)
Report Finds Wide Abuses By Police in New Orleans
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18/03 「日本の経済と金融の強靱さ信認」 Ｇ７声明全文
2011年3月18日10時15分
. 我々、Ｇ７の財務相・中央銀行総裁は、日本における最近の劇的な出来事を議論し、我々の日本の同僚から、現在の状況、当局がとった経済・金融面での対応についての説明を受けた。
我々は、こうした困難な時における日本の人々との連帯意識、必要とされるいかなる協力も提供する用意があること、日本の経済と金融セクターの強靱（きょうじん）さへの信認を表明する。
日本における悲劇的な出来事に関連した円相場の最近の動きへの対応として、日本当局からの要請に基づき、米国、英国、カナダ当局および欧州中央銀行は、２０１１年３月１８日に、日本とともに為替市場における協調介入に参加する。我々が長らく述べてきたとおり、為替レートの過度の変動や無秩序な動きは、経済及び金融の安定に対して悪影響を与える。我々は、為替市場をよく注視し、適切に協力する。
.
. 我々、Ｇ７の財務相・中央銀行総裁は、日本における最近の劇的な出来事を議論し、我々の日本の同僚から、現在の状況、当局がとった経済・金融面での対応についての説明を受けた。
我々は、こうした困難な時における日本の人々との連帯意識、必要とされるいかなる協力も提供する用意があること、日本の経済と金融セクターの強靱（きょうじん）さへの信認を表明する。
日本における悲劇的な出来事に関連した円相場の最近の動きへの対応として、日本当局からの要請に基づき、米国、英国、カナダ当局および欧州中央銀行は、２０１１年３月１８日に、日本とともに為替市場における協調介入に参加する。我々が長らく述べてきたとおり、為替レートの過度の変動や無秩序な動きは、経済及び金融の安定に対して悪影響を与える。我々は、為替市場をよく注視し、適切に協力する。
.
18/03 円急落８１円台に、株は大幅上昇 協調介入を好感
2011年3月18日11時11分
. １８日の東京金融市場は、日米欧当局が円売りドル買いの協調介入で合意したことが好感され、円が急落、株価は大幅上昇した。円相場は２日ぶりに１ドル＝８１円台まで戻し、前日につけた戦後最高値７６円台と比べると５円超も下げた。日経平均株価は一時、３日ぶりに９２００円台を回復した。
１８日早朝に主要７カ国（Ｇ７）財務相・中央銀行総裁が緊急の電話会議で協調介入に合意したのを受けて、政府・日本銀行は午前９時、東京外国為替市場での取引が本格化した直後から、円売りドル買い介入に踏み切った。
１ドル＝７９円１０銭台だった円相場は一気に円安ドル高が進み、一時は８１円４０銭台まで下げた。前日のシドニー市場でつけた戦後最高値７６円２５銭と比べると、５円以上安い。その後も円売りドル買いが優勢で、午前１０時現在は前日午後５時時点より２円０５銭円安ドル高の８１円２６～２７銭。
円はユーロに対しても急落した。午前１０時現在は、同３円２４銭円安ユーロ高の１ユーロ＝１１３円７９～８４銭。
東京株式市場も、日経平均株価が一時、前日終値と比べ２８８円９７銭高い９２５１円６４銭をつけ、大幅に上昇している。
日経平均の午前の終値は、同１５８円２６銭（１．７７％）高い９１２０円９３銭。取引開始直後の上昇幅は同１２０円程度だったが、Ｇ７の協調介入実施で同２００円超に拡大した。取引時間中に９２００円台を回復するのは、過去３番目の大暴落となった１５日以来となる。
円安が進んだことで午前１０時３０分時点ではパナソニックやキヤノンなど、主力の輸出関連銘柄を中心に値上がりしている。東京証券取引所第１部の３３業種中３２業種が値上がりし、ほぼ全面高だ。原発事故対応に追われる東京電力の株価も、大震災発生後初めて、６営業日ぶりに上昇に転じた。
市場からは「Ｇ７が協調したのはプラス評価だ」との声が多い。だが、今後の相場については「原発に対する懸念は払拭（ふっ・しょく）されていない」（大和証券キャピタル・マーケッツの西村由美・シニアマーケットアナリスト）としており、円安や株高がどの程度進むのかは不透明だ。
一方、東京債券市場では、債券価格が下落（金利は上昇）した。長期金利の代表的指標である新発１０年物国債の流通利回りが午前１０時３０分現在、前日終値より０．０１５％幅高い年１．２１５％をつけている。
. １８日の東京金融市場は、日米欧当局が円売りドル買いの協調介入で合意したことが好感され、円が急落、株価は大幅上昇した。円相場は２日ぶりに１ドル＝８１円台まで戻し、前日につけた戦後最高値７６円台と比べると５円超も下げた。日経平均株価は一時、３日ぶりに９２００円台を回復した。
１８日早朝に主要７カ国（Ｇ７）財務相・中央銀行総裁が緊急の電話会議で協調介入に合意したのを受けて、政府・日本銀行は午前９時、東京外国為替市場での取引が本格化した直後から、円売りドル買い介入に踏み切った。
１ドル＝７９円１０銭台だった円相場は一気に円安ドル高が進み、一時は８１円４０銭台まで下げた。前日のシドニー市場でつけた戦後最高値７６円２５銭と比べると、５円以上安い。その後も円売りドル買いが優勢で、午前１０時現在は前日午後５時時点より２円０５銭円安ドル高の８１円２６～２７銭。
円はユーロに対しても急落した。午前１０時現在は、同３円２４銭円安ユーロ高の１ユーロ＝１１３円７９～８４銭。
東京株式市場も、日経平均株価が一時、前日終値と比べ２８８円９７銭高い９２５１円６４銭をつけ、大幅に上昇している。
日経平均の午前の終値は、同１５８円２６銭（１．７７％）高い９１２０円９３銭。取引開始直後の上昇幅は同１２０円程度だったが、Ｇ７の協調介入実施で同２００円超に拡大した。取引時間中に９２００円台を回復するのは、過去３番目の大暴落となった１５日以来となる。
円安が進んだことで午前１０時３０分時点ではパナソニックやキヤノンなど、主力の輸出関連銘柄を中心に値上がりしている。東京証券取引所第１部の３３業種中３２業種が値上がりし、ほぼ全面高だ。原発事故対応に追われる東京電力の株価も、大震災発生後初めて、６営業日ぶりに上昇に転じた。
市場からは「Ｇ７が協調したのはプラス評価だ」との声が多い。だが、今後の相場については「原発に対する懸念は払拭（ふっ・しょく）されていない」（大和証券キャピタル・マーケッツの西村由美・シニアマーケットアナリスト）としており、円安や株高がどの程度進むのかは不透明だ。
一方、東京債券市場では、債券価格が下落（金利は上昇）した。長期金利の代表的指標である新発１０年物国債の流通利回りが午前１０時３０分現在、前日終値より０．０１５％幅高い年１．２１５％をつけている。
18/03 日銀が短期市場に３兆円 ５日連続の大量資金供給
2011年3月18日9時6分
日本銀行は１８日午前９時過ぎ、銀行や証券会社などが必要な資金をやりとりする短期金融市場に３兆円の資金を供給する公開市場操作（オペ）を実施した。その日のうちに資金が金融機関に行き渡るようにする即日オペ。大量資金供給は１４日から５日連続になる。
日本銀行は１８日午前９時過ぎ、銀行や証券会社などが必要な資金をやりとりする短期金融市場に３兆円の資金を供給する公開市場操作（オペ）を実施した。その日のうちに資金が金融機関に行き渡るようにする即日オペ。大量資金供給は１４日から５日連続になる。
Ｇ７、日本復興支援に結束確認へ 緊急電話会議始まる
Ｇ７、日本復興支援に結束確認へ 緊急電話会議始まる2011年3月18日7時15分
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主要７カ国（Ｇ７）財務相・中央銀行総裁による緊急の電話会議が１８日朝、始まった。会議では、東日本大震災が日本経済に与える影響や１７日に戦後最高値を更新した円高の対応策なども議題となる。その上で、Ｇ７が結束して日本の復興支援に取り組むことを確認する見通しだ。
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ブログに利用
>> 利用規約 >> 使い方はこちら
.
主要７カ国（Ｇ７）財務相・中央銀行総裁による緊急の電話会議が１８日朝、始まった。会議では、東日本大震災が日本経済に与える影響や１７日に戦後最高値を更新した円高の対応策なども議題となる。その上で、Ｇ７が結束して日本の復興支援に取り組むことを確認する見通しだ。
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