LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“If Bob Diamond had a scintilla of shame, he would resign. If Barclays’ board had an inch of backbone between them, they would sack him.”
Matthew Oakshott, a member of the House of Lords, speaking about the chief executive officer of Barclays Bank Article, 1D
Merger should aid pilots, union says
DALLAS - David Bates, president of the Allied Pilots Association, said Thursday that the value of pilots’ share of a post-bankruptcy American Airlines should rise if the company merges with US Airways.
Bates made the comment to his members after the union’s board approved a tentative six-year agreement with American on Thursday.
Pilots will vote on the deal, which would cut American’s spending on pilots by 17 percent and give it more flexibility to outsource some of its flying to other airlines.
But the union, which supports a potential bid for American by US Airways Group Inc., also got some goodies in the deal: Pay raises, no layoffs, and a 13.5 percent equity stake in the “new” American that emerges from bankruptcy.
Bates told pilots that union advisers said “that if a merger between American Airlines and US Airways takes place - whether during restructuring or after AMR emerges from bankruptcy - the value of that equity stake should increase, since the overall enterprise value would go up through the combination of the two airlines.”
Pilots are expected to start voting in July with the ballots counted Aug. 8. If pilots reject the contract, a federal bankruptcy judge could impose even tougher conditions by letting American break its union contracts.
Average 30-year mortgage rate 3.66%
WASHINGTON - The average U.S. rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage stayed this week at the lowest level on record.
Cheap mortgages have helped drive a modest housing recovery and could give the broader economy a jolt at a time when the job market is weak.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., said the average on the 30-year loan was 3.66 percent. That’s unchanged from last week and the lowest since long-term mortgages began in the 1950s.
The average rate on the 15-year mortgage, a popular refinancing option, slipped to 2.94 percent. That’s down from 2.95 percent last week and matches the record-low 2.94 percent reached three weeks ago.
The rate on the 30-year loan has been below 4 percent since December.
To calculate average rates, Freddie Mac surveys lenders across the country on Monday through Wednesday of each week.
The average does not 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 30-year loans was 0.7 point, unchanged from last week. The fee for 15-year loans also was 0.7 point, up from 0.6.
The average rate on one-year adjustable rate mortgages was unchanged from last week at 2.74 percent. The fee for one-year adjustable rate loans slipped to 0.4 point from 0.5 point.
Manhattan to get big Nordstrom store
NEW YORK - Nordstrom Inc. announced plans Thursday to open its first full-scale department store in New York.
The store is to open in 2018 at 157 W. 57th St., between Broadway and Seventh Avenue south of Central Park, according to Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of retail leasing and marketing at Prudential Douglas Elliman, who was briefed on the deal by a source at Nordstrom.
The store will be at the base of a skyscraper under construction that will also feature residences and the Park Hyatt hotel.
Consolo worked with landlords on previous deals with Nordstrom that fell through including such sites as 57th Street and Park Avenue and on Sixth Avenue and 16th Street.
Nordstrom, based in Seattle, already operates two stores in Manhattan: a Nordstrom Rack outlet store on 14th Street and a store called Treasure & Bond, which is downtown and donates its profits to local charities.
With the exception of J.C. Penney, which opened a location near Macy’s flagship store in Herald Square in 2009, it has been years since a major department store opened in Manhattan.
Vatican Bank steps up money controls
The Vatican Bank has increased efforts to comply with international rules to control money laundering and is committed to transparency, Paolo Cipriani, director general of the Institute for the Works of Religion, said Thursday in Rome.
“We have stepped up anti-money-laundering controls to protect the reputation of the Holy See, remove the veil and shadow of the past” when the bank was known as one of the world’s most secretive, Cipriani said at the first-ever briefing with reporters inside the bank in Vatican city. “There are no secret numbered accounts here,” Cipriani said.
The bank has 33,000 accounts with assets of around $7.5 billion, Cipriani said. The bank’s cash machines allow users to operate in Latin.
Set up in 1942 by Pope Pius XII to manage the Vatican’s finances, the bank, known as the IOR from its Italian initials, is controlled by the pontiff and has recently been at the center of several financial scandals. Cipriani and his former boss, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, were placed under investigation by Italian prosecutors in an investigation in 2010 for reportedly omitting data from some wire transfers from an Italian account.
Business, Pages 30 on 06/29/2012