industryterm:local bank

Workers suffer in Saudi Arabia as once-mighty Hariri firm falters | Jordan Times
▻http://www.jordantimes.com/news/business/workers-suffer-saudi-arabia-once-mighty-hariri-firm-falters

He’s had no salary for six months, he cannot pay his children’s school fees and his permit to reside in Saudi Arabia has expired.

But Robert still holds out hope that things might improve for him and thousands of other workers at Saudi Oger Ltd., the once-mighty construction giant led by Lebanon’s billionaire former prime minister Saad Hariri.

Delayed receipts from a Saudi government whose oil revenues collapsed over the past two years have left employees of the company struggling to survive while they wait to be paid, Robert and other sources say.

Other contractors are also affected, but sources say problems at the 38-year-old Saudi Oger go deeper than the kingdom’s current economic strains.

“Already when I worked at Saudi Oger there were delays in salary payments to local employees,” a former staffer indicated. “It seems the situation got worse.”

Saudi Oger employs around 50,000 people of various nationalities, from managers to labourers, and Robert noted that the salaries of nearly all have been delayed.

But at six months without a pay cheque, he is among the longest suffering.

“I don’t have money,” he said. “It’s hard.”

The veteran employee of Saudi Oger says he has “no choice” but to stay with the firm because he cannot find another job.

Robert, whose name has been changed because he asked for anonymity, said the company promised in a letter that salaries will flow at the end of March.

Poor management blamed 

“It’s a desperate situation,” a well-informed source said, describing expatriate families facing a similar plight to Robert’s.

“They can’t pay for the tickets” to even fly home, the source indicated, adding that many senior officers of Saudi Oger support families in Lebanon, meaning remittances to that country will be affected.

[...]
France’s embassy, concerned for the many French employees at the company, sent two letters to the firm, which responded with its promise to start paying the salaries.

[...]
He added that the plight of the Hariri family company raises two questions: “Will Saudi local banks continue to finance Saudi Oger, and secondly, will the Hariri clan manage to enlist an investor willing to provide new investment?”

“If Hariri can prove he is still useful, the Saudis may help him,” a Lebanese banker said. “But if not, they won’t.”

- See more at: ▻http://www.jordantimes.com/news/business/workers-suffer-saudi-arabia-once-mighty-hariri-firm-falters#sthash.jfrX

Varoufakis’s Great Game by Hans-Werner Sinn - Project Syndicate
▻http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/varoufakis-ecb-grexit-threat-by-hans-werner-sinn-2015-05

Capital flight does not mean that capital is moving abroad in net terms, but rather that private capital is being turned into public capital. Basically, Greek citizens take out loans from local banks, funded largely by the Greek central bank, which acquires funds through the European Central Bank’s emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) scheme. They then transfer the money to other countries to purchase foreign assets (or redeem their debts), draining liquidity from their country’s banks.

Other eurozone central banks are thus forced to create new money to fulfill the payment orders for the Greek citizens, effectively giving the Greek central bank an overdraft credit, as measured by the so-called TARGET liabilities. In January and February, Greece’s TARGET debts increased by almost €1 billion ($1.1 billion) per day, owing to capital flight by Greek citizens and foreign investors. At the end of April, those debts amounted to €99 billion.

A Greek exit would not damage the accounts that its citizens have set up in other eurozone countries – let alone cause Greeks to lose the assets they have purchased with those accounts. But it would leave those countries’ central banks stuck with Greek citizens’ euro-denominated TARGET claims vis-à-vis Greece’s central bank, which would have assets denominated only in a restored drachma. Given the new currency’s inevitable devaluation, together with the fact that the Greek government does not have to backstop its central bank’s debt, a default depriving the other central banks of their claims would be all but certain.

A similar situation arises when Greek citizens withdraw cash from their accounts and hoard it in suitcases or take it abroad. If Greece abandoned the euro, a substantial share of these funds – which totaled €43 billion at the end of April – would flow into the rest of the eurozone, both to purchase goods and assets and to pay off debts, resulting in a net loss for the monetary union’s remaining members.

All of this strengthens the Greek government’s negotiating position considerably.

#BCE #fuite_des_capitaux #TARGET #ELA #collatéraux #Grèce #dette

US Law Overturns #Lebanon Bank Secrecy
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/us-law-overturns-lebanon-bank-secrecy

http://english.al-akhbar.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/4cols/leading_images/870006432795126_1.jpg

BDL had attempted to reach a compromise regarding the reporting process under FATCA, proposing to the #US_Treasury_Department an arrangement where BDL reports on behalf of local banks. (Photo: Marwan Tahtah) BDL had attempted to reach a compromise regarding the reporting process under FATCA, proposing to the US Treasury Department an arrangement where BDL reports on behalf of local banks. (Photo: Marwan Tahtah)

The deposits of (...)

#Economy #Articles #Central_Bank_of_Lebanon #Lebanon_Banks

Une autre contributrice de Muslimah Media Watch s’agace des messages qui l’incitent à s’habiller « modestement »
►http://www.patheos.com/blogs/mmw/2012/04/what-men-want

►http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fPstjtUTsHE

He references women’s fashion in the West as both objectifying and degrading, which, he claims, is easily remedied with the hijab and or modest clothing. These particular lyrics are examples of how the discourse on modesty particularly in relation to the hijab and how it relates to women’s virtuosity and goodness of character is consistently dictated by men. While it is true that designers create ill-fitting contraptions for women to wear often better suited for 6-foot frames and that advertisers pass off skimpiness as a woman’s strength and confidence, the real source of a woman’s strength and character should not be measured by the clothes she wears but by the manner in which she is able to maneuver through the challenges of life with His guidance and mercy. Clothes, whether a hijab or a body-defining suit, are not the whole story, and politicizing the issue of the hijab only takes away from a women’s right to make choices about her private person.

Et elle raconte un incident qu’elle a elle-même vécu dans une banque à Islamabad :

A recent, personal incident further highlights how the discussion of “what women should wear” is decided by men. At a local bank in Islamabad, I was confronted by an older gentleman who proceeded to praise me for my abaya- and hijab- wearing ways. He compared my state of dress with that of a teenager sitting across from me; someone he felt looked vulgar with her long top and skinny jeans and a head full of gorgeous curly hair. I sat through his diatribe, in part stunned and confused – where does he get off saying this to me? I wear abayas on occasion for reasons that are personal and entirely my own. To have someone (and a man no less) praise me for my supposedly, religiously correct choices is both insulting and condescending. Annoyed at the man’s intrusion and judgment, I quickly left the bank. Here I am, being judged for wearing a hijab; ironically, while my intention is to not draw attention to myself, my attire (black, billowy abaya, no makeup and flats) still triggers unnecessary interest. It only underscores the idea that women garner respect and identity based on the extent to which they hide their physical attributes. The woman as an individual is ignored and like in the video, those around her will judge her (negatively most likely) if she does not (for whatever reason) abide by such terms.

#voile