New York, NY, United States (AHN) – U.S. stocks staged a late day rally Tuesday on hopes of a European rescue agreement.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared, closing up 180 points. The S&P 500 Index was better by 42 points and the NASDAQ rose more than 26 points.

Shares active in the session included investment banking behemoth Goldman Sachs. The firm reported its only second quarter loss ever since going public, but managed to finish the day up 5.35 points to close at $102. 25. Bank of America, which reported an impressive comeback from the same period a year earlier, jumped over 10 percent to finish at $6.64. Shares of tech giant IBM dropped more than 4 percent despite reporting a 7 percent increase in third quarter earnings. Dragging IBM lower were comments from the company stating that the stronger U.S. dollar has eaten away at its backlog and revenue.

Stocks opened lower Tuesday after the Producer Price Index pointed at inflationary pressures for the U.S. economy. But by mid-afternoon the bulls took over as speculation that an agreement would soon be reached over the mounting euro zone debt crisis.

Oil finished at $88.43 a barrel and gold shined brighter by $10 an ounce closing at $1663.30.

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – Public transportation advocates said at a Senate Banking Committee Thursday that if transit agencies lose federal funding, the entire nation would suffer.

Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) chairman of the Banking Committee, said, “It is sometimes forgotten but reliable and accessible public transit is vital in rural areas like South Dakota, just as it is vital in large urban cities.”

Public transportation funding is among budget items members of Congress are considering reducing as they try to cut the $14 trillion federal deficit.

However, fewer bus, subway and passenger rail trips will mean more roadway congestion, transit advocates say.

“Our public transit systems connect workers with employers, keep cars off congested roads, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and get people where they’re going safely and affordably,” Johnson said.

Republicans, such as Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, say the federal government should subsidize local transit agencies only if they match the funds and agree to keep their systems in a state of good repair.

The Obama administration seeks to increase operating assistance to transit agencies. Operating assistance refers mostly to salaries for workers, but also recurring expenses like electricity.

“There’s no point in using federal dollars to buy brand spanking new buses for transit systems if they can’t afford to pay the drivers to put those buses into service,” Federal Transit Administration chief Peter M. Rogoff told the Banking Committee.

JayEtta Hecker, transportation advocacy director for the Bipartisan Policy Center, said public transportation will get the funding it needs only if Congress can be assured taxpayers are getting a good deal.

“We are not going to get consensus for the kinds of [revenue] increases that are required in transportation until we rebuild the credibility of the program,” she said. “A clearer set of performance objectives, clearer outcomes, clearer recognition that we’re getting value for our money.”

The Bipartisan Policy Center is a foundation that promotes policies supported by both Republicans and Democrats.

Other warnings about big cuts in public transportation came from a study released this week by the Urban Land Institute, a public policy group.

It concluded that the United States would fall behind other countries economically if transit spending is drastically reduced.

Outside of the United States, “in most of the developed world and in many emerging markets, countries have committed to fulfilling infrastructure agendas as essential for sustaining or enhancing living standards in an increasingly competitive global marketplace,” says the report.

One example mentioned in the report came from the United Kingdom, which is spending $326 billion over the next five years to stimulate its economy by investing in passenger rail, broadband access and energy production.

China is on schedule to complete 10,000 miles of high-speed rail lines by 2020, the report said.

Meanwhile, major U.S. cities like Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco are reducing transit service, raising fares and delaying new projects as they divert transportation funding to other priorities, the Urban Land Institute reported.

Additional budget cuts are likely for defense spending, federal employees’ pensions, student loan subsidies and farm payments, according to members of the Obama administration.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates this week described how the Pentagon is trying to figure out which weapons systems can be reduced without risking national defense.

President Obama announced a 12-year deficit reduction plan earlier this year that seeks to save $400 billion.

The Pentagon’s review of its own budget includes ways to find management efficiencies that might reduce the size of the armed forces, Gates said.

In addition, the Obama administration is doing a “serious examination” of policies that “drive dramatic” increases in health care, retirement and infrastructure, he said.

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George Osborne pledged that Britain would support Ireland’s attempts to stabilise its banking system today, as experts from the International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and EU prepared for talks in Dublin.

The chancellor made his pledge as he joined other European finance ministers for a meeting in Brussels.

He said: “Ireland is our closest neighbour and it’s in Britain’s national interest that the Irish economy is successful and we have a stable banking system. So Britain stands ready to support Ireland in the steps that it needs to take to bring about that stability.”

Osborne arrived in Brussels last night amid mounting speculation that the UK would be expected to contribute at least £7bn to an Irish bailout . There were also suggestions that Britain would extend bilateral loans to stabilise Ireland’s banking system.

Mark Hoban, the financial secretary to the Treasury, reiterated Osborne’s message when he responded to questions about the Irish financial situation in the Commons this afternoon.

He pointed out that Ireland had not made any formal application for help. “It’s not for me to say whether they should ask for assistance, just as I would not tell them to run any part of their economy.

“Ireland is one of our biggest export markets. We have very close ties with them. We stand ready to help Ireland with the steps it needs to take.”

Many MPs voiced concerns. Bill Cash urged Hoban to ensure that any rescue package came from the €440bn (£374bn) eurozone fund. Douglas Carswell, Conservative MP for Clacton, said: “Rather than bailing out the euro, we should be helping Ireland to bail out of the euro.” The IMF moves in

Irish finance minister Brian Lenihan said that discussions with the EU and IMF experts would begin tomorrow.

He pledged to work with the EU-IMF team on steps to sort out Ireland’s struggling banks. “What’s here now is a common determination that we work on these difficulties … that work is well under way.”

He added: “Our budgetary policy has full confidence among European partners. But in relation to banking, steps taken to date require further support. What may be required may not be in fact an actual transfer of money now but a demonstration of how much money can be made available if further difficulties materialise.

“In relation to the position of the United Kingdom, that’s a matter for the United Kingdom. In general the UK has not participated in European Union-wide assistance, but I know that the British authorities are anxious to ensure any help that Ireland needs will be given.”

He said bank deposits were safe and repeated that the EU stood “shoulder to shoulder” with Ireland.

Samuel Tombs, UK economist at Capital Economics, said: “The Irish situation could directly affect the UK economy in several different ways. First, if an Irish bailout relies on funds from the European Union’s European financial stability mechanism to which the UK government contributes – or perhaps even direct bilateral loans from the UK – then the UK’s gross public debt will rise and further risk will be absorbed onto the public sector balance sheet.

“Second, UK banks may suffer further losses on their exposures to Ireland’s banking sector, businesses and households, either as a result of outright default by borrowers or through further falls in asset values.

“While UK banks have reduced their exposure to Ireland over the last couple of years, it is still the equivalent to around 6% of UK GDP and much larger than their exposure to other peripheral eurozone economies. And third, continued weakness in Ireland’s economy could obviously hamper the UK’s already feeble export recovery.” Portugal under pressure

The financial markets took little comfort from Lenihan’s comments. The premium investors charge for holding Irish 10-year bonds rather than benchmark German bunds remained at crisis point, at around 570 basis points. LCH.Clearnet, a European clearing house for sovereign debt, doubled its margin requirement on Irish bonds to 30% of net positions, an indication of the increased risk of default. The cost of insuring Irish debt against default jumped again – Irish five-year credit default swaps widened from 520 to 545 basis points. Those for Spain and Portugal also rose.

Portugal managed to sell all €750m (£635m) of 12-month treasury bills at an auction today, but the yield rose sharply to 4.813% from 3.260% at the previous auction two weeks ago. There was also less interest.

The stock market in London was flat this afternoon. The FTSE 100 index edged up one point to 5683 after it yesterday suffered its worst one-day points fall since the end of June.

The euro traded close to a seven-week low against the dollar, falling to $1.3460 earlier today, not far from the seven-week trough of $1.3446 hit yesterday, but later recovered somewhat to $1.534.

Irish prime minister Brian Cowen told MPs in Dublin yesterday the country did not need international assistance – estimated at as much as €100bn – to support its banks. In Brussels, Lenihan said Ireland was “fully funded until the middle of next year”, adding that the markets are “not being good to Ireland”.

Greece was unperturbed by news that its next allocation of bailout cash will be delayed. It insisted it would face no cash problems from the delay to the third payment of an EU-backed bailout loan from December to January.

“Regarding the payment of the third tranche coming from eurozone countries … the process requires at least 10 working days and for this reason the disbursement will be completed in early January,” the Greek finance ministry said. “This has been agreed a long time ago with the European commission and creates no cash problem at all for our country.”

However, the Austrian finance minister claimed the delay was due to Greece not fully meeting its fiscal targets under the bailout deal. Greece was due to get €9bn in EU and IMF loans in December as part of the €110bn bailout to stave off bankruptcy. The IMF portion of €2.5bn is still expected to be paid out as planned in December. Ireland bailout Ireland European debt crisis Financial crisis Global recession Banking Euro George Osborne Economic policy Julia Kollewe guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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Mogadishu, Somalia (AHN) – Al Qaeda-inspired group Al Shabaab on Sunday imposed a ban on Zaad Service, a mobile banking service recently launched by Hormuud, Golis and Telesom telecommunications companies in Somalia.

Zaad allows customers to use their mobile phones for money transfers, purchases, payment of bills, and airtime recharges.

“Those telecommunications companies must stop Zaad Service mobile banking service in three months,” the insurgent group said in a statement.

“Hormuud Telecom in southern Somalia, Golis Telecom in Somalia’s semi-autonomous region of Puntland and Telesom Company in the break away republic of Somaliland had been given that chance to save people’s money,” it said.

The press release said a lengthy investigation by Al Shabaab found that Zaad Service poses a great hazard to the economy of Somalis and accused an unnamed company in United States of being behind the service. The group said the unnamed service wanted to take over the economy of the world by using MMT (Mobile Money Transfer). Al Shabaab argued that use of Somali shillings declined in recent moths because of the mobile service.

Thousands of Somalis have been using Zaad since its launch in February.

Banks barely existed in this war-torn African nation a decade ago. Now, Somali residents can bank over their mobile phones.

Somalis, particularly consumers of the mobile banking service, expressed a deep concern about Al Shabaab’s ban.

“To be safe from robbing, hundreds of U.S. dollars can be saved in your tiny mobile phone,” Ahmed Nur told a local radio station, adding this ban may affect thousands of people and telecommunications companies immediately.

With a lack of functioning central rule in Somalia, business telecommunications are lucrative.

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Speaking at a CEDA event in Sydney today Mr Norris said; “Technology provides a tremendous set of tools for customer satisfaction. With mortgage processing it used to take about 18 working days to process a mortgage from whoa to go, today we have that down to four or five days, and if we have to, we can do it in 24 hours and produce all the documentation. “That’s made a significant difference to customer satisfaction. If you put in straight through systems and go to imaging and move the flow through because you are using imaged rather than paper files, it improves cost and provides a superior customer outcome.” Mr Norris said banks originally had computer systems to support a banking environment that opened at 10am and closed at 3pm. “The whole bank equation was pay 3 per cent on deposits, charge 6 per cent on loans and be on the golf course by three in the afternoon. “Today it is 24×7 business and we’ve got to make sure that our business and processes are also 24×7.” In the audience to hear Mr Norris were two of Westpac’s leading technology managers – Sarv Girn, Westpac’s chief technology officer and Bernadette Inglis, general manager of the bank’s $2 billion five year Strategic Investment Priorities (SIPs) programme. Last week the bank confirmed that it was mothballing any overhaul of its core systems until 2014. While customers at St George have access to real time banking courtesy of the Hogan platform, customers of the parent bank, Westpac, will have to wait until after 2014 to have access to that real time facility when Westpac starts to convert its legacy core systems over to the new Hogan core platform. CBA by comparison has been overhauling its core banking platform using SAP software. Given Westpac’s continued loyalty to Hogan Mr Sirn and Ms Inglis may have been somewhat bemused by the comments made by CSC chief executive Gavin Larkings when introducing Mr Norris which suggested that CBA was setting the pace in terms of its application of technology. CSC supplies the Hogan system, works with a third of the world’s top banks and was also the sponsor of today’s CEDA event.

Introducing Mr Norris, Mr Larkings highlighted CBA’s focus on technology and operational excellence. “It’s in that area that the market perceives that CBA has made significant early investment and now is in a potentially dominant leadership position. “Within our technology industry the CBA is seen as an innovative leader and is moving aggressively forward in areas such as cloud computing and is keeping us suppliers on our toes. This strategy is potentially game changing and there are enormous rewards for the institution and the executives.” Mr Norris however acknowledged that the relationship between information technology and banking had not always been plain sailing, “We all know plenty of horror stories around IT projects and know a lot of stories around what was promised and what was delivered. ” Mr Norris gave the example of the 1990s Mainstream technology project at the CBA which had failed spectacularly. “The write off on that was something like $400 million – which is still a big number today.” Mr Norris said that to ensure that such disasters were not repeated it was important to develop very clear linkages between IT, bankers and technology providers, “to make sure people realise this is about enabling systems and processes and business. “It’s not just about some major technology implementation. ” On that at least CBA and Westpac are in firm agreement.

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