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More than a year after the introduction of laws, taxes and recommendations on the payment of bonuses in the banks raises the question of their effectiveness. The Institute of International Finance (IIF) has taken the lead by establishing the Oliver Wyman care to conduct a study on the changing structure of wages among 37 international banks.

Unsurprisingly, the study demonstrates the virtuous direction of the profession."Many banks have made significant and necessary changes in their payment system by adopting policies and practices in line with those advocated by the G20," said Josef Ackermann, the institute's chairman and CEO of Deutsche Bank, the first German bank.

Supporting Evidence: On the sensitive issue of deferred compensation – and therefore conditioned to sustainable profitability, which is one of the most effective, as the G20, to empower market participants – banks surveyed show their progress. In one year, the deferred bonus share has doubled to 39% of the total. The payment of these bonuses is not delayed a few months but three years or more in 85% of cases. Over two thirds of these variable compensation being paid in shares or securities linked. Bonuses are guaranteed over the wind in its sails.And the few new recruits who still get this behalf should be satisfied with a one year warranty.

Failure of British tax

"Governance has also changed significantly, says Bruno de Saint-Florent, a partner at Oliver Wyman. In 2009, the frequency of meetings has increased by 50% compared to 2008. The involvement of teams of risk in these compensation process has become even less systematically, this year (98% of banks). A year earlier, they would intervene only in 46% of cases. "

The IIR judge this too brief consideration of the concept of risk in awarding fees. The institute recommends a longer-term and more refined, along the lines of business. Experts also point out that banks are still too timid in their information.Less than half of respondents have ventured this year to disclose the amount of bonuses distributed.

Despite these criticisms, the realization of the IIR is very encouraging, but the optimism of the institute does not yet unanimously. One of the main architects of the reforms of finance, the former British Minister Alistair Darling, told this week that the British tax on the bonus had no effect on the industry. This 50% tax on bonuses exceeding 25,000 pounds, expired in April. Fatalist, Darling believes that the bankers are in any way "too imaginative not to find all sorts of ways to not pay." The behavior of Credit Suisse agrees with him. The bank, which had decreased its bonuses in 2009, has just overtaken the tax expired, distributing exceptional bonuses.

"See the study [pdf]

"See the summary of the study [pdf]

The Paris Bourse is scheduled to open in the green Monday. The market should be supported by the buoyant stock markets in Asia. The Nikkei closed up 0.35%, the Nikkei 225 index of blue chips gaining 33.01 points to 9570.31 points. In Shanghai, the stock opened up 0.39% Monday, as investors were apparently reassured by the slowdown in manufacturing activity in July, which shows that government efforts to cool the economy seem to be working. For its part, the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong opened up 1.3%, the Hang Seng index gaining 272.2 points to 21,302.01 points in early trade.

The month of July was favorable to investors in Paris. In July, the CAC 40 was well recovered, compared to a decline in June and a memorable month of May in terms of poor performance.Between 1 July and this July 30, the index rose 9.1%. Since the beginning of the year, it remains a decline of 7.45%. Compared to a year ago, it was up 6.3%.

On the face values, we will monitor:

BNP Paribas announced on Monday its quarterly results before the market in good order. They are far beyond expectations, thanks to lower provisions.

France Telecom has entered into discussions with shareholders Meditel second operator in Morocco, to acquire 40% stake in it, according to the Moroccan weekly News, citing a potential investment of 650 million euros.

Eurazeo announced Saturday that entered into exclusive negotiations with the U.S. fund Carlyle for the sale of the hotel chain B & B.

The construction group Vinci has been chosen Friday by the Government for the concession and the construction of the airport at Notre-Dame-des-Landes, who should take over from the 2017 air services from Nantes-Atlantique.

Areva on Friday, as expected, half results penalized by an additional provision under the Finnish EPR OL3, but it confirmed its targets for 2010.

Eiffage has published a quarterly revenue up 2.2% and said its order book stood at EUR 10.8 billion at July 1 (+4.4% at constant since April 1 2010), more than 11 months of activity.

APRR – Arnaud Montebourg The socialist leader said it had seized the financial markets authority (AMF) to try and block the delisting of Autoroutes Paris Rhin Rhone (APRR) requested by Eiffarie, a joint venture of Eiffage the Australian Macquarie Group

The U.S. stock market should be reluctant to take on the leadership on Monday. The index futures are predicting a slight decline in opening of U.S. markets. The index futures Standard & Poor's 500 and Nasdaq 100 fell back in effect respectively by 0.13% to 1099.50 points from 0.04% to 1873.10 points.

On Friday, the NYSE has ended sharply higher, buoyed by another round of quarterly results from U.S. companies of good quality and were reassured on the results of resistance testing in European banks. The Dow Jones gained 0.99% and the Nasdaq 1.05%. On the whole last week, the Dow Jones gained 3.23% and the Nasdaq rose 4.15%.

On the foreign exchange market, the euro steadied against the dollar. In the morning, it was worth 1.2901 dollars against 1.2906 dollars on Friday.

A busy week on the macroeconomic level.Today investors expect the sales figures for new housing. Another highlight, the U.S. central bank should publish its Beige Book Wednesday on the economic conditions. It will be very guarded while the president of the institution, Ben Bernanke said Wednesday before Congress the slow recovery, with no announcement of new funding in the economy.

On Tuesday, it is the Standard & Poor's / Case Schiller home prices and consumer confidence, which will be followed, before investors only look the next day on orders of durable goods. But it was the day Friday with the first estimate of gross domestic product (GDP) U.S. second quarter to be expected this week.This new burst of publications should be followed especially when investors are questioning the strength of new U.S. economic recovery No fax pay day loans.

U.S. companies are still likely to take stock in their accounts this week, including the program six companies forming part of Dow Jones. Tomorrow investors expect such figures CIT and Lockheed Martin and those sitting in the middle of DuPont.

To follow today the title of BP traded on Wall Street. The British press refers to a departure from the CEO of BP, before tomorrow, the date of publication of interim results of the oil giant.

Always on the side of values, General Electric said Friday its increased dividend of 20%, the quarterly dividend from 10 cents to 12 cents.GE also announced a resumption of its share repurchase programs. He had stopped this practice in September 2008. The board gave its approval for an additional $ 11.6 billion. "GE hopes to finish the year with $ 25 billion in cash, including proceeds from the sale of a majority stake in its subsidiary NBC Universal to Comcast" say the analysts at Aurel BGC. Some of this money will be used to buy three billion dollars in preferred shares that the group has sold to the holding company Berkshire Hathaway of Warren Buffett in October 2008.

Also note Friday night, the FDIC, the federal agency whose primary responsibility is to guarantee bank deposits, announced the bankruptcy of six new American banks, bringing to 102 the number of closing establishments since the beginning of year.These six failures will cost about 394 million dollars to its compensation fund the FDIC.

The end of the nightmare in the Gulf of Mexico may be close. BP wants to believe in all cases: two days after the start of the crucial test of strength of the new funnel, no sign of leakage was observed. "We have no indication that oil or gas escape" of damaged wells, said the vice-chair of Kent Well. Tested since Thursday, the giant funnel that contains the daily flow pouring millions of gallons of toxic liquid into the ocean, seems to hold good.

Uncertainty remains high: the compressed oil, trapped in the wells blocked by the funnel, eventually creating gaps and spread back into the ocean.According to Thad Allen, head of operations against the oil spill administration, BP must conduct further tests because the measured pressure does not allow to draw definitive conclusions about what is happening inside the well.

High pressure would suggest that well resistance is good and there is no leakage. Low pressure instead leave thinking that oil escaping elsewhere. Admiral Allen said that the pressure increased from 0.1 to 0.6 bar per hour, which was a good sign. But Friday, the level of pressure in the well still left casts "doubt on the possible existence of a leak." On Saturday, Vice President of BP, however, that the pressure inside the well had continued to increase."The fact that the pressure continues to mount gives us more confidence that the test works," he added, stressing that the data are "quite" in the range predicted by the engineers.

The extended testing

As a precaution, the oil company said Saturday it would extend the period of initial testing prévuepour last 48 hours. "We continue in phases of six hours each time. If there is a change in the way we do, we will announce it, "said Mark Salt, a spokesman for BP at the end of this period.

If the test proves successful the well will remain closed until the risk of leak is definitely ruled out by injecting concrete through a relief well. An operation could be completed in early August.However, if a leak is detected, the valve will be reopened and the oil will be pumped to surface ships.

"If we decide to reopen the pit, oil drain into the Gulf for some time," said Mr. Wells, the time to connect the pumping lines at the wellhead. This would obviously a major failure for the oil group that tries since the end of April to contain the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

Since April 22, nearly 520 million gallons of crude that would have flowed into the ocean, estimated Tuesday the International Energy Agency. Even if the leak was finally stopped, Deepwater would remain one of the worst oil spills in history (see graphic below), a nightmare to $ 3.5 billion for BP and irreparable ecological catastrophe.

New Man announced yesterday its acquisition, by the end of the month, the group Morepeace. The latter company's holdings Overall, based in Besançon, a specialist in ready-to-wear and men through its brands and El International Dellalui. The transaction price was not disclosed. Bernard Krief Consultants The company had expressed interest in New Man.

Its owner, the industrialist Leon Cligman, through its group Indreco, trying to sell the brand for a while. He had already surrendered in March its 29 stores in Zannier Group, specialist clothing childish.

This sale is another step in the long agony of the flagship brand of menswear in the 1980s. In its basin of Cholet, New Man at the time employed up to 3,000 people, and yet almost 500 a decade ago.Since then, social plans have succeeded in retaining only forty employees today. Latest figure available, the brand in 2008 achieved more than 45 million euros in turnover.

The U.S. administration smiles again. On leaving the G20 meeting in Washington Friday, Timothy Geitner has been shown. The Treasury secretary now considers that the recovery in the United Etatx will be driven by the private sector in 2011, implying that the economy will need at that time a support plan. "We're quite certain," he said.

This is the first time since the end of the U.S. recession in the summer of 2009 that an official raised the possibility of autonomous growth in the United States. In his speech, the more optimistic on the U.S. economy in mid-April, the central bank chairman Ben Bernanke had told Congress that the recent economic evidence "suggests that the increase in final demand would be sufficient to ensure recovery Economic moderate in coming quarters. "He did not, however, ventured to advance a date for a possible self-sustaining recovery.

These perspectives on the future economic conditions are more optimistic than the Treasury Secretary has made since his arrival at this position in January 2009. They are based mainly on economic indicators better than expected since the beginning of April.

Deficit

Asked how the administration intends to reach its deficit reduction monster, Timothy Geithner has again shown reassuring. According to him, Washington has promised to focus on deficit reduction in 2011. A date that coincides precisely with the arrival of a real growth driven by private sector efforts to lessen the fiscal stimulus.The U.S. deficit reached yet about 10% of GDP in 2008-2009 and could rise to 10.6% for the current fiscal year, which ends in late September.

In this regard, the U.S. Treasury Department said Friday in a letter to the chairmen of both houses of Congress and heads of the parliamentary opposition, that he saw sharply lower its estimate of the total cost of all measures rescue the financial sector taken by federal authorities since the beginning of the crisis bad credit pay day loans.The ministry is now talking to a maximum of $ 87 billion, less than 1% of GDP.

Program to support the liquidity the Fed rescue of AIG, Chrysler and General Motors, through the aid homeowners in distress a year ago, the Treasury estimated that the losses of the state would reach 500 billion dollars, or 3.5% of GDP. "This means that the federal budget deficit and public debt will be substantially below what was expected before," the Treasury.

The return of job creation

On the employment front, the optimism is also relevant. "Next month, I think we will create between 100,000 and 200,000 jobs," said Vice President Joe Biden on Friday during a trip to Pennsylvania. "At the White House, some say to me: 'do not you progress too'.Well, I'm here to tell you that in the coming months we will create between 250,000 and 500,000 jobs per month, "he added.

For now, the unemployment rate remains high at 9.7% of the workforce. "I'll tell you something, folks. We have not stumbled badly in the fall. As well we have designed our plan to end the crisis, we have a lot of good news on the road to recovery, "assured Joe Biden.

These statements come as the U.S. economy has created jobs in March in a way never seen for three years: 162,000 net jobs were created this month, according to figures from the Labor Department. The country began to "see the end of the tunnel," according to President Barack Obama.

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L'Or?al is continuing its offensive to win the American hairdressers. The French group has just acquired two distributors of hair care products in the United States, Maly's Midwest and Marshall Salon Services, which carry a combined turnover of 130 million and provide 40,000 salons in the Midwest. These acquisitions bring to 80% coverage direct from the U.S. market by the firm, against 50% previously. They represent a continuation of the strategy number one global cosmetics to distribute his own professional products on the market, which weighed about 60 billion dollars (sales salons and spas in the U.S.).

Three years ago that L'Oreal has decided to take matters into their hands. In 2007 and 2008, he had already acquired Beauty Alliance, Maly's West and Columbia Supply to sell products directly to its range of L'Or?al Professional, Kerastase, Matrix and Redken.Objective: To monitor more closely a key market, which weighs one third of global sales of its professional division. This allows the giant of French industry in managing direct without intermediaries, thus controlling its margins at each stage of struggle against the flow of counterfeit goods, a widespread scourge in the United States and, especially, to develop direct relations with hairdressers.

Ensure fidelity of hairdressers is indeed a prerequisite for selling its products on the market very battle. Its subsidiary specializing SalonCentric Florida-based approach one by one the shows and their "designers" as they call them across the Atlantic. Specificity local hairdressers are in fact often self-employed who rent a chair in a salon. It is therefore necessary to convince individuals to use the group's products, while their neighbor salon can procure from a competitor."L'Oreal was founded more than a hundred years to serve and inspire the professional hair salons around the world," said Paul Sharnsky, President SalonCentric. This strategy should enable the French group to increase the efficiency of its business in the United States, where sales dropped by over 6% in 2008.

After a 2008 black, stock markets around the world experienced in 2009 a substantial rebound in the light of an economy still recovering. In Europe, the Dax in Frankfurt rose 23% to 5957.43 points December 31, while the FTSE in London was granted 22.07%, to end the year at 5412.88 points. The squares of Brussels (+ 31%) and Madrid (+ 30%) did even better, while the Swiss market shows an increase of 18.27% and the Milan Stock Exchange rose from 13.28%.

A second half of 2010 uncertain

In Asia, equity indices recorded spectacular gains. Shanghai has taken over 80% in one year, and Hong Kong has offered an increase of 52%.Even in Japan, where the structural problems persist, the Nikkei index Featured jumped 19.04% in 2009, to reach 10,546.44 points at the end of the year.

Across the Atlantic, the Dow Jones rose over the year to 18.82% and the Nasdaq composite jumped 43.89%.

According to the main house management, year 2010 should be characterized by a sustained increase in equity markets in developed countries during the first half of the year. The interest rates of central banks and European American should not be raised before next fall or later, consider including Axa IM, Pictet and Aurel BCG.

Then, visibility fading. The recovery plans, adding to public debt, will sooner or later disappear, and allow growth to take charge alone.

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The day on Tuesday a busy one on the social front, unions of Post and teaching have both called for a national day of mobilization Tuesday, November 24.

On Monday, several unions of Post and National Collective cons of privatization of the Post Office hold a press conference near the Elysee Palace before going there with the intention to meet with Nicolas Sarkozy and to deliver the leaves of 'annotating the "citizen referendum" held last month with the participation of 2.3 million people against privatization, according to figures from the collective.

On Tuesday, five unions at La Poste (CGT, Sud, CFDT, FOR and CFTC) to call a strike against the change of status and opening up capital of the company public, threatening to organize a national event "in the week of December 13, "if the government persisted in its goal to pass" the bill for this reform.