Oil prices fell more than $2 to below $87 a barrel as expectations that the financial crisis could further slow demand outweighed calls by some Opec members to cut output.
The producer group will hold an emergency meeting on November 18th to discuss the impact of the crisis on oil markets, which has helped knock prices from a record peak of more than $147 a barrel in July. US crude traded $2.45 lower to $86.50 a barrel by 2.29pm yesterday.
London Brent crude fell $1.72 to $82.64 a barrel.
Call for ‘new culture’ in banking
The Irish Bank Officials Association (Iboa) has called for a “new culture” in banking, saying the entire course of banking in Ireland had changed in the past two weeks. The union, which represents more than 20,000 staff, wants a forum to be established to oversee the future of the industry.
Addressing a conference of union representatives in Portlaoise, Co Laois, Iboa general secretary Larry Broderick said significant changes were likely in Irish banking in the wake of the Government’s intervention.
He believed there would be “stricter regulation and more transparent governance”.
Germany delays Deutsche Bahn IPO
The German government has delayed a multibillion- euro initial public offering of rail operator Deutsche Bahn, citing turbulence on global markets.
The partial privatisation had been set for October 27th but was pushed back to an unspecified date that will depend on an improvement in market conditions. – (Reuters)
Texas Pacific
An item in Business This Week last Friday incorrectly stated that private equity company Texas Pacific invested $7 billion in US bank Washington Mutual (WaMu).
Texas Pacific was in a consortium that took a $7 billion stake in WaMu last April, but the fund invested $1.35 billion of its own money and its clients invested some $650 million.
All investors were wiped out when WaMu was seized by the federal authorities and sold to JP Morgan.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/VR3765MFOBH2NMV2QNICYDF67M.png)