Word: asia
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Asia, governments stung by currency speculators, who often use derivatives, are beginning to turn on their foreign bankers. Citibank reportedly had to cancel plans for a press conference in Taiwan last month to announce a merger with Travelers Group. The problem? Taiwanese authorities denounced Citibank for allegedly circumventing banking regulations involving certain derivatives that allowed the bank to bet heavily against the Taiwan dollar. "The bottom line in this whole derivatives issue is if I'm a trader, I'll take the biggest bets that I can because if I win, I'll go home a millionaire," says Peabody...
...which introduced the world to derivatives surprises in 1994. Procter & Gamble sued the bank after absorbing losses of about $150 million on a blown deal, accusing Bankers Trust of misleading it on the risks. The bank agreed to a costly settlement. Now it may face other nasty surprises from Asia. According to SEC filings, the bank has some $5 billion of gross-credit exposure in derivatives to clients that aren't investment grade...
...Financial derivatives during the Asian crisis "worked as expected," said Federal Reserve governor Susan Phillips in a March speech. But that comment may be more a prayer than a conviction. "It's far too early to be handing out Oscars to the banks for how they performed in Asia," says Paul Spraos, publisher of the Swaps Monitor, a derivative newsletter. "It's definitely premature to say the worst of the losses are behind us. These things take time to emerge...
With Indonesia aflame, a virtual depression in Japan and both Malaysia and Thailand still struggling, the Asian economic crisis is far from over. In the worst- case scenario, one or more large derivatives defaults from Asia and sets off a chain reaction of failures. In the meantime, Howard Greenspan still awaits information to see if his bank will suffer from the fallout. "In the final analysis, this has little to do with Asia," says Greenspan. "It's derivatives themselves. We are into the age of global financial risk...
...developing nations in the info age, it's a question of priorities: Do you want a working toilet or do you want the World Wide Web? Many seem to be choosing the Web. Access to adequate sanitation facilities in Latin America and Asia is falling while Web use is growing geometrically, according to a new report from the Worldwatch Institute. In China, 4 million people are expected to be online by the year 2000, though not even half of them have a toilet. Africans get the worst deal--few toilets and even fewer...