Why banks want saving from themselves + MORE Sep 24th

It’s a fallacy to think of Nortel Networks as just a Canadian company and that its intellectual property was created solely in Canada, a lawyer for its U.S. subsidiary said Tuesday at a cross-border bankruptcy trial that will decide how remaining assets are shared among creditors.

BANGKOK – Asian stock markets drifted Wednesday as the boost from stronger Chinese manufacturing was offset by grim economic news from Europe and airstrikes in Syria.
KEEPING SCORE: Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average was down 0.2 per cent at 16,174.69 while Seoul’s Kospi rose 0.1 per cent to 2,029.94. Hong Kong’s Hang shed 0.1 per cent to 23,824.50 and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.9 per cent to 5,368.30. China’s Shanghai Composite was little changed at 2,309.91. Southeast Asia markets mostly rose.
THE QUOTE: “Geopolitical risk, which has been simmering in the background, is back to the fore” after the US and their Arab allies launched a series of air strikes into Islamic State positions at the Syrian-Iraqi border, potentially increasing instability in the region, said CMC analyst Desmond Chua. “Helping to limit losses in the equity markets, however, was the continual outperformance of economic indicators, with US manufacturing activity clocking a four-year high,” he said…

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In about a month, Ed Clark, the CEO of TD Bank, will retire, bidding adieu to the company’s familiar green armchair for the last time. He’s had an impressive run. As the one-time head of Canada Trust, Clark engineered what was essentially a reverse takeover of the much larger Toronto-Dominion Bank after it bought Canada Trust in 2000. And, under his watch, TD recently catapulted past the Royal Bank of Canada to become the largest financial institution in the country by total assets, which, as of last quarter, stood at a staggering $922 billion. So the man knows banking. And, this being Canada, where a handful of Goliaths dominate the industry, thanks to government-decreed oligopoly, he’s acutely familiar with the unseemly tango bankers and politicians are forever locked into.
Which is why it was so informative when Clark voiced concerns recently about the fragility of household finances in light of ultra-low interest rates and the easy access to mortgage credit. “Where these issues have been dealt with successfully is governments who lay out a framework for an industry,” he told the Canadian Press last week…

REGINA – Moody’s Investors Service has given Saskatchewan its highest credit rating.
It raised the province’s rating to Aaa from Aa1 and says the upgrade applies to both domestic and foreign currency debt issued by Saskatchewan.
Kathrin Heitmann, Moody’s lead analyst for Saskatchewan, says the rating reflects the province’s fiscal discipline and sustained low debt levels, which underscore prudent financial management practices.
She says Moody’s views Saskatchewan as well positioned to maintain substantial financial strength despite its economic and financial exposure to a volatile primary sector.
Moody’s says it expects that the current trend of sound financial operations will be maintained given the planned continuation of stringent expenditure controls, conservative budgetary forecasting and commitment to low core operating government debt.
It says Saskatchewan has in the past used high surpluses stemming from non-renewable resource revenues to reduce core government debt and has maintained low debt levels despite recent volatility in potash prices and increased infrastructure spending…

The much-anticipated issue will comprise an initial offering of shares as well as a secondary offering by two major shareholders, ARC Financial and Kern Partners