Discovery of Gas Deposit in Sri Lanka

The group Cairn India announced Sunday the discovery of offshore natural gas field off the west coast of Sri Lanka, something that had never seen in this country energy supply mainly depends on imports.
Recall that in August, Cairn India, the Indian subsidiary of Scottish Cairn Energy, has initiated exploration in the Mannar Basin, seismic studies have previously indicated to the presence of gas and oil.

Cairn has also indicated that further drilling will be conducted to measure the commercial interest of the discovery, noting also that the deposit was drilled 4.3 kilometers deep. This is an event that could significantly change the economic situation of Sri Lanka.  While drilling undertaken in early 1970 by Russian companies had failed to demonstrate significant reserves. It should be noted also that Cairn has sold its Indian subsidiary in mining giant Vedanta Resources, a group listed in London, controlled by billionaire Anil Agarwal of Indian origin.

Energy demand in Sri Lanka has risen sharply with the economic takeoff that followed the end of armed conflict in May 2009. If the current pace of its evolution continues, demand will double by 2018. It is in this context that the Government has already started negotiations with Russia to provide fuel and nuclear waste to Moscow. The country is also in contact with the International Atomic Energy Agency and countries with reactors for training and technical expertise.

Moreover, according to Sri Lanka, solar and wind powers are not suitable for consumption pattern in Sri Lanka. Country is indeed the point of electricity consumption at night, during which energies of this type are not available, but cannot be easily stored.

The Sugar Prices Boosted By The Financial Markets

 The sugar prices have benefited greatly from this week's wave of optimism that has reached the financial markets, this raw material is structurally more susceptible to fluctuations. The concerns weighing on investors again before the weekend, however, have reduced the rise. The latest figures from the Brazilian federation Unica, reports of a further slowdown in September of sugar production in Brazil, world's largest producer, have also allowed the prices to show an upward trend.

However, this weekend, the market's limited gains, concerns about the debt crisis in the European Union take precedence over other rights. Good crop prospects in India and Thailand are also specialists fear that the request is well below the offer. Analysts estimate that in fact the next harvest from these countries and Russia should rapidly offset by volume weakness in Brazilian production. Investors also expect a revival production of sugar beets in the European Union.

According to the International Sugar Organization (ISO), the excess production is forecast at 4.2 million tones during the period from October 2011 to September 2012.  Finally, on Friday at the lunch break, a tone of white sugar for December delivery was worth 657 pounds on the Liffe in London, against 623.30 pounds the previous week about the same time.  On the NYBOT-ICE U.S. per pound of raw sugar for March delivery traded at 25.19 cents against 24.30 cents a week earlier.

The implementation of Basel II in emerging World Part.III

In Morocco for example, credit risk, what methods are "standards" that are applied in the first place, methods "advanced" being planned in a few years. This allows the market to have time to prepare for and adapt to new standards and above all to promote aspects of governance and transparency (Pillar 2 and 3) as opposed to the race for the sophisticated methods that can lead advanced.

In addition to these legislative aspects and context, the gradual implementation of the standards also allows emerging in time to cushion the financial and human investments induced by the introduction of the device (see article in Financial Services Strategies on the topic: decryption and impact of Basel / IAS in Morocco). These investments are mainly of two kinds: information systems and organizational. Indeed, the Basel standards require a quasi-systematic evolution of strong information systems and the integration of a computing device and archiving of data and specific parameters. This results in high costs, even in many cases, a software market, whose development costs were shared.
For banks, Basel II is also an opportunity to renovate related functions, such as ALM, the practices of lending and risk treatment (recovery), the mechanisms of funding or administration of reference ( especially the third).

The implementation of Basel II also leads to organizational and human costs. Indeed, banks are obliged to proceed with the scalability, and in some cases, the formation of teams in charge of the management, control and risk modeling. In addition, to be fully effective, reform requires awareness (through training) of all stakeholders, including the Directorate General (requirement of Pillar 2), in the process of the bank of grant reporting regulations.

The adoption of Basel II prudential standards, therefore, a virtuous cycle leads to multiple benefits for countries implementing them: this process can be slow in some areas, but it is inexorable to comply with international standards.

The implementation of Basel II in emerging World Part.II

Implementation is necessary for local regulators to enable them:

* To learn from established and that have taken place earlier in other countries.
Indeed, in order to receive feedback from the actors in countries that have already adopted the reform, the emerging countries have established processes for discussion and exchange that lasted several years for some of them ( for example, the Moroccan regulator has consulted for 3 years before the French players to transpose the Basel standards in its regulation).
* To prepare their local regulations to the requirements of the new standards.
To be effective Basel standards require an adequate regulatory environment and thus prepared. The legislature must provide for such an expansion of the prerogatives of local regulatory authorities through the adoption of a number of laws to modernize bank.
* Adapt the Basel standards to the country context, particularly in terms of two parameters: the diversity of financial activity in this country and the level of detail and sophistication of available information.
On adaptation to local conditions, for example it is useless to try to apply the same level of sophistication of the Basel requirements for market risk (modeling) in a country where 99% of the activity is commercial banking (loans, current accounts ....).
Also, try to impose a strict segmentation of customers through the turnover (which is required in the regulations) is not always possible in some emerging markets given the low quality of available information or thresholds turnover that does not correspond to G10.

The implementation of Basel II in emerging World Part.I

The Basel II, whose implementation has been effective in all European countries or those of G10, The monetary and financial system is international and globalized; the new Basel Accord applies to countries emerging.

A necessity to stay in the international race is the reasons prompting the emerging countries to implement Basel II are due to both regulators and local financial institutions.

For local regulators, the standards required by Basel II first appear as a necessity to show the dynamics of the country and its integration into international standards. Indeed, by its demands for governance and transparency (Pillars 2 and 3 of the reform), coupled with a sophisticated risk management practices and in terms of calculations, the Basel II provides a real upgrade financial system. This new framework of risk is often seen as a catalyst that would clearly enhance the country's economic development.

For financial institutions, their membership is more common with banks based in countries where standards are in force, the implementation of Basel II is often a constraint group. Indeed, the parent companies which are subject to Basel II must deploy this device in all of their subsidiaries, in order to have a consistent view of risk borne. For local branches, Basel II will increase their competitiveness in the long term by generating an adjustment of product pricing based on risk and improving the general policy of granting credit.


In most emerging countries, the implementation of Basel II is graduated in time and specific to reflect the particularities of each country.