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Safer debt soars across world as euro storm builds   LONDON (Reuters) - Political disarray in Greece and fresh fears about Spain's banks have triggered a scramble for the world's lowest-risk government bonds,chaussures louboutin pas cher, with investors willing to accept returns of next to nothing in exchange for shelter from the euro zone storm.  Borrowing costs for Germany, Britain, the United States and Japan have tumbled to record lows at auctions this week, with yields on outstanding debt also shrinking as investors eye events in the bloc's periphery with alarm.  Electoral stalemate in bailed-out Greece, which could lead to a reneging on its aid agreement and to its exit from the euro, and rising costs for fixing Spain's banks have reinforced risk-aversion among investors already nervous about the global economy.  The rejection by voters in Greece, France and Italy this week of parties advocating austerity measures has meanwhile undermined a central plank of euro zone leaders' strategy for resolving the crisis,moncler doudoune, now in its third year.  On Wednesday, Germany sold more than 4 billion euros of five-year government bonds at a record low cost of 0.56 percent, while the June Bund future hit an all-time high of 143.03 as investors sought out the safest assets.  Demand was lower than at previous auctions, reflecting rock-bottom returns for investors, but the sale showed Germany was still able to borrow in times of market stress and pay much less than other euro zone countries.  "The cover (total bids) was by no means astounding, but then again when you're trying to sell something with a yield of 0,Doudounes Moncler.56 percent for five years and yields are down 24 basis points from last time ... what else do you expect?" said Marc Ostwald, a strategist at Monument Securities in London.  Germany's debt agency said the auction result reflected "the volatile market situation which is characterized by great uncertainty".  In Britain,chaussures louboutin, which is in recession and struggling to reduce a bigger budget deficit than many of the euro zone's most indebted states, an auction of 30-year gilts produced the lowest ever cost of funds for that maturity.  The yield on 10-year gilts hit a record low of around 1,doudoune moncler pas cher.91 percent after the 2 billion 30-year sale, which drew bids for more than twice the amount on offer - much higher than at the last sale of the bond in March, and despite fears the Bank of England will call time on its bond-buying program.  Analysts said investors had offered above-market prices to secure their bids.  "Demand for perceived safe assets is exceptionally strong here,moncler doudoune," RBC strategist Sam Hill said. "For the time being the effect of (an end to) quantitative easing is comfortably being trumped by investors setting their objective of the return of their capital rather than (worrying about) what the rate of return on that capital is."  Buoyant demand at the auction also sent the gilt future to a new high of 117.98.  The Bank of England owns about one-third of all outstanding UK bonds following two rounds of purchases with new money, known as quantitative easing,moncler doudoune. Similar efforts by central banks to stimulate the economies of the United States and Japan have underpinned their bond prices, reinforcing investors' view of them as a safe-haven.  The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury stood near three-month lows at 1.82 percent on Wednesday, down from Tuesday's U.S,doudoune moncler. close despite a planned $24 billion sale of 10-year notes later in the day. Thirty-year yields also fell, nearing 3 percent, ahead of a $16 billion auction,Doudounes Moncler. <span id="midArticle_15"> A sale on Tuesday of $32 billion in three-year notes meanwhile attracted the second highest bid-to-cover ratio in history, underlining the extent of demand for U.S. debt. <span id="midArticle_0"> Demand for T-bonds has been fuelled partly by hopes that Europe's debt problems and an uncertain outlook for the world's biggest economy will prompt the Federal Reserve to undertake more monetary stimulus. <span id="midArticle_1"> Yields on Japanese government bonds skidded to 19-month lows on Wednesday, with 10-year debt offering just 0.845 percent after a strong auction the previous day. <span id="midArticle_2"> The 10-year JGB futures June contract closed near highs seen in February when the Bank of Japan surprised markets by announcing a fresh round of monetary easing. <span id="midArticle_3"> "With stocks weakening and the yen strengthening, there are few investment choices for Japanese investors, so we keep buying JGBs,louboutin,"said a fixed-income fund manager at a Japanese trust bank. "Even though our stomachs are full, we still have to keep eating." <span id="midArticle_4"> Bond purchases by the Bank of Japan, which said in April it would buy a further 10 trillion yen of JGBs with up to three years until maturity as part of measures to stimulate the economy, have also fuelled price gains. <span id="midArticle_5"> (Reporting by Lisa Twaronite in Tokyo and Emelia Sithole Matarise, William James, Michelle Martin and Fiona Shaikh in London. Editing by Jeremy Gaunt.) <span id="midArticle_6"> Related articles： <ul> <li>but I very much doubt they’</li> <li>U.S.-born Diamond fought to save his career for several days</li> <li>//</li> </ul>

no. 05-1720.
Visa, MasterCard, banks in $7.25 billion retail settlement <span id="midArticle_start"> <span id="midArticle_0"> NEW YORK (Reuters) - Visa Inc, MasterCard Inc and banks that issue their credit cards have agreed to a $7.25 billion settlement with U.S. retailers in a lawsuit over the fixing of credit and debit card fees in what could be the largest antitrust settlement in U.S. history. <span id="midArticle_1"> The settlement, if approved by a judge, would resolve dozens of lawsuits filed by retailers in 2005. The card companies and banks would also allow stores to start charging customers extra for using certain credit cards in an effort to steer them toward cheaper forms of payment. <span id="midArticle_2"> The settlement papers were filed on Friday in Brooklyn federal court. <span id="midArticle_3"> Swipe fees - charges to cover processing credit and debit payments - are set by the card companies and deducted from the transaction by the banks that issue the cards, essentially passing on the cost to merchants, the lawsuits said. <span id="midArticle_4"> The proposed settlement involves a payment to a class of stores of $6 billion from Visa, MasterCard and more than a dozen of the country's largest banks who issue the companies' cards. The card companies have also agreed to reduce swipe fees by the equivalent of 10 basis points for eight months for a total consideration to stores valued at about $1.2 billion, according to lawyers for the plaintiffs. <span id="midArticle_5"> The deal calls for merchants to be allowed to negotiate collectively over the swipe fees, also known as interchange fees. <span id="midArticle_6"> Merchants would also be required to disclose information about card fees to customers, and credit card surcharges would be subject to a cap, according to the settlement papers. Surcharge rules would not affect the 10 states that currently prohibit that practice, which include California, New York and Texas. <span id="midArticle_7"> An additional $525 million will be paid to stores suing individually, according to the documents,christian louboutin pas cher. <span id="midArticle_8"> "This is an historic settlement,chaussures louboutin pas cher," said Bonny Sweeney, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. The settlement "will help shift the competitive balance from one formerly dominated by the banks which controlled the card networks to the side of merchants and consumers," said Craig Wildfang, who also represented the plaintiffs. <span id="midArticle_9"> Noah Hanft, general counsel for MasterCard, said the company believed its interests were "best served by an amicable resolution" of the case. Visa Chief Executive Officer Joseph Saunders said the settlement was in the best interest of all parties and did not expect the settlement to impact its current guidance. <span id="midArticle_10"> Not everyone was pleased with the proposed settlement, however. One class plaintiff, the National Association of Convenience Stores, rejected the settlement in a statement on Friday from its president, Tom Robinson, who is also president of Robinson Oil Corp. <span id="midArticle_11"> "Not only does the proposed settlement fail to introduce competition and transparency, it actually provides Visa and MasterCard with the tools to continue to shield swipe fees from market forces," Robinson said. <span id="midArticle_12"> The proposed considerations are a far cry from the $50 billion in swipe-fees paid each year by U.S. retailers, he said. <span id="midArticle_13"> The American Bankers Association, a trade group whose members include the bank defendants, said retailers, not consumers, stood to gain the most from the proposed settlement. <span id="midArticle_14"> "Big-box retailers will likely seize this opportunity to ask Congress for even more handouts," said ABA President Frank Keating in a statement, referring to the Durbin amendment passed by Congress in 2010 limiting debit-card swipe fees - a move that banks say resulted in an $8 billion windfall for retailers. <span id="midArticle_15"> "The legal process worked and should send a signal to Congress that it is wrong to pick winners and losers in a complex dispute between two industries," the Electronic Payment Coalition, which represents payment networks, said in a statement. <span id="midArticle_0"> The plaintiffs charged that Visa and MasterCard colluded directly and indirectly through the issuing banks to keep merchants from finding ways to mitigate credit-card costs. <span id="midArticle_1"> Plaintiffs in the case include supermarket chain Kroger Co, pharmacy chain Rite-Aid Corp and shoe retailer Payless ShoeSource, as well as trade associations such as the National Association of Convenience Stores, National Grocers Association and the American Booksellers Association. <span id="midArticle_2"> The National Retail Federation, a trade group representing retailers, said that "the test will be whether the injunctive relief is meaningful. Unless it is, the card market will stay broken and neither merchants nor their customers will achieve a long-term benefit." <span id="midArticle_3"> A number of banks that issue Visa and MasterCard cards, including JP Morgan Chase & Co, were also named as defendants in the lawsuit, along with Visa and MasterCard's payment networks. <span id="midArticle_4"> A spokeswoman for Bank of America NA said it believed the terms of the settlement were fair. JP Morgan declined to comment. Citigroup Inc acknowledged its role in the deal and declined further comment. <span id="midArticle_5"> A spokesman for Wells Fargo said the company was pleased to put the matter behind it. <span id="midArticle_6"> An estimated 7 million retailers will be affected by the settlement, according to lawyers for the plaintiffs. <span id="midArticle_7"> Visa and MasterCard have been plagued by legal problems over their payment-card policies for the last decade. In 2003, the companies paid a combined $3 billion to settle a lawsuit by stores over their "honor all cards" policies, which tied acceptance of credit to debit cards,moncler. <span id="midArticle_8"> The U.S. Department of Justice brought and settled a civil antitrust suit against Visa and MasterCard in 2010,louboutin. As part of the consent decree, the companies agreed to drop certain policies that kept stores from steering their customers to cheaper forms of payment. <span id="midArticle_9"> But the decree left intact policies that prohibit stores from charging customers more when they use certain payment cards, according to a July 2011 court filing from plaintiffs. <span id="midArticle_10"> The defendants denied that any collusion took place. <span id="midArticle_11"> Visa said its share of the settlement is $4.4 billion, and Mastercard said its share is $790 million. <span id="midArticle_12"> In December, Visa announced it set aside an additional $1.57 billion to cover the cost of a potential settlement in the case, bringing its litigation reserve balance to $4.28 billion, according to a regulatory filing. MasterCard in the fourth quarter of 2011 recorded a $770 million pretax charge, as an estimate of its potential liability in the case, a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission showed. <span id="midArticle_13"> MasterCard said in a statement that it expected to incur an additional $20 million pre-tax charge in its 2012 second quarter financial statements to cover its portion of the settlement. <span id="midArticle_14"> Visa and MasterCard together accounted for more than 80 percent of U.S,doudoune moncler. credit and debit card purchases by volume in 2011, according to data from the Nilson Report, a California trade publication. <span id="midArticle_15"> Albert Foer,moncler pas cher, president of think-tank the American Antitrust Institute, said that the settlement should create more transparency for consumers at the cash register. Because merchants had been forbidden from charging customers extra for costlier payment forms,louboutin, they often built that cost into the retail price, he said,louboutin pas cher. <span id="midArticle_0"> While it may not lead to lower prices, "it gives the consumers some choice and it should ultimately mean a better deal for everybody," Foer said,doudoune moncler pas cher. "In the longer run,doudoune moncler, it should help keep retail prices under better control." <span id="midArticle_1"> It may also be the last time retailers are allowed to take Visa and Mastercard to court over interchange fees. The proposal provides for extensive litigation releases that would keep stores that join the settlement from suing over a wide range of issues relating to fees and anti-steering restraints. <span id="midArticle_2"> The case is In re: Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, no. 05-1720. <span id="midArticle_3"> (Reporting by Jessica Dye; editing by Bernard Orr, Andre Grenon and Carol Bishopric) <span id="midArticle_4"> Related articles： <ul> <li>Translation</li> <li>the National Association of Convenience Stores</li> <li>Japan is supportive of the underlying goals of FATCA</li> </ul>