MARKETS / FINANCE

Senators negotiating financial regulatory reform legislation said on Sunday they were close to a bipartisan agreement, as the White House said fraud charges against Wall Street titan Goldman Sachs highlighted the need for reform.

Wall Street is heading into another earnings blitz this week and the prospects of strong results from bellwethers like Caterpillar Inc and 3M Co should propel indexes to new recovery highs.

Greece's finance minister said on Sunday aid would arrive fast enough to avert a debt default as signs grew that a 45 billion euro ($60.49 billion) rescue package would have to be increased.

Senators negotiating financial regulatory reform legislation said on Sunday they were close to a bipartisan agreement, but conceded they may not get a deal before a crucial Senate vote on Monday.

Emails sent by Goldman Sachs Group Inc's executives on money the firm made by betting against risky mortgage securities highlight the need for transparency in financial markets, senior White House adviser Lawrence Summers said on Sunday.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Sunday that proposals to more tightly regulate the financial sector are not a threat and will ultimately be a benefit to banks by making them more credible.

UAE banks are likely to face the brunt of the Dubai World restructuring in the second quarter, after the central bank told lenders they are not required to book provisions until there is more clarity.

Canada said on Sunday it expected a 45 billion euro ($60.49 billion) rescue package for Greece to grow in size as doubts emerged over whether the joint EU-IMF aid would be enough to avert a default.

World Bank members have agreed to pour more capital into the lender and give developing countries a greater voice in running the bank, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Sunday.

Countries that weathered the global economic crisis with their financial systems relatively unscathed are being shortsighted by opposing a global bank levy, the IMF's chief said on Saturday.

Switzerland's economy minister said she hoped parliament would not link a deal between UBS and the United States on disclosing secret bank accounts with questions such as bankers' bonuses, a paper reported on Sunday.

More banks in the Gulf Arab region may convert to Islamic finance in a bid to tap rising demand for sharia-compliant products and to avoid the heavy investment required to launch new banks.

European heavyweights Germany and France vowed on Sunday to take a hard line with Greece in exchange for financial support as doubts emerged over whether a 45 billion euro ($60.2 billion) aid package was sufficient to prevent a default.

Germany will aid Greece in defense of Europe's shared currency if Athens enforces austerity measures, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said on Sunday, in a speech also calling for tighter EU budget rules.

Greece must agree to tough new austerity measures before it receives any financial aid from the European Union and failure to do so would endanger such support, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told a newspaper.

Finance leaders scrambled to secure aid for debt-stricken Greece on Saturday and Canada cautioned that some European countries feared the 45 billion euros ($60 billion) under consideration was not enough.

The IMF and Argentina are talking about sending an IMF technical mission to the country to improve the quality of the government's economic data, a senior IMF official said on Saturday.

World Bank member countries reached a preliminary agreement on a 3.13 percent shift in voting power to give emerging and developing nations greater influence in the global institution.

Equity Investment management firm AXA Rosenberg LLC has found an error in its risk-modeling program that caused it to understate some common risks in its portfolio optimization system, according to a letter to investors posted on the company's website.

The Swiss bank UBS AG and the accounting firm Ernst & Young LLP have agreed to $250.5 million of settlements to resolve investor lawsuits over a fraud that nearly destroyed the hospital operator HealthSouth Corp.

Greece and top world finance officials raced to get rescue funds to the debt-stricken euro zone country but concern in Germany about the scale of the bailout threatened to slow down the process.

Countries must not be complacent about the state of the global economy, despite brighter signs of recovery, Japanese Finance Minister Naoto Kan on Saturday warned his counterparts at the International Monetary Fund.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc's top executive boasted in late 2007 about the money the investment bank was making from betting against risky mortgages, according to a collection of e-mails released by a Senate panel on Saturday.

Five senior executives at Goldman Sachs Group Inc sold company stock after the firm received notice of possible fraud charges, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc officials boasted in late 2007 about the money the investment bank was making from betting against risky mortgages, according to a collection of e-mails released by a Senate panel on Saturday.

A bank levy to cover the cost of future bailouts is a flawed idea, a global banking group said on Saturday, calling instead for a global agreement for unwinding failing banks without resorting to taxpayer money.

Emerging-market economies should be given an increased say in global financial institutions at the cost of rich countries, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Saturday.

Debt-stricken Greece appealed to its European partners and the IMF for emergency loans on Friday, yielding to overwhelming market pressure to start the first financial rescue of a member of the euro zone.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc officials discussed making serious money in 2007 off the subprime crisis as mortgages were starting to falter in rapid numbers, according to a collection of e-mails released by a Senate panel on Saturday.