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Gold/Mining/Energy : Euro Impact on Gold, USD ... -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: banco$ who wrote (131)	12/17/1998 10:49:00 PM
From: banco$	Respond to of 289

Detailed timetable for the adoption of the conversion rates between the euro and the national currencies on 31 December 1998: In accordance with Article 109 l (4) of the Treaty, the irrevocable conversion rates for the euro will be adopted by the Council, acting with the unanimity of the Member States without a derogation, effective as of 1 January 1999, on a proposal from the Commission and after consultation of the European Central Bank. The key deadlines are as follows: 1. Proposal: 12.30 At the end of the regular central bank concertation procedure (11.30 (CET)), the Commission will calculate the final official ECU exchange rates for the participating currencies in line with the established procedure. The Commission will propose these rates for adoption by the Council as the irrevocable conversion rates for the euro at 12.30 in a televised Council session. At the same time, the Commission will make these proposed rates public via Internet and financial information providers. 2. Adoption: 13.30 The Council will adopt the regulation and will inform the public of its adoption at around 13.30. In addition, the Commission will make the adoption public by the same means as when it published the proposed rates. 3. Publication: 15.00 The regulation will be published in the Official Journal of the European Communities, which will be available in the official languages at the Office for Official Publications in Luxembourg at 15.00. 4. Entry into force The regulation will be applicable as from 1 January 1999, 00.00 a.m. local time (participating Member States). ecu-activities.be

To: banco$ who wrote (131)	12/21/1998 7:55:00 PM
From: banco$	Respond to of 289

"Banks Prepare for Euro Switch" (I heard estimates of 30,000 people working in London during the New Year holiday.) Banks Prepare for Euro Switch By PAUL AMES Associated Press Writer Monday December 21 BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- While most of Europe echoes to the sound of popping champagne corks on New Year's Eve, the incessant clicks of computer keyboards will break the traditional holiday silence in financial centers. Thousands of bank employees will be working round the clock over the long New Year's weekend getting ready to usher in the European Union's new single currency. They have to make sure computer networks, accounting rooms and trading systems are ready for the euro when financial markets reopen Jan. 4. ''We'll have the pleasure of spending New Year's Eve, and the whole weekend, at the bank,'' said Jean-Francois Colin, euro-project coordinator for Banque Nationale de Paris. ''There's an enormous pile of work to get through.'' The banks' frantic runup to ''E-day'' will mark the culmination of years of preparation for the unprecedented monetary switch by 11 of the EU's 15 nations. Banks, more than most other businesses, will be in the vanguard of adopting -- and adapting -- to the new currency. Exchange rates at which the 11 member currencies will be absorbed into the euro will be fixed at European Union headquarters on Dec. 31, leaving the banks just four days to adapt software programs to convert stock shares, bonds, deposits and loans into euros before markets open the following Monday. The European Bankers Federation estimates the switchover will cost the sector almost $10 billion. Some euro-troubles await. Foreign exchange trading in the 11 currencies joining the euro -- long a lucrative business -- will end Dec. 31. Banks that long have had a cushy business in their home markets will face competition from rivals in neighboring countries. Bond issues denominated in local currencies will disappear. ''To be a strong European bank now you have to be a strong bank everywhere,'' said Dennis Phillips, spokesman at Commerzbank in Frankfurt, Germany. ''There'll be much fiercer competition among banks.'' Despite such worries, Europe's banks are eagerly awaiting the euro. They see it boosting the continent's economies, which will mean more business for banks. By forging a giant currency union stretching from Portugal to Finland, Ireland to Austria, the euro will tear down barriers to trade, eliminate the risk of doing business in different currencies and spawn a flurry of frontier-free business, supporters say. They also say the union will help ensure stability in the nations' economies and interest rates. Bankers say that spells more opportunities than risks. ''The euro will reshuffle the cards, and banks that have prepared well can reap the profits,'' said Colin. ''We see the euro as a chance to gain market share.'' Banks can trawl for clients in all 11 nations by offering standardized products across the euro zone such as faster, cheaper cross-border money transfers and loans in euros. Centralized accounts would, for example, allow a company operating in the Netherlands and Belgium to streamline business by paying suppliers and employees from a single euro account. Banks will be able to use savings deposited in one country to make loans in another, without fear of currency fluctuations. Stock and bond markets will expand. Freed from the limitations of their national market base, European banks hope the euro will allow them to build up greater global reach, backed by a currency they expect to rival the dollar for strength and stability. Things, though, will not happen immediately. Starting Jan. 1, banks will offer customers the choice of holding savings and checking accounts denominated in euros, or national currencies. Commerzbank, in a recent survey, found just 2 percent of its business clients were strongly interested in switching to the euro on Day One. Smaller businesses, in particular, plan to hang on to national currencies longer into the three-year transition period before euro notes and coins emerge to replace national currencies. Consumers will be even slower adapting. Since they'll still be doing their shopping in Italian lire, Luxembourg francs, Spanish pesetas and the rest up to 2002, the vast majority are expected to keep their bank accounts in their national currencies. The euro is expected to lead to takeovers and alliances in the banking sector as banks expand beyond their national borders. The recent acquisition by Germany's Deutsche Bank of Credit Lyonnais Belgium and the purchase of Belgium's Banque Bruxelles Lambert by ING of the Netherlands could be just the start. ''There will more mergers, of course. It will lead to the formation of Europe-wide banking groups,'' predicted Colin of BNP, which operates an alliance with Germany's Dresdner Bank.

To: banco$ who wrote (131)	1/3/1999 7:36:00 PM
From: banco$	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 289

"no incidents have been reported that may impair the smooth start of the system" (ECB) PRESS RELEASE Successful conversion to the euro 3 January 1999 During the changeover weekend the ESCB has been monitoring the conduct of conversion activities at the ECB, at the participating national central banks (NCBs) and at certain private institutions which - in the view of the ESCB - represent the core of the financial infrastructure in the euro area. Information has been exchanged on a regular basis through a network of communication points between the ECB and the NCBs. Regular contacts have also been maintained with other EU and non-EU central banks. Several NCBs have already published their assessment of the changeover process at national level. In the monitoring of conversion activities conducted by the ESCB during the changeover weekend no incidents have been reported that may impair the smooth start of the system. The ESCB considers this to be a sign of the quality of the preparatory work conducted over recent months and years by the central banking community and by private financial market operators. A last exchange of information before the opening of the markets will take place between the ad hoc communication points at the ECB and at the NCBs at 7 a.m. tomorrow, 4 January 1999. The ESCB will henceforth continue, as a part of its normal practice, to monitor closely developments in the markets. *** European Central Bank Press Division Kaiserstrasse 29, D-60311 Frankfurt am Main Tel.: 0049 69 1344 7455, Fax: 0049 69 1344 7404 Internet: ecb.int