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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Eggolas Moria who wrote (48637)	2/24/1999 12:17:00 PM
From: Thomas M.	Respond to of 132070

Not just Soros . . . bridge.com Brazil lawmaker alleges banks had insider info on devaluation Updated Tues Feb 23, 1999 22:00 GMT By Gerald Jeffris, Bridge News Brasilia--Feb 23--The Brazilian Workers Party (PT) congressman Aluisio Mercadante today alleged that several Brazilian and international banks had access to privileged government foreign exchange information preceding the devaluation of the real in January. Mercadante said he would request the Central Bank to open an investigation into the allegations. Mercandante said he based his allegations on an analysis based on flows in the forex market between Jan 4 and Jan 31. The real was officially allowed to float on Jan 18, after the government scrapped the mini trading band on Jan 13. Based on the information Mercadante said he obtained from an unnamed source in the Brazilian government, several banks changed their trading positions abruptly on Jan. 11. He said that on the following day the banks purchased 260 million real worth of dollars. On Jan 13, the number jumped to 1.74 billion real, and on Jan 14--one day before the devaluation was announced--dollar purchases again jumped to 2.36 billion real. Banks changed their short positions "almost overnight" only a few days before the devaluation, Mercandante said. The congressman said such an abrupt change could only have been provoked by leaks within the government regarding its intentions to float the currency. Mercadante alleged that the following banks had demonstrated questionable practices shortly before the real devaluation: JP Morgan, ING Baring, Bank Boston, Citibank, Banco Garantia, Banco Pactual, Banco BBN, Banco Matrix and Bank Beal.