25/07/2014 World Business Report

MH17. Those are the latest headlines. Now

time for the business and money news with World Business Report.

Britain's economy finally recovers from its six`year downturn. But is

there really cause for celebration? Plus, the toughest cop on Wall

Street. We meet the man behind that ?9 billion `` $9 billion fine for

BNP Paribas. Welcome. This is World Business

Report. In just a moment, KFC and McDonald's battled to contain the

latest food safety scandal in China. But first, in the UK there could be

official confirmation that the economy has emerged from its

six`year downturn. Quarterly growth figures are expected to show the

country's gross domestic product is back to where it was before the 2008

financial crisis. A quick look at the figures. In the first three

months of 2008, the UK's GDP was ?392 billion. That was a record high

at the time. But by the middle of 2009, that had gone down more than

7%. Since the last recovery, the recovery has been picking up speed.

`` last year. Growth is around 0.8%. If that is confirmed, it would make

GDP for the quarter to ?393 billion. Just above the peak. It is

it cause for celebration? Kingfield Road in Coventry is the

site where in the 1960s, jaguar made its iconic sports car. Half a

century on, the company factory is used to make for tiles. It is not as

glamorous, but it provides jobs for 400 people. It provides the UK

economy with $70 million per year in export sales. It takes the different

layers and puts them together. The chief executive says his company,

like the UK economy, has bounced back. Sales growth is now very

strong in some parts of the world. But it is weak in others. At the

moment our sales in the UK are doing very well. We are 20% up on last

year. The US is also up 20%. Mainland Europe is the weakest

economy at the moment. Our sales are flat. According to the Confederation

of British industry, 40% of manufacturing firms are now seeing

an increase in orders. 30% are hiring more staff. But many of them

say that growth is being dragged down by weak markets in continental

Europe. That is where 50% of British manufactured goods are exported. We

need to see higher levels of growth in Europe. That on its own will not

be enough. We need to see more to export to other fast`growing

economies. China, India, Mexico. We need to see both. Government

ministers in the UK had been hoping for an export led recovery. But

manufacturing firms face flat sales in Europe and higher tariffs. For

the moment, most are pinning their hopes on a continued rise in

domestic demand. KFC and McDonald's are battling to

contain a spreading through the safety scandal in China. We can now

go to Singapore. What can you tell us? It is not just China, but Hong

Kong and Japan as well. These fast food restaurants have stopped

selling out of date meet. This is a meat that has been imported into

Hong Kong and Japan from a Chinese firm that is supplying out of date

meet to those firms. Basically supplying expired product. This is

not just being contained in China, but spread to Hong Kong and Japan.

Hong Kong said they removed the nuggets from their outlets. About

20% of its chicken nuggets sold in Japan apparently came from this

ridiculous a player. Nearly 500 stores in Japan have been affected.

Sales are expected to resume only after they switch to other suppliers

in China and Thailand. It also comes after Hong Kong's food safety

regulator suspended all imports from the company. The regulator added

that any product already imported will be sealed and banned pending

the results of the investigations. Now to New York, and to this man.

You may not know him, but the banking industry most certainly

does. His name is Benjamin Lawsky. He is superintendent of the New York

State Department of financial services. He is the man behind a

series of record`breaking fines against the world's biggest banks.

Most recently, BNP Paribas was hit by an $8.9 billion fine for breaking

US sanctions against Iran and others. Standard Chartered was the

first to fall foul of the crackdown. It paid a more modest

$340 million. Again, for doing more business with Iran. And there was

its Swiss rival. We caught up with him in New York and asked him about

the track down. Talk to me a bit about Credit

Suisse. Was that an idle threat something you were prepared to go

through with? We do not do threats. It does not work in life to

threaten. When we looked at that, we thought it was pretty serious

conduct. We wanted to deal with it. If you do not deal with it, if there

is no consequence, back after bank, bank after bank will continue to

engage in it. You have also gone through several firms. What do you

say to people who say you're unfairly targeting foreign banks?

Absolutely not. When we did Standard Chartered, we were told we were

anti` British. When we did the NP, we were anti` France. It is all

about conduct. They involved this deliberate and intentional act of

taking information out of wire transfers to allow billions of

dollars of money laundering to happen. Why have you proposed new

rules to regulate virtual currencies? It is inevitable, all

over the world frankly, that regulators will look at this. More

and more people are getting involved in it. Virtual currencies, it is

inevitable that regulators will want to protect consumers and we are not

seeing massive amounts of money`laundering going on. They are

going to want to make sure that the assets these firms hold high

sufficient so we do not see a collapse. We saw consumers lose

hundreds of millions of dollars in the collapse of one market. How do

you manage that balance between cracking down on criminal activity

but not stifling innovation? That is the billion dollar question. We do

not want to have a small firm who cannot get off the ground because

compliance with these rules is so rigourous that they cannot afford

it. We do not want to allow a world where you have massive amounts of

money laundering at the same time. Consequences of that I think the

terrorism. A bit of other business news. One of

Argentina's creditors has accused the country's government of choosing

to default next week after failing to reach a deal during talks in New

York. It has until the 30th to pay bonds, having lost a legal appeal.

Shares in Amazon plunged 10% in late trade after it took a much larger

than expected loss in the second quarter.

It is continuing to invest heavily in new business is. But investors

are becoming impatient. Its smartphone goes on sale in the US

later today. A quick look at Asian markets this

power. For the most part, several pulled away from highs for a mostly

flat day. That is all for this hour.

We will look at the papers soon. It us look at another story. Patients

with early`stage breast cancer could be offered what is being described

as a more convenient type of radiotherapy on the NHS if draft

guidelines get the go`ahead. Experts say it can be carried out as a

single treatment during surgery which would remove the need for

weeks of radiotherapy and