04/12/2012 World Business Report

damaged roads and bridges. -- a massive typhoon. Those are the

latest headlines. Now for the latest financial news.

Welcome to World Business Report. European finance ministers are

going to agree on a single regulator for all banks as they

meet in Brussels. Divisions run deep. Australia's central bank cuts

interest fixed for the 4th time this year to safeguard the economy

from the uncertainty over America's fiscal policy. Global betting

business William Hill has to hours to decide whether SportingBet is

Hello and welcome. European finance ministers are regrouping in

Brussels on Tuesday to try to agree on proposals for a single mechanism

for supervising banks. At the moment, there are substantial

hurdles before reaching an agreement. Some countries have

concerns about placing the supervisor with any European

Central Bank. There were did will erode the necessary clear

separation between monetary policy role and supervisory

responsibilities. Welcome to the problem. Let's work

on the good points. We have had a financial crisis, when a banking

crisis, in the eurozone, specifically, although it has been

elsewhere. This should solve that problem. It will provide a bailout

mechanism. The whole issue has been that there is not anything that

controls the eurozone. It has 17 countries with their own banks,

supervisory States. This reform, the whole point is to solve this

issue. They want to make it more integrated and more capable of

handling a crisis. There will be centralised control. It would

bypass the national governments. It seems a sensible idea. The biggest

oddity here is the UK. It is the financial capital of Europe. It

would be outside it. How it would that work? That is the big issue.

We have the nerve centre in London. Most of the flow of capital around

the world comes through it, particularly into Europe. It is

viewed as being of sure within the eurozone. Why should the European

Union and the new regime be controlled by an offshore centre in

London? They think it should be within the European Union, the

eurozone. So they would like to bring the financial centre in the

UK into the eurozone or be ruled by a new supervisory body? That is

where the divide sits. The UK sits outside the eurozone. This European

Union, particularly the banking union, would be to control the euro.

They will say they want that control to be within Frankfurt or

Paris or within the eurozone. about countries like Sweden? The

Finnish banks, they are outside the eurozone. What would happen? Sweden,

like the UK, is not part of the euro. It has the same issue. They

will wonder why they should give control to an authority with

different interests. Equally, there are other issues. Germany or poses

the union. There is an insurance scheme that will go behind this in

time. It will say that if a country such as Spain as issues, the

deposits and insurances that savers and depositors in Germany have will

bail them out. That is an issue but in this new reform. They will not

have saying this. It will just happen. They will have no control.

Unless and others, the deadline will pass for the giant gambling

operator William Hill to table a $850 million bid for online gaming

group SportingBet. The deal has been thrown into question in recent

days because SportingBet has filed some surprisingly weak results.

William Hill might now slash the price it's offering. Racing may be

the sport of kings. Austerity had punters are careful these days.

They are placing less money with the bookmakers. There are new rules

to tax gambolling offshore. -- gambling. William Hill is best

known for its chain of betting shops. It joined services -- forces

with the EEC. Revenue is starting to flag. There down by 35 %. We are

coming to the end, particularly in Europe. It is getting tougher and

tougher and tougher. There are paying tax and licence fees. It is

becoming a tough environment in which to operate. William Hill

lower the price? By how much? They kissed and to use their prize asset,

the Australian betting market. are well spread across the world

apart from in Australia. It is where some of the highest paying

gamblers in the world are. Australia is important.

takeover power of the London Stock Exchange is important. William Hill

bid. The deadline may be postponed to allow negotiation of the law

offer. The smart money in the city says they will not read the

ownership of the company slipped through their grasp.

Just two hours ago, the central bank in Australia lowered their

interested by 0.25 %. The history of the Australian interest rates

are very different to the rest of the world. The changed a lot during

the boom years. Moving up in the early 2000s. There was a dive down

afterwards. My central banks started hiking them up again as

demand for raw materials picked up. It is only release since the end of

last year, and you can see it there, that the bank started to cut them

again. Let's go over to a show and Rico Hizon. -- Asia. Why have they

cut rates again? This rate cut of the Reserve Bank is the 4th this

year. That is 1.25 % since May. Many analysts believe it is weak

retail numbers, falling company profits and an 8th consecutive

month of falling job advertisements that has clinched the rate cut. At

this move comes one day before Australia releases the latest

growth figures. They want to conquer the uncertainty over fiscal

policy. It could plunge the economy into recession. There is also the

stubbornly weak conditions in Europe. The economy has been

struggling with the strong Australian dollar. A rate cut could

weaken the currency and potentially boost the mining sector. The resort

boom is tapering off. Economists believe the cycle will continue and

to 2013. Many are believing they could be a reduction. The cut was

positive impact so far on the stock market. It has fallen by 0.6 %. The

Australian dollar is going higher, define the rate reduction. --

defining. In other news, EDF, the French Energy group which is

planning to build several nuclear power plants in the UK - says it's

raising the estimated cost of construction of its Flamenville

reactor in Northern France by another 2 billion euros. In July

last year, he said the expected cost to be $6 billion. -- Euros.

And 2005, but they said in my generation reactor would be 3.3

billion euros. They're blaming factors including the strict

regulation that has been introduced since the figure shimmer reactor

disaster. Oracle is the latest US company to make accelerated

dividend payments. This allows shareholders to avoid tax rises

that will come into effect in January. That is unless a deal can

be struck between the Democrats and about Republicans to avoid this so-

called this club cliff. The business software giant appeared

second, third and 4th quarter dividends altogether, totalling 18