:00:03. > :00:13.Those are the latest headlines. It is now time for the latest
:00:13. > :00:22.
:00:22. > :00:25.financial news with the World The US government says it will soon
:00:25. > :00:31.credit rating agency Standard and Poor's for its part in the global
:00:31. > :00:35.financial crisis. Two years on from the Gulf of Mexico will spell, B P
:00:35. > :00:45.shows that it is still paying the price for the disaster. It is
:00:45. > :00:46.
:00:46. > :00:51.expected to announce a slump in profits. Hello and welcome, this is
:00:51. > :00:55.World Business Report. We are also taking a look at Toyota's latest
:00:55. > :01:00.profits news as it reclaimed the title of world's biggest seller of
:01:00. > :01:04.cars. Five years on from the financial
:01:04. > :01:07.crash that triggered a global recession, credit ratings agencies
:01:07. > :01:11.may face a legal fall-out. Late last night the US government
:01:11. > :01:17.announced it plans to file a lawsuit against Standard and Poor's.
:01:17. > :01:21.It is accusing them of giving top recommendations to certain mortgage
:01:21. > :01:25.products when they knew that they were not a safe investment. It is
:01:25. > :01:33.argued that the ratings encourage financial institutions around the
:01:33. > :01:38.world to buy and sell what proved to be toxic financial products.
:01:38. > :01:42.Since 2007, many questions have been asked about the role of the
:01:42. > :01:47.crowded regions agencies, particularly what they played in
:01:47. > :01:53.creating the housing bubble. These agencies have a key function in the
:01:53. > :01:57.financial industry. Their job is essentially to assess the
:01:57. > :02:06.creditworthiness of bonds for companies and even governments. As
:02:07. > :02:11.we now know, in many cases they are potentially responsible for
:02:11. > :02:15.fuelling the financial crisis. The US government is expected to file a
:02:15. > :02:19.civil lawsuit against Standard and Poor's and the model it used to
:02:19. > :02:23.calculate its ratings for mortgage bonds. Standard and Poor's says
:02:23. > :02:28.that it denies any wrongdoing and that any lawsuit would be without
:02:28. > :02:32.factual or legal merit. But of course, many will be watching this
:02:33. > :02:38.closely as if the government's first action against a ratings
:02:38. > :02:45.agency rated to his behaviour during the financial crisis.
:02:45. > :02:51.More analysis from market strategist at canter index. Five
:02:51. > :02:56.years on, a lawsuit happening. Your take on these events? A hardly
:02:56. > :03:05.surprising. When you cast your mind back five years ago, the crisis and
:03:05. > :03:08.recession really came from the analysis of mortgages. Traders and
:03:08. > :03:14.banks and credit ratings managers within the banks are very reliant
:03:14. > :03:19.on this information. Especially from three agencies. Standard and
:03:19. > :03:26.Poor's, Fitch and Moody's. They are expected to provide the rating and
:03:26. > :03:32.quality. Particularly at the troublekph level. -- trouble they
:03:32. > :03:39.level. Everybody looks for excuses. Depressed people who came under the
:03:39. > :03:45.hammer or was of course the ratings agencies. They are pretty small.
:03:45. > :03:50.When you think of the huge, trillions of trillions of dollars
:03:50. > :03:56.of global debt, to be reliant upon an agency is like asking Libor to
:03:56. > :04:00.be reliant on the British banks. their job is to say whether a
:04:00. > :04:05.product is safe and whether the rating is good. They gave good
:04:05. > :04:08.ratings to the subprime mortgage products. If you run expert and
:04:08. > :04:13.spent a long time researching them, perhaps you would think they would
:04:13. > :04:20.think, no, no, No This is not a good product. Many would say they
:04:20. > :04:25.are not in the -- are in the pockets of clients. But I do not
:04:26. > :04:29.think the role of the ratings agency is powerful enough. If the
:04:29. > :04:33.Department of Justice and other people are successful in are suing
:04:33. > :04:39.these people, companies who own these things are not big enough to
:04:39. > :04:42.be able to cope with it. It is like everything else. If somebody does
:04:42. > :04:48.not tell you the information that you need correctly, it is difficult
:04:48. > :04:52.for those companies to assess. But the information that was imparted
:04:52. > :04:59.around the world was hopeless. There is no other word. Absolutely
:04:59. > :05:03.inadequate. This story is in today's papers. We will talk about
:05:03. > :05:07.it later. As well as the other stories in the papers today. That
:05:07. > :05:12.is later on. Taking a look at some more business stories.
:05:12. > :05:16.Once a giant in the Our World industry, BP has spent the past few
:05:16. > :05:21.years selling billions of dollars of assets to pay for its part in
:05:21. > :05:27.the 2010 Our World spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It spent some $24
:05:27. > :05:31.billion on clean-up and compensation. Later today it is
:05:31. > :05:36.expected to report a 20% drop in profits in the 4th quarter of last
:05:36. > :05:43.year. The company needs to come up with a new strategic focus if it
:05:43. > :05:46.hopes to rebuild itself. BP estimates that it will
:05:46. > :05:52.eventually spend $42 billion on cleaning up after the disaster.
:05:52. > :05:57.Paying compensation claims and findings for pollution. To raise
:05:57. > :06:01.cash, it has sold off assets. Those are profits. It is thought they
:06:01. > :06:08.will be 20% lower than they were a year ago. The disaster has left BP
:06:08. > :06:13.a shadow of his former self. Five years ago it was worth $212 billion.
:06:13. > :06:23.It was one of the world's biggest energy firms. Now it is worth only
:06:23. > :06:30.$141 billion. It is now chad -- second tier. The strategy is shrewd
:06:30. > :06:34.to grow. They have done the shrink part of it. There will not be
:06:34. > :06:40.significant growth in production this year. We could start to see
:06:40. > :06:46.some of the benefits of the strategy in 2014. And how can BP
:06:46. > :06:54.rebuild itself as an international oil major? It does not have the
:06:54. > :07:02.cash to do so. But what it has to do -- done is produce a lot of
:07:02. > :07:09.exploration licences. Brazil, Australia and India. Developing
:07:09. > :07:13.deep water oil prospects. That will set us up for the long-term. Given
:07:13. > :07:19.that its emphasis has been on rebuilding the reputation for
:07:19. > :07:24.safety, let us hope that will stand it in good stead. BP also has high
:07:24. > :07:32.hopes in Russia, which has agreed to take a 20% stake in a national
:07:32. > :07:36.oil firm. The deal is due to be sold next year. BP hopes this will
:07:36. > :07:40.lead to more business in Russia. But it is Russia's government that
:07:40. > :07:45.will decide how much it can do there. So much depends on whether
:07:45. > :07:51.the executives can keep in with the rulers.
:07:51. > :07:54.Taking a look at it company that had a good year in 2012. It was
:07:54. > :07:59.good what theatre. It rebounded strongly from the previous year,
:07:59. > :08:06.when it was hit by the tragic earthquake in Japan. In the hour,
:08:06. > :08:16.it should report its latest earnings. We have not quite got the
:08:16. > :08:17.
:08:18. > :08:22.numbers yet. What are they expected to say? The strong rebound is a
:08:22. > :08:27.sign that it has reclaimed the title of the world's largest auto
:08:27. > :08:33.maker from General Motors. Sales are said to drive Toyota's earnings
:08:33. > :08:38.today. China, the world's largest auto market was a big problem. But
:08:38. > :08:45.sales started to pick up in January. North America continues to be a
:08:45. > :08:50.bright spot. Sales topped 2.2 million units in the US last year.
:08:50. > :08:56.Several models continue to be extremely popular with American
:08:56. > :09:04.buyers. China is still a weak spot. It is down 15% amid tensions
:09:05. > :09:11.between Japan and China over the islands. We have seen a turnaround.
:09:11. > :09:18.Sales rose. 23.5 % gain compared to a year ago. The first rise since
:09:18. > :09:23.June. If you are talking about Rio de's rivals, the likes of Nissan
:09:23. > :09:27.and Honda, they have been recovering since October but have
:09:27. > :09:31.not yet regained prior levels. In their bid to regain their leading
:09:31. > :09:36.position, these Japanese companies have taken a series of measures in
:09:36. > :09:40.recent months, including offering larger discounts on new cars and
:09:40. > :09:47.compensation for owners whose cars were damaged during protests during
:09:47. > :09:56.the territorial dispute. We will take a look at the numbers
:09:56. > :10:00.when we get them. Time to take a look at the markets. I have to save,
:10:00. > :10:05.the eurozone fear factor has returned in a major way. We are
:10:05. > :10:12.seeing a bit of a sell-off. The interest on debt in Spain and Italy