:00:08. > :00:18.the weapons. -- imminent threat of.
:00:18. > :00:20.
:00:21. > :00:23.Now it is time for the latest financial news.
:00:23. > :00:32.French banks feel the pain as the French economy continues to
:00:32. > :00:36.struggle. Two of the kind -- the country's top lenders report
:00:36. > :00:40.earnings today. One in five workers know of fine
:00:40. > :00:47.ensured misrepresentation when they work.
:00:47. > :00:51.-- financial. Also in the programme: More central
:00:51. > :00:56.bank action causes currencies to weaken. It is in the case of the
:00:56. > :01:02.Australian dollar this time. First we focus on two of France's
:01:02. > :01:07.biggest lenders. In a few hours we will hear from Societe Generale and
:01:07. > :01:15.Credit Agricole as well. They will be thought earnings from the first
:01:15. > :01:20.quarter of the Year. -- report. In the case of Societe Generale, most
:01:20. > :01:26.Allah's predict they will reveal a 50% fall in net profits. -- most
:01:26. > :01:31.analystss. The French economy has been
:01:31. > :01:34.stalling for the past two years, now it is teetering on the brink of
:01:35. > :01:39.recession. Large factories are threatened with closure and
:01:39. > :01:49.thousands of jobs are threatened as well. House prices have started to
:01:49. > :01:53.fall. All of this makes for a poor climate. People prefer to pile on
:01:53. > :01:59.savings rather than to make more lines. This is reflected in the
:01:59. > :02:09.housing sector. House prices, after having nicely rebounded, are
:02:09. > :02:09.
:02:09. > :02:13.falling again. Definitely there is no appetite for mortgage lending.
:02:14. > :02:18.survey of France's top five banks shows that revenue from pose --
:02:18. > :02:22.personal lending declined after 20 years of continued growth. But
:02:22. > :02:26.following the losses taken by their investment banking arms, especially
:02:26. > :02:31.on Greeks sovereign debt, French banks are increasingly reliant on
:02:31. > :02:37.personal lending to generate profits. Investors have to wake up
:02:37. > :02:41.to the new normal in European banking. Banks will not be able to
:02:41. > :02:45.make the profits that they had in the past, because they are not
:02:45. > :02:51.doing the kind of risky business that they used to, now they are
:02:51. > :02:55.focused on retail banking, which is more stable but has modest profits.
:02:55. > :03:01.Investors in Society general will be looking at each house of the
:03:01. > :03:05.Bank's cost-cutting programme. -- Societe Generale. It is thought to
:03:05. > :03:10.total $1 billion. They have already said that branch closures will be a
:03:10. > :03:15.key measure. Some analysts believe that across the board, French banks
:03:15. > :03:19.could close 600 branches the sea, and shed 10,000 jobs. This will
:03:19. > :03:25.effectively spell the end of 20 years of growth in the country's
:03:25. > :03:30.banking sector. As soon as we hear from the two
:03:30. > :03:34.banks, we will update you. One in five employees are aware of
:03:34. > :03:39.financial manipulation in their own company, according to new research
:03:39. > :03:43.released today by Ernst and Young. The survey covered at 3,000
:03:43. > :03:49.employees in 36 countries in Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa.
:03:49. > :03:53.It found that 42% of board directors and senior managers were
:03:53. > :03:58.aware of irregular financial reporting. 38% believe their
:03:58. > :04:02.companies fiddled the books to make the figures look better, and in
:04:02. > :04:07.rapidly growing economies, almost half believe that financial
:04:07. > :04:13.performance is deliberately misrepresented. In Western Europe,
:04:13. > :04:21.the figure drops to 29%. I am joined by one of the authors of the
:04:21. > :04:26.report. Quite worrying statistics that you
:04:26. > :04:34.had put together in this report. We must note that it does not include
:04:34. > :04:44.America or Asia. Tell us more about your findings. Clearly the results
:04:44. > :04:45.
:04:45. > :04:53.of these are troubling. 3,000, more than 3,000 respondents, up to the
:04:53. > :04:59.top level, if you take the sampling as it is, it is really troubling. A
:04:59. > :05:03.lot of challenges that corporates are facing today. Why has there
:05:03. > :05:08.been a significant increase in this kind of thing is going on within
:05:08. > :05:13.companies? If you break the Sandling down to Middle East and
:05:13. > :05:20.India and Africa, which is new for us, rapid growth markets, different
:05:20. > :05:27.challenges of wire, such as corruption. -- applied. The second
:05:27. > :05:32.is also mature economy is facing challenges. -- economies. They are
:05:32. > :05:36.pushing the envelope a little too much. But there eye checks and
:05:36. > :05:40.balances in place to prevent this kind of thing to happening. They
:05:40. > :05:45.have become more stringent in recent years. You would have bought
:05:45. > :05:51.but that this kind of manipulation, of earnings, or fiddling the books,
:05:51. > :06:01.would have become less and less. There are probably two sides to the
:06:01. > :06:04.
:06:04. > :06:12.story. FTSE 100 corporations... if you look at the kind of enforcement,
:06:12. > :06:18.the statistics are higher than they had ever been. Corporations need to
:06:18. > :06:28.continue to focus on this. That is what the employees are saying. It
:06:28. > :06:32.would include training, education, and zero tolerance.
:06:32. > :06:36.Companies exposing themselves to a significant risk as well as a
:06:36. > :06:40.consequence. We want to look at what is going on
:06:40. > :06:46.in Australia. The Australian dollar has been under pressure in
:06:46. > :06:54.anticipation of a move by the Reserve Bank of Australia.
:06:55. > :07:01.Have we heard from the bank yet? Just minutes ago, the Reserve Bank
:07:01. > :07:05.of Australia came out with a key decision, and they had given the
:07:05. > :07:11.economy a big shot in the arm. The central bank cut interest rates to
:07:11. > :07:16.a record low of 2.75 %, and it was the first rate reduction since
:07:16. > :07:21.December up. As the Governor said, it is the global outlook turning
:07:21. > :07:26.more uncertain, and the domestic economy struggling with... before
:07:26. > :07:30.the meeting, there was a lot of pressure on the Reserve Bank to cut
:07:30. > :07:39.the cost of borrowing even further, and it soft data from China and
:07:39. > :07:44.America. -- and it. Inflation remained at the bottom of the
:07:44. > :07:49.central bank's 2-3% target. There was certainly scope for a rate cut.
:07:49. > :07:53.The domestic economy remains sluggish. The retail sector is weak,
:07:53. > :07:58.as it has been for three years, the higher Australian dollar is hurting
:07:58. > :08:03.the manufacturing sector. Also the realisation that the resources boom
:08:03. > :08:11.will not last for ever. But if you speak to some analysts, they say we
:08:11. > :08:15.may not see another one to will the end of the year.
:08:15. > :08:21.-- until. The dock workers in Hong Kong have
:08:21. > :08:26.ended a 40-day strike that affected the world's busiest ports. 150
:08:26. > :08:31.workers agreed to a pay increase of 9.1% after demanding a pay rise of
:08:31. > :08:38.more than 20%. Union leaders say the deal was a success because the
:08:38. > :08:41.pay rise was for all workers, not just those who went on strike.
:08:41. > :08:47.Two of the US's biggest banks are being sued over the way they treat
:08:47. > :08:50.home owners who are struggling to pay their mortgages. The New York
:08:50. > :08:54.Attorney General says the Bank of America and Wells Fargo have broken
:08:54. > :08:59.an agreement made last year which was supposed to improve the way
:08:59. > :09:04.that banks have reclaimed properties from home owners.
:09:04. > :09:09.A Danish brewing giant are among those reporting first-quarter
:09:09. > :09:15.profits. They say it there will be a 10% rise in profits as demand
:09:15. > :09:21.from Asia continues to grow up. As Asian countries with a vast
:09:21. > :09:25.population grow richer, Carlsberg is seeing its sales increase. In
:09:25. > :09:31.China, per capita consumption of beer is 39 litres per year. In the
:09:31. > :09:35.US, it is 78 litres, so plenty of room for growth.
:09:35. > :09:43.The markets have been focused on what is going on in Australia. Look