>>> Fed's CCAR Summary : 29 of 30 pass stress scenarios; Zions Bancorp falls sho

Fed's CCAR Summary

According to the summary results of bank stress tests announced by the Federal Reserve on Thursday, the largest banking institutions in the United States are collectively better positioned to continue to lend to households and businesses and to meet their financial commitments in an extremely severe economic downturn than they were five years ago. This result reflects continued broad improvement in their capital positions since the financial crisis.Reflecting the severity of the most extreme stress scenario--which features a deep recession with a sharp rise in the unemployment rate, a drop in equity prices of nearly 50 percent, and a decline in house prices to levels last seen in 2001--projected loan losses at the 30 bank holding companies in the latest stress tests would total $366 billion during the nine quarters of the hypothetical stress scenario.

The aggregate tier 1 common capital ratio, which compares high-quality capital to risk-weighted assets, would fall from an actual 11.5 percent in the third quarter of 2013 to the minimum level of 7.6 percent in the hypothetical stress scenario. That minimum post-stress number is significantly higher than the 30 firms' actual tier 1 common ratio of 5.5 percent measured in the beginning of 2009.Capital is important to banking organizations, the financial system, and the economy broadly because it acts as a cushion to absorb losses and helps to ensure that losses are borne by shareholders, not taxpayers. The Federal Reserve's stress scenario estimates are the outcome of deliberately stringent and conservative assessments under hypothetical economic and financial market conditions and the results are not forecasts or expected outcomes.

WSJ : BlackBerry Suffers Blow as White House Tests Samsung, LG Phones

The White House is testing smartphones from Samsung Electronics Corp. 005930.SE -0.55% and LG Electronics Inc. 066570.SE +0.48% for internal use, a person familiar with the matter said, threatening one of the last and most high-profile strongholds of BlackBerry Ltd. BB.T -0.19%

The devices are being tested by the White House's internal technology team and the White House Communications Agency, a military unit in charge of the President Barack Obama's phone use and overall communications, the person said. The tests are in the early stages, according to the person, and any implementation of Samsung or LG phones is still "months away."

"We can confirm that the White House Communications Agency, consistent with the rest of the Department of Defense, is piloting and using a variety of mobile devices," a Defense Department spokesman said. The spokesman declined to comment on the devices in the pilot test or in use at the White House.

A Samsung spokesman declined to comment on whether its phones were being tested at the White House. "We have seen strong interest from the government sector and are working closely with various agencies to deploy pilot programs that allow these agencies to better understand and estimate the resources needed for a full deployment," the spokesman said.

An LG spokesman said the company wasn't aware of such testing.

President Obama uses a modified BlackBerry, long a point of pride for the Waterloo, Ontario, company. Apple Inc. AAPL -0.48% for the last few years has been chipping away at BlackBerry's once-dominant position in the government sector, and Samsung has invested heavily to win more government customers.

BlackBerry Chief Executive John Chen has said that winning back government customers is a top priority. Mr. Chen said in an interview this month with Bloomberg Television that he had met with officials from the White House to discuss "some of the stuff they like and some of the stuff they would like us to work on."

"For more than a decade, BlackBerry has been securing the U.S. government's mobile communications and only BlackBerry is designed to meet the high security needs of U.S. and allied government agencies," a BlackBerry spokeswoman said.

(BFW) Rockhopper’s 14.2% of Float Traded in 2 Blocks at 103p-Shr Each

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Rockhopper’s 14.2% of Float Traded in 2 Blocks at 103p-Shr Each 2014-03-20 16:18:21.827 GMT

By Benjamin Dow March 20 (Bloomberg) -- Rockhopper vol. jumps to 2,341% of 3-mo. daily avg. after 2 blocks of 18.59m shares each are traded at 11.40am U.K., 4.05pm. * Shares currently trade almost 1% higher at 106p * NOTE: Shareholders with stakes larger than block trades: FIL Ltd. (32.2m), Deutsche Bank (~19.9m), Odey Asset Mgt. (18.9m)

Link to Company News:RKH LN <Equity> CN <GO> Link to Company News:PMO LN <Equity> CN <GO>

For Related News and Information: First Word scrolling panel: FIRST<GO> First Word newswire: NH BFW<GO>

To contact the reporter on this story: Benjamin Dow in Moscow at +7-495-771-7735 or bdow2@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Ludden at +44-20-7673-2645 or jludden@bloomberg.net Gaurav Panchal

( Le Monde) Bouygues tables new offer to buy SFR

Bouygues tables new offer to buy SFR

Link in french : {http://bit.ly/1iGXKr9}

Bombshell! So we thought the sale of SFR acquired Numericable, the group Bouygues have finally decided to bid . According to our information, the giant construction would drop , late Thursday afternoon, after the closing of the exchange , a new offer from Vivendi .
The group should both improve the cash component of its offer and the securities. Until then, Numericable offered EUR 11.75 billion in cash, 450 million more than its competitor.

While he has already obtained Arnaud Montebourg, the minister of productive recovery, and the Elysee, where Emmanuel Macron would support his candidacy in private support, Martin Bouygues have also joined the Caisse des Depots et Consignations (CDC) its offer.

According to our information, the CDC should take a stake of less than 5% in the new entity formed by Bouygues Telecom, SFR, if the concrete worker was the take . The construction group should also benefit from the support of "private partners" as a close case.

Friday 14 March, the Supervisory Board of Vivendi had yet decided unanimously least one voice of entering into "exclusive negotiations" with Numericable for a period of three weeks. According to various observers, the key was acquired and the closing was only a matter of days.

(BFW) *BOUYGUES TO MAKE NEW OFFER FOR SFR, LE MONDE SAYS

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BN 03/20 16:02 *BOUYGUES TO MAKE NEW OFFER FOR SFR, LE MONDE SAYS

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*BOUYGUES TO MAKE NEW OFFER FOR SFR, LE MONDE SAYS 2014-03-20 16:03:17.868 GMT

--JIM SILVER

-0- Mar/20/2014 16:03 GMT

RTR - Lidl chairman steps down over strategy differences



BERLIN, March 20 (Reuters) - German discount supermarket chain Lidl has removed Karl-Heinz Holland from his position as chairman, citing "unbridgeable", but undisclosed, differences over future strategy.

In an unusually blunt statement, the secretive company said Holland was leaving after more than five years as chairman, 12 years on the board and a total of 23 years at Lidl, but did not say who would be replacing him.

"He has made a significant contribution to the development of Lidl as the European market leader in the discount segment," the Schwarz group, which owns Lidl, said.

The group said Dawid Jaschok, head of buying and marketing for Lidl, would also be leaving the company for the same reason, also without elaborating on the strategic differences.

Based in Neckarsulm in southern Germany, Lidl is owned by Germany's third-richest man, Dieter Schwarz, son of the company's founder Josef Schwarz. Klaus Gehrig took over as the chain's chief executive from Dieter Schwarz in 2004.

Gehrig and Holland are credited with helping Lidl expand rapidly in Europe to some 10,000 stores employing 180,000 people, including 3,300 in Germany, 1,400 in France and hundreds each in Britain, Spain, Italy and Poland.

Lidl, which opened its first store in 1973, is considering following its arch-rival Aldi into the United States next year, with 100 stores reportedly planned as a first step. Britain's Tesco has recently pulled out of the United States after a costly failure with a new low-price chain.

LOSING SHARE

Lidl accounts for an estimated almost three-quarters of the Schwarz group's 2012/13 turnover of 67.6 billion euros ($94 billion), making it Europe's third-biggest retailer behind Carrefour and Tesco. The Schwarz group also owns Germany's biggest hypermarket chain Kaufland.

Former head of buying, Holland took over in 2008 when Lidl was embroiled in a scandal after German authorities opened an investigation into allegations that the company employed detectives and used cameras to spy on staff.

Since then, discounters like Lidl, Aldi and smaller rivals have been losing market share in Germany to supermarkets as once frugal consumers have demanded more upmarket products and a better shopping environment.

Discounters, which still have a huge 43.9 percent of the German market, have been retaliating by moving away from goods stacked in boxes on pallets in shabby stores to introduce more branded goods, in-house bakeries and premium products.

The same strategy has also helped Aldi and Lidl steal market share in Britain from market leader Tesco, Wal-Mart's Asda, J Sainsbury and Wm Morrison.

Aldi's sales growth in Britain accelerated to a record 33.5 percent in the 12 weeks to March 2, giving it a market share of 4.3 percent, while Lidl held on to the record 3.2 percent share it reached last month.

Fwd:(BFW) Gulf Keystone Doesn’t Have Sufficient Working Capital

GKP -9%

----- Original Message -----
From: LAURENT CHEKROUN ()
To: LAURENT CHEKROUN ()
At: Mar 20 2014 16:44:25


 BN 03/20 15:44 *GULF KEYSTONE PETROL SEES MAX CASH DEFICIT $103M BY 2015
 BN 03/20 15:44 *GULF KEYSTONE PETROL SHARES TURN NEGATIVE, FALL AS MUCH AS 8.9%
 BN 03/20 15:43 *GULF KEYSTONE DEPENDENT ON PRODUCTION REV FROM SHAIKAN INTEREST
 BN 03/20 15:43 *GULF KEYSTONE DEPENDENT ON CASH RESOURCES OF $82M AS OF JAN 31
 BN 03/20 15:43 *GULF KEYSTONE PETROL: JEREMY ASHER NAMED DEPUTY CHAIRMAN
 BN 03/20 15:42 *GULF KEYSTONE DOESN'T HAVE SUFFICIENT CAPITAL FOR NEXT 12 MOS
 BN 03/20 15:42 *GULF KEYSTONE PETROL: GUTHRIE  TO CONTINUE AS NON-EXEC DIRECTOR
 BN 03/20 15:42 *GULF KEYSTONE DOESN'T HAVE SUFFICIENT CAPITAL FOR PRESENT NEEDS
 BN 03/20 15:42 *GULF KEYSTONE PETROL: GUTHRIE STEPPED DOWN AS DEPUTY CHAIRMAN
 BN 03/20 15:42 *GULF KEYSTONE DOESN'T HAVE SUFFICIENT WORKING CAPITAL
Gulf Keystone Doesn’t Have Sufficient Working Capital
2014-03-20 15:44:08.967 GMT


By Heather Burke
     March 20 (Bloomberg) --

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