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Altran Thursday confirmed a large increase in operating margin for 2011 following growth of 7.2% of its turnover for the year, and said he was "reasonably confident" in 2012 despite ; economic uncertainties.

Sales of specialist technology consulting totaled 1,419.5 million euros last year, growing "economy" of 8.1% (on a comparable basis excluding the impact of exchange and changes in working days).

This publication dope title to the Paris Bourse, where the action is gaining 4.18% to 3.96 euros, shoulder to shoulder with Plastic Omnium top of the largest increases in the SBF 120 (+ 0.35%). 

"We are convinced and seduced by the strategy and decisions implemented by the new management group," says a note in CM-CIC Securities, the purchase value.

"Certainly, the current should not favor the rapid improvement of the fundamentals of Altran, but we believe that the work done by the new CEO of the group should begin to bear fruit in 2013, both in terms of operating performance and cash as corporate culture, "said the intermediary.

The fourth quarter alone, sales of Altran amounted to 370.6 million euros, increasing by 6% and an "economic growth" of 8, 6%. 

"Despite an uncertain macroeconomic environment, the Group is reasonably confident for 2012," he said in a statement its CEO, Philippe Salle.

Philippe Salle had told Reuters in October Altran, a deficit in 2010 would remain negative in 2011 but would profit in 2012.

Right in the debate on greater involvement of the European Central Bank (ECB) in the rescue of the euro, the institution claimed to have bought nearly 8 billion euros of bonds fragile last week against four, 5 billion the previous week. ECB

The European Central Bank (ECB) announced Monday that it bought nearly 8 billion euros of government bonds on the secondary market over a week against nearly 4.5 billion euros over the previous seven days. The total purchases of the ECB as part of this program, which began in May 2010 when the emergence of the Greek debt crisis, this is close to the threshold of 200 billion euros (194.5 billion euros).

The ECB never gives details of its operations, to know which country and how much it bought the debt.

Antonio Borges, director of the Europe Department International Monetary Fund (IMF), has resigned with immediate effect, the Fund announced Wednesday.

The IMF notes that the Director General intends to appoint Christine Lagarde Reza Moghadam, Director of the current strategy to succeed Borges, effective Thursday.

Over 100,000 taxpayers have disclosed their assets in OECD countries for two years. It reported one billion euros in France. The headquarters of the Cayman National Bank in George Town. The Cayman Islands are in the core of tax havens.

Almost 14 billion euros in tax revenues were collected in the last two years in twenty countries through international agreements concluded in the fight against tax evasion, the OECD said on Tuesday. "There's much more in the pipeline", but assured the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) at the opening of its fourth Global Forum on transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes .

These are, says the OECD, will provide "a substantial contribution to fiscal consolidation without increasing tax rates" in many countries forced to increase the tax burden to deal with the crisis."It is important that everyone contribute their fair share," notes the organization. The OECD states that the measures against tax evasion reported more than one billion euros in France, Germany 1.8 billion to 1.4 billion U.S., 150 million at the Australia and 260 million in Spain and the UK.

Over 100,000 taxpayers have disclosed their assets (including 30,000 in the United States, 1350 in the UK, 4,700 in France and 25,000 in Germany), she says. The Global Forum on transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes, housed at the OECD brings together 105 countries and territories. This Tuesday and Wednesday to finalize a report on "progress towards fiscal transparency" for the G20 summit to be held in Cannes on November 3 and 4. Other reports are expected on a number of tax havens after the meeting.

Halfway to a series of meetings decisive for the future of the euro, Europeans always struggled Sunday to set a major response to the crisis of debt, after Greece, Ireland and Portugal , now threatens to bring Italy and Spain.

Saturday, more than ten hours of meetings were needed to reach an agreement on a recapitalization of the banking sector to the tune of 100 billion euros, which was yet largely gained at the technical level this week.

The work, however, little or no progress on the form that is chosen to leverage the fund to support the euro and to reduce the Greek mountain of debt, even if a discount up to 60% of the shares held by investors Private is under discussion.

These discussions are held with their eyes on the economic situation in Italy which puts the Europeans against the wall because the current instruments to support the single currency are not powerful enough to rescue a country of this size .

As a prelude to the European Council, Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel met with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for half an hour Sunday morning.

Diplomats said the meeting was organized to increase the pressure on it so that it implements a more resolute reforms announced in September and reassures markets on its ability to maintain control in the Italian debt, which exceeds 120% of GDP.

A German government source said the head of the French state and the German chancellor had stressed "the urgent need for concrete and credible actions in the countries of the euro area", otherwise the decisions taken in the coming days n ' will have no effect.

Angela Merkel had insisted on Saturday that Italy would reduce its debt so as not to jeopardize the support mechanisms for the euro, "regardless of the height of these walls of protection."

BANKS

On his arrival in Brussels, the Chancellor warned that one should not expect final decisions at the EU summit and the euro area held Sunday.

It must now rely on the consent of the German parliamentarians to any reform of the fund to support the euro, making it difficult European negotiations.

Following an agreement reached Saturday, about sixty of the largest European banks need to recapitalize by 30 June 2012 at 100 billion euros to hold at least 9% of equity "hard" core tier one .

Some 38% of this amount, which may not be officially published, should return to the three countries already under the aid program: Greece, Portugal and Ireland.

Banks will also mark their sovereign debt to market value and the institutions that will not comply with this set of rules will be banned from paying dividends to their shareholders and bonuses to their executives.

The bloc have also talked Saturday reactivation of the guarantees offered to banks in the fall of 2008 at the height of the crisis, enabling them to find financing in the medium and long term, said on the same source.

According to this, three models are being studied, with varying degrees of coordination between European security mechanisms.

GREECE

Ministers are also extensively revenues Saturday on the back Greek and how to make Greek debt sustainable in the long term.

According to a report that will serve as the basis for decisions of the leaders of the euro area, private creditors of Athens may have to accept a loss of up to 60% on their sovereign debt.

The EU finance ministers, however, remain divided on the voluntariness or otherwise of the private sector to the new rescue plan for Greece.

Fearing to trigger a credit event with unforeseeable consequences, France and several other countries are reluctant to go beyond the envelope of 50 billion euros negotiated last July 21 with the banks, as called for Berlin if necessary by forcing them to go the extra mile.

Friday night, Athens received a shot in the arm with the provisional go-ahead European payment by mid-November of the next tranche of international assistance by 8 billion euros, without which Greece would default on its sovereign debt in the coming weeks.

The IMF still has to validate itself as such payment, subject to his ambitious decisions of Heads of State and Government of the euro area to reduce the mountain of debt indefinitely.

EFSF

The last part of the discussions – the multiplication of the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) – has so far been barely touched by the ministers, that would leave it to decide this question and leaders.

Friday night, Minister of Economy, Baroin, confirmed that France continued to believe that change the cash in bank was the best solution even if Paris does not make a red line.

According to several sources, Nicolas Sarkozy hopes to build on a broad international support to try to convince Angela Merkel, less than two weeks of the G20 summit in Cannes where international partners in Europe hold them accountable.

Granted a banking license in EFSF would allow access to funding from the European Central Bank to increase its capacity for action by a factor of up to five.

But Berlin rejects this possibility, which would be to accept that the institution of Frankfurt finance the countries of the euro area, one of the dogmas explicitly excluded by the European treaties since the creation of the euro.

The other members of the euro area are also divided, Belgium and Spain having voted for a reconciliation BCE-EFSF while Slovakia and Austria have indicated that this solution was not studied.

European leaders are under intense pressure by their international partners to take decisive action against the crisis.

In this period of discipline, members of rival imagination to find new fiscal revenues. In pictures, new taxes and cuts tax loopholes included in the proposed Finance Act 2012.

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The European Commission gave on Thursday, with the revision of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) and market abuse (MAD), launched a very heavy fall in the regulation of the finance sector .

Other texts to be published in the coming weeks include the third draft of the regulation of rating agencies, a European framework for the management of bank failures or closer supervision of the audit activity, not to mention ongoing negotiations on derivatives and the transposition of European agreements known as Basel III on bank capital.

The new rules on markets in financial instruments cover both the activities of banks in terms of brokerage, consulting, trading, portfolio management and underwriting services.

They also regulate the operation of traditional exchanges and other trading platforms – also called "multilateral trading facilities."

The rules on market abuse for their prey to cases of insider trading and market manipulation.

Eager to get tough practices, the Commission proposes a non-binding framework calling on member states to integrate criminal sanctions in their national legislation for people found guilty of such abuses.

In a statement, the Commissioner for the Internal Market, Michel Barnier, has insisted that the legislation met the market developments in recent years.

"The financial markets have to work to the real economy and not the other way (…) The crisis has shown that certain activities and financial products reached a degree of complexity and opacity changes as have become indispensable" , he said.

MARKET DEVELOPMENTS

Here is a list of the main proposals contained in these texts:

* Outside the MTFs and regulated markets, "organized systems of negotiation," in which particular exchange traded derivatives contracts will now be covered by European regulations.

* Algorithmic trading and the high frequency will be better framed to take into account the systemic risk they represent.

* The text on markets in financial instruments will also seek to increase the transparency of trading on equity markets, including the "dark pools".Bond markets and derivatives too should meet the rules of transparency.

* Supervision and oversight of derivatives markets on commodities will be increased. In coordination with the new supervisor European markets, national supervisors may prohibit certain products when they undermine investor protection, financial stability or proper functioning of markets.Operators have an obligation to report their positions and position limits will be introduced in case of market disruption.

* The rules for portfolio management, investment advice and offers of complex financial products are also strengthened.

* In terms of market abuse, the new regulation also seeks to adapt itself to the recent market now covering instruments traded on alternative platforms and OTC.

* Regulators will have increased access to information needed to detect and punish market abuse.The latter will be able to require disclosure of data from the telcos and access to buildings or private documents when a suspected market abuse.

* Finally, the range of sanctions is itself also revised upwards. Fines will not be less than the benefit obtained from the market abuse and may be up to twice that amount. The Commission also proposes to harmonize the national sanctions in this matter by criminalizing the countries where they are not considered as such.

Germany's GDP should grow by just 0.8% in 2012 as planned. The first euro zone economy could contract in the same season. Germany

The growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will significantly slow the German next year, have predicted Thursday the major economic research institutes of Europe's largest economy, while the country will be affected by a financial crisis that is stain of oil. GDP is expected to increase by only 0.8% in 2012 from 2.9% expected this year, well below the previous forecast of these institutions (2%) and the official government forecast (1.8 %).

In a degraded environment, the government deficit in Germany, however, should continue to melt, reaching 0.9% this year and 0.6% next year, conservation efforts and strong revenue from this years bearing fruit.But Germany, whose economy is heavily export recovered strongly after the 2009 recession, can not escape the effects of the crisis of European public finances, about to lead to a banking crisis, economists predict .

Risk of credit crunch

"Because of the difficult situation of important partners, foreign trade should no longer participate in the growth," they write. The debt crisis raging, and the discussions that accompany it, also lead to "a crisis of confidence" that would restrain domestic demand. The problems of banks, which appear more and more fragile, will lead to difficult financing conditions that will hamper investment.

These difficulties are expected to peak in the fourth quarter of this year, with a decline in GDP (-0.2%).The institutes expect positive growth in every quarter of next year, but very modest. Any assessment is pessimistic economists, Germany should avoid a recession (two consecutive quarters of GDP contraction).

And good news, the labor market should continue to do relatively well, with a further decline in unemployment, due to 6.7% next year on average. German unemployment is at its lowest for 20 years. The bi-annual forecasts of the institutes are the basis for official government estimates, which will release its forecast adjusted Thursday.

Erste Group Bank said on Monday forecast a loss of 700 to 800 million euros in 2011, due both to past depreciation of the Romanian and Hungarian subsidiaries and reducing its exposure to the euro zone, which makes plunge under the Austrian bank.

By 10:30 GMT, action Erste Group fell by 13.07% to 17.99 euros while the index grouping the European banking stocks were unchanged.

The number two industry in Central and Eastern Europe also said that postponing the repayment of public funds and that it would pay no dividend for 2011.

"It's obviously disappointing news.We believe today's announcement is likely to trigger a cycle of lowering note and renewed concerns about the capital, in the light of the deteriorating business environment in Eastern Europe " commented GFI Research Institute.

Erste said that Hungarian law allows customers to repay loans taken in foreign currency at lower rates than the market would result in a loss of 500 million euros for its local subsidiary, which will thus 600 million euros of fresh capital.

The other Austrian bank Raiffeisen also plans to inject new capital into its Hungarian subsidiary as a result of legislation passed in Budapest.

In Romania, an economic recovery slower than expected will have the effect to Erste impairment pre-tax 700 million.

Erste also said to have reduced its exposure to sovereign debt of Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland and Italy at 600 million euros at end September, 95% of its exposure was valued at market value.

She said its Tier 1 ratio "core" would remain unchanged at 9.2%, operating income contributing to the compensation of special items.

The group's management said they do not need to raise additional capital or to receive from the State to ensure its compliance "Basel III".

Barack Obama lashed out at banks, on Thursday at a press conference at the White House, justifying the growing popular discontent against economic inequality.

The Democratic president, including the possible re-election in November 2012 will be played primarily on the fight against unemployment, said the Republicans had in the first place, to support the economy back on measures of financial regulation that his government s is used to push hard.

Barack Obama also said understand the frustration of "outraged" that manifest several days on Wall Street and in other cities of the United States.

"These demonstrators expressed a more widely shared suspicion towards the way our financial system," said Bush.

"We still see some of those who acted irresponsibly fight efforts to end abusive practices," he added.

Barack Obama said his financial reform known as the "Dodd-Frank" was precisely designed to prevent abuses of Wall Street.His way to insist on the subject suggests that this issue will be among the major themes of his presidential campaign next year.

"To have a sound financial system requires that banks and other financial institutions to compete on the basis of better service, better products and the best rate," he said.

"We can compete through hidden fees, deceptive practices or cocktails of derivatives that nobody understands and that expose the entire economy at huge risk.That's why Dodd-Frank was designed. "

Barack Obama also expressed regret that U.S. banks have recently raised their commissions, suspecting a practice necessitated by the inability to raise other rates. This is not a "good practice", he said, and it is "not necessarily just for consumers."