Sunday newspaper round-up: G20, BP, HSBC…
Sun 26 Feb 2012
LONDON (SHARECAST) - “A meeting of G20 finance ministers began in Mexico City on Saturday with a series of warnings that Europe must do more to build its “firewall” against financial contagion. ‘We still have to build the mother of all firewalls,’ said Angel Gurría, secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. ‘The more credible it is and the bigger it is, the less likelihood we will have to use it.’ G20 countries are demanding that eurozone members increase the size of the European Stability Mechanism, the permanent fund that would support Italy or Spain if they became unable to borrow, before they will consider increased resources for the International Monetary Fund,” writes the Financial Times.
“The chief executive of BP has revealed that the oil giant is prepared for the multi-billion dollar legal case into the Deepwater Horizon rig disaster to last until 2014. In his first in-depth newspaper interview since becoming CEO in 2010, Bob Dudley signalled that although he was ‘hopeful’ of doing ‘some deals’ on the details of the case, the company was ready for a drawn out battle. ‘We have to remember we are a business that invests in decade long cycles,’ Mr Dudley said. ‘If [the trial] goes to 2013 or 2014, in the history of BP and the way the energy industry works we just have to think much longer term’,” the Sunday Telegraph reports.