Six banks have been fined $5.7bn (£3.6bn) by authorities in America and the UK for rigging foreign exchange markets.  Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, JPMorgan, UBS, Citigroup and Bank of America were handed the sum, the biggest combined bank settlement in history, on Wednesday afternoon. Separate fines and settlements announced at the same time took the total bill on the day above $6bn. The new sum now brings the total bill for the foreign exchange scandal, one of the most expensive in banking history, to around $10bn. Barclays, RBS, JPMorgan and Citigroup are pleading guilty to criminal charges, while UBS has pleading guilty to Libor rigging, since the manipulation violated previous agreements. Traders at the banks used electronic chatrooms, describing themselves as "The Cartel", to manipulate currency benchmarks, making large profits at the expense of customers. Barclays is firing eight employees as part of their settlements, it said.

"What do European citizens think when they see the images on TV, when they see the tragedies that are going on in the Mediterranean? The answer is clear: we need to have a European response", said Manfred Weber MEP, Chairman of the EPP Group in the European Parliament, during the debate on migration in the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.  "The EPP Group welcomes the solidarity mechanism that has been proposed, but which still needs to be put together. On the other hand, we also need to make sure that those who do not fulfil the criteria to be granted asylum should be returned. It is the only way to ensure that European citizens support our asylum policy in the long run", he said.

"The current crisis in the Mediterranean will only be solved by a common European response. We are willing to continue the good job that the European Commission has initiated. For now, it is the Member States who are not playing their part. We call on Member States to go along with European initiatives."

Watch out for Spain's elections end of the year...Britain will leave I am sure of it...Britain never had a chance against the false Frogs and the Krauts, but it all started when the Germans invaded France in 1940...The French gave up without much of a fight and lets face it Vichy government got into bed with Adolf's government for a  Franco - German orgy....well ...Britain and the US  fought for Europe's freedom only to be sidelined. It's time to put the story right and stick the knife into the European blow up doll.  The only beneficiary of the EU is Germany when will all those queer politicians show their true cards ????  The Eurozone is bust but the moronic joe public believe the media and lets face it as long as the grub is on the table, the car is in the garage and the bird strips and goes to bed with her man all is fine... If the West really do decide to pay big money to keep Greece firmly anchored (shackled) inside the Western camp - Germanic instinct would swiftly price and cost that decision...because this is what they do!  And when they arrive at sum total, a portion of that bill should be sent to Paul Thomsen the Dane who needs 24 hour protection, the moment he steps foot on Hellenic soil. Thomsen cost the Greeks their dignity - Thomsen also cost the "West" Billions. On his will, on his demands Greece lost 3 Million self-employed businesses, the backbone of Greek society. He destroyed Greece!

These EU Commission clowns that conduct themselves as emperors over a  bureaucratic menage of stupidity, have no sense of right or wrong as  long as they retain the power and the wealth that comes to them by  maintaining it. They are not prepared to see, or attempt ot understand  the problems that they inflict on the so called member states. They are hide bound by now, into believing that they rule and only they are capable of doing so. Their belief is in an ever expanding Union that will somehow triumph over the USA, and, being incapable of understanding that the centuries old disparate cultures of the union cannot be dismembered by a common currency and the free movement of people, they will plough on relentlessly.  All would have been well if they had simply followed the idea of free
trade. But you can expect no better from politicians, whatever their hue. It is we the people who suffer the consequences of their stupidity. Cameron is on a hiding to nothing and is probably part of
the scam: sounding good but playing their game and knowing full well that, at least as far as the UK is concerned, especially with all the lefties in the celtic fringe and the EU migrants able to vote with their guided 'yes' vote to stay in the bloody union... People try to complicate things, but generally you can get to the nub of most issues pretty quickly. I) The Greeks aren't prepared to live as their productivity allows. 2) They aren't prepared to make the debt interest payments as the price of being in the Euro. 3) The Germans aren't prepared (and who can blame them?) to permanently subsidise Greek lifestyles.  So they have to leave the Eurozone, and personally I'd throw them out of the EU and try to recover the money through tariff barriers. The idea that there has been some huge contraction in the Greek economy, and it is the fault of the other countries, is just laughable. If someone was paid 2,000 Euros to sit in a park in Athens and drink fortified wine you wouldn't call that a job, and you wouldn't count their "activity" - or inactivity - towards GDP. But somehow if Germany provides money to create non-jobs which involve sitting in an office, rather than a park, we're supposed to count that "output" (playing Crystal Maze, or whatever) in the GDP figures, and blame Germany when the "contraction" happens. Yeah, right...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The panel created to prevent a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis said Tuesday that banks and other financial institutions are stronger now but regulators must remain alert to new risks including the danger posed from cyber attack. In its annual report to Congress, the Financial Stability Oversight Council said recent cyberattacks have heightened concerns about the potential of even more destructive attacks that could significantly disrupt the workings of the financial system.  It said that greater attention must be paid to developing ways to combat computer hackers and it urged greater collaboration among financial institutions and government agencies to share data that could help thwart a growing threat.

"Over the past year, financial sector organizations and other U.S. businesses experienced numerous cyber incidents, including large-scale data breaches that compromised financial information," the panel said in its report.  The council was created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act which Congress passed in the wake of the worst financial crisis in seven decades. It is chaired by Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and includes representatives from other government financial regulatory agencies including the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.  Lew was critical of legislation being pushed by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Alabama, which Lew said would put the country at greater risks of another crisis.  "Senator Shelby's bill ... contains changes to our financial regulatory framework that would roll back the clock and leave us with weakened oversight, fewer consumer protections and less effective tools to address risks in the system," Lew said. "It would also needlessly tie this council in knots with delays and hurdles that would significantly impair our ability to identify and mitigate threats to financial stability, while leaving potential risk unchecked."  Shelby's bill would raise the asset threshold for banks whose failure would present the greatest risks to the financial system from $50 billion to $500 billion. These banks are subject to greater regulatory oversight. The measure also gives regulators greater oversight powers over the Federal Reserve.  Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, who did not address the pending legislation in her remarks, said that the largest and most complex banking firms have made "great strides" in building up their capital cushions. But she said more work is needed to understand new threats posed by rapidly changing markets.  "While we have made considerable progress in recent years in reforming the financial system, our job is not done," Yellen said. "We must continually look ahead to new risks to build and maintain the resilient financial system that can support economic growth."

Compromises and coalitions between parties is new in Spain where more than 30 years of alternating power between the socialists and the conservatives is being challenged by an increasingly fragmented political system including anti-austerity party Podemos and centrist Ciudadanos.

The biggest changes have been the move towards the new left parties in Barcelona and maybe also in Madrid - depending on a possible pact between a Podemos-supporting coalition called Ahora Madrid and the Social Democrats (PSOE).  It would be the first time the Spanish capital would have a leftwing Mayor in the last 25 years. “It is clear that a majority for change has won,” said Manuela Carmena, the 71 year-old emeritus judge of the Spanish Supreme Court who wants to become Madrid’s new mayor.  She is one seat short of Madrid’s former conservative Mayor Esperanza Aguirre. However, with the support of Social Democrats – who came third - the left-wing parties could together hold the absolute majority in Madrid.  Barcelona’s new Mayor Ada Colau calls for “more social justice” and leads a coalition of left-wing parties and citizens’ organisations called ‘Barcelona en Comú’, which includes members of Podemos.

“We are proud that this process hasn’t just been an exception in Barcelona, this is an unstoppable democratic revolution in Catalonia, in [Spain] and hopefully in southern Europe,” Colau said last night after it became clear that she had won a small majority in the Catalan capital.

Colau, a former anti-eviction activist, was one of the founders of a platform for people affected by mortgages - Plataforma Afectados por la Hipoteca (PAH) - which won the European Parliament’s European Citizens’ Prize in 2013.  The PAH was set up in response to the hike in evictions caused by abusive mortgage clauses during the collapse of the Spanish property market eight years ago. Colau herself entered politics last year calling for “more and better democracy” and a clean-up of corruption in politics.  “It is the end of bipartisanship,” Podemos leader and MEP Pablo Iglesias said on Sunday. “May this Spring bring us flying to November”, he added on Twitter, referring to the Spanish general election.  Together, the two mainstream parties PP and PSOE represented 51 percent of the votes yesterday - much less than the 65 percent four years ago.  Centrist party Ciudadanos was the third most voted party although not as big a force as polls had expected. However, the party will hold a kingmaker role in many municipalities and in minimum three regions.

Although Podemos comes in as the fourth most voted party, the party’s real success has been merging with other local grassroot parties also calling for social change.  The social indignados movement - also called 15M movement - that camped out on the main squares across Spain in 2011 calling for a radical change in Spanish politics, has now turned into political representation.  Sunday’s elections in the 13 out of 17 regions and in over 8000 municipalities is likely to be a preview of the results of the Spanish General election expected for the end of the year.   Despite the Spanish economy picking up after years of an economic crisis, the former established parties are still being punished for the continuing high unemployment - especially among young people - and for corruption scandals that have marred their reputation. The necessary pacts and coalitions could lead to drawn out and complicated negotiations. In the southern region of Andalucia, which held elections in March, the socialist minority government has failed three times to secure the majority vote needed to form a government.

Cameron received a boost when the Open Europe think tank, which campaigns for major changes to the EU, gave an upbeat assessment of his chances on EU negotiations. It suggested that the prime minister had a good chance to win support for his plans to restrict in-work benefits for EU migrants and to secure protections for non-euro zone members of the EU. It even suggested that Cameron may be able to achieve the changes without rewriting treaties.

Raoul Ruparel, Open Europe’s head of economic research, said: “David Cameron will be squeezed between those who say no substantial reforms in Europe are possible and those who seek to set the bar so high that it is effectively code for exit before even trying to fundamentally reform the EU.

“He should ignore both camps and instead seek to balance the priorities of the UK public, businesses and his own party along with the achievability of the reforms in Europe.”

The prime minister has made a point of binding the Thatcherite right into his EU renegotiation plans by appointing the arch-Eurosceptic John Whittingdale to the cabinet as culture secretary. Priti Patel, who worked for Sir James Goldsmith, the founder of the short-lived Referendum party, during the 1997 general election campaign, attends cabinet as the employment minister.

Open Europe has released a detailed analysis of 30 areas of reform in the EU. The report suggests that there is a reasonable chance of success in the four broad areas where the prime minister is demanding change.