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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – Initial jobless claims rose to 429,000 during the week ending April 23, a 25,000 increase from the previous week and the highest rate in three months.

It also marked the second week in a row that first-time unemployment claims were above the 400,000 mark after dipping below that mark for a time and raising hopes the nation was entering a labor sector recovery to match the ongoing economic recovery in the financial services sector.

In more bad news, the less volatile four-week moving average also rose above the key 400,000 mark to 408,500. That was an increase of 9,250 from the previous week’s revised average of 399,250 initial claims, the Department of Labor said.

States with the largest increases in the number of first-time jobless claims for April 16, the latest week for which such data is available, were Florida (+2,753), New Mexico (+680), New Jersey (+490) and Colorado (+481).

The number of people claiming benefits in all unemployment compensation programs for the latest week such data is available was 8,187,232 for the week ending April 9, which marked a decrease of 112,578 from the previous week.

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Dallas, TX, United States (AHN) – According to the latest data, a 37 percent year-over-year decline in bank failures has resulted in the number of mortgage-related operations to close or fail during the first quarter.

However despite the subdued banking activity, the reverse mortgage sector continued to be pummeled.

During the first three months of 2011, a total of 37 mortgage-related firms or departments either failed or were closed down by management, based on an analysis by MortgageDaily.com.

Analysts said the drop is a result of a slowdown in the number of bank failures. As of the end of March, just 26 bank failures had been reported by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

However, at the end of the first quarter last year 41 federally insured banks had already failed.

The latest quarter also saw fewer failed banks than the 30 in the final quarter of 2010.

Within the latest quarter, three banks failed in March however 23 banks failed between January and February.

“One sector that saw the exit of high-profile players was reverse mortgage lending,” said Sam Garcia, founder and publisher of Mortgage Daily.

He went on to say, “During the first quarter, Bank of America Home Loans disclosed plans to abandon reverse mortgage lending, Financial Freedom’s parent OneWest Bank Group LLC said it decided to pull the plug on reverse lending, and Wells Fargo Home Mortgage announced it would eliminate its wholesale reverse mortgage channel.”

During fiscal 2010, only 96,971 home-equity conversion mortgages were endorsed by the Federal Housing Administration, falling from the previous year’s 162,619.

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Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – Heads of the Toronto and London Stock Exchanges assured Canadian politicians that despite the planned merger of the two bourses, the TSX will continue to be regulated by the federal government of Canada.

TMX Group Chief Executive Officer Tom Kloet and LSE Chief Executive Xavier Rolet told the Ontario legislature Wednesday that only the holding companies of the two bourses would be combined. They stressed that local stock markets will remain, but the move would open wider the doors for Canadians to invest in European stocks and vice-versa.

Kloet added that the merger would also allow Toronto-listed firms to reach London investors more easily, and it would create more job opportunities for Toronto bankers, lawyers and other employees in the financial sector.

The hearing was held as part of Ottawa’s probe into the transatlantic deal, considered one of the biggest. However, the report of the committee will not be legally binding, although securities regulators and Ottawa officials who will have veto power over the planned merger will have likely take into account the committee’s findings.

A similar merger is underway between the New York Stock Exchange Euronext and the Deutsche Boerse valued at $10 billion.

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Toronto, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – With a new mayor in office, Toronto is reviewing the city’s green roof law, which mandated new industrial buildings to have vegetation-covered roofs by April 30, 2012.

The law was passed during the term of former Toronto Mayor David Miller. Because of opposition raised by the business sector, the city’s staff is taking a second look at the law, which has a scheduled launch date of Jan. 31.

In 2009, city staff endorsed the exemption of industrial buildings from the bylaw, but the council passed it with no exemptions based on a recommendation of former Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone.

Pantalone pushed for green roof buildings to cut the urban heat island effect in industrial areas for edifices with an area of at least 2,000 square meters. However, the chair of Toronto’s Planning and Growth Management Committee said Friday that there are other ways of alleviating the issue.

The bylaw was approved 36-2. The dissenting votes were cast by then-Councilors Rob Ford and Doug Holyday, who are now Toronto’s mayor and deputy mayor.

Environmental experts said having green roofs will benefit the atmosphere in terms of better air quality, while reducing energy consumption. Buildings account for 40 percent of energy consumption in Canada and use more energy than the transportation sector.

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Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – Analysts foresee an interest rate increase by the Bank of Canada soon. Last week, a group of economists from the private sector and educational institutions from the C.D. Howe monetary policy council recommended a key lending rate hike to Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney.

They suggested a 25 basis points hike on Tuesday, when the Canadian central bank’s monetary committee meets and decides if it will keep the current rate of 1 percent or hike it to 1.25 percent. The group is even pushing to bring the key lending rate to 2.5 percent by the end of 2011.

New monetary committee member Sheryl King, chief economist of the Bank of America Merrill Lynch, is in favor of an interest rate increase because the benchmark rates are already considered too low for the amount of growth projected for the next 12 months.

King also blamed the very low interest rates for the record-high debts incurred by Canadian households, currently at 148 percent of disposable income.

Bank of Canada Deputy Governor Agathe Cote confirmed that because of the lower interest rates on secured loans, consumers use up to one-third of the loans to pay other debts. Another one-fourth in used to invest in financial assets and the balance used for current consumption and renovating or buying another property.

This, in turn, has caused home equity lines of credit and loans to surge at almost twice the pace of mortgages over the past 10 years, or 12 percent of overall household debt.

King and bank analysts, however, doubt that a key lending rate hike will take place on Tuesday,

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Unsecured loans are the emerging trends in the loan sector. These are in very much demand in the industry. People want them as no collateral is required. The person with bad credit score can also apply for this loan facility. Today people don’t want to lose there their hard earned assets. To protect them from the loss of their asset they want these types of loan. Unsecured loan provide them with the kind of services that any other loan is not giving.

Unsecured loans are the loans in which the person can borrow money from the bank at higher rate of interest. But the facilities are also great as there is no need to keep a check on the credit score as loan is given not on credit score. The person who has gone bankrupt in the past can also get this type of loan. The amount of loan is small and it is usually taken by people for various small purposes like medical problems, child education facility, for repair and maintenance of the car for good holidays etc.

Unsecured loans have taken a new loop in the market of UK. These loan have provide a good business opportunity to banks. As by giving money to people on high interest rates helps them in yielding more and more revenues for the banks and financial institutions indulged in this loan providing facility. Unsecured loan are the booming trends for the banks of UK.

Apart from the various facilities they provide, they are easy to repay also. An individual can repay these loans in very easy installments. The amount is deducted each and every month itself from the account of the borrower of the money. Hence, in the end, one would say unsecured loan is becoming the key loan facility provided by banks these days. And if someone is in need of this kind of loan can avail this loan without any hassles.

Ratings agency Moody’s says the local banking sector will be bolstered as South Africa recovers from recession and low inflation persists.

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With the commercial real estate sector’s vital signs stabilizing, indexes of real estate investment trusts have posted big gains this year

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Pioneer Food has been slapped with record-breaking fines that will see it pay for a new fund aimed at promoting competitiveness within the agro-processing business sector.

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U.S. infrastructure outlays not only improve the public well-being but also boost returns for the private sector, says columnist Chris Farrell

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