Financial Watch

President Barack Obama on Saturday cited encouraging signs of an auto industry rebound as he promoted stronger financial rules that he said would help prevent a repeat of the crisis that pushed carmakers to the brink.

Senate Democrats have set a test vote Monday on legislation to tighten federal oversight of the financial sector.

The auto industry was one of the biggest casualties of a recession fueled by risky lending and speculative trading practices of major financial institutions. But after shedding 400,000 jobs in 2008, bailed-out U.S. automakers are rebounding.

The International Monetary Fund supports the adoption of a tax on capital inflows to stem the excessive appreciation of currencies in some Latin American economies, said Nicolas Eyzaguirre, the director of the fund’s Western Hemisphere department.

Latin American economies should consider “carefully designed” taxes to avoid volatility in their currency markets, he said. The taxes would be appropriate where fiscal policy “discipline” is in place, he said.

“In the cyclically more advanced economies in the region, the immediate task is to begin to withdraw stimulus policies,” Eyzaguirre said.

Some of the largest U.S. banks were ranked very low for retail customer satisfaction, a marketing research company said on Thursday.

The study implies that as some of the biggest banks get bigger, customers may not be happy.

Smaller banks and even large regional banks fared better than their colossal counterparts, according to the survey from J.D. Power and Associates.

The three biggest U.S. retail banks — JPMorgan Chase & Co’s Chase, Citigroup’s Citibank, and Bank of America Corp’s Bank of America — consistently rank at or near the bottom for customer service in the regions they serve, the survey said.

Financial shares dragged the stock market lower Friday as investors worried that the government’s mortgage-related fraud charges against Goldman Sachs & Co. could mean intensified scrutiny for the industry.

The Securities and Exchange Commission accused the Wall Street powerhouse of failing to disclose conflicts of interest in selling certain mortgage investments that led to steep losses for clients. Goldman Sachs denied the allegations.

The federal agency also said it was looking into a wide range of practices related to the subprime mortgage crisis, prompting fears that the investigation could broaden.

As President Obama heads to New York City on Thursday to press for a major overhaul of financial rules, he faces stiff opposition by Wall Street to the toughest proposed regulatory crackdown since the Great Depression.

A Senate committee on Wednesday approved the final piece of the legislation: strict new oversight of the murky and unregulated market for complex financial derivatives. It is one of three significant provisions that rile Wall Street the most.

Washington – In an effort to make it more difficult to counterfeit money, the US government has redesigned the $100 bill, adding new security features.

The blue 3-D Security Ribbon on the front of the new $100 note contains images of bells and 100s that move and change from one to the other as you tilt the note. The Bell in the Inkwell on the front of the note is another new security feature. The bell changes color from copper to green when the note is tilted, an effect that makes it seem to appear and disappear within the copper inkwell.