Bankwatch in the media

Two of Europe's largest development banks are probing allegations that Slovene officials helped French engineering giant Alstom SA scuttle a rival bid by Siemens AG involving work on a €700 million ($927.8 million) power plant in Slovenia.

Global demand for coal is set to grow by 600,000 tonnes a day in the next five years, this would seem to make it a no-lose proposition for investors. If only things were that simple.

One of the MEPs leading debate on the environmental earmarking of EU funds in the next budget will outline her views in the parliament's environment committee in early May. Rapporteur Jutta Haug issued three working documents last week.

The European Investment Bank – the European Union’s house bank – should lend more responsibly and more transparently, said the European Parliament on Thursday while assessing the bank’s annual activity report. But the capital increase at the EIB called for by the same European Parliament would hardly allow an already over-stretched institution to make such improvements. The bank would be better advised to work on improving management of current resources before rushing into a capital expansion.