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Public release date: 3-May-2013
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Contact: Iqbal Pittalwala
iqbal@ucr.edu
951-827-6050
University of California – Riverside

In free public lecture on May 16 at UC Riverside chemist Yinsheng Wang will discuss implications of personalized medicine in cancer treatment and explain how drugs induce damage to DNA

RIVERSIDE, Calif. Anticancer drugs save lives and/or improve the quality of life for many cancer patients. Many anti-cancer drugs work by killing tumor cells after inducing damage to DNA.

The public has an opportunity to learn about the mechanisms of action of some commonly used anticancer drugs and how laboratory research may lead to novel targets and new strategies for cancer treatment.

Yinsheng Wang, a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Riverside, will give a free lecture on May 16 on campus to discuss those drugs that induce damage to DNA, as well as those biomolecules that allow for selective targeting of tumor cells. He will also discuss the implications of personalized medicine in cancer treatment.

Wang’s hour-long talk is titled “Curing cancer: How do anticancer drugs work?” It will begin at 5:30 p.m. in Rooms C, D and E, University Extension Center (UNEX). Seating is open. Parking at UNEX is free for lecture attendees.

The lecture is the third in the annual Science Lecture Series hosted by the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences (CNAS). This year the theme is “The Science of Disease.” The series aims to boost the public’s awareness and understanding of science and of how scientists work.

“Anti-cancer drugs induce their cytotoxic effects via different molecular targets,” Wang said. “Patients’ genetic make-up can have a significant effect on the clinical efficacies of anti-tumor drugs. Innovative technologies may lead to the discovery of new molecular targets that can be used for more effective treatment of cancer while minimizing side effects.”

Wang is the director of the Environmental Toxicology Graduate Program at UC Riverside. He received his bachelor’s degree from Shandong University and master’s degree from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He joined the UCR faculty in 2001, after earning his doctoral degree from Washington University in St. Louis.

He is the recipient of the 2013 Biemann Medal and a 2005 Research Award from the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, as well as the inaugural Chemical Research in Toxicology Young Investigator Award from the American Chemical Society in 2012. He was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2012.

Research in the Wang group is concentrated in two broad areas. The first is DNA damage and repair. His lab uses a variety of chemical and biological tools to understand, at the molecular level, how various kinds of damage to DNA are repaired, and how they affect the flow of genetic information during DNA replication and transcription. His work has brought scientists’ understanding of the biological consequences of DNA damage to a new level.

His lab’s second research area is proteomics, the study of the functions, structures, and interactions of proteins. His work in this area has led to the discovery of novel mechanisms of action of some anti-tumor drugs and environmental toxicants. In particular, he seeks to understand alterations in the expression of proteins in cells that are treated with anticancer drugs and other agents.

Wang’s lecture will be introduced by Aurora Johnson, a physical science teacher in the Moreno Valley Unified School District with 11 years of teaching experience. Previously, she worked in the Riverside and Palm Springs Unified School Districts. She was educated at Riverside City College, Grand Canyon University, and UCR.

###

More information about the lecture series can be obtained by visiting http://www.cnas.ucr.edu, calling (951) 827-6555 or emailing Carol Lerner.

Teachers interested in receiving professional development credit for attending the lecture series must make arrangements in advance with University Extension [awebb@ucx.ucr.edu; (951) 827-1653].

The University of California, Riverside (http://www.ucr.edu) is a doctoral research university, a living laboratory for groundbreaking exploration of issues critical to Inland Southern California, the state and communities around the world. Reflecting California’s diverse culture, UCR’s enrollment has exceeded 21,000 students. The campus will open a medical school in 2013 and has reached the heart of the Coachella Valley by way of the UCR Palm Desert Center. The campus has an annual statewide economic impact of more than $1 billion. A broadcast studio with fiber cable to the AT&T Hollywood hub is available for live or taped interviews. UCR also has ISDN for radio interviews. To learn more, call (951) UCR-NEWS.

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 3-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Iqbal Pittalwala
iqbal@ucr.edu
951-827-6050
University of California – Riverside

In free public lecture on May 16 at UC Riverside chemist Yinsheng Wang will discuss implications of personalized medicine in cancer treatment and explain how drugs induce damage to DNA

RIVERSIDE, Calif. Anticancer drugs save lives and/or improve the quality of life for many cancer patients. Many anti-cancer drugs work by killing tumor cells after inducing damage to DNA.

The public has an opportunity to learn about the mechanisms of action of some commonly used anticancer drugs and how laboratory research may lead to novel targets and new strategies for cancer treatment.

Yinsheng Wang, a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Riverside, will give a free lecture on May 16 on campus to discuss those drugs that induce damage to DNA, as well as those biomolecules that allow for selective targeting of tumor cells. He will also discuss the implications of personalized medicine in cancer treatment.

Wang’s hour-long talk is titled “Curing cancer: How do anticancer drugs work?” It will begin at 5:30 p.m. in Rooms C, D and E, University Extension Center (UNEX). Seating is open. Parking at UNEX is free for lecture attendees.

The lecture is the third in the annual Science Lecture Series hosted by the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences (CNAS). This year the theme is “The Science of Disease.” The series aims to boost the public’s awareness and understanding of science and of how scientists work.

“Anti-cancer drugs induce their cytotoxic effects via different molecular targets,” Wang said. “Patients’ genetic make-up can have a significant effect on the clinical efficacies of anti-tumor drugs. Innovative technologies may lead to the discovery of new molecular targets that can be used for more effective treatment of cancer while minimizing side effects.”

Wang is the director of the Environmental Toxicology Graduate Program at UC Riverside. He received his bachelor’s degree from Shandong University and master’s degree from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He joined the UCR faculty in 2001, after earning his doctoral degree from Washington University in St. Louis.

He is the recipient of the 2013 Biemann Medal and a 2005 Research Award from the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, as well as the inaugural Chemical Research in Toxicology Young Investigator Award from the American Chemical Society in 2012. He was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2012.

Research in the Wang group is concentrated in two broad areas. The first is DNA damage and repair. His lab uses a variety of chemical and biological tools to understand, at the molecular level, how various kinds of damage to DNA are repaired, and how they affect the flow of genetic information during DNA replication and transcription. His work has brought scientists’ understanding of the biological consequences of DNA damage to a new level.

His lab’s second research area is proteomics, the study of the functions, structures, and interactions of proteins. His work in this area has led to the discovery of novel mechanisms of action of some anti-tumor drugs and environmental toxicants. In particular, he seeks to understand alterations in the expression of proteins in cells that are treated with anticancer drugs and other agents.

Wang’s lecture will be introduced by Aurora Johnson, a physical science teacher in the Moreno Valley Unified School District with 11 years of teaching experience. Previously, she worked in the Riverside and Palm Springs Unified School Districts. She was educated at Riverside City College, Grand Canyon University, and UCR.

###

More information about the lecture series can be obtained by visiting http://www.cnas.ucr.edu, calling (951) 827-6555 or emailing Carol Lerner.

Teachers interested in receiving professional development credit for attending the lecture series must make arrangements in advance with University Extension [awebb@ucx.ucr.edu; (951) 827-1653].

The University of California, Riverside (http://www.ucr.edu) is a doctoral research university, a living laboratory for groundbreaking exploration of issues critical to Inland Southern California, the state and communities around the world. Reflecting California’s diverse culture, UCR’s enrollment has exceeded 21,000 students. The campus will open a medical school in 2013 and has reached the heart of the Coachella Valley by way of the UCR Palm Desert Center. The campus has an annual statewide economic impact of more than $1 billion. A broadcast studio with fiber cable to the AT&T Hollywood hub is available for live or taped interviews. UCR also has ISDN for radio interviews. To learn more, call (951) UCR-NEWS.

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-05/uoc–hda050313.php

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Barnes & Noble’s refusal to open its ecosystem has long been one of our principle complaints about the company’s tablet offerings. The Nook HD and HD+ are extremely nice pieces of hardware that have been held back by their own walled software offerings — having a fast device with a nice screen only gets you so far without the proper apps. The company line up to now has been that walling off content allows for a sort of quality control, assuring that apps are developed specifically for the unique form factor of its devices. And while there’s perhaps something to be said for that sentiment in the sometimes-fragmented world of Android devices, it was hard to ignore the fact that offering up exclusive access to content through your own marketplace assures better cash flow. It also, unfortunately, means that without extensive developer outreach, there are sure to be plenty of popular apps that just never make it over to your side of the fence.

With its announcement tonight, B&N acknowledges that, in this case, open is better. The company has responded directly to user feedback and will be issuing a software update to its Nook HD and Nook HD+ devices (sorry Nook Tablet and Color owners) that brings Google Play directly to the desktop. The software will come pre-loaded on new devices and will be available as an over-the-air update. If you can’t wait that long, you’ll also be able to download it directly from the bookseller’s site. The update also brings a few other tweaks to the system, but this is far and away the biggest news. The first question we asked upon getting a quick demo: will you be able to buy content like books, magazines and movies through Play? Yep, that’s coming too.

Filed under: Tablets, Software, Google

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/zy2UIPmO1MU/

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Pat Corkery, United Launch Alliance

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket blasts off from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station carrying the second Space-Based Infrared System GEO-2 satellite for the U.S. Air Force at 5:21 p.m. EDT on March 19, 2013.

By Clara Moskowitz, SPACE.com

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. ? Shrinking government budgets, combined with a growing reliance on space assets by the United States ? especially by its military ? are putting the country in an undefended position, Gen. William Shelton, commander of U.S. Air Force Space Command, said Tuesday.

Every U.S. military action depends on space capabilities such as satellite-based surveillance, communications, and mapping and weather technologies, Shelton said here at the 29th annual National Space Symposium. Yet the satellite networks that provide these services are “fragile” and spread thin, and there are no backups for these technologies if they were to fail, Shelton stressed, at one point describing the conditions as a “perfect storm”-type situation.?

“It’s like mountain climbers who depend on a very thin rope,” Shelton said.

The threats to U.S. spacecraft include not just deliberate attacks by hostile states, but also the possibility of a collision with a piece of the abundant space trash ? which includes things like spent rocket stages, defunct spacecraft and bits of destroyed satellites ? that litters the corridors of Earth. The government is tracking about 23,000 pieces of space debris, but there are estimated to be more than 500,000 bits up there, many of which are too small for U.S. radar systems to detect. [Photos: Space Debris Cleanup Concepts]

“Space was once a benign, much-less-crowded place,” Shelton said. “This is no longer true.”

However, fighting that threat, and bolstering the United States’ space resources, will cost money at a time when the federal budget sequester has limited defense spending drastically.

“This certainly seems like the potential for a perfect storm to me,” Shelton said. He suggested the U.S. space community had reached a fork in the road. “We’re going to have to take one of these directions: status quo, or do something different.”

Shelton advocated reaching a sweet spot between “capability, affordability and resilience,” so that the network of satellites the military relies on can maintain ? and expand ? its capabilities, while becoming more resilient to threats and failures ? all within the confines of the limited federal funding available.

Some tactics to do that, he suggested, include designing future satellites more flexibly, so that they don’t have to be custom-made every time, but instead use existing commercial technologies. The military might even consider launching some of its instruments onboard commercial satellites, rather than building special vehicles to carry them on their own ? a practice called hosted payloads.

Yet changing the way the U.S. Defense Department does business in space might be an uphill battle, Shelton acknowledged.

“One of the big problems, though, will be overcoming the naysayers that are out there,” Shelton said. “There are people that believe that the status quo is adequate. The status quo, to me, just doesn’t seem to be reasonable for our future here.”

Follow Clara Moskowitz on Twitter?and Google+. Follow us?@Spacedotcom, Facebook?and Google+. Original article on?SPACE.com.

Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2a87ebe1/l/0Lscience0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A40C0A90C176772810Eus0Eheaded0Efor0Eperfect0Estorm0Ein0Espace0Eair0Eforce0Egeneral0Esays0Dlite/story01.htm

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As T-Mobile prepares to officially offer the iPhone for the first time, it’s trying to pump up the lure with a trade-in offer for owners of the 4 and 4S models. Available through mid-June, the promotion lets iPhone 4 and 4S owners trade in their current device for an AWS HSPA+ friendly iPhone 5 for no money upfront (with monthly payments) under its new no-contract Simple Choice Plans. Additionally, depending on the condition of the hardware being traded in, customers can get a credit of up to $120 to be used against those payments (knocking it down to $15 from $20, for example) their usual bill or accessories. If last month’s colorful presentation wasn’t enough to pull you to T-Mobile from another carrier, does this new offer sweeten the deal enough? A full breakdown follows below in the press release, sales start Friday.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple, T-Mobile

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Source: T-Mobile

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FILE – In this Feb. 7, 2013 file photo, U.S. Postal Service letter carrier Michael McDonald gathers mail to load into his truck before making his delivery run in the East Atlanta neighborhood, in Atlanta. The U.S. Postal Service says it will delay plans to cut Saturday mail delivery because Congress isn’t allowing the change. The Postal Service said in February that it planned to cut back in August to five-day-a-week deliveries for everything except packages, as a way to hold down losses. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

FILE – In this Feb. 7, 2013 file photo, U.S. Postal Service letter carrier Michael McDonald gathers mail to load into his truck before making his delivery run in the East Atlanta neighborhood, in Atlanta. The U.S. Postal Service says it will delay plans to cut Saturday mail delivery because Congress isn’t allowing the change. The Postal Service said in February that it planned to cut back in August to five-day-a-week deliveries for everything except packages, as a way to hold down losses. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

FILE – In this Feb. 7, 2014 file photo, U.S. Postal Service letter carrier Jamesa Euler, delivers mail in the rain in the Cabbagetown neighborhood, in Atlanta. The U.S. Postal Service says it will delay plans to cut Saturday mail delivery because Congress isn’t allowing the change. The Postal Service said in February that it planned to cut back in August to five-day-a-week deliveries for everything except packages, as a way to hold down losses. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Charts show postal delivery addresses and mail volume since

FILE – In this Feb. 7, 2013 file photo, U.S. Postal Service letter carrier Jamesa Euler, delivers mail in the Cabbagetown neighborhood of Atlanta. The U.S. Postal Service delivers mail to 11 million more homes, offices and other addresses than it did a decade ago, even as the amount of mail that people in the United States receive has dropped sharply. That combination may be financially dicey, some analysts say. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

FILE – In this Feb. 7, 2013 file photo, U.S. Postal Service letter carrier Jamesa Euler, turns down the flag on a mailbox while delivering mail in the Cabbagetown of Atlanta. The U.S. Postal Service delivers mail to 11 million more homes, offices and other addresses than it did a decade ago, even as the amount of mail that people in the United States receive has dropped sharply. That combination may be financially dicey, some analysts say. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The beleaguered U.S. Postal Service backed down from its cost-saving plan to eliminate Saturday mail delivery, acknowledging that Congress barred a move that supporters said was essential to addressing the agency’s dire financial condition.

Despite the retreat, the governing board said Wednesday that it’s not possible for the Postal Service to meet its goals for reduced spending without altering the delivery schedule. Delaying “responsible changes,” the board said, only makes it more likely that the Postal Service “may become a burden” to taxpayers.

The Postal Service said in February that it planned to switch to five-day-a-week deliveries beginning in August for everything except packages as a way to hold down losses.

But that announcement was a gamble. The agency essentially was asking Congress to drop from spending legislation the longtime ban on five-day-only delivery. Congress did not do that when it passed a spending measure last month.

“By including restrictive language … Congress has prohibited implementation of a new national delivery schedule for mail and package,” the postal Board of Governors said in a statement Wednesday.

The board said it was disappointed by the congressional action, but would not disregard the law. It directed the Postal Service to delay putting in place the new delivery schedule until Congress passes legislation that gives the agency “the authority to implement a financially appropriate and responsible delivery schedule.”

The board made the decision in a closed meeting Tuesday.

Officials said that to restore the service to long-term financial stability, the agency must have the flexibility to reduce costs and come up with new revenues.

“It is not possible for the Postal Service to meet significant cost reduction goals without changing its delivery schedule ? any rational analysis of our current financial condition and business options leads to this conclusion,” the board statement said.

An independent agency, the service gets no tax dollars for its day-to-day operations but is subject to congressional control. It lost nearly $16 billion last year ? $11.1 billion of that due to a 2006 law Congress passed forcing it to pay into future retiree health benefits, something no other agency does.

“Given these extreme circumstances and the worsening financial condition of the Postal Service, the board has directed management to seek a reopening of negotiations with the postal unions and consultations with management associations to lower total workforce costs, and to take administrative actions necessary to reduce costs,” according to the statement. It offered no giving further details.

It said the board also asked management to look at further options to raise revenues, including a rate increase.

The Postal Service already is executing a major restructuring throughout its retail, delivery and mail processing operations. Since 2006, it has reduced annual costs by approximately $15 billion, cut its workforce by 193,000 or 28 percent, and consolidated more than 200 mail processing locations.

GOP Rep. Darrell Issa of California, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said he was disappointed in the change of plans announced Wednesday and noted that polls show a majority of people support the reduced delivery schedule.

“This reversal significantly undercuts the credibility of Postal officials who have told Congress that they were prepared defy political pressure and make difficult but necessary cuts,” Issa said in a statement.

“Despite some assertions, it’s quite clear that special interest lobbying and intense political pressure played a much greater role in the Postal Service’s change of heart than any real or perceived barrier to implementing what had been announced.”

Sen. Tom Carper, a leader on postal issues, said he hoped Congress would pass new legislation to address the agency’s problems.

“Even though today’s decision by the Postal Service’s Board of Governors delays its controversial proposal, the urgent need for the administration and Congress to work together to save the Postal Service by making hard decisions and tackling controversial issues like Saturday delivery remains,” Carper, D-Del., said in a statement.

Over the past several years, the Postal Service has advocated shifting to a five-day delivery schedule for mail and packages, and it repeatedly but unsuccessfully has appealed to Congress to approve the move.

The idea to cut mail but keep six-day package delivery played up the agency’s strong point. It’s package service is growing as more people buy things online, while the volume of letters sent has slumped with increased use of email and other internet services.

The Senate last year passed a bill that would have stopped the postal service from eliminating Saturday service for at least two years and required it to try two years of aggressive cost cutting instead. The House didn’t pass a bill.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-10-Postal%20Problems/id-efb4663055e246b99f9703d08dd7d5c9

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Share With Friends: | | Politics – Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

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SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) – A right-wing Salvadoran congressman on Monday dismissed accusations by acting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro that he was involved in a plot to murder Maduro.

Last Saturday, Maduro said Venezuelan intelligence had learned Nationalist Republican Alliance(ARENA) Congressman Roberto D’Aubuisson and other right-wing politicians were planning to murder him ahead of presidential elections.

Maduro, acting president and protege of socialist leader Hugo Chavez, who died of cancer last month, has a double-digit lead over his opponent according to opinion polls.

D’Aubuisson told reporters his accusers simply “want to redirect attention from what is really happening in that country ahead of April 14th elections.”

“I have nothing to say to these people who give false … statements because such a serious topic cannot come from people whose source is a bird,” he said, referring to Maduro’s recent statement that the spirit of Chavez appeared to him in the form of a whistling bird.

The Salvadoran right has been peppered with countless allegations of involvement in attacks in Cuba and Venezuela.

D’Aubuisson’s father founded the ARENA party and the death squads that left 75,000 dead in El Salvador’s 1980-82 civil war.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua also accused D’Aubuisson of plotting against the oil-producing nation, and has said he has a telephone conversation as proof that he will soon reveal.

(Reporting by Nelson Renteria)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/salvadoran-official-denies-role-alleged-maduro-murder-plot-005320498.html

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By Gabriel Wildau and Shengnan Zhang

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China‘s banks are feeding unwanted assets into the country’s “shadow banking system” on an unprecedented scale, reinforcing suspicions that bank balance sheets reflect only a fraction of the actual credit risk lurking in the financial system.

Banks’ latest earnings reports only added to concerns. Despite the slowest economic growth in 13 years in 2012, the banking system’s official non-performing loan (NPL) ratio actually declined, renewing a debate about how reliable those figures are.

But the key question is no longer how much risk banks are carrying. Rather, it’s how many risky loans have been shifted to the lightly regulated shadow banking institutions – mainly trust companies, brokerages and insurance companies.

The risk to the overall financial system is not clear, because of insufficient data about the quality of credit in the shadow banking sector.

Trust companies and brokerages probably aren’t buying many bad loans directly, analysts and industry executives say, but they have become a vital source of credit, allowing banks to arrange off-balance-sheet refinancing for maturing loans that risky borrowers cannot repay from their internal cash flow.

Without these institutions, the amount of NPLs might have been much higher, though no one is quite sure how high.

Trust assets increased 55 percent in 2012 to 7.5 trillion yuan ($1.21 trillion), according to the China Trustee Association, while funds entrusted to brokerages by banks soared more than fivefold to 1.61 trillion yuan.

“There is absolutely an impact on NPL figures from the ability to offload stuff through these channels,” said Charlene Chu, China banks analyst for Fitch Ratings.

Trust companies sell wealth management products (WMP) to raise funds so they can purchase loans that banks want off their books. WMPs are then marketed through bank branches as a higher-yielding alternative to traditional bank deposits.

“These (bank) loans are not being repaid by the borrowers; they’re being repaid by investors in the (wealth management) products. So we really can’t see what the true corporate repayment rate is,” said Chu.

In 2010 and 2011, analysts began fretting about the large volume of loans to local governments and state firms – doled out as part of China’s massive economic stimulus plan from 2008 to 2010 – that were due to mature in 2012. But the wave of defaults never materialized, in large part because banks, working with trusts and brokerages, provided fresh funds to enable borrowers to refinance their debt.

Industry executives say at least half of trust company assets and 80 percent of brokerages’ entrusted funds are related to so-called “passageway business.”

In passageway deals, trusts and brokerages cooperate with banks to act as passive reservoirs for loans that banks originate but cannot keep on their own balance sheets without running afoul of lending quotas, capital adequacy requirements, and loan-to-deposit ratios.

The loans the trust companies buy from the banks, along with other assets such as corporate bonds and money market instruments, stand behind the wealth management products. If borrowers default on the loans, the investors in the wealth products – not the trust companies – generally bear the risk.

To be sure, not all the loans that banks transfer off-balance-sheet are high risk. In fact, “more than half of shadow banking credits in China could have better risk levels than bank loans,” ratings agency S&P wrote in a recent report.

But the agency also warned that banks are particularly keen to dump riskier loans extended to local governments and property developers in order to satisfy banking regulators who have ordered them to restrict exposure to these sectors.

China’s banking regulator said the bad loan ratio for the entire system was 0.95 percent at the end of 2012, down 0.05 percentage points from a year earlier. But that figure only covers on-balance-sheet loans, leaving a huge amount unmonitored.

Ratings agency S&P estimates that outstanding Chinese shadow banking credit totaled $3.7 trillion by the end of 2012, equal to 34 percent of on-balance-sheet loans and 44 percent of GDP.

‘INNOVATION’

Even as banking regulators continue to use so-called “window guidance” – ad hoc instructions to banks on how much they should lend – to control the volume of on-balance-sheet loans, the passageway business has so far remained lightly regulated.

That’s because regulators see shadow banking as an experiment in liberalized interest rates and an incubator for risk-based capital allocation and financial innovation.

“Whatever else you might say about it, shadow banking is a market-based financing system. When it comes to midwifing market innovation, right now regulators don’t want to regulate it to death,” said a source close to regulators.

Guo Shuqing, who served until recently as chairman of the China’s Securities Regulatory Commission, was known as a champion of financial innovation. Guo encouraged brokerages to develop asset management as an alternative revenue source amid weakness in their core trading and underwriting businesses.

In reality, however, the passageway business appears to be little more than regulatory arbitrage: shifting lending to institutions not subject to the strict rules that govern banks. Trusts and brokerages add little value beyond providing a passive conduit for banks to remove loans from their balance sheets, collecting a management fee from banks in the process.

“Money with no risk and no responsibility – who wouldn’t want to earn that? Trust companies like doing bank passageway business the most. I just give you three copies of a form, add the company stamp, take the money, and it’s all done,” a senior trust industry executive told Reuters.

“‘What kind of risk control? What kind of due diligence?’ If you ask too many questions, the guy (from the bank) won’t work with you. He’ll find someone else,” the executive said.

HANDS-OFF APPROACH

Insiders also say the loans packaged for sale to trusts and brokerages are granted with less scrutiny than those that remain on balance sheets.

“They don’t share the traditional bank culture – cautious and standardized,” said a risk officer at a large commercial bank, referring to bankers involved with passageway loans.

“It’s a trading-infused style. As long as the product is well received (by investors), it’s all good. They don’t pay enough attention to the fundamentals of the loan.”

Such concerns mirror the criticisms leveled against Western banks in the wake of the financial crisis, when mortgage loan officers often failed to conduct adequate due diligence because they knew the loans would quickly be passed to other investors.

Apart from the desire to promote innovation and market-based reform, regulators have encouraged the rise of shadow banking, in part due to the need to support growth last year, when China‘s economy grew at its slowest pace since 1999.

“The entire push behind shadow banking is deeply rooted in the government’s desire for growth,” wrote Dong Tao, China economist at Credit Suisse, in a recent note. “Shadow banking activities have increased because China needs growth, and the banking sector has, to a significant degree, failed in its role of financial intermediary.”

Regulators’ hands-off approach may finally be changing. China’s banking watchdog released new rules that limit the share of “non-standardized credit assets,” – loans essentially – to no more than 35 percent of underlying assets for any wealth management product.

If strictly enforced, the new rule could restrict the supply of funds available for off-balance-sheet lending. Instead of investing in loans, wealth management products would have to raise the proportion of funds invested in more liquid assets such as corporate bonds and money market instruments.

($1 = 6.2080 Chinese yuan)

(Editing by Ken Wills)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/china-off-balance-sheet-lending-risks-lurk-shadows-073231716–sector.html

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Apple recently received a patent for an iPhone design made of curved glass. We think there’s pretty much?no way this will ever see the light of day in physical form, but it’s still a neat idea.

The image from the filing looks like this:

Not much to look at. But Nickolay Lamm and Matteo Gianni from MyVoucherCodes have given it the 3D render treatment so we can get an idea of what it would look like in real life:

Like we said, we don’t expect to ever see this in the real world, but what do you think? Let us know in the comments!

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/curve-glass-iphone-concept-design-2013-4

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