Report from trade union Solidarity, analyses the costs of personal transaction accounts at five South African banks. Issued by the Solidarity Research Institute.
Created in 1966, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is headquartered in Manila. Their operations extend across 67 countries, and their primary mission is "to help its developing member countries reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of their people." In order to achieve this goal, ADB offers loans, technical assistance, grants, advice, and knowledge. Along the top of their homepage, visitors can make their way through the following sections: "Projects", "Countries", "News & Events", "Topics", and "Publications". The "Topics" area is a good place to start, as it contains information about some of their signature programs, which range from work on preventing bird flu outbreaks to law and policy reform throughout the region. Moving on, the "Publications" area is a real treat for policy types, and visitors can look at recent documents like "Revitalization of Historic Inner-City Areas in Asia". http://www.adb.org/ [KMG]
From The Scout Report
From Wikileaks
Summary
Decrypted, unredacted 590 page report on the South African banking industry. Redacted parts were released on 12 Dec 2008 by the South African Competition Commision here: http://www.compcom.co.za/banking/technical%20report.htm
Using technical methods, Wikileaks has decrypted and removed the redactions from all of the report appart from a few images. The previously redacted regions, are shown in blue highlight.
The Competition Commission has the power to put some regulatory pressure on the banks to eg. lower fees & pay fines should the report find that the banks have formed a cartel with their exorbitant fees and unfair business practices. This report is important as it might explain why Banking fees in South Africa are so extremely high.
Comment and independent verification can be obtained by contacting the SA Competition Commission directly: http://www.compcom.co.za/