IN BRIEF (Page 17)

Bank must honor deal

Bradford & Bingley Plc, the UK lender struggling to raise cash in a rights offering, must honor a 2006 deal to buy about 2.1 billion pounds of mortgages by the end of next year from GMAC LLC.

Customer payments are more than three months late on 5 percent of loans already purchased from Detroit-based GMAC, the car and home lender trying to avert bankruptcy for its residential mortgage unit.

Peg to stay

The United Arab Emirates will keep the dirham pegged to the dollar as long as it is in the interest of the nation's economy, UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid al-Maktoum told USTreasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

Paulson told Sheikh Mohammed, who is also the ruler of Dubai, the US will remain open to investment from Arab sovereign wealth funds.

Airline falls

Skymark Airlines Inc, Japan's largest low-fare carrier, dropped the most in more than two years in Tokyo trading after it canceled about 10 percent of its domestic flights this month due to a shortage of pilots.

The shares fell 9.4 percent, the biggest drop since Nov 16, 2005, to close at 193 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

'Well positioned'

US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that interest rates are "well positioned" to promote growth and stable prices, and policymakers are "attentive" to the impact of the falling dollar.

The Fed is working with the Treasury to "carefully monitor developments in foreign exchange markets" and is aware of the effect of the dollar's decline on inflation and price expectations, Bernanke said.

Agencies

(China Daily 06/04/2008 page17)