Pamela notes

* Starbucks aims to grab more market share with addition* Starbucks shares up 1.4 percentBy Lisa BaertleinLOS ANGELES, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Starbucks Corp is going “Blonde,” expanding its coffee lineup with its lightest roast to date in a move aimed at wooing more customers and capturing a bigger share of the U.S. coffee market.The world’s biggest coffee company is known for its dark roasts, which have prompted some critics to say the chain’s coffee tastes burned. The new, lighter roast unveiled on Tuesday is milder in body and acidity than Starbucks’ traditional coffees and the company expects it to appeal to a broad audience.Mass-market competitors McDonald’s Corp and Dunkin’ Donuts offer milder brewed coffees and in recent years have added lattes, mochas and other sorts of “fancy” espresso drinks popularized by Starbucks.”We think this is a big opportunity,” Jeff Hansberry, president of channel development for Starbucks, told Reuters.According to Starbucks research, more than 40 percent of U.S. coffee drinkers — or about 54 million consumers — prefer a lighter roast coffee.Additionally, nearly 71 percent of all packaged coffee sales in the grocery aisle are either light or medium roasted coffee.Starbucks will begin selling its new Blonde blends in January through Starbucks cafes and supermarkets.Starbucks cafes also will brew a Blonde blend alongside its other daily coffees. Breakfast Blend is currently the lightest coffee available at Starbucks, while French Roast is at the darkest end of the roast spectrum.Starbucks’ last major addition to its brewed coffee lineup came in 2008, when it introduced Pike Place as an “everyday” brew. Chief Executive Howard Schultz later that year said Pike Place gave the company an incremental bump in sales.The company debuted Via instant coffee in 2009 and expects it to one day grow into a billion-dollar business.Starbucks restarted profit growth in 2010 after a two-year restructuring that involved slashing costs and shuttering almost 1,000 cafes globally. Since then, investors have enjoyed quarterly profits that often topped analysts’ views.Starbucks shares — up roughly 80 percent since the beginning of 2010 — gained 1.4 percent to $41.73 on Tuesday.

By Dave ClarkeWASHINGTON, Oct 13 (Reuters) - The new U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said on Thursday it will make oversight of the mortgage servicing industry a top priority as it ramps up its oversight of banks.Numerous state and government agencies are examining bank foreclosure practices and whether the proper legal steps are being taken by servicers, who collect and manage loan payments, when a borrower becomes delinquent on a loan.”We are going to take a close and measured view to ensure that servicers and financial institutions are in compliance with the federal consumer financial laws,” Raj Date, the Treasury official leading the bureau, said in a conference call with reporters.The scrutiny being put on banks’ from several agencies could lead to penalties or settlement figures in the billions.A senior CFPB official told reporters on the conference call the agency has a wide range of actions it can take, including imposing fines, depending on what problems it finds during examinations.The bureau made the announcement about its servicing focus as it released a broader guide detailing how it will routinely supervise banks and the financial products they provide, such as credit cards and mortgages.The agency will initially focus its supervision efforts on the 105 banks, thrifts and credit unions that have more than $10 billion in assets.With regard to mortgage servicing, the agency said that it will first look at home loans in default to make sure the proper information about loan modification programs and the foreclosure process is being provided to borrowers.Among the areas it will scrutinize is whether a borrower being moved through the foreclosure process is being charged duplicative or illegal fees.Date said the servicing industry is particularly susceptible to consumer abuses because borrowers can not choose who collects their payments and because servicers do not get paid more to handle foreclosures, which are more time consuming and complicated.”Given those structural problems, it’s no surprise that the mortgage servicing market has been plagued by pervasive and profound consumer protection issues,” Date said.The bureau was created as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial oversight law and it officially opened its doors for business on July 21.ONGOING PROBESThe servicing issue burst into public view last year when government agencies began investigating bank mortgage practices, including the use of “robo-signers” to sign hundreds of unread foreclosure documents a day.States and the Justice Department are currently trying to negotiate a settlement with Bank of America Corp , JPMorgan Chase & Co , Citigroup Inc , Wells Fargo & Co and Ally Financial.JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said on Thursday during an earnings conference call that these talks are getting “bogged down.”In April, banks entered into a settlement with the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the now defunct Office of Thrift Supervision on steps that have to be taken, such as providing borrowers with a single point of contact for questions.Banking regulators have said they anticipate a monetary penalty to be issued later, the size of which will depend on the problems turned up by investigations, currently being conducted, into foreclosures initiated in 2009 and 2010.

BP, Shell , ConocoPhillips and Chevron will now enter the second phase of the Clair Ridge project, the development of a field west of the remote Scottish Shetland Islands.BP said the investment it was making in this and three other projects would be the highest annual investment it had ever made in the UK North Sea.”After some years of decline, we now see the potential to maintain our production from the North Sea at around 200,000-250,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day until 2030,” said BP chief executive Bob Dudley in a statement on Thursday.UK Prime Minister David Cameron welcomed the project and said the investment would provide a “massive boost for jobs and growth” in the country.Unemployment in Britain is at its highest level in 17 years as the economy teeters on the brink of recession .

By Patrick Temple-WestWASHINGTON, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Tax preparers are chewing their pencils as the U.S. Internal Revenue Service gets ready to impose the first comprehensive program of fees and rules on the industry’s 730,000 practitioners.Some fear the IRS campaign against tax fraud could squeeze out small, independent businesses and allow large competitors such as H&R Block Inc and Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc to capture market share.The IRS, which plans to finalize the new fees in coming months, recently said it was open to ways to mitigate costs.To get certified, preparers will need to register and pass a competency test. Some will need to be finger-printed, pass a background check with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and take continuing education classes.The IRS estimates the licensing fee for each tax preparer at between $250 and $275, but H&R Block expects the cost will be more than $400, including state fees and its own background-check expenses.The IRS fees are “a touchy and sensitive topic,” said Mark Steber, chief tax officer at Parsippany, New Jersey-based Jackson Hewitt. “The fees “do seem large, and they are large.”Practitioners say the fees, some still in flux, will trickle down to Americans who pay for personalized help with their taxes. Faced with a complex tax code, more than half of all U.S. taxpayers filed a return last year with the help of a preparer, according to the Government Accountability Office.The tax-preparation business has traditionally been a free-wheeling industry. Only California and Oregon have laws regulating it. In the rest of the country, anyone can hang out a shingle and fill out tax returns.The IRS wants to weed out illicit tax preparers who open for business in tax season and then disappear before they can be charged. Last month, for example, the Justice Department prosecuted a Florida woman who filed returns for homeless people claiming first-time-homebuyer tax credits.SHULMAN BEHIND CRACKDOWNIn June 2009, IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman started an overhaul of the tax preparer system.As the proposed rules stand now, fees would hit about 450,000 preparers particularly hard — those lacking professional certifications as lawyers or certified public accountants, and those registered with the IRS as preparation supervisors.Fees and competency tests could drive out honest preparers along with swindlers, said Chuck McCabe, chief executive officer of the Income Tax School Inc in Richmond, Virginia.”The fees definitely do pose a barrier to entry,” said McCabe, whose school offers tax-preparation classes. The certification requirements are “definitely a deterrent.”Tax preparation has been a valuable job opportunity for many older people and mothers with young children looking for part-time work, he said.Older preparers might not want to pay the fees and might struggle with the competency test, McCabe said, predicting that the consequences “will create a vacuum” of preparers.Meanwhile, analysts say big firms may pay for their staffs’ certifications to retain experienced employees, and are poised to gain a competitive edge over small, independent preparers.Jackson Hewitt preparers filed 2.6 million retail U.S. tax returns for the 2010 year, while H&R Block handled 14.7 million, or about 11 percent of the total.COSTS ADD UPH&R Block said it would cost about $8 million to get roughly 100,000 company employees certified. Its 1,733 corporate franchises will also have to pay fees.”It’s definitely going to add costs,” especially for H&R Block’s franchises, said Kartik Mehta, director of research at Northcoast Research Holdings LLC in Cleveland.Still, Mehta added: “I don’t think the costs are that onerous.”The IRS agrees. David Williams, director of the agency’s return preparer office, said the costs bring the preparation business in line with the professional needs of the work.”In virtually every service profession, there are basic, minimum standards for suitability,” said Williams, who led the regulatory overhaul.Most barbers and hair stylists must pass some suitability test. “You will see those licenses on the wall,” he told Reuters, while tax preparers, who face no such requirements in most states, have access to an individual’s “most intimate financial information.”INDUSTRY WEIGHS INAt a hearing last week, industry groups raised their concerns with IRS and U.S. Treasury Department officials.The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants said it supported certification, but disapproved of its costs.”We have serious concerns regarding the level of burden that the user fee regulations will place on CPA firms, primarily small- and medium-size CPA firms,” said Patricia Thompson, who chairs the AICPA tax executive committee.H&R Block asked if the IRS would consider allowing firms to fingerprint their employees and forward the information to the FBI.Williams said the IRS would take another look at the costs, especially for fingerprinting. “Maybe there is a viable alternative that would suffice in lieu of an FBI fingercheck,” he said.The public comment period on fingerprinting fees closes on Oct. 26.

By Patrick Temple-WestWASHINGTON, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Tax preparers are chewing their pencils as the U.S. Internal Revenue Service gets ready to impose the first comprehensive program of fees and rules on the industry’s 730,000 practitioners.Some fear the IRS campaign against tax fraud could squeeze out small, independent businesses and allow large competitors such as H&R Block Inc and Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc to capture market share.The IRS, which plans to finalize the new fees in coming months, recently said it was open to ways to mitigate costs.To get certified, preparers will need to register and pass a competency test. Some will need to be finger-printed, pass a background check with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and take continuing education classes.The IRS estimates the licensing fee for each tax preparer at between $250 and $275, but H&R Block expects the cost will be more than $400, including state fees and its own background-check expenses.The IRS fees are “a touchy and sensitive topic,” said Mark Steber, chief tax offi

Kudrin was pressured into resigning last month after he said he would not work in Medvedev’s government if Medvedev becomes prime minister in a planned job swap with Vladimir Putin following a presidential vote next year.Putin said that Kudrin remained a member of his team.