Глава II.
Аннотация.
Аннотация представляет собой предельно краткое из всех возможных изложение главного содержания первичного документа, составленное в результате компрессии текста оригинала и в нескольких строчках дающее представление о его тематике. Эта характеристика сближает аннотацию с индикативным типом реферата. Аннотация не может заменить первичного документа, и ее назначение в том, чтобы дать возможность специалисту составить мнение о целесообразности более детального ознакомления с данным материалом. Аннотацией называют краткую характеристику статьи, отчета или другого научного труда, представленного к печати, с точки зрения содержания, назначения, формы и других особенностей. Аннотация прежде всего выполняет сигнальные функции, и поэтому должна отвечать на вопрос: о чем говорится в представленной к печати работе? Аннотация состоит преимущественно из фраз в форме страдательного оборота, где сказуемое выражено глаголом с возвратной частицей "ся", например, "исследуются", "рассматриваются", "обсуждается" и т.п., или пассивной глагольной формой, например, "исследованы", "рассмотрены", "проанализированы" и т.д. Аннотации, как правило, помещаются в книгах, брошюрах, статьях, библиографических пособиях, тематических планах издательств, а также в отчетах о НИР.
Аннотация, суммирующая тематическое содержание текста, может быть предельно краткой и состоять из одного – двух предложений. Усматривается различие между рефератом и аннотацией в манере подачи материала.
Аннотация пишется своими словами. Высокая степень компрессии текста приводит к необходимости крайней абстракции и обобщения материала. Поскольку абстрагирование и обобщение делаются определенным лицом – автором аннотации, они неизменно носят отпечаток субъективности.
Аннотация – выжимка тематического содержания исходного текста – пишется с позиции компетентного судьи, который критически переосмысливает материал, абстрагирует, обобщает и сжимает его как бы «снаружи» от третьего лица. Текст аннотации преимущественно состоит из назывных предложений.
2. Read and translate the articles given below and make abstracts, using the following expressions:
The given paper deals with……………Статья касается.
……….....are described. Описываются.
The text gives a valuable information on……………..
Текст дает ценную информацию о…………………
It draws our attention to……………………
Привлекает наше внимание к……………
It is spoken in detail ………………………….
Подробно описывается………………….
Text 8 . “Credit Suisse benefits from cost-cutting”.
By William Hall in Zurich
Published: May 6 2003 9:54 | Last Updated: May 6 2003 9:54
Credit Suisse, Switzerland's second biggest bank which lost SFr3.3bn in 2003, is finally starting to benefit from the swinging cost-cutting measures of the last two years but it remains unusually cautious about the timing of its profit recovery.
The Swiss banking giant, whose once rock-solid reputation has been undermined by a series of earnings disappointments and costly clashes with regulators, has warned that its long overdue profit recovery could still be derailed by the exposure of its life and pensions business to further volatility in the financial markets.
Credit Suisse, which lost money in five out of the previous six quarters, had already indicated last month that it expected to report a net profit of around SFr650m in the first quarter of 2003.
The group's detailed first quarter results, released on Tuesday morning, have benefited from a sharp turnround at the group's two big problem areas - the Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) investment bank and the Winterthur insurance operation.
CSFB's institutional securities business, which relied heavily on fixed income trading profits, increased its year-on-year segment profit 60 per cent, to SFr476m, where it now towers above Credit Suisse Private Banking, which has traditionally been the group's most solid and profitable business.
Winterthur's life business and its property and casualty insurance operation both bounced back into profit with a combined segment contribution of SFr203m which more than offset the 39 per cent fall in private banking profits, to SFr371m, and the 15 per cent decline in Swiss retail banking profits, to SFr124m.
Phil Ryan, Credit Suisse's finance director, said that cost reduction measures are "really coming through in all our businesses". The group's operating income fell 16 per cent, to SFr7bn, while operating expenses were down 23 per cent, at SFr5bn.
The turnaround at Winterthur was underlined by the 3.2 percentage point improvement, to 103.7 per cent, in the combined ratio of the property and casualty insurance operation.
However, the inflow of net new money into Credit Suisse's private banking operations, which had been running at over SFr9bn in the first quarters of 2001 and 2002, fell to SFr1.5bn in the latest quarter.
"Wealth is not being created at the same rate that it was. Investors are much more inactive and concerned about the future and less interested in moving their money", said Mr. Ryan.
Despite Credit Suisse's cautious outlook, Christian Stark, an analyst with Cheuvreux, said the latest figures made him more optimistic about Credit Suisse's recovery prospects. He cited the fall in credit provisions as evidence of the improvement in the quality of the group's profits.
"In 2002 we saw a stabilisation of Credit Suisse's capital base, and now we are seeing a second key concern - CSFB's credit risk profile - being removed.
Text 9 . “Empty offices take toll on owners”.
By Jenny Wiggins in New York
Published: May 6 2003 0:20 | Last Updated: May 6 2003 0:20
The US economy's weakness is starting to exert a toll on commercial property owners, as a rising glut of office space makes it more difficult for some owners to make mortgage payments.
Demand for commercial office space remains poor as companies cut back on costs. Rents have hit multi-year lows while office vacancies are high, nearing levels last seen in the recession of the early 1990s.
The national vacancy rate for office properties rose from 8 per cent in 2000 to 16 per cent last year. Cities that were host to many technology-related firms, such as Boston and Seattle, have even higher vacancy rates.
"For buildings with leases rolling over this year, there may be some re-leasing challenges," said Tad Philipp, managing director at Moody's Investors Service.
Large office properties are suffering the most from the economic downturn.
A property known as Market Center in San Francisco - now one of the most difficult office markets in the country with rents down 60 per cent over the past two years - is only 17 per cent occupied.
In New York, the AT&T building located in Tribeca in downtown Manhattan is 64 per cent occupied, but has declined in value by 30 per cent over the past two years.
The problems experienced by these properties in attracting new tenants has made them less valuable as collateral in financial transactions that pool mortgage loans.
Ratings agency Standard & Poor's has downgraded commercial mortgage-backed security deals that use the Market Center and AT&T building as collateral.
It has also warned that other office loan delinquencies - loan payments more than 30 days past due - will rise as revenues from office properties fall.
In addition to facing a sharp decline in tenant demand, landlords are also dealing with rising insurance and security costs, and increasing property taxes.
Other sectors of the property market under stress include the hotel and lodging sector.
Hotel and lodging properties were only just starting to recover from the decline in travel after the September 11 terrorist attacks when the war in Iraq, and now the Sars health scare, further deterred travel.
Although hotels have cut their expenses to preserve cash, credit analysts warn that many are operating "at the margin" and are vulnerable to a further loss of business.
Delinquent loan payments at deals involving the Holiday Inn and Ramada hotel chain franchises are running at particularly high levels, according to Moody's.
Text 10 . ”Gas Natural withdraws from Iberdrola bid”.
By Joshua Levitt in Barcelona
Published: May 5 2003 20:21 | Last Updated: May 5 2003 20:21
Gas Natural, the dominant Spanish gas distributor, on Monday withdrew its €15bn hostile bid for Iberdrola, the country's second largest electricity company by market value, after the proposed deal was rejected by the energy regulator.
The decision to withdraw the bid, the largest in Europe this year, ends a regulatory process that would have included stops at the stock market regulator and the competition authorities.
Antoni Brufau, Gas Natural chairman, said the move would allow the companies and investors to move on.
But he said the company's legal team would study the possibility of bringing an appeal against the National Energy Commission's decision, if only to point out the ruling's inconsistencies and lack of precedent.
Mr. Brufau admitted that the recourse to appeal would not allow it to relaunch the bid, but a legal victory would give "coherency" to Gas Natural's arguments.
Gas Natural attempted to pre-empt the regulator's concerns by offering financial guarantees to secure regulated investments and a divestment plan that would have lowered the debt of the merged group.
But the regulator's decision, according to the company, did not take into account those commitments or any precedents in recent transactions.
The precedent set by the regulator has been to either give a green light with specific and often tough reservations, or demur to the competition authorities before issuing its opinion - as was the case in the failed merger between Endesa and Iberdrola in 2000.
Executives close to the company said they felt that the wording of the 110-page ruling appeared to have been modified at the last minute to justify the flat rejection.
Mr. Brufau did not want to enter the political debate that has surrounded the deal, but executives close to the chairman said that Gas Natural was content in launching a bid that forced the cosy electricity sector to wake-up.
"Gas and electricity businesses are being integrated in Portugal, France and Germany," Mr. Brufau said. "Unfortunately, we may have to wait 15 years for the same to happen in Spain, but it will happen."
Gas Natural saw the acquisition of Iberdrola as a way to gain 10 years on its own strategy of integrating gas and electricity.
Without Iberdrola, Gas Natural will return to a strategic plan that calls for a 10 per cent market share in electricity generation and distribution by 2007, while trying to maintain its 70 per cent share in gas distribution.
In Madrid, Iberdrola shares closed 18 cents lower at €14.25, while Gas Natural added 18 cents to close at €17.3
Text 11 . “Tough test for voluntary compensation system”.
By Kate Burgess
Published: May 2 2003 14:19 | Last Updated: May 2 2003 14:19
The concept of voluntary compensation is being tested to its limits by the split capital investment trust debacle, in which thousands of investors have lost millions of pounds.
Attempts to adjudicate by the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) are for the first time facing a serious challenge from companies reluctant to accept its system of voluntary mediation.
The system has been tested before. A year ago, the FOS ran into a fierce row with leading mortgage lenders over decisions on dual lending rates. The splits debacle is proving a greater trial. Many splits fund managers and providers "are adopting a fully defensive stance," the FOS said in a memo sent to MPs jointly with the Financial Services Authority, the regulator.
The FOS is investigating about 3,000 complaints from investors who put their money into split capital investment trust vehicles, and expects to face a further 3,000 next year. That is about half the number of complaints about mortgage endowments, and fewer than the number the FOS expects about precipice bonds. "But splits firms involved are not conceding on any point," the FOS says. "Endowment mortgages and precipice bonds are more straightforward, and companies are being more co-operative."
Insiders at the FSA and FOS say they have never seen so much defensiveness before and that it is holding up the system.
The FOS timetable for resolving complaints has gone out of the window, and investors should not expect a resolution to complaints for some months. Its record, based on resolving three-quarters of cases in six months, has suffered a severe setback. "We can't cut short the process," the FOS says. "It is a big issue and so much stands on it. We have to get it right. Companies are bringing in new points all the time. If we don't consider them properly it could open us up to judicial review."
The splits sector is adamant that it has co-operated fully with the ombudsman and the regulator. Aberdeen Asset Management - the largest managers of split trusts - says there is no question of obstructing the mediation service.
"Aberdeen has gone out of its way to help the regulator, providing data and resources," says a senior official. "We've taken a lead in being proactive. Not all fund managers have been as open and proactive as we have."
Exeter Investment Management, which is the subject of about 100 complaints to the ombudsman from investors, says: "Exeter has been fully supportive and co-operative in meeting all requests from the FOS." Gartmore, which is the subject of about 60 cases, says: "We are co-operating fully and deny that we are being obstructive." This is echoed by Framlington and BFS.
Nonetheless, there have been signs, even in public, that companies will use the legal system to block FOS judgments if they can. Aberdeen, for example, made clear in its annual report in January that it would defend itself vigorously against claims for compensation. "The company is in correspondence with the FOS, which has recently indicated its areas of concern in relation to Progressive Growth [a unit trust that invested purely in split shares and was sold widely as a low-risk investment]," the annual report said.
"Although the FOS has not provided details of individual complaints that have been referred to it, the company's legal advice is that there are good grounds for arguing that any complaints should not be upheld."
That some companies are fighting all the way is not entirely surprising. Many providers pinned their fortunes on splits in the late 1990s and their futures are at stake. If the FOS establishes a lead case - an extremely complex process that would set a precedent for hundreds of similar cases, says the FOS - and then finds against a provider, it could cost companies and shareholders millions of pounds.
The FOS has been the subject of a handful of judicial reviews - through which companies can appeal against an adjudication largely arguing that the way in which the decision reached was flawed. So far, it has successfully defended itself in all these cases.
But the FSA is feeling the pressure. "This is the first sense that firms are willing to take the regulator to a judicial review," says an insider.
This week the FSA, which is investigating allegations of mis-selling, market abuse, market manipulation and regulatory breaches in the sector alongside the FOS, blocked hopes of fast-track redress for consumers. It reiterated the need to investigate "allegations rigorously and fairly". Anything less, it said, would put at risk the effectiveness and the success of what has become the FSA's biggest project.
The delays are bad news for investors in splits - investment trust companies with two or more classes of shares. Many were sold on the basis they were safe and tax-efficient savings vehicles. Others were sold as high-income products and thousands of investors bought them on a regular savings basis or put them into individual savings accounts (Isas).
But there are concerns that the challenge to the FOS could develop into a broader threat to the voluntary compensation system. It regards co-operation as a cornerstone of the regulatory regime, and has often pointed out that it has cut fines on companies that have co-operated fully when under enforcement proceedings.
"It is important that the industry co-operates fully with both organisations [FSA and FOS] so that consumers get prompt redress where it is due and the sector begins to rebuild its reputation," the FSA told the Commons Treasury Committee during its inquiry into splits.
In February John Tiner, FSA managing director, urged splits managers and the directors of split investment trust boards to face up to their liabilities and not to blame the collapse of trusts in the sector on market conditions rather than the weak structure of the trusts.
This week, Tiner fired a further warning shot across the bows of financial services firms that do not comply with FOS rulings. It withdrew authorisation from two firms that failed to pay out awards set by the ombudsman.
However, the FSA cannot compel firms to pay redress. In the last resort investors may have to take firms to court - even though that is contrary to the spirit of the mediation service.
The worry is that companies taking a stand against the regulators are acting not just against the interests of splits investors, but also against those of the industry and ultimately of all consumers.
Text 12 . “Slide in Isa sales begins to look unstoppable”.
By Kate Burgess
Published: May 2 2003 16:57 | Last Updated: May 2 2003 16:57
Rotten sales of individual savings accounts (Isas) plus investor apathy could be the last straw for some struggling financial advisers, industry experts say.
Private investors have shunned stock markets for the third year running, making this year's Isa season the worst on record, according to the Investment Management Association (IMA). The season lasts from January to the end of the tax year early in April.
It is feared that some struggling IFAs, who have so far been supported by product providers, will find it hard to survive in the current climate. Sales of Isa funds to private investors, net of withdrawals, have fallen sharply in the past three Isa seasons in the final weeks to the end of the tax year in April. This year's tally was 30 per cent below last year's, which was 50 per cent down on the 2001 total.
Volumes in March this year were half the level reached in March 2002 in spite of a last-minute surge when sales doubled from February.
"Investors said there was no point in having a tax shelter if there is no tax to pay," says Peter Hargreaves, chief executive of Hargreaves Lansdown, the execution-only intermediary. "Persuading investors to put money into Isas was like getting blood out of a stone. Some execution-only brokers' Isa business is 20 per cent of what it was last year".
Intermediaries and independent financial advisers have fared worst this season. Their Isa sales fell 66 per cent to £183m in this year's season compared with £549m in last year's.
John Spiers, chairman of advice firm Bestinvest, says: "I don't think Isa levels will ever recover to the levels we saw two years ago. Volumes have been hit by poor stock markets. The next nail in the coffin will be [when the government ends] the tax credit on Isas next year."
It is one more blow for IFAs, who have been hit by poor stock markets on top of a barrage of financial services scandals.
Worst hit by the downturn in Isas are the intermediaries who do not give advice but sell funds via direct mailshots and through newspapers. Sales of Isas direct to the public without advice have fallen from £264m during 2002's Isa season to just £57m.
Gareth Marr, managing director of IFAs Advisory and Brokerage Services, said: "Isa sales at some IFAs, particularly non-advisory intermediaries, have been totally wiped out."
Investors, says the industry, are not buying funds to put in an Isa unless they are given a sales pitch. This is creating immense difficulties for advisers who have not built up an advice-based relationship with clients that will keep them loyal through the bad times, say observers.
Many investors are turning back to the security of big, familiar high-street brands. This has bolstered sales of corporate bond funds, most of which have been sold through tied agents and the sales forces of big banks and product providers.
"In part corporate bonds are an easy sell," says Marr, echoing many in the industry. Fixed-income funds have performed well, and tied agents, who are largely paid by commission, are comfortable selling them.
But it also a reflection of investors turning to safe high-street brands, many of which have tied sales forces, says Simon Pistell, UK retail investments director at Legal & General, the insurer. "There has a been a shift among investors to well known big brands in products and distribution where people feel comfortable and have some certainty".
Fidelity, one of the biggest sellers of funds direct to consumers with around 50 per cent of market share, says it has held on to long-term customers and claims its market share has more than doubled in the last year.
The picture is not so pretty for smaller execution-only brokers, which have built their businesses by refunding commissions to investors and persuading product providers to support their marketing costs.
"Product providers won't stump up the costs of marketing their products that way; response rates don't justify the marketing expense," says Phil Wagstaff, UK retail managing director of M&G, the fund management group. This form of distribution is very low margin and depends on high volumes which just aren't there any more.
Some non-advisory firms are restructuring and moving towards offering an advisory service. "It is more earnings-resilient," says Ivan Schouker, chief executive of American Express financial services europe.
Other IFAs are pinning their hopes that product providers - namely the big high-street banks and insurers - will take advantage of the relaxation of old rules that have prevented them from buying up distribution through IFAs.
Many have taken heart from Bradford and Bingley, which this week bought Holden Meehan, a IFA specialising in ethical investment. However, insurance companies and fund managers have also been hit by the downturn in the markets and Isa sales.
The industry is going through massive change in investor behaviour, the structure of equity markets, and in regulation, says Mark Bogard, managing director of advisers Chase de Vere. Bogard argues that these changes will have a material impact on product providers and how they manage their cost bases and staffing levels. "We haven't really seen the full fallout yet".
Meanwhile, there are more than enough IFAs. This week Misys confirmed plans to float or sell its 7,000 strong chain of IFAs, the largest in the UK, next year.
"The financial services industry is a land of giant providers and Lilliputian IFAs," says Bogard. "IFAs won't be saved by giants - most are just too little."
Text 13 . “Life assurers accused of lowering standards”.
By Pauline Skypala
Published: May 2 2003 17:08 | Last Updated: May 2 2003 17:08
"Make a customer happy and she will tell two friends. Make her angry and she will tell everyone she knows."
The truth of this saying is clearly demonstrated by the saga of Archana Shah's run-in with Standard Life, detailed here. Speaking to both parties reveals the yawning gap between Shah's expectations of the service to which she is entitled and Standard Life's definition of a reasonable response.
Customer service is the bugbear of many a UK company, but financial services firms are generally perceived as being among the least customer-focused, with life companies often singled out as the worst offenders. And a straw poll of independent advisers suggests things are getting worse rather than better.
"Service from most life companies has deteriorated rapidly over the last 12 to 18 months," says Patrick Connolly of fee-based adviser Chartwell Investment Management.
He says Prudential in particular has gone downhill, and names Axa, Legal & General and Norwich Union as other big life companies that are poor on service. Abbey Life (now part of Lloyds TSB) is "really shocking". On the plus side, Clerical Medical, Scottish Equitable and Standard Life get the thumbs up.
Connolly suggests that companies are feeling the pinch because of the poor sales environment and having to make cuts, mainly of people. That inevitably has a knock-on effect on the service they provide to both financial advisers and policyholders.
He says it is mainly after-sales service that has been affected. "New business processing has not been affected to anything like the same degree."
That fits with the general perception among advisers that life companies have always concentrated resources on sales and marketing to gain new business at the expense of providing a decent after-sales service. As long as enough new business is coming in, retaining customers is not a priority.
In the bad old days of huge upfront charges on policies, companies made most of their money from getting new policies on the books. Having paid such high charges, policyholders effectively became captive customers as the cost of leaving early made it an unattractive option.
Some people left anyway or simply stopped paying in, as the persistency figures collected by the Financial Services Authority show. The most recent survey, published in December last year, reveals that on average a quarter of endowments bought via company representatives and a fifth bought via IFAs had lapsed after four years. The figures for personal pensions were higher at 43 per cent and 40 per cent respectively.
That is a lot of policies to lose.
With the trend towards more transparent and lower cost products now firmly established, companies can no longer afford to see business walk away so soon.
It will typically take 10 to 12 years for a stakeholder pension to break even, as the only charge companies can levy is an annual one of up to 1 per cent. They cannot charge exit penalties either, so dissatisfied customers may well decide to move their money.
Some IFAs blame the arrival of stakeholder pensions for the decline in service levels and see little hope for improvement in that environment. Adrian Owen of Park Row Associates says: "Service is sadly diminishing related to the fact that companies are looking at a 1 per cent world where they don't have the margin to employ the necessary staff."
But Graham Duckett of Millfield Partnership, an advisory firm, believes companies will have to bite this bullet "Providers are focusing on increasing market share for stakeholder pensions, which means having to offer improved levels of service to retain their customers."
He says a few insurance companies have cottoned on to this concept, either by technology offerings direct to clients or by enhancing service to IFAs - or both. "But many still retain their previous philosophies that are unlikely to succeed in the modern world."
Making better use of technology is considered a key factor in moving forward on the customer service front. "Life companies haven't been able to embrace e-commerce to the same degree as the banking or general insurance sector," says Patrick Gale, chief executive of Misys Life & Pensions.
"They have invested in the systems, but have not been very creative. Instead of looking at e-commerce as a way of changing the consumer experience they have just made the paper process electronic. One or two providers are beginning to think this through, but there is still a long way to go on the technology front."
Advisers say that with service going downhill it is becoming an increasingly core consideration when it comes to recommending products. Janine Menasakanian of advisory firm Inter-Alliance says: "We are going to be weighting service more heavily as a criterion for choosing a company. Poor service makes us look inefficient and if it leads to us losing clients we will take a dim view."
This happened recently, she says, when Prudential changed its prices and terms for critical illness cover for people who had applied, but not yet received their policy.
Connolly from Chartwell also says service has become far more important over the last 12 months and where products have fairly equal merits the service factor is a deciding one.
So what have life companies got to say for themselves? John Pollock, UK operations director for Legal & General, believes his company is trying hard. He says L&G is a market leader in e-commerce and in providing facilities to IFAs to put them in control of the sales process. "We have fully e-enabled our new business process for protection products and have also invested heavily in improving our underwriting capability."
Policyholders should also notice a better service, he hopes. "Over the last 18 months we have been improving how we react to customers and provide services."
But he acknowledges that there is always more to do. "Customer service is a journey and you cannot ever rest on your laurels. We, like others in the industry, have still got some way to go
Литература.
А.А. Вейзе «Чтение, реферирование и аннотирование иностранного текста» М., «Высшая школа», 1985.
http://news.ft.con
mailto:webmaster@ff.phys.spbu.ru mailto:novolod@paloma.spbu.ru
Содержание.