http://bit.ly/oXCTfw European Business Masters Cup

The European Business Masters Cup is an international simulation competition organised by Stuttgart Media university, one round was held at Birmingham City University's City North campus on 16th-17th June 2010.

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Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and HSBC have been accused of bullying staff and surveyors into inflating valuations of U.S. homes, the mortgages for which were then sold on to federal lenders.Small print in the lawsuit being brought against banks in America by the Federal Housing Finance Agency - the regulator of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - alleges that the British banks made false statements to clients in order to increase values of homes.Specific allegations include that RBS paid bonuses to executives to complete deals quickly, often at the expense of due diligence. Sometimes the 'owner occupancy data was materially false', the lawsuit claims, with loans sold on to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac when borrowers did not live at the property, making default more likely.

Legal action: The Federal Housing Finance Agency claims the banks misrepresented the quality of billions of dollars of home loans sold to America's state-backed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie MacThe lawsuit also alleges that RBS broke its own lending rules to write new loans. FHMA lawyers said there were cases of borrowers being assessed on their ability to repay loans at a discounted intitial two-year rate, and not beyond.The FHFA claims the banks misrepresented the quality of billions of dollars of home loans sold to America’s state-backed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.The value of the investments plummeted when property prices collapsed and borrower s defaulted on their loans. RBS sold £18.5billion of mortgage-related assets, HSBC £3.8billion and Barclays £3billion.The amount of damages being sought is unknown but the FHFA is looking for £555million from UBS after it sold £2.8billion of mortgage-backed investments.If that rate is repeated, RBS would face a claim of £3.7billion while HSBC would be on the hook for around £750million and Barclays £600million.That would be a major blow to RBS and could wipe out a large chunk of profits. It could also further delay the sale of the government’s shares in RBS.The taxpayer is already sitting on a loss of £23billion in the bank with shares worth less than half what the state paid for them.When the investment in Lloyds Banking Group is taken into account, the losses hit £34billion.Barclays was accused of trading fraudulent subprime mortgages that may have been issued against nonexistent houses. One address turned out to be a cornfield in Indiana.RBS said: ‘We believe we have substantial and credible legal and factual defences to these claims and will defend them vigorously.’ HSBC and Barclays did not comment.