London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) – The international banking regulator, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), urged over the weekend the Bank of England to raise the country’s record-low interest rates.

The regulator warned that financial stability of Britain is at risk unless the country’s central bank imposes tighter monetary policy.

Although the BIS, in its yearly report released on Sunday, made the same warning to central banks around the world, it singled out the Bank of England because Britain’s inflation rate had exceeded the BOE’s 2 percent target since December 2009.

The BIS pointed out that the United Kingdom’s consumer price index has reached 4.5 percent, while the country’s key lending rate continues to be at 0.5 percent since March 2009.

The BIS stressed that the BOE’s extremely accommodative policies threaten to embed high inflation in the system and damage prospects for long-term growth. It also places at risk financial stability because the very low rates encourage risk-taking in the financial sector.

The BIS said central banks must be prepared to hike key lending rates at a faster pace than previous monetary tightening episodes.

The BOE favors low rates because the recent rise in commodity prices was a one-time incident and there is enough slack in the economy to keep wage pressures down. But the BIS disagrees with the bank’s assumptions.

The BIS said there is still a threat of second-round effects because higher food prices could cause higher salaries in emerging markets, which in turn, could cause an increase if the global supply chain.

Despite inflation rate in England hitting 4.5 percent in April, and economists expectation of a key lending rate increase within the year, the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee has not yet indicated an interest rate hike is underway soon.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Bank of America (BAC Fortune 500) announced it is partnering with two other entities to develop solar energy from rooftop installations.

The project will ultimately produce about 733 megawatts of solar energy, which is enough energy to power 100,000 homes and represents about 50 percent of the energy output of a nuclear powered electric plant.

A federal loan guarantee through the Department of Energy will help to fund the $2.6 billion project. It will be the world’s largest single effort to install solar energy panels on rooftops. The panels will be installed on the rooftops of industrial buildings in several states. DOE will guarantee 80 percent of the $1.4 billion debt financing. The rest of the money will come from private loan and funding sources.

Other partners in the project include real estate owner Prologis (PLD) and utility NRG Energy (NRG, Fortune 500).

In a press release, Tom Doyle, president of NRG Solar, NRG’s solar subsidiary, put the project into perspective.

“NRG believes rooftop solar is a smart choice for industrial, commercial and residential property owners in markets around the country, and this program provides the commercial scale that will bring the benefits of solar power to customers across the country,” Doyle said. “This program will nearly double the amount of grid-connected solar online in the United States today and make another positive contribution to cleaner air and a healthy environment.”

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – More Americans continue to save in banks rather than borrow money from financial institutions. According to latest data from the Federal Reserve, savings in U.S. banks hit a record $1.45 trillion in May.

The growing savings has been observed since the global financial crisis in 2008.

A similar trend was observed in Japan, where the gap between savings and borrowing is at an all-time high.

Japanese banks use the money to purchase bonds to help keep yields the lowest in the world even if Tokyo has more outstanding debts than the U.S. and a lower credit rating.

Before 2008, U.S. deposits exceeded loans at an average of $100 billion.

Because of the worst recession experienced in the U.S. since the 1930s, consumers trimmed household debt to $13.3 trillion from the 2008 peak of $13.9 trillion. The reduction resulted in savings going up 4.9 percent of income from 1.7 percent in 2007.

For the same period, banks reduced lending amid over $2 trillion in losses and writedowns. Rather than grant more loans, American financial institutions instead bought Treasuries and government-related debt, which boosted their holding of such instruments to $1.68 trillion from $1.08 trillion in early 2008.

Economists forecast it would take the U.S. and Japanese economies at least a decade to extricate themselves from the mess of being a debt-ridden society.

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Amstelveen, Netherlands (AHN) – Dutch carrier KLM on Wednesday said it would begin using used cooking oil for some of its flights. The announcement comes less than two years after the airline flew the first biokerosene-fueled passenger flight in Europe.

Used cooking oil from factories and hotels will fuel KLM flights between Amsterdam and Paris beginning September. According to the airline, the fuel will meet the same technical specifications as those of conventional kerosene. No changes to engines or aircraft infrastructure will be required to use the new fuel.

Approval for the use of biofuel in aviation is expected soon in Europe. KLM, the world’s oldest airline operating under its original name, hopes the move will result in a positive recommendation from the Sustainability Board of the Netherlands.

KLM launched the first plane powered with biokerosene on the continent in November 2009 when it flew a select group of passengers with one engine running on 50 percent used cooking oil and 50 percent aviation kerosene.

Other carriers are similarly exploring the use of biofuels to improve sustainability and lower carbon emissions.

Continental, Japan Airlines and Virgin Atlantic are among those that have tried using fuel sustainably made from sources such as algae, coconut oil and jatropha.

Brazilian airline TAM partnered with Airbus last year to become the first to fly a biokerosene-fueled plane in Latin America.

KLM’s biokerosene is supplied by SkyNRG and made by Dynamic Fuels, a United States-based joint-venture of Tyson Foods and Syntroleum Corp.

Dynamic Fuels operates a plant in Louisiana that is recognized as the first U.S. industrial-scale production facility for biofuels. The company makes fuel from animal fats such as inedible porcine fat, vegetable cooking oil used in frying, fat from wash water in beef rendering and from factory cooking operations, and unrefined, inedible soybean oil produced from the refining process.

KLM, which merged with Air France in 2004 and has led among airlines in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, said many factors affect the level of sustainability of biofuels. It ensures the quality of its biokerosene with advise from the Sustainability Board, which includes the Dutch wing of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Copernicus Institute of the University of Utrecht.

The carrier made clear its support for the WWF’s Energy Report, which says alternative fuels made from biomass are the only appropriate replacement for fossil fuels for sectors such as the airline industry.

“The route to 100 percent sustainable energy is enormously challenging,” managing director Camiel Eurlings said in a statement. “The costs of biofuels need to come down substantially and permanently. This can be achieved through innovation, collaboration and the right legislation that stimulates biofuel in the airline industry, but with an eye on honest competition. We really need to move forward together to attain continuous access to sustainable fuel.”

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The International Monetary Fund will interview Mexican Central Bank Governor Agustin Carstens ahead of French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde in the fund’s search for a new managing director.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission is proposing tighter rules on the audit of brokerage firms to make it harder for these companies to engage in fraudulent practices similar to Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said on Wednesday.

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Some parts of Europe are experiencing a drought that is particularly severe in certain areas of England, France and Germany.

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WASHINGTON (UPDATED: 2:40 p.m. ET, 6/8/11)-CUNA President/CEO Bill Cheney said that the Senate’s failure to delay implementing the Federal Reserve’s interchange debit fee cap will “create a train wreck that will affect every consumer with a debit card.”

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Beijing, China (AHN) – China has agreed to end subsidies of its wind power manufacturers that use domestic parts instead of imports, which violate World Trade Organization (WTO) rules and give Chinese firms an unfair advantage over U.S. manufacturers.

A complaint to the WTO filed by the United Steelworkers prompted China’s move, according to U.S. .Trade Representative Ron Kirk.

The end of subsidies by China’s government provides a more level playing field for U.S. wind turbine manufacturers to compete with Chinese products.

Kirk also criticized China for evading its transparency commitments by failing to provide the WTO with information about its subsidy programs on a regular basis. He said that because China is the second largest WTO trader that it is not acceptable for China to evade providing the WTO with the information.

However, critics say that China’s renewable energy manufacturing sector has grown so large that it is now so powerful that ending the illegal subsidies that allowed it to grow so large will not help other nations much to compete against Chinese manufacturers in the world market.

China’s Special Fund for Wind Power Manufacturing illegally gave individual grants of up to $22.5 million to Chinese manufacturers who agreed to use Chinese-made parts in the manufacturing of wind turbines, according to a case filed last year by the United States at the WTO.

The U.S. filed the suit so U.S. manufacturers could have an opportunity to supply parts to Chinese manufacturers.

The issue is especially important now as the U.S. struggles to create more jobs and close the huge trade gap with China.

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Americans continue to pay down revolving debt balances after all, as pessimism may be curbing consumer credit growth

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