A Conservative government minister revealed the probe on Saturday after a report from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC story said Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) was planning to eliminate about 50 employees in its investor services division in Toronto and have the work done by outsourcing company iGate Corp (IGTE.O: Quote, Profile, Research).

RBC said on Sunday it had not directly hired temporary foreign workers to take over the work of its current employees.

But Zabeen Hirji, the bank’s chief human resources officer, said RBC looked to suppliers like iGate to ensure it complies with existing Canadian laws. She said she was not sure of the exact visa status of iGate’s employees working at the Canadian offices of the bank.

“We ask them to undertake that they follow all the rules and regulations for everything including employment … at the end of the day iGate has to answer that question,” she told Reuters in a telephone interview, adding that the bank was seeking further information from iGate about the status of the workers.

The U.S.-incorporated outsourcing company did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

Canada’s Conservative government has already said it will review a temporary foreign worker programme that lets employers fill jobs with non-Canadians when qualified citizens or permanent residents are not available because of skills and labour shortages.

Labour groups say employers are not doing enough to find Canadians to fill those jobs.

In a statement after the CBC report, Human Resources Minister Diane Finley said late on Saturday that Canadians must always be the first in line for hiring opportunities.

The programme “was never intended as a means to bring in temporary foreign workers in order to replace already-employed Canadian workers. This is why we have launched a review of the program,” she said in a statement.

The government minister said she instructed staff to work with citizenship and immigration officials “to determine the next steps” in the RBC and iGate situation.

RBC’s Hirji said about 45 workers were affected by the outsourcing plan. She said so far about 20 of those were set to find other jobs in the bank or had accepted retirement packages. She added the hope is a majority will find work somewhere within RBC.

Canada’s banking industry is dominated by a half dozen major lenders, which emerged largely unscathed from the global financial crisis and have repeatedly been ranked among the world’s most stable.

(Editing by Doina Chiacu)

A Conservative government minister revealed the probe on Saturday after a report from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC story said Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) was planning to eliminate about 50 employees in its investor services division in Toronto and have the work done by outsourcing company iGate Corp (IGTE.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

RBC said on Sunday it had not directly hired temporary foreign workers to take over the work of its current employees.

But Zabeen Hirji, the bank’s chief human resources officer, said RBC looked to suppliers like iGate to ensure it complies with existing Canadian laws. She said she was not sure of the exact visa status of iGate’s employees working at the Canadian offices of the bank.

“We ask them to undertake that they follow all the rules and regulations for everything including employment … at the end of the day iGate has to answer that question,” she told Reuters in a telephone interview, adding that the bank was seeking further information from iGate about the status of the workers.

The U.S.-incorporated outsourcing company, which has most of its operations in India, did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

Canada’s Conservative government has already said it will review a temporary foreign worker program that lets employers fill jobs with non-Canadians when qualified citizens or permanent residents are not available because of skills and labor shortages.

Labor groups say employers are not doing enough to find Canadians to fill those jobs.

In a statement after the CBC report, Human Resources Minister Diane Finley said late on Saturday that Canadians must always be the first in line for hiring opportunities.

The program “was never intended as a means to bring in temporary foreign workers in order to replace already-employed Canadian workers. This is why we have launched a review of the program,” she said in a statement.

The government minister said she instructed staff to work with citizenship and immigration officials “to determine the next steps” in the RBC and iGate situation.

RBC’s Hirji said about 45 workers were affected by the outsourcing plan. She said so far about 20 of those were set to find other jobs in the bank or had accepted retirement packages. She added the hope is a majority will find work somewhere within RBC.

Canada’s banking industry is dominated by a half dozen major lenders, which emerged largely unscathed from the global financial crisis and have repeatedly been ranked among the world’s most stable.

(Editing by Doina Chiacu)

A weekend report from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
said RBC was planning to eliminate about 50 employees in its
investor services division in Toronto and have the work done by
outsourcing company iGate Corp.

But Royal Bank of Canada on Sunday denied that it
had hired temporary foreign workers to take over the work of its
current employees and said it requires the outsourcing firm it
is using to comply with local laws.

Canada’s Conservative government has already said it will
review a temporary foreign worker program that lets employers
fill jobs with non-Canadians when qualified citizens or
permanent residents are not available because of skills and
labor shortages.

Labor groups say employers are not doing enough to find
Canadians to fill those jobs.

In a statement that followed the CBC report, Human Resources
Minister Diane Finley said late on Saturday that Canadians must
always be the first in line for hiring opportunities.

The program “was never intended as a means to bring in
temporary foreign workers in order to replace already-employed
Canadian workers. This is why we have launched a review of the
program,” she said in a statement.

The government minister said she instructed staff to work
with citizenship and immigration officials “to determine the
next steps” in the RBC situation.

The U.S.-incorporated outsourcing company, which has most of
its operations in India, did not immediately respond to an
e-mail seeking comment.

The CBC report quoted an RBC spokeswoman as saying several
foreign workers from iGate would be working in the bank’s
Toronto offices until 2015, by which point most of the work will
be transferred abroad.

In a statement, Royal Bank’s Chief Procurement Officer Greg
Grice did not confirm those specifics.

“RBC agreements with suppliers, including in this case
iGate, requires them to ensure that they are abiding by the
applicable laws and regulations,” he said.

The bank also said it was working to find suitable new jobs
for workers affected its use of iGate.

Last month, the government included rule changes to the
foreign worker program in the federal budget designed to ensure
Canadians are not overlooked for these jobs.

Canada’s banking industry is dominated by a half dozen major
lenders, which emerged largely unscathed from the global
financial crisis and have repeatedly been ranked among the
world’s most stable.

Such a policy would carry “only minimal inflation risks,” Charles Evans, president of the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank, said in remarks prepared for delivery to the C.D. Howe Institute in Toronto.

Rates could stay low providing the inflation outlook for the next two to three years remains below 2.5 percent, he said.

The proposal represents an important shift for Evans, who for the past year has called for low rates until the jobless rate falls to 7 percent, as long as inflation does not threaten to breach 3 percent.

On Tuesday Evans said he now views a 7 percent unemployment threshold as “too conservative.”

He also said he now believes that a 2.5 percent inflation safeguard is appropriate, given that a higher threshold “makes many people anxious,” and is not needed in order for the policy to work.

“We’re much more likely to reach the 6.5 percent unemployment threshold before inflation begins to approach even a modest number like 2.5 percent,” he said.

With the inflation outlook currently below the Fed’s 2 percent target, the U.S. central bank’s policymakers have been increasingly focused on ways to bring down the still-elevated unemployment rate, which registered 7.9 percent last month.

In September the Fed launched an open-ended asset-purchase program, kicking it off with a monthly $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities and promising to continue or ramp up the program unless the outlook for the labor market improves substantially.

Those purchases come on top of the $45 billion in long-term Treasuries the Fed is buying each month under Operation Twist, purchases that are funded with sales of a like amount of short-term Treasuries. Evans on Tuesday said he was among policymakers who want the Fed to step up its quantitative easing program to fill the gap after Twist expires in December.

“It’s important to maintain the overall level of asset purchases at $85 billion, at least for a time until we can see whether or not we are doing better or things are going more slowly, and we can adjust, depending on that assessment,” he told reporters.

“I think we have to have discussion about what is ‘substantial improvement.’ Have we seen it? In my opinion, we have not,” he told reporters.

He said he would judge the labor market as substantially improved once he sees monthly job gains of a least 200,000 for about six months, as well as above-trend growth in gross domestic product that would lead to declines in unemployment.

“I would be very surprised if we could achieve that before six months have passed, and I would not be surprised if it takes until the end of 2013,” he said.

In September, and again in October, the central bank said it would likely keep rates low until at least mid-2015, after the economy has strengthened. Keeping rates low for so long does not necessarily mean the Fed would tolerate higher inflation, Evans said.

Evans told reporters that he currently expects it to be 2015 before unemployment reaches 6.5 percent, and that he is “hard pressed” to see inflation much above 2.3 percent even with interest rates kept low until then.

The Fed’s 19 policymakers have been ramping up discussions on so-called thresholds – economic data points such as specific unemployment and inflation rates – that would signal when the central bank is likely to begin raising benchmark interest rates from near zero.

Evans on Tuesday said there was “vigorous” discussion on the issue at the Fed’s October meeting, and cited public support for the idea from Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota, Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren and the Fed’s influential vice chair, Janet Yellen.

Each policymaker wants slightly different thresholds. Rosengren has picked a jobless rate of 6.5 percent as his threshold, while Kocherlakota wants to keep rates low until unemployment reaches 5.5 percent, as long as inflation does not threaten to rise above 2.25 percent.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has called the thresholds “a very promising direction” for policy because they would help markets predict future Fed decisions. But it would be a challenge to summarize into “two or three numbers” the conditions necessary for the Fed to tighten policy, he cautioned.

(Writing by Ann Saphir; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Canadian central bank chief Mark Carney, named on Monday as the next governor of the Bank of England, gained a reputation on the global stage by challenging some of the world’s most powerful financial executives to make their banks less risky, even if it left them less profitable.

Carney’s approach to regulation has been “tough rules with some discretion, as opposed to tough rules with no discretion … or simply weak rules,” said Edwin Truman, Washington-based senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

As head of the Financial Stability Board, set up by the Group of 20 top economies to try to ensure there is no repeat of the global financial crisis, Carney has been a key player in leading the drive for new rules on banks.

Next year the Bank of England will take charge of British financial regulation as well as monetary policy, making Carney a key player in how the City of London is run.

Britain’s bankers will not have forgotten his clash last year with the head of JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Jamie Dimon referred to requirements that banks set aside more capital as a buffer against future crises as “cockamamie nonsense,” according to one of the attendees at the closed-door meeting.

Carney, who spent 13 years with Goldman Sachs Group Inc, reportedly told Dimon the rule changes are a “reasonable” response to the financial crisis before leaving the room visibly angry.

In the past year, Carney has not wavered from his stance on the need for the Basel III rules, which require banks to hold more capital. Just last month, he was quoted as saying the idea that global banking reforms should be watered down or delayed to protect a weak global economy is “fanciful.”

“He’s been clear the changes need to occur to assure that we don’t pay the kind of costs that we did during the sub-prime mortgage crisis,” said Derek Burleton, deputy chief economist with TD Bank Financial Group. “That’s the message that he’ll be delivering in London.

Carney may be less sympathetic to suggestions Britain’s banks be forced to fully separate their retail and investment banking operations, a move suggested by a senior regulator.

Canada’s six largest banks all have major investment banking arms. As Bank of Canada governor, Carney has not spoken out against this model for the industry.

Instead, Canadian policymakers have looked to regulation and supervision to prevent the blowups that led to taxpayer bailouts in other countries.

If the new Bank of England governor does feel British banks are falling short on any front, they can expect to hear about it in public. In Canada, Carney used his bully pulpit to warn about high household debt levels and the risks of the booming housing market.

He also courted controversy in August by accusing Canadian companies of sitting on piles of “dead money”, saying they should invest it or return it to shareholders. Large British companies are in a similar position of having cash to invest, but little appetite to do so at a time of high economic risks.

FLEXIBLE ON MONETARY POLICY

On the critical issue of monetary policy, Carney’s longer-term track record suggests he is more likely to be flexible than harbor an easing or tightening bias.

This year Carney has sounded hawkish. The Bank of Canada in April became the only Group of Seven central bank talking about raising interest rates.

It was also the first G7 central bank to tighten policy after the financial crisis, lifting its main policy rate three times in 2010.

But analysts noted Carney has generally been pragmatic on policy, deftly changing course when conditions merit.

Faced with fresh global economic headwinds, Carney last month scaled back the central bank’s tightening bias, saying a rate increase was “less imminent”. And the bank’s main policy rate has stayed frozen at 1 percent for more than two years.

“I don’t think it’s obvious at all that he has a hawkish bent. The fact that the BOC has a hawkish bias reflects more the underlying economic situation rather than a (view) that Mr. Carney has,” said Doug Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets.

Unlike the Bank of England, Carney decided against using quantitative easing – the buying of debt with newly created money. This was largely because Canada’s economy never weakened enough to warrant it. The BoE has racked up 375 billion pounds ($600 billion) of government bond purchases.

By contrast, under Carney the Bank of Canada pioneered using a commitment to long-term low interest rates as a policy tool, one that BoE has rejected using so far.

In 2009, the Bank of Canada offered a conditional commitment to hold rates at a record low 0.25 percent until the middle of the following year, a tactic that has since been picked up by U.S. Federal Reserve.

Carney may need such inventive measures given the struggles of Britain’s economy, which has had two recessions since the financial crisis.

Carney’s “strength going into this position is he will assess and be able to adapt appropriately, so not go in doctrinaire, being hawkish or dovish,” said William Horton, chief investment officer with Canadian fund manager MD Physician Services.

(Additonal reporting by Randall Palmer in Ottawa, David Milliken in London and Jonathan Spicer in New York; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Canadian central bank chief Mark Carney, named on Monday as the next governor of the Bank of England, gained a reputation on the global stage by challenging some of the world’s most powerful financial executives to make their banks less risky, even if it left them less profitable.

Carney’s approach to regulation has been “tough rules with some discretion, as opposed to tough rules with no discretion … or simply weak rules,” said Edwin Truman, Washington-based senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

As head of the Financial Stability Board, set up by the Group of 20 top economies to try to ensure there is no repeat of the global financial crisis, Carney has been a key player in leading the drive for new rules on banks.

Next year the Bank will take charge of British financial regulation as well as monetary policy, making Carney a key player in how the City of London is run.

Britain’s bankers will not have forgotten his clash last year with the head of JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Jamie Dimon referred to requirements that banks set aside more capital as a buffer against future crises as “cockamamie nonsense,” according to one of the attendees at the closed-door meeting.

Carney, who spent 13 years with Goldman Sachs Group Inc, reportedly told Dimon the rule changes are a “reasonable” response to the financial crisis before leaving the room visibly angry.

In the past year, Carney has not wavered from his stance on the need for the Basel III rules, which require banks to hold more capital. Just last month, he was quoted as saying the idea that global banking reforms should be watered down or delayed to protect a weak global economy is “fanciful.”

“He’s been clear the changes need to occur to assure that we don’t pay the kind of costs that we did during the sub-prime mortgage crisis,” said Derek Burleton, deputy chief economist with TD Bank Financial Group. “That’s the message that he’ll be delivering in London.

Carney may be less sympathetic to suggestions Britain’s banks be forced to fully separate their retail and investment banking operations, a move suggested by a senior regulator.

Canada’s six largest banks all have major investment banking arms. As Bank of Canada governor, Carney has not spoken out against this model for the industry.

Instead, Canadian policymakers have looked to regulation and supervision to prevent the blowups that led to taxpayer bailouts in other countries.

If the new Bank of England governor does feel British banks are falling short on any front, they can expect to hear about it in public. In Canada, Carney used his bully pulpit to warn about high household debt levels and the risks of the booming housing market.

He also courted controversy in August by accusing Canadian companies of sitting on piles of “dead money”, saying they should invest it or return it to shareholders. Large British companies are in a similar position of having cash to invest, but little appetite to do so at a time of high economic risks.

FLEXIBLE ON MONETARY POLICY

On the critical issue of monetary policy, Carney’s longer-term track record suggests he is more likely to be flexible than harbor an easing or tightening bias.

This year Carney has sounded hawkish. The Bank of Canada in April became the only Group of Seven central bank talking about raising interest rates.

It was also the first G7 central bank to tighten policy after the financial crisis, lifting its main policy rate three times in 2010.

But analysts noted Carney has generally been pragmatic on policy, deftly changing course when conditions merit.

Faced with fresh global economic headwinds, Carney last month scaled back the central bank’s tightening bias, saying a rate increase was “less imminent”. And the bank’s main policy rate has stayed frozen at 1 percent for more than two years.

“I don’t think it’s obvious at all that he has a hawkish bent. The fact that the BOC has a hawkish bias reflects more the underlying economic situation rather than a (view) that Mr. Carney has,” said Doug Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets.

Unlike the Bank of England, Carney decided against using quantitative easing – the buying of debt with newly created money. This was largely because Canada’s economy never weakened enough to warrant it. The Bank has racked up 375 billion pounds of government bond purchases.

By contrast, under Carney the Bank of Canada pioneered using a commitment to long-term low interest rates as a policy tool, one that Bank has rejected using so far.

In 2009, the Bank of Canada offered a conditional commitment to hold rates at a record low 0.25 percent until the middle of the following year, a tactic that has since been picked up by U.S. Federal Reserve.

Carney may need such inventive measures given the struggles of Britain’s economy, which has had two recessions since the financial crisis.

Carney’s “strength going into this position is he will assess and be able to adapt appropriately, so not go in doctrinaire, being hawkish or dovish,” said William Horton, chief investment officer with Canadian fund manager MD Physician Services.

(Additonal reporting by Randall Palmer in Ottawa, David Milliken in London and Jonathan Spicer in New York; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Canadian central bank chief Mark Carney, named on Monday as
the next governor of the Bank of England, gained
a reputation on the global stage by challenging some of the
world’s most powerful financial executives to make their banks
less risky, even if it left them less profitable.

Carney’s approach to regulation has been “tough rules with
some discretion, as opposed to tough rules with no discretion
… or simply weak rules,” said Edwin Truman, Washington-based
senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International
Economics.

As head of the Financial Stability Board, set up by the
Group of 20 top economies to try to ensure there is no repeat of
the global financial crisis, Carney has been a key player in
leading the drive for new rules on banks.

Next year the Bank of England will take charge of British
financial regulation as well as monetary policy, making Carney a
key player in how the City of London is run.

Britain’s bankers will not have forgotten his clash last
year with the head of JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Jamie Dimon referred to requirements that banks set aside
more capital as a buffer against future crises as “cockamamie
nonsense,” according to one of the attendees at the closed-door
meeting.

Carney, who spent 13 years with Goldman Sachs Group Inc
, reportedly told Dimon the rule changes are a
“reasonable” response to the financial crisis before leaving the
room visibly angry.

In the past year, Carney has not wavered from his stance on
the need for the Basel III rules, which require banks to hold
more capital. Just last month, he was quoted as saying the idea
that global banking reforms should be watered down or delayed to
protect a weak global economy is “fanciful.”

“He’s been clear the changes need to occur to assure that we
don’t pay the kind of costs that we did during the sub-prime
mortgage crisis,” said Derek Burleton, deputy chief economist
with TD Bank Financial Group. “That’s the message that he’ll be
delivering in London.

Carney may be less sympathetic to suggestions Britain’s
banks be forced to fully separate their retail and investment
banking operations, a move suggested by a senior regulator.

Canada’s six largest banks all have major investment banking
arms. As Bank of Canada governor, Carney has not spoken out
against this model for the industry.

Instead, Canadian policymakers have looked to regulation and
supervision to prevent the blowups that led to taxpayer bailouts
in other countries.

If the new Bank of England governor does feel British banks
are falling short on any front, they can expect to hear about it
in public. In Canada, Carney used his bully pulpit to warn about
high household debt levels and the risks of the booming housing
market.

He also courted controversy in August by accusing Canadian
companies of sitting on piles of “dead money”, saying they
should invest it or return it to shareholders. Large British
companies are in a similar position of having cash to invest,
but little appetite to do so at a time of high economic risks.

FLEXIBLE ON MONETARY POLICY

On the critical issue of monetary policy, Carney’s
longer-term track record suggests he is more likely to be
flexible than harbor an easing or tightening bias.

This year Carney has sounded hawkish. The Bank of Canada in
April became the only Group of Seven central bank talking about
raising interest rates.

It was also the first G7 central bank to tighten policy
after the financial crisis, lifting its main policy rate three
times in 2010.

But analysts noted Carney has generally been pragmatic on
policy, deftly changing course when conditions merit.

Faced with fresh global economic headwinds, Carney last
month scaled back the central bank’s tightening bias, saying a
rate increase was “less imminent”. And the bank’s main policy
rate has stayed frozen at 1 percent for more than two years.

“I don’t think it’s obvious at all that he has a hawkish
bent. The fact that the BOC has a hawkish bias reflects more the
underlying economic situation rather than a (view) that Mr.
Carney has,” said Doug Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO
Capital Markets.

Unlike the Bank of England, Carney decided against using
quantitative easing – the buying of debt with newly created
money. This was largely because Canada’s economy never weakened
enough to warrant it. The BoE has racked up 375 billion pounds
($600 billion) of government bond purchases.

By contrast, under Carney the Bank of Canada pioneered using
a commitment to long-term low interest rates as a policy tool,
one that BoE has rejected using so far.

In 2009, the Bank of Canada offered a conditional commitment
to hold rates at a record low 0.25 percent until the middle of
the following year, a tactic that has since been picked up by
U.S. Federal Reserve.

Carney may need such inventive measures given the struggles
of Britain’s economy, which has had two recessions since the
financial crisis.

Carney’s “strength going into this position is he will
assess and be able to adapt appropriately, so not go in
doctrinaire, being hawkish or dovish,” said William Horton,
chief investment officer with Canadian fund manager MD Physician
Services.

(Additonal reporting by Randall Palmer in Ottawa, David
Milliken in London and Jonathan Spicer in New York; Editing by
Mohammad Zargham)

(Reuters) – A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 7.7 hit Canada’s Pacific coast province of British Columbia late Saturday, setting off a small tsunami, but there were no immediate reports of damage, officials said.

The U.S. Geological Survey said an earthquake with a 7.7 magnitude hit the province, centered 123 miles south-southwest of Prince Rupert at a depth of 6.2 miles, the USGS said.

Earthquakes Canada said the quake in the Haida Gwaii region has been followed by numerous aftershocks as large as 4.6. It said a small tsunami has been recorded on a deep ocean pressure sensor.

“It was felt across much of north-central B.C., including Haida Gwaii, Prince Rupert, Quesnel, and Houston. There have been no reports of damage at this time,” the agency said in a statement on its website.

British Columbia’s emergency info center said a tsunami warning was in effect for the north coast and Haida Gwaii islands, as well as central coast communities like Bella Coola, Bella Bella and Shearwater.

Local media reported that residents in some coastal communities were moving to higher ground, include aboriginal residents in Haida Gwaii.

The quake was not felt in the larger cities of Victoria and Vancouver in the south, a resident in each city told Reuters.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center had said no destructive tsunami was expected from the quake but the West Coast-Alaska Tsunami Warning Center issued a warning for coastal sections of British Columbia and Alaska.

(With additional reporting by Will Dunham, Nicole Mordant and Jennifer Kwan; Editing by Bill Trott)

In a speech in Toronto, IMF Managing Director Christine
Lagarde urged world leaders to “do whatever it takes” to rebuild
the world’s financial system, which is still recovering from the
2007-2009 financial crisis and has been further weakened by the
euro zone debt crisis.

The global financial crisis prompted an overhaul of
regulation in almost every part of the financial system from
over-the-counter derivatives to bank capital requirements.

But Lagarde said the global financial system was still not
functioning well and there were powerful industry groups working
against the implementation of the new rules.

“There are many vested interests working against change and
push-back is intensifying,” Lagarde told the Canadian
International Council, according to prepared remarks.

“It is interesting how some banks say the new regulations
will be too burdensome, but then spend hundreds of millions of
dollars lobbying to kill them,” she added.

Lagarde said progress was needed for financial institutions
that are viewed as too big to fail and she called on regulators
to coordinate and align their rules.

“Most countries have committed to adopt some or all of the
new regulations, and some have moved further ahead with their
own national policies,” she said. “The challenge now is to
proceed to the end of the reform path all together.”

Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney said it was time to end
the too-big-to-fail problem, “so that the shareholders,
bondholders and management bear the consequences of the
financial system’s mistakes rather than the taxpayers.”

Carney was referring to a situation where a bank becomes so
big that it is too costly to let it fail, requiring a government
financial bailout.

Lagarde said later about 75 percent of needed financial
reforms had been agreed on by countries but not implemented. An
initial enthusiastic drive by regulators to strengthen the
financial system had now faded, she added.

“What is of most concern to me is the general fatigue” that
has set in, she said. “If you ask me how much has been done, I’d
say a good 75 percent of the reform work has actually been
prepared and done, and you are in this 25 percent last push.”

Lagarde welcomed recent calls by euro zone leaders to build
a new system of bank supervision led by the European Central
Bank, as a step toward a banking union where euro zone countries
would back problem lenders.

She said moving toward a banking union was a necessary step
for the troubled 17-nation currency bloc.

“We look forward to more details about the scope of this new
supervisor and to more news about direct bank recapitalization,”
Lagarde said.

The writer and director, however, also known for creating the cult TV hit “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” calls the legendary playwright a major influence, visible in much of his work from the banter of his superheroes to the structure of his stories.

Such is his admiration, that in the wake of delivering “The Avengers” – the biggest movie hit of 2012 – Whedon has adapted “Much Ado About Nothing,” a low-budget black-and-white labor of love devoted to the Bard that debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival.

“I find myself aping his rhythms and occasionally stealing his phrases, without even realizing it most of the time,” Whedon told Reuters in an interview on Monday.

“Shakespeare’s not afraid to go from high drama to low comedy in a heartbeat, and to ping-pong back and forth between them in a scene, which is something else that I took from him in my own work.”

FILMED IN DIRECTOR’S HOME

Shot over 12 days in Whedon’s own house in Santa Monica, California, during a break from his work on “The Avengers,” “Much Ado About Nothing” features performers from Whedon’s past television series including “Buffy,” “Angel” and “Firefly.”

The movie originated from readings of Shakespeare Whedon and spouse Kai Cole would host at their home while his TV shows were still in production.

But it was Cole, also a producer on the film, who encouraged Whedon to use his time off from “The Avengers” to do a smaller project shot in black and white on digital cameras.

“There was times when I was, like, ‘This is a terrible idea. I’ve gone mad,’ but it’s always been the way with me … apparently that’s what I do for fun,” he said.

“I have a condition called workaholism that is very deadly, and useful,” he added.

While the film sticks closely to the text of the play, the characters wear modern clothes, drive cars and talk on cell phones. Scenes are shot in a child’s bedroom and a swimming pool, lending the project a do-it-yourself quality.

“People who are (Shakespeare fans) are going to see a pretty specific and occasionally radical take on it. But I hope everybody will realize it comes from a great love of a great text,” said Whedon.

The movie’s sight gags generated laughter at its debut screening in Toronto. And an early review in Variety called it “an inspired example of Shakespeare-on-a-shoestring.”

“It really is the classic romantic comedy. It’s the romantic comedy off of which all modern romantic comedy is built. So there is an in for people. I do not expect it to make $1.5 billion dollars,” he said, referring to the worldwide box office of “The Avengers.”

‘AVENGERS’ SEQUEL IN WORKS

Whedon, 48, has agreed to write and direct an “Avengers” sequel for Walt Disney Co, expected to appear in May 2015. But the filmmaker said he could disclose few details about the highly anticipated movie.

“It’s still in the story stage. But I’ve been working on it pretty much from about an hour before I said, ‘Let’s make a deal.’ It just caught fire with me,” he said.

“We’re hard at work. We would like to be not as rushed as we were with the first one.”

The New York-born founder of his own production company, he might also direct the pilot for a TV series based on Marvel’s S.H.I.E.L.D. espionage agency.

Other projects at various stages of development include a sequel to Internet musical “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” and a web series called “Wastelanders” he is writing with comics author Warren Ellis.

“Basically I have too much to do, but I can work with too much. Too much is O.K.,” he said.

(Editing by Christine Kearney and M.D. Golan)