The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, which formulates global standards for banking, surprised markets by relaxing new rules on liquidity. The committee made it easier for banks to meet its "liquidity coverage ratio" and also gave them an extra four years - until 2019 - to comply with the rules. The share prices of European banks rose. See article Legacy costs It was another expensive week for America's big banks in legal settlements. Bank of America resolved its dispute with Fannie Mae, a government-backed mortgage company, by forking out $11.6 billion for liabilities on toxic loans. And BofA joined Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and seven other banks in agreeing to an $8.5 billion settlement with regulators over improper procedures when processing home foreclosures. Five banks reached a $25 billion settlement with state attorneys-general last year. Ireland conducted a successful auction of sovereign debt, selling €2.5 billion ($3.3 billion) of a five-year issue, having received orders of more than €7 billion. Irish officials said this bolsters their case that Ireland's dealings with the markets are becoming "normalised," as it seeks help from the European Union in reducing the debt burden it incurred when it rescued its banks. HSBC's proposed sale of its stake in Ping An, a Chinese insurance company, to Thailand's CP Group for $9.4 billion seemed to be in trouble, as reports surfaced that regulators in China reviewing the deal are unhappy with the funding arrangements. Google scored a victory over critics who accuse it of abusing its dominant position in online search when America's Federal Trade Commission said it had found no evidence that competition was being stifled. Microsoft in particular had chided Google for promoting its own services in search results. Google did agree to loosen licences on the stash of patents it holds. It now awaits the findings of a European antitrust investigation, which may not be so favourable. Samsung forecast that it would chalk up another huge quarterly operating profit, of $8.1 billion in the last three months of 2012, as its Android-based smartphones and tablets flew off the shelves. The South Korean company is launching its first device to run on Microsoft Windows 8 in America this month. Meanwhile, HTC saw quarterly profit fall to its lowest since 2006. The Taiwanese smartphone-maker's share of the global market declined to around 4% in 2012, compared with 10% in 2011. Transocean, the drilling contractor on the BP rig at the centre of the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, reached a guilty-plea agreement with the Department of Justice in which it was fined $1 billion to settle civil charges brought under the Clean Water Act and $400m in criminal penalties. Further claims relating to the disaster remain unresolved against BP, Transocean and others. A trial is set to begin next month in New Orleans. Striving for independence Net imports of oil to America are set to fall to 6m barrels a day next year, the lowest level since 1987, according to the Energy Information Administration. This is because domestic fuel production, helped by hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is booming while consumption is declining. Anglo American appointed Mark Cutifani as its new chief executive, replacing Cynthia Carroll. The global mining giant has been beset by troubles that have chipped away at its share price. Mr Cutifani has long experience in South Africa, the heart of Anglo's operations: he is the boss of AngloGold Ashanti, a gold miner. South Africa is becoming a tougher place for miners. Iron ore prices hit a 15-month high, after their spectacular rally during the last three months of 2012. Prices have climbed rapidly because of a manufacturing pickup in China; its imports and exports grew sharply in December. Let me tell you how it will be MMX, an iron-ore mining company owned by Eike Batista, one of Latin America's richest men, became the latest big Brazilian firm to receive a whopping demand for back taxes. Mr Batista said the claim for $1.8 billion, or four times MMX's sales, was "baseless." Brazil's tax agencies have recently requested more than $3 billion in unpaid taxes from companies, adding to firms" frustration with the country's labyrinthine tax code. Contentious government tax claims were also to the fore in India, another once-hot BRIC economy that has cooled, when Vodafone received a "reminder" from the tax authorities to pay $2 billion in retroactive taxes. The mobile-phone company had hoped the matter had been laid to rest when the Supreme Court ruled in its favour last year.