Financial

The bipartisan group of negotiators on the Senate Finance Committee — three Democrats and three Republicans – who have been working to fashion compromise legislation to overhaul the nation’s health care system has been invited to visit the White House on Thursday morning to meet with President Obama.

Mr. Obama reiterated his call for a compromise health care bill during a lunch with Democratic senators on Tuesday. And the Finance Committee group has continued to work this week even after lawmakers concluded that they could not complete a draft of the legislation before the summer recess begins on Saturday.

The chairman of the Finance Committee, Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, who has been leading the effort, said that lawmakers were focused this week in part on sharpening their talking points in anticipation of a ferocious five weeks of debate as they engage constituents outside of Washington.

But the group of six senators, which includes Democrats Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico and Kent Conrad of North Dakota as well as Republicans Michael B. Enzi of Wyoming, Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, and Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, has continued this week to slog its way through complex sections of the bill.

After a meeting on Wednesday morning, Mr. Conrad and Mr. Baucus said the group had spent its time focusing on the potential costs of a proposed expansion of Medicaid, the government insurance program for the poor, and the likely reaction of governors whose states pay a portion of Medicaid expenses.

The lawmakers said they had also spent time focusing on a proposal to create an independent panel, within the executive branch, to limit future Medicare spending. The new panel is viewed as a potentially important mechanism to hold down future government spending on Medicare, which has soared in recent years.

Mr. Obama has repeatedly praised the three Republican negotiators on the Finance Committee for their willingness to work with Democrats. And the president has met with members of the group, individually and as part of larger gatherings. But Mr. Obama has never met with the team of six negotiators all together.

By doing so on Thursday, Mr. Obama will reinforce the message out of the White House in recent days that he strongly supports the idea of a compromise bill that might win the backing of some Republicans.

The health legislation proposed so far, by the Senate health committee and by three House committees, has been vigorously opposed by Republicans. The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, has long said that the only chance of a bipartisan deal lies in the Finance Committee.

Mr. Baucus, the chairman, and Mr. Grassley, the senior Republican on the panel, have a long history of working together.

In expressing support for a deal, Mr. Obama has warned that Democrats may eventually need to press ahead without Republican support if it appears that the opposition party is simply stalling in an effort to block the overhaul.

Originally, the president had asserted that each chamber of Congress pass a version of the health care legislation before the summer recess. Neither the House nor the Senate was able to do so. And while the House committees have approved the bill for debate and votes on the House floor in September, the Senate negotiators have repeatedly said they need more time.

Mr. Baucus and the president have discussed a mid-September deadline for deciding whether Democrats will press ahead on their own.

Mr. Grassley in an interview late Tuesday said such deadlines are not helpful.

“One of the things that makes it very difficult for us are these artificial deadlines,” Mr. Grassley said. “You know, first of all it was June 22, then it was August the 7th, now it’s September 15th and I am not finding fault with deadlines but you know we got to do it right and we ought to seek to do it right and that’s going to take time.”

Mr. Grassley said that even as the rhetoric seems to be heating up away from Washington, the discussions among the six senators continue to plod along and he said it was the outcome of those talks that would determine if a bill can get done.

“I think it depends on what Senator Baucus and the six of us can put together,” he said. “There’s no rhetoric in our meetings. It’s all discussion, we’re asking questions, we’re getting questions answered, we’re asking what the alternatives are, we’re asking for more study. You have got to compare where the work is going on, and that’s in Senator Baucus’s office versus the political rhetoric.”

Mr. Grassley also warned that Democrats need to win over more Republicans than the three doing the negotiating. “I want to make clear as I made clear to the president as well as to Senator Baucus,” he said. “Chuck Grassley and two other Republicans and 58 Democrats is not a bipartisan bill.”

The chief executive of the Nordic region's largest bank said lenders have yet to reach the pinnacle of their bad-debt problems as the worst recession in modern times will filter deeper into banks' books in coming quarters.

"The risk for somewhat higher loan losses has increased," Christian Clausen, CEO of Nordea Bank AB (NDA.SK), told Dow Jones Newswires, refering to both Nordea and the sector in general.

Clausen said banks should expect higher losses as the "worst recession in modern times" will trigger further bankruptcies and layoffs in coming years. Aside from its 3% of total lending exposure to the frail Baltic economies, Nordea is scrutinizing some hard-hit sectors in particular, including shipping, private equity and commercial real estate, which in total account for about 14% of its total lending.

Impaired loans in those areas have steadily inched higher, albeit from low levels, and Nordea has seized assets as well as launched restructuring plans for some troubled customers. In the second quarter, it "satisfactorily" completed more than 10 restructuring cases in private equity alone, and Clausen said he expects the rate of company restructuring to increase.

"Companies' restructuring and adapting to the new environment isn't going to go away," he said. "Of course, it depends on economic developments. We're seeing some positive signs now in the economy and if that accelerates maybe the recovery will come earlier. But right now I think we'll be well into 2010 before we see a real firm recovery."

Nordea earlier Tuesday reported an 11% drop year-on-year drop in attributable net profit to EUR616 million and said loan losses and provisions rose for the sixth consecutive quarter to EUR425 million, about 10% of which were actual write-offs. The net profit drop wasn't as bad as some analysts had forecast, however.

Clausen said loan losses and provisions could continue to rise before tapering off, although he added that he doesn't expect hugely higher losses than currently. The bank lifted its loan-loss ratio forecast for the full year to somewhat higher than the annualized rate in the fourth quarter, which amounted to about 50 basis points of total lending. The loan-loss ratio was 57 basis points in the second-quarter and 55 basis points in the first-half.

Clausen blamed the global economic recession for the hardships, but said some rays of opportunities have emerged because of it.

The bank is ready to use its recently reinforced capital buffer - strengthened by a EUR2.5 billion rig

Iberia Lineas Aereas de Espana SA (IBLA.MC), Spain's largest airline, said Tuesday its passenger load factor was 83% in June, up from 81.1% a year earlier.

Load factor, a measure of occupancy used in the airline industry, is the percentage of all seats offered which are occupied on flights.

MAIN FACTS:

- Iberia said load factor in the month rose as the company lowered capacity to confront a weak economy at home and abroad, which resulted in a drop in demand of more than 5%.

- Long haul flights registered a 0.4 percentage point increase in passenger load factor to 85.7%.