Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan, opening the inaugural ‘International Financial Services Summit’ today, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Dublin.

Both the European Central Bank and the Bank of England today kept their benchmark rates unchanged.

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee voted to expand its programme of asset purchases by £25 billion to £200 billion financed by the issuance of central bank reserves - -  the programme of quantitative easing designed to pump money into the economy by purchasing bonds, commonly known as"printing money."

The ECB took its first step toward removing emergency liquidity measures that have been in place since the onset of the credit crunch in August 2007.

The central banks said today that it won’t offer commercial banks 12-month loans next year.

“Not all our liquidity measures will be needed to the same extent as in the past,”as the economy recovers, ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said at a press conference in Frankfurt today.

Trichet said he would “say nothing to dispel this present sentiment.”

Central banks are starting the process of winding down some of the measures. The Bank of England said today it will slow the pace of bond purchases and the Federal Reserve on Wednesday outlined the conditions necessary for it to raise interest rates

European Central Bank keeps benchmark interest rate on hold at 1.0%; Bank of England retains its rate at 0.5%

Opening statementat ECB press conference.

AIB announces €750m 5 year Senior Unsecured Unguaranteed Bond Issue

AIB today closed a €750 million 5 year Senior Unsecured Unguaranteed Bond Issue. It said this is the first Senior Unsecured Unguaranteed Bond Issue with a 5 year maturity from any Irish bank since the Government Guarantee was introduced in September 2008.

This follows our successful €1.0 billion 3 year Senior Unsecured Unguaranteed Bond Issue completed in September 2009.

The bank said this 5 year deal was priced at a spread over mid-swaps of 285 basis points with in excess of 150 international investors reflecting a well diversified geographic profile and was oversubscribed by 1.8 times.

Insider trading charges

Bloomberg reports that US prosecutors charged 14 people, including a former employee at the offices of the Galleon Group hedge fund firm, as part of an investigation of an alleged $20 million insider trading scheme.

Craig Drimal, who according to court documents worked at the offices of Manhattan-based Galleon, was arrested today along with Zvi Goffer, Arthur Cutillo, Jason Goldfarb, Emanuel Goffer, David Plate and Michael Kimelman. Charges against the men include conspiracy and fraud, according to documents filed in New York federal court. Names of the other seven defendants weren’t immediately available.

US

US retail sales figures for October were below expectations, rising  by 1.8%.

GAP same-store sales rose 4%; Macy's and J.C. Penney were down 0.8% and 4.5%.

Initial weekly jobless benefit claims fell by 20,000 to 512,000 in the week ended Oct. 31st - - the lowest level since Jan. 3rd.

The four-week moving average of new claims dipped by 3,000 to 523,750 from the previous week's revised figure of 526,750.

In New York, the Dow is up 154 points or 1.58% to 9,957.

The Nasdaq is up 1.92% and the S&P 500 gained 1.33%.

Live US indices

Discussing the state of the consumer with Jharonne Martis, of Thomson Reuters; Ylan Mui, of the Washington Post; and the CNBC news team: