| May 31, 2022 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | | | John Lothian
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
There are two excellent analysis commentaries on major issues for the derivatives industry in today's newsletter. Professor Craig Pirrong on The Streetwise Professor website dives into the recent CFTC roundtable with a piece titled "A Timely Object Lesson on the Dangers of Tight Coupling in Financial Markets, and Hence the Lunacy of Fetishizing Algorithms" and industry veteran executive VJ Angelo at City A.M. leverages his experience in derivatives and crypto with a piece titled "There is a fundamental flaw in the crypto economy."
Pirrong makes a great case about the "tight coupling" of the clearing mechanism, and Angelo speaks about how crypto needs continuous new money or it does not work. Angelo is not all negative, though.
The editorial board of the Chicago Tribune took notice on Sunday of the fact that Cboe Global Markets is actually moving its trading floors back to the CBOT Building in an editorial titled "Improbably, downtown Chicago gets a new open-outcry trading floor."
While reading the Chicago Tribune on Sunday, I also perused the obituaries. First, I wanted to make sure I was not listed in them and second, as you get older, you know more people who are. There were two former Chicago Board of Trade members who were listed this Sunday, Scott W. Gara and William James Ossmann. Gara was the founder of Cabo Trading and died at the age of 66, living years longer despite battling prostate cancer. Gara was a former Boy Scout, Order of the Arrow member and got his start on the MidAmerica Commodity Exchange.
The AFME, BVI, Cboe Europe and EFAMA issued a joint position paper which provides a set of key principles needed to ensure the successful creation of an EU Equity Consolidated Tape (CT).
Euronext has put together a resource webpage about its new ??CAC 40 ESG Index Future contract including a short video.
Jesús Togno has joined Qontigo as global head of index client service based in London.
The Crypto Connection 2022 conference will be held on June 15 - 16 at etc.venues, 360 Madison Avenue, New York, NY (VIP Reception on June 15th). The promoters say, "This year's Crypto Connection Conference will explore the pathways for institutional crypto and broader digital asset adoption and the next wave of innovations, expectations and opportunities. Sessions will touch upon need-to-know trends and emerging subject areas including: Decentralized Finance, ETFs, NFTs and the Metaverse." For more information go HERE.
JLN this week will start to publish our videos from the Options Industry Conference held in San Antonio a couple of weeks ago.
Also, Saturday I head to London for FIA's IDX 2022. It will be great to be back at IDX and I will be shooting some video interviews while I am there. Reach out if you have some news.
Over the weekend one of the boys from the Boy Scout troop I was the scoutmaster of had his Eagle ceremony. I was not able to attend his court of honor as I was out of state, but he presented mentor pins to the scoutmaster who followed me, the committee chair of the troop and myself. He mentioned in his comments about me inspiring him during a scoutmaster conference at the local library.
Have a great day and stay safe and treat people the same way you want to be treated: with respect, equality and justice.~JJL
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Term of The Week - 4 More Terms! - May 27, 2022
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Watch the video »
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A Timely Object Lesson on the Dangers of Tight Coupling in Financial Markets, and Hence the Lunacy of Fetishizing Algorithms
The Streetwise Professor
FTAlphaville had a fascinating piece this week in which it described a discussion at a CFTC roundtable debating the FTX proposal that is generating so much tumult in DerivativesWorld. In a nutshell, Chris Edmonds of ICE revealed that due to a "technical issue" during the market chaos of March 2020 (which I wrote about in a Journal of Applied Corporate Finance piece) a large market participant was arguably in default to the ICE clearinghouse, but ICE (after consulting with the CEO, i.e., Jeff Sprecher) did not pull the trigger and call a default. Instead, it gave some time for the incipient defaulter to resolve the issue. This raises an issue that I have written about for going on 15 years - the "tight coupling" of the clearing mechanism, and the acute destabilizing potential thereof. Tightly coupled systems are subject to"normal accidents" (also known as systemic collapses - shitshows): in a tightly coupled system, everything must operate in a tight sequence, and the failure of one piece of the system can cause the collapse of the entire system.
/jlne.ws/3GwiUZc
***** Humans are necessary. Not everything works just right all the time. ~JJL
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There is a fundamental flaw in the crypto economy
VJ Angelo, CEO of Inspira Wealth via City A.M.
In 2018, I joined the growing ranks of crypto entrants. I was driven there looking for a technology solution for a major problem in the Fixed Income Futures markets. During that time, I was fortunate to witness both the peak and crash of the crypto and ICO markets during that time. I say "fortunate" as the experiences were very enlightening in terms of learning how the market was operating in those days. Four years later, I am learning more about how the market has evolved, what lessons have been learnt and those that haven't. By becoming more deeply involved with cryptocurrencies and digitisation through Inspira Wealth, I have become more analytical and critical, leading to a very high level of enthusiasm for the future of this new technology and economy, offset now, by a healthy level of criticism of its major flaws.
/jlne.ws/3M2wV27
***** Worth the read.~JJL
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"Too Many Bros": Bored Ape Dating App Shuts Down Over Lack of Women; The unsurprising demise of ??Lonely Ape Club is reflective of crypto's larger gender inequity problem.
Elaine Velie - Hyperallergic
To no one's surprise, a dating app created exclusively for collectors of the increasingly infamous Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs was forced to shut down earlier this month due to a lack of women members. "Unfortunately due to the vastly uneven ratio of men to women who signed up for our waitlist, we have decided to put the BAYC dating app on hold indefinitely," reads a May 12 tweet by the app's creators. "Too many bros!"
/jlne.ws/3t5uNjt
****** Now how many of you are really surprised by this?~JJL
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Times Square at Its Overcrowded, Dizzying Worst Is Exactly What N.Y.C. Needs; The economic future of New York depends on everyone coming back, not just the tourists. Too bad office workers don't want to join them.
Nicole Hong - NY Times
The sensory-overloaded tower will offer visitors the chance to do quite a lot, all in one place: They will be able to sing along with a hologram of their favorite pop star, spend their cryptocurrency, marvel at ever-changing digital art on the walls and dine on a 10,000-square-foot outdoor terrace. It will be an enviable perch to gaze out at Times Square, a neighborhood that before the pandemic represented 15 percent of the city's economic output in just 0.1 percent of the land area.
/jlne.ws/3z8u18U
****** Just wait until LaSalle Street is all lit up just like Times Square.~JJL
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First she documented the alt-right. Now she's coming for crypto.; Molly White, a veteran Wikipedia editor, is fast becoming the cryptocurrency world's biggest critic
Gerrit De Vynck - The Washington Post
In a strange, animated YouTube video, Cryptoland paints itself as the ultimate utopia, featuring luxurious villas, a casino and a private club, all located on a pristine island in Fiji. Built by and for cryptocurrency enthusiasts, it was looking for investors. To Molly White, the project wasn't just cringeworthy bluster, it was promotional material for yet another potential scam — one that was targeting the money of real people. Digging into Cryptoland's organizing documents, she found a business plan full of contradictions and other red flags, like an address in the Seychelles islands, a tax haven which has hosted previous high-profile crypto scams.
/jlne.ws/38wJfd1
****** Beware of wiki editors. They can be very critical.~JJL
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Friday's Top Three
Our most read story Friday was The Financial Times' Did a major financial institution kinda maybe slightly default in March 2020? Second was Bloomberg's A New Prediction Market Lets Investors Bet Big on Almost Anything. Third was Why Steve Kerr's comments on Uvalde should stop you in your tracks, from CNN.
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| Lead Stories | Chicago Tribune Editorial: Improbably, downtown Chicago gets a new open-outcry trading floor
The Editorial Board - Chicago Tribune
Downtown Chicago needs help recovering from the pandemic, as office closures and a public safety crisis continue to weigh down the city's business district. So, it's with a mix of gratitude and mild disbelief that we welcome the launch of something most Chicagoans probably thought they'd never see again: A new open-outcry trading floor. On the morning of June 6, CBOE Global Markets is scheduled to ring the opening bell at its new venue in the same Chicago Board of Trade building at the foot of LaSalle Street where the options market got its start in the 1970s — and where the shouting and arm-waving of open outcry ruled for decades until computers mostly took over.
/jlne.ws/3x2D2PI
Market Slide Forces Rookie Traders to Grow Up Fast; All investors have to live through their first stock meltdown; the current one is a doozy
Matt Grossman and Hardika Singh - WSJ
Lucas Daignault likes to glance at his E*Trade account before school or after his shifts at the supermarket. More days than not lately, it shows a sea of red. Mr. Daignault, who just turned 18 years old, is mostly invested in a fund that tracks the S&P 500. The index is off to its worst start to a year in more than five decades, but he tries not to dwell on it. His strategy is to put about $500 a month into his brokerage account, and he has no plans to stop. "If just by staying in the market, I can make more money than anyone trying to time the market, I'm definitely going to do that," said Mr. Daignault, who graduates on Sunday from Newburyport High School in Newburyport, Mass.
/jlne.ws/3PTQjBu
CFTC roundtable on non-intermediation focuses on FCM benefits and default waterfalls; Wide-ranging discussion touches on customer protection, product suitability, self-certification, margin and liquidation issues
Jeff Reeves - FIA
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission hosted a wide-ranging and at times contentious discussion on issues related to intermediation in derivatives trading and clearing on 25 May. The roundtable event was more than six hours long, and included representatives from CFTC-registered derivatives clearing organizations (DCOs) and futures commission merchants (FCMs) as well as trading firms, asset managers, agricultural industry representatives, academics, public interest groups, and others. Though the event was ostensibly about non-intermediation broadly, a great deal of discussion centered around the specifics of a recent request by FTX US Derivatives to amend its order of registration as a DCO to expand its existing non-intermediated model to permit the trading and clearing of margined products. That request would open the door for FTX to offer futures on cryptocurrencies, and possibly other asset classes, through a direct clearing model in which customers bypass FCMs and become direct members of the FTX clearinghouse. As a result, FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, who participated in person in the roundtable, spent a significant amount of time responding to both general concerns as well as specific questions about the FTX proposal.
/jlne.ws/3N4L4wL
An Obscure Corner of Wall Street Is Making Billions Trading Inflation; Small teams have been making the most of global price shocks with trades that can be just as volatile
Donal Griffin and William Shaw - Bloomberg
Most of the world hates inflation. For Nikhil Choraria and a small band of traders, it's an opportunity. The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. partner is a leading practitioner of the obscure art of inflation trading, a niche business that's exploded -- very lucratively -- for some of the world's major banks and hedge funds. Choraria, 38 and based in London, orchestrates often-complex transactions designed to profit from gyrations in inflation. Over the past year, his team picked the right side on trades underpinned by the biggest inflationary spike in decades, which convulsed the global economy and even blindsided some central bankers. They helped generate $450 million in revenue in 2021, twice what they made in previous years, according to people familiar with the bank.
/jlne.ws/3x13F7s
Russian stocks are 'essentially worthless' after the Ukraine invasion based on pricing in a key derivatives market, MSCI says
Matthew Fox - Markets Insider
Russian stocks are "essentially worthless" despite the perceived value they hold on the Moscow stock exchange, MSCI said in a note on Thursday. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Moscow Exchange plunged by as much as 44% before recovering a chunk of those losses. A combination of economic sanctions and reduced trading have crippled the Russian economy, though sky-high gas prices have helped Russia's oil exports business. Still, Russian stocks are likely not worth their perceived values on the Moscow exchange, MSCI said, pointing to current pricing in the credit default swaps market. A CDS is a financial contract that allows investors to eliminate possible debt losses that would arise from the default of an issuer of bonds.
/jlne.ws/3zc1Wh4
Experts to World: We're Doomed; A new report from the Stockholm International Peace Institute paints a grim picture of the coming decades.
Matthew Gault - VICE
A dangerous mix of increasing international conflict, global climate change, and a lack of governmental efforts to fix either could be leading the world to an era of unprecedented destruction. That's the thrust of a new report from Stockholm International Peace Institute (SIPRI), a European think tank focused on peace. The report is titled "Environment of Peace," a hopeful title that belies the report's horrifying message: The twin dangers of conflict—meaning, in this context, wars or violence between governments or countries—and climate change are interconnected and getting worse.
/jlne.ws/3a98vX7
Crypto Needs to Be Separated from the Real Economy; Regulators are worried about a selloff in digital currencies infecting mainstream markets.
Mark Gilbert - Bloomberg
Last week, the European Central Bank laid out the nightmare scenario that's got financial regulators nervously watching developments (i.e. collapsing prices) in the world of digital currencies: "Although the risks are currently small, they could rise significantly if platforms started to offer services to the real economy, instead of remaining confined to the crypto universe." Overseers are worried that a selloff in the virtual space could infect mainstream markets in an echo of how the unraveling of the US subprime mortgage market triggered the global financial crisis more than a decade ago.
/jlne.ws/3PKjfvw
When Crypto's Tulipmania Meets The Real Economy; Regulators begin to consider how to keep DeFi from becoming the next subprime.
Lionel Laurent - Bloomberg
With the cryptocurrency world's luminaries having joined globetrotting elites at Davos — and punters swept up in the market crash suffering sleepless nights — it's time for regulators to reflect on the real-world impact of the next boom-and-bust crypto cycle. Fintech and crypto apps have already expanded rapidly into digital cash, loans and complex products that can seem as simple as a credit card in e-mail form. That has created financial channels far beyond a one-way wager on Bitcoin or Bored Apes: Decentralized-finance (DeFi) platforms offer crypto yields of 8%-10% to investors; some then in turn fund startups around the world without touching banks. Tulipmania meets the real economy at WhatsApp speed.
/jlne.ws/38WxL2N
Hard lessons from the crypto crash; Can anything challenge the belief that investing in digital assets is a guaranteed route to riches?
Claer Barrett - FT
We deal with all kinds of financial problems on the Money Clinic podcast, but after speaking to young traders who lost their shirts in the $40bn wipeout of crypto token luna, I found it hard to offer them any solutions. Subbaiah, 29, got into crypto last year after seeing his friends make money. The IT worker in Bangalore watched tutorials by online influencers, started trading in and out of various coins and made enough to dream about quitting his day job and trading full-time.
/jlne.ws/3yZhHb1
Where to Look for the Next Wall Street Blowup; The tide's definitely gone out in markets this year, but finance has come through with few problems—so far
James Mackintosh - WSJ
When the tide goes out you find out who was swimming naked, Warren Buffett memorably said. The tide's definitely gone out in markets this year, but finance has come through with few problems. Is it possible that this time not many were skinny-dipping? The optimistic view is that the typical culprits—speculators using borrowed money—had been caught out already in the past two years and so weren't up to their usual tricks. The pessimistic view is that the blowups are still to come.
/jlne.ws/3z8vyMn
Regulators Have a Shot at Bringing Competition to Derivatives Market
M. Todd Henderson & Geoffrey Manne - Real Clear Policy
While tech giants like Amazon and Google have drawn much of the Biden administration's antitrust attention, a more significant — but as yet ignored — antitrust problem is flying under the radar in the less obviously sexy area of derivatives trading. While derivatives may seem like the kind of thing that only matters to Wall Street fat cats, futures trading is, in fact, how everyone from farmers to retailers to insurance companies hedge their risks. By spreading risk, derivatives lower the costs of risk taking and thus are the secret ingredient that has driven a great deal of recent American prosperity. Ensuring derivatives markets are competitive, innovative, and secure should be a national priority. Recently, much derivatives trading, especially in new asset classes, has moved overseas.
/jlne.ws/3m02XkK
What Dominated the World Economic Forum; Our takeaways from Davos, plus how some influencers hype crypto without disclosing their financial ties.
Andrew Ross Sorkin, Vivian Giang, Stephen Gandel, Lauren Hirsch, Ephrat Livni and Jenny Gross - NY Times
The annual World Economic Forum, delayed from its normal winter date by Covid, has wrapped up. The high-profile conference, which draws leaders from government, business and nonprofits, has returned for the first time since coronavirus shut down the world — but in the midst of a war in Europe. DealBook was on hand, and here are our big takeaways:
/jlne.ws/3N1fhNi
Sam Bankman-Fried has more than $2 billion ready to bankroll acquisitions — and if they're as 'cheap' as Robinhood, that's a good thing
Zahra Tayeb - Business Insider
Cryptocurrency billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried says FTX has amassed more than $2 billion to spend on acquisitions and stakes in other companies. He wants to expand FTX from a crypto exchange into a platform where users can trade multiple assets including stocks, he told Bloomberg.
/jlne.ws/3NJC4gx
FTX Billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried Seeks Knighthood At The CFTC's Round Table
Javier Paz - Forbes
This past Wednesday, the Commodity Futures Trade Commission (CFTC) held a gathering of senior figures from the financial industry to discuss 'disintermediation', a key topic contained in a license change proposal sent by crypto exchange FTX.US to the U.S. futures regulator back in March. Despite the banal-sounding term, the consequences of this meeting loom large. If approved, the proposal would let FTX.US - and firms with a similar Designated Clearing Organization (DCO) license - offer margin trading in crypto derivatives to retail customers without the required involvement of futures commodity merchants (FCMs) firms - i.e. disintermediation. The latter are the futures markets counterparts of broker dealers in the securities space, and they are the ones who would get 'disintermediated' or taken out of the middle.
/jlne.ws/3GA07w5
Crypto Exchanges Set Their Sights On The Sleepy Futures Industry
Javier Paz - Forbes
The U.S. futures industry is slow to change and has seen its footprint consolidate around fewer firms over the years. The number of futures commodity merchants (FCMs) as of the latest period, March 2022 stood at 61 firms, compared to 64 in 2017, 116 in 2012, and 171 in 2007. FCMs are dedicated firms that can transact at derivatives exchanges. Much of this consolidation was regulatory-driven under the watch of Gary Gensler, the same man now at the helm of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Gensler led the Commodity and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the derivatives industry's primary regulator from 2009-2014. Now, with the launch of CME Group CME bitcoin futures in 2017 and other crypto futures and options contracts in subsequent years, crypto derivatives gained a foothold in the U.S. and validated the hypothesis that institutions have a steady appetite for trading crypto futures, driving as much as $6.7 billion daily volume this year. CME crypto futures open interest - capital tied up to support futures trading activity - has ranged between $2 billion and $7 billion so far this year.
/jlne.ws/3m3l7Sk
Battered DeFi Investors Put Their Hopes in Ethereum Revamp; The Merge remains the sole bright spot in gloomy crypto winter; Upgrade could reduce new issuance of Ether by as much as 90%
Jialiang David Pan - Bloomberg
Decentralized-finance investors are betting on Ethereum's revamp to help thaw out the market's more than two-months-long crypto winter. The DeFi sector, where investors earn yields by trading and staking cryptocurrencies without centralized intermediaries, has declined sharply following the collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin, and as soaring inflation puts the Federal Reserve on a path of monetary tightening. The Ethereum "Merge," one of the most significant technical upgrades to the blockchain since its inception in 2015, may be one of the few catalysts that could give DeFi a much-needed lift.
/jlne.ws/38ZrYtl
DeFi's promise of democratising finance remains a distant reality; Decentralised finance risks concentrating economic power and exacerbating existing inequities
Eswar Prasad - FT
A cryptocurrency winter has set in, with many cryptocurrencies' prices and the overall value of such digital assets falling below half their peak values from six months ago. Dashed is the notion that crypto assets are immune to shifts in macroeconomic fundamentals and serve as hedges against inflation.
/jlne.ws/3x4V4zE
Bankman-Fried faces down roomful of futures industry insiders at CFTC roundtable
Derek Anderson - CoinTelegraph
FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried did a lot of talking at the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) staff roundtable on non-intermediation Wednesday. He fielded questions and issues from 31 industry professionals about the FTX.US application to offer clearing of margined products, including crypto-based products, without a futures commission merchant (FCM) intermediary. Many participants felt the need to mention their devotion to innovation and declared that they do not see the proposed new technology as an "us versus them" situation. Joe Cisewski of Pantera Capital said that just six or eight clearing firms dominate the U.S. market at present, so new competition would not be out of place. Like many others present, he saw the need for more regulatory framework for this new trading model.
/jlne.ws/3NHC14W
EXCLUSIVE Credit Suisse weighs options to strengthen capital - sources
Oliver Hirt - Reuters
Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) is in the early stages of weighing options to bolster its capital after a string of losses has eroded its financial buffers, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The size of the increase would be likely to exceed 1 billion Swiss francs ($1.04 billion), but this has not yet been determined, said one of the people, who declined to be named because the deliberations are still internal. The cash injection would help Switzerland's second-biggest bank to recover from billions of losses in 2021 and a series of costly legal headaches. Selling shares to some of its major existing investors is the preferred option, but Credit Suisse has not ruled out tapping all shareholders, this person said.
/jlne.ws/3lU3nZT
A Crucial Clue in the $4.5 Billion Bitcoin Heist: A $500 Walmart Gift Card; Increasingly sophisticated tools and some gift cards helped lead investigators to charge a young couple with conspiring to launder billions
James Fanelli, Ben Foldy, and Dustin Volz - WSJ
Federal investigators spent years hunting for clues in the 2016 hacking of the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange, when thieves stole bitcoin now worth $4.5 billion. In the end, what helped lead them to two suspects was something much more quotidian: a $500 Walmart gift card. That card and more than a dozen others like it, including for Uber, Hotels.com and PlayStation, were linked to emails and cloud service providers belonging to a young Manhattan couple, Ilya "Dutch" Lichtenstein and Heather R. Morgan, according to a criminal complaint. Authorities arrested the couple after seizing $3.6 billion worth of bitcoin allegedly in their control—the Justice Department's largest financial seizure ever.
/jlne.ws/3wZGAly
Elon Musk doesn't want to buy Twitter anymore, but Twitter can squeeze $1 billion — or more — out of him anyway; Reducing the price or allowing Musk to abandon the deal without a penalty would breach Twitter's duty to its shareholders
Therese Poletti - MarketWatch
It's becoming quite clear that Elon Musk no longer wants to buy Twitter Inc., at least not at the price he negotiated. But Twitter should not walk away without at least $1 billion — and potentially much more — for the trouble. Musk's bid for Twitter has become one of the strangest M&A sagas Silicon Valley has ever seen. Here's a quick recap: Musk bought some Twitter stock, reached an agreement to serve on the board, rescinded that agreement, made a bid to buy the company and take it private, and that bid was ultimately accepted. However, as stock prices have plunged in an overall market downturn, Musk has suffered from apparent buyer's remorse and is saying that the deal is "on hold."
/jlne.ws/3wVpCDD
Treasury Releases Pandemic Funding for Small Businesses as They Face New Risks; Biden administration says funds will help small businesses grow; Republicans say spending is delayed and unnecessary
Amara Omeokwe - WSJ
A federal pandemic aid program aimed at boosting small businesses' access to capital is getting off the ground more than a year after it was authorized, when firms are now facing the headwinds of high inflation and the growing risks of an economic downturn. The Treasury Department this month began distributing nearly $200 million to five states through the State Small Business Credit Initiative, a $10 billion program that directs money to states, territories and tribal governments for programs that provide capital or encourage private lending. The initial money will fund venture financing in Maryland and lending to small manufacturing businesses in Michigan, among other programs.
/jlne.ws/3PTPRTO
The DOJ and the CFTC Are Focused on Commodities Fraud Enforcement—Are You? Suggestions for Preparing Your Organization
White Paper - Jones Day
The Department of Justice ("DOJ") and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ("CFTC") in recent years have worked closely together to target companies and individuals for violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and other laws. As former senior officials at the DOJ and the CFTC, we expect the agencies to double down on this joint initiative in the years ahead, continuing to pursue commodities fraud cases with even greater focus and intensity. Accordingly, companies active in the commodities and derivatives markets should understand how these agencies work together and their enforcement priorities. This White Paper addresses these issues and offers practical tips for companies to take stock of their compliance programs. Armed with this information, companies can ensure that they are prepared to deal with the potential for robust civil and criminal commodities fraud enforcement by the DOJ and the CFTC in the years ahead.
/jlne.ws/3x153qG
The Full FX Disruptor Series with LMAX Group
The Full FX
In the fourth instalment of the Disruptor series, Colin Lambert and LMAX Group CEO David Mercer get to talk - and, inevitably, debate - in person. The discussion kicks off with disruption of a different kind - Mercer's thoughts on the recent Stablecoin blow up - before moving on to market data and primary venue status in crypto markets. Lambert has to get an FX question in there somewhere of course, so there is also time for a quick chat about market conditions, volatility and the role of firm liquidity in these times.
/jlne.ws/3t2ncBV
CFTC commissioner on crypto: Regulators 'cannot fail to act any longer' to protect retail public
Brian Cheung - Yahoo!Finance
Caroline Pham, commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CTFC), joins Yahoo Finance Live to explain why she's calling for more crypto regulation and public roundtables, working with the SEC, the Archegos collapse, and her career path.
/jlne.ws/3x1cSeI
APAs and ARMs partner to launch new trade association; New association aims to represent the views of its members in relation to regulations and laws impacting APA and ARM businesses.
Wesley Bray - The Trade
Six Approved Publication Arrangements (APAs) and Approved Reporting Mechanisms (ARMs) have partnered together to launch the APAs and ARMs Association (APARMA). APARMA was founded by affiliates of Bloomberg, Cboe Europe, Euronext, London Stock Exchange, MarketAxess and Tradeweb Markets to represent the interests of companies who operate APAs and ARMs in the EU and the UK. Following the establishment of Mifid II, APAs publish post-trade transparency reports in financial instruments that have been traded off-venue, while ARMs submit transaction details to regulators on behalf of investment firms.
/jlne.ws/3lNrrgH
Share Sales in Europe Haven't Been This Bad in Nearly 20 Years; Proceeds of $30 billion this year are the lowest since 2003; War in Ukraine, inflation, rate hikes all weigh on activity
Kat Van Hoof and Swetha Gopinath - Bloomberg
The value of stock offerings in Europe is at the lowest level since 2003 as stormy markets, roaring inflation, rising interest rates and a grim economic growth outlook send investors running for the hills. Initial public offerings and follow-on transactions have raised a measly $30 billion this year, the worst showing in nearly two decades, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The biggest deals have come from stake sales by the likes of Nordea Bank Abp, Deutsche Bank AG, Barclays Plc and Glencore Plc.
/jlne.ws/38WFH3W
UK Treasury proposes insolvency regime to manage stablecoins' failures; Collapse of terra has heightened regulatory concerns over the assets that underpin crypto markets
Scott Chipolina and Joshua Oliver - FT
The UK Treasury is proposing an insolvency regime to manage the failure of major crypto stablecoins after the collapse of terra earlier this month sent shockwaves through the global crypto market.
/jlne.ws/3a8UZmu
EU leaders agree to ban majority of Russian oil imports; Embargo contains temporary exemption for supplies delivered via pipeline to bring Hungary on board
Sam Fleming, Valentina Pop and Andy Bounds - FT
EU leaders have struck a deal to ban most Russian oil imports as they seek to deprive Russian president Vladimir Putin of revenues to fund his war in Ukraine. The embargo, which was agreed after weeks of difficult negotiations, will include oil and petroleum products but contains a temporary exemption for oil delivered from Russia by pipeline. This was intended to grant Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic extra time to wean themselves off crude oil supplies from Russia.
/jlne.ws/3LWm8X2
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | The Race Against Food Inflation Starts on Rusty Soviet Railway Lines; With ports blocked by Russia, getting grain out of Ukraine is a critical mission that's forcing governments and companies to scour the map for new routes.
Megan Durisin, Andra Timu, and Konrad Krasuski - Bloomberg
Overgrown with vegetation, the rusted rail tracks running between Reni in Ukraine's southwest corner to the port of Galati in Romania had been consigned to Soviet-era history long ago. About a quarter of the 20-kilometer (12-mile) line is missing. Yet like other relics of the old Eastern Bloc network, the route along the Danube River could eventually play a small part in an increasingly large and complex operation to secure vital food shipments.
/jlne.ws/3NMwbz4
Pimco Fund Added to Russia Swap Exposure in Weeks Before War; Firm sold more than $100 million of default swaps this year; CDS committee to discuss potential swaps payout on Tuesday
Laura Benitez and Loukia Gyftopoulou - Bloomberg
Pacific Investment Management Co.'s largest fund increased its exposure to Russian default swaps in the run-up to the country's invasion of Ukraine by selling more than $100 million of protection to banks including Barclays Plc and JPMorgan & Chase Co.
/jlne.ws/3PUQHzt
Russia likely experiencing 'devastating' losses of mid-level officers, UK says
Mychael Schnell - The Hill
The United Kingdom's defense ministry on Monday said Russia has likely experienced "devastating" losses among its mid- and junior-level military officers during its invasion of Ukraine. "Russia has likely suffered devastating losses amongst its mid and junior ranking officers in the conflict," the ministry wrote in an intelligence update posted on Twitter. "Brigade and battalion commanders likely deploy forwards into harm's way because they are held to an uncompromising level of responsibility for their units' performance. Similarly, junior officers have had to lead to the lowest level tactical actions, as the army lacks the cadre of highly trained and empowered non-commissioned officers (NCOs) who fulfill that role in Western forces," it added.
/jlne.ws/3a5pvxE
Putin ready to facilitate unfettered grain exports from Ukraine's ports - Kremlin
Guy Faulconbridge - Reuters
President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that Russia was ready to facilitate the unhindered export of grain from Ukrainian ports in coordination with Turkey, according to a Kremlin readout of talks with President Tayyip Erdogan. Besides the death and devastation sown by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the war and the West's attempt to isolate Russia as punishment have sent the price of grain, cooking oil, fertiliser and energy soaring, hurting global growth. The United Nations, which says a global food crisis is deepening, is trying to broker a deal to unblock Ukraine's grain exports though Western leaders have blamed Russia for holding the world to ransom by blockading Ukrainian ports.
/jlne.ws/3PQZq60
Ukraine war hits Africa's most vulnerable as aid costs spike
Edward Mcallister - Reuters
A small charity broke ground this year on a clinic in northern Burkina Faso to care for thousands of women and children who have fled Islamist insurgents wreaking havoc along the fringes of the Sahara. But when Russia invaded Ukraine in February, global supply chains buckled and the cost of building materials, fuel and food spiked in West Africa. The charity's founder, Boukary Ouedraogo, was forced to make a tough decision: he halted construction of the clinic with only the foundations laid. Similar calls are being made across sub-Saharan Africa, where aid projects are threatened by the fallout from the war in Ukraine, potentially putting millions of lives at risk.
/jlne.ws/3x1exks
Insurance rates jump for Ukraine war-exposed business, sources say
Reuters
Insurance premiums are doubling or more for some aviation and marine business particularly exposed to the war in Ukraine, increasing costs for airline and shipping firms, industry sources say. Global commercial insurance premiums rose 11% on average in the first quarter, according to insurance broker Marsh, which said the war was putting upward pressure on rates. But the overall figure masks sharper moves in some sectors, and only covers the first five weeks following the invasion.
/jlne.ws/3z8uDve
Exclusive: Yeltsin's son-in-law quits as Putin adviser -sources
Reuters
Valentin Yumashev, the son-in-law of former Russian leader Boris Yeltsin who helped Vladimir Putin come to power, has quit his role as a Kremlin adviser, two people familiar with Yumashev's thinking told Reuters. Yumashev was an unpaid adviser with limited influence on Putin's decision-making, but his departure removes one of the last links inside Putin's administration to Yeltsin's rule, a period of liberal reforms and Russia's opening up towards the West.
/jlne.ws/3N4VfS2
EU bans most Russian oil; Zelenskiy calls Donbas situation 'extremely difficult'
Pavel Polityuk and Oleksandr Kozhukhar - Reuters
European Union leaders agreed on Monday to ban most imports of Russian oil to the 27-nation bloc as Ukrainian and Russian forces battled on the outskirts of Sievierodonetsk, the last city still held by Kyiv in Ukraine's strategic Luhansk province. In the bloc's toughest sanction on Moscow since the invasion of Ukraine three months ago, European Council President Charles Michel said the ban agreed at an EU summit in Brussels would immediately cover more than two-thirds of oil imports from Russia and cut a "huge source of financing for its war machine."
/jlne.ws/3N5rosT
Patrick Cockburn Warns the West's "Triumphalism" in Ukraine Could Prolong Conflict Indefinitely
Amy Goodman and Nermeen Shaikh - Democracy Now!
As fighting continues in Ukraine, we speak with journalist Patrick Cockburn, who says Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is peddling a "vague triumphalism" which is "obscuring just how dangerous and how bad the situation has become." His recent CounterPunch piece is headlined "London and Washington are Being Propelled by Hubris — Just as Putin was."
/jlne.ws/3N2dNlT
Ukraine pleads for weapons as Russian onslaught threatens to turn the tide; As support among some European allies appears to waver, Kyiv calls for advanced rocket systems to hit Russia's supply lines
Simon Tisdall and Mark Townsend - The Guardian
Ukraine is in a race against time to save the eastern Donbas region as relentless Russian artillery and air strikes threaten to turn the tide of the war, and support for Kyiv's continued defiance among some west European allies appears to be slipping. Ukrainian officials say they urgently need advanced US-made mobile multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) to halt Russian advances in Luhansk and Donetsk. The rockets would be capable of striking Russian firing positions, military bases, air strips and supply lines at a range of up to 300km (185 miles). "We are in great need of weapons that will make it possible to engage the enemy over a long distance," Ukraine's commander-in-chief, General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, said. "The price of delay is measured by the lives of people who have protected the world from [Russian] fascism."
/jlne.ws/3wWuWXq
Putin defiant as Macron and Scholz call for fresh Ukraine peace talks; The Russian president warned the French and German leaders it was 'dangerous' for the west to supply further weapons to Ukraine
Shaun Walker - The Guardian
Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz held a three-way telephone conversation with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, on Saturday, with the French and German leaders urging Putin to hold "direct serious negotiations" with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The call came as Russia's assault on Ukraine's Donbas region continues to grind on. During the 80-minute conversation, the two leaders "insisted on an immediate ceasefire and a withdrawal of Russian troops", according to a readout from Scholz's office. Putin is unlikely to heed such calls. Instead, he warned Macron and Scholz that western weapons deliveries to Ukraine were "dangerous" and risked "further destabilisation of the situation", according to a Kremlin readout.
/jlne.ws/3NNuvWq
Ukraine receives Harpoon missiles and howitzers, says defence minister
Reuters
Ukraine has started receiving Harpoon anti-ship missiles from Denmark and self-propelled howitzers from the United States, Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Saturday, saying the arms would bolster forces fighting Russia's invasion. "The coastal defence of our country will not only be strengthened by Harpoon missiles - they will be used by trained Ukrainian teams," Reznikov wrote on his Facebook page. He said Harpoon shore-to-ship missiles would be operated alongside Ukrainian Neptune missiles in the defence of the country's coast including the southern port of Odesa.
/jlne.ws/3Q2t9sK
Russia Allows Imports of Apple Watches, Bentleys and Xboxes Via Third Countries
Alexander Osipovich - WSJ
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Russian store shelves have grown bare of imported goods as companies pulled out of the country. Now, Moscow is allowing importers to bring in Apple smartwatches, Lamborghinis, Sony PlayStations and dozens of other imported goods against the will of the companies that make them. Russia declared on Friday that these goods were exempt from trademark laws. That means sellers won't be punished for bringing in products, mostly likely through third countries. Wealthy Russians, who have been cut off from many of their customary products, are among the beneficiaries of the 25-page list of exempted products released by Russia's industry and trade ministry. The list includes pricey cars such as Bentley, Ferrari, Jaguar, Maybach, Mercedes-Benz and Rolls-Royce, as well as more quotidian brands such as Chevrolet and Honda.
/jlne.ws/3N3pg4O
Opinion: 3 ways Russia's war in Ukraine could end — and even a Ukraine victory brings danger
Matthew Burrows and Robert A. Manning - MarketWatch
Three months into Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, the prospects for a decisive Kremlin victory have evaporated. Yet even amid Russia's battlefield failures, the heroic Ukrainian resistance and abundant Western military aid, the tide has not completely turned.
/jlne.ws/3x23GXL
Serbia ignores EU sanctions, secures natural gas deal with Putin
Associated Press
As the war in Ukraine rages, Serbia's president announced that he has secured an "extremely favorable" natural gas deal with Russia during a telephone conversation Sunday with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
/jlne.ws/3lWn4QL
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | Euronext to offer futures on the CAC 40 ESG index; New futures contract will facilitate the reallocation of assets from the CAC 40 index to its ESG equivalent; it has been supported by BNP Paribas and Société Générale.
Wesley Bray - The Trade
Euronext has launched a new futures contract on the CAC 40 ESG index, which will provide institutional investors with an additional instrument to help accelerate the growth of sustainable investment. The new contract is based on the ESG version of the French national benchmark index and has been supported by BNP Paribas and Société Générale as market makers.
/jlne.ws/3M6ItBg
Battle lines are drawn over European consolidated tape plans; Cboe, AFME, EFAMA and BVI have drafted their position on how they think a consolidated tape should be implemented in Europe; the German finance ministry is reportedly leading the opposition.
Annabel Smith
Participants have drawn their battle lines as the ramp up towards the implementation of a consolidated tape in Europe continues. Following a working group meeting of the Council of Ministers on 24 May, Cboe and industry associations AFME, the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) and German funds association BVI have published their position on plans for a tape: including their preference for a single pre-trade real-time tape provider and a recommendation for mandatory contributions.
/jlne.ws/38wXvm2
China and Hong Kong agree to add ETFs to Stock Connect; Plans are in motion to include ETFs in China and Hong Kong's Stock Connect as the scheme continues to evolve and grow.
Jonathan Watkins
Regulators in China and Hong Kong have agreed to include exchange-traded funds (ETFs) by Mainland and Hong Kong exchanges in Stock Connect. It will now take two months for both sides to prepare for formal implementation, while an official launch date is expected in due course.
/jlne.ws/3lXJTn3
HKEX Further Enhances Stock Connect's Product Offering
Mondovisione
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) welcomes the joint announcement today (Friday) by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) and Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), on the inclusion of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) into Stock Connect (the Inclusion). HKEX is pleased to announce the detailed arrangements of the Inclusion.
/jlne.ws/3lYl3U0
S&P/ASX Agribusiness Index Launched
ASX
ASX, in partnership with S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&PDJI), this week launched the S&P/ASX Agribusiness Index (ASX: XAG). The new broad-based index includes companies whose principal business activity is in the primary production of agricultural products or in the production of commodities used as inputs into primary production of agricultural products. The index fills a gap in the family of indices representing the diverse sectors on ASX.
/bit.ly/3sGw54D
Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie (DGPh) offer awards for writing about photography
Deutsche Börse
Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie (DGPh) offer awards for writing about photography
- Two awards for research and innovative publications
- Tender period: 1 June to 31 October 2022
/bit.ly/3z8NSEY
A Sweeping Change - Eurex announces NextGen ETD launch dates
Eurex
The next generation of ETD contracts introduces a more flexible approach to handling exchange-traded derivatives (ETD). The new concept allows more than one expiry per month at the product level. Markus Schiller, Project Manager, Strategy & Initiatives at Eurex, and Thomas Winter, Head of Eurex Trading Design, have all the details.
/bit.ly/3M37VI3
Claim notice for the Fidelity Fund and Guarantee Scheme
HKEX
Pursuant to Rule 910A of the Rules of the Exchange, a notice calling for claims for compensation against the Fidelity Fund and Guarantee Scheme will be issued whenever there is a cessation of trading or Exchange Participantship.
/bit.ly/3N5ue0L
Measures for Smooth Implementation of Roman Alphabet Characters in Securities Codes
JPX
To address a decrease in available specific name codes assigned to general companies (4-digit numbers from [1300] to [9999]), the Securities Identification Code Committee (SICC) (*1) has announced a basic plan for the use of Roman alphabet characters in the specific name codes when the available codes run out. However, based on the recent decrease in remaining name codes, the SICC announced that with the purpose of facilitating the smooth implementation of the use of Roman alphabet characters in the securities codes, Roman alphabet characters will be used from 1 January 2024, regardless of whether the available codes run out. (*2)
/bit.ly/3z4U4Os
Moscow Exchange resumes trading in five exchange-traded funds
MOEX
On May 31, 2022, the Moscow Exchange resumes trading in shares of five exchange-traded mutual investment funds (BPIF).
/bit.ly/38Rz2s5
Top managers of MOEX Group are among the best CIOs in Russia
MOEX
Andrey Burilov, Member of the Management Board, Managing Director of Information Technologies of the Moscow Exchange, and Pavel Andrianov, Member of the Management Board, Director of Information Technologies of the National Settlement Depository (NSD), became the winners of the Global CIO Top 100 IT Leaders rating.
/bit.ly/3NF8VTI
On maintaining restrictions on trading in a number of foreign securities
MOEX
From May 30, 2022, the Moscow Exchange will not impose additional restrictions on transactions with foreign securities, all existing trading modes will remain unchanged.
/bit.ly/3N49BCi
MIAX: Proposed Rule Change To Amend FINRA Rule 13000 Series, Code Of Arbitration Procedure For Industry Disputes, To Align The Code With The Ending Forced Arbitration Of Sexual Assault And Sexual Harassment Act Of 2021
Mondovisione
FINRA is proposing to amend the Code to align the Code with the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021.
/jlne.ws/38AQyR6
Nadex Corrects Typographical Error
Mondovisione
Pursuant to Section 5c(c)(1) of the Commodity Exchange Act, as amended ("Act"), and Section 40.6(d) of the regulations promulgated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the "Commission") under the Act (the "Regulations"), North American Derivatives Exchange, Inc. ("Nadex", the "Exchange") hereby provides notice that it is correcting a typographical error in its Rule 3.8 Dues, Fees, and Expenses Payable by Members.
/jlne.ws/3t8aW2Z
Qatar Stock Exchange Celebrates Its Silver Jubilee
Mondovisione
Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) commemorated its 25th anniversary and celebrated its achievements, through which the QSE has been transformed into rules-based, reliable and resilient market operating in line with the best international practices. Over the past 25 years, QSE has played a central role in the growth and development of Qatar's financial industry, building the breadth and depth of the market, driving quality and attractiveness as a listing, trading and investment destination.
/jlne.ws/3mgusGV
Shanghai International Energy Exchange has released its Circular on Trading Adjustments for the Dragon Boat Festival 2022
SFE
Shanghai International Energy Exchange has released its Circular on Trading Adjustments for the Dragon Boat Festival 2022 as follows:
/bit.ly/3NJielx
SGX Fixed Income welcomes the listing of Astrea 7 private equity bonds
SGX
SGX Fixed Income today welcomed the listing of Astrea 7 private equity (PE) bonds, including the fourth and largest PE bond offering for retail investors in Singapore, issued by Astrea 7 Pte. Ltd. which is indirectly wholly-owned by Azalea Asset Management Pte. Ltd., an indirect subsidiary of Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited.
/bit.ly/3LXjVdP
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | The iPhone Lock Screen Is Poised for an Upgrade With iOS 16
Mark Gurman - Bloomberg
Apple's upcoming iOS 16 is likely to upgrade the lock screen, messaging and health features. Also: Another Apple car manager leaves, the company raises employee pay, and a closely watched union election gets canceled. Last week on Power On: Covid-19 slams into Apple again, disrupting product shipments and office-return plans. Apple Inc.'s annual Worldwide Developers Conference, better known as WWDC, is just about a week away. This is the event where the company outlines its software strategy for the next year.
/jlne.ws/3LVyzCs
Meta's German Oculus Blockade Has Startups Facing Harsh Reality; The world's most popular VR headset isn't available in Germany; Developers split between focusing on German or global market
Aggi Cantrill - Bloomberg
Meta Platforms Inc.'s ongoing battle with German regulators has created a stumbling block for the country's nascent virtual reality industry. Local startups have been struggling to get their hands on Meta's headsets after they were pulled from the shelves. Now they are having to choose whether to develop applications using less popular rival headsets, or give up on the fast-growing $4.4 billion market.
/jlne.ws/3N4SJv1
Smart Ring That Acts as Wallet and Key Gets Backing From Big Japanese Firms; Evering debuted last year as tool for smart locks, payments; More than 10 investors to participate in funding for MTG unit
Masatsugu Horie - Bloomberg
Itochu Corp., Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and other companies are investing in Evering, a chip-embedded smart ring that can act as a wallet and a key, people with knowledge of the matter said. Evering is backed by MTG Co., a listed Japanese health and beauty company. MTG struck a contract with Visa Inc. last year and began selling rings in Japan, which cost about 20,000 yen ($158) apiece, including tax.
/jlne.ws/3MWK6CR
Shifting Credit Markets Trigger Evolution in Technology and Data
Kevin McPartland - Coalition Greenwich
Credit markets are in a period of transformation, with inflation at a multi-decade high, interest rates rising and the post-pandemic economy still an unknown. Portfolio managers have been diversifying their portfolios over the past year, with even more expecting to branch out into new products and strategies in the year ahead. While this diversification presents new investment opportunities, it also creates several challenges that the market as a whole must overcome. The two thirds of investors in our study that plan to further diversify their portfolios point to the need for less correlated assets, floating rate debt and instruments higher up the capital structure. This has led to increased investments in CLOs and niche private debt. While the supply and demand are present, transparency into these instruments remains limited, especially compared to public securities markets. As such, the demand for more data has come in lockstep with demand for the investments themselves.
/jlne.ws/3M3zuAX
BestExHub shuts down operations after nearly five years; Following ongoing changes in the regulatory landscape, the two co-founders have decided to close operations and will cease to provide the firm's data API offering.
Wesley Bray - The Trade
BestExHub, a platform developed to analyse Mifid II best execution quality reporting data, has decided to wind up its operations after four years. In a social media post announcing the close of BestExHub, co-founder Daniel Mathews said: "Six years ago, I met the head of trading at a large asset manager who explained some of the challenges they would face trying to make sense of new best execution reporting under MiFID II. These were the seeds of what was to become, BestExHub."
/jlne.ws/38Z7mkW
Coinbase Leaders Net $1.2 Billion in Share Sales; Haul taken by two co-founders and two executives contrasts with shares' sharp decline since becoming publicly available last year
Corrie Driebusch and Tom McGinty - WSJ
Four top Coinbase Global Inc. officials have collectively pocketed more than $1 billion by selling shares since the cryptocurrency exchange's public listing last spring, a period in which the company's shares have declined some 80%. Co-founders Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam, as well as President and Chief Operating Officer Emilie Choi and Chief Product Officer Surojit Chatterjee, together netted about $1.2 billion in proceeds from stock sales starting the day the San Francisco-based company started trading through February of this year, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of regulatory filings.
/jlne.ws/3NKVP7v
Musk sued by Twitter investors for stock 'manipulation' during takeover bid
Reuters
Billionaire Elon Musk was sued by Twitter Inc investors claiming he manipulated the company's stock price downward, as the chief executive of electric carmaker Tesla Inc mounts a $44 billion takeover bid for the social media platform. The investors said Musk saved himself $156 million by failing to disclose that he had purchased more than 5% of Twitter by March 14. They asked to be certified as a class and to be awarded an unspecified amount of punitive and compensatory damages.
/jlne.ws/3Gvr7wR
Rising rates test the fintechs that have shaken up Brazilian banking; New generation of lenders may struggle to pass on increased financial costs to consumers
Michael Pooler - FT
No other moment captured the investor euphoria around Latin American fintech quite like the New York Stock Exchange debut of Nubank. A first day "pop" in the Brazilian start-up's shares late last year briefly vaulted it to the position of the continent's most valuable financial institution, worth almost a staggering $50bn.
/jlne.ws/3m4i2Bu
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | Cybersecurity needs a whole-of-society effort
Isaac Porche - The Hill
To the surprise of many, Russia has not launched large-scale cyber attacks against the United States or its NATO allies since invading Ukraine on Feb. 24. But as Western sanctions begin to bite — Russia's imports are plummeting and its GDP is poised to fall 30 percent this year, according to the Institute of International Finance — the United States must be prepared for a cornered Russian bear to lash out.
/jlne.ws/3NLHAiG
Investing In Cybersecurity Amid Rising Digital Threats
Luis Berruga - Forbes
As the world's digital transformation continues apace, hackers have access to more sensitive data than they ever have before. This can lead to conflicts between entire nations at the geopolitical level, but it can also happen between individuals and organizations on the internet and the cybercriminals who seek their data for profit. While the growing frequency and cost of such hacks are concerning, heightened awareness of cyber threats combined with significant expenditures across the world on cybersecurity firms' solutions should create major tailwinds for the cybersecurity investment theme in the long term and major opportunities for discerning investors.
/jlne.ws/3PRtzly
Cybersecurity, CEO Involvement, and Protecting the Edge
Joao-Pierre S. Ruth - InformationWeek
A pair of cybersecurity reports, issued separately by AT&T and Accenture, point to trends of the public sector's desire to compute at the edge -- elevating security concerns there -- and the need for CEOs to get more hands-on about cybersecurity.
/jlne.ws/3PScUy3
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | Tether has held some reserves at Bahamas bank Capital Union; Stablecoin has faced $10bn in redemptions after it briefly lost its peg with US dollar
Kadhim Shubber - FT
Tether has held some of its reserves at a small Bahamas bank called Capital Union, people familiar with the matter said, shedding further light on how the group manages the $73bn stablecoin that underpins the crypto market. The stablecoin issuer has generally declined to reveal where exactly it holds the assets that back its eponymous token, known as USDT, noting that, as a private company, it is not obliged to reveal information on its financial partners. Tether has come under renewed scrutiny in recent weeks after USDT briefly traded as low as 95 cents, significantly below the $1 peg it seeks to maintain. Investors have since redeemed more than $10bn from Tether, which has argued that the outflows have proven it has ample liquidity on hand.
/jlne.ws/3N5tOaL
Rechristened Luna Trades After 'Airdrop' to Terra Investors
Muyao Shen - Bloomberg
Luna, the new token distributed to investors who saw the value of their cryptocurrencies tied to the Terra blockchain wiped out, has begun trading on digital-asset exchanges. TerraForm Labs, the developer of the failed blockchain, awarded the tokens in a process referred to as an airdrop to previous holders of Luna and TerraUSD (UST) tokens. The new Luna was trading at about $6.28 per coin, according to price data on CoinGecko. Under a measure approved earlier this week, the original blockchain was split off and be known as Terra Classic, while Luna, which plunged close to zero this month, was renamed Luna Classic with the ticker LUNC. The new Terra blockchain won't include a stablecoin.
/jlne.ws/3LZRnAv
MoneyGram CEO Sees a Future in Stablecoin Remittances; Company to soon launch a platform with Stellar blockchain; CEO says remittance fees to El Salvador are competitive
Michael D McDonald and Hannah Miller - Bloomberg
One of the largest money-transfer services in the US is attempting to broaden the adoption of digital currencies. MoneyGram International Inc. is preparing to launch a service in partnership with the Stellar blockchain that would allow users to send stablecoins and easily convert them to hard currency. "The world of crypto and the world of fiat are not really compatible today," MoneyGram Chief Executive Officer Alex Holmes said in an interview with Bloomberg News. "We're trying to be a bridge from the crypto world to the fiat world."
/jlne.ws/38U8Xsm
The luna cryptocurrency has been resurrected after its $40 billion collapse. It's already crashing
Ryan Browne - CNBC
A new version of the collapsed luna cryptocurrency is already live on major exchanges — and it's gotten off to a bad start. Last week, supporters of the Terra blockchain project voted to revive luna but not terraUSD, a so-called "stablecoin" that plunged below its intended peg to the dollar, causing panic in the crypto market. TerraUSD, or UST, is what's known as an algorithmic stablecoin. It relied on code and a sister token, luna, to maintain a $1 value. But as digital currency prices fell, investors fled the stablecoin, sending UST tumbling — and taking luna down with it.
/jlne.ws/3POyFPx
Apifiny Launches VIP Program For Frequent Multi-Exchange Traders - Traders Can Now Unlock Lower Trading Fees Across Its Connected Exchanges By Providing Liquidity On Apifiny HEX
Mondovisione
Apifiny, the global cross-exchange digital asset trading network, announced today the launch of its VIP Program, which allows users to unlock lower fees across the company's network of leading exchanges by contributing liquidity to Apifiny HEX, the hybrid crypto exchange. The launch of the VIP program comes ahead of Apifiny going public through a planned merger with Abri SPAC Inc. (Nasdaq: ASPA, ASPAW, ASPAU) in Q3 2022.
/jlne.ws/3LZCAFR
UK Moves to Boost Stablecoin Protections After Terra Collapse; Central bank should oversee administration of failed projects; Treasury plans to legislate 'when parliamentary time allows'
Emily Nicolle - Bloomberg
The UK government proposed additional safeguards to protect against the potential collapse of stablecoins, weeks after the implosion of one such instrument rocked cryptoasset markets.
/jlne.ws/3lZWx52
Singapore Starts Digital-Asset Initiative Amid Crypto Departures
ByJoanna Ossinger - Bloomberg
Singapore has begun a project to investigate potential uses of asset tokenization as the city state looks to establish itself as a hub for decentralized finance after several key crypto players left.
/jlne.ws/3MgKpYd
Fidelity's Crypto-Focused Business Plans Tech Hiring Spree; Subsidiary aims to add 110 technology workers by year-end as it branches out to digital currencies beyond bitcoin, executive says
Suman Bhattacharyya - WSJ
A Fidelity Investments subsidiary, launched a few years ago to let institutional investors store and trade bitcoin, plans to double its head count this year as it predicts rising demand for cryptocurrency amid market volatility.
/jlne.ws/3N75iWI
A researcher's avatar was sexually assaulted on a metaverse platform owned by Meta, making her the latest victim of sexual abuse on Meta's platforms, watchdog says
Weilun Soon - Business Insider
A researcher entered the metaverse wanting to study users' behavior on Meta's social-networking platform Horizon World. But within an hour after she donned her Oculus virtual-reality headset, she says, her avatar was raped in the virtual space. "Metaverse: another cesspool of toxic content," a new report published by the nonprofit advocacy group SumOfUs on Tuesday, details the researcher's violent encounter in Meta's Horizon World.
/jlne.ws/3Gzg0my
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | MAS to pilot project in financial asset tokenisation: DPM Heng; Singapore keen to work with blockchain, digital asset players, but retail investors should steer clear of cryptocurrencies, says DPM
Megan Cheah - BusinessTimes
THE Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) will pilot an industry project to explore tokenisation of financial assets and develop finance infrastructure, signalling that while the crypto asset space is highly risky, it should be approached with an open mind, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said on Tuesday (May 31).
/jlne.ws/3z4Lak0
Erdogan Says Only Traitors or Illiterates Link Rate to Inflation
Asli Kandemir and Taylan Bilgic - Bloomberg
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke up against higher interest rates as a remedy for inflation a day after Turkey's central bank opted to carry on with its ultra-loose approach, even as pressure builds on consumer prices and the lira. "Those who try to impose on us a link between the benchmark rate and inflation are either illiterates or traitors," Erdogan said on Friday in Istanbul, addressing a group of businesspeople. "Don't pay attention to the ramblings of those whose only quality is in viewing the world from London or New York."
/jlne.ws/3NGn7Mg
The Bank of Viktor Orbán; Hungary's prime minister has long sought economic influence to match his political power. Now his plan for a three-bank merger is coming to life
Marton Dunai - FT
A cold early April wind blew over Budapest as Hungary's illiberal leader stepped on stage for an election victory speech. Having secured his fourth successive landslide, Viktor Orbán was jubilant as he addressed a small crowd of party faithful outside the Whale, a swanky fish-shaped convention centre by the Danube. "We sure are in good shape," he said to laughter and applause. "We won so big you can see it from the Moon." Nearby, a group of bankers with close links to the prime minister's elite circle was similarly relieved. Orbán, Europe's longest-serving government leader, for years had backed their effort to merge three of the country's largest banks into a single institution, hoping it would serve his political goals as much as customers. His victory meant the Hungarian Bankholding project would definitely go forward.
/jlne.ws/3Gw3p3D
Garland Warns of Threats to US Democracy in Harvard Speech; Attorney general signals alarm on voting rights, violence; Pledges to hold accountable 'everyone' responsible on Jan. 6
Ian Fisher - Bloomberg
Attorney General Merrick Garland warned of threats to US democracy, citing violence including the 2021 riot at the Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump, rollbacks in voting rights and possible legislative efforts to overturn the outcome of elections. "A democracy cannot survive if its citizens forsake the rule of law in favor of violence or threats of violence," Garland said in a commencement speech Sunday at Harvard University, his alma mater.
/jlne.ws/3Q3Z3VR
Boris Johnson, the party animal, has vomited over standards in public life
Andrew Rawnsley - The Guardian
Picture the squalid scene that confronted the cleaning staff on the morning after a night before of drunken delinquency by the denizens of Downing Street. Wine stains on walls. Pools of sick. Empties spilling out of bins. Mounds of party detritus on the floor. The heart of government, the place where you'd most hope for sobriety in the middle of a pandemic, turned into a vomit-splattered nightclub. The only heroes in Sue Gray's investigation into Partygate are the security staff who suffered abuse when they tried to break up illegal gatherings and the cleaners who had to mop up.
/jlne.ws/3x0BGox
Germany to change constitution to enable $110 billion defense fund
Reuters
Germany has agreed to change its constitution to allow for a credit-based special defense fund of 100 billion euros ($107.35 billion) proposed after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the German finance ministry announced on Sunday. Germany's centre-right opposition and ruling coalition with centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) said they reached the required two-thirds majority to exempt the defense fund from a constitutional debt brake. According to sources familiar with the matter, the negotiations were led by FDP leader Christian Lindner, SPD's Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht, Greens leader Annalena Baerbock and the opposition's vice whip Mathias Middelberg.
/jlne.ws/3N1kdBH
Europe's Partial Russian Oil Ban Is Flawed, But Necessary; The deal is overdue progress, and a much-needed signal of intent — even if it makes troubling concessions.
Clara Ferreira Marques and David Fickling - Bloomberg
European Union leaders have finally agreed to ban most Russian oil imports, paving the way for a sixth package of sanctions aimed at eroding the Kremlin's capacity to fund its brutal war in Ukraine. It's an imperfect solution that comes late, makes multiple concessions that draw out timing and caves to Hungary's demands for exemptions. Sanctioning gas, where infrastructure ties Russia far more tightly to European purchases, remains off the table. It's a vital step forward nonetheless.
/jlne.ws/3M6dZ2e
Exclusive: Leading experts accuse Russia of inciting genocide in Ukraine and intending to 'destroy' Ukrainian people
Ivana Kottasová - CNN
Russia's actions in Ukraine provide enough evidence to conclude that Moscow is inciting genocide and committing atrocities intended to destroy the Ukrainian people, according to the first independent report into allegations of genocide in that country. The legal report, signed by more than 30 leading legal scholars and genocide experts, accuses the Russian state of violating several articles of the United Nations Genocide Convention. It warns there is a serious and imminent risk of genocide in Ukraine, backing the accusations with a long list of evidence including examples of mass killings of civilians, forced deportations and dehumanizing anti-Ukrainian rhetoric used by top Russian officials.
/jlne.ws/3GNiJsR
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | AFME, BVI, Cboe Europe and EFAMA Agree Cross-Industry Consensus on EU Equity Consolidated Tape
AFME
AFME, BVI, Cboe Europe and EFAMA have today jointly published a position paper which provides a set of key principles needed to ensure the successful creation of an EU Equity Consolidated Tape (CT). These 11 principles, available here, would help ensure a CT is commercially viable and appropriately constructed to deliver the most benefit to European issuers, investors, exchanges and other intermediaries.
/jlne.ws/3a5N1dU
SEC Confirms Probe Into Elon Musk's Disclosure of Twitter Stake; Agency sent letter to Tesla CEO in April; Twitter agrees to keep Egon Durban on board despite failing to win shareholder support
Will Feuer - WSJ
The Securities and Exchange Commission confirmed it is looking into the timing of when Elon Musk notified the market that he had bought 5% of Twitter Inc.'s stock. The SEC, in a Friday filing, published a letter sent to Mr. Musk, dated April 4, asking why he didn't make the required filing within 10 days of crossing the 5% threshold. Mr. Musk's holdings topped 5% on March 14, securities filings show, and he announced the size of his stake in a filing April 4, by which time it topped 9%. The Wall Street Journal reported on the SEC investigation earlier this month. Mr. Musk hasn't publicly explained why he didn't file in a timely manner.
/jlne.ws/3N1eVGs
SIFMA Statement On The Delay Of The CAT Customer And Account Information System
Mondovisione
SIFMA today issued the following statement from president and CEO Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr. on the delayed implementation of the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) Customer and Account Information System:
/jlne.ws/3x1ifvR
Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) Full Customer Account Information System (CAIS) Production Certification And Compliance Deadlines Extended
Mondovisione
The Participants have determined to delay the full Customer Account Information System ("CAIS") compliance deadline from July 11, 2022, to a date projected to be in Q4 2022, which new date will be subsequently announced.
/jlne.ws/3x36DIN
Robinhood agrees to settle customer lawsuit over 2020 outages
Jody Godoy - Reuters
Robinhood Markets Inc (HOOD.O) has agreed in principle to settle a proposed class action filed by customers in the United States who claimed the investment app's outages in March 2020 shut them out of trading on pandemic-related volatility. The company filed notice of the pending deal with a San Francisco federal court on Thursday, saying it was resolving details of the agreement and would seek court approval of a settlement within 60 days. Court papers did not disclose how much Robinhood will pay to settle the action, which sought damages for a class of all U.S. users who held stock or options during a service outage on March 2, 2020.
/jlne.ws/3NHB0tE
FTX proposal prompts calls for CFTC rules review; Current bankruptcy and margin ring-fencing rules are incompatible with direct clearing, FIA says
Sharon Thiruchelvam - Risk.net
Regulatory approval of crypto exchange FTX's direct clearing model would require a broader update of US clearing rules to ensure a level playing field between newcomers and incumbents, according to the Futures Industry Association (FIA). FTX wants to give customers the option of clearing derivatives contracts directly with its central counterparty (CCP) without having to go through intermediaries, known as futures commission merchants (FCMs). FTX already offers direct clearing at its offshore
/jlne.ws/3x18gqg
ICYMI: Commissioner Caroline D. Pham in The Hill: Making progress on decentralized regulation— It's time to talk about crypto together; Excerpts from Commissioner Pham's Op-ed with SEC Commissioner Peirce in The Hill
CFTC
"'[D]ecentralized' is also an apt description of the regulatory landscape for crypto. Crypto has many actual and aspirational regulators. Regulatory decentralization can have benefits, but, if not properly managed, also can aggravate the already confusing lack of regulatory clarity over crypto. Cooperation among regulators is essential to strong, effective, pragmatic crypto regulation."
/jlne.ws/3t8SB62
SEC Announces Departure of Investor Advocate Rick A. Fleming
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Investor Advocate Rick A. Fleming will depart the agency after more than eight years of service. Mr. Fleming was appointed in February 2014 to be the first director of the Office of the Investor Advocate at the Commission.
/jlne.ws/38U4ZQu
SEC Charges Investment Adviser and Its Principals with Fraud
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that it filed charges against previously registered Rancho Santa Fe, California investment adviser Cornerstone Acquisition & Management Company LLC ("Cornerstone"), its chief executive officer, portfolio manager, and chief compliance officer, Derren Lee Geiger, and its chief financial officer, She Hwea Ngo, for allegedly making false and misleading statements, committing other deceptive acts, and committing recordkeeping and compliance violations.
/jlne.ws/3lZDzeU
The Crypto Community Says the UK's FCA Is Finally Starting to Listen
Camomile Shumba - CoinDesk
The Financial Conduct Authority, which is known for being critical of digital assets, took a different tack in its first CryptoSprint, held earlier this month. Over the course of two days, participants worked in mixed-discipline teams to explore the challenges facing the crypto industry, including how the FCA, the U.K.'s financial regulator, can support and balance innovation with standards that protect consumers, the FCA said on its website.
/jlne.ws/3lXIf4N
Former CEO of van Eyk Research pleads guilty to breaching directors' duties
ASIC
On 31 May 2022, Mr Mark Thomas, of Kanimbla, New South Wales, pleaded guilty in the Downing Centre Local Court to dishonestly using his position as a director with the intention of directly or indirectly gaining an advantage for himself.
/jlne.ws/3Q4f7qD
ASIC sues ANZ for overstating account balances and charging fees
ASIC
ASIC has commenced civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court against Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ) for allegedly misleading its customers as to the available funds and balances in their credit card accounts.
/jlne.ws/3z9Y7Jk
Publication of the English translation of "Frequently Asked Questions Regarding "Guidelines for Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism""
FSA - Japan
The FSA published "Frequently Asked Questions Regarding "Guidelines for Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism"" (issued in March, 2021, revised in March 2022), in order to contribute to promote the "Guidelines for Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism".
/jlne.ws/3xaZczn
"Gearing Up for Climate Action - The Road Ahead for the NGFS" - Opening Address by Mr Ravi Menon, Managing Director, Monetary Authority of Singapore, Chair, Network for Greening the Financial System, at the Green Swan Conference 2022 on 31 Monetary Authority of Singapore
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. It is an honour and a pleasure to address the Green Swan Conference again. As chair of the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), I would also like to express my gratitude, on behalf of the NGFS, for the opportunity to co-host this conference with the Bank for International Settlements, the European Central Bank, and the People's Bank of China.
/jlne.ws/3wYrfk3
Changes to MAS Board of Directors
The Monetary Authority of Singapore
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced the re-appointment of Mr Lim Hng Kiang to the MAS Board of Directors and the appointment of Mr Chaly Mah as Chair of its Audit Committee. 2. Mr Lim, Special Advisor, Ministry of Trade and Industry, has been re-appointed to the MAS Board for a further term of three years, from 1 June 2022 to 31 May 2025. 3. Mr Quek See Tiat, President of the Council for Estate Agencies and Chairman of the Singapore Accounting Standards Council, will step down from the MAS Board after serving for nine years when his term ends on 31 May 2022. Mr Mah, member of the MAS Board and Chairman, NetLink NBN Management Pte Ltd, will succeed him as Chair of the Audit Committee.
/jlne.ws/38UpVXA
Speech by Mr Heng Swee Keat, Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies, at the Asia Tech X Singapore Summit on 31 May 2022
Ministers,
The Monetary Authority of Singapore
Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen,
A very good morning. I am glad to be back for the second edition of the ATX Summit.
The inaugural edition last year was fully virtual. So I am happy that we are holding it in a hybrid format this year. A very warm welcome to everyone. Digital technology is changing the world, and COVID-19 has accelerated the pace of change. AI and IoT are now more pervasive. More activities are going online. The digital economy is growing swiftly, even as there are many untapped opportunities. But as the world shifts online, so too have malicious actors and threats. There was a 50% increase in cyberattacks on corporate networks last year, and a 20-fold increase in ransomware attacks against governments. Attacks on SolarWinds and the Colonial Pipeline serve as a reminder of how such threats could derail the digital economy if left unchecked. A new wave of digital technology is emerging, known loosely as Web 3.0. The metaverse, NFT, DeFi, DAO. Are these boon or bane? We are gathered here today at a critical moment.
/jlne.ws/3GGg6c3
MAS Partners the Industry to Pilot Use Cases in Digital Assets
The Monetary Authority of Singapore
Singapore, 31 May 2022...The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced today the commencement of Project Guardian, a collaborative initiative with the financial industry that seeks to explore the economic potential and value-adding use cases of asset tokenisation. Project Guardian was launched by Mr Heng Swee Keat, Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies, at the Asia Tech x Singapore Summit this morning.
/jlne.ws/3Q4iAFF
ETF Connect: Regulators announce implementation details
Securities and Futures Commission - Hong Kong
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) today announced details for the implementation of plans to include eligible exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in Stock Connect. (Note 1)
/jlne.ws/3N7qZpK
New speech by Ashley Alder: Keynote speech at PRI China Conference: Investing for Net Zero and SDGs
Securities and Futures Commission - Hong Kong
A speech entitled "Sustainable investment: regulatory priorities" delivered by Mr Ashley Alder at the PRI China Conference: Investing for Net Zero and SDGs was posted on the SFC website.
/jlne.ws/3m0HQie
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | US Gasoline Surges to Fresh Record in Another Blow to Drivers
Jack Wittels - Bloomberg
US gasoline prices surged to another fresh record, the latest blow to motorists heading into the summer driving season. Average retail prices in the US reached $4.619 per gallon as of Monday, according to the latest data from the American Automobile Association. That's up from $4.178 a gallon a month ago and is about 52% higher than a year-earlier.
/jlne.ws/3Q3Zwaz
US Farmland Is a Hot Commodity. That's Not Great for Farms.; The surging cost of Midwestern acreage hinders the kind of agricultural innovation favored by a new generation of resilient and experimental farmers.
Adam Minter - Bloomberg
Looking for a hedge against inflation? Midwestern farmland might be for you. Across the Midwest, values are up 23% from a year ago, fueled by surging commodity prices. Rents on Iowa farmland have surged 10.22% so far in 2022. And more opportunity is on the way. More than 40% of US farmland is owned by people older than 65, so hundreds of millions of their acres will transfer to new owners in the coming years.
/jlne.ws/3x28oWH
Yuan-Ruble Trading Surges as America's Rivals Rebuff Dollar; Direct trading between Russian, Chinese currencies up 1,067%; Nations seek to protect their economies from U.S. sanctions
Bloomberg News
The emerging multi-polar world now includes foreign-exchange markets -- as China and Russia, the biggest challengers to U.S. supremacy, boost direct trading between their currencies. Monthly volumes on the ruble-yuan pair have surged 1,067% to almost $4 billion since the start of the war in Ukraine as the two nations seek to reduce their reliance on the dollar and boost bilateral trade to overcome current and potential U.S sanctions. The spike coincides with a rally in the ruble to a five-year high against the yuan.
/jlne.ws/3NIg45D
I'm a stripper — we can read the markets better than bankers
Adrian Zorzut - The Sun
A stripper has claimed she can read markets better than bankers and set out why she thinks we're heading for a recession. The adult entertainer said strip clubs were "sadly a leading indicator" of economic health, adding that we're already in a recession. In a series of earlier Twitter posts, the woman, who goes by the username @botticellibimbo, said strip venues are "an operative tool" for business people and not just a source of "sinful" entertainment.
/jlne.ws/3a6eP1J
Lumber Prices Slump With Rising Interest Rates; Prices shed more than 50% since March, when the Fed began raising borrowing costs to slow inflation
Ryan Dezember - WSJ
Lumber prices have come crashing down in a new sign of how rising interest rates are deflating markets that boomed during the pandemic. Wood prices were a leading indicator of the supply-chain problems and inflation that followed pandemic lockdowns. Prices shot up in the summer of 2020 as cooped-up Americans remodeled en masse and demand for suburban houses soared. By last spring, lumber cost more than twice the prepandemic high. Now, two-by-four prices are flashing caution.
/jlne.ws/3NiVs4t
Adjustable-Rate Mortgages Are Back, but Aren't Like You Remember; Rise in interest rates fuels demand for ARMs; but gone are the ultralow teaser rates and lax lending requirements
Orla McCaffrey - WSJ
A jump in interest rates has revived demand for adjustable-rate mortgages. But these loans bear little resemblance to the ones blamed for fueling the 2008-09 financial crisis. Applications for ARMs, a kind of mortgage that carries a lower rate in the loan's early years, more than doubled in April from a year earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. More than 9% of mortgage applications submitted last week were for adjustable-rate mortgages, up from 4% a year ago.
/jlne.ws/3t1SWqY
17 States Where Unemployment Is at Record Lows; Rates for the unemployed have never been lower in these states two years after Covid-19 drove the national jobless rate to a record high
Sarah Chaney Cambon and Bryan Mena - WSJ
The unemployment rate in 17 states concentrated in the Midwest, South and Mountain West reached a record low in April, a sign of an unusually tight labor market. The milestone in those states marks a sharp reversal from the spring of 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic drove unemployment to record highs in 15 of those states, according to Labor Department data tracing back to 1976.
/jlne.ws/3N66A4g
Put Me In, Coach: Why Athletes Make Great Traders
PEAK6
It's the moment you've been training for. The clock is ticking. You feel the sweat draining down your forehead, but there's no time to wipe your brow. It's game time. But that scene doesn't have to take place on the football field or basketball court. (Or the ice rink, as college hockey player and PEAK6 co-founder Matt Hulsizer can attest.) That same situation plays out every weekday on the trading floor. The traits that make for a successful athlete—tenacity, humility, a competitive spirit—easily translate to trading.
/jlne.ws/3GvVl2R
Traders Bet on Texas Natural Gas Discount Despite US Export Boom; Permian gas prices trade below the benchmark on bottleneck fears
Gerson Freitas Jr - Bloomberg
Natural gas exports from the US are soaring amid a global shortage of the fuel, but traders are betting that producers in one of the biggest shale basins will be selling their supply at a discount next year. The culprit: A lack of pipelines.
/jlne.ws/3x3OcDS
Deglobalisation is boosting foreign exchange volatility; Currency swings will continue until globalising forces, such as resilient supply chains, resume
Adam Iqbal - FT
Foreign exchange markets have this year been jolted by a sudden increase in volatility. There are many reasons for this, but at the heart of the shift is deglobalisation. To understand why, consider first the opposite. In a hypothetical, perfectly globalised world, there would be no barriers to international trade, meaning goods could be produced in one country and transported to the other without cost or friction.
/jlne.ws/3lWiVfJ
Private equity cannot avoid the reckoning in markets; Both the real economy and the financial system are in a destabilising phase for both public and private investors
Mohamed El-Erian - FT
At a conference of investment professionals I recently attended, several private equity funds argued with considerable vigour that this year's large losses in public markets would drive even more investors their way.
/jlne.ws/3M2ynkZ
Absolute transparency' needed on private market fees, BlackRock says; Fund manager seeks to improve disclosures to pension clients as UK pushes for shift into unlisted assets
Josephine Cumbo - FT
BlackRock is seeking to provide "absolute transparency" on private market fees as the UK government pushes pension plans to plough funds into unlisted assets, an executive at the world's biggest asset manager said.
/jlne.ws/3wXMIL7
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | Suspended HSBC Banker Draws Ire From Academics Over Climate Rant
Alastair Marsh - Bloomberg
After drawing both cheers and rebukes from within the finance industry, HSBC Asset Management's suspended head of responsible investing has now caught the attention of academia. A presentation delivered by Stuart Kirk earlier this month offered "spurious correlations," as well as "weak methods" and an "even weaker" grasp of financial theory, according to Noel Amenc, a PhD and associate professor at EDHEC Business School, and Frederik Blanc-Brude, a PhD and director at EDHEC Infrastructure Institute.
/jlne.ws/3Na20Co
Dimensional's ESG Boss Voices Doubts Over Investing Strategy; Promises of ESG-driven outperformance likely 'won't stack up'; 'No compelling evidence' of ESG's impact on cost of capital
Natasha White - Bloomberg
As the ESG industry faces attacks from a growing chorus of detractors, insiders are also starting to air their doubts around aspects of the investing form. James Whittington, head of responsible investment at Dimensional Fund Advisors with about $660 billion of assets under management, said the industry is struggling both in terms of real-world impact and returns.
/jlne.ws/3PPxuPQ
Giant Deep Ocean Turbine Trial Offers Hope of Endless Green Power; Tested in one of the world's strongest ocean currents, a prototype generator could herald the start of a new stream of renewable energy
Erica Yokoyama - Bloomberg
Power-hungry, fossil-fuel dependent Japan has successfully tested a system that could provide a constant, steady form of renewable energy, regardless of the wind or the sun. For more than a decade, Japanese heavy machinery maker IHI Corp. has been developing a subsea turbine that harnesses the energy in deep ocean currents and converts it into a steady and reliable source of electricity. The giant machine resembles an airplane, with two counter-rotating turbine fans in place of jets, and a central 'fuselage' housing a buoyancy adjustment system. Called Kairyu, the 330-ton prototype is designed to be anchored to the sea floor at a depth of 30-50 meters (100-160 feet).
/jlne.ws/3GyCmVe
Holding the world in your portfolio and considering climate transition risks
Diana R. Baechle, PhD - Qontigo
The STOXX WTW Climate Transition Indices are a new approach to managing climate risk that offer investors a systematic and transparent way to incorporate climate transition risk into their investment decisions. The index methodology leverages WTW's proprietary Climate Transition Value at Risk (CTVaR) data to assess the anticipated impact of climate transition on company valuations as we move to a net zero economy. The indices offer investors diversified equity exposure with the potential for enhanced returns over time and attractive sustainability characteristics. For investors seeking to manage climate transition risk, the STOXX WTW Climate Transition Indices may be used to replace existing equity allocations.
/jlne.ws/3t5hvmZ
Activist Investing Has Come for Fossil Fuels. What About Guns?; With politicians unwilling to act, some investors are trying to use shareholder resolutions to get gun makers to rein in their products.
Emily Flitter - NY Times
The message after a mass shooting, this time at a Texas elementary school, was clear: People who want to curb gun violence should "cast their vote in November." That was how Senator Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader and Democrat of New York, put it on Wednesday. But not everyone will have to wait until then. On June 1, when the shareholders of the Connecticut-based gun maker Sturm Ruger log in to the company's virtual annual meeting, they can vote on a shareholder proposal that states because of "the inherent lethality of firearms," Ruger must hire an outside firm to study its impact on human rights, "above and beyond legal and regulatory matters."
/jlne.ws/3t1T9ug
The Texas Law That Has Banks Saying They Don't 'Discriminate' Against Guns
Stephen Gandel - NY Times
Four years ago, JPMorgan Chase joined some of the nation's largest banks in publicly distancing itself from the firearm industry after a mass shooting in Parkland, Fla., left 17 people dead. JPMorgan's relationships with gunmakers "have come down significantly and are pretty limited," Marianne Lake, then the bank's chief financial officer, told reporters. "We do have robust risk management practices and policies associated with this," she said. The bank, along with Citigroup and other Wall Street firms, did not completely shut the door on gun companies.
/jlne.ws/3t6DkTc
The SEC Is Sending a Clear Message About Sustainable Investments
Lauren Foster - Barron's
Sustainable investing has exploded in popularity in recent years, attracting not only billions of dollars to ESG-oriented funds but also heightened scrutiny. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently singled out ESG—which stands for environmental, social, and governance—as one of its areas of significant focus for the year.
/jlne.ws/3M2wFjF
Big Oil Has a New Unknown: Taxes; New U.K. 'energy profits levy' shows how easily policy can be usurped by politics, bringing more unpredictability to the energy transition
Stephen Wilmot and Rochelle Toplensky - WSJ
Politicians want greater energy independence. They also want to cut carbon emissions. Most of all, though, they want votes. The conflicting priorities of policy makers shaped a tortuous path to a new tax on oil-and-gas profits in the U.K., finally announced Thursday after much wrangling and leaking. The "energy profits levy" adds an extra 25% to the existing 40% headline tax rate on the industry's local earnings. Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government expects it to raise about £5 billion, or $6.3 billion, in its first 12 months.
/jlne.ws/3PTvOVg
Deutsche Bank, DWS Raided Over Allegations of Greenwashing; Frankfurt offices searched by police; DWS says its cooperating; Raid adds to pressure on DWS Chief Executive Asoka Woehrmann
Steven Arons, Karin Matussek, and Nicholas Comfort - Bloomberg
Deutsche Bank AG and its asset management unit had their Frankfurt offices raided by police, adding to the legal headaches facing Germany's largest lender. Law enforcement officials on Tuesday morning entered the twin towers where Germany's largest lender is headquartered, as well as the nearby premises of DWS Group, according to a statement from the prosecutor that confirmed an earlier Bloomberg report. The search is related to accusations of greenwashing against the asset manager.
/jlne.ws/3NNVdhE
***** Here is the FT version of this story.~JJL
Miracle Fuel Hydrogen Can Actually Make Climate Change Worse; If it escapes into the air, this green fuel can contribute to global warming — which is why scientists say we need to limit leaks.
David R Baker - Bloomberg
A world desperate for a climate-friendly fuel is pinning its hopes on hydrogen, seeing it as a way to power factories, buildings, ships and planes without pumping carbon dioxide into the sky.
/jlne.ws/3GwLVEh
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Deutsche Bank's Fabrizio Campelli: 'We'll do what it takes to attract people'; Deutsche's investment bank head says it has switched to a 'growth phase' after three years of restructuring - one that will still allow staff to focus on wellness
Paul Clarke - Financial News
Fabrizio Campelli has worked at Deutsche Bank for nearly two decades and has seen his fair share of storms. But since taking charge of its investment bank and corporate bank in May last year, he's been enjoying a period of relative calm.
/jlne.ws/3lVzpEH
European Banks Led by BNP to Benefit From Basel Rule Change; Regulators tweak math for capital buffers in nod to bank union; BNP Paribas could see lower capital requirements as a result
Nicholas Comfort and Jenny Leonard - Bloomberg
European banks led by BNP Paribas SA stand to benefit after global regulators agreed to start treating the euro area as one market in determining capital requirements for its top lenders. Banks headquartered in Europe's banking union, which encompasses mainly the countries that share the euro, would see cross-border exposures within the bloc treated as domestic ones, which are considered less risky, according to documents from the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision seen by Bloomberg.
/jlne.ws/3abw6q8
BNP Paribas Aims to Hire 7,000 People in France in 2022; Lender expanding retail, corporate, IT-function staff; BNP says it aims to hire 20,000 per year worldwide by 2025
Alexandre Rajbhandari - Bloomberg
BNP Paribas SA announced a plan to hire as many as 7,000 people in France this year, as the lender implements a strategy to drive growth through technology and sustainable finance.
/jlne.ws/3zp8PvR
Canadian Banks Gave 'False Signal' on Credit, National Bank Says
Derek Decloet - Bloomberg
Canadian banks delivered surprisingly good earnings last week because of lower-than-expected credit losses. They'll find it harder to repeat that feat in the near future, according to National Bank of Canada. Five of country's six largest banks beat earnings-per-share forecasts by an average of 8%, analyst Gabriel Dechaine said in a note to clients. Nearly half of the outperformance was due to low provisions for credit losses, he said. The exception was Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, which set aside C$303 million ($239 million) in PCLs, more than analysts had projected.
/jlne.ws/3xawTRD
JPMorgan's European headcount swells to 1,300 after Brexit plan rollout; Big banks are under pressure to bolster their European operations further
Paul Clarke - Financial News
JPMorgan has doubled the number of staff in its European hub to nearly 1,300 as it completes the rollout of its Brexit plans. The US investment bank has been transferring staff and building out significant presence in France and Germany as it completes its planned Brexit transition.
/jlne.ws/3M2elXF
Jefferies names new European ECM leaders as Leach steps down; Erpici and Diehl promoted in latest shake-up at Jefferies
Paul Clarke - Financial News
Jefferies has named new leaders of its equity capital markets team in Europe, as Rob Leach steps down for a job on the buy side. Luca Erpici and Oliver Diehl have been promoted to joint heads of ECM for Europe, according to an internal memo seen by Financial News.
/jlne.ws/3lU15Kh
Goldman's Move to Unlimited Vacation Is Good for ... Goldman; Goldman Sachs is the latest company to let workers take as much time off as they want. That means no more unused days — and no need to pay them out later.
Lananh Nguyen and Emma Goldberg - NY Times
When Goldman Sachs — the investment bank known for its hard-charging culture — recently told its senior bankers that they could take off as much time as they wanted, the policy shift immediately catapulted it into the ranks of America's most employee-friendly companies. Managers should "take the vacation they need so they can continue to run hard, be competitive, run productively, but take care of their families," David M. Solomon, Goldman's chief executive, told CNBC.
/jlne.ws/3NNtZaW
Unscheduled free float adjustment for Aareal Bank AG in SDAX
Press Releases - Qontigo
Qontigo's global index provider STOXX Ltd. has announced an unscheduled adjustment to the SDAX index.
The free float of Aareal Bank AG changes by more than 10 percentage points.
/jlne.ws/3z6PHlQ
Blackstone's New Twist on Private Credit Will Open Up Billions; New Blackstone fund will target rich Europeans for credit push; 'Time is ripe for private individuals to access this market'
Rachel McGovern - Bloomberg
Blackstone Inc. is testing a new way to bring in cash from rich Europeans. If it succeeds, the private equity powerhouse stands to draw billions to the fast-growing and risky world of private credit.
/jlne.ws/3M3KbDA
Fund industry heavyweights muscle in on ETF market; Morgan Stanley, Neuberger Berman, SEI and Matthews Asia have launched or are poised to debut products
Steve Johnson - FT
Neuberger Berman and a clutch of some of the world's biggest investors are joining the exchange traded fund industry for the first time, as they seek a foothold in a fast-growing sector that has piled pressure on active managers to justify their fees.
/jlne.ws/3GGVuk4
BlackRock's Asia-Pacific boss confident brain drain is temporary; Rachel Lord says expat exodus is short-term response to pandemic that will wane over next year
Harriet Agnew, Tabby Kinder - FT
The head of Asia-Pacific at the world's largest asset manager BlackRock said she was confident that an exodus of foreign talent was temporary, and that the region remained attractive despite border closures, repeated lockdowns and political tensions.
/jlne.ws/3N3apqV
Ex-CIBC banker files $1M sex harassment, racial discrimination suit
Ariel Zilber - NY Post
A former executive banker at Canadian lender CIBC has filed a lawsuit claiming that its London office was a hostile work environment where women were subjected to comments about their looks and attire. Zhuofang Wei, who worked as an executive director at CIBC for nearly two years between 2018 and 2020, has sued CIBC for $1 million for lost earnings and damages, alleging she suffered sexual and racial discrimination.
/jlne.ws/3wZQ1Bs
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | How Covid-19 Transformed the U.S. Economy
Reade Pickert, Alexandre Tanzi and Jacqueline Gu - Bloomberg
Covid-19 arrived as an emergency. It's turned into a catalyst for lasting economic change. The pandemic now in its third year has redrawn the map of the U.S. economy, reshuffled its labor force, and reupped the toolkit available to its policy makers. All of those shifts appear likely to outlast the health crisis that triggered them. American workers are on the move, as the economy tilts away from its historic coastal strongholds. They're also more likely to be found at home during office hours, after a remote-work revolution.
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Unlikely monkeypox outbreak will lead to pandemic, WHO says
Natalie Grover - Reuters
The World Health Organization does not believe the monkeypox outbreak outside Africa will lead to a pandemic, an official said on Monday, adding it remains unclear if infected people who are not displaying symptoms can transmit the disease. More than 300 suspected and confirmed cases of monkeypox - a usually mild illness that spreads through close contact and can cause flu-like symptoms and pus-filled skin lesions - have been reported in May, mostly in Europe. The WHO is considering whether the outbreak should be assessed as a "potential public health emergency of international concern" or PHEIC. Such a declaration, as was done for COVID-19 and Ebola, would help accelerate research and funding to contain the disease.
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AstraZeneca + Pfizer Vaccines = Better Omicron Immunity; The UK's mix-and-match approach to vaccinations looks accidentally brilliant.
Therese Raphael and Sam Fazeli - Bloomberg
Could the UK inadvertently have given some of its population the best immunity possible against SARS-CoV-2? After reported side effects among some populations with the AstraZeneca vaccine, the UK and much of Europe decided to use Pfizer shots as a second shot in certain age groups, creating a natural mix-and-match dosing experiment. New data from the UK suggest that this particular mix offered extra immunity from the omicron variant compared to those who had other platforms.
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | China Is Leading the Global Decline in Venture Capital Deals; Value of venture deals tumbled 44% in the first four months; China financing 'completely suspended' with pandemic, downtur
Jane Zhang - Bloomberg
China, once the primary rival to Silicon Valley's technology success, is now leading the global decline in venture capital investments. The value of venture deals in the country tumbled 44% to $24.7 billion in the first four months of the year, compared with a year earlier, according to data from the research firm Preqin. That's almost twice the rate of decline in the US and nearly four times the pace of the global slide.
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Sri Lanka Urges Airlines to Fly Full Tank or Fill Elsewhere; Emirates, SriLankan among carriers forced to fill up overseas; Island nation going through shortage of all essential supplies
Anusha Ondaatjie - Bloomberg
Sri Lanka is recommending airlines carry enough jet fuel to last return trips or fill up elsewhere, as the island grapples with a shortage of everything from oil to food due to a foreign-exchange crisis. "We've asked airlines to carry the required fuel while operating to Sri Lanka, because there is a shortage of aviation fuel, and we have to manage the situation," Rayhan Wanniappa, a director of Sri Lanka's Civil Aviation Authority, said in a phone interview Monday. "Airlines are bringing certain additional supplies, while we are also providing from our stocks."
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In Singapore, a Chicken Ban Is a Serious Threat; Malaysia's decision to halt poultry exports raises the deeper vulnerabilities of the import-reliant city-state in an era of protectionism.
Daniel Moss - Bloomberg
It feels like Singapore has only just switched from combating the pandemic, with some of the developed world's strictest curbs, to plunging headlong into a fight against inflation. The central bank tightened policy three times since late last year. Now, the highly urbanized island that imports most of what it eats has a front-row seat to food nationalism. Neighboring Malaysia, from which Singapore gets a third of its poultry, is banning chicken exports starting Wednesday, citing domestic shortages and price spikes.
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China uses digital yuan to stimulate virus-hit consumption
Reuters
China is using the digital yuan to stimulate consumption in its pandemic-hit economy, with more e-CNY applications expected in future to boost transparency and effectiveness of government policies. The southern city of Shenzhen started distributing 30 million yuan ($4.50 million) worth of free digital cash on Monday to revive consumption and aid businesses. It comes days after Xiong'an New Area in northern Hebei province, launched a similar campaign to hand out 50 million yuan worth of e-CNY "red packets" as gifts.
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Japan's Stodgy Small Banks Might Finally Show Investors the Money; Midsize lenders are sitting on large holdings of other Japanese companies. That could start to change soon.
Jacky Wong - WSJ
Investors have never been in much love with Japan's small banks. The prospect of a gradual move to clean up their balance sheets may change that. Japanese regional banks don't look like good investments: returns have been paltry and growth is nonexistent. Their small scale makes it hard to compete with the country's megabanks, and Japan's low interest rates and aging population just add to their problems. Shares of Japanese regional banks have nearly halved since 2015, according to FactSet. Surprisingly, that all might be about to change. What could attract investors is that these stodgy institutions may finally have to deal with their large holdings of other Japanese companies, resulting in higher payouts—during a period when cash is king in global markets. Such cross-shareholdings have been common in Japan's corporate world as they own stakes in each other to maintain business ties.
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Chinese Banks Overflow With Cash That Nobody Wants to Borrow
Bloomberg News
Chinese authorities are facing an uphill battle convincing companies and households to boost borrowing as long as Covid outbreaks and lockdowns continue to crush confidence.
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US Rivals Shunning Dollar Lifts Yuan-Ruble Trading by 1,067%
Bloomberg News
The emerging multi-polar world now includes foreign-exchange markets -- as China and Russia, the biggest challengers to U.S. supremacy, boost direct trading between their currencies. Monthly volumes on the ruble-yuan pair have surged 1,067% to almost $4 billion since the start of the war in Ukraine as the two nations seek to reduce their reliance on the dollar and boost bilateral trade to overcome current and potential U.S sanctions. The spike coincides with a rally in the ruble to a five-year high against the yuan.
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Move over, China: US is now India's biggest trading partner
Mimansa Verma - Quartz
India seems to have deepened its ties with the US, making the world's largest democracy its top trading partner in fiscal 2021-22, surpassing China. In the financial year ended in March 2022, bilateral trade between the US and India stood at $119.42 billion (9.25 lakh crore rupees), as against $80.51 billion in the previous year, according to the Indian commerce ministry. The US is among the few countries with which India has a trade surplus, meaning exports exceed imports.
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India asked to supply more than 1.5 million tonnes wheat
Mayank Bhardwaj and Rajendra Jadhav - Reuters
India has received requests for the supply of more than 1.5 million tonnes of wheat from several countries that need the staple to overcome shortages triggered by the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, trade and government sources said on Monday.
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China Unlikely to Add More Sectors to Carbon Market Until 2024; Beijing will probably add four more sectors -- aluminum, cement, steel and petrochemicals -- to its carbon market in 2024.
Bloomberg News
China is likely to delay adding some of its most polluting industries to its carbon market to 2024, a move that risks making it tougher for the government to achieve its target of being carbon neutral by 2060.
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How China's lockdown policies are crippling the country's economy
Ed White, Andy Lin, Dan Clark, Sam Joiner and Caroline Nevitt - FT
After months of rolling lockdowns in scores of Chinese cities that have forced hundreds of millions of people to remain in their homes, it is clear that President Xi Jinping is prepared to pursue his policy of zero-Covid at the expense of all other concerns.
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Israel's Long-Delayed Sovereign Wealth Fund to Open on June 1
Alisa Odenheimer - Bloomberg
Israel's long-delayed sovereign wealth fund will begin operations on June 1, after tax authorities said that sufficient natural-resource levies had been collected to meet the minimum threshold set by law. Parliament voted to set up Israel's first sovereign wealth fund in 2014 to invest surplus tax revenue from newly discovered off-shore natural-gas fields in the eastern Mediterranean, setting a 1 billion shekel ($300 million) baseline before it could open. This target has repeatedly been missed due to lower-than-expected tax revenue from the gas industry.
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Billionaire Kellner Family Drops $1.1 Billion Czech Bank Merger; PPF cites worse economic, market conditions for scrapping deal; Investment company to keep Moneta stake for at least 12 months
Krystof Chamonikolas - Bloomberg
The billionaire Kellner family's PPF Group NV scrapped an attempt to create and possibly control one of the biggest Czech banks after the deal became less favorable due to worsening economic environment. PPF and Prague-traded Moneta Money Bank AS said they won't go ahead with a complex transaction that was one of the last large deals initiated by the investment company's founder Petr Kellner before he died in a helicopter crash last year.
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Analysis-Russia's 'political' debt default sets emerging market precedent
Davide Barbuscia and Sujata Rao - Reuters
Russia is on the cusp of a unique kind of debt crisis which investors say would be a first time a major emerging market economy is pushed into a bond default by geopolitics, rather than empty coffers. Until the Kremlin launched an attack on Ukraine on Feb. 24, few would have entertained the possibility of Russia defaulting on its hard currency bonds. Its strong solvency track record, bumper export revenues and an inflation-fighting central bank had made it a favourite of emerging market investors.
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Bank of Canada Faces Credibility Test in Political Firestorm Over Inflation; Macklem may have to 'overdo it' on rate hikes to repair trust; Second of three consecutive half-point moves expected June 1
Theophilos Argitis - Bloomberg
If worrying about an overheating economy wasn't enough trouble, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem enters a crucial six-week period in his battle against inflation with an unexpected new problem: questions about his own credibility. The 60-year-old central banker is being targeted by prominent politicians from the opposition Conservative Party who are casting doubt on his commitment to the fight. And while most economists and pundits have dismissed the criticism as frivolous, the attacks come at a tense time.
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| Miscellaneous | | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | New body launches to close class divide in financial sector; Progress Together aims to improve socio-economic diversity at senior level in UK financial
Kirsten Hyde - FIA
A new membership body called Progress Together has been launched as part of efforts to bring people from less privileged backgrounds into senior roles across financial services firms. The UK-based organisation will offer its members access to workshops, resources, mentoring schemes and benchmarking to improve progression and retention of less-privileged staff. The launch of Progress Together comes as a new survey of nearly 10,000 people from 49 financial and professional services firms found that employees whose parents did not have professional careers themselves were 30% less likely to reach a senior position in their firm compared with their colleagues.
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FIA Japan Elects 2022 Board Members, Appoints Officers
FIA
The Futures Industry Association Japan (FIA Japan), the leading financial industry association in Tokyo with a focus on derivatives, held its 34th Annual General Meeting on May 25, and elected 16 Board Members for FY2022. Following the AGM, the board members elected their new Officers for FY2022.
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The Wall Street Hotel Aims to Make 1700s-Era Finance Cool Again; A new hangout in the birthplace of finance.
Nikki Ekstein - Bloomberg
The block of Wall Street between Pearl and Water in Lower Manhattan has a glamorous history that belies its current state. Where now you'll find little more than a Verizon store and a standard-issue Hyatt Centric, there used to stand buildings that marked the earliest days of the American finance industry.
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Summer Worker Shortage Means Things Will Be Closed. Again; Pools, restaurants and camps cut operations even though demand is back. Labor costs are higher and so are prices. 'What, no one is applying?'
Sarah Chaney Cambon, Harriet Torry - WSJ
Many Americans hoped this would be the first normal summer after two years of Covid-19 disruptions. A chronic labor shortage means it probably won't be. In Phoenix, less than half of the public pools are opening because the city can't hire enough lifeguards, despite offering a $2,500 incentive payment. Trolley lines in coastal Maine that service beaches are shutting down for the summer due to a dearth of drivers. Across the country, restaurants in tourist destinations are operating on limited hours because they don't have enough staff to stay open longer.
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