| March 31, 2023 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | |  | John Lothian
Publisher
John Lothian News | |
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
Sam Bankman-Fried and the senior executives of Credit Suisse, UBS and Silicon Valley Bank would like to thank Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Gwyneth Paltrow for changing the headlines across all major publications. The New York Post's top headline is "The Gathering Stormy."
Speaking of SBF, he pleaded not guilty (CBS) to the latest charges of bribing a Chinese government official and other charges. The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal also reported on the story.
Business Insider is reporting that SBF is tapping a "multi-million dollar gift" to his father to pay his legal bills. Let's hope that gift had a lot of zeroes to it.
Anyone have ideas on what to do with empty Manhattan office space? According to a Bloomberg story quoting the brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., Manhattan office vacancy is at a record high as new developments add even more space to a market struggling with work-from-home workers.
After news Cargill was exiting the Russian grain business, you expected some of the other grain giants would not be far behind. Bloomberg is now reporting that ADM is weighing its options to exit its main Russian business, a joint venture with Russian partner Aston.
CoinDesk does not editorialize very often, but they came out with an existential one yesterday titled "CoinDesk Editorial: It Sure Looks Like the U.S. Is Trying to Kill Crypto."
Global dealmaking, mergers and acquisitions fell in the first quarter of 2023 to levels not seen since 2001, the Financial Times reported. Evidently rising interest rates and banking problems are not good for dealmaking.
Craig Coben, a former global head of equity capital markets at Bank of America and now a managing director at Seda Experts, digs into the problems of deal making with an opinion piece in the Financial Times titled "A lamentation of investment bankers; Digging into the deal doldrums."
One of the great political divides in the U.S. is between those with college educations and those without, the elites versus the populists, as it were. According to a Wall Street Journal story, Americans are losing faith in the value of a college education, with 56% now saying a four-year college education is a bad bet. Sounds like college educators need to get their costs under control to improve the value they are delivering.
Speaking of elites, The New York Times reports that Mark Russell, the piano playing political satirist, has died at the age of 90 from prostate cancer.
The EEX Heart Race team covered over 750km as they ran and cycled for Organ Donation in the Heart Race 2023, EEX reported on LInkedIn.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Division of Enforcement, New York Regional Office is seeking to hire four trial attorneys in New York. Evidently, business is good in New York these days.
Citadel has posted a new video to their YouTube account titled "Inside Citadel: Joanna Welsh on Citadel's Culture of Collaboration." Welsh describes the new risk management center Citadel is building in what looks like Miami.
The good news for the weather is that the Nodal Exchange is doing well. It posted this record daily volume a day ago in Texas CRS wind and solar REC futures with 3,615 lots traded, topping the previous record of 3,450 lots set on August 10, 2021.
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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The ICE Sustainable Finance Monthly for March has been published. The newsletter discusses the ESG data gap in fixed income and ICE dataset additions relating to impact bond proceeds. It also provides information on a new ICE reporting solution for the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). View the newsletter here.~SAED
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Gain Small-Cap Exposure with Options on the Russell 2000 Index
Learn why small-cap indexes like the Russell 2000 have historically outperformed large-cap counterparts, and how an options strategy can help you manage your risk while expressing an opinion on the index.
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Trading Technologies CEO Keith Todd discusses TT's strategic plans for growth and acquisition of AxeTrading
JohnLothianNews.com
Keith Todd was interviewed by John Lothian News at the FIA International Futures Conference in Boca Raton, FL about Trading Technologies and its strategic plans for growth. JLN asked him about the strategy behind acquiring AxeTrading. He discussed Axe's strong base, the global/local transformation of Trading Technologies, and its move into other asset classes. Todd discussed meeting customer needs and how to best embrace new efficiencies while ensuring systems are resilient. He talked about TT's role in the exchange ecosystem. Finally, Todd discussed the TT platform business.
Watch the video »
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Southwest Says Extreme Weather Is a Growing Concern for Airlines; Preparing based on historic norms no longer works, COO says; Carrier briefs workers on findings of December meltdown review
Mary Schlangenstein - Bloomberg
Southwest Airlines Co. is learning the hard way about climate change, blaming extreme weather as a culprit in a meltdown that stranded more than 2 million passengers over the year-end holidays. The carrier is changing the way it forecasts and responds to severe storms as part of a series of reforms to prevent a repeat of the late December disruptions that left crews and aircraft scattered across 50 airports and cost it nearly $1.2 billion.
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***** Thunderstorms are expected in Chicago today, and there has been some talk of potential tornados. It is a good day for the Chicago Cubs to take off and enjoy their first Opening Day win in the month of March ever and wait to play game two against the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday.~JJL
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A Day of Work for a Good Cause - How SIX Employees Go to Bat for Our Environment and Society
Six Group
SIX has been organizing volunteer assignments called SIX Social Days for its employees for over a decade. SIX Social Days give employees an opportunity once a year to help out on a social or an environmental project during their regular work time. Through this engagement, SIX makes a valuable contribution to society and our environment while also promoting team spirit and dialogue between employees outside of office life.
/jlne.ws/3M7j4eq
***** I would have hoped they would have more than SIX employees involved. Seven or eight would be better.~JJL
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The SEC Tries to Do Too Much, Too Fast; 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' is a good name for a movie but a bad idea for regulators.
Kevin Kennedy - The Wall Street Journal Opinion
U.S. equities markets are a cornerstone of the global economy and serve investors and issuers better than any other. This reputation has been earned over time thanks to the Securities and Exchange Commission's record of making strategic and incremental enhancements to markets with input from industry and the public. The commission's goal-to promote transparent, fair, efficient, competitive and inclusive markets-is one that Nasdaq shares.
/jlne.ws/3TWgPMS
****** Imagining Jamie Lee Curtis as an SEC regulator is just too much fun.~JJL
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'Greedflation': profit-boosting mark-ups attract an inevitable backlash
Anne-Sylvaine Chassany - Financial Times
Chief executives - especially of consumer-facing companies - beware. Policymakers, economists and, increasingly, the public are growing sceptical of justifications for rising prices. Bumper profits and bigger margins have not gone unnoticed and a new word, greedflation, has started to crop up.
/jlne.ws/3ZLxCDT
******What is the opposite of "greedflation"? Feardeflation? ~JJL
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Thursday's Top Three
Our most read story Thursday was Crypto Giant Binance Offered Perks to 'Flash Boys,' Regulator's Lawsuit Says, from The Wall Street Journal. Second was a tie between 'Degenerate Gambling' in Zero-Day Options Thrills Retail Traders, from Bloomberg, and the LinkedIn post from Peter Reitz about taking new colleagues to lunch. Third was our John Lothian News video interview with CME Group Chairman and CEO Terry Duffy at FIA Boca 2023.
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MarketsWiki Stats
27,268 pages; 244,011 edits
MarketsWiki Statistics
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| All MarketsWiki Sponsors» | | | | | | | John Lothian News (JLN) is the news division of John J. Lothian & Company, Inc. (JJLCO). The online media and financial services firm is staffed by derivatives industry, journalism and technology professionals. | | | | | | | John Lothian News Editorial Staff: | | | John Lothian
Publisher | | | Sarah Rudolph
Editor-in-Chief
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Editor
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| Lead Stories | How Crypto Plans to Fight Back Against Washington
Joe Light - Barron's
As the crypto industry sees it, the government's latest attack is a declaration of war, Godfather-style. After Coinbase Global (ticker: COIN) disclosed that the Securities and Exchange Commission had issued it a "Wells notice," essentially warning of a lawsuit, industry executives and lawyers mobilized into action. The morning after the disclosure, an internal chat channel at the Blockchain Association trade group lit up, with one commentator comparing SEC Chair Gary Gensler to The Godfather's rising mob boss.
/jlne.ws/40x9Dcs
Quarter of emerging countries lose effective access to debt markets; Banking turmoil has driven up spreads on sovereign bond yields over US Treasuries to levels that impair ability to raise funds
Martha Muir - Financial Times
More than a quarter of emerging market countries have found themselves effectively locked out of international bond markets as recent chaos in the banking sector has prompted investors to shun riskier assets.
/jlne.ws/3znVi6e
CFTC Charges Against Binance Highlight Role of Former Compliance Chief
Mengqi Sun - The Wall Street Journal
The suit by U.S. regulators against Binance Holdings Ltd. focuses in large part on the work of the cryptocurrency exchange's former chief compliance officer, alleging he willfully aided and abetted the firm in evading U.S. laws. Samuel Lim, Binance's compliance chief between 2018 and 2022, faces civil charges of undermining Binance's compliance program and conducting activities to evade rules designed to prevent illicit financial activity, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Monday.
/jlne.ws/3lPlkMN
Janet Yellen says the Trump administration 'decimated' the Treasury's financial stability department and she's focused on repairing the 'cracks'
Will Daniel - Fortune
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen came out swinging in a Thursday speech at a National Association for Business Economics conference. "When the President and I took office in January 2021, we inherited a financial stability apparatus at Treasury that had been decimated," she said in prepared remarks, arguing that Trump administration budget cuts left her without the proper resources to regulate banks when she took office.
/jlne.ws/3nyvWQH
Fed, Treasury Fine Wells Fargo for Sanctions Violations; Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department are fining the bank $97.8 million
David Harrison - The Wall Street Journal
The Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department are fining Wells Fargo & Co. $97.8 million for violating U.S. sanctions by allowing a foreign bank to make prohibited transactions on one of the bank's platforms. Between 2010 and 2015, an unidentified foreign bank used a Wells Fargo trade-finance platform called Eximbills to process about $532 million in transactions that violated U.S. sanctions rules.
/jlne.ws/40M8bCS
Flood of cash into US money market funds could add to banking strains; Treasury secretary Janet Yellen warns over 'structural vulnerabilities' of sector
Kate Duguid and Harriet Clarfelt in New York and Colby Smith - Financial Times
The flood of cash pouring into US money market funds is unlikely to stop soon, analysts and investors say, and has the potential to exacerbate strains in the banking system.
/jlne.ws/40MRfMz
Cash Stashed in Funds Instead of Banks Fuels US Slump Risks; More than $5 trillion has been plowed into money-market funds; Smaller banks are bearing the brunt of the exodus by savers
Alex Harris - Bloomberg
Money-market mutual funds are proving an irresistible place for investors to park their cash right now instead of banks. The amount squirreled away in them has surged to more than $5 trillion and that risks becoming a problem for the US economy if that grows too much and too quickly. Encouraged by the higher rates that these funds have been able to offer - and their greater nimbleness in passing on benchmark increases by the Federal Reserve over the past year - savers have been shifting cash into them and out of traditional bank deposits.
/jlne.ws/3zl65OB
Colm Kelleher: Irish financial crisis veteran orchestrating Credit Suisse takeover; UBS chair pivotal to biggest banking deal since 2008
Owen Walker - Financial Times
During the depths of the global financial crisis, Colm Kelleher was instrumental in keeping Morgan Stanley afloat - an experience the Irish finance veteran will draw on as he oversees the biggest bank takeover since those tumultuous days.
/jlne.ws/3ZxHhOa
Jamie Dimon Reprises 2008 Role as Rescuer of a Failing Bank; The JPMorgan chief executive led an effort to raise $30 billion for First Republic, but no one is sure if it did any good.
Rob Copeland and Maureen Farrell - The New York Times
On March 10, just hours after Silicon Valley Bank collapsed, the hedge fund manager Bill Ackman hosted a dinner for about 20 people at his penthouse apartment in Manhattan. The dinner had been planned, and the boldface names were there to discuss Ukraine. But before talk turned to the war, Mr. Ackman sought out the one person in the room who he thought might have a solution to SVB: Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase.
/jlne.ws/3U1SSnA
Fireside Friday with... Propellant's Vincent Grandjean; The TRADE sits down with Vincent Grandjean, founder and CEO of Propellant, to discuss why managing the market data challenge is one of the most important differentiators in the fixed income space right now.
Laurie McAughtry - The Trade
/jlne.ws/3U0hpZT
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | Russia says notifications of ballistic missile launches will continue
Francesca Ebel - The Washington Post
The Russian Foreign Ministry clarified Thursday that Moscow will continue to notify Washington of any ballistic missile launches, despite a statement Wednesday that "all forms of notifications" were terminated as a result of President Vladimir Putin suspending the New START nuclear nonproliferation agreement.
/jlne.ws/3nr7gt4
Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin will use 'the most awful weapon' if he fears Russian collapse
The Telegraph
Vladimir Putin will use the "most awful" weapon if he sees risks that Russia may collapse, the Belarusian President has warned.m Alexander Lukashenko, who is one of the Russian President's closest allies, said: "It is impossible to defeat a nuclear power.
/jlne.ws/3nD5ViS
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | StoneX and ACX to Collaborate to Create U.S. Digital Carbon Marketplace; The agreement further affirms StoneX's commitment to bringing liquidity and transparency to carbon trading and represents ACX's expansion into the U.S. market
ACX
StoneX Group Inc. ("StoneX") and AirCarbon Pte. Ltd. ("ACX") have signed an agreement to create a digital carbon marketplace in the United States as part of the StoneX platform. The new digital carbon marketplace will enable StoneX clients to access markets and trade carbon over a transparent and seamless solution. StoneX will create and operate the digital carbon marketplace utilizing ACX's existing technology infrastructure, which includes order matching and clearing and settlement of carbon trades.
bit.ly/3G2lHuk
CME Group Appoints Tim McCourt as Global Head of Financial & OTC Products; Sean Tully to Retire in June
CME Group
CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, today announced that it has appointed Tim McCourt to serve in an expanded role as Senior Managing Director, Global Head of Financial & OTC Products, following the retirement of Sean Tully, Senior Managing Director, Interest Rates and OTC Products, on June 2, 2023.
bit.ly/3zi8dqx
ELITE and WTC Lisboa launch an International Academy to support Portuguese companies to grow
Euronext
WTC Lisboa joins ELITE in its journey to grow and globalise SMEs, with the sponsorship of BBVA and the support of the Portuguese Family Businesses; The new Academy marks the implementation in Portugal of ELITE, the Euronext network dedicated to fast-growing private companies; The launch paves the way for the first group of Portuguese companies to join the ELITE community in H1 2023. Euronext, the leading pan-European market infrastructure, today announced the launch of the World Trade Center (WTC) Lisboa International Academy by ELITE. The project marks the first step of the implementation of ELITE, the Euronext network dedicated to fast-growing private companies, in Portugal, as a part of Euronext's commitment to SMEs.
bit.ly/3G6eRDS
Euronext publishes its 2022 Universal Registration Document
Euronext
Euronext, the leading pan-European market infrastructure, today announced it has filed its 2022 Universal Registration Document, prepared in ESEF format (European Single Electronic Format), including the 2022 Annual Financial Statements and Directors' Report to the Stichting Autoriteit Financiele Markten (the "AFM"), on 30 March 2023, as competent authority under Regulation (EU) 2017/1129.
bit.ly/3nr1K9S
Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Venture Exchange, TSX Alpha Exchange and Montreal Exchange Closed for Good Friday
TMX
Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Venture Exchange, TSX Alpha Exchange and Montréal Exchange will be closed on Friday, April 7, 2023, for Good Friday. The Exchanges will re-open and resume regular trading hours on Monday, April 10, 2023.
bit.ly/3nCqlbZ
London Stock Exchange Group PLC Transaction In Own Shares
Mondovisione
bit.ly/3lQ8kqd
Changes in Nifty Fixed Income indices
NSE
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | Archax announces launch of real-world asset tokenisation engine; Spearheads its roll-out of tokenised traditional equities and funds
Archax
Archax, the FCA regulated digital asset exchange, broker and custodian, today announced the launch of its tokenisation engine - enabling the creation of tokens backed by any regulated or unregulated real-world or traditional asset. Leveraging the benefits of Web 3.0 and blockchain technology, this new service will allow Archax to roll out token representations of existing assets, starting with blue-chip UK traditional equities and funds to trade alongside new cryptoassets.
/jlne.ws/3lVZAyF
LTX Enhances Data-Driven Corporate Bond Trading Capabilities With AWS; AI-Powered Digital Trading Platform From Broadridge Supports Smarter Trading Decisions For Buy-Side Investors And Dealers
Broadridge - PR Newswire
LTX, a subsidiary of Broadridge Financial Solutions Inc. (NYSE: BR), has completed a successful migration of its corporate bond e-trading platform to Amazon Web Services (AWS). With the completed migration, LTX can leverage the security and scale of AWS cloud services and better optimize its data science processes, enabling clients to make more informed corporate bond trading decisions based on transparency and real-time insights.
/jlne.ws/3G4Qg2i
Stopping ChatGPT Development Is a 'Bad Idea': Coinbase CEO
Decrypt
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | Secret trove offers rare look into Russian cyberwar ambitions
Craig Timberg, Ellen Nakashima, Hannes Munzinger and Hakan Tanriverdi - The Washington Post
Russian intelligence agencies worked with a Moscow-based defense contractor to strengthen their ability to launch cyberattacks, sow disinformation and surveil sections of the internet, according to thousands of pages of confidential corporate documents. The documents detail a suite of computer programs and databases that would allow Russia's intelligence agencies and hacking groups to better find vulnerabilities, coordinate attacks and control online activity.
/jlne.ws/3zjvJDg
Uninstall Now: Hackers Hijack 3CX Desktop App to Deliver Malware; VoIP provider 3CX urges users to uninstall the desktop app, amid concerns that state-sponsored hackers may be behind the attack.
Michael Kan - PCMag
If you use the 3CX desktop app for Windows or Mac, watch out: Hackers have hijacked the software to deliver malware to computers. On Wednesday, cybersecurity providers noticed malicious activity coming from the legitimate 3CX desktop app, which is used to make VoIP and video conferencing calls. "At this time, activity has been observed on both Windows and macOS," security firm Crowdstrike says in a blog post(Opens in a new window).
/jlne.ws/40BWsHy
Treasury criticised for advertising head of cyber security job with 'peanuts' salary; Government needs to have 'grown up conversation' on pay, ex-GCHQ chief says
Gareth Corfield - The Telegraph
The Treasury has been criticised for underpaying tech staff after advertising for a head of cyber security on a starting salary of just £50,000. Ciaran Martin, founder of the National Cyber Security Centre, a division of GCHQ, said the Government needed to have "a grown up conversation" about salaries after the senior tech vacancy was mocked on social media.
/jlne.ws/40TIZdP
Lloyd's of London battles insurers over 'state-backed' cyber attacks; Demand to exclude state-backed attacks from policies stirs controversy
Ian Smith - Financial Times
/jlne.ws/3zjU0Jy
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | SBF Bribery Charge Has Me Shaking My Head; There's no excuse for paying off public officials, even in countries where it's common.
Stephen L. Carter - Bloomberg
The news that federal prosecutors have now charged Sam Bankman-Fried with bribery spurs two thoughts: First, what should we say to those who insist that US companies should be allowed to make payoffs in countries where payoffs are expected? Second, if the allegations in the new indictment are true, did SBF pull a fast one on the Chinese official he's said to have bribed?
/jlne.ws/3TZSwxF
Citi: Tokenized securities market could reach $4 trillion by 2030
Adam Morgan McCarthy - The Block
Tokenizing financial and real-world assets could be the "killer use-case" that blockchain needs to drive a breakthrough, with trillions of dollars worth of securities tokenized by the end of the decade, according to Citi's latest global perspectives and solutions report. "Almost anything of value can be tokenized," Citi wrote in its March report.
/jlne.ws/3U0cbxB
Crypto Mogul Who Riled China Before Pushes the Envelope Again; Chinese users can choose Dominican 'digital ID' on Huobi app; China banned all trading in cryptocurrencies in September 2021
Zheping Huang, Suvashree Ghosh and Olga Kharif - Bloomberg
Even by the to-the-moon standards of the crypto world, Justin Sun is known for making bold bets. There's the 2017 initial coin offering in his native China, completed days before the government banned such deals. The $4.6 million he paid in 2019 for lunch with Warren Buffett, which irked authorities back home. And the stablecoin he launched last year, just as a similar instrument crashed in such spectacular fashion that it took down large swathes of the cryptoasset universe.
/jlne.ws/40POqdK
Coinbase Hires Ex-Shopify Exec to Oversee Canada Operations
Helene Braun - Coindesk
/jlne.ws/3lWL5L6
Let Them Eat Crypto? France Cooks Up a Plan; Behind the backslapping over blockchain startups landing in Europe, the risk of a backlash is real.
Lionel Laurent - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3ZwwQu3
Has Bitcoin Benefited From the Banking Crisis? Not in the Way Its Fans Hoped; Bitcoin's price has soared since banks failed this month, but there's little evidence that the surge is being driven by investors treating the virtual currency as a financial alternative.
David Yaffe-Bellany - The New York Times
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | China's Financial Diplomacy Is Still Minor League; Beijing's lending spree to developing nations looks impressive, but the dollar's hegemony has yet to be broken.
Daniel Moss - Bloomberg
When there's something wrong in your financial system, who you gonna call? The custodian of the far-from-perfect-yet-rarely-so-essential reserve currency. The dollar's stature is all the more impressive given the US's receding share of the world economic pie. This gives American policymakers vast sway in shaping - and saving - global markets. China doesn't come close.
/jlne.ws/3zitobZ
Where Vallas and Johnson are collecting the big money
Greg Hinz - Crain's Chicago Business
Paul Vallas has raised significantly more for his campaign for mayor than Brandon Johnson and from entirely different sources, with Vallas relying on wealthy individuals, many with ties to the charter school movement, and Johnson almost exclusively on labor unions. That's the bottom line of a comprehensive look at mayoral campaign fundraising by Reform for Illinois, a civic group.
/jlne.ws/3JQZa4E
Jared Kushner's PE firm was backed by Emirates, Qatar - NYT
Reuters
Wealth funds in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar have invested hundreds of millions of dollars with former U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner's private equity firm, the New York Times reported on Thursday. The Emiratis invested more than $200 million with Kushner's Affinity Partners, while a Qatari entity also put in a similar sum, the newspaper said, citing people with knowledge of the transactions.
/jlne.ws/3U1JLTU
White House Proposes Tougher Bank Rules, New Tests After Crisis; New focus on banks with $100 billion to $250 billion in assets; White House says deregulation of banking industry went too far
Josh Wingrove - Bloomberg
President Joe Biden's administration is pressing regulators to tighten the rules for mid-sized banks, its strongest step yet in response to the banking crisis that led to the failure of a pair of regional lenders. The White House on Thursday called for federal banking agencies, in conjunction with the Treasury Department, to enact a series of changes. None of the measures requires Congressional approval, the White House said in a statement, though it's not clear if regulators will enact them.
/jlne.ws/3lTJzt1
Gas Should Be Taxed More Than Electric, UK Energy Minister Says
Andrew Reierson and Ellen Milligan - Bloomberg
Britain should place higher taxes on natural gas than power to spur the country's shift to a low-carbon economy, according to UK Energy Secretary Grant Shapps. The UK has long relied on gas for domestic use, helped by a reduced rate of value added tax on the fuel and an established infrastructure. The government however wants people to shift from fossil-fuel boilers to electric heat pumps, where uptake of the lower emission technology is among the worst in Europe.
/jlne.ws/3ZxBbgu
Russia Still Uses Western Insurance for Half of Oil Shipments; The dependence gives the West leverage over Russia oil flows; Russia aims to create independent shipping insurance system
Bloomberg
Russia still relies on Western insurers to cover more than half of the tanker fleet that exports its oil, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, and the country's energy officials are voicing concerns about the situation. The Group of Seven and its partners in the European Union have decreed that any shipment of crude using services based in their member countries must be sold below a $60-a-barrel price cap.
/jlne.ws/3Km9sLz
Putin has broken one of the last taboos in a naked ploy for leverage
Roland Oliphant - Telegraph
No one who knows Evan Gershkovich believes he is a spy. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) has yet to present its evidence, but at this stage it seems completely clear that he has been fitted up for simply doing his job: asking people questions, and writing down what they say. Under expanded war-time national security laws, that might be enough for the FSB to come up with a narrowly legal pretext for holding him, however absurd.
/jlne.ws/3G5zZKH
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | China Regulator Is Looking for Buyers of SVB's Local Venture; CBIRC held meeting with lenders this week to gauge interest; SVB's China JV had assets of $3.1 billion at end of June 2022
Bloomberg
Chinese regulators held a meeting with banks to gauge interest in taking over failed Silicon Valley Bank's stake in a local joint venture in a bid to safeguard the banking system from the US lender's collapse. The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission convened a meeting this week to discuss the disposal of SVB's 50% holding in SPD Silicon Valley Bank, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named as the information is private.
/jlne.ws/3G5zb8D
IOSCO publishes final measures for regulators to consider in addressing emerging retail market conduct issues
International Organization of Securities Commissions
The Board of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) today published its Report on Retail Market Conduct, in response to the evolving retail trading landscape, influenced by changing macro conditions, demographic trends, and technological developments.
/jlne.ws/3ZpKL5e
CFTC Staff Issues No-Action Letter Regarding the Migration of Credit Default Swaps from ICE Clear Europe Ltd.
CFTC
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's Division of Market Oversight (DMO) today published a no-action letter regarding the requirements in section 2(h)(8) of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulation 37.9, for credit default swaps (CDS) that are executed for the sole purpose of migrating open CDS positions from ICE Clear Europe Ltd. (ICEU) to a new central clearing counterparty (CCP) ahead of ICEU's planned discontinuation of CDS clearing services in October 2023.
/jlne.ws/3zlcB85
What does the CFTC's suit against Binance mean for Coinbase? Analysts weigh in
Ben Weiss - Fortune
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission hit the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange with an explosive lawsuit on Monday, alleging, among other things, that Binance knew it was facilitating trading for criminals. "Like come on. They are here for crime," Binance's former chief compliance officer, Samuel Lim, wrote in a chat message referring to customers, including some from Russia.
/jlne.ws/3zjwnka
U.K. Plans to Invest $495 Million in Economic Crime Crackdown; The country zeroed in on sanctions evasion and 'corrupt elites,' but its plan also includes broad overhauls to corporate fraud law
Richard Vanderford - The Wall Street Journal
/jlne.ws/3G6rGyc
SEC Charges Hedge Fund Trader and Broker-Dealer Partner in Multi-Million Dollar SPAC Insider Trading Scheme
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today filed insider trading charges against Sean Wygovsky, a former trader at a Canadian asset management firm, and Christopher Matthaei, a former partner at a U.S. broker-dealer, for using nonpublic information in advance of at least seven merger announcements involving Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) to earn illicit profits of more than $3.4 million.
/jlne.ws/40NVYgX
SEC Obtains Final Judgment Against Attorney for Engaging in Fraud and Conducting an Unregistered Securities Offering
SEC
On March 10, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas entered a final judgment against William Andrew Stack, an attorney and nominal CEO of Preston Corp. (a/k/a Preston Royalty Corp.), a now-defunct financial services provider for the mining industry, enjoining him from violating the antifraud and registration provisions of the federal securities laws.
/jlne.ws/3nv84gF
SEC Obtains Judgment Against Siblings Who Orchestrated Massive Crypto Asset Fraud
SEC
On March 15, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York entered a final judgment against Defendants John and JonAtina (Tina) Barksdale ordering permanent injunctions, disgorgement with interest, and civil penalties.
/jlne.ws/3zmL8ml
SEC Charges North Carolina Investment Firm and Its Principal for Recommending Clients Invest Millions in Unsuitable, Risky Deals
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled charges against Sapere Wealth Management, LLC, a Matthews, North Carolina-based investment adviser, and its principal, Scott Trease, for unsuitably recommending that three clients invest $7.3 million in risky, alternative-investment deals.
/jlne.ws/3nzNImy
Performance to Go PLC: suspected offer to the public of "pre-market cumulative preferred shares" by Performance to Go PLC without the required prospectus
BaFin
/jlne.ws/3lWkDRO
ASIC and IOSCO report on combatting retail market misconduct
ASIC
The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) has today published a report calling for greater international collaboration and cooperation to combat cross-border scams, greenwashing, misconduct, and fraud.
/jlne.ws/3nv8zY5
The application of the derivatives trading obligation to certain credit default swaps
FCA
On 26 September 2022, ICE Clear Europe announced the cessation of clearing for all classes of credit default swaps (CDS) contracts from 27 October 2023. Counterparties will need to close out their CDS positions on ICE Clear Europe and establish equivalent ones on other central counterparties (CCPs) before 27 October 2023.
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Regulators welcome the Government's updated Green Finance Strategy
FCA
In a joint statement, the FCA, the FRC, the BoE and the TPR have welcomed the Government's updated Green Finance Strategy.
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Appointments to SFC committees
Securities & Futures Commission of Hong Kong
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) is pleased to announce new appointments and reappointments to the following committees with effect from 1 April 2023:
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Gen Z, Memes, Digital Revolution Kicked to Curb in Fad-ETF Purge; Crypto and meme-focused funds hurt by interest-rate hikes; Difficult for short-haulers to time thematic plays, says Sohn
Peyton Forte - Bloomberg
From meme stocks to crypto-themed products, exchange-traded fund closures are mounting in what were once some of the trendiest areas of the $6.8 trillion industry. Thematic ETFs that launched to target the buzziest market themes of the past two years are closing at a rapid pace, as rising interest rates hammer performance and send investors in search of safer options.
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How Big Tech Camouflaged Wall Street's Crisis in March
Joe Rennison - The New York Times
The fate of the S&P 500 index - used by investors as a barometer for the health of corporate America, and cited by presidents as a measure of their handling of the economy - often comes down to just two companies: Apple and Microsoft. This means it's hard to invest in the U.S. stock market, such as through a 401(k) or pension plan, and not be highly dependent on the fate of the two tech giants. More than $15 trillion in assets, from pension funds and endowments to insurance companies, are linked to the performance of the S&P 500 index in some way, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices, with more than 10 cents of every dollar allocated to the index flowing through to Microsoft's and Apple's valuation.
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Transparency in CDS
International Swaps and Derivatives Association
In the face of increased bank turmoil, questions are being asked about the role of credit default swaps (CDS), levels of transparency in this market and whether these products should be cleared. It all feels a bit like 2008, but there are important differences. Following the 2008 crisis, reforms were put in place to ensure that all over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives - including single-name CDS - are reported to regulators via trade repositories, alongside increased clearing of standardized derivatives.
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Prepare for a multipolar currency world; The US dollar still dominates debt markets, but some niche-sounding data suggests things could be set to shift
Gillian Tett - Financial Times
This month, Russia and China are sparking new jitters in Washington. That is primarily because of their stage-managed displays of diplomatic unity, around Ukraine and much else. But it is also down to money: during a visit by Xi Jinping to Moscow last week, Vladimir Putin pledged to adopt the renminbi for "payments between Russia and countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America", in a bid to displace the dollar.
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Transcript: Matt King Sees a $1 Trillion Liquidity Drain Coming to Markets; What happens when it gets withdrawn?
Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway - Bloomberg
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Family Offices See Opportunity in Wealthy, Under-Served France; As the nation's rich have been slow to create vehicles for managing money, an industry group turns its focus to families based outside of Paris.
Tara Patel - Bloomberg
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | UK admits revised net zero strategy will fail to hit emission targets; Critics point to lack of joined-up thinking in raft of climate and energy policy announcements
Attracta Mooney, Camilla Hodgson and Jim Pickard - Financial Times
The UK's new net zero strategy will fail to cut greenhouse gas emissions enough to hit its own legally enforceable targets, the government has admitted, with environmental analysts and politicians criticising the plans unveiled on Thursday as incoherent. Ministers were forced to publish a raft of revised policies, contained in 40 documents and nearly 3,000 pages, after a court ruled last year that the existing strategy for reaching net zero emissions was unlawful because it provided insufficient detail on how the target would be met.
bit.ly/3Ma6PxE
What an International Court of Justice climate ruling could do
Andrew Freedman - Axios
In 2011, the Marshall Islands and Palau sought to put a climate case before the International Court of Justice in The Hague. It failed to gain enough traction. Why it matters: On Wednesday, the UN General Assembly took the extraordinary step of adopting, by consensus, a resolution that would do just that. It's asking the court for an advisory opinion laying out what countries' obligations are to protect the climate in order to secure human rights.
bit.ly/40tinAD
Independent Group Stakes Out Position as Arbiter of Carbon-Offset Quality; Some carbon credits could start carrying a new badge advertising their quality before the end of the year
Dieter Holger - The Wall Street Journal
An independent group is gearing up to review applications on the quality of carbon offsets on project registries this year, in an effort to help corporations tell the difference between good and bad credits they voluntarily buy in support of their climate plans. The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market, which includes former government officials and environmental-finance experts, released on Thursday its final standards for organizations that approve carbon credits and laid out its ambitions to be an arbiter in the largely unregulated market.
bit.ly/40KCjhO
Reporting the Gender Pay Gap Is Not Enough to Close It; This should be a rallying cry for companies to overhaul structures that keep men in lucrative positions and leave women to navigate a treacherous career path.
Andreea Papuc - Bloomberg
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Take Five: Climate Policies in the Dock
Chris Hall - ESG Investor
A selection of this week's major stories impacting ESG investors, in five easy pieces. The threat of climate litigation looms larger, but policymakers continue to under-deliver on their net zero commitments. Climate court - This week, the battle against climate change moved decisively to the courtroom, with the increasing prospect that countries will be forced by law to stiffen their efforts to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.
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EU agrees compromise on nuclear energy amid French pressure; Paris wins concession for atomic power to be counted towards decarbonisation of industry
Laura Dubois and Sarah White - Financial Times
bit.ly/40rjSz4
The World's Mega Wind Turbines Are About to Get Even Bigger; Larger equipment can lower costs, Ming Yang chairman says; Sector forecast to rebound after installations slowed in 2022
Bloomberg News
bit.ly/3TVJEco
House Passes G.O.P. Energy Bill, Pushing to Roll Back Biden Climate Measures; The legislation, which had no chance of making it through the Senate, would expand mining and fossil fuel production while repealing some elements of a major new law to combat climate change.
Stephanie Lai and Coral Davenport - The New York Times
bit.ly/3TX1Emw
Rio Tinto Sells 55% of Key Peru Copper Project to First Quantum
James Fernyhough and James Attwood - Bloomberg
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Inside the plot to save gas guzzlers from the net zero scrap heap; Whether e-fuels will help or hinder the transition to net zero is up for debate
Howard Mustoe - The Telegraph
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The EU Sustainability Data Dilemma: Are SFDR And CSRD A Step In The Right Direction?
Simon Gray - VitalBriefing
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ISSB to consider prioritisation of climate-related disclosures to support initial application
IFRS
bit.ly/3M61OGf
Sustainable Fitch: SPO Provided for Khan Bank's Green Bond Framework
Sustainable Fitch
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TNFD Looks to Balance Comparability and Flexibility
Aaran Fronda - ESG Investor
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Former Credit Suisse CEO Blames Deutsche Bank Slump on Speculators
Harry Wilson - Bloomberg
Former Credit Suisse Group AG Chief Executive Officer Tidjane Thiam said the recent sharp moves in securities linked to Deutsche Bank AG was driven by financial speculators rather than the lender's fundamentals. "I'll tell you what's going on with Deutsche," Thiam said at the FII Institute's Priority summit in Miami Beach.
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San Francisco Fed's Daly Stays Mum While Criticism Mounts Over SVB Oversight; San Francisco Fed chief emerges at center of blame game; Daly has been one of Powell's most reliable policy deputies
Catarina Saraiva - Bloomberg
One of the Federal Reserve's most prolific policy messengers is laying low at a crucial moment for the central bank, after finding herself at the center of controversy over turmoil in the banking sector. San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly, who has been an increasingly influential voice on Fed policy in recent years, is now a target of criticism over how effective Fed supervisors were in monitoring and responding to problems at Silicon Valley Bank before it collapsed.
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Banks Warier of Serving Crypto Clients After Blowups, Scrutiny; Silvergate, Signature collapses leave clients seeking banks; Cross River wants clients 'integral to the fintech ecosystem'
Yueqi Yang, Paige Smith and Katanga Johnson - Bloomberg
US banks, already hesitant to work with crypto customers, are now even warier of providing services to the industry after a string of regional-lender collapses and amid heightened scrutiny by regulators. The closure of crypto-friendly Silvergate Capital Corp. and seizure of Signature Bank has left crypto firms struggling to find new banks for depository and payment services.
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Swiss Banker Admits Helping Hedge Fund Manager Evade US Taxes; Daniel Walchli pleaded guilty to fraud in NY federal court; He was charged along with two other Privatbank IHAG bankers
Chris Dolmetsch - Bloomberg
A Swiss banker pleaded guilty to fraud for helping an unnamed hedge fund manager and other US taxpayers hide $60 million in assets. Daniel Walchli, who worked at Zurich's Privatbank IHAG, entered his plea Thursday to a single count of conspiracy to defraud the US. The charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, but Manhattan federal prosecutors agreed not to seek a punishment outside of 24-to-30 months.
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FTSE Holds Off Adding South Korea, India to Key Bond Indexes; Korea estimates addition would lure $69 billion of inflows; FTSE says Korea authorities improving structure, accessibility
Hooyeon Kim - Bloomberg
FTSE Russell said it will keep South Korea on the watch list for inclusion to its global bond index - and India for the emerging-market equivalent - prolonging the countries' wait to get into key market gauges. Korean authorities are undertaking initiatives to improve the structure and accessibility of its capital markets which require local laws and regulations to be amended and may not be complete until 2024, FTSE said in a statement on Thursday.
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FTSE Russell announces the results of its March 2023 country classification review for equities and fixed income
FTSE Russell
Fixed Income: FTSE Russell announces that South Korea will remain on the Watch List for a potential upgrade to Market Accessibility Level '2' and for consideration for inclusion in the FTSE World Government Bond Index (WGBI). This follows announcements by the South Korean market authorities of several proposed initiatives intended to improve the market's structure and the accessibility of South Korean capital markets.
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Credit Suisse withdraws certain proposals to AGM following UBS merger
Reuters
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| Work & Management | | Stories impacting work and more about management ideas, practices and trends. | The 'Mickey Mouse' degrees that could damage your career prospects; Graduates in these fields face narrow job prospects and reduced earnings potential
Tom Haynes - Telegraph
As universities launch modules on Harry Styles or entire courses on bakery and patisserie technology, the value of these so-called "Mickey Mouse degrees" has come into question once more. The average university degree leaves graduates with £45,000 in debt, which they only start paying off once their salary exceeds £27,295.
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Do We Know How Many People Are Working From Home? New Labor Department numbers indicate that fewer Americans worked remotely last year. But many experts criticize the government's data collection.
Emma Goldberg - The New York Times
Millions of workers, employers, square feet of real estate and dollars of downtown economic retail are wrapped up in the question of how many people are working from home - yet there remain large discrepancies in how remote work is measured. The Labor Department, last week, released data indicating a decline in remote work: 72.5 percent of businesses said their employees rarely or never teleworked last year, up from 60.1 percent in 2021 and quite close to the 76.7 percent that had no such work before the pandemic. But while the Labor Department found that remote work was almost back to prepandemic levels, many other surveys show it is up four- to fivefold.
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | Federal Judge Strikes Down Obamacare Requirement for Free Preventive Care; The decision by a judge in Texas, which applies nationwide and could have far-reaching implications for millions of Americans, is almost certain to be appealed by the Biden administration.
Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Reed Abelson - The New York Times
A federal judge in Texas who once declared the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional issued a far-reaching ruling on Thursday that prevents the Biden administration from enforcing a provision of the law that provides patients with certain types of free preventive care, including screenings for cancer, depression, diabetes and H.I.V. The decision, by Judge Reed O'Connor of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Texas, applies nationwide. If it stands, it could have far-reaching implications for millions of Americans, bringing the United States back to the days before the 2010 health law known as Obamacare, when insurers were free to decide which preventive services they would cover.
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Chronic stress can be a serious problem: How to spot the symptoms
Delaney Nothaft - USA TODAY
A clenched jaw. An uneasy stomach. Nights spent staring at the ceiling. These familiar afflictions are all signs you may be struggling with chronic stress. We all know what stress feels like, and everyone experiences it at some point in their life. The near car accident. The big test. The last-minute work presentation. Acute stress is normal, and sometimes, even necessary. An acutely stressful event triggers the sympathetic nervous system, also known as the "fight or flight" response into gear.
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | South Korea Cuts Chip Production Most Since Global Financial Crisis as Demand Cools
Myungshin Cho and Sam Kim - Bloomberg
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Ford Takes Stake in Indonesia Nickel Project to Ensure Supplies; Pomalaa plant will produce 120,000 tons a year from 2026; Deal allows US auto giant more oversight of mining, refining
Bloomberg News
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