| March 21, 2023 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | |  | John Lothian
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
I thought the Swiss were known for their banking skills, but it turns out they will be known for their banking debts. According to Bloomberg, the Swiss bailout of Credit Suisse will cost each man, woman and child in Switzerland $13,500. This will be three times the cost of the 2008 bailout of UBS, the bank that is taking over Credit Suisse.
The populist response to the bailout was a protest outside of Credit Suisse's headquarters in Zurich in which demonstrators chanted "revolution" and "eat the rich." Destroying their credibility for not being rich, they threw eggs at the building in Paradeplatz, the heart of the city's financial district, Bloomberg reported. OK, I added the part about destroying their credibility because we all know eggs are very precious these days.
Speaking of protecting banks, U.S. Treasury Secretary and Financial System Protector Janet Yellen said she would find ways to protect all the little banks if necessary to safeguard the financial system, The New York Times reported.
IEX has published a position paper on the "SEC's Proposed Changes to Regulation NMS." You can find the position paper HERE.
The Financial Times is reporting that Nestle disclosed that less than half of its food products were considered "healthy" using a commonly used definition. Keep that in mind the next time you bite into a Kit Kat bar.
According to a Fox News report, I might just have been a good dad because of the corny "dad jokes" I told my kids when they were small. Evidently, responding to awkward situations with dad jokes helps kids overcome those moments later in life. I once showed my kids my step-ladder. I told them I never knew my real ladder.
Rupert Murdoch is engaged to be married for the fifth and final time, he said, according to a Financial Times report. The media mogul divorced his fourth wife just eight months ago, but decided it was time to jump back into the matrimony game. He is marrying Ann Lesley Smith, the widow of Chester Smith, a country singer who was a founder of the Spanish-language TV network Univision.
HKEX reported on LinkedIn that its MSCI India (USD) Index Futures have traded in excess of 10,000 contracts since the beginning of March.
CME reported on LinkedIn that open interest in Eris SOFR Swap futures has jumped nearly four times in the last week.
I went to bed before the Indiana Hoosiers lost to Miami in the second round of the NCAA Men's basketball tournament. Thus, I am not teamless. How about them Cubs?
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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UNEP FI and Climate Action host the 6th Annual Sustainable Investment Forum Europe, which returns to Paris at the Pullman Paris Eiffel Tower on May 9, 2023, running from 9:00 to 17:15 CET. Leaders in sustainable finance and investment will share best practices on ESG due diligence, highlight solutions for climate risk and adaptation, and explore blended finance techniques to attract commercial capital while providing financial returns for investors that align with UN SDG and Net Zero goals. You can learn more about the in-person and online event here.~SAED
Luxembourg for Finance will hold its 6th annual Sustainable Finance Forum livestream March 29-30 2023 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. CEST. The forum will explore the next steps for the financial services industry. H.E. Yuriko Backes, Luxembourg's Finance Minister, and John Kerry, United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, are among the speakers. You can learn more and sign up for the free event here.~SAED
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'Perhaps she will not spoil the atmosphere after all': women mark 50 years trading at the LSE; Some of the first female traders recount how they started on the floor of the exchange
Katie Martin - Financial Times
Janet McCall sparked a good deal of excitement when she took up her role on the floor of the London Stock Exchange in 1978 as the first female dealer at broker Wedd Durlacher. "Colleagues say that Janet is dark if not sultry, shapely and single, very promising and when it comes to business: tough," one press cutting from the time of her appointment noted. "Perhaps she will not spoil the atmosphere after all." Another article observed that the 22-year-old "pretty brunette" from Essex, who was joining a team of 84 men, did not have "a special boyfriend" in her life at that point.
/jlne.ws/3FDkoSh
***** How the world has changed, for the better!~JJL
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SVB lessons in the forgotten history of the Bank of the United States; The New York-based bank collapse in 1930 has parallels with the failure of the Silicon Valley lender
Abby Joseph Cohen - Financial Times
The recent closure of Silicon Valley Bank has some intriguing parallels with a failure more than 90 years ago. In 1930, the collapse of the curiously named Bank of United States - which was not a governmental entity - is widely believed to have been a major catalyst in turning the 1929 recession into the far more serious Great Depression.
/jlne.ws/3LDXE8k
****** To my point made last week.~JJL
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Finance YouTubers who promoted FTX have now been handed a $1billion lawsuit
Eleanor Pringle - Fortune
A handful of YouTubers famed for their personal finance expertise are being chased hard for more than $1 billion by victims who lost their fortunes in Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX. The finance influencers are facing a class action lawsuit claiming they were paid "handsomely" to push the FTX brand prior to its collapse, following similar cases brought against celebrity endorsers like Tom Brady, Madonna and Gwenyth Paltrow.
/jlne.ws/401iYsQ
****** Just a nuisance suit or something more?~JJL
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Bernie Madoff's Former Hamptons Home Sells for $14 Million
Sarah Paynter - The Wall Street Journal
The former Hamptons home of late disgraced financier Bernie Madoff has sold for $14 million, according to the local Multiple Listing Service. The three-bedroom, roughly 3,000-square-foot home in Montauk has been on and off the market since 2018, when it was listed for $21 million. The asking price was later increased to $22.5 million. It was most recently asking $16.5 million with Bespoke Real Estate and Tim Davis of Corcoran.
/jlne.ws/3yWMO61
******* We are going to need more of that Karma Kleener for this place.~JJL
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Monday's Top Three
Our top story Monday was Bloomberg's Chicago Mayor Frontrunner Targets Crime, Taxes to Court Business. Second was What Was Eating Tom Lee?, from Puck. Third was Humbled 'crypto bros' don blazers for Boca Raton, from the Financial Times.
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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
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| Lead Stories | Investors in limbo land as trust in market rules wavers; The scrambled changing of the 'waterfall' structure at Credit Suisse could create long-term problems
Gillian Tett - Financial Times
A dozen years ago, I went to the London office of Credit Suisse for a tutorial about so-called "cocos" - or the contingent convertible bonds introduced after the 2008 financial crisis, in a bid to enable banks to absorb losses in a crisis. The CS financiers duly presented a neat PowerPoint, complete with arrows and charts, which explained that cocos lay second from bottom in the capital structure. Thus if a bank went bust, its equity would be wiped out first, followed by the cocos, in order to protect senior creditors. In exchange for this risk, those bonds paid a high (ish) return to investors, reflecting the normal rules of financial capitalism.
/jlne.ws/3YY6QHS
MEMX Expands Investor Base with Leading Options Firms; Optiver led equity round focused on supporting the growth of MEMX Options
MEMX, a market operator founded by members to benefit all investors, today announced the successful completion of a strategic equity round of funding led by Optiver, a leading global market maker, to support the launch of MEMX Options in August. Optiver assumes a MEMX board seat as part of the transaction. Additional firms participating in the round include new investors Belvedere Strategic Capital, LP, Chicago Trading Company, and IMC, as well as existing investors Citadel Securities and Virtu Financial.
/jlne.ws/3LBKpVV
EU vows to respect bondholders' rights after Credit Suisse turmoil; Single Resolution Board chair adamant Brussels will not take investors in bank debt 'by surprise'
Sam Fleming - Financial Times
A senior EU policymaker has pledged not to wrongfoot investors by upending bank creditor hierarchies, after a market uproar at Switzerland's decision to favour shareholders over bondholders in the rescue takeover of Credit Suisse. Dominique Laboureix, chair of the Single Resolution Board, the body in charge of shutting down failed banks, said fears that additional tier 1 (AT1) bank debt is "not investable anymore" should not apply in the EU.
/jlne.ws/402E3TR
Commodity markets likely to escape banking crisis fallout, traders say; Citadel and Trafigura expect no repeat of 2008 collapse of crude and metals prices
David Sheppard, Leslie Hook and Emiko Terazono - Financial Times
The banking sector turmoil that has spilled into energy and metal markets is likely to be limited in duration with only minimal damage to the wider economy, according to some of the world's biggest commodity traders. Sebastian Barrack, head of commodities at Citadel, the world's most successful hedge fund that at times invests heavily in energy and agriculture markets, said the impact was likely to be contained with fundamentals reasserting themselves once the immediate panic passed.
/jlne.ws/3Jxxamr
Credit Suisse's Collapse Reveals Some Ugly Truths About Switzerland for Investors; Nation has long traded on its image as a bastion of certainty; Law professor says Swiss made to look like a 'Banana Republic'
Hugo Miller and Dylan Griffiths - Bloomberg
For decades, Switzerland has sold itself as a haven of legal certainty for bond and equity investors. The collapse of Credit Suisse Group AG revealed some unpleasant home truths. In the race to secure UBS Group AG's purchase of its smaller rival over the weekend, the government invoked the need for stability and emergency legislation to override two key aspects of open markets: competition law and shareholder rights. Then bondholders discovered that $17 billion worth of so-called Additional Tier 1 debt was worthless.
/jlne.ws/3yUY9Dr
The 11 Days of Turmoil That Brought Down Four Banks And Left a Fifth Teetering
Steve Dickson - Bloomberg
The speed with which four banks collapsed - and one continues to struggle - has left investors reeling. While the failures came in the span of just 11 days, the scenarios that brought them down were each unique. Here's how the companies' turmoil played out, and how regulators responded, amid concern the crisis might still spread:
/jlne.ws/3LyvNqi
Credit Suisse's Fate Was Sealed by Regulators Days Before UBS Deal
Marion Halftermeyer, Dinesh Nair, Abhinav Ramnarayan, Jan-Henrik Foerster and Gillian Tan - Bloomberg
Employees of Credit Suisse Group AG, desperate to learn of the fate of the Swiss bank after days of chaos and confusion, dialed into a hastily arranged call Sunday night after its $3.25 billion government-driven sale to UBS Group AG had been announced.
/jlne.ws/3JVImur
Ralph Hamers, the Dutchman thrust in the driver's seat at Swiss bank UBS
Noele Illien, Toby Sterling and Tom Sims - Reuters
When Ralph Hamers emerged from days of emergency talks that ended with his Swiss banking giant rescuing its arch-rival Credit Suisse on Sunday, the bleary-eyed UBS CEO called it a "sad day" that no one had wanted. The Dutchman finds himself cast as the potential saviour of Swiss finance - managing a bank with a balance sheet twice Switzerland's economy and in a country whose reputation as a financial powerhouse has taken a major hit just as investor confidence in global banks is its weakest in years.
/jlne.ws/3ySbHjl
SVB-Fueled Turmoil Junks Lessons of the Global Financial Crisis; Fed, Congress thought smaller banks, deposits and bonds were boring and safe; instead, they are the source of new fragility
Greg Ip - The Wall Street Journal
The turmoil touched off by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank has demolished much of what the Federal Reserve, political leaders and investors thought they had learned from the global financial crisis of 2007-09. They assumed complex securities, too-big-to-fail banks and shadowy, lightly regulated lenders were the weak links in the system. Instead, the weak links were its mundane, ostensibly safe parts-government bonds, smaller banks and deposits.
/jlne.ws/3JFj2rw
Oil Traders Assess Bank Shock at Swiss Palace Meetup; The background music may be ominous, but merchants at the FT commodities summit say they're bullish about China's fuel demand.
Grant Smith - Bloomberg
For decades, commodities traders have looked to Switzerland as a hub of stability to anchor their turbulent industry. But as they gather at Lake Geneva this week, the merchants of oil and metals are assessing the fallout from the demise of one of the country's most storied institutions - Credit Suisse Group AG.
/jlne.ws/3FDRqSa
JPMorgan Chase thought it had $1.3 million worth of nickel stored in a warehouse. A closer examination revealed bags of stones.
Lakshmi Varanasi - Business Insider
An operator for the warehouse weighed bags that were thought to contain 54 metric tons of nickel, only to find that they were filled with stones, according to The Wall Street Journal. It appears that JPMorgan Chase is the unlucky owner of those bags, the Journal said on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
/jlne.ws/3lCxI2i
UBS Most Reliant on AT1 Bonds Wiped Out in Credit Suisse Deal
Neil Callanan and Tasos Vossos - Bloomberg
UBS Group AG is more reliant for its capital on the type of risky bonds that were wiped out in the Credit Suisse Group AG takeover than any other major lender in Europe. Additional Tier 1 bonds, or AT1s, are the equivalent of about 28% of the Swiss lender's highest quality regulatory capital, according to Bloomberg calculations. That's just slightly more than for Barclays Plc, while the average exposure among the 16 biggest banks in Europe is about 16%.
/jlne.ws/3yWqFou
Fund Managers' Biggest Fear Is Now a Systemic Credit Crunch
Farah Elbahrawy - Bloomberg
A systemic credit event has replaced stubborn inflation as the key risk to markets for increasingly pessimistic investors, according to Bank of America Corp.'s latest global survey of fund managers.
/jlne.ws/3n7jOpo
Asia investors 'gobsmacked' by $17bn Credit Suisse bond wipeout; Risky AT1 debt was popular in the region and a sell-off has sparked margin calls
Mercedes Ruehl, Leo Lewis and Kaye Wiggins - Financial Times
The wipeout of $17bn of Credit Suisse bonds has sparked panic among rich Asian investors who had loaded up on the risky bank debt. Under the terms of the UBS takeover of Credit Suisse, orchestrated by the Swiss government on Sunday, Credit Suisse's additional tier 1 bonds were written down to zero while shareholders received $3.25bn.
/jlne.ws/42tDAeP
Europe's Bond Traders Benefit From Credit Suisse Turmoil Trades
Laura Benitez - Bloomberg
Some of Europe's largest banks seized on the turmoil that engulfed Credit Suisse Group AG last week by facilitating billions of dollars in bond trading as investors bet on the Swiss lender's fate. Banks including Barclays Plc, BNP Paribas SA and Morgan Stanley have been among the most active in trading debt of the Swiss lender in recent days, which could translate into material gains for the desks provided they weren't caught out by the volatility of the past few days, people familiar with the matter said.
/jlne.ws/4057t3B
Silicon Valley Bank losses embolden calls for US accounting rule reform; 'Fair value' approach would have made SVB's losses on bond portfolio obvious to investors earlier, say advocates
Stephen Foley - Financial Times
US accounting rulemakers are being urged to rethink how banks should value their assets in financial statements, in the wake of the run on Silicon Valley Bank and pressure across the regional banking sector. Advocates of "fair value" accounting are urging the Financial Accounting Standards Board to force banks to recognise unrealised losses on securities such as those held by SVB, even when management insists they will never have to be sold.
/jlne.ws/3LAHv3L
Credit Suisse's Demise Spurs Protests in Zurich Financial Center
Marion Halftermeyer - Bloomberg
About 200 protesters gathered outside Credit Suisse Group AG's headquarters in Zurich this evening following the bank's collapse. The demonstrators, chanting "revolution" and "eat the rich," threw eggs at the building in Paradeplatz, the heart of the city's financial district. Police officers looked on as the protesters made speeches against the power of Switzerland's financial sector.
/jlne.ws/42v8Ev2
Crypto Exchanges Are Now Eyeing Derivatives After FTX's Collapse; Traders looking to leverage positions are turning to exchanges; Bitcoin price volatility boosts demand for the products
Muyao Shen - Bloomberg
Crypto exchanges are rushing to fill the void left by FTX, once one of the largest derivatives exchanges for digital assets, as the cash market faces declining volume and liquidity. FTX's collapse has become an opportunity for other exchanges to capture market share or enter a space now dominated by Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange. Some exchanges showed interests in buying FTX's derivatives platform in the US, while others are just looking to build brand new derivatives exchanges. At the same time, the demise of several crypto lenders like Genesis Global Hold LLC have left traders looking for other ways to leverage their positions.
/jlne.ws/3LEzY3F
Credit Suisse Collapse Burns Saudi Investors; Some of kingdom's officials harbored doubts about a $1.5 billion investment in bank before crown prince signed off
Summer Said, Julie Steinberg, Margot Patrick and Stephen Kalin - The Wall Street Journal
Riding an oil-price boom last year, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman directed government-backed Saudi National Bank to make a $1.5 billion investment in Credit Suisse Group AG that his financial advisers harbored doubts about, according to people familiar with the matter.
/jlne.ws/3n2f1FD
Vanguard Plans to Shutter Business in China, Exit Ant JV; The US giant first started retreating from China in 2021; Exit stands in contrast with global rivals' onshore expansion
Bloomberg
Vanguard Group Inc., the US asset management giant, has decided to shutter its remaining business in China after a retreat two years ago, according to people familiar with the matter, abandoning a 27 trillion yuan ($3.9 trillion) fund market that global competitors are embracing. The Malvern, Pennsylvania-based firm has notified the Chinese government of intentions to shutter its unit in Shanghai, the people said, requesting not to be named because the matter is private. The company also is planning to exit a robo-advisory joint venture with Jack Ma-backed Ant Group Co., they added.
/jlne.ws/3n6COEH
Can Jamie Dimon Outdo J.P. Morgan Himself in This Panic?; Banking dynasty founder John Pierpont Morgan presided over a series of messy, improvised interventions that dragged on for weeks in the 1907 financial crisis.
Stephen Mihm - Bloomberg
Last week, Jamie Dimon, head of JPMorgan Chase & Co., rode to the rescue of First Republic Bank as it faced a cataclysmic run on its deposits. Dimon and his allies at 10 other banks deposited $30 billion in the struggling institution, pledging to keep the money there for at least four months, if not longer. Dimon's intervention calls to mind a similar crisis many years ago, when John Pierpont Morgan helped quell the Panic of 1907.
/jlne.ws/3yVJAiY
IMF Wants 'Swift' Sri Lanka Debt Talks After $3 Billion Loan; IMF executive board approves aid program Monday in Washington; Focus shifts to debt talks amid deadlock over restructurings
Anusha Ondaatjie - Bloomberg
The International Monetary Fund approved a $3 billion loan program for Sri Lanka to bolster its economy and urged for swift progress in talks on debt structuring between the bankrupt nation and its creditors. The lender's executive board approved the 48-month program in Washington, and officials said it will include a disbursement of about $333 million in the next two days or so.
/jlne.ws/3JVwOaL
SVB Chief Becker Hires Defense Lawyers in Securities Fraud Suit; Two Orrick partners representing Becker, according to filing; SVB's collapse also being investigated by DOJ, SEC and Fed
Joel Rosenblatt - Bloomberg
Silicon Valley Bank Chief Executive Officer Greg Becker has hired defense lawyers for a shareholder suit accusing him and the bank of securities fraud. James Kramer and Alex Talarides, both San Francisco partners at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, are now representing Becker, according to a court filing in the shareholder case. It's unclear if the two are also representing Becker in other matters, including probes of the bank's failure by the Justice Department, Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Reserve.
/jlne.ws/3Z2QzRZ
How Covid Upended Trade Between Two Economic Giants; Data shows an extraordinary change in demand for goods between the US and China.
Tim Culpan - Bloomberg
As millions died and countless more lives were overturned, the very structure of global commerce changed under the weight of Covid-19. Entirely new products became among the most shipped across the Pacific Ocean, while mainstays of the China-US economic relationship withered amid falling demand and frozen passenger travel. Not all of the changes can be attributed to the spread of Covid - declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization three years ago this month - with Washington and Beijing already caught in an increasingly tense technology Cold War.
/jlne.ws/3FA3FPS
Wall Street CEOs seek new plan for First Republic; Shares of lender plummet after rating downgrade despite $30bn lifeline last week
Stephen Gandel, Joshua Franklin, Brooke Masters and Ortenca Aliaj - Financial TImes
Wall Street bank chief executives are trying to come up with a new plan for First Republic after a $30bn lifeline failed to arrest a sharp sell-off in the lender's shares. The executives will discuss if anything more can be done for the California-based lender on the sidelines of a pre-planned gathering in Washington on Tuesday, which is being organised by the Financial Services Forum, one of the main industry lobby groups, said people familiar with the matter.
/jlne.ws/3luLJza
JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank must face Jeffrey Epstein claims, judge rules
Joe Miller - Financial Times
JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank will be forced to face allegations in court that they benefited from the late sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein's crimes, although a New York judge dismissed several other related claims against the lenders. The banks - both of which maintained Epstein as a customer for several years - were sued separately last year by women who said they were abused by Epstein.
/jlne.ws/3LJ7Lcl
Barney Frank Was Right About Signature Bank; The FDIC all but confirms it closed the bank over crypto.
The Wall Street Journal
We never thought we'd write that headline. But on Sunday the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. announced that New York Community Bancorp's Flagstar Bank will assume all of Signature Bank's cash deposits except for those of crypto companies. This confirms Mr. Frank's suspicions-and ours-that Signature's seizure was motivated by regulators' hostility toward crypto.
/jlne.ws/3mYmghS
Time Is Running Out to Curb Climate Change, IPCC Report Says
Eric Niiler - The Wall Street Journal
A United Nations panel of scientists said there is a "feasible, but narrow pathway" to avoid the worst effects of climate change, however to do so, the world's nations must together cut greenhouse-gas emissions 60% by 2035 to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius over preindustrial levels. That level of cuts would require a massive and rapid shift in the world's energy supply that is under way in some countries, but has been stifled by the war in Ukraine, the global energy crisis and thirst for economic growth in countries like China and India.
/jlne.ws/3FFXVUu
European clamp down on non-EU CCPs using mandated active accounts could counter competition, EFAMA finds; EFAMA stated that the proposal leaves various key questions open around the methodology for determining the clearing thresholds and the level at which they would apply to various counterparties.
Wesley Bray - The Trade
The European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) has published its response to the European Commission's (EC) December EMIR 3.0 proposal, voicing concerns around what a mandated active EU CCP account system might do to clearing competition and efficiency.
/jlne.ws/3lynVdJ
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | 'Ukraine is a false justification': America's destructive new rush for natural gas
The Guardian
About 30 miles south of New Orleans, a construction site visible from space is rising. Sandwiched between the Mississippi River and disappearing wetlands, the 256-hectare (632-acre) site is visited by a stream of tipper trucks and concrete mixers that stir up dust on Louisiana 23, the state highway that goes down to Venice, the last spot of land before the river's water flows into the Gulf of Mexico.
/jlne.ws/3Jrl9yS
Ukraine Warns of Further Fall in Grain Harvest
Alistair MacDonald - The Wall Street Journal
Ukraine expects its farmers to harvest up to 15% less grain this year than last, showing how the war is further hindering one of the world's largest agricultural exporters. With Russia's invasion continuing to disrupt exports, some farmers have switched to crops that are easier to get out of the country, like sunflower seeds and soy, Mykola Solskyi, Ukraine's minister of agrarian policy and food, said in an interview.
/jlne.ws/3Jx3ohI
Russia Launches Push for Eastern City as It Struggles to Regain Military Initiative
James Marson - The Wall Street Journal
Russia launched an assault on the eastern city of Avdiivka, seeking to kick-start its spring offensive that Ukraine said was on the verge of fizzling. Avdiivka, on the outskirts of the occupied regional capital of Donetsk and known for its coke plant, has long been a target for Moscow and is already largely destroyed. A fresh Russian offensive against the city has brought incremental advances similar to those around the nearby city of Bakhmut, which Russian forces are seeking to encircle and cut off, a Ukrainian military spokesman and the U.K. Ministry of Defense said Monday.
/jlne.ws/3JUlbAC
EU to Send Ukraine a Million Artillery Shells as Russia Gains Ground
Laurence Norman - The Wall Street Journal
European Union member states backed a plan to send one million artillery shells to Ukraine over the next year as part of an arms-purchase package valued at more than $2 billion, the latest move by Western countries to improve Ukraine's access to heavy ammunition. EU foreign-policy chief Josep Borrell said ministers agreed to the proposal at a meeting in Brussels after lengthy discussions among member states over the plan's details.
/jlne.ws/3LATezh
EU Opens Crisis Fund for Nations Under Influx of Ukraine Crops
Lyubov Pronina - Bloomberg
The European Union is activating a crisis reserve for farmers in three eastern nations handling an influx of Ukrainian crops that's lowering local prices. The European Commission, the bloc's executive, will provide EUR56 million ($60 million) to Romania, Bulgaria and Poland, Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski told reporters in Brussels late Monday. Three of Ukraine's major Black Sea ports reopened to grain exports last year, but seaborne trade remains slower than normal, forcing farmers to continue routing crops via EU neighbors.
/jlne.ws/3TEeJRO
As War in Ukraine Grinds on, China Helps Refill Russian Drone Supplies; China has shipped more than $12 million in drones to Russia since it invaded Ukraine, in an indication of quiet collaboration between the two.
Paul Mozur, Aaron Krolik and Keith Bradsher - The New York Times
The Biden administration vowed last month to crack down on companies that sell critical technologies to Russia as part of its efforts to curtail the country's war against Ukraine. But the continued flow of Chinese drones to the country explains why that will be hard.
/jlne.ws/3Jq0Z8s
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | JPMorgan Owned the LME 'Nickel' That Was Actually Bags of Stones; Bank had put the metal on to the exchange early last year; Development is latest headache for JPMorgan's commodities unit
Jack Farchy, Archie Hunter and Mark Burton - Bloomberg
JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned the London Metal Exchange nickel contracts that turned out to be backed by bags of stones rather than metal, according to people familiar with the matter. The LME last week announced it had canceled nine nickel contracts - worth about $1.3 million - after discovering "irregularities" at a certain warehouse, which Bloomberg has reported was owned by Access World. The news has been met with shock in the metals world, because LME contracts are generally viewed as beyond question.
/jlne.ws/3z02tkN
Investors discover agribusiness: the number of individual investors almost doubles in the sector's products at B3 in 2022;Invested volume reached BRL 411 billion, 79% more than at the end of 2021. The figure represents 19.5% of all investment in fixed income and equities
B3
Diversification has proven to be an important growth vector for the Brazilian capital market. A sectoral overview of individual investment data at B3 in 2022 shows a steep increase in agribusiness linked products in terms of number of investors and volume invested. These figures grew 95% and 79%, respectively, reaching 1.6 million investors and BRL 411 billion in resources, distributed among Agribusiness Credit Bills (LCAs), Agribusiness Receivables Certificates (CRAs) and Agribusiness Investment Funds (FIAGRO).
/jlne.ws/3JTizD8
Capital Markets in Europe - The need to act is now
Eurex
Ahead of the Eurex Derivatives Forum, Eurex caught up with Fabrizio Campelli, Member of the Management Board at Deutsche Bank responsible for the Corporate Bank and Investment Bank, to discuss the need for deeper capital markets in Europe and what needs to be done to achieve this. What progress has Europe made in developing its capital markets and how important is this work for the continent? Europe has not made a lot of progress in developing its capital markets.
/jlne.ws/404vh7E
Euronext joins the CAC SBT 1.5 degree Index
Euronext
Inclusion of Euronext demonstrates progress on its climate commitment following the validation of its SBTi targets. Euronext, the leading pan-European market infrastructure, is proud to announce today its inclusion into the CAC SBT 1.5 degree Index following the quarterly review of the index. The CAC SBT 1.5°, launched earlier this year[1], solely comprises companies within the SBF 120 Index that have emission reduction targets approved to be in line with the 1.5 degree goal of the Paris Agreement.
/jlne.ws/3JwBcLO
HKEX Welcomes Rona Fairhead and Megan Greene to International Advisory Council
HKEX
Baroness Rona Fairhead and Ms Megan Greene appointed to HKEX International Advisory Council; Council comprises of experts in economics, business, technology and finance who provide senior counsel to the HKEX Board of Directors. Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) is pleased to announce today (Tuesday) the appointment of Baroness Rona Fairhead and Ms Megan Greene to the HKEX International Advisory Council.
/jlne.ws/3TyDmiH
Position Limits - Government Of Canada Bond Listed Products (All Months)
TMX
The applicable position limits for the Government of Canada Bond futures and options on the Government of Canada Bond futures have been updated and are reflected in the position limit file. The position limit file is available in Annex 1 and retrievable here.
/jlne.ws/3n9cQQQ
European clamp down on non-EU CCPs using mandated active accounts could counter competition, EFAMA finds; EFAMA stated that the proposal leaves various key questions open around the methodology for determining the clearing thresholds and the level at which they would apply to various counterparties.
Wesley Bray - The Trade
The European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) has published its response to the European Commission's (EC) December EMIR 3.0 proposal, voicing concerns around what a mandated active EU CCP account system might do to clearing competition and efficiency. The EC's proposal announced at the end of last year included simplified product approvals, faster model change authorisations and increased margin model transparency, alongside the proposal of a new clearing threshold calculation, designed to increase the attractiveness of EU CCPs.
/jlne.ws/3lynVdJ
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | The UK must defend its fintech crown
Charlotte Crosswell - Financial News
There is no disputing that the UK is a global leader in financial innovation. We boast a 10% global market share, and we are the largest fintech market in Europe. In fact, the UK attracts more venture capital investment than the next 13 European markets combined.
/jlne.ws/3JSsnxc
Nvidia set to reveal new AI technologies at annual conference
Stephen Nellis - Reuters
Nvidia Corp Chief Executive Jensen Huang is expected on Tuesday to disclose new artificial intelligence chips and technologies at the company's annual conference for software developers.
/jlne.ws/3FGOnsp
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | Google Halts Download of Chinese App Pinduoduo Over Security Concerns; Versions of the e-commerce app contain malware, Google said, as Chinese-developed apps come under U.S. scrutiny
Clarence Leong and Newley Purnell - The Wall Street Journal
Alphabet Inc.'s Google blocked downloads of e-commerce app Pinduoduo after versions of it not carried in its app store were found to contain malware, adding to security concerns about Chinese-developed apps.
/jlne.ws/3mZKkAW
European Ports Brace for Cybersecurity Regulation
Catherine Stupp - The Wall Street Journal
European ports are preparing for a major regulatory change next year in how the hundreds of companies in their global supply chains address cybersecurity as ports have become a target for criminal hacker groups and state-sponsored attacks.
/jlne.ws/3lnWKT3
How SMBs Can Close The Cybersecurity Gap
Grayson Milbourne - Forbes
For too long, small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have struggled with implementing robust cybersecurity to protect their businesses and customers. Small security budgets and teams are the most common roadblocks. There is also a lack of urgency as many SMBs don't believe they are a target. Case in point, a recent Global SMB Ransomware Survey by our company found that nearly half (46%) of SMBs have experienced a ransomware attack. Despite these numbers, 67% of SMBs surveyed still don't think or aren't sure they are a ransomware target because of their size.
/jlne.ws/3JUYqws
ChatGPT Gut Check: Cybersecurity Threats Overhyped or Not?
Becky Bracken - Dark Reading
The dizzying capacity for OpenAI to vacuum up vast amounts of data and spit out custom-tailored content has ushered in all sorts of worrying predictions about the technology's ability to overwhelm everything - including cybersecurity defenses.
/jlne.ws/3TzAUso
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | U.S. Supreme Court to Hear First Crypto Case Tuesday
Cheyenne Ligon - CoinDesk
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in its first-ever crypto-related case on Tuesday, when lawyers for San Francisco-based crypto exchange Coinbase will attempt to convince the nine Justices to pause a pair of class-action lawsuits against the crypto exchange.
/jlne.ws/3JXLdTT
Coinbase Chief Legal Officer: What FTX Did Was 'Flat-Out Fraud'
Andrew Asmakov - Decrypt
Last year's collapse of the crypto exchange FTX resulted in a tectonic shift for the industry. Undermined confidence in the nascent sector compounded by unprecedented regulatory scrutiny are just some of the repercussions of those events, which revealed the mismanagement of billions of dollars of investors' funds on the part of the exchange's founder Sam Bankman-Fried and the affiliated companies. Speaking on Decrypt's gm podcast, Coinbase's chief legal officer Paul Grewal said "there's no question that FTX set the entire industry back, and frankly, the whole conversation around crypto." To Grewal, this is understandable, to a large extent, since "what we saw with FTX was nothing short of flat-out fraud. And that should give everyone, including regulators, concern, and perhaps even pause, on the right way to make sure that tragedies like that never happen again."
/jlne.ws/3JvujdD
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | Janet Yellen to signal further US support for deposits at smaller banks; Treasury secretary to defend 'decisive and forceful actions' by regulators to avert broader crisis
James Politi - Financial Times
Janet Yellen will signal further US government backing for deposits at smaller American banks if needed, a shift that seeks to protect parts of the country's banking system struggling in the recent financial turmoil. Amid mounting evidence that panicked depositors are pulling savings out of regional banks, the US Treasury secretary will say guarantees offered to all depositors at the failed Silicon Valley Bank could be replicated at other institutions if needed.
/jlne.ws/3JvdWxP
Unions and environmentalists push for California referendum reform
Taryn Luna - Los Angeles Times
California's influential labor unions, government watchdogs and environmental advocates repeatedly accuse corporations of lying to voters in campaigns to reverse state laws and thwart the progressive Democratic agenda at the state Capitol. Now they plan to do something about it.
/jlne.ws/40nrNgl
California's Newsom Scores Win in Bid to Curb Oil Profits; State would limit profits, have watchdog to monitor prices; Newsom has accused oil companies of price gouging at pump
Gerson Freitas Jr - Bloomberg
Governor Gavin Newsom struck a deal Monday with legislative leaders on a proposal to limit how much profit oil companies can make in California and establish a watchdog to monitor gasoline prices. Under the proposal, authored by state Senator Nancy Skinner, the California Energy Commission would be allowed to impose a penalty on refiners that charge more than an allowable margin for the price of gasoline, Newsom's press office said in a statement.
/jlne.ws/3naP0nX
Labour calls for review of impact of financial sector uncertainty on UK; Letter to chancellor in wake of turmoil at banks in US and Europe
George Parker - Financial Times
Jeremy Hunt, chancellor, was on Monday night urged by the opposition Labour party to tell MPs what he is doing in conjunction with the Bank of England to ensure the stability of the British banking system. Tulip Siddiq, shadow City minister, wrote to Hunt saying he had a duty to the public and the UK financial services sector to implement a series of measures following the problems at Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse.
/jlne.ws/3FAfZiL
Senior Tory MP questions impact of planned revamp of capital rules on UK SMEs; Chair of Treasury select committee Harriet Baldwin concerned about proposals that remove favourable treatment for SME loans
Jim Pickard and Daniel Thomas - Financial Times
The Conservative chair of the House of Commons Treasury select committee has questioned why proposals to revamp UK bank capital rules include measures that would hit lending to small businesses.
/jlne.ws/3LDoNs8
Hong Kong Financial System Resilient to Bank Crisis, Lee Says
Kari Soo Lindberg and Jill Elaine Disis - Bloomberg
Hong Kong's financial system is not being significantly affected by the global banking crisis, the city's top officials said. "The banking system in Hong Kong is very resilient," leader John Lee said at a scheduled press conference on Tuesday. "The banking sector is operating smoothly and normally, and the liquidity of the market is also very abundant."
/jlne.ws/3JXfQJa
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | Q. & A. The Regulatory Breakdown Behind the Collapse of Silicon Valley Bank; For more than a year, the Fed knew that the bank was headed toward a crisis. Why didn't it intervene sooner? Isaac Chotiner - The New Yorker
In the wake of Silicon Valley Bank's collapse, which set off panic in the financial sector and concern across the global economy, a crucial question has been whether regulators could have intervened sooner. Recent reporting has indicated that, more than a year ago, the San Francisco Fed did notice problems-including how the bank managed its exposure to changes in interest rates and whether it would have enough cash in a crisis-and warned S.V.B. about them. (Between 2017 and the time of those warnings, the bank's assets had quadrupled to more than two hundred billion dollars.) After the financial crisis of 2008, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act, which imposed stricter regulations on the banking sector; in 2018, Congress scaled back Dodd-Frank, raising the threshold for increased scrutiny of banks from fifty billion in assets to two hundred and fifty billion.
/jlne.ws/3Jxfur3
SEC Virtual Outreach Event Highlights Students on the Frontlines of Investor Protection
SEC
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it will host a virtual event, entitled "Investor Advocacy Clinics: Students Fight for Investor Justice," on Wednesday, March 29 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. ET. The event will highlight the important work of law school students who provide free legal representation and other resources to harmed investors engaged in disputes with their financial professionals. Hosted by the SEC Office of the Ombudsman and the Division of Enforcement's Retail Strategy Task Force, the event will be livestreamed at sec.gov.
/jlne.ws/3Z5D9om
SEC Office of Municipal Securities Issues FAQs for Registration of Municipal Advisors
SEC
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of Municipal Securities today announced that it updated its Registration of Municipal Advisors Frequently Asked Questions webpage to add a section, entitled Completion of Form MA, Form MA-I, and Form MA-NR, which provides additional staff guidance on the required information and timelines regarding:
Form MA, for an application for municipal advisor registration, annual update of municipal advisor registration, and an amendment of a prior application for registration; Form MA-I, for information regarding natural persons who engage in municipal advisor activities; and Form MA-NR, for designation of U.S. agent for service of process for non-residents.
/jlne.ws/3mZNdlg
ASIC consults on 'sunsetting' class orders on changing responsible entities and equal treatment
ASIC
ASIC is seeking feedback from responsible entities of managed investment schemes and corporate directors of corporate collective investment vehicles (CCIVs) on proposals to remake 'sunsetting' class orders.
/jlne.ws/3yUO8WR
Update on FCA Authorisations operating service metrics
FCA
In October 2022 we published an update on our operating service metrics for authorisations timelines, which included a view of operating service metrics for the period April to September 2022. The latest metrics, now showing April to September 2022 as 2 separate quarters (Q1 and Q2) and including performance for October to December 2022 (Q3) and January/February 2023. We are no longer reporting on the voluntary metrics for Approved Persons Status or Payment Services Agent notifications. As we said in the October 2022 update, these targets are no longer appropriate due to the additional checks at the gateway.
/jlne.ws/42u0ItH
Oral reply to Parliamentary Question on scope of Government's control over MAS on monetary policy and reserves
Monetary Authority of Singapore
To ask the Prime Minister what is the scope of guidance or control on the choice of monetary regime or on the total level of reserves held, that the Government is able to convey to or exercise on MAS as an independent central bank. Answer by Mr Alvin Tan, Minister of State, Ministry of Trade and Industry and Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, and Board member of MAS, on behalf of Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Senior Minister and Minister in charge of MAS:
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'Do you understand what I say?' Markus Braun's stonewall testimony tests Wirecard judge's patience; The former chief executive has been unwavering that he has no responsibility for one of Europe's biggest corporate frauds
Olaf Storbeck - Financial Times
In his two and a half years in police custody, Markus Braun seems to have changed very little. The former Wirecard boss still wears his black turtlenecks. He is as self-confident, polite and intransigent as ever. His statements in the trial in Munich examining one of Europe's biggest accounting frauds have been peppered with PowerPoint presentations and industry jargon. They have often sounded more like investor briefings than statements in a criminal case.
/jlne.ws/3lwSS1O
How 'competitive' would you like your bank regulation now? Unravelling of Credit Suisse and Silicon Valley Bank gives whip hand to those in favour of tough oversight
Helen Thomas - Financial Times
The UK regulatory pendulum has been halted in mid-swing. The direction of travel for bank regulation in recent years has clearly been in the financial services sector's favour. Aided by a government eager to find benefits of post-Brexit regulatory freedom, there has been a sense of opportunity to tweak or modify, to strip off gold-plating or at least remove some of the shine.
/jlne.ws/3K37oIp
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | World's Most Important Market Needs Fixing Before It's Too Late; The wild gyrations in Treasury securities are contributing heavily to the unease infecting investors. The Fed can help.
Robert Burgess - Bloomberg
The world's most important market is broken. Rather than the measured temperature-takers of the economy, US Treasury securities are acting like panic-stricken children who claim to have heard something go bump in the night.
/jlne.ws/3yTHzE3
Gen Z investors prove their mettle at NUS-SGX Stock Pitch Competition 2023
SGX Group
It was a battle of wits and stock ideas at the NUS-SGX Stock Pitch Competition 2023, with a team from National University of Singapore (NUS) emerging victorious among 68 competing teams from nine pre-tertiary and tertiary institutions. Marking its ninth edition this year, the NUS-SGX Stock Pitch Competition is an initiative that brings together the academic and corporate domains of equity research and investment management with the goal of inspiring the young generation to start investing early.
/jlne.ws/3JPIM5E
Pimco, Invesco Face Losses in Credit Suisse Debt Writedown; Risky debt faced write-down in deal to save Credit Suisse; Pimco is the largest holder of the Swiss lender's AT1 bonds
Laura Benitez, Luca Casiraghi and Loukia Gyftopoulou - Bloomberg
Pacific Investment Management Co. and Invesco Ltd. are among the largest holders of Credit Suisse's so-called Additional Tier 1 bonds that have been wiped out after the bank's takeover by UBS Group AG. Newport Beach, California-based asset manager Pimco is the largest holder of the Swiss lender's AT1 bonds with around $807 million of the securities - the riskiest in the bank's debt stack - according to a person familiar with the matter who isn't authorized to speak publicly. The US firm lost about $340 million on its holdings, Reuters reported, citing an unidentified person.
/jlne.ws/3TsDW1v
JPMorgan, BNP Quote Risky Credit Suisse Bonds At Just Above Zero; Dealers including BNP, BTIG, Jefferies, GS are making markets; Market participants look at whether bonds may have value
Erin Hudson, Giulia Morpurgo and Rachel Butt - Bloomberg
Risky Credit Suisse Group AG bonds that are set to be written down to zero by regulators were being quoted at prices of a few cents on the dollar on Monday, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Dealers including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley are willing to buy risky Credit Suisse debt known as additional tier 1 bonds, or AT1s, for somewhere around 2 cents on the dollar and sell somewhere around 5 cents as of early afternoon on Monday in New York, according to the people.
/jlne.ws/3TLo8Hn
Quants Are Reeling as Bank Crisis Triggers Biggest Hit Since Covid; Turmoil at lenders sends shock wave through systematic world; Trend-following, value, ARP, multi-factor strategies are hit
Justina Lee - Bloomberg
A week of banking turmoil is sparking a rout across the systematic-investing world akin to the Covid-era disruption, hammering quants who were just finding their feet after a challenging start to the year. Trouble at Credit Suisse Group AG - on the heels of regional banking disorder in the US - is hitting popular rules-based trades as investors bet the crisis foreshadows an end to Federal Reserve policy tightening.
/jlne.ws/3Z3Tqdr
Andrew Forrest's Wyloo Seeks Takeover of Nickel Explorer Mincor
James Fernyhough - Bloomberg
Wyloo Metals Pty Ltd., a privately-held mining company owned by Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest, has offered to buy Australian nickel and gold explorer Mincor Resources NL. The A$1.40 per share offer is a 35% premium on the previous closing price and values the company at A$760 million ($510 million) on a fully diluted basis, the company said in a regulatory filing Tuesday. Mincor is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.
/jlne.ws/40kp8nJ
Anxiety Strikes $8 Trillion Mortgage-Debt Market After SVB Collapse; Investors fear other banks will sell mortgage-backed securities, pushing down prices
Matt Wirz - The Wall Street Journal
Strains in the banking sector are roiling a roughly $8 trillion bond market considered almost as safe as U.S. government bonds. So-called agency mortgage bonds are widely held by banks, insurers and bond funds because they are backed by the mortgage loans from government-owned lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The bonds are far less likely to default than most debt and are easy to buy and sell quickly, a crucial reason they were Silicon Valley Bank's biggest investment before it foundered.
/jlne.ws/40qDp2n
Bank Fears Rattle Oil Markets Poised for Chinese Boom; Financial-sector stress complicates Wall Street's outlook for crude
David Uberti - The Wall Street Journal
Wall Street's outlook for oil this year is suddenly looking a bit less bright. Crude prices dropped to 15-month lows after strains in the U.S. banking system sent tremors throughout financial markets and intensified fears of a broader economic slowdown. Those worries have hit prices just as energy-hungry China has finally shown signs of revving up from strict pandemic lockdowns.
/jlne.ws/3ndGdBi
Short seller warned US regulator about Signature Bank in January; Property-focused lender had a reputation for promoting entrepreneurial bankers and a blind spot for risk
Stephen Gandel and Joshua Franklin - Financial Times
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation officials were told in mid-January that Signature Bank, a New York City-based lender with about $90bn in deposits, was in trouble. A letter from a short seller, who stood to make money if Signature's share price fell, warned that the bank lacked basic controls. One example: Signature in April 2020 made a $370,000 pandemic assistance loan to Alameda Research, the hedge fund affiliate of the crypto exchange FTX that last year filed for bankruptcy protection and was alleged to be part of a fraud.
/jlne.ws/3JBq1BL
Why your financial conditions index sucks; Bye-bye, misleading FCI
Daniel Davies - Financial Times
Financial conditions indices, a wise economist once told me, are like dreams and assholes. Everyone has them, they're not as unique as you'd think, and people are much more enthusiastic about studying their own than anyone else's.
/jlne.ws/3FEK0OI
Why I never invest in bank shares; Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse collapses prove my point
Terry Smith - Financial Times
Having spent the first decade of my career working in a bank and then becoming a top-rated bank analyst*, I find that people often express surprise that I never invest in bank shares. But I think it is precisely because I understand banks that I never invest in their shares. Recent events surrounding the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and of Credit Suisse reinforce this stance. Why?
/jlne.ws/3Tyub1J
Additional tier 1 bonds: the wiped-out debt at centre of Credit Suisse takeover; Controversy around decision has rippled across the wider $260bn AT1 market
Thomas Hale - Financial Times
The sale of Credit Suisse to UBS is the most dramatic moment in global banking since the financial crisis of 2007-08. It has also thrust into the spotlight the reforms that the global financial system has undergone in the past 15 years. Since the last crisis, regulators have sought to transfer more of the risk of a systemic bank failure away from depositors and on to bondholders. This was seen as a way of strengthening bank balance sheets, and avoiding contagion between banks or the need for taxpayer-funded bailouts.
/jlne.ws/3FCLYPm
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | Your thinking about ESG is all wrong. Here's what it's really about; Blaine Townsend, director of Bailard Wealth Management says attacks on ESG lean heavily on false economics and myths. Your thinking about ESG is all wrong. Here's what it's really about
Blaine Townsend - Fast Company
The demand for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing over the past decade has been so great that even the term's opacity did not deter growth. By the end of 2021, one in eight dollars of professionally managed assets in the U.S. used self-reported ESG criteria-totaling to $8 trillion in assets under management. With that unmitigated traction in the market, two predictable things have happened. First, large asset managers rode the wave to effectively gather assets. This brought with it the specter of greenwashing. Second, those whose policies or industries were threatened by ESG's growth went on the attack.
/jlne.ws/402BQb1
'Climate time bomb ticking', emissions must urgently be cut, UN chief says
David Stanway - Reuters
U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that the "climate time bomb is ticking" as he urged rich nations on Monday to slash emissions sooner after a new assessment from scientists said there was little time to lose in tackling climate change. "The rate of temperature rise in the last half century is the highest in 2,000 years," he said. "Concentrations of carbon dioxide are at their highest in at least 2 million years. The climate time-bomb is ticking."
/jlne.ws/3FE4dUK
Lessons From The New U.N. Climate Report on How to Course Correct
Simon Stiell - TIME (opinion)
Seven months ago, when I took up my role at the helm of United Nations Climate Change, I said that we would need to do things differently if we are to meet the challenge of the climate emergency. The report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) today underscores that need in dramatic terms. This synthesis of the most up-to-date science we have from a global community of experts adds yet more certainty, more data, and more detail to a simple truth: Unless we reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by at least 43% this decade, we are locking ourselves into a future of escalating climate extremes, food crises, and nature loss.
/jlne.ws/3JVJ6ji
Exclusive: EU drafts plan to allow e-fuel combustion engine cars - document
Reuters
The European Commission has drafted a plan allowing sales of new cars with internal combustion engines that run only on climate neutral e-fuels, in an attempt to resolve a spat with Germany over the EU's phasing out of combustion engine cars from 2035.
/jlne.ws/405C2WV
Report Suggests 'Rampant' Greenwashing in Food Sector; From "climate neutral certified" beer to "climate friendly" beef jerky, a report from the Changing Markets Foundation pinpoints examples of dubious climate claims.
Zahra Hirji - Bloomberg
On March 22, the European Commission is expected to publish new measures designed to crack down on greenwashing in product labels and advertisements. Among other provisions, the highly anticipated "Green Claims Directive" could force companies to be more transparent about the climate impacts of their products. But what does greenwashing look like, and how common is it?
/jlne.ws/42tloC5
Supreme Court wrestles with Navajo Nation water rights dispute; The justices heard arguments on whether a Navajo lawsuit claiming the federal government has a duty to address the tribe's water rights can move forward.
Lawrence Hurley - NBC News
The Supreme Court appeared closely divided on Monday as it grappled with whether to allow the Navajo Nation to pursue a claim that the federal government has a duty to address the Native American tribe's water rights. During the almost two-hour oral argument, it appeared a majority on the nine-justice court could allow the tribe's claim to move forward in a limited form, with much depending on the vote of conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
/jlne.ws/3LJNHGN
3 Questions on Loss and Damage Funding to Tackle Before COP28
Preety Bhandari, Nate Warszawski, Niloufar Javadi-Abhari, Marta Simonetti, Thomas Lechat and Andreas Biermann - WRI (commentary)
The importance of the historic agreement at COP27 to establish "loss and damage" financing for vulnerable countries to respond to the impacts of climate change was made excruciatingly evident when two consecutive cyclones hit the small island nation of Vanuatu. Cyclone Judy and Cyclone Kevin wreaked havoc in the South Pacific within 72 hours of each other in early March 2023, causing devastating destruction.
/jlne.ws/3TyYmpF
US scopes projects for carbon credit scheme under heavyweight committee; Plan to raise corporate funds for energy projects in poor countries might involve 'just energy transition' deals
Camilla Hodgson and Aime Williams - Financial Times
The US proposal for a new carbon credit system has begun sizing up potential interest from countries and corporate backers to help finance the shift of poorer nations away from fossil fuels.
/jlne.ws/40gcCG0
Huge Phillips 66 biofuels project will test the industry's green promises
Laila Kearney - Reuters
In the oldest refining town in the American West, Phillips 66 (PSX.N) is promising a greener future as it moves to halt crude-oil processing and build a massive renewable diesel plant, leading a global trend. That plan, announced in 2020, was initially welcomed by residents weary from a history of pollution and toxic leaks. But some have grown skeptical as the project's details cast doubt on the environmental benefits of revamping the 127-year-old complex on 1,100 acres in Rodeo, California.
/jlne.ws/3ndItsg
Greece Seeks to Overhaul EU's Power Grid in Green Transition; Country's prime minister to submit plans to leaders this week; Greece wants better north-south power connections in Europe
John Ainger - Bloomberg
Greece will put forward a plan to overhaul the European Union's electricity grids in order to lay the foundations for a massive rollout of renewable power. The country wants to boost so-called north-south corridors so that areas with high levels of wind power generation are better connected with those that produce solar electricity, according to a non-paper seen by Bloomberg.
/jlne.ws/42xfZKj
The state of the CSO
Joel Makower - GreenBuzz
Every other year for the past 12 years, sustainability executive recruiter Ellen Weinreb has surveyed chief sustainability officers at publicly traded U.S. companies. The sixth biennial report, just out, looks only at professionals who hold the title "chief sustainability officer," yielding a valuable perspective of the field over time. For the most recent report, her firm, Weinreb Group, surveyed 183 CSOs and received a 39 percent response rate - just over 70 execs.
/jlne.ws/40qqv46
Pushing the boundaries of the circular revolution
David Osfield - ESG Clarity (opinion)
On World Recycling Day, EdenTree's David Osfield looks at the drivers of circular change. The circular revolution is here even if current headlines do not seem to reflect this, yet. It's true that less than 10% of the world's resources are properly circular with nearly every industry deficient when it comes to circular practices.
/jlne.ws/3LE162Q
Sustainable ETFs in Europe are often cheaper than mainstream peers; Price wars have prompted many providers to lower fees
Chloe Leung - Financial Times
Sustainable exchange traded funds are often cheaper than their non-sustainable peers, analysis from Refinitiv Lipper on the European ETF industry shows. The average total expense ratios of equity ETFs classified as Article 8 or the "darker green" Article 9 were generally lower than their non-sustainable peers, Refinitiv Lipper found.
/jlne.ws/3TAzsWr
Saudi leads push to elevate carbon removal in UN climate science report; Flashpoints emerge in finalisation of key research findings
Camilla Hodgson and Attracta Mooney - Financial Times
Fossil-fuel producing nations lobbied on key aspects of the UN climate report released this week, with carbon capture technology emerging as one of the flashpoints in eleventh-hour discussions between government negotiators signing off on the definitive climate change research.
/jlne.ws/3Z5O9lF
US Investors Fear Legal Action as ESG Splits Global Markets; Robeco survey finds Europe, Asia more focused on climate risks; US investor anxiety coincides with political attacks on ESG
Frances Schwartzkopff - Bloomberg
ESG is dividing investment trends across the globe. Almost half of North America's biggest institutional and wholesale investors worry they'll face legal consequences if they consider environmental and social factors, as the political backlash against ESG broadens, according to a fresh global survey of firms overseeing $27 trillion.
/jlne.ws/3YYjtCM
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | US Studies Ways to Guarantee All Bank Deposits If Crisis Expands; Authorities don't yet see expanding FDIC coverage as necessary; Still, they're studying legal framework using emergency powers
Saleha Mohsin and Sridhar Natarajan - Bloomberg
US officials are studying ways they might temporarily expand Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. coverage to all deposits, a move sought by a coalition of banks arguing that it's needed to head off a potential financial crisis. Treasury Department staff are reviewing whether federal regulators have enough emergency authority to temporarily insure deposits greater than the current $250,000 cap on most accounts without formal consent from a deeply divided Congress, according to people with knowledge of the talks.
/jlne.ws/40fwsRK
Credit Suisse Bankers Flood Headhunters With Calls After Rescue; Recruiters, rival banks get calls from anxious bankers; Staff worry about overlap with existing UBS business units
Bloomberg
Recruiters across the world are getting an unprecedented flood of calls from Credit Suisse Group AG bankers seeking new jobs as the embattled Swiss lender is set to be taken over by UBS Group AG. From Singapore to London to New York, headhunters and rival lenders have been fielding calls over the past few days from anxious Credit Suisse staff, according to people from more than a dozen firms with knowledge of the matter.
/jlne.ws/3Lzcu01
UBS Got Credit Suisse for Almost Nothing; Also AT1s working as designed and a weird Bitcoin bet.
Matt Levine - Bloomberg
It is sometimes useful to think that the shareholders of a bank are not its owners; they are just renting it from its creditors. Schematically, a bank borrows a bunch of money from depositors and other creditors and uses the money to make loans and buy securities and do other risky investments. If the investments end up being worth more than the deposits, the shareholders keep what's left. If the investments end up being worth less than the deposits then, uh, that's bad. Then the shareholders don't own the bank anymore, for one thing, but that's really the least of your problems
/jlne.ws/40lt8UR
Credit Suisse Banker Beats Firm by Joining UBS Just Before Deal
Gillian Tan - Bloomberg
A private equity dealmaker in New York may go down as one of the last bankers UBS Group AG ever poaches from its cross-town rival. Just before UBS agreed to an emergency $3.2 billion takeover of Credit Suisse Group AG, the Swiss giant agreed to hire financial sponsors banker Maksim "Maks" Rodzinek away from its weakened competitor, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
/jlne.ws/3Z84iXE
JPMorgan's Kolanovic Sees Increasing Chances of 'Minsky Moment'; Strategist says debt-fueled market meltdown is possible; Investors should sell into relief bounces in stocks, he says
Carmen Reinicke - Bloomberg
Bank failures, market turmoil and ongoing economic uncertainty as central banks battle high inflation have increased the chances of a "Minsky moment," according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s Marko Kolanovic. The term, named for the late American economist Hyman Minsky, refers to the end of an economic boom that has encouraged investors to take on so much risk that lending exceeds what borrowers can repay. At that point, any destabilizing event may force investors to sell assets for cash to repay their loans, sparking a market meltdown.
/jlne.ws/42nqDn7
Canadian Banks' AT1s Join Selloff After Credit Suisse Rescue; LRCNs fell between 2 cents and 5 cents on the dollar Monday; OSFI says AT1 hierarchy over common equity will be respected
Esteban Duarte - Bloomberg
Canada's financial institutions' regulator moved to reassure investors as the country's riskiest bank debt joined a global selloff after the value of some Credit Suisse Group AG bonds was wiped out in the bank's takeover by UBS Group AG. Canada's "capital regime preserves creditor hierarchy which helps to maintain financial stability," the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions said in statement on its website.
/jlne.ws/3FCqiDb
How the Swiss 'trinity' forced UBS to save Credit Suisse
Stephen Morris, James Fontanella-Khan and Arash Massoudi - Financial TImes
The emergency call from the Swiss establishment came at 4pm on Thursday. Colm Kelleher, a rambunctious Irish banking executive who has been chair of UBS since last April, had been planning to celebrate St Patrick's Day on Friday before watching Ireland play England at rugby on Saturday at a pub in Zurich. He was hoping to see his country win a clean sweep, or "Grand Slam", in the Six Nations Championship.
/jlne.ws/3LHNeVk
Swiss under fire for shotgun marriage of Credit Suisse and UBS
Nikou Asgari, Harriet Agnew, Owen Walker and Sam Jones - Financial Times
The Swiss government has come under fire from bondholders and international regulators for its handling of the $3.2bn rescue-takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS. The two banks were forced together over the weekend by Swiss officials in a shotgun marriage that stabilised the teetering Credit Suisse but wiped out $17bn of its bonds, upending the normal priority of investors.
/jlne.ws/3n9HtWj
A very Swiss bank rescue; UBS takeover of Credit Suisse eases market rout, but the deal will have repercussions
Financial Times
To paraphrase the former Bank of England governor Mervyn King, most banks are global in life but national in death. This is certainly true for Credit Suisse. After a weekend of intense negotiations, Swiss authorities brokered an emergency deal to sell the troubled 167-year-old institution to its more successful Swiss rival, UBS. A SFr50bn ($54bn) liquidity lifeline from the Swiss National Bank last week failed to stem the crisis of confidence facing Credit Suisse following Silicon Valley Bank's collapse: its share price slumped and the flight of deposits accelerated
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JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon Leading Efforts to Craft New First Republic Bank Rescue Plan
Ben Eisen, AnnaMaria Andriotis and David Benoit - The Wall Street Journal
JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Jamie Dimon is leading discussions with the chief executives of other big banks about fresh efforts to stabilize troubled First Republic Bank. The discussions, while preliminary, have focused on how the industry could arrange for an investment that would boost the bank's capital, according to people familiar with the matter. Among the options on the table, the people said, is an investment in First Republic by the banks themselves.
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SVB Collapse Shows Smaller Banks Can Pose Risk in Numbers; Former regulators say Washington has been too focused on 'too big to fail' banks
Andrew Ackerman - The Wall Street Journal
For 15 years, regulators and legislators have assumed the biggest risks to the financial system came from a handful of "too big to fail" banks. This month's failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank-and last week's bank-led rescue of a third lender, First Republic Bank -suggests that focus on size may have blinded officials to the threat posed by smaller lenders, observers and former regulators say.
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What's Next for UBS After Buying Credit Suisse in Whirlwind Rescue; Crunching the two banks together will likely take years, but one investor hails the 'deal of a lifetime'
Margot Patrick and Patricia Kowsmann - The Wall Street Journal
A weekend of frantic deal making changed everything for UBS Group AG. A cut-price, $3.2 billion takeover of its top domestic rival, Credit Suisse Group AG, reinforces UBS's position as one of the biggest managers of money for the world's wealthy. But the government-orchestrated rescue also represents an abrupt shift in strategy for UBS-which after an earlier near-death experience of its own had spent years becoming duller by design.
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Mistakes the Fed Keeps Making
Mickey D. Levy - The Wall Street Journal Opinion
Every time the Federal Reserve has maintained easy monetary policy too long and then raised rates abruptly, the consequences have been jarring. This time is no different. Even when the economy managed to avoid recessions, it couldn't avoid bumps on the road. Remember the stock-market crash of October 1987, the savings-and-loan crisis of the early 1980s and the bankruptcy of Orange County, Calif., during the Fed's rate increases of 1994? Every episode is different, but every episode exposes the weak links.
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Fate of First Republic Hangs in Balance as Shares Plummet Again
Rob Copeland and Maureen Farrell - The New York Times
The most imperiled bank on Wall Street, First Republic, slid closer to the precipice on Monday as its shares fell 47 percent, down nearly 90 percent since its close on March 8, the day Silicon Valley Bank's woes incited a financial panic. The calamitous drop in First Republic's stock price, even as shares of many of its peers steadied, highlights the fears that threaten to consume it. Until recently, the bank, based in San Francisco, boasted $176 billion in deposits and an enviable list of wealthy clientele.
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Fink's on the prowl again; And he's got a 12-bore shotgun
Robin Wigglesworth - Financial Times
There are many 'key learnings' from the weekend's Swiss banking shenanigans, such as how even apparently well-capitalised and liquid GSIB banks can keel over in a matter of days, that AT1 bondholders are vulnerable to political whims, and how Middle East investors should really stay away from western banks.
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Four ways to fix the bank problem; It is not clear how bad this crisis is going to be but reform is urgently needed
Martin Wolf - Financial Times
Banks are designed to fail. And so they do. Governments want them to be both safe places for the public to keep their money and profit-seeking takers of risk. They are at one and the same time regulated utilities and risk-taking enterprises. The incentives for management incline them towards risk-taking, just as the incentives for states incline them towards saving the utility when risk-taking blows it up. The result is costly instability.
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Commerzbank Exec Wins £300,000 in Sex Discrimination Suit; Rajput denied a promotion because she's a woman, judges rule; Commerzbank said it's in the early stages of appealing
Katharine Gemmell - Bloomberg
A Commerzbank AG manager won more than £300,000 ($367,520) in a sex discrimination lawsuit following a long-standing legal battle with the bank. Jagruti Rajput, who was a senior compliance officer at the firm's London office, won a sex and maternity discrimination claim for the second time in September. Judges found that Rajput, who has been fighting the bank since 2017, had been denied a fair opportunity to be promoted because she was a woman and her maternity leave.
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Haidar Macro Hedge Fund Plunges 32% in Wild Bond Market Moves; Said Haidar's Jupiter fund returned a record 193% last year; Traders have struggled as volatility ripped through markets
Nishant Kumar and Hema Parmar - Bloomberg
Said Haidar is set for the biggest-ever monthly decline at his hedge fund in more than two decades as wild bond markets rock macro traders. His Haidar Jupiter fund slumped an estimated 32% this month through Friday, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The decline puts the macro strategy down 44% this year, the people said asking not to be identified because the details are private.
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| Work & Management | | Stories impacting work and more about management ideas, practices and trends. | Yoda and Harry Potter Chatbots Could Be the Next Big Legal Battle
Brad Stone - Bloomberg
On the website of Character.AI, users can create and query hundreds of AI chatbots that represent real people (Tim Cook, Elon Musk) and famous fictional characters. For example, a virtual Master Yoda will tell you about his home planet, Dagobah, while answering questions about current events. ("Bankrupt, Silicon Valley Bank now is. Pensions, people lost.")
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Job Listings Abound, but Many Are Fake; In an uncertain economy, companies post ads for jobs they might not really be trying to fill
Te-Ping Chen - The Wall Street Journal
A mystery permeates the job market: You apply for a job and hear nothing, but the ad stays online for months. If you inquire, the company tells you it isn't really hiring. Not all job ads are attached to actual jobs, it turns out. The labor market remains robust, with 10.8 million job openings in January, according to the Labor Department. At the same time, companies are feeling budgetary strains and some are pulling back on hiring.
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | Covid Report Based on China Samples Puts Suspicion Back to Animal Origins; Analysis is latest chapter in debate over Covid's origins; Sample data from early in pandemic surfaced, then disappeared
Madison Muller and Riley Griffin - Bloomberg
A new analysis of samples taken from a market in Wuhan, China during the early days of the pandemic are the strongest evidence yet that the Covid-19 virus jumped from animals to humans, some researchers say. The samples found evidence of the presence of the novel coronavirus along with genetic material from multiple animals - including raccoon dogs, which are susceptible to the disease - according to a report published Monday on the Zenodo.org open science website, which builds a case for the Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market as the epicenter of the pandemic.
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Global warming set to reach 1.5C in the near-term, UN reports
Attracta Mooney and Camilla Hodgson - Financial Times
Global warming is "more likely than not" in the near-term to reach a 1.5C rise since pre-industrial times, the world's top scientists said, and climate change taking place now will continue across the lifespan of three generations born in 1950, 1970 and 2020. The summary of the most advanced climate science by hundreds of authors as part of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found the risks of warming were greater than was thought at the time of the last assessment in 2014. Some regions had already reached the limits of what they could adapt to.
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Deadly Fungus Detected in Most U.S. States
Dominique Mosbergen - The Wall Street Journal
A rare and often deadly fungus is spreading rapidly across the U.S., federal researchers said, raising pressure to find new treatments for severe fungal disease. Candida auris, a fungus discovered about 15 years ago in Japan, infected at least 2,377 people in the U.S. in 2022, up from 53 in 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Its swift spread into most states and more than 40 countries has prompted the CDC and World Health Organization to label it a growing threat to public health.
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What We Know About Deadly Fungal Infections; Fungal infections are rising and merit more attention from drug researchers, the WHO said.
The Wall Street Journal
Fungal infections are rising and merit more attention from drug researchers, the WHO said.
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | Are the Ultra-Rich Ready for Singapore After Credit Suisse?
Andy Mukherjee - Bloomberg
On a conference call last month, Piyush Gupta, the chief executive officer at DBS Group Holdings Ltd., said that he was hoping to garner at least 1 percentage point revenue growth by managing more money for the super rich. His wish may be about to be fulfilled. Now that Credit Suisse Group AG has been swallowed up, some of the ultra-high-net-worth individuals and their family offices will look beyond the default option of using its rescuer UBS Group AG for all their wealth management needs - especially if they're already clients of the bigger Swiss bank.
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Hong Kong Opens Doors to Billionaires in Family Office Push; Gates Foundation, Sequoia China Neil Shen attending summit; Local tycoons Richard Li, Adam Kwok, Ronnie Chan taking part
David Ramli and Denise Wee - Bloomberg
Just as the Art Basel fair in Hong Kong hits its stride this week, one of the city's top museums will shut its doors to the public and welcome billionaires for an event aimed at sending the world's super rich a message: the city is back in business. Canadian business mogul Paul Desmarais III, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, Sequoia Capital China's Neil Shen, and local tycoons Richard Li, Adam Kwok and Ronnie Chan are among those set to attend the Wealth for Good summit in Hong Kong on March 24, according to a statement.
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Glencore Set to Lose Crown as Top Cobalt Miner to China's CMOC; CMOC will start producing at second Congo mine next quarter; Cobalt has slumped, but rush for battery metals intensifies
Mark Burton - Bloomberg
A Chinese miner is set to overtake Glencore Plc as the world's top cobalt producer this year, as the rush for critical green-energy metals intensifies. The challenger to Glencore's dominant position is CMOC Group, which first became a major player in the cobalt market when it acquired the Tenke Fungurume mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2016. The company aims to double production this year, as it brings another massive Congolese mine online in the second quarter. That will propel it past Glencore, company filings show.
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Switzerland's emergency rescue of Credit Suisse could cost $13,500 for each and every Swiss person
Bryce Baschuk, Bastian Benrath and Bloomberg - Fortune
Switzerland's tab for shoring up its reputation as a financial center could run to 12,500 Swiss francs ($13,500) for every man, woman and child in the country. To backstop the emergency sale of Credit Suisse Group AG to its Zurich rival UBS Group AG, the Swiss government pledged to make as much as 109 billion francs available - a hefty burden for the country of 8.7 million people.
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DRC says Rwandan mineral smuggling costs it almost $1bn a year; Kinshasa has long accused Kigali of plundering its resources by supporting insurgent M23 group
Tom Wilson and Andres Schipani - Financial Times
The Democratic Republic of Congo said it was losing almost $1bn a year in minerals that were being illegally smuggled into Rwanda, as it restated its call for international sanctions to be placed on the Kigali government.
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