| February 21, 2022 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | | | John Lothian
Publisher
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
The German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung has a series of articles about banking in Switzerland and the country's role as a financial center. The top story is titled "The deceptive self-image of Switzerland." It is a commentary by Judith Wittwer. Other stories include such titles as "Suisse Secrets" with a subtitle of "Switzerland is considered to be one of the most opaque financial centers in the world. Open detailed view; Secret data on more than 30,000 customers, some of whom were questionable, was leaked to the SZ, allowing insights into the heart of Credit Suisse." This story is by Hannes Munzinger, Frederik Obermaier, Bastian Obermayer and Ralf Wiegand.
Other stories included:
"Credit Suisse's most sensitive clients; From the Jordanian king to the Yemeni intelligence chief, these controversial men had accounts at the major Swiss bank. By Mauritius Much and Hannes Munzinger ~Süddeutsche Zeitung That's the leak; Until now, Swiss bank accounts have been a closely guarded secret behind thick walls. But now an anonymous source has leaked a huge treasure trove of data from Credit Suisse to the SZ. For the first time it can be shown how kleptocrats, autocrats and criminals stashed their money there. By Sophia Baumann, Nina Bovensiepen, Emilia Garbsch, Mauritius Much, Hannes Munzinger, Frederik Obermaier, Bastian Obermayer, Jörg Schmitt and Ralf Wiegand. ~Süddeutsche Zeitung Loss of control at the parade ground; Credit Suisse is a bank with a rich history. But Switzerland's second largest bank has been piling up scandal after scandal for decades. Why? A search for clues in the heart of Zurich. By Ralph Wiegand ~Süddeutsche Zeitung This is how the research for the Suisse Secrets went; An anonymous source reports to the SZ. And then? ~Süddeutsche Zeitung Two of the last two people you would expect to test positive for COVID-19 have done so, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, the U.S. Surgeon General and his family have tested positive for the virus.
FEX Global announced the listing of four cash-settled monthly Gas Futures contracts against Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) reference prices for the Victorian Declared Wholesale Gas Market (DWGM) and the Short Term Trading Markets (STTM) for Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney. The launch of these new products is on February 28 with a March 2022 spot month and 24 month series available.
Did you know that natural gas is measured in "Gigajoules"? Natural gas is measured by volume converted to a measure of energy. The metric standard for energy content is joules. A joule is equal to the work done by a force of one newton acting through one meter, or in electrical terms is one watt second. Your energy bill is measured in gigajoules, which is one billion joules.
One gigajoule of natural gas is the approximate equivalent to 27 liters of fuel oil, or 39 liters of propane, or 26 liters (6.87 gallons) of gasoline or 277 kilowatt hours of electricity. There are different types of energy gasses and the energy content of each varies depending on the number of carbon atoms. The more non-combustible gasses in a natural gas (methane, ethane, propane, butane), the higher its gigajoule value. Source:FortisBC)
The chip shortage is so severe it is literally having a chilling impact on General Motors' customer derriere's as the car giant temporarily stopped offering heated seats as an option on its models.
I took a break from John's Take in this week's The Spread video series as I had a procedure Friday to get a shot in my neck to relieve some pain and numbness I was experiencing. So far so good. If it isn't one thing with my body, it is another.
I am starting to get excited about heading to Florida for FIA Boca in mid-March. Remember, if you have some news you want to talk about, we will have our video team there. Also, we will be helping SGX with a video project they are conducting at Boca. They will have a booth right next to ours in the Grand Pre-Assembly hallway of the Boca Resort.
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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Doug Engmann Video Pt. 1
JohnLothianNews.com
A young Doug Engmann once had hopes of becoming a professional baseball player. Despite his continued love of the sport, his early career goals eventually shifted from the game of baseball to the game of investing.
Throughout his career, Engmann employed a persistence and penchant for leadership in the West Coast options industry that carried him through dramatic events that include a proposed San Francisco options floor merger, the stock market crash of 1987, and a closed exchange during a massive earthquake.
Watch the video »
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NYSE Wants to Be A Marketplace for NFTs; SOFR Options Set Records; BlockFi to Pay $100 Million in Penalties
JohnLothianNews.com
"Alex Perry's Optionstopia" takes a look at this week's options news highlights: Ethereum's Daily Options Volume Matches Bitcoin; Crypto Exchanges Airing Super Bowl Commercials; Cboe's MATCHNow Technology Migration
Watch the video »
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Crypto's rise requires a global response; G20 ministers are right to take proactive approach to crypto risks
The editorial board - FT
If there was one principle uniting the diffuse challenges facing G20 finance ministers at this weekend's meetings, from inflation to climate change, it was that prevention would have made all of them much easier — and cheaper — to deal with. The same applies to one of the most prominent issues of financial regulation: setting global rules for managing cryptocurrencies. Perhaps this was why the finance ministers wisely accepted the conclusions of a report by the Financial Stability Board into the sector.
/jlne.ws/3I8pdSG
*****The FT editorial board is a little slow to reach a conclusion on this one. This was evident from the start.~JJL
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Barron's Best Fund Families
Debbie Carlson - Barron's
When the market delivers a 29% return over the course of a year, investors can be forgiven for thinking it was all smooth sailing. But last year's strong gain for the S&P 500 index SPX-0.72% belied the dramatic ups and downs of 2021, which created some unusual challenges and rare opportunities for active managers. The firms that offer a wide array of strategies and more-nimble funds performed admirably in this year's Barron's Fund Families Ranking, which looks at the one-year returns of how each fund company's actively managed funds performed, based on data from Refinitiv Lipper.
/jlne.ws/3v4prqs
***** Debbie Carlson said she worked very hard on this piece and it shows.~JJL
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Disinformation for profit: scammers cash in on conspiracy theories; Some accounts claiming to support the Canada trucker protests are run by con artists abroad
Nick Robins-Early - The Guardian
When Facebook removed dozens of groups dedicated to Canada's anti-government "Freedom Convoy" protests earlier this month, it didn't do so because of extremism or conspiracies rife within the protests. It was because the groups were being run by scam artists. Networks of spammers and profiteers, some based as far afield as Vietnam or Romania, had set up the groups using fake or hacked Facebook accounts in an attempt to make money off of the political turmoil.
/jlne.ws/3LOQpIl
****** Good story about the disinformation business. I think this is one of the reasons there is so much hate today. Groups like these are good at what they do.~JJL
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Crypto Scammers' New Target: Dating Apps; "Everything was a lie," said one woman lured into a recent scam.
Kevin Roose - NY Times
The man from the dating app Hinge checked all of Tho Vu's boxes. He was a boyishly handsome architect from China, staying in Maryland on a long-term assignment. They had never met in person — he was still waiting to get his Covid-19 booster shot, he said — but they had texted back and forth for months and she'd developed a serious crush. He called her his "little sweetheart," and told her that he was planning to take her to China to meet his family when the pandemic was over.
/jlne.ws/3JM7mSb
*****I think the CFTC and a couple of other U.S. agencies are getting the word out nicely. I wonder who might be behind that?~JJL
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Friday's Top Three
Our most read story last Friday was The Trade's, CME Group financial chief to step down amid swathes of senior management changes. Second is a repeat on this list, CME Group's CME Group Announces Senior Leadership Changes. Third was an interesting opinion piece by The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board, Calling Out 'Emperor' Larry Fink.
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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 | Revealed: Credit Suisse leak unmasks criminals, fraudsters and corrupt politicians
David Pegg, Kalyeena Makortoff, Martin Chulov, Paul Lewis and Luke Harding - The Guardian
Massive leak reveals secret owners of £80bn held in Swiss bank; Whistleblower leaked bank's data to expose 'immoral' secrecy laws; Clients included human trafficker and billionaire who ordered girlfriend's murder
Vatican-owned account used to spend EUR350m in allegedly fraudulent investment; Scandal-hit Credit Suisse rejects allegations it may be 'rogue bank'
Amassive leak from one of the world's biggest private banks, Credit Suisse, has exposed the hidden wealth of clients involved in torture, drug trafficking, money laundering, corruption and other serious crimes. Details of accounts linked to 30,000 Credit Suisse clients all over the world are contained in the leak, which unmasks the beneficiaries of more than 100bn Swiss francs (£80bn)* held in one of Switzerland's best-known financial institutions.
/jlne.ws/3s5D4DT
EU Parliament's top group suggests blacklisting Switzerland after Credit Suisse leaks
Reuters
The main political grouping in the European Parliament called on Monday for a review of Switzerland's banking practices and for the country's possible inclusion in the EU's dirty-money blacklist after leaks of Credit Suisse documents. Media outlets published the results of investigations into a leak of data on thousands of accounts held at the bank in past decades and said they appeared to show clients included human rights abusers and businessmen under sanctions.
/jlne.ws/3JHFj69
The Almighty Brent Oil Benchmark Is Broken; That should be alarming with Brent hovering at $100 a barrel and stoking global inflation. Consider this Brent's Libor moment.
Javier Blas - Bloomberg
In the world of oil, Brent is the most important price benchmark — a reference point for the billions of dollars being exchanged via a complex web of physical, forward, futures and options contracts. In many ways, it's oil's equivalent to Libor — the discredited interest rate benchmark used in financial markets. The analogy is pertinent because Brent is also broken. Don't take my word for it. Listen to British oil major BP Plc: "As a result of insufficient liquidity," it said recently, "we are seeing increasingly regular 'dislocations' in the value" of the benchmark. Sure, oil traders aren't manipulating Brent the way banks did with Libor. But hearing the word "dislocations" alongside the price of oil should worry regulators and policy makers — especially with Brent hovering around $100 a barrel and contributing to global inflation.
/jlne.ws/3h2RbDB
SOFR Leads Race to Replace Libor as Interest-Rate Benchmark; Sales of corporate loans and derivatives tied to rate have picked up, with Crocs among recent issuers
Mark Maurer - WSJ
U.S. companies and financial institutions are starting to settle on a new interest-rate benchmark to replace the troubled London interbank offered rate, which underpins trillions of dollars of financial contracts. Sales of corporate loans and derivatives tied to the Secured Overnight Financing Rate, or SOFR, have soared in 2022, with borrowers including Crocs Inc. and NortonLifeLock Inc. accelerating the shift away from issuing new debt tied to Libor.
/jlne.ws/3sWXw8Z
UK Financial Conduct Authority chief faces backlash over reforms
Nikhil Rathi is struggling with a staff revolt and perceptions of 'chaos' as he rebuilds the regulator
Laura Noonan - FT
"It is not a job where I think you can say you want to be liked," Nikhil Rathi told MPs on the parliamentary Treasury select committee in July 2020 during his appointment hearing as the boss of the UK's Financial Conduct Authority. Rathi was talking about the unpopularity that comes with overseeing more than 60,000 finance companies in the UK, ranging from Wall Street heavyweights to veterinarians offering credit plans.
/jlne.ws/3sXs1M4
Suisse Secrets: Switzerland is considered to be one of the most opaque financial centers in the world. Secret data on more than 30,000 customers, some of whom were questionable, was leaked to the SZ, allowing insights into the heart of Credit Suisse. They were evaluated by 48 media companies from all over the world.
Hannes Munzinger, Frederik Obermaier, Bastian Obermayer and Ralf Wiegand - South Germany Today
Switzerland 's second largest bank , Credit Suisse , has for many years accepted corrupt autocrats, suspected war criminals, human traffickers, drug dealers and other criminals as clients. This is evidenced by data from the financial institution that was leaked to the Süddeutsche Zeitung by an anonymous source. The filings shed light on the accounts of more than 30,000 customers around the world and alleged failures by the bank to screen its customers. Credit Suisse rejects the allegations . A large part of the accounts had also long been closed.
/jlne.ws/3H5COZU
Explainer | Malaysia 1MDB scandal: bigamy, bribes and boozy parties - juicy details emerge from US trial
Hadi Azmi - South China Morning Post
Former Goldman worker Roger Ng's trial gave anecdotes about his dealings with Malaysian financier Jho Low wanted for his role in the state fund's looting; The case also shed light on lavish parties and Ng's ex-boss Leissner. The revelations could hit Najib, convicted in the scam and currently out on bail, as he eyes prime ministership
From allegations about bigamist bankers to bribe-taking sheikhs, former Goldman Sachs employee Roger Ng's trial in New York over his role in Malaysia's 1MDB scandal has offered a stream of juicy details since it began on Monday. The US District Court trial of the Malaysian national is the first foreign jury hearing centred around the now-infamous plunder of billions of dollars of state funds from the Southeast Asian country.
/jlne.ws/3H6blr1
Fed Sets Trading Restrictions for Top Officials; The central bank says new rules, which were outlined last fall, are aimed at 'guarding against even the appearance of any conflict of interest'
Michael S. Derby - WSJ
The Federal Reserve formally adopted new ethics rules aimed at limiting financial-market trading by its top officials, senior staff and close family members. The central bank revealed the broad contours of these new rules last fall following disclosures of active trading by some of its officials, and it expanded the scope of the restrictions in their final form. The Fed on Friday said the new rules "aim to support public confidence in the impartiality and integrity of the [interest-rate-setting Federal Open Market] Committee's work by guarding against even the appearance of any conflict of interest."
/jlne.ws/3JEC6o0
SEC Fight Over XRP Tokens Turns to Ripple Legal Memos From 2012
Olga Kharif and Peter Blumberg - Bloomberg
A pair of legal memos Ripple Labs Inc. received a decade ago about XRP tokens are fresh fodder for federal regulators in their fight with the company over whether the digital asset is a security that needs to be registered. Court filings unsealed Friday show that in a February 2012 memo, Perkins Coie LLP attorneys advised Ripple not to sell the proposed coins, as various conditions could subject them to being regulated as securities or commodities. A second memo by the same firm, dated in October of that year, suggested that XRP may not be considered to be a security under federal law, but cautioned there was a risk the Securities and Exchange Commission would see things differently.
/jlne.ws/36vAcId
U.S. prosecutors explore racketeering charges in short-seller probe - sources
Megan Davies and Chris Prentice - Reuters
U.S. prosecutors are exploring whether they can use a federal law originally enacted to take down the mafia, in a sprawling probe of hedge funds and research firms that bet against stocks, according to two sources familiar with the situation. The Justice Department last year issued subpoenas to dozens of firms, including such well-known names as Citron Research and Muddy Waters Research LLC, as part of the sweeping probe focused on potentially manipulative trading around negative reports on listed companies published by some of their investors, Reuters and other media have reported.
/jlne.ws/3p0cdal
Novogratz's Galaxy Accelerates Hiring as Bankers Turn to Crypto
Sonali Basak and Akayla Gardner - Bloomberg
Hiring pace is not slowing, crypto platform's Jen Lee says; Last year, the firm's headcount expanded by more than 200%
Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd., the crypto platform run by billionaire Mike Novogratz, is accelerating its pace of hiring to capitalize on a boom of talent moving into digital assets. The company's headcount expanded more than 200% last year to almost 285 people, said Jen Lee, Galaxy's chief people officer who joined in recent months from BlackRock Inc. That number doesn't include the staff of BitGo, the custodian firm it agreed to acquire in 2021. Galaxy has expanded headcount by another 45 people this year.
/jlne.ws/33Coavs
Citadel Eyes Manhattan Office Expansion as It Boosts NYC Hiring
Natalie Wong and Katherine Burton - Bloomberg
Ken Griffin's firm has expanded headcount in the pandemic; Company in talks for space on Park and Madison avenues
Ken Griffin's Citadel is looking for more office space in Manhattan to accommodate a growing roster of New York employees. The Chicago-based firm, which has several Manhattan locations, is in talks to lease additional office space on Park and Madison Avenues amid a New York hiring surge, according to people familiar with the matter.
/jlne.ws/35bVgCR
US adds WeChat and AliExpress to list of 'notorious' markets for fake and pirated goods
Mark Magnier - South China Morning Post
The Biden administration named six Chinese online and nine bricks-and-mortar markets on Thursday in its latest list of "notorious" sellers of counterfeit goods violating US trademarks and copyright law. Produced by the US Trade Representative's office, the 2021 Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy included two first-time online Chinese entries - the AliExpress and WeChat e-commerce ecosystems - in addition to long-time entries Baidu Wangpan, DHGate, Pinduoduo and Taobao. Global counterfeiting costs the US economy some US$29.2 billion annually, the report said, and China is the world's largest producer of fake goods.
/jlne.ws/3p1zf0A
Green investing: the risk of a new mis-selling scandal; ESG funds are popular, but research has found the sector is rife with greenwashing. Lawyers warn a reckoning is coming
Laurence Fletcher and Joshua Oliver - FT
When Lucy Carraz moved her investment account to online wealth platform Nutmeg in November, she wanted her money invested in the most environmentally-friendly companies possible.
/jlne.ws/3H4tLbx
UK and EU race to rewrite key financial rules; Fears grow in Whitehall that Brussels has secured a head-start
George Parker and Ian Smith, and Sam Fleming - FT
Jacob Rees-Mogg, Brexit opportunities minister, has called for a rapid rewriting of legacy EU financial rules to create an "investment big bang" in Britain, as fears grow in Whitehall that Brussels has secured a head-start. Rees-Mogg said the so-called Solvency II rules, adopted in 2016 while Britain was in the EU, were "ripe for reform", but change has been delayed by a wrangle between ministers and regulators. Ministers believe a looser regulatory regime would allow insurance companies to invest billions of pounds more in infrastructure and green energy projects, such as offshore wind.
/jlne.ws/3LGlyOa
FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried explains how he built a $32 billion crypto exchange in 3 years after growing annoyed with 'crappy' platforms - making him a multibillionaire at 29
Harry Robertson - Business Insider
The FTX crypto exchange is now worth $32 billion, despite having been founded only in 2019; Sam Bankman-Fried set it up after becoming annoyed with "crappy" exchanges, he told Insider; The 29-year-old explains how the company grew so quickly, giving him a net worth of more than $24 billion.
A lot of people have gotten rich quickly in crypto. But few have gotten rich quicker than Sam Bankman-Fried. He's worth $24.5 billion, according to Forbes, although that may be an underestimate. "I think it was accurate when they wrote it," Bankman-Fried told Insider this week. "I think it's probably a little bit higher right now."
/jlne.ws/3p4g0Dn
Deutsche Bank Warns Staff Not to Delete WhatsApps Amid Scrutiny
Steven Arons and Macarena Munoz Montijano - Bloomberg
Deutsche Bank AG has warned its employees not to delete WhatsApp messages from their phones as part of moves by the German lender to clamp down on private communication channels. The Frankfurt-based bank earlier this year sent a memo to staff warning them that any business-related messages going through private channels mustn't be deleted as the act could be considered a crime under U.S. law, according to people with knowledge of the matter. It also reminded them that using messages sent from private phones for business is a violation of company policy, the people said asking not to be identified discussing the private matter.
/jlne.ws/3v9GEP8
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | 'We're doing everything we can to survive': As the US looks to move on from Covid-19, high-risk and disabled Americans feel forgotten
Christina Maxouris - CNN
(CNN)Tasha Nelson's 10-year-old son held back tears when he heard the news. The two were in the car when the announcement came through the radio: Virginia's freshly sworn-in governor had signed an order attempting to ban mask mandates in schools.
/jlne.ws/3LPaUVm
The health benefits of a random act of kindness
Sandee LaMotte - CNN
This year's Random Acts of Kindness Day falls during a pandemic for a second year in a row, but the foundation behind it wants you to consider being kind every day. Here's why: Spreading kindness not only helps others feel better about themselves -- it can also boost the giver's health and happiness, according to research. It's a win-win for all. Here's why.
/jlne.ws/3sUg5uB
Hong Kong Considers Even Tighter Virus Rules as It Battles Covid Surge
Tania Chen and Linda Lew - Bloomberg
City to keep gyms, bars shut as case numbers climb: media; Team from mainland China to help build 10,000 isolation units
Hong Kong is considering stricter social-distancing measures and preparing for a universal testing push to try to curtail an escalating virus outbreak that's straining its health infrastructure. The city doesn't plan to reopen gyms and beauty parlors, which were set to resume operations on Feb. 24, and hasn't made a decision on hair salons, Sing Tao reported, citing people it didn't identify. Patrons may be capped at two per table for so-called category D restaurants, it said.
/jlne.ws/3p1OKWn
Covid Curbs Are Disappearing. What About Tracking Systems?
Corinne Gretler - Bloomberg
These days in Europe, it seems as though the pandemic is behind us. An increasing number of countries are ditching the use of certificates to enter indoor venues like restaurants or gyms and abandoning quarantine rules. And more people are going bare-faced, which reflects a certain level of regained normalcy.
/jlne.ws/3v5sP4d
Hong Kong's Contact Tracing App Now Flags Unvaccinated Users
Sarah Zheng and Linda Lew - Bloomberg
App flashes a red QR code on check-in if no records uploaded; The city is fighting to control a record fifth Covid wave
Hong Kong's Covid contact-tracing app has begun flagging users who haven't uploaded vaccination records, as the city struggles to contain a resurgent outbreak that's taxing its health system.
/jlne.ws/3I8EvXI
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | Base Carbon Announces Conditional Listing Approval on NEO Exchange
Base Carbon Corp.
Base Carbon Corp. ("Base Carbon" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the Neo Exchange Inc. (the "NEO Exchange") has conditionally approved the listing of the common shares of the resulting issuer (to be named Base Carbon Inc.) from the previously announced reverse takeover transaction between the Company and 1287411 B.C. Ltd (the "Transaction"). The Transaction is expected to close on or about February 23, 2022. Final approval is subject to the Company fulfilling all remaining conditions and listing requirements.
/jlne.ws/35cWz4b
Notice of Admission - FNZ Custodians (Australia) Pty Ltd
ASX
Admission as an ASX Market, ASX Clear (Direct) and ASX Settlement (General) Participant of Australian Securities Exchange Limited.
/jlne.ws/36tKVTo
MARF registers the Bond Programme of Aquisgrán's Securitisation Fund BME's Fixed Income
BME-X
Market, MARF, has registered the Information Document of Aquisgrán, Fondo de Titulización's bond programme, for up to 150 million euros. The issues to be launched under this programme will be underwritten by Spanish state-owned bank ICO and other institutional investors. These issues are expected to be rated A1 by Moody's and AA- by Axesor. The Fund is managed by Intermoney Titulización, SGFT. Currently, the outstanding balance of securitisation assets in MARF amounts to 3.4 billion, 34.2% of the total amount in this market.
/jlne.ws/3s6yaXi
EEX Press Release - Fonterra, NZX and EEX enter GDT partnership for future growth
EEX
Fonterra has agreed a strategic partnership with New Zealand's Exchange (NZX) and the European Energy Exchange (EEX) to each take ownership stakes in Global Dairy Trade (GDT) alongside the Co-op.
Subject to the approval of Boards, clearance from European or any other relevant competition law authorities, and finalisation of transaction documentation, the partnership is expected to be completed mid-2022, with Fonterra, NZX and EEX each holding an equal one-third (33.33%) shareholding in the global dairy auction platform.
/jlne.ws/3qnt7Pa
Eurex - News - Circulars & Mailings - Press Releases
MSCI derivatives launch: now 156 futures and 26 options
Eurex
Four new futures and two new options join the global home of MSCI derivatives
Following continuous high demand, on 21 February, Eurex has once again expanded its already extensive MSCI offering. It now comprises a total of 156 futures and 26 options, making Eurex the global home of MSCI derivatives.
By listing futures on the MSCI Germany and the MSCI Israel the two largest remaining developed market countries were added. With this, the coverage of Futures on single countries from the MSCI World goes up from 97 to 99.7 percent.
/jlne.ws/3JCdITU
HKEX Re-appoints Members to International Advisory Council
HKEX
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) is today (Monday) pleased to announce the re-appointment of Mary Schapiro, Vice Chair for Global Public Policy and Special Advisor to the Founder and Chairman of Bloomberg LP, and former Chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission; Stuart Gulliver, director of Saudi Aramco, The Saudi British Bank, Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited and the Airport Authority Hong Kong, and former Group Chief Executive and Chairman of the Group Management Board of HSBC Holdings plc; and Joseph Tsai, Executive Vice Chairman of Alibaba Group, to the International Advisory Council effective 20 February 2022.
/jlne.ws/3hk1uDz
Membership Application: Sigma Broking Limited
LME
Pursuant to LME Notice 22/018 dated 26 January 2022, the undermentioned will commence trading with effect from Monday 21 February 2022 as a Category 1 member of The London Metal Exchange (the "LME").
/www.lme.com/en/News
LME welcomes Sigma Broking Limited as Ring-dealing member
London Metal Exchange
The London Metal Exchange (LME) is pleased to announce that Sigma Broking Limited begins trading and clearing today (21 February 2022) as a Category 1, Ring-dealing member.
Sigma Broking Limited is part of the Sigma Group and is the LME's ninth Ring-dealing member.
/jlne.ws/34Wsu9s
Features of the Moscow Exchange on February 23 and March 8, 2022
MOEX
The Moscow Exchange reminds that during public holidays on February 23 and March 8, 2022, trading will be held in the foreign exchange market and the precious metals market, the stock, money, derivatives markets and the market for standardized derivative financial instruments (SPFI).
/jlne.ws/3LNR4K2
Nasdaq Private Fund Manager Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Data Now Available Free to Investors
NEW YORK - FEBRUARY 16, 2022 - Starting today, qualifying investors can receive free access to private fund manager diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) data via the Nasdaq eVestment platform, a provider of institutional investment data and analytics to asset owners and asset managers.
/bit.ly/3v475FX
Nasdaq Announces Retirement of Market Technology EVP Lars Ottersgård; Appoints New Leadership to Anti-Financial Crime and Market Infrastructure Technology Businesses
Consolidates Legal & Regulatory Functions and Group Risk Management Responsibilities
NEW YORK, Feb. 14, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nasdaq, Inc. (Nasdaq: NDAQ), today announced the retirement of Lars Ottersgård, Executive Vice President for Market Technology, after 16 years providing leadership to the organization. Ottersgård will transition into an advisory role on April 30, 2022, until his formal retirement on August 31. As a result, the company is appointing two senior leaders - Jamie King and Roland Chai - to drive forward its Anti-Financial Crime and Market Infrastructure Technology businesses, respectively, and both will report directly to Nasdaq President and CEO Adena Friedman.
/bit.ly/3v5rsmj
Video of the ETF and ETN Competitionis launched online
TWSE
The TWSE ETF and ETN Competition closed on December 30, 2021. The winners have been announced. According to the results, first prizes in the Taiwan Equity ETF TradingAward and the Taiwan Equity ETF Growth Award go to the Taipei Branch of KGI Securities and the Dunnan Branch of Cathay Securities, respectively. First prizes in the ETN TradingAward and the ETN Growth Award go to the Central Taipei Branch of President Securities and the Zhongzheng Branch of SinoPac Securities, respectively. First prizes in the ETF Listing Award and the ETF Market Making Award go to Fubon Asset Management and Mega Securities, respectively. First prizes in the ETN Listing Award, Taiwan Equity ETF Contribution Award and the ETN Contribution Award go to Yuanta Securities.
/jlne.ws/3I6PxfY
Instinet expands block trading offering in Asia with BlockMatch conditional order book; The newly expanded non-displayed alternative liquidity pool for equities, BlockMatch, derives from Instinet's existing CBX Hong Kong service.
Annabel Smith - The Trade
Instinet has expanded the remit of its block trading venue in Asia to include a conditional order book in a bid to help users minimise costs and market impact when trading large orders
/jlne.ws/3p4xPT0
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | Meta, Google, other American tech giants face EU data blackout as ruling looms on their contracts to transfer vast amounts of user information to US
Bloomberg
Facebook parent Meta Platforms' stark warning of a retreat from Europe may just be the start, as one of the region's top privacy watchdogs prepares a decision that could paralyse transatlantic data flows and risk billions in revenue for technology giants. Ireland's Data Protection Commission, which polices the Silicon Valley tech giants that have flocked to the nation, is soon to weigh in on the legality of so-called standard contractual clauses (SCCs) used by Meta, Alphabet's Google and others to legally transfer swathes of user data to the United States for processing.
/jlne.ws/3JMnwel
Retail investor platform PrimaryBid wins SoftBank backing; Tech fund and Hedosophia lead $185mn fundraising for start-up that allows small investors to buy into IPOs
Daniel Thomas - FT
SoftBank and Hedosophia, the investment group run by venture capitalist Ian Osborne, have led a $190mn fundraising to support the expansion plans of PrimaryBid, a start-up that allows UK retail investors to buy shares in initial public offerings and other fund raisings.
/jlne.ws/3s0uB4J
Director of Binance in Russia Voted To Head Digital Asset Expert Center
Aaryamann Shrivastava - FX Empire
An announcement from the Association of Banks of Russia declared today that they will be creating an Expert Center for Digital Financial Assets and Digital Currencies. This center will be built with the core focus of maintaining communication with the federal authorities of the country. As stated by the association itself the purpose for its creation will be to 'prepare professional judgments on the turnover of digital assets'.
/jlne.ws/3sVBqUj
??agora Digital Capital Markets completes multilateral pilot syndicated bond trades; Pilot demonstrated the product's ability to manage complex challenges experienced in the primary market.
Wesley Bray - The Trade
agora Digital Capital Markets has successfully completed a series of multilateral pilot sessions of its syndicated bond product, a crucial step towards developing the first truly end-to-end digital workflow for fixed income products through its agoraPlatform.
/jlne.ws/3H0yISN
Axioma Risk recognized as best buy-side risk management solution by Risk.net for second consecutive year
Qontigo
Risk.net, a leading global risk management publication, has named Qontigo's Axioma RiskTM the best buy-side market risk management solution. Axioma Risk, a cloud-based, investment risk system for equities, fixed income, multi-asset class and alternatives, enables buy-side investment firms to identify, measure and consistently communicate risk across Portfolio Management, Risk Management, Performance Attribution, and Client Services functions. This is the fourth time in the last five years that Axioma Risk has received this accolade.
/jlne.ws/358doNO
Beware PayPal's New Fees for $100 Crypto Trades; Convenience isn't worth the price as the payment app cranks up fees for smaller transactions.
Alexis Leondis - Bloomberg
Got some pocket change you want to throw at crypto? It won't go as far on Venmo. Venmo and its parent PayPal Holdings Inc. alerted their users earlier this week that they're changing their fees for crypto transactions under $200. While the companies said the pricing adjustments were just an effort to provide investors with more transparency, a closer look shows any customer making transactions of $100 or less will be a lot worse off.
/jlne.ws/3gZ67m4
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | China's foreign listing regulations that mandate cybersecurity reviews apply to Hong Kong, experts say; The CAC has not officially clarified whether a listing in Hong Kong requires a cybersecurity review, but it posted the expert assessments on its website; New listings in Hong Kong are subject to the 'relevant provisions of the security review', even though the city was not mentioned in the law, one expert said
Coco Feng - South China Morning Post
Chinese companies handling data from more than 1 million users are required to go through a cybersecurity review if they want to list overseas, and that includes Hong Kong, according to an assessment endorsed by China's cyberspace watchdog. The conclusion, included in the "expert views" that the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) published on its website, shows how the regulator is empowering itself to be a key gatekeeper of overseas listings even though the new law, which came into effect this week, does not specifically mention Hong Kong.
/jlne.ws/3h2ETLm
China's imposed cybersecurity review is result of US siphoning audit inspections of listed tech firms, analyst says; An opinion piece published by the China's cyberspace watchdog argues that companies listing overseas risk having data 'maliciously used by foreign governments'; Part of the concerns stem from a rule in the US that would require regulators to inspect audits of China-based companies, which could violate Chinese law
Coco Feng - South China Morning Post
Beijing's mandated cybersecurity review for overseas listings aims to address a perceived danger stemming from US access to "sensitive" data from public Chinese tech firms, according to a Chinese expert whose opinions were endorsed and published by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC).
/jlne.ws/3LQfJh6
NIST proposes model to assess cybersecurity investment strategies in network security
Charlie Osborne - ZDNet
NIST and university researchers have proposed a new computational model for assessing cybersecurity costs in network protection.
The larger the network, the more opportunities there may be for threat actors to infiltrate, cause damage, or conduct theft.
Today's corporate networks often provide a vast attack surface including Internet of Things (IoT) devices, mobile products, remote work tools, on-prem and off-prem services, and cloud systems.
/jlne.ws/3s3DbQj
CISA publishes guide with free cybersecurity tools, resources for incident response
Charlie Osborne - ZDNet
CISA has published a guide containing free cybersecurity resources and services that may be valuable in incident response.
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is responsible for monitoring, managing, and reducing risk to the country's critical infrastructure. The federal agency is also known for issuing alerts relating to high-profile data breaches and vulnerability disclosures.
/jlne.ws/3s5xLUP
Biden's cybersecurity order opens our post-quantum era
Arthur Herman - The Hill
The Biden administration has taken many hits for its policies, from the chaotic withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan to the highest inflation in 40 years to the humanitarian crisis at America's southern border. But last month, it scored a major success in getting the government's house in order in the cybersecurity domain and preparing the way for a safe and secure cyber future.
/jlne.ws/33ALkSK
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | EU Is Open to Cryptocurrency But With Regulation, Top Official Says
Eyk Henning - Bloomberg
Ylva Johansson addresses panel at Munich Security Conference; EU more receptive than China but still seeks to prevent fraud
The European Union is open to cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin or a digital euro but regulations must first be strengthened to prevent fraud, EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson said at the Munich Security Conference Friday.
/jlne.ws/3JL7xgB
Ethereum Founder Buterin Says Crypto 'Welcomes' Another Winter
Muyao Shen and Matthew Hill - Bloomberg
Cooling prices seen helping more sustainable projects; Buterin has shifted his focus to scaling Ethereum network
Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain, says the digital-asset universe may actually benefit from the current retreat in coin prices that's cast a chill on investors and is being referred to as another crypto winter. "The people who are deep into crypto, and especially building things, a lot of them welcome a bear market," Buterin said during an interview with Bloomberg. "They welcome the bear market because when there are these long periods of prices moving up by huge amounts like it does -- it does obviously make a lot of people happy -- but it does also tend to invite a lot of very short-term speculative attention."
/jlne.ws/3sUrieM
Fidelity launches its first bitcoin exchange-traded product in Europe
Reuters
Fidelity International has launched its first investment product that tracks bitcoin in Europe, as the British investment manager taps into rising demand for exposure to digital currencies. The Fidelity Physical Bitcoin ETP, available to the asset manager's professional and institutional clients in Europe, began trading on the Deutsche Börse Xetra on Tuesday.
/jlne.ws/36qY6EB
Lehman Brothers Bargain Hunter Bob Diamond Now Paying Up for Crypto
Aoyon Ashraf, Tanzeel Akhtar - Bloomberg
Bob Diamond made his reputation on Wall Street by boldly buying key assets from Lehman Brothers at a bargain price following the subprime mortgage crisis, back when he was the president of the giant British bank Barclays. Now he's paying top dollar to try to replicate that success in the digital assets market. His latest dramatic move - Diamond's special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), Concord Acquisition Corp., agreed to double the valuation for U.S.-based stablecoin issuer, Circle - shows just how big the stakes are as Wall Street veterans place their bets on the future of finance.
/jlne.ws/3JztIG8
NEXO Under U.S Regulatory Scrutiny Over High Yield Crypto Product
Bob Mason - Business Insider
Regulatory scrutiny has been in overdrive at the turn of the year. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler had warned
the crypto market of what's to come back in January. A number of exchanges have fallen under the watchful eye of the SEC in recent months. An ongoing area of focus continues to be the classification of cryptos and DeFi products. Just last week, the SEC hit BlockFi with a $100m penalty. The SEC claimed that BlockFi's high yielding accounts were unregistered securities. It is this very issue of whether the SEC deems a product as a security that has resulted in the extended SEC case against Ripple. While the SEC deems Ethereum (ETH) not to be a security, the SEC alleges that Ripple Lab (XRP) raised over $1.3bn through an unregistered, ongoing digital asset securities offering.
/jlne.ws/36sPHk3
Bitcoin-loving Block boss Jack Dorsey lays out 2 things that could prevent the crypto from succeeding in the next 5 years
Shalini Nagarajan - Business Insider
Billionaire Jack Dorsey is known for his advocacy of bitcoin , but he still thinks the cryptocurrency has hurdles to overcome before it can flourish. During a Twitter Spaces discussion this week, the Twitter cofounder and Block CEO shared two major factors that could hold back bitcoin's mainstream adoption — and possibly cause it to flounder — over the next five years.
/jlne.ws/34TSMsL
Ukraine already trades more crypto than fiat currency. Now assets like Bitcoin are officially legal
Eamon Barrett - Fortune
On Thursday, the Ukrainian parliament passed a bill to legalize cryptocurrency, preparing a framework for the regulation and management of digital assets like Bitcoin. "This will legalize crypto exchangers and cryptocurrencies, and Ukrainians could protect their assets from possible abuse or fraud," Ukraine Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov announced on Twitter.
/jlne.ws/36tVB4n
We followed a crypto scam from the start. Why can't the police? Ali Hussain goes on the trail of the mystery man behind a series of scam firms that operate from one street in London
Ali Hussain - The Times
Almost unnoticed, a website called cryptomeracoin.com offering investments in Bitcoin and other digital currencies is launched. It boasts of being a worldwide financial management company, and has an address in Glasgow and what looks like a genuine UK phone number. The site makes trading in crypto seem really easy and tells you to just register an account, make a deposit and get a profit.
/jlne.ws/3sRdt0I
Crypto Donations to Charity Rose More Than 1000% Last Year
Javier Simon - Money.com
Donations of cryptocurrency have soared along with the price of Bitcoin and other digital assets. In 2021, Fidelity Charitable investors donated more than $330 million in cryptocurrency, more than 12 times the amount given in 2020, according to a recent report.
/jlne.ws/3LNNcc7
Crypto 'communities' need to be more neighbourly; Software developers behind privacy coins threaten to undermine anti-money laundering laws
Gary Silverman - FT
Software developers have a surprising way with words. While people in other trades form chambers or associations, they join "communities" — the name given to loosely-organised groups that collaborate on the open-source software that makes our technological society hum
/jlne.ws/3v8x8Ma
Russian finance ministry to consider central bank proposals on cryptocurrencies
Reuters
Russia's finance ministry on Monday said it would take proposals on cryptocurrencies from the country's central bank into account so long as they do not contradict its own approach, paving the way for legislation governing digital assets. A simmering dispute over cryptocurrency regulation in Russia heated up on Friday as the finance ministry submitted legislative proposals to the government that clashed with the central bank's demand for a blanket ban.
/jlne.ws/3LOsh92
A Bold Caribbean Experiment in E-Cash Hits a Major Obstacle; DCash, used in seven nations, has been offline for weeks as technical glitches reveal the challenges governments face as they consider embracing digital currencies.
Jim Wyss - Bloomberg
One of the world's first central bank digital currencies is experiencing serious growing pains. DCash — a digital version of the Eastern Caribbean dollar used by seven small nations — has been offline for more than a month and it could take several more days to fully restore service, bank officials said.
/jlne.ws/3IaYhle
Salesforce employees protest against its NFT ambitions
Mariella Moon - Engadget
Salesforce employees aren't happy with the company's plans to enter the non-fungible token (NFT) market. According to the Thomson Reuters Foundation, over 400 employees around the world have signed an open letter raising concerns about the environmental impact of NFTs, as well as their "unregulated, highly speculative" nature as financial assets. "The amount of scams and fraud in the NFT space is overwhelming," the employees reportedly wrote.
/jlne.ws/3BBYSdy
OpenSea Probes NFT Phishing Attack, Co-Founder Says
Ambereen Choudhury - Bloomberg
Attack is likely not connected to the OpenSea website; No 'malicious' activity seen from attacker account recently
The co-founder of OpenSea said the non-fungible token marketplace is investigating a "phishing attack," which doesn't appear to be active. "We don't believe it's connected to the OpenSea website," Devin Finzer, who is also its chief executive officer, said on Twitter. "It appears 32 users thus far have signed a malicious payload from an attacker, and some of their NFTs were stolen."
/jlne.ws/3JLcxBP
FTX Starts Gaming Unit to Promote Crypto Adoption: Report
Jamie Crawley - Coindesk
Crypto exchange FTX is starting a new gaming unit aimed at encouraging game publishers to embrace cryptocurrencies, according to a Bloomberg report on Monday. FTX Gaming will offer a "crypto-as-a-service" platform, which will allow gaming companies to launch tokens and offer support for non-fungible tokens (NFTs). It will operate the service through its U.S. affiliate FTX U.S.
/jlne.ws/3BDh32b
Alert raised on growing metaverse-related scams and illegal fundraising by Chinese financial services regulator amid market frenzy; The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission said criminals are now getting involved in various metaverse investment projects and blockchain games; The warning comes at a time when the metaverse has become popular with Chinese technology companies and a growing number of investors
Xinmei Shen - South China Morning Post
China's financial services watchdog on Friday warned the public to stay alert to illegal fundraising schemes and scams related to the metaverse, as authorities amplify the potential risks involved in what some consider to be the next phase of the internet.
/jlne.ws/3gYVIqy
Metaverse vs employment law: the reality of the virtual workplace; It is unclear how employee protections apply in the universal digital realm. What counts as harassment? And can an avatar be discriminated against?
Kate Beioley - FT
In December, 43-year-old doctoral researcher Nina Jane Patel put on a headset and entered Meta's virtual world to see what was happening that day. "Within seconds of being there, there were three avatars near me," she says. "Suddenly they were taking selfies . . . I couldn't see at first that they were groping the avatar's upper body . . . They were yelling at me, 'Don't pretend you don't like it, this is what you came for.'"
/jlne.ws/34SDZyF
Metaverse Harassment Doesn't Bode Well for Zuck's Dreams; Yes, it's still early days for the immersive virtual world. But that's precisely the problem.
Parmy Olson - Bloomberg
When Mark Zuckerberg described the metaverse last year, he conjured an image of harmonious social connections in an immersive virtual world. But his company's first iterations of the space have not been very harmonious. Several women have reported incidents of harassment, including a beta tester who was virtually groped by a stranger and another who was virtually gang-raped within 60 seconds of entering Facebook's Horizon Venues social platform. I had several uncomfortable moments with male strangers on social apps run by both Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly known as Facebook Inc.) and Microsoft Corp. when I visited them in December.
/jlne.ws/3I7BdUJ
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | QAnon founder may have been identified thanks to machine learning
Igor Bonifacic - Engadget
With help from machine learning software, computer scientists may have unmasked the identity of Q, the founder of the QAnon movement. In a sprawling report published on Saturday, The New York Times shared the findings of two independent teams of forensic linguists who claim they've identified Paul Furber, a South African software developer who was one of the first to draw attention to the conspiracy theory, as the original writer behind Q. They say Arizona congressional candidate Ron Watkins also wrote under the pseudonym, first by collaborating with Furber and then later taking over the account when it eventually moved to post on his father's 8chan message board.
/jlne.ws/3I4zpM9
Finance Chiefs Pledge Careful and Clear Policy Normalization
Enda Curran and Grace Sihombing - Bloomberg
G-20 economic officials met for virtual and in-person talks; Discussions over debt framework were 'challenging': Indrawati
Global finance chiefs have pledged to normalize policy in a well-communicated, planned and calibrated fashion to ease concerns over global spillovers from rising interest rates.
/jlne.ws/34VgLb3
Fed Adopts Sweeping Trading Curbs After Ethics Scandal
Craig Torres and Christopher Condon - Bloomberg
Powell had announced plans for the new rules in October; Trading of three top officials came under scrutiny last year
The Federal Reserve formally adopted tough, sweeping restrictions on officials' investing and trading, aiming to prevent a repeat of the ethics scandal that engulfed the U.S. central bank last year The changes codify new guidelines announced in October to restrict active trading, prohibit the purchase of individual securities and boost disclosure requirements among policy makers and senior staff members. The measures follow revelations of unusual trading activity by three top officials in 2020 -- as the Fed intervened aggressively to shield the economy from Covid-19 -- who subsequently resigned.
/jlne.ws/3JCwR8f
Traders Get Trump Flashbacks as White House Triggers Volatility
Michael P. Regan - Bloomberg
VIX rises, S&P 500 falls below 200-day moving average; Biden comments 'not what markets want to hear': Sosnick
When it comes to styles of governing, the list of differences between Joe Biden and Donald Trump is -- needless to say -- quite a long one. Yet for operators in financial markets, the most important contrast is that communications from the sitting president rarely triggered sudden swings in asset prices the way his predecessor's did.
/jlne.ws/3s0Lv3e
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Criticizes Price Exploitation
Ben Bartenstein - Bloomberg
Some food increases are firms 'taking advantage,' says Vilsack; Vilsack rejects a Republican call for trade damages from China
The U.S. Agriculture Secretary said some recent price increases were the result of businesses "taking advantage" of the coronavirus pandemic and supply-chain disruptions to push up food costs. Food prices have soared globally in the past year as economies recover from the pandemic and amid a jump in energy and fertilizer costs. Transporters are also struggling to cope with the extra demand for goods, leading to huge delays at ports.
/jlne.ws/35frm0x
Ottawa Blockade Largely Dispersed As Financial Crackdown Widens
Ari Altstedter - Bloomberg
Number of protesters 'dramatically declined': police chief; Police freeze bank accounts and halt transfers to protesters
Police said they have largely cleared downtown Ottawa of the anti-vaccine protests that have roiled Canada and its capital for the last three weeks, as a financial crackdown widened to help prevent similar disturbances.
/jlne.ws/3sdMmhj
U.K. Covid Cabinet Delayed Amid Reports of Sunak-Javid Standoff
Kitty Donaldson and Joe Mayes - Bloomberg
Ministers are due to meet to sign off 'Living With Covid' plan; Telegraph reports disagreement over coronavirus test funding
A meeting of Boris Johnson's senior ministers to sign off on the plan to lift remaining coronavirus restrictions in England was delayed, amid reports of a dispute between Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid over funding.
/jlne.ws/3I9oGA7
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | For more regulatory, visit MarketsReformWiki, our website focused on current market reform efforts. | Former Lazard banker found guilty of insider trading by German court
Reuters
A former employee of investment bank Lazard was sentenced on Friday to an 18-month suspended jail term by a German court after being found guilty of insider trading, a court spokesperson said. The ruling by the Frankfurt regional court came after the ex-employee was charged in 2021 for passing on tips about upcoming takeovers of listed firms to the former head of an insurance company for almost two years.
/jlne.ws/3I7MhAY
FINRA Hires Firm to Conduct Independent Review of Arbitrator Selection Process
FINRA
FINRA announced today that it has hired the Lowenstein Sandler law firm to conduct an independent review of how FINRA Dispute Resolution Services (DRS) complied with its rules, policies and procedures for arbitrator selection in an arbitration proceeding whose award was recently vacated by an Atlanta Superior Court judge.
/jlne.ws/3p0WesJ
Parliamentary Joint Committee on the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity - Opening Statement - 21 February 2022
ASIC
Check against delivery
Chair, I am Warren Day, Chief Operating Officer of the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) and with me is my colleague Mr Zack Gurdon, Chief Risk Officer at ASIC and together we appear for the Commission today.
/jlne.ws/3v1eWUN
Investor alert: false claims by Leumi-vest.com
FMA - New Zealand
FMA recommends exercising caution when dealing with Leumi Vest and leumi-vest.net (the website). We believe Leumi Vest is operating a scam through the website and it falsely claims to be operating from a New Zealand address. The website purports to offer investment plans to investors with unrealistically high returns. We are aware that an investor is unable to withdraw the funds they invested through the website.
/jlne.ws/3sVwnTZ
MAS further extends facility to support lending by banks and finance companies to SMEs
Monetary Authority of Singapore
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced today that it will further extend the MAS SGD Facility for ESG Loans [1] (the Facility). This extension will complement the six-month extension of Enterprise Singapore's (ESG) Temporary Bridging Loan Programme [2] (TBLP) from 1 April 2022 to 30 September 2022.
/jlne.ws/3v79pfk
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Fed Officials Lean Against Expectations of Half-Point Increase in March; New York Fed President John Williams and others tee up a quarter-percentage-point rate rise at mid-March meeting
Nick Timiraos, Michael S. Derby - WSJ
Federal Reserve officials pushed back Friday against the prospect that they would begin raising interest rates next month with a larger half-percentage-point increase in their benchmark rate. Recent data pointing to stronger hiring, consumer spending and inflationary pressures had prompted investors in bond and interest-rate futures markets to place growing probabilities on a larger rate increase at the Fed's next meeting, on March 15-16. The Fed typically raises rates in smaller, quarter-percentage-point increments and hasn't made a larger increase since 2000.
/jlne.ws/3sXa8gj
Stock Market Got You Worried? Write a D-Day Note; Investors need to stop blaming others for their own mistakes. One trick that might help: drafting an explanation of why you failed before your portfolio goes south.
Jason Zweig - WSJ
Don't look at me. That's just about every investor's motto when something goes wrong. In the old days, you could blame your stockbroker or fund manager for losing your money. Now that your stockbroker is your phone and your fund manager is an index, it's a lot harder to point your finger at somebody else. If you're left with no one to blame but yourself, the obvious way out is denial—especially at times like this, with stocks down about 8% so far in 2022. Individual investors specialize in denial. So do professionals.
/jlne.ws/3sRfcDe
Virtu fixed income & foreign exchange head departs for quant firm; Former head of FI & FX and co-head of crypto previously operated across UBS Investment Bank, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and KCG Holdings.
Annabel Smith - The Trade
Virtu's head of fixed income and foreign exchange and co-head of crypto, Laine Litman, has left the company after nearly eight years. According to an update on social media, Litman has left Virtu after eight years to pursue a new opportunity as president of quantitative investment firm Hidden Road Partners, which specialises in short duration credit and financing opportunities.
/jlne.ws/3p2RrHa
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | China's climate stress test in carbon-intensive thermal power, steel, cement sectors highlights default risks
Reuters
The People's Bank of China completed the first phase of climate risk stress tests at 23 major banks last year; Rising emission costs as well as policies designed to facilitate 'industrial substitution' would lead to the problem of stranded assets and other 'transition risks'
China's banks face rising default risks as a result of higher climate-related costs in carbon-intensive sectors like thermal power, steel and cement, Liu Guiping, vice governor of the central bank, said in comments published on Friday. The People's Bank of China completed the first phase of its climate risk stress tests at 23 major banks last year, focusing on the possibility that the three sectors would be forced to pay for their carbon emissions, Liu wrote in the bank's China Finance publication.
/jlne.ws/3BJx9Yo
Driftwood LNG Among Gas Projects Subject to New Climate Policy
Gerson Freitas Jr and Daniel Moore - Bloomberg
U.S. regulators to increase scrutiny of natural gas projects; Nearly 13 billion cubic feet of gas capacity affected
Tellurian Inc.'s Driftwood LNG facility and Equitrans Midstream Corp.'s contentious Mountain Valley Pipeline are among dozens of proposed natural gas projects set to face new scrutiny after U.S. regulators tightened their criteria for approvals.
/jlne.ws/3p2hkqF
'We are afraid': Erin Brockovich pollutant linked to global electric car boom; Exclusive: Investigation uncovers evidence of contaminated air and water from one of Indonesia's largest nickel mines
Febriana Firdaus in Obi Island and Tom Levitt - The Guardian
AGuardian investigation into nickel mining and the electric vehicle industry has found evidence that a source of drinking water close to one of Indonesia's largest nickel mines is contaminated with unsafe levels of hexavalent chromium (Cr6), the cancer-causing chemical more widely known for its role in the Erin Brockovich story and film.
/jlne.ws/3H1ajw9
The great greenwashing scam: PR firms face reckoning after spinning for big oil; A comprehensive study confirms that oil companies are largely all talk and no action when it comes to clean energy initiatives
Amy Westervelt - The Guardian
This week a peer-reviewed study confirmed what many have suspected for years: major oil companies are not fully backing up their clean energy talk with action. Now the PR and advertising firms that have been creating the industry's greenwashing strategies for decades face a reckoning over whether they will continue serving big oil.
/jlne.ws/3I6E9k9
COP27 Will Turn Attention to Climate Justice for Poor Nations; The meeting, hosted by Egypt, will raise pressure on rich nations to help developing countries decarbonize and deal with the catastrophic impacts of global warming
Jess Shankleman - Bloomberg
If COP26 was about countries making promises to avoid catastrophic climate change, COP27 will be about raising money so developing nations can do their part. Alok Sharma, who presided over the last United Nations climate summit hosted by the U.K. in Glasgow, in the past week visited Vietnam and Indonesia — two middle-income countries that have said they could strengthen their climate pledges under the Paris Agreement. Both are seeking financial packages from rich countries that will allow them to transition away from coal.
/jlne.ws/3s3A1Ms
European energy groups seek EUR4bn damages over fossil fuel projects; Four governments face legal challenge under secretive treaty to stymying of schemes
Camilla Hodgson - FT
Five energy groups are suing four European governments for almost EUR4bn over the stymying of coal, oil and gas projects as climate change concerns rise, using a secretive process based on an international energy treaty.
/jlne.ws/3p5PDwS
Shareholder capitalism works best for society; Businesses can and should pursue environmental and other social goals within the present legal framework
Geoffrey Owen - FT
Was Milton Friedman right when he said in 1970 that the social responsibility of business was to make as much money as possible for shareholders? An influential group of critics, in the business community as well as in academia, believes he was fundamentally wrong.
/jlne.ws/36hs5yz
ESG: the next mis-selling scandal? Plus, taming the buyout barbarians, gold outperforms, and farewell PJ O'Rourke
Harriet Agnew - FT
Are green-themed funds all they're cracked up to be?
Environmental, social and governance investing has been a source of huge growth for the asset management industry in recent years. It could soon become a source of big problems.
/jlne.ws/3sOBRje
US companies add environmental and social targets to executive bonuses; Starbucks' chief Kevin Johnson earned some of his $20mn award by reducing the number of plastic straws
Patrick Temple-West - FT
Kevin Johnson, Starbucks's chief executive, earned a slice of his 2021 bonus by slashing plastic straws and methane emissions — an example of a trend by US companies to add environmental and social targets to bonus packages.
/jlne.ws/3v45AYl
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Mystery $3.7 Billion Pushed Through BlackRock ETF Stumps Traders
Emily Graffeo - Bloomberg
In just a matter of weeks, $3.7 billion suddenly entered and then exited a BlackRock Inc. exchange-traded fund that barely had any day-to-day action over its 15 year life-span, leaving traders scratching their heads for clues as to what's behind the move. On Jan. 25, after months of recording zero inflows, the iShares MSCI Kokusai exchange-traded fund (ticker TOK) brought in $3.7 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The ETF then continued trading like normal -- with mostly zero flows -- until the billions swiftly exited the fund over two separate trading days in February.
/jlne.ws/3BzryDH
Credit Suisse Had Clients Tied to Corruption, Reports Say
Jim Silver - Bloomberg
Reports are based on leak of data on more than 18,000 accounts; Bank rejects allegations, says most accounts have been closed
Credit Suisse Group AG managed accounts for clients involved in human rights abuses, corruption and drug trafficking, according to newspaper reports based on leaked data on more than 18,000 accounts that together held more than $100 billion.
/jlne.ws/34SCAIp
Massive Credit Suisse leak reveals bank managed hundreds of millions of dollars with clients tied to criminal activity and human rights abuses
Bethany Biron - Business Insider
A massive leak from Credit Suisse revealed the global investment bank managed hundreds of millions of dollars with known criminals and human rights abusers. In addition to serving some of the wealthiest and most powerful figures in the world, data obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared with news organizations that include The New York Times, found the bank worked with several controversial figures tied to criminal or problematic activity.
/jlne.ws/34Oq6Sh
Investors spurn minimum volatility ETFs despite surging market turmoil; The strategy's global assets have sunk from a peak of $71.3bn at the end of 2019 to $56.4bn
Steve Johnson - FT
Stock market volatility has spiked to one of its highest levels for a decade, yet so-called "minimum volatility" funds still cannot get a break. The once-hot investment thesis has endured a torrid two years. Since the start of 2020, BlackRock's iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor exchange traded fund (USMV), with $27.4bn of assets the powerhouse of the sector, has eked out a return of just 13.6 per cent, versus 37.8 per cent for the broad MSCI USA index, not helped by under exposure to the technology stocks that fuelled the market's rally.
/jlne.ws/3I73s5Z
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | Singapore Won't Displace Hong Kong as a Financial Center; The cities work better as complements, rather than competitors for global talent.
Rachel Rosenthal - Bloomberg
Hong Kong's rapid isolation from the rest of the world has business executives, investors and expatriates asking whether Singapore will overtake the territory as Asia's main financial center. If that's the ambition, there's a lot of ground to cover. A more realistic outcome is that the two locations work as complements, rather than competitors for global talent.
/jlne.ws/3s3CFSa
Nongfu Spring, Lenovo are added to Hang Seng Index, while Evergrande unit is dropped from China gauge
Enoch Yiu - South China Morning Post
Hang Seng Indexes Company, the compiler of Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index, has added Nongfu Spring, China's largest bottled-water seller, personal computer maker Lenovo to the benchmark in its latest quarterly review, it said on Friday. The compiler also removed Evergrande Property Services Group, which is part of the heavily indebted China Evergrande Group, from the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index, and replaced it with Xinyi Solar Holdings. It removed China Evergrande from the index that tracks Chinese stocks in its November review.
/jlne.ws/3Byp6NX
Hong Kong 'will be fine' Standard Chartered CEO says, has no plans to shift staff over Covid-19 policies; Bill Winters would like to see more senior executives and global products based in the city; The lender is making a US$300 million bet on higher capital flows through the city as China's financial markets open further
Chad Bray - South China Morning Post
Standard Chartered has no plans to shift executives out of Hong Kong as a result of the city's highly restrictive coronavirus policies, and is making a US$300 million bet on greater flows of capital through the city as mainland China's financial markets further open up, CEO Bill Winters said.
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China plans to feed 80 million people with 'seawater rice'; New salt-tolerant rice strains have been developed by Chinese scientists in the hope of ensuring food security that's been threatened by rising sea levels
Bloomberg via South China Morning Post
Jinghai district in northern China is hardly a rice-growing paradise. Located along the coast of the Bohai Sea, over half of the region's land is made of salty, alkaline soil where crops can't survive. Yet, last autumn, Jinghai produced 100 hectares of rice.
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Hedge Funds That Won Big in China's Bond Meltdown Now See Risks
Bloomberg News
Panic selling brought rare opportunities for distressed debts; Top performers become more cautious this year as risks rise
As default risks surrounding troubled issuers like China Evergrande Group rocked the nation's bond markets last year and left global investors nursing losses, a handful of little-known hedge funds swooped in. Shenzhen Qianhai Guoen Capital Management Co., Fuhui Juli Wealth Management Corp. and Shenzhen Qianhai Jiuying Asset Management Co., which between them manage more than 20 billion yuan ($3.2 billion), pocketed gains of 319%, 104% and 96% respectively under their high-yield strategies, after scooping up distressed debts issued by property firms and local government financing vehicles.
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Big Firms Ask India's Regulator to Reverse Related-Party Rule
Dhwani Pandya - Bloomberg
SEBI's rules on these deals to come in effect from April; Companies say the new rules increases workload for them
Companies want India's capital market regulator to change proposed rules on transactions between group firms, founders and related entities as they will lead to an increase in compliance costs and delay decision making. Engineering major Larsen & Toubro Ltd. and lobby groups including the Confederation of Indian Industry want the Securities and Exchange Board of India to scrap the mandatory shareholder approval for deals beyond 10 billion rupees ($134 million). Instead, the existing rule of 10% of annual turnover should prevail even after the new rules kick in on April 1.
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JPMorgan's Holsheimer to leave Hong Kong -memo
Reuters
One of JPMorgan's most senior Asia Pacific equities bankers, Ryan Holsheimer, is leaving the bank and Hong Kong to return to Australia, according to a memo seen by Reuters.
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Mumbai records sharpest data centre capacity growth in Asia Pacific in June quarter, report
Economic Times
The data centre market has experienced strong momentum in 2021 with Mumbai clocking the sharpest increase in supply as the pandemic has influenced push for digital services that accelerated new supply.
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Saudi Oil Minister Urges OPEC+ to Keep Building Consensus
Salma El Wardany and Matthew Martin - Bloomberg
Saudi Arabia's energy minister said that OPEC+ must stay together for the long-term stability of the oil market. "We need to keep this consensus building approach to be with us permanently because without it we will lose sight of our collective ambition," Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said at an energy conference in Riyadh Sunday. "Ask any producer of oil and gas today, if it were not for OPEC+ would they be the chairmen and the CEOs of today? And the answer: they would have vanished."
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Abu Dhabi wealth fund bets on scientific approach using quant experts; Adia has built a 50-strong team of physicists, academics and data specialists to identify and take advantage of market anomalies
Andrew England - FT
Gathered together on a floor of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority's 40-storey headquarters, a group of physicists, academics and data experts huddle around whiteboards, scribbling equations and feeding reams of data into state of the art computers. Many were lured to Adia, one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds, from outside the traditional world of finance — more likely a university campus than an investment bank. But they are all part of a new, more than 50-strong team that the fund believes will be crucial to help it navigate the increasingly complex investment landscape.
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Revealed: king of Jordan used Swiss accounts to hoard massive wealth
Martin Chulov - The Guardian
In 2011, as popular revolts reverberated around the Middle East, a monarch in the midst of it all made some banking decisions. Sometime that year, as neighbouring Egypt and Syria withered in the face of momentous civil protests, King Abdullah II of Jordan opened two new accounts with Credit Suisse, the Swiss bank that had discreetly served the region's well-heeled for decades.
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U.S. will immediately resume Mexican avocado imports, USDA says
Reuters
The United States on Friday ended a ban on imports of avocados from Mexico's Michoacan state and restarted an agricultural inspection program it had halted out of concern for the safety of U.S. workers. In its announcement, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said imports could resume immediately.
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| Miscellaneous | | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | A big vibe shift just happened in the WFH revolution; More people say they're working from home by choice, not because their office is closed. That's a change from earlier in the pandemic.
Clint Rainey - Fast Company
A report out today from the Pew Research Center suggests that the pandemic may be swaying American workers' attitudes about the office. A majority tell Pew that they've now started working from home simply because they can, not because they have to.
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Ponzi Schemer Bernie Madoff's Sister, Husband Found Dead
AP
The sister of Wall Street fraudster Bernie Madoff and her husband were found dead in what investigators said was an apparent murder-suicide in Florida, according to news reports.
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How to Get Hired If You're an Older Worker; It's not easy for older workers to rejoin the labor force, but online courses and networks for the 50-plus set can help.
eresa Ghilarducci - Bloomberg
Almost everybody needs or wants to work in their 50s and most need to work into their 60s. But the pandemic hasn't been kind to older workers. The "Great Resignation" — a term that describes those who have been emboldened to seek raises or discover better things to do than work — mostly applies to young and mobile workers. Only employees ages 16 to 24 have seen big wage gains, while older workers' wages have been stagnant. In addition, a sizable chunk of older workers, about 15%, lost their jobs in 2020 compared to 14% of prime-age workers. That's counter to the trend of older worker job loss usually being lower compared to other age groups during a recession.
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Caring for Older Relatives Is So Expensive That Even AARP's Expert Filed for Bankruptcy; Unexpected costs can accumulate over time and overwhelm even most experienced of nation's 53 million family caregivers
Clare Ansberry - WSJ
Amy Goyer is AARP's family and caregiving expert. She has written two books on the subject and has her own consulting business. "I am a caregiving expert. How did I end up in bankruptcy?" she says. Ms. Goyer depleted her savings and ended up relying on credit cards after being financially drained by costs related to caring for her parents. After more than a decade of caring for her mom, who had a stroke, and her dad, who had Alzheimer's, Ms. Goyer filed for bankruptcy protection in 2019.
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