| September 29, 2022 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | | | John Lothian
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
The World Federation of Exchanges 61st Annual General Meeting concluded today in Malta after a session on ESG. The big announcement at the end was that the next annual general meeting would be held in September 2023 in Bermuda. The WFE showed an enticing video of Bermuda to attract attendees.
My first reaction was, "I want to go." However, on second thought, I was like, isn't September right in the middle of hurricane season for Bermuda? Maybe there was a reason the prices were so competitive for the hotel. Well, only time will tell. Bermuda is beautiful, but maybe take out the flight insurance with this trip.
Remember those $1.8 billion in fines yesterday? Well the FIA is holding a webinar about "New Frontiers in Recordkeeping and Compliance" to address the issues about the use of personal phones for business and the enforcement implications. The webinar is on October 13, 2022 from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. ET. Register HERE.
Rostin Behnam, the chairman of the CFTC, is making price predictions for bitcoin based on its potential regulation by the CFTC. Evidently he believes bitcoin would double in price if the CFTC were to regulate the cryptocurrency, according to a CoinDesk story.
IncubEx reported on LinkedIn that "Environmental Markets on Nodal Top $1 Billion Notional Open Interest in environmental products offered on Nodal Exchange topped $1 billion in notional value yesterday."
John Tornatore is starting a new position as head of business development at Prometheum. John was most recently at the Small Exchange, which has had some changes since it was bought by Crypto.com. John was the chief commercial officer of the Small Exchange.
Jason Gurandiano is starting a new position as US head technology investment banking at RBC Capital Markets.
Veteran television journalist Bill Plante has died at the age of 84. Plante was "CBS News's Man at the White House," according to the New York Times, who covered four presidencies during a 52-year career.
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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Coming Oct. 12, 2022, at 11:00 a.m., a Derivatives Deep Dive with Michael Izhaky, VP, Derivatives Strategy at Cboe Global Markets. Izhaky is a senior leader in Cboe's Derivatives Strategy group. It's part of an ongoing series on derivatives at The Options Institute at the Cboe. You can learn more and register here.~SAED
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MWE SHORT: JJ Kinahan - Seeking Opportunity Everywhere in the Market
JohnLothianNews.com
In this video from MarketsWiki Education's World of Opportunity event in New York, JJ Kinahan, then the managing director and chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade, talks about seizing opportunity in every corner of the markets. Kinahan grew up in a large Irish-American family, and figured he would become a carpenter or an electrician. Instead, he landed a job at the CBOE one summer and never looked back.
Watch the video »
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Florida Wakes to Disaster as Ian Continues to Dump Flooding Rain; More than 2.5 million without power amid flooding and winds; Ian was one of the most powerful storms to hit the US
Brian K Sullivan - Bloomberg
Ian was downgraded to a tropical storm with winds of 65 miles (104 km) per hour as it swept northeast into central Florida, leaving 2.5 million homes and businesses without power amid downed trees and inundated roadways from one of the costliest and most powerful hurricanes in US history. The storm, which dumped as much as a foot of rain onto some cities, was continuing to batter the state Thursday -- with a high risk of flash flooding -- before moving into the Atlantic Ocean and, from there, into Georgia and the Carolinas.
/jlne.ws/3reA8U6
***** This story they say will change the face of Florida. I am guessing Mickey is out.~JJL
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Yellen Says Markets Functioning Well, Conditions Not Disorderly; Treasury chief says officials will continue to monitor markets; Yellen says tighter conditions part of addressing inflation
Christopher Condon - Bloomberg
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that financial markets are functioning well, after a tumble in equities and Treasuries and a surge in the dollar unsettled investors. "We haven't seen liquidity problems develop in markets -- we're not seeing, to the best of my knowledge, the kind of deleveraging that could signify some financial stability risks," Yellen said in answering reporters' questions Tuesday on a trip to North Carolina.
/jlne.ws/3dP1E7M
***** All is well! All is well!~JJL
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Liz Truss vows to stick to tax-cutting plans despite market turmoil; UK prime minister breaks silence as gilt sell-off resumes
Sebastian Payne, Philip Stafford, Chris Giles and Jim Pickard - Financial Times
Liz Truss has vowed to stick to her tax-cutting plans, breaking her silence on the market tumult that followed her government's fiscal policy announcement last Friday. In a series of interviews on local radio stations, the UK prime minister insisted she would not change course on the economy, saying lower taxes were vital to stave off a recession. But a sell-off in sterling and government bonds resumed as she spoke.
/jlne.ws/3LUmOxH
****** All is not well, but I don't care.~JJL
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Lessons from the UK pension fund shock; In finance there is nothing quite so dangerous as a supposedly safe strategy
Robin Wigglesworth - Financial Times
What a wild week. The turmoil in UK markets escalated far beyond what anyone could have expected even after the government revealed a remarkably ill-judged mini-Budget last Friday. Stepping back to behold the detritus, some things are becoming a little clearer. Some of the scale of the recent UK government bond market collapse is explained by a "doom-loop" triggered by pension fund gilt selling. This escalated calls on funds to post collateral on derivative trades struck, ironically, to hedge their liabilities. In turn, this triggered more selling. However, the answers to many questions remain murky.
/jlne.ws/3M7hbfX
******This was supposed to work. I don't understand.~JJL
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Banks Accuse Consumer Regulator of Abuse of Power
Emily Flitter - NY Times
Since George Floyd's murder by the police in 2020 refocused public attention on racism in the United States, regulators — including those appointed by President Biden to oversee financial institutions — have vowed to prioritize the task of rooting out discrimination. But banks are now accusing one of them of going too far. On Wednesday, a powerful alliance of bank trade groups sued the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and its director, Rohit Chopra, in federal court in Texas, claiming Mr. Chopra is abusing his power by forcing banks to submit to regular tests of how their treatment of customers may inadvertently disadvantage certain groups, including racial minorities. The suit argues that the law Mr. Chopra is using to do so was devised only to ensure lenders are treating customers with transparency and fairness.
/jlne.ws/3dRSvex
****** We want you to treat customers with transparency and fairness, but not those customers?~JJL
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Wednesday's Top Three
Our top story Wednesday was The Wall Street Journal's report, People Don't Save Enough for Emergencies, but There Are Ways to Fix That. Second was CME Group has investment ideas for the masses, about the exchange's new event contracts, from The Chicago Sun-Times. Third was Crypto Exchange FTX Is Moving Its US Headquarters From Chicago to Miami, from CoinDesk.
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MarketsWiki Stats
27,019 pages; 240,962 edits
MarketsWiki Statistics
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| All MarketsWiki Sponsors» | | | | | | | John Lothian News (JLN) is the news division of John J. Lothian & Company, Inc. (JJLCO). The online media and financial services firm is staffed by derivatives industry, journalism and technology professionals. | | | | | | | John Lothian News Editorial Staff: | | | John Lothian
Publisher | | | Sarah Rudolph
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| Lead Stories | The UK's Crisis of Confidence Was Years in the Making; The UK thought it had the trust of markets — until it didn't. Now homeowners and businesses will likely have to pay the price.
Philip Aldrick, Libby Cherry, and David Goodman - Bloomberg
Britain is in a self-inflicted financial crisis, years in the making, that threatens to accelerate the economy's dive into recession — and the country's new prime minister is coming under intense pressure to blink. In the week since the government unveiled the biggest tax cuts since 1972 with scant detail of how they will be financed, the pound has crashed to its lowest-ever level against the dollar, the cost of insuring British government debt against the risk of default has soared to the highest since 2016, and the Bank of England has been forced to intervene amid concerns about the nation's pension funds.
/jlne.ws/3LQ4Yfj
China's Race to Avoid a Wall Street Ban Is Off to a Tense Start
Bloomberg News
The latest high-stakes drama between the world's biggest superpowers is unfolding in the unlikeliest of places: a Hong Kong office tower full of accountants. It's here, on the 23rd floor of Prince's Building in central Hong Kong, where number crunchers and regulators will determine the fate of hundreds of billions of dollars in US-listed Chinese shares -- and possibly the future of financial cooperation between Washington and Beijing.
/jlne.ws/3BWSr56
Pound's Swoon Echoes Declines in British Power, Past and Present; The Bank of England had to step in Wednesday after markets deemed a new government economic plan unwise, but the pound has been on a longer slide.
Patricia Cohen - The New York Times
Britain's pound coin — rimmed in nickel and brass with an embossed image of Queen Elizabeth II at the center — could always be counted on to be significantly more valuable than the dollar. Such boasting rights effectively came to an end this week when the value of the pound sank to its lowest recorded level: £1 = $1.03 after falling more than 20 percent this year. The nearly one-to-one parity between the currencies sounded the close of a chapter in Britain's history nearly as much as the metronomic footfalls of the procession that carried the queen's funeral bier up the pavement to Windsor Castle. "The queen's death for many people brought to an end a long era of which the soft power in the United Kingdom" was paramount, said Ian Goldin, professor of globalization and development at the University of Oxford. "The pound's demise to its lowest level is sort of indicative of this broader decline in multiple dimensions."
/jlne.ws/3BUwpQv
China trials cross-border settlement involving cenbank digital currencies
Returns
A central bank digital currency trial focused on cross-border transactions has been completed, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) said, with Chinese state-owned banks participating as Beijing tries to internationalise its digital yuan. More than 160 cross-border payments and foreign exchange transactions totalling more than $22 million were made during the first trial involving four central bank currencies and real-value transactions, the BIS said in a statement. The development comes as the U.S. dollar is surging against other currencies and triggering capital outflows out of emerging markets, threatening their economic health.
/jlne.ws/3BVSyxL
Wall Street chiefs stage return to Hong Kong after city scraps quarantine; Most executives have not visited for years because of harsh Covid policies
Primrose Riordan and Hudson Lockett - Financial Times
Goldman Sachs chief executive David Solomon, Morgan Stanley's James Gorman and Citigroup's Jane Fraser will attend a financial forum in Hong Kong designed to restore the city's reputation as Asia's top financial hub after years of restrictive coronavirus pandemic policies. The confirmation of the global bank executives' attendance from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority on Thursday comes less than a week after Hong Kong scrapped mandatory hotel quarantine for international visitors. Many executives attending the forum will be visiting Hong Kong for the first time since the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020.
/jlne.ws/3Sm8Gjm
The Unstoppable Dollar Is Wreaking Havoc Everywhere But America; The Federal Reserve's focus on taming inflation is inflicting a world of pain on other economies.
Liz McCormick, Michael Mackenzie, and Christopher Condon - Bloomberg
The mighty dollar is steamrolling everything right now, causing issues for economies almost everywhere—except in the US. That means that, for now at least, it's not America's problem and the historic central-bank-fueled surge in the greenback is unlikely to abate anytime soon. By some measures the US currency is already stronger than ever, eclipsing the highs of the Covid-19 pandemic from early 2020. The pain it's inflicting has echoes of the mid-1980s, when foreign exchange chaos forced the world's most important finance officials to join hands and impose a solution on markets. Right now, though, it's every country for itself as the US administration pushes back on the idea of coordinated market action.
/jlne.ws/3E3kbHX
Europe's energy plan: is it enough to get through winter? A growing number of member states warn that proposals do not go far enough as they seek to ward off the risk of political unrest
Sam Fleming and Leila Abboud - Financial Times
Emmanuel Macron had a simple message last week for French businesses preparing to sign punishingly costly energy contracts: don't do it. Companies should spurn the "crazy prices" currently on offer, the French president said, insisting that European governments would succeed in making markets work again and bringing costs back down to reasonable levels.
/jlne.ws/3LTZZdn
Stanford Proposal for Reversible Ethereum Transactions Divides Crypto Community
Sam Kessler - CoinDesk
A group of Stanford University blockchain researchers divided the crypto community last week with a research proposal that would entertain the possibility of creating reversible transactions on Ethereum. The proposal was welcomed by those who believe crypto's status quo - where theft is rampant and a typo can cost you $36 million - poses barriers to mainstream adoption. But it was panned by others for its suggestion that a "decentralized set of judges" should be used to arbitrate transaction disputes.
/jlne.ws/3dNgMT7
U.K. Financial Conduct Authority Announces Cessation of One and Six Month "synthetic" Sterling LIBOR at the end of March 2023
ICE
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE), a leading global provider of data, technology, and market infrastructure, today announced that the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has decided to require ICE Benchmark Administration Limited (IBA) to continue to publish 1- and 6-Month "synthetic" sterling LIBOR settings until March 31, 2023. The FCA has announced that, following the results of a consultation, it has no intention to use its powers to compel IBA to continue to publish the 1- and 6-Month "synthetic" sterling LIBOR settings beyond this date, and that therefore these settings will permanently cease immediately after final publication on March 31, 2023. The FCA also consulted on when it could cease to compel IBA to publish 3-Month "synthetic" sterling LIBOR and noted there was support for requiring the continuation of 3-Month "synthetic" sterling LIBOR for a limited period beyond the end of March 2023.
/jlne.ws/3Rvf5ri
Crypto Crash Was Good for Industry, Weeded Out 'Tourists'; Speculators have left, leaving sustainable businesses behind; Revolut's head of crypto said regulation has helped business
Emily Nicolle and Olivia Solon - Bloomberg
This year's difficult economic climate has weeded out some of the crypo industry "tourists," leaving behind a stronger set of companies, said Irina Haivas, a partner at venture capital firm Atomico. "It's not bad that the hype has gone," she said, speaking at the Bloomberg Technology Summit in London on Wednesday, as it means the people building crypto companies are aware of the market conditions and "want to build something more sustainable rather than speculate around it."
/jlne.ws/3xX4oXd
SEC Says Backers of Crypto Token Hydro 'Airdrop' Broke Its Rules; Firm tried to inflate price after giving token away: regulator; Hydrogen Technology says the SEC's case 'wholly lacks merit'
Olga Kharif - Bloomberg
The company behind the digital coin Hydro and a crypto market-making firm tried to artificially inflate the token's price after it was offered through a so-called airdrop, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC said on Wednesday that The Hydrogen Technology Corp., its former chief executive officer, Michael Ross Kane, and Tyler Ostern, the CEO of Moonwalkers Trading Ltd., broke its rules by selling tokens the agency identified as securities into a market artificially inflated using bots. The regulator said that the Hydro tokens were initially distributed to investors through a variety of means, including airdrops and as employee compensation.
/jlne.ws/3BRFzx7
Why Did Bank of England Have to Prop Up Bond Market?; Britain's central bank says it will buy bonds in effort to restore orderly market conditions
Chelsey Dulaney and Caitlin Ostroff - The Wall Street Journal
Britain's central bank stepped in Wednesday to shore up the country's bond market, warning that U.K. financial stability could come under threat from a huge run-up in yields. Once again, a bout of market stress appears to have exposed an underappreciated buildup of risk—this time, in the supposedly staid area of retirement funds. Here is a rundown of what is happening.
/jlne.ws/3RksOkr
Crypto Fugitive Do Kwon's Firm Accuses Korean Prosecutors of Overreach; Terraform Labs spokesman calls the case 'highly politicized'
Alexander Osipovich - The Wall Street Journal
The firm behind failed cryptocurrencies TerraUSD and Luna accused South Korean prosecutors of overreaching their authority, two weeks after they issued a warrant for the arrest of its chief executive, Do Kwon. Terraform Labs Pte. Ltd. laid out Mr. Kwon's defense in a statement sent to The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. A spokesman for the Singapore-based firm said in the statement that Luna wasn't legally a security, which would mean that it isn't covered by South Korea's capital-markets law. "We believe that this case has become highly politicized, and that the actions of the Korean prosecutors demonstrate unfairness and a failure to uphold basic rights guaranteed under Korean law," the spokesman said.
/jlne.ws/3DXmQ66
On Portugal's 'Bitcoin Beach,' Crypto Optimism Still Reigns; In crypto havens such as Meia Praia beach, the confidence in digital currencies remains undimmed even after this summer's crash.
Adam Satariano - The New York Times
The Bam Bam Beach Bitcoin bar, on an uncrowded beach in southwestern Portugal, is the meeting place. To get there, you drive past a boat harbor, oceanside hotels and apartment buildings, then park near a sleepy seafood restaurant and walk down a wooden path that cuts through a sand dune. Yellow Bitcoin flags blow in the wind. The conversations about cryptocurrencies and a decentralized future flow.
/jlne.ws/3frhDsX
Notorious 'Wall Street Whiz Kid' con man now reportedly scamming Hollywood hipsters
Adriana Diaz - NY Post
Fool me thrice, shame on who? David Bloom, 58, has been twice-convicted in New York for his million dollar scams and served two prison sentences, but doesn't appear to have learned his lesson. Instead, the former "Wall Street Whiz Kid" simply packed his bag of tricks and moved to the West Coast. The con artist was arrested in Los Angeles on Aug. 9 on suspicion of 12 counts of grand theft, amounting to more than $190,000. He was released after posting $45,000 bail, according to Capt. Al Lopez of the LAPD's Commercial Crimes Division.
/jlne.ws/3dNujKp
TradeTech FX: Is the eFX spot market on its way to an oligopoly? Panellists warned the top liquidity providers were now accounting for over 60% of the market, with that number rising.
Annabel Smith - The Trade
Speaking at a TradeTech FX panel, participants clashed over whether the eFX spot market structure was leaning towards becoming an oligopoly. "If we talk about the specific flows of the large buy-side clients, the top three to five sell-side players have market share that is well above 50-60%. That is increasing," said one panellist.
/jlne.ws/3CkcX19
TradeTech FX 2022 Round Up; The TRADE's managing editor Laurie McAughtry and senior reporter Annabel Smith sit down together after a busy two days at TradeTech FX 2022 to discuss the key themes of the event and key challenges facing the industry right now.
Editors - The Trade
Catch up on the last two days at TradeTech FX 2022 in these two videos with The TRADE's managing editor Laurie McAughtry and senior reporter Annabel Smith - as they discuss the key themes of the event, as well as the challenges currently being faced by the industry.
/jlne.ws/3dQ1ugn
TradeTech FX: Macro perspective - "The only way out of this is recession" say market experts; In a session on macroeconomic outlook, market commentators discuss the likelihood of a hard landing and a possible recession - with a focus on the impossible dichotomy between monetary and fiscal policy that is placing markets in turmoil.
Laurie McAughtry - The Trade
What impact will monetary policy divergence, geopolitical events and heightened volatility have on global financial markets? This was the question put to leading market commentators including Schroders' chief economist Keith Wade, Invesco's global macro strategist Arnab Das, and global head of economics and strategy for Allianz Global Investors Stefan Hofrichter, on Day Two of TradeTech FX.
/jlne.ws/3SoxrLL
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | US Is Sending More Artillery to Ukraine — But It Won't Arrive for Years; The $1.1 billion in military aid isn't for immediate needs; Lockheed would have to build HIMARS systems prized by Ukraine
Roxana Tiron - Bloomberg
The highly-prized HIMARS artillery system in the US's latest $1.1 billion security assistance package for Ukraine will take a few years to be built, a Pentagon official said Wednesday. The US announced it would send 18 High Mobility Artillery Systems, made by Lockheed Martin Corp., as part of the new assistance package. Unlike the 16 HIMARS already sent from existing Pentagon stocks, the new ones will have to be built under contract through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, according to the official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.
/jlne.ws/3SJMSO7
Russian Gas Leak Could Be Environmental Disaster
Avi Salzman - Barron's
Two pipelines from Russia to Germany are leaking, and the natural gas inside of them is bubbling to the surface of the Baltic Sea and venting into the atmosphere. The leaks are a potential environmental disaster, given that methane—the key ingredient in natural gas—is a potent greenhouse gas.
/jlne.ws/3LPzeXP
Nord Stream sabotage mapped: How Putin could have carried out the attack
Dominic Nicholls - The Telegraph
Three offshore lines of the Nord Stream pipeline system supplying Germany with Russian gas suffered "unprecedented" damage on Monday. Gas pipe leaks at sea are rare. Three at the same time strongly suggests sabotage. How might that be achieved? With a depth of only around 70m, covert entry into the Baltic Sea by nuclear submarine is very difficult if not impossible.
/jlne.ws/3CjgFYC
Iran's Drones Are Cheap, Plentiful and Helping Russia in Ukraine
Marc Champion - Bloomberg
After months of being hammered on Ukraine's battlefields by US kamikaze drones and longer range rocket systems, Russia is striking back with a new capability if its own, attacking the southern port city of Odesa almost daily with winged missiles from Iran.
/jlne.ws/3E7fHQD
Sabotaged Pipelines and a Mystery: Who Did It? (Was It Russia?)
Katrin Bennhold and David E. Sanger - The New York Times
Two days after a pair of explosions under the Baltic Sea apparently ruptured giant natural gas pipelines from Russia to Germany, the consensus hardened Wednesday that it had been an act of sabotage, as the European Union and several European governments labeled it an attack and demanded an investigation. Experts said it could take months to assess and repair the damage to the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which have been used as leverage in the West's confrontation with Moscow over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. News of a possible attack on the lines heightened already intense fears of painful energy shortages in Europe over the winter.
/jlne.ws/3BQTBPL
Delaware Freezes Out Russia-Linked Startups, Extending Sanctions' Reach; Delaware, a global hub for business, has blocked startups from maintaining their corporate standing based on individuals' ties to Russia
Andrew Scurria - The Wall Street Journal
The commercial hub of Delaware is blocking startup ventures with past ties to Russia from maintaining their corporate standing in the state, ensnaring some tech firms that say they have little or no current connection to Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. The Delaware Division of Corporations this year has told dozens of technology ventures incorporated in Delaware that they can't do further business with the state after determining their corporate filings contained individuals or business addresses in Russia, according to lawyers and startup founders, as well as official correspondence reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
/jlne.ws/3focKAV
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | SGX Group wins two Exchange of the Year awards; Asia Risk, FOW accolades underscore strength of multi-asset service offering; SGX Chairman receives FOW's Lifetime Achievement Award
SGX
Singapore Exchange (SGX Group) has clinched two Exchange of the Year awards for delivering a robust service offering across multiple asset classes amid growing institutional demand for trusted investment and risk-management solutions. SGX Group retained "Derivatives Exchange of the Year" at the Asia Risk Awards, one of the longest-running awards for the derivatives and risk-management industry. Leading publication Asia Risk cited the way SGX Group used the strengths of its multi-asset offering to forge new partnerships that carry the business forward, as well as the continued refinement of its digital workflow solutions.
/jlne.ws/3Rn0X38
CME Group's Sunil Cutinho: 'Setting up in Belfast was a big milestone... the teams have done wonderful things for us'; Northern Ireland's talent pool and our time zone have powered the growth of CME Group in Belfast, writes Margaret Canning
Sunil Cutinho - Belfast Telegraph
Live cattle and frozen pork bellies don't sound like they would have much in common with the world of software engineering in Belfast. But CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) Group, which started out as an exchange for trading agricultural commodities before branching out into futures and derivatives, has had a significant operation in Belfast for a decade.
/jlne.ws/3CixJxU
Deutsche Börse to issue digital securities on DLT-ready D7 platform
Ledger Insights
Last year, the Deutsche Börse unveiled the launch of D7, a digital securities post-trade platform. It is now taking its second step by issuing digitally native securities in the fourth quarter. While the latest phase uses smart contracts, the securities are not yet blockchain-based, which is planned for a third phase. "We are moving away from various isolated platforms towards our vision of one common digital financial ecosystem," said Jens Hachmeister, Deutsche Börse Managing Director of Issuer Services & New Digital Markets. The key aims of the solution are to enable same day stock issuance and straight through processing.
/jlne.ws/3SItLUI
Nasdaq divides business into three units to streamline operations
Reuters
Nasdaq Inc (NDAQ.O) said on Wednesday it was reorganizing its business into three divisions to focus on major growth areas as competition among trading exchanges was intensifying. It said Market Platforms, Capital Access Platforms and Anti-Financial Crime will be the new units that will focus on digital assets, carbon markets, providing investment intelligence apart from U.S. equities. The New York-based stock exchange, which competes with CBOE Global Markets (CBOE.Z), NYSE and its parent Intercontinental Exchange Inc (ICE.N) and BATS Global Markets, said the fourth quarter and full year 2022 results will reflect the changes.
/jlne.ws/3LTYhJd
dr Ing. hc F. Porsche Aktiengesellschaft ("Porsche AG") new to the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange
Deutsche Börse
Porsche AG (ISIN: DE000PAG9113 ) has been listed in the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since today. The first price of the share was EUR84.00. The IPO was accompanied by BofA Securities, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan (each Joint Global Coordinators), BNP PARIBAS, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley (each Senior Joint Bookrunners), Santander, Barclays, Société Générale, UniCredit Bank AG (each Joint Bookrunners), COMMERZBANK, Crédit Agricole CIB, LBBW and Mizuho (each co-lead manager). Goldman Sachs has been mandated as designated sponsor in Xetra trading. The execution is carried out by Baader Bank AG, which also acts as a specialist on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
/jlne.ws/3E3tRSH
EEX sets new record for trading in Futures on dairy products in Europe
EEX
EEX has registered a new annual record in the current calendar year in trading EEX Dairy Futures. As of 21 September 2022, the cumulative trading volume in 2022 (27,678 contracts = 138,390 tonnes of commodity equivalent) exceeded the total volume of the record year 2017 (27,564 contracts = 137,820 tonnes of commodity equivalent). Within the product range that includes also Liquid Milk, Butter and Whey Powder Futures, growth in the EEX European Skimmed Milk Powder Futures was especially striking.
/jlne.ws/3URYz7E
DBS Accelerates Market Integrity Efforts Leveraging Nasdaq Surveillance Technology; Cloud-based surveillance technology from Nasdaq to underpin DBS' market abuse detection efforts
Nasdaq
Nasdaq (Nasdaq: NDAQ) and DBS, a leading financial services group in Asia and Southeast Asia's largest bank, announced today that DBS will leverage Nasdaq Trade Surveillance technology to advance its surveillance and market integrity efforts. Nasdaq's Trade Surveillance solutions will enable DBS to enhance its abilities to analyze comprehensive market abuse surveillance scenarios and patterns and detect trading anomalies across equities and derivatives markets as well as OTC FX markets.
/jlne.ws/3Rs1GQy
Investment Challenge Crucial for Youth Skills Development
JSE
For nearly 50 years, the JSE Investment Challenge has been teaching high school learners and tertiary students about investing in the JSE and the larger role that investment plays in the country's economy. "This competition is a great way for learners to gain various skills while learning about South Africa's economy," comments Sizwe Mtsweni, teacher of the winning team in the Income Portfolio, MP Street Profit from Mpumelelo Secondary School.
/jlne.ws/3BQXW5v
MIAX Exchange Group - Options & Equities Markets - 2nd Reminder: Reg SCI / SIFMA BCP Testing on Saturday, October 15, 2022
MIAX
As previously announced in the April 19, 2022, and September 19, 2022 Alerts, the MIAX Exchange Group will be participating in the 2022 SIFMA BCP Testing on Saturday, October 15, 2022. All Members that are required to test with MIAX Options, MIAX Pearl Options, MIAX Emerald Options and/or MIAX Pearl Equities Exchanges in accordance with Regulation Systems Compliance and Integrity (Regulation SCI) were notified on April 5, 2022. However, all Members are encouraged to test.
/jlne.ws/3wWeXsv
EBS Market on CME Globex Notice
CME Group
Topics in this issue include: Critical Information;
Product Launch; Announcements and Additional Resources.
/jlne.ws/3SEqaqM
Trading Cease today at 1:30 p.m.
TMX
Interest rate derivative trading will cease at 1:30 p.m. today, September 29, 2022. Furthermore, the interest rate derivative market will be closed on September 30, 2022.
/jlne.ws/3rmxCeo
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | Twitter Is in This Mess Because Jack Dorsey Was Too Busy Being a Bitcoin Influencer; The dispute between the social media giant and Tesla CEO Elon Musk exposes the vapidity of one of Silicon Valley's most admired entrepreneurs.
Max Chafkin - Bloomberg
Heavy Twitter usage does not generally correlate with soundness of mind. The social media service, as has frequently been pointed out, rewards trolling, shitposting, self-promotion, and oversharing. It has this in common with reality TV, of course—though Twitter's great innovation, arguably, is to offer a broader user base the rich lodes of emotional toxicity otherwise available only to FBoy Island contestants and your lesser Kardashians. Twitter serves it up to anyone, in any language, at any time. This can be entertaining, of course—and, at times, even enlightening—but it has a tendency to elevate the shallowest people in the world. It's fitting that the service was, until recently, run by Jack Dorsey.
/jlne.ws/3dVKhSM
Tradeweb and S&P Global Market Intelligence collaborate to connect European primary and secondary markets;l The collaboration will see Tradeweb integrate S&P Global's InvestorAcess, providing clients with electronic access to new deals alongside the ability to manage orders in the primary market.
Wesley Bray - The Trade
Electronic trading platform Tradeweb Markets has collaborated with S&P Global Market Intelligence to provide electronic connectivity between European primary and secondary markets. European credit, covered, sovereign, supranational and agency (SSA) bonds are currently included in the product scope.
/jlne.ws/3Clhsbu
'Decentralization Under Centralization': How Chinese Universities Teach Blockchain
Xinyi Luo - CoinDesk
Oct. 24, 2019, marked the beginning of a tectonic change for blockchain education in China. Speaking before the politburo of the Communist Party of China in Beijing on that day, President Xi Jinping said the country needs to "seize the opportunity" afforded by blockchain technology. These words would set forth China's ambitious agenda to take a leading role in the global development of this emerging technology. The universities of China received the message loud and clear. In 2020, 14 Chinese colleges established blockchain technology undergraduate degree programs, following Chengdu University of Information Technology, which had established the country's first College of Blockchain Technology months before Xi's speech.
/jlne.ws/3DY5PIZ
New Bond Fund Shows Blockchain Is a Tool—Not a Crypto Bet
Jack Denton - Barron's
A heavyweight in U.S. exchange-traded funds has made the leap to using a technology that underpins cryptocurrencies—without betting on any digital asset. WisdomTree Investments (ticker: WETF), which manages more than $70 billion, largely in ETFs, has a new fund with shares that can be managed on the blockchains of either the Ethereum or Stellar crypto networks. It's the ETF player's first foray into blockchain-enabled trading.
/jlne.ws/3E0H5je
SWIFT Partners With Crypto Data Provider Chainlink on Cross-Chain Protocol in TradFi Play
Aoyon Ashraf - CoinDesk
SWIFT, the interbank messaging system that allows for cross-border payments, is working with Chainlink, a provider of price feeds and other data to blockchains, on a cross-chain interoperability protocol (CCIP) in an initial proof-of-concept. CCIP will enable SWIFT messages to instruct on-chain token transfers, helping the interbank network to be able to communicate across all blockchain environments. This will help accelerate the adoption of distributed ledger technology (DLT) blockchains and benefit various institutions across capital markets, Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov said at the SmartCon 2022 conference in New York City on Wednesday.
/jlne.ws/3dLNTGY
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | US senators aim to amend cybersecurity bill to include crypto
Jacquelyn Melinek - TechCrunch
As regulators around the world try to provide frameworks for the digital asset industry, two U.S. senators have introduced a bill to help crypto companies report cybersecurity threats. U.S. senators Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, and Cynthia Lummis, Republican of Wyoming, exclusively shared with TechCrunch the reformed legislation, the Cryptocurrency Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, which would amend the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 to include cryptocurrency firms. The bill is endorsed by the Electronic Transactions Association.
/jlne.ws/3RnV8lV
Cybersecurity: Strategic Technology Or Simply A Business Necessity?
Robert Napoli - Forbes
A 2017 Economist article famously said that "The world's most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data." Although there are multiple interpretations of such a grandiose claim, it's clear that data is a valuable commodity in the modern age and that its collection, use and security are fundamental to the operation of a growing number of industries. Data breaches cost an estimated $6 trillion globally in 2021, with hackers holding the systems and data of both small and large businesses for ransom with alarming effectiveness. Companies often have no choice but to comply with those demands — especially smaller ones that don't have the capital to survive the theft or destruction of their data.
/jlne.ws/3UM43k1
Inside a cyberattack method that targets your cellphone
Tim Starks - The Washington Post
A recent spree of "smishing" attacks points to what some experts anticipate will be a wider threat in the future. The technique, which claims victims at Twilio and targeted others at Cloudflare, combines text messages intent on luring victims into clicking on a link, leans on the ubiquity of smartphones, seeks to manipulate human nature, and works around an increasingly common defensive measure. A campaign that relied on the technique gathered steam this summer and targeted more than 130 companies, according to a report from cyberfirm Group-IB last month. The attackers compromised nearly 10,000 user credentials.
/jlne.ws/3CjDvPZ
22 notable government cybersecurity initiatives in 2022
Michael Hill - CSO Online
Cybersecurity continues to be high on the agenda of governments across the globe, with both national and local levels increasingly working to counter cybersecurity threats. Much like last year, 2022 has seen significant, government-led initiatives launched to help to address diverse security issues. Here are 22 notable cybersecurity initiatives introduced around the world in 2022.
/jlne.ws/3dPnKa0
Public-private cybersecurity partnerships are good for business
Kevin Orr - Security Magazine
Discussions of the national cybersecurity ecosystem — that is, the combination of government and commercial stakeholders who secure U.S. public infrastructure and private enterprise — often center on national security. And, of course, public-private partnerships are vital for that very reason. Sometimes forgotten in the conversation, however, are the positive business impacts such partnerships can have for individual enterprise organizations themselves.
/jlne.ws/3fsmWZ8
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | Bernstein Says Polygon Blockchain Is Bringing Crypto to Consumers
Will Canny - CoinDesk
The success of the Polygon blockchain in bringing scalability to Ethereum shows that developers have to reach out to mainstream consumers and not operate solely within the "crypto cult," Bernstein said in a research report Wednesday. Polygon has a large user base of about 170 million addresses, of which some 300,000 are classed as active, Bernstein said. It's growing at a pace of 80,000 new users a day.
/jlne.ws/3fwGR9z
Bitcoin Could 'Double in Price' Under CFTC Regulation, Chairman Behnam Says
Cheyenne Ligon - CoinDesk
Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Rostin Behnam said Wednesday that CFTC-led regulation could have significant benefits for the crypto industry, including a potential boost to the price of bitcoin. "Growth might occur if we have a well-regulated space," Behnam told attendees during a fireside chat at NYU School of Law. "Bitcoin might double in price if there's a CFTC-regulated market."
/jlne.ws/3fng27r
Surging Bitcoin-Sterling Trading Volume Points to Hedging Demand for Crypto, or Does It?
Omkar Godbole - CoinDesk
The bitcoin-British pound (BTC/GBP) pair listed on major cryptocurrency exchanges, including Bitstamp and Bitfinex, is more active than ever. Analysts, however, are divided on whether the surge stems from investors switching to the largest cryptocurrency to protect against the sterling slide or from traders looking to profit from the volatility.
/jlne.ws/3fuCOKA
Crypto Custody Firm Anchorage Digital to Be Preferred Custodian for Layer 1 Blockchain Aptos Labs
Margaux Nijkerk - CoinDesk
Cryptocurrency custody firm Anchorage Digital is set to become a preferred institutional custodian for Aptos Labs at their mainnet launch, the firm announced Tuesday. Anchorage, the first federally chartered crypto bank in the U.S., will support the layer 1 blockchain by allowing institutions to build on Aptos, including via non-fungible tokens (NFT), decentralized finance (DeFi) and social media as well as other Web3 projects.
/jlne.ws/3y2qUOv
Ex-Deutsche Bank FX Chief Shuts Hedge Fund to Join ExodusPoint; Ahmet Arinc is liquidating his $500 million macro hedge fund; His team will join the multi-strategy firm in a growing trend
Nishant Kumar - Bloomberg
Ahmet Arinc, the former head of foreign exchange trading at Deutsche Bank AG, is shutting down his hedge fund after four years to join bigger rival ExodusPoint Capital Management with his team. Arinc, who started Cirera Capital in London with colleague Tijen Gumusdis, is liquidating the emerging-markets-focused macro hedge fund, according to an investor document seen by Bloomberg. The duo managed about $500 million, having grown their capital from just $17 million at the fund's start.
/jlne.ws/3fulrtB
Incoming Kraken CEO on M&A Opportunities
CoinDesk
Responding to whether crypto exchange Kraken has its sights set on potential acquisitions, incoming CEO Dave Ripley says "we do." Ripley also shares his insights into the company's future growth plans and possible M&A opportunities.
/jlne.ws/3dTtC26
Genesis's Co-Head of Crypto Sales, Trading Leaves in Latest Exit; Ballensweig's departure comes after CEO transition, 20% layoff; Crypto brokerage was exposed to bad debt of Three Arrows
Yueqi Yang - Bloomberg
Four senior executives at crypto brokerage Genesis have departed, as part of a leadership shuffle in the aftermath of its exposure to bankrupt hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and a broad market downturn. Matt Ballensweig, co-head of sales and trading, said on Twitter he's leaving the company after more than five years. Michael Paleokrassas, managing director of trading, and Reed Werbitt, head of cash trading, have also departed, according to a person close to the matter. Joshua Lim, head of derivatives at Genesis, said earlier that he had also left.
/jlne.ws/3LVirlZ
NFT trading volume slumps since beginning of 2022
Anushree Dave - MarketWatch
Nonfungible token trading volume has declined approximately 97% since the start of 2022, according to data from Dune Analytics, a crypto analytics data company. The charts show a drop from $17 billion in January to $466 million in September. The analysis includes data from popular trading platforms like OpenSea, LarvaLabs, LooksRare, NFTX, Rarible, and Foundation. This decline is in line with news from the summer, when NFT projects saw a drop in floor price and OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace, saw sales volume slump by 75%. Interestingly, while the number of trades decreased, the number of traders remained roughly the same, with only a slight drop of about 5% this month, according to DappRadar.
/jlne.ws/3fw2oPH
Geniuses Selling NFTs That Just Happen to Come With Free Weed
Maggie Harrison - The Byte
There's truly nothing that feels more 2022 than purchasing a $75 NFT and — as an oh-so-incidental gift at purchase — receiving a nice lil' baggie of weed. Which, per Curbed, you can apparently do now at an unnamed gallery on New York City's Rivington Street. Don't hate the player, hate the game. If anything, this is a unique way of tying a digital asset to a physical one. You could do worse — plenty of people pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for a digital image of a bored ape and don't also get weed, or anything besides clout. Some of those Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) buyers are also Jimmy Fallon specifically, which is just insult to injury. Getting stoned and also not being Jimmy Fallon? Put that way, this is an absolute steal. Run, don't walk.
/jlne.ws/3SFEUFP
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | John Kerry Woos Wall Street in Bid to Bolster US Climate Finance; Governments must derisk clean-energy investments, he says; Rich nations fall short of $100 billion annual climate pledge
Jennifer A Dlouhy - Bloomberg
The top US climate diplomat is courting Wall Street in a bid to drive billions of dollars into clean energy initiatives around the globe amid lingering frustration wealthy nations have failed to provide a promised $100 billion in green finance for poor countries. John Kerry, the special presidential envoy for climate change, told Bloomberg Television in an interview Wednesday that he is "working on a new approach to try to attract major capital to this task." Although banks and asset managers representing some $130 trillion of assets have pledged to meet Paris Agreement climate targets, too much of that capital is still sitting on the sidelines, Kerry suggested.
/jlne.ws/3SBBe7W
Big Government Is Back With Massive State Interventions; Around the world, politicians are trying to bolster economies with moves not seen in decades—nationalization among them.
Alan Crawford - Bloomberg
Germany's government made an extravagant promise as it announced its second multibillion-euro nationalization of an energy company in a week. Speaking in Berlin on Sept. 21, Economy Minister Robert Habeck pledged that "the state will do everything" to minimize disruptions in natural gas supplies.
/jlne.ws/3RilXrD
How the EU got its mojo back; Boris Johnson accidentally saved the European Union. Now it looks stronger than ever
Simon Kuper - Financial Times
There's a lot wrong with the EU. In Brussels' ghastly postmodernist European quarter, with its rampant sick-building syndrome, bureaucrats today can reappear tomorrow morning working for private law firms. Europe faces an escalating war, a cost of living crisis, probable recession and, in Italy, the first ever far-right government of a big member state. Then there's Vladimir Putin's nuclear threat: to argue that he wouldn't do something so self-defeating seems to overlook how we got here. The EU might also lose its American protector if Donald Trump or similar returns to power in 2024.
/jlne.ws/3UM9G1D
The UK Cannot Afford to Look This Ridiculous; The Bank of England may have saved gilts, but scorn and political danger for Truss and Kwarteng still have a long way to run — and could cut their careers short.
John Authers - Bloomberg
Who Looks Ridiculous Now?
Adam Ant once sang that "ridicule is nothing to be scared of." He was wrong. For a politician, all kinds of crises can be survived. Ridicule cannot. Once you've looked truly ridiculous on the public stage, you're done for.
/jlne.ws/3DZBb1X
Trussonomics Mess Has Even France Fearing Contagion; This is a self-inflicted crisis at heart, but the scale of the turmoil also makes London look like a canary in the coal mine.
Lionel Laurent - Bloomberg
The French are worried about the UK. Not because of any competitive threat from an unshackled post-Brexit economy that's tearing up European Union rules like a cap on banker bonuses. But because of the contagion risks of a budget plan so reckless it triggered a market selloff and a scramble by the Bank of England to intervene.
/jlne.ws/3rdi0Kt
Is It Too Late for Truss to Repair the Damage? The UK's new prime minister wanted to make a fresh start for the country's economy — and then hit the ground face first.
Clive Crook - Bloomberg
First impressions count, especially when it comes to economic policy. UK Prime Minister Liz Truss and Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarteng last week announced a fresh start for the country with a big shift in fiscal policy — and hit the ground face first. Their plan has crashed the pound, wrecked the government bond market, and destroyed the Bank of England's efforts to tighten monetary policy. After such a disastrous start, repairing the damage might be beyond them.
/jlne.ws/3y5Rl5Z
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | Brazil's Securities Regulator Probes Crypto Exchange Mercado Bitcoin on Token Issuance
Paulo Alves - CoinDesk
The Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) requested that crypto exchange Mercado Bitcoin provide it with information on fixed-income tokens the exchange has issued over the past two years. The CVM wants to know the amount Mercado Bitcoin raised with the tokens and see a list of investors who participated. Mercado Bitcoin said in a statement that it didn't release "public offerings of securities outside the scope of the authorizations we hold as an authorized crowdfunding platform and investment manager."
/jlne.ws/3BVblJz
California Regulator Targets 11 Crypto Trading Desks Operating Like 'Ponzis'
CoinDesk
The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) filed cease-and-desist orders against 11 little-known crypto firms Tuesday, alleging they were misappropriating customer funds or violating state securities laws. "The Hash" discusses the latest in crypto regulation.
/jlne.ws/3BQMKWt
India ED freezes US$1.57 mln in crypto allegedly laundered through WazirX, Binance
Pradipta Mukherjee - CoinDesk
India's financial crime fighting agency has frozen over US$1.5 million in cryptocurrencies as part of a money laundering investigation against mobile gaming application E-nuggets, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Wednesday.
/jlne.ws/3E3jiPO
Bank of Ireland Hit with Record Fine Over Tracker Mortgages Irish lender to pay EUR100.5 million, Central Bank says; Overcharging scandal has embroiled Irish banking for years
Morwenna Coniam - Bloomberg
Ireland's Central Bank fined Bank of Ireland Plc a record EUR100.5 million ($97 million) for its role in a mortgage overcharging scandal, the final chapter in a years-long saga that has seen penalties issued across the country's banking sector.
/jlne.ws/3Sy2BQu
Opening Statement of Commissioner Caroline D. Pham before the Market Risk Advisory Committee
CFTC
Good morning. It is a pleasure to join you at today's MRAC meeting. I would like to express my appreciation for Commissioner Johnson's sponsorship of the MRAC and the hard work of Bruce Fekrat, the MRAC Designated Federal Officer. I would also like to thank the MRAC members for generously serving on the MRAC and sharing your experience and expertise with us on these important issues.
/jlne.ws/3ULVSUU
CFTC Takes Aim at DAO Members in bZeroX Settlement
William E. Walsh, Elizabeth Lan Davis, Maggie Sklar and Harris L. Kay - Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
The CFTC's recent announcement of its settlement with a decentralized crypto protocol operator and its two individual founders, together with its complaint against the successor protocol, reflects a novel approach to liability in enforcement efforts in digital assets markets. The CFTC's order raises liability concerns for anyone holding or trading tokens representing membership in a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) or founding a DAO. This includes tokens outside of those cryptocurrencies currently considered commodities or non-security tokens (e.g., Bitcoin) by the CFTC and SEC.
/jlne.ws/3rmK3XD
CFTC Served Ooki DAO Papers via Online Discussion Forum
CoinDesk (Video)
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) used an online discussion forum to serve a lawsuit against members of Ooki DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that operates a protocol offering allegedly illegal, off-exchange tokenized margin trading and lending services. CoinDesk Global Policy & Regulation Managing Editor Nikhilesh De discusses the details.
/jlne.ws/3E4Im90
Report From FINRA Board of Governors Meeting - September 2022
FINRA
FINRA's Board of Governors held its fourth meeting of the year—the first with Eric Noll as Chair—on Sept. 21-22 in New York. The Board approved two rulemaking items and continued its engagement with key stakeholders by hosting officials from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The FINRA Board often hosts SEC officials and various stakeholders during a portion of its meetings. During the September meeting, the Board was joined by three SEC senior leaders—Richard Best, Director, Division of Examinations; Joy Thompson, Acting Deputy Director of the Division of Examinations and Associate Regional Director of the SEC's Philadelphia Regional Office; and Kevin Goodman, Associate Director, FINRA and Securities Industry Oversight Examination Program—to discuss the work undertaken by FINRA and SEC staff to coordinate their respective examination activities and efforts to enhance investor protection. This was the first such meeting for Best and Thompson; the FINRA Board last hosted Goodman in September 2019.
/jlne.ws/3dW91tR
SEC Charges The Hydrogen Technology Corp. and its Former CEO for Market Manipulation of Crypto Asset Securities
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against The Hydrogen Technology Corporation, its former CEO, Michael Ross Kane, and Tyler Ostern, the CEO of Moonwalkers Trading Limited, a self-described "market making" firm, for their roles in effectuating the unregistered offers and sales of crypto asset securities called "Hydro" and for perpetrating a scheme to manipulate the trading volume and price of those securities, which yielded more than $2 million for Hydrogen.
/jlne.ws/3SlPp1i
SEC Obtains Injunction, Industry Bar and Penny Stock Bar Against Unregistered Broker Engaged in Fraudulent Scheme
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that on August 24, 2022, the Honorable Hala Y. Jarbou, Chief United States District Judge for the Western District of Michigan, entered a final judgment against defendant Joshua Rupp. The final judgment permanently enjoins Rupp from violating the antifraud and broker registration provisions of the securities laws and orders him to pay disgorgement and prejudgment interest.
/jlne.ws/3RqNBCS
SEC Charges Fourth Participant in Market Manipulation Scheme
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced charges against Charles Parrino for his role in a market manipulation scheme in which he and several other individuals created false rumors about public companies in order to profitably trade around the temporary price increases caused by the publication of the rumors. The SEC previously charged Barton Ross, Mark Melnick, and Anthony Salandra for their roles in this scheme.
/jlne.ws/3SAq1ow
SEC Charges Four Individuals in Microcap Fraud Scheme Targeting Retail Investors
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged four individuals with running microcap fraud schemes targeting retail investors. The defendants were variously involved in different parts of fraudulent schemes involving three separate publicly-traded companies that generated $9.1 million in illicit stock sale proceeds.
/jlne.ws/3SJeVgG
SEC Obtains Final Judgment against IIG Co-Founder for Engaging in Fraud
SEC
On September 22, 2022, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York entered a final consent judgment against David Hu, the co-founder and chief investment officer of International Investment Group (IIG), a formerly registered investment adviser, enjoining Hu from violating the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws.
/jlne.ws/3Ckagg4
SEC Charges Issuer for Conducting Fraudulent and Unregistered Securities Offerings
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against California-based Pebblekick, Inc. and its founder and former CEO, Donald Shiroishi, for allegedly defrauding investors in unregistered offerings of securities.
/jlne.ws/3LTkOWH
SEC Obtains Judgments and Bar Against Former Hedge Fund CEO Related to Hedge Fund Valuation Scheme
SEC
On September 20, 2022, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York entered a final judgment against New York-based investment adviser Premium Point Investments LP and Premium Point's CEO and chief investment officer, Anilesh Ahuja, relating to the inflation of the value of private funds they advised by hundreds of millions of dollars.
/jlne.ws/3Sokcuu
SEC Charges Former Florida Investment Adviser with Misappropriating Millions from Advisory Clients and Former Alabama Adviser with Breaching Fiduciary Duties
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Jared Eakes, who is believed to reside in Jacksonville, Florida, with misappropriating over $2 million from his clients at GraySail Advisors, LLC ("GraySail"), a now defunct Florida-based investment adviser created and controlled by Eakes. The SEC also charged James Blake Daughtry of Dothan, Alabama, for breaching his fiduciary duties to his clients when selling his advisory business to Eakes and moving his clients' accounts to GraySail.
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Financial watchdog warns insurers to protect customers' wellbeing during cost of living squeeze
FCA
The government has announced further support for consumers and businesses for energy costs and in the September fiscal event, including a two-year energy-price guarantee for households. While this will help tackle the pressure on household budgets, some people may still consider cutting back on insurance cover. The FCA is taking action to support households, by writing to insurance industry CEOs to make sure their customers are protected from unnecessary products or add-ons and unfair penalties. Where poor practise is found, the FCA will quickly intervene to protect customers from harm.
/jlne.ws/3rhbz93
What firms and customers can expect from the consumer duty and other regulatory reforms
FCA
I remember the day I opened my first bank account. I was 6 or 7 years old, visiting my local branch with my grandmother. I was given a calculator, ruler, notepad and pencil. I used the notepad to record how much of my pocket money I loaned to my uncle and, of course, the interest I would charge him! I remain faithful to that bank to this day, even though I have used other banks for other products and services.
/jlne.ws/3LTmBLp
FCA announces decision on cessation of 1- and 6-month synthetic sterling LIBOR at end-March 2023
FCA
We previously required ICE Benchmark Administration (IBA), the administrator of LIBOR, to continue publication of the 1-, 3- and 6-month sterling and yen LIBOR settings for an additional year after end-2021, using a synthetic methodology. This was to help mitigate the risk of widespread disruption to legacy LIBOR contracts which had not transitioned by end-2021, when the sterling and yen LIBOR panels ended.
/jlne.ws/3dWbCnB
ASIC sues Nuix and its board for continuous disclosure and directors' duties breaches
ASIC
ASIC has commenced proceedings in the Federal Court against Nuix Limited (ASX:NXL) for alleged continuous disclosure breaches and misleading or deceptive conduct. ASIC has also brought proceedings against members of the Nuix board for breaches of their directors' duties. ASIC alleges that Nuix made misleading or deceptive statements when reaffirming its Prospectus financial year 2021 forecasts for statutory revenue and for annualised contract value (ACV) in announcements to the ASX on 26 February 2021 and 8 March 2021.
/jlne.ws/3rirDY6
ASIC's conflicted remuneration proceedings against Commonwealth Bank and Colonial First State dismissed
ASIC
The Federal Court has dismissed proceedings brought by ASIC alleging breaches of conflicted remuneration laws, finding Colonial First State Investments Limited (Colonial) did not breach the law when it agreed to pay the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) to distribute Essential Super. The arrangements between Colonial and CBA regarding the distribution of Essential Super was the subject of a case study by the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry. The conduct was referred to ASIC in the Final Report (Volume 2 - Part 2, p.99).
/jlne.ws/3dUmen8
FMA inaugural review of 'stepping-stone' market Catalist released
Financial Markets Authority
The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) - Te Mana Tatai Hokohoko has found Catalist Markets Limited complied with its market operator obligations since launching in mid-2021. The FMA today published findings from its inaugural annual review of how well Catalist is meeting its licensed market operator obligations, covering 21 June 2021 to 31 March 2022. The review noted Catalist had suitable governance arrangements, technological capability and processes and policies.
/jlne.ws/3DZEE0t
Court dismisses challenge to SFC's power of issuing restriction notices
Securities & Futures Commission of Hong Kong
The Court of First Instance has dismissed a judicial review application against the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) relating to restriction notices issued in an ongoing investigation into a suspected "ramp-and-dump" scheme (Notes 1 & 2). The judicial review application, brought by Mr Tam Sze Leung, Ms Kong Chan and Ms Lee Ka Lo, sought to challenge the restriction notices issued on 15 March 2021 by the SFC under sections 204(1)(a) and 205(1) of the Securities and Futures Ordinance (SFO) to freeze their assets in various trading accounts held with certain licensed corporations. They contended that sections 204(1)(a) and 205(1) exercised on the basis of section 207(e) of the SFO was, amongst other things, not prescribed by law and a disproportionate interference with their property rights and was therefore unconstitutional.
/jlne.ws/3Sn9Lr9
SFAT affirms SFC decision to suspend hedge fund manager Christopher James Aarons
Securities & Futures Commission of Hong Kong
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has suspended Mr Christopher James Aarons, responsible officer (RO) and chief executive officer of Trafalgar Capital Management (HK) Ltd. (Trafalgar), for two years from 27 September 2022 to 26 September 2024 after the Securities and Futures Appeals Tribunal (SFAT) upheld the SFC's disciplinary action against him for breaches of the SFC's Code of Conduct (Notes 1 & 2). The SFC's disciplinary action followed administrative proceedings against Aarons in South Korea. The Korean regulatory authorities found that Aarons had breached Korean legislation by dealing in the shares of a securities company listed on the Korea Exchange (KRX) based on material non-public information in circumstances that prohibited such dealing.
/jlne.ws/3SESsBw
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Robinhood's Crypto Push Picks Up With 'DeFi' Wallet and No Network-Fee Trading
Jack Denton - Barron's
Brokerage and trading platform Robinhood Markets is accelerating its push into digital assets with a new wallet that allows customers to engage in the world of decentralized finance, or DeFi, and trade cryptocurrencies without network fees. Robinhood (ticker: HOOD) said Tuesday that it was rolling out its Robinhood Wallet in a beta stage to the first 10,000 customers on its waitlist of more than one million. The so-called self-custody wallet will allow users to store their digital assets themselves, in addition to trading crypto and engaging in DeFi and other "Web3" applications.
/jlne.ws/3Rn9aV9
Peak Oil Has Finally Arrived. No, Really; Those who have called a top in oil may finally be proven right as sharp global rate hikes hurt consumption.
David Fickling - Bloomberg
I've rarely felt more trepidation about writing a column than this one. But here goes: After more than a century of almost continual growth, the world's appetite for oil is peaking, and will soon enter terminal decline. That's hard to write, because those who've called a top in oil have a forecasting record on a par with film producer Harry Warner's skepticism that people in the 1920s wanted to see talking pictures. As far back as 1919, the chief geologist of the US Geological Survey wrote that domestic output — then running at about 960,000 barrels a day, about 6% of levels nowadays — would start falling within two to five years.
/jlne.ws/3BTfM7U
Liquidity Dash Spurs Biggest Spike in ETF Trading Since 2018; ETF volumes surged relative to overall stock activity Tuesday; Such increases can preceed a rebound, RBC's Silverman says
Katherine Greifeld - Bloomberg
Trading of Wall Street's most-liquid tools is surging as investors look to navigate the latest wave of volatility across assets. Exchange-traded fund volumes in the US soared to 29% of total equity transactions on Tuesday, the highest proportion since December 2018, according to data from Susquehanna International Group. The spike came as the S&P 500 fell to a fresh bear-market low and the Cboe Volatility Index rose to its highest level in three months.
/jlne.ws/3BTmQRT
Citadel's Griffin Says Economy Has 'Powerful Tailwind'; The manager cited a strong labor market, consumer confidence; The firm's main hedge fund had gained about 21% through July
Hema Parmar and Amelia Pollard - Bloomberg
Citadel's billionaire founder, Ken Griffin, said the US equity market is showing resilience thanks to a healthy labor market and strong consumer confidence. Speaking on Wednesday at the CNBC Delivering Alpha conference in New York, Griffin said Citadel is "very focused on the possibility of a recession," but he struck a less bearish tone than fellow speakers such as Duquesne Family Office founder Stan Druckenmiller, who predicted that one will happen next year.
/jlne.ws/3Ckj8SA
Ex-Deutsche Bank FX Chief Shuts Hedge Fund to Join ExodusPoint; Ahmet Arinc is liquidating his $500 million macro hedge fund; His team will join the multi-strategy firm in a growing trend
Nishant Kumar - Bloomberg
Ahmet Arinc, the former head of foreign exchange trading at Deutsche Bank AG, is shutting down his hedge fund after four years to join bigger rival ExodusPoint Capital Management with his team. Arinc, who started Cirera Capital in London with colleague Tijen Gumusdis, is liquidating the emerging-markets-focused macro hedge fund, according to an investor document seen by Bloomberg. The duo managed about $500 million, having grown their capital from just $17 million at the fund's start.
/jlne.ws/3rhDBBg
A Long-Shot Option Trade From the Show 'Industry' Would Have Paid off Wednesday When the 10-Year Treasury Yield Topped 4%
Joseph Adinolfi and Weston Blasi - Barron's
Plenty of bond-market bears could claim vindication on Wednesday when the 10-year Treasury yield briefly topped 4% for the first in more than a decade. But denizens of "finance Twitter" were quick to point out that a fictional option trade by one of the main characters from the television series "Industry" would have gone "in the money" (trader parlance meaning the option could be exercised for a profit) thanks to the bond-market milestone.
/jlne.ws/3RhzorP
How to Diversify Your Portfolio With Alternative Investments
Lewis Braham - Barron's
With public markets down in 2022, investors' interest in alternative investments, or alts, such as hedge funds and private equity, has spiked. Alts can perform in an uncorrelated fashion from stocks and bonds, offering diversification and the potential to inject positive performance into a plain-vanilla portfolio during times of market strain. Simple 60% stock/40% bond portfolios have suffered a brutal pummeling in 2022, as evidenced by the 20% year-to-date decline of the Vanguard Balanced Index VBAIX +1.85% fund (ticker: VBIAX), which tracks a 60/40 composite index of the stock and bond markets.
/jlne.ws/3RmkJvF
A Roth IRA for a kid? Yes, you can turn babysitting money into a retirement windfall
Jessica Hall - MarketWatch
Retirement can be a difficult concept for many adults to understand, let alone children. But starting young can help build returns and teach discipline for a lifetime of savings and investing. When kids ages 8 to 14 were asked what they would save $100 for, only 5% said they'd save it for retirement, according to a 2022 T. Rowe Price survey. That compared with 79% saying they'd save it for something they want to do or buy later, and 26% who chose saving for college. One way to help kids start early in retirement savings and learning about investing is to open a custodial Roth Individual Retirement Account for a child.
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Active fund strategies bear brunt of outflows in Europe; Passively managed inflows have masked the extent of damage to the industry as a whole
Anna Devine - Financial Times
Active asset managers are bearing the brunt of negative sentiment with outflows from open-ended funds surpassing EUR150bn in the year to the end of August, while passively managed inflows have helped mask the extent of the damage.
/jlne.ws/3y2AWPO
BlackRock executive defends pensions strategy that fuelled UK crisis; Liability-driven investing hit by 'turbulence' from policymakers, says corporate strategy chief
Harriet Agnew and Brooke Masters - Financial Times
A top BlackRock executive defended an investing strategy that has plunged UK pension funds into crisis, blaming "turbulence induced by policy decisions" for the disruption. Mark Wiedman, head of international and corporate strategy at BlackRock, said so-called liability-driven investing was going though "adolescent pains" after the UK mini-Budget last week.
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | In the ocean's twilight zone, a fish that could feed the world - or destroy it; Lanternfish, the Earth's most abundant vertebrates, may be the ultimate food source. But will catching them ruin the climate?
Helen Scales - The Guardian
In 1789, the explorers Alessandro Malaspina and José de Bustamante set sail from Cádiz on Spain's first scientific expedition around the world. For five years, Malaspina and Bustamante studied and collected animals and plants across the Spanish empire, which stretched along the North, Central and South American Pacific coasts, and westwards to the Philippines. In 2010, another Spanish expedition set off from Cádiz, tracing much of the original route and studying what the oceans are like today. The team measured pollutants, plastics and chemicals that were not there in Malaspina and Bustamante's time. They collected samples of seawater and plankton. And all the way through the 31,000-mile voyage, the ship's sonar was switched on, listening for echoes from below. Their chief targets? Small silver fish that look like sardines or anchovies - only with bigger eyes and rows of spots that glow in the dark.
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Demystifying the Carbon Markets Episode 3
David Greely - Smarter Markets
The net-zero commitments made by corporations and large institutions are foundational to the development of the voluntary carbon markets. Professor Cameron Hepburn, Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford, joins us to discuss the role of the voluntary carbon markets, what they need to succeed, and how to get net-zero right.
/jlne.ws/3ClgwUw
Hurricane Ian Is a Climate Disaster for the History Books; Ian is the type of storm experts have long warned could strike western Florida. And its destruction is nowhere close to done.
Zahra Hirji - Bloomberg
After rapidly intensifying over warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Ian slammed into southwestern Florida yesterday as a massive Category 4 storm with winds of up to 155 miles (250 kilometers) per hour. That means it's one of the strongest storms to ever make landfall in the state as well as in the whole US. As of Thursday morning, more than 2 million people were without power across the state. Videos and pictures circulating on Twitter showed water surging past beach-front properties into neighboring streets in Fort Myers, Bonita Springs, and Sanibel Island. Cars and even homes were sighted floating in flood waters, while power lines and trees were downed, according to early reports. Before reaching the US, the storm knocked out Cuba's power grid.
/jlne.ws/3Ebjuwa
The first climate lawsuit against Russia may have huge implications across the world; Russia, the climate crisis, and the energy transition have been a constant presence in the European press for weeks now.
Catherine Higham - The House
But these issues made headlines recently for a different reason: a group of Russian climate activists and NGOs filed a constitutional climate case challenging Russia's climate strategy, on the basis that it is insufficiently ambitious to protect their human rights. This case is the first in Russia, one of the world's top ten global emitters. But it is also part of an important pattern in global climate litigation. More than 70 per cent of climate cases around the world are filed against governments, some seek to advance and others seek to delay climate action. Early examples of such litigation typically included planning and permitting challenges, looking at whether government officials have considered the climate impact of a particular project or policy when approving or denying it. But in the years immediately before the Paris Agreement was negotiated in 2015, a new type of climate case against governments started to emerge.
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How the climate crisis is driving stronger storms further inland; Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Fiona dumped great amounts of water across larger stretches of land - global heating is to blame
Nina Lakhani - The Guardian
"It's all about the water," warned meteorologists as Hurricane Fiona battered Puerto Rico last week and as category 4 Hurricane Ian edged closer and eventually hit Florida on Wednesday. The water refers to the rainfall and storm surge - both of which are becoming more intense and destructive thanks to global heating, changing the pattern of hurricanes across the world. Hurricane Fiona dumped more than 31in of rain over 72 hours across parts of Puerto Rico causing widespread flooding and landslides. In Florida, torrential rain from Hurricane Ian is expected to stretch across large parts of the state and into Georgia and the Carolinas, and the National Hurricane Center predicted as much as 18 ft of water - that's 5.5 meters - above ground level, with the capacity of flooding neighbourhoods far inland.
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The World Can't Tackle the Climate Crisis Without New Technologies; Green technologies must become cheap enough for every country to use them, says Bill Gates.
Akshat Rathi and Oscar Boyd - Bloomberg Green, podcast Zero.
With a possible recession looming, Bill Gates is preparing to raise a new fund for Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) to back innovative climate startups, on the heels of two billion-dollar funds that have together helped finance roughly 100 companies. "Even as the ebullience in investing in tech and climate companies is down a bit, I still think we'll be able to raise the money," Gates said on the latest episode of Bloomberg Green's podcast, Zero. "It's not quite as easy as it was, say six months ago, but we're looking at a new round for the startups and a pool under Breakthrough Energy Management that does later-stage investing."
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ESG and Sustainability will Continue to Gather Momentum and Attract Billions of Dollars in Investments
Andrea Zanon - Benzinga Contributor
Momentum is building around ESG. Policy makers, asset managers and business are now more willing to integrate ESG and sustainability thinking in their investment strategies. Furthermore, President Biden has successfully approved a half a trillion Climate Bill creating positive momentum on ESG actions and climate risk reduction. What are the main challenges in ESG investing? Among the top challenges for a ESG broader adoption by companies and capital markets, is that top leadership are not yet fully behind ESG investments. Only 28 % of Fortune 500 companies have fully adopted ESG strategies (PWC 2021). Part of the problem is that larger corporation are still struggling quantifying potential ROI as well as balancing ESG with the company strategy and growth targets. Furthermore, in order for capital markets to price ESG risks and opportunities effectively, standardized data and measurements are needed.
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Brookfield Buys U.S. Renewable Developers for $1.5 Billion; Deals for Scout Clean Energy and Standard Solar add to flood of cash into renewables despite market volatility
Amrith Ramkumar - The Wall Street Journal
One of the world's biggest clean-energy investors is buying a pair of U.S. renewable developers for $1.5 billion, in bets that add to the money flooding into projects despite this year's market volatility. Brookfield Asset Management Inc.'s renewable-power unit is acquiring wind and solar firm Scout Clean Energy LLC for $1 billion and Standard Solar Inc. for $530 million, company officials said. Brookfield could invest over $500 million more across the two companies to help them grow faster, it said.
/jlne.ws/3Cj4c7i
Top Polluters Fail to Tie CEO Pay to Carbon-Cutting Goals; A new report card gives most companies Ds and Fs for their efforts to tie compensation to emissions reductions, citing weak incentives and vague metrics.
Daniela Sirtori-Cortina - Bloomberg
Corporate America's top emitters are failing to effectively link greenhouse gas reduction targets to CEO pay, a report by a shareholder advocacy group found. As You Sow analyzed the 2021 chief executive officer compensation packages of 47 US companies included in the Climate Action 100+ initiative, an investor-led program to ensure the world's largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters curb their footprints. It found that many firms didn't tie CEO pay to climate metrics, and when they did, it's wasn't to a level that would prompt bosses to meaningfully reduce emissions.
/jlne.ws/3SFXKge
US Redoubles Efforts to End Dependence on Russian Nuclear Fuel; Energy Secretary predicts bipartisan Congressional support; Granholm says uranium fuel cycle needed for independence
Jonathan Tirone - Bloomberg
The Biden administration's top energy official said the US will redouble its efforts to break free from its reliance on Russian nuclear fuel. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said the White House is prioritizing development of domestic uranium-enrichment capacity and predicted key legislators will fall in line, so that a fuel-manufacturing plan can be in train by 2025.
/jlne.ws/3Rhtebr
Coal Miners Consider Bids for South African Renewables Firm; BTE Renewables may draw offer of as much as 800 million rand; Miners of dirtiest fossil fuel have been adding renewables
Loni Prinsloo and Paul Burkhardt - Bloomberg
Exxaro Resources Ltd. and Thungela Resources Ltd., South Africa's two largest coal miners, are considering bids for Actis LLP's BTE Renewables, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Chinese firms are also interested in acquiring the assets, said the people who asked not to be identified as the information is private. Actis is seeking about $800 million for the company, the people said.
/jlne.ws/3LUku9X
India Plans Debut Green Bonds to Raise $2 Billion by March; Government will provide details on the planned issuance later; Nation's firms have issued more than $26 billion of green debt
Ronojoy Mazumdar - Bloomberg
India plans to issue 160 billion rupees ($2 billion) of sovereign green bonds in the fiscal year ending March, as it seeks cheaper funding to meet renewable energy targets. The government will provide details of the planned green debt issuance for the year later, according to a statement from the nation's finance ministry on the second half borrowing plan released on Thursday.
/jlne.ws/3BUAwMD
ESG as an asset: Private equity considerations from the SEC's climate proposal
Tania Carnegie, Elizabeth Ming, Jeffrey M. Rojek - KPMG
Investment in environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors is a top priority for private equity, and it has been for quite some time. Thanks to the increasing belief that strong ESG scores command a higher premium,[1] ESG has rapidly transformed from a nice-to-have differentiator into an integral component of each stage of the investment life cycle, from the growing mandate for investment in ESG to asset owners' calls for general partners (GPs) to apply an ESG lens to all potential investments. This change has also shifted the lens through which new investment strategies are underwritten. In fact, 72% of large private equity firms with annual revenues of $50 million to $1 billion have incorporated ESG strategies into their portfolio of asset classes.[2]
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | The British Pound Is Caught in a Doom Loop; The Bank of England had to abandon inflation-fighting to rescue the bond market, which will make it have to fight inflation even harder.
Mark Gongloff - Bloomberg
For years, the heavyweight champion of Central Bank Clownery has been the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey. It operates at the whim of strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has this novel economic theory that slashing interest rates fights inflation. It's a bold strategy, Cotton. It's not paying off for them. The bank slashed rates last week with inflation running at 80%. That's eight-zero percent.
/jlne.ws/3rhD8Pw
Bankers Shouldn't Be Sliding Into Each Other's DMs; Wall Street faces more than $2 billion in fines for failing to monitor messages on services such as WhatsApp. Sometimes the industry is its own worst enemy.
Paul J. Davies - Bloomberg
When Gary Gensler, chair of the US Securities and Exchanges Commission, handed out huge fines to Wall Street dealers for failing to record WhatsApp and other messages on Tuesday, he admonished them solemnly: "Finance, ultimately, depends on trust," he said. Except, well, it really doesn't — and hasn't for a long time. This is why every aspect of what brokers and traders do each day across the financial world is regulated within an inch of its life. It's also why all communication about business between traders, bankers, investors and executives has to be recorded and kept for years.
/jlne.ws/3BT44tV
Gilt Market Carnage Prompts Risky Bank of England U-Turn; Traders may demand more after central bankers step in to drive down bond yields.
Mark Gilbert - Bloomberg
Life comes at you fast, particularly if you're a central banker trying to keep calm and carry on in these febrile times. Just two days after ignoring calls to intervene in the markets after Friday's government tax giveaway trashed sterling assets, the Bank of England has decided moves in the gilt market have become sufficiently violent to warrant action. It's a capitulation that could backfire badly.
/jlne.ws/3RpZHw2
The Pension Problem That Threatened to Wreck the Gilt Market; The Bank of England intervened in the gilt market on Wednesday; BOE was concerned that margin calls would cause a gilt crash
Loukia Gyftopoulou and Greg Ritchie - Bloomberg
The collapse of the pound and UK government bonds in the wake of Prime Minister Liz Truss's historic tax-cutting plan has exposed vulnerabilities in a usually sleepy corner of finance. Fund managers running billions for pension funds faced collateral calls on strategies meant to give them exposure to long-dated assets to help match obligations that can extend decades. The so-called liability-driven investment, or LDI, funds were forced to post more collateral after receiving margin calls when gilt prices collapsed.
/jlne.ws/3SqUrKa
Ex-Deutsche Bank FX Chief Shuts Hedge Fund to Join ExodusPoint; Ahmet Arinc is liquidating his $500 million macro hedge fund; His team will join the multi-strategy firm in a growing trend
Nishant Kumar - Bloomberg
Ahmet Arinc, the former head of foreign exchange trading at Deutsche Bank AG, is shutting down his hedge fund after four years to join bigger rival ExodusPoint Capital Management with his team. Arinc, who started Cirera Capital in London with colleague Tijen Gumusdis, is liquidating the emerging-markets-focused macro hedge fund, according to an investor document seen by Bloomberg. The duo managed about $500 million, having grown their capital from just $17 million at the fund's start.
/jlne.ws/3fulrtB
ABN Amro May Consider Lower Capital Threshold for Buybacks; Chief Swaak signals he's open to lowering CET1 bar if needed; Investors should expect 'some form of capital return,' he says
Nicholas Comfort, Cagan Koc, and Steven Arons - Bloomberg
ABN Amro Bank NV signaled it may give itself more leeway to repurchase shares as the race between European banks to reward investors with higher payouts heats up. The Dutch lender will consider lowering the capital bar it has set for buybacks if it "becomes constraining," Chief Executive Officer Robert Swaak said. Analysts surveyed by the bank expect its main capital metric to decline close to that threshold at the end of the year, giving the CEO little room for future buybacks as he prepares to update shareholders in coming months.
/jlne.ws/3reV5yf
Next chief says he flagged LDI concerns to Bank of England; Simon Wolfson calls liability-driven investment schemes a 'time bomb waiting to go off'
Jonathan Eley - Financial Times
The head of Next has said the UK retailer warned the Bank of England that an investing strategy that plunged pension funds into crisis was a "time-bomb". "We are not exposed to liability-driven strategies despite multiple sales pitches and we have previously written to the Bank of England outlining our concerns about them," Lord Simon Wolfson, who is a Conservative peer, said on Thursday.
/jlne.ws/3UQ7sya
Investors Put a Price on Credit Suisse's Salvation; The bank's stock is scraping lows before another strategy pivot
Margot Patrick - The Wall Street Journal
Years of scandals and executive turnover have driven shares in the once formidable Credit Suisse CS -4.17%? Group AG to an all-time low. The question is: Can they go even lower? The answer depends on how much capital the bank will need to raise to execute its turnaround plan. For three decades, the Swiss bank tried to combine a swaggering Wall Street investment bank with a leading private banking franchise that manages money for the world's rich. The strategy was profitable for a while, then broke after a series of financial disasters, including a $5.1 billion hit last year from client Archegos Capital Management.
/jlne.ws/3ClWMAw
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | Rise in Covid hospital patients shows 'autumn wave' has begun, expert warns; Number of patients in hospital with Covid jumps 37 per cent in a week
Katy Clifton - The Independent
A health expert has warned the UK is currently experiencing an autumn wave of Covid, as the number of hospital patients testing positive for the virus continues on a clear upwards trend. A total of 7,024 people with coronavirus were in hospital in England as of 8am on 28 September, according to NHS figures. This is up 37 per cent from 5,142 a week earlier and is the highest figure since 19 August. Patient levels topped 14,000 in mid-July at the peak of the wave of infections caused by the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of the virus, after which they started to fall steadily. But this decline came to a halt in mid-September.
/jlne.ws/3UONKTO
Covid might have changed people's personalities, study suggests; Younger adults became more prone to stress and less trusting, say US researchers
Hannah Devlin - The Guardian
The impact of the Covid pandemic may have been so deep that it altered people's personalities, according to research. Previously psychologists have failed to find a link between collective stressful events, such as earthquakes or hurricanes, and personality change. However, something about the losses experienced or simply the long grind of social isolation appears to have made an impact. "Younger adults became moodier and more prone to stress, less cooperative and trusting, and less restrained and responsible," according to the authors of the study, led by Prof Angelina Sutin of Florida State University College of Medicine.
/jlne.ws/3UI9kcB
The 9 Best Vitamins For Strengthening Your Immune System And Warding Off Sickness
Andi Breitowich - Women's Health
Your immune system truly has no days off. Whether you're fighting off a cold or recovering from an infection, it's always kickin' in high gear. But believe it or not, nutrition has a major impact on your immunity and there are some easy (and delicious) ways to keep your immune system in top shape. Enter: vitamins for immune system support. "Nutrients from our diet including vitamins, minerals, and macronutrients like proteins, fats, and carbohydrates, are required for immune cell production and overall immune health," says Stacey Simon, RDN, of Top Nutrition Coaching.
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | China's Big Fund corruption probe casts shadow over chip sector; Investment plummets after Beijing's largesse laid ground for alleged graft and wasteful spending
Edward White and Qianer Liu - Financial Times
The sudden disappearance in July last year of Gao Songtao, the bespectacled former vice-president of government fund manager Sino IC Capital, was a warning of a coming storm. Months later, the Chinese Communist party's internal watchdog confirmed that Gao had been under investigation for corruption. Yet it was not President Xi Jinping's public campaign to eliminate graft from financial markets that was behind the detention.
/jlne.ws/3dMUSzr
Lebanon to re-peg its currency after 25 years; Pound will be slashed in effort to meet IMF's demand that the peg moves closer to the black market value
Raya Jalabi - Financial Times
Lebanon is to re-peg its currency for the first time in 25 years, slashing its value against the dollar, in an effort that will meet the IMF's demand that the peg moves closer to the black market value and help restore confidence in the financial system. Lebanon's currency has been pegged to the US dollar since 1997 at a rate fixed by the central bank of 1,507 Lebanese pounds to the dollar. The new rate of 15,000 to dollar will come into effect on November 1, a statement from the finance ministry said. The rate of the pound on the black market on Wednesday evening was 38,500 pounds to the dollar.
/jlne.ws/3dMzY3n
UK's Paper £20, £50 Notes Expiring — What to Do With Them? How to Exchange Them?; The end of a paper-money era.
Ady Nugroho - Bloomberg
Polymer banknotes will be the only accepted form of payment in the £20 and £50 denominations in most parts of the UK after the Bank of England puts an end to the use of the paper versions. The process to withdraw them from circulation is underway. Here's what you need to know.
/jlne.ws/3rd5YAK
France Wants Traders to Return Millions of Barrels of Diesel Soon
Jack Wittels and Francois De Beaupuy - Bloomberg
France is looking to replenish its stockpiles of diesel in coming months, another move by a European country to shore up supplies as winter approaches. The French government wants companies to replenish fuel inventories that were released around June as part of a globally co-ordinated stock-draw. The idea is to refill during October and November, a person familiar with the matter said, without specifying a volume. A spokeswoman for France's Ministry for Energy Transition confirmed the request.
/jlne.ws/3CjfPLv
BOE Will Sell Off Emergency Gilt Purchases as Soon as Risk Subsides; Ramsden signals that the BOE has no plans to hold the bonds; Rapid sell-off to help distinguish intervention from QE
Philip Aldrick and David Goodman - Bloomberg
Government bonds bought by the Bank of England to stabilize markets over coming days will be sold off as soon as "risks to market functioning are judged to have subsided," Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden said.
/jlne.ws/3CglEJM
'It cannot be the madness that it is today': what's next for Petrobras?; Presidential candidates offer competing visions for Brazil's most valuable listed business in energy transition
Michael Pooler - Financial Times
The last time the left was in power in Brazil, the country's most important company was looted in a multibillion-dollar corruption scam and almost buried under a mountain of debt. After emerging from the scandal and financial turmoil of the previous decade, $76bn oil and gas giant Petróleo Brasileiro is leaner, more profitable — and a cash machine for its owners. As Latin America's largest nation prepares to choose a new president, very different visions are on offer for the state-controlled group better known as Petrobras.
/jlne.ws/3SssEZF
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| Miscellaneous | | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | The Deli Was Allegedly a Fraud; Also illegal texting and DJ D-Sol's golf game.
Matt Levine - Bloomberg
The more I learn about the deli, the less I understand it. The deli is (was) of course Your Hometown Deli, a deli in Paulsboro, New Jersey, that opened in 2015 and closed this August. During most of its seven-year run, Your Hometown Deli was also the only business of a US public company called Hometown International Inc., which means among (many) other things that you can read its financial statements online. It had annual revenue that got as high as $76,213 in 2016 (dollars in dollars) and as low as $13,976 in 2020 ("The Company was forced to temporarily close the delicatessen due to the stay-at-home order issued by the Governor of New Jersey on March 9, 2020, resulting from the outbreak of COVID-19."). It never managed to turn a profit, 1 but to be fair it is hard to pay the expenses of being a public company — securities filings, audited financials, etc. — with five digits of revenue.
/jlne.ws/3E2xI2o
MacKenzie Scott Files for Divorce From Science Teacher Husband; Scott had announced her marriage to Dan Jewett with a joint pledge to give their fortune away.
Sophie Alexander, Nur Dayana Mustak, and Spencer Soper - Bloomberg
MacKenzie Scott, one of the world's richest and most influential philanthropists, filed for divorce from Dan Jewett, a science teacher she married following her 2019 split from Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos. "We ask the court to dissolve our marriage," Scott said in a petition filed at King County Superior Court in Washington State on Monday. The document shows the couple have a contract spelling out how to divide real estate and other personal property. "Spousal support is not needed," it adds.
/jlne.ws/3xZZGIm
Gambler Claims Online Casino BetMGM Glitches Robbed His Winnings, Fueled Addiction; Plaintiff Sam A. Antar sues online casino operator alleging it ignored game flaws and offered money to prevent him from alerting regulators
Katherine Sayre - The Wall Street Journal
A New York man who said he has a gambling addiction has accused online casino operator BetMGM of plying him with free bets to keep him from reporting game glitches to regulators, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday. Sam A. Antar alleged that BetMGM's online blackjack and other games repeatedly disconnected from BetMGM's servers, often while he had favorable hands, which wiped out potential winnings, according to the lawsuit. His winnings at times weren't available to him until he deposited more money into his account, further fueling his compulsive gambling that included more than $29 million in bets in nine months, the lawsuit said.
/jlne.ws/3dRThrT
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