| November 03, 2022 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | | | John Lothian
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
At The Trade's annual Leaders in Trading awards dinner last night in London, Louisa Paul accepted a lifetime achievement award and Dr. Robert Barnes was voted The Trade's first Industry Person of the Year. Paul is global head of equity dealing at Barings Asset Management and Barnes is the CEO of Turquoise. Congratulations to both.
There are more details below on the winners of The Trade's Leaders in Trading awards, including big wins by Cboe. The Trade also has a story saying Robert Barnes will leave Turquoise as CEO at the end of the year.
I can remember when the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 500 points was a stock market crash. Boy am I old.
Dan Davis is starting a new role as co-chair of the financial markets and regulation practice group at Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP.
The PowerBall lottery in the U.S. is up to $1.5 billion after no one matched the six numbers of Wednesday's drawing. If your plan was to win the lottery to meet your margin call, you still have a chance to make that work, assuming your brokerage gives you until the next drawing to meet the call. OK, you still have to collect the earnings, but I bet you could borrow against the winning ticket.
In game four of the World Series, four pitchers from the Houston Astros, led by starter Cristan Javier, no hit the Philadelphia Phillies in a 5-0 victory that evened up the series 2-2. This is the second no-hitter in World Series history, though the first one was by a single pitcher and was a perfect game of not only no hits, but no base-runners of any kind.
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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Women in Listed Derivatives (WILD) announced the retirement of Board President Cathey Curley and elected Simta Gupta to replace her. Curley has been a long-time member of WILD and was the board president for seven years. Her accomplishments include growing WILD to its largest membership numbers and starting WILD Gives Back (WGB) and the Next Generation Women in Finance Scholarship of $5,000. Simta has been a WILD board member for four years. You can read more about it here.~SR
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Listen to ICE's Caterina Caramaschi, VP of Financial Derivatives, discuss the breadth of the FTSE equity derivatives complex and the upcoming launch of ICE FTSE 100 Index Total Return Futures - a more flexible way to trade equity repo.
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Hedge fund giant Elliott warns looming hyperinflation could lead to 'global societal collapse'
Anviksha Patel - MarketWatch
"Investors should not assume they have 'seen everything'" That was from executives at leading hedge fund Elliott Management, who warned that the world is heading towards the worst financial crisis since World War II. In a letter sent to investors, and seen by the Financial Times, the Florida-headquartered firm told clients that they believe the global economy is in an "extremely challenging" situation which could lead to hyperinflation. Elliott did not respond to MarketWatch's request for comment.
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***** Time to invest in farmland, seeds, lead and solar power.~JJL
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Agency powers under threat in U.S. Supreme Court FTC and SEC cases
Diane Bartz - Reuters
Two cases that give the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority another opportunity to restrain the power of federal agencies go before the justices next week in disputes involving the Federal Trade Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission. The court has scheduled arguments on Monday in the cases, which represent the latest battles in what is sometimes called the legal "war on the administrative state" pursued by plaintiffs who accuse agencies of taking actions either not authorized by Congress or by the U.S. Constitution.
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******With this Supreme Court, you never know what you are going to get. They are like a box of chocolates, as Forrest Gump would say.~JJL
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The TRADE announces Leaders in Trading 2022 award-winners; Almost 300 industry leaders gathered at The Savoy hotel in London to celebrate their achievements throughout the year.
Editors - The Trade
The TRADE is delighted to announce the winners of this year's Leaders in Trading awards, with the recipients honoured at a ceremony held last night at The Savoy, London. Nearly 300 industry leaders joined The TRADE in a sold-out room to recognise the year's leading individuals and firms within the industry, with 36 awards handed out across buy-side, editors' choice, algorithmic trading, EMS and fintech categories.
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***** The Trade said: "In the trading venues arena, Aquis Exchange, Cboe BIDS Europe, LedgerEdge and LSEG (Refinitiv FXall) each took home Outstanding Trading Venue awards, while Cboe Global was crowned overall Outstanding Exchange Group. big xyt claimed the crown for Outstanding Market Data Provider, and elsewhere, Instinet collected the Outstanding Trading Technology Provider award."~JJL
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Time to abandon Twitter, people
Kathleen Parker - The Washington Post
Elon Musk makes me miss Carl Sagan. In the several days since the world's richest man closed the deal to become sole proprietor of Twitter, I've been deluged with Musk wisdom - advice to young people, advice for success, warnings about porn. I guess if Pope Francis has to instruct priests and nuns to purge "adult entertainment" from their cellphones, porn must be more pervasive than I realized. But Musk has mentioned porn so many times, I've begun to wonder whether he doth protest too much.
/jlne.ws/3U59QR2
****** I expect to see some new technology competitors to Twitter. There will be better tech that will appeal to people. Building a critical mass is always difficult, though.~JJL
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Wednesday's Top Three
Our top story Wednesday was The Contango Hedge; Redesigning Commodities Risk Management from Clive Furness at Contango Markets. Second was The Washington Post's U.S. workers have gotten way less productive. No one is sure why. Third was Bloomberg's Vanguard to Test Giving Retail Investors More Voting Power.
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| All MarketsWiki Sponsors» | | | | | | | John Lothian News (JLN) is the news division of John J. Lothian & Company, Inc. (JJLCO). The online media and financial services firm is staffed by derivatives industry, journalism and technology professionals. | | | | | | | John Lothian News Editorial Staff: | | | John Lothian
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| Lead Stories | US Probes Insider Trading in Prearranged Executive Stock Sales
Tom Schoenberg and Matt Robinson - Bloomberg
US authorities are investigating whether executives have been gaming prearranged stock-sale programs designed to thwart the possibility of insider trading. The Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission are using computer algorithms in a sweeping examination of preplanned equity sales by C-suite officials, according to people familiar with the matter. Investigators are concerned that some people are manipulating the stock-sale programs, which are intended to shield executives from misconduct allegations by letting them schedule transactions in advance and on preset dates.
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Cryptocurrencies, blockchain are reshaping future of finance, say global banking chiefs
South China Morning Post
Technologies such as blockchain and central bank digital currencies are reshaping the future of finance, leaders of major banks said during a global financial conference in Hong Kong. Senior figures from JPMorgan, BlackRock, HSBC and Standard Chartered shared their thoughts on how the fintech industry is shaking up the banking sector during a panel discussion at the Global Financial Leaders' Investment Summit on Wednesday.
/jlne.ws/3WqloQl
Digital Asset Platform Bakkt Agrees to Buy Apex Crypto for Up to $200M
Parikshit Mishra, Oliver Knight - CoinDesk
Digital asset platform Bakkt Holdings (BKKT) said it will acquire crypto trading infrastructure firm Apex Crypto from Apex Fintech Solutions, the firm said on Thursday. Bakkt, which is majority-owned by financial exchange Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), will initially pay $55 million in cash at the closing of the deal, and up to $145 million in Bakkt stock and seller notes upon achievement of some financial targets. The deal, which is expected to close in the first half of 2023, will offer revenue growth, cost saving and synergies for Bakkt. It will also help the firm expand its crypto client base. Apex Crypto offers solutions for execution, clearing, custody, cost basis and tax services.
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Bakkt to Acquire Apex Crypto; Acquisition is expected to significantly expand client verticals, drive scale, and bolster path to profitability; Bakkt and Apex Fintech Solutions will continue commercial relationship; Acquisition is subject to regulatory approval
Bakkt Holdings, Inc.
Bakkt Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: BKKT) (the "Company" or "Bakkt"), a digital asset platform that unlocks crypto and drives loyalty to create delightful, connected experiences for a broad range of clients, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Apex Crypto, LLC from Apex Fintech Solutions, Inc. This acquisition is expected to significantly bolster Bakkt's cryptocurrency product offering and expand its footprint into additional client verticals including fintechs, trading app platforms, and neo-banks.
/jlne.ws/3UokKB2
SEC Accountant Warns of Heightened Fraud Risk Amid Recession Fears, Market Selloff; Auditors need to do a better job uncovering accounting manipulation, regulator says
Jean Eaglesham - The Wall Street Journal
Wall Street's top watchdog is warning that the market selloff and fears of a recession could encourage more companies to cook their books, and it is pressuring auditors to catch them. "The current economic environment is subject to significant uncertainties and, historically, that oftentimes leads to heightened fraud risk," Paul Munter, acting chief accountant at the Securities and Exchange Commission, said in an interview. "So we are trying to be proactive and speak to the marketplace."
/jlne.ws/3NyhKzZ
Glencore Ordered to Pay £276 Million Over African Bribes
Jonathan Browning, Upmanyu Trivedi, and Thomas Biesheuvel - Bloomberg
Glencore Plc was hit with a £276 million ($311 million) penalty by a London judge after pleading guilty to coordinating a sprawling effort to bribe government officials for access to oil cargoes across Africa. The commodities trading giant admitted to seven counts of bribery across five countries including Nigeria and Cameroon, following a long-running Serious Fraud Office investigation. Prosecutors focused in on the firm's London trading desk, saying Glencore's traders and executives paid more than $28 million in bribes to secure access to oil cargoes between 2011 and 2016.
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Glencore flew bribe cash across Africa in private jets, court told; SFO lays out case against commodities group ahead of fine
Kate Beioley - Financial Times
A middleman paid by Glencore flew cash in private jets across Africa to bribe officials, a London court was told on Wednesday. A UK subsidiary of the commodity trader and mining group will be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court this week after pleading guilty in June to seven counts of bribery spanning countries from Nigeria to Cameroon following a Serious Fraud Office probe.
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IEA 'sounds alarm bell' on Europe's 2023 gas supplies; Agency warns governments not to become complacent despite falls in prices
David Sheppard - Financial Times
The International Energy Agency is "sounding the alarm bell" over gas supplies next year, warning European leaders not to become complacent following the recent fall in prices and urging them to take immediate action to ensure supplies for next winter. Fatih Birol, head of the IEA, said on Thursday that while Europe had successfully filled storage sites to 95 per cent ahead of the winter months, the agency forecast a significant shortfall for next year, with Russian supplies expected to remain largely cut off.
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Hong Kong's financial summit ends on upbeat note as attendees bid farewell to Covid-19's restrictions and head 'back to business'
South China Morning Post
Hong Kong's gathering of global financiers ended on a note of optimism after two days of upbeat speeches, as overseas attendees hailed their unhindered participation as proof that the city can put its Covid-19 restrictions behind and get back to business. During the three-day event, Citigroup opened its first global wealth management centre in Tsim Sha Tsui to serve dollar-denominated millionaires, joining rivals HSBC and Standard Chartered in making Hong Kong the beachhead for tapping the estimated 80,000 wealthy individuals in southern China's Greater Bay Area (GBA).
/jlne.ws/3Uo6fNC
Did Sponsoring Stadiums Bring New Crypto Traders, or Tourists?
Sam Reynolds - CoinDesk
Last November, at the height of the bull market, Crypto.com announced it had obtained the naming rights to the stadium that houses the National Basketball Association (NBA) team Los Angeles Lakers, and on Christmas Day 2021, the venue was renamed the Crypto.com arena. Months prior, FTX won the rights to rename the American Airlines Arena, which houses the NBA's Miami Heat, to the FTX Arena. But the question remains: Throughout the prolonged crypto winter, are the investments in stadium branding proving to be worthwhile? Are they leading to a new cohort of retail users?
/jlne.ws/3SVEsTK
Crypto world suffers from another hack, as exchange Deribit loses $28 million
Frances Yue - MarketWatch
Crypto exchange Deribit lost $28 million from a hot wallet hack on Tuesday, adding to at least $3 billion losses from exploits in the digital asset space so far this year. Client funds are safe while the company will use its reserves to cover the loss, Deribit tweeted Wednesday. "Deribit remains in a financially sound position and ongoing operations will not be impacted," the company wrote on Twitter. The company has halted withdrawals to conduct security checks, according to Deribit.
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Binance considers buying banks, bridging gap between crypto, TradFi
Ningwei Qin - Forkast
The chief executive officer of the world's largest crypto exchange, Changpeng Zhao, said that traditional banks could be added to Binance's business plan, as the crypto exchange seeks to become a bridge between traditional finance and cryptocurrencies, according to a report by Bloomberg on Thursday.
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India's Crypto Taxes May 'Kill the Industry,' Binance CEO Says
BySuvashree Ghosh - Bloomberg
Binance Holding Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Zhao "CZ" Changpeng said India's onerous taxes on cryptocurrency transactions will probably "kill the industry" there. "India has high tax which is probably going to kill the industry," Zhao said in livestreamed remarks during panel at a fintech conference in Singapore on Thursday.
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The Woman Who Broke Every Glass Ceiling in the World of Money
The Wall Street Journal - LinkedIn
Welcome back to a special edition about Janet Yellen, possibly the most powerful woman in American economic history. My colleague Jon Hilsenrath has a new biography out about Ms. Yellen, a woman who's been at the center of some of the most challenging economic decisions of our era, including the pandemic-era stimulus packages now blamed for helping to push up inflation. In the book, he examines how she broke through successive glass ceilings in the male-dominated field of economics to become the first woman to serve as Fed chair-and then the first to serve as U.S. Treasury secretary.
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Britain to go it alone for now on reining in 'shadow banking'
Huw Jones - Reuters
Britain, rattled by the recent near meltdown of some pension funds, is pressing ahead to tighten oversight of the so-called shadow banking sector, taking the lead ahead of possible co-ordinated international action. UK regulators could preempt recommendations by the G20's Financial Stability Board (FSB) to require permanently higher liquidity buffers for Liability Driven Investment (LDI) funds - used by UK defined benefit pension schemes - backed by regular stress tests, two sources said.
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'I Overestimated'-Coinbase CEO Admits He Made A Big Mistake After $2 Trillion Bitcoin, Ethereum And Crypto Price Crash
Billy Bambrough - Forbes
Bitcoin, ethereum and other major cryptocurrencies have suffered an almighty crash this year with around $2 trillion wiped from the crypto market in just 12 months (despite Elon Musk's giving the crypto market a surprise boost).
/jlne.ws/3DY0WPR
The Missing CryptoQueen Has Friends in (Very) High Places
David Z. Morris - CoinDesk
A long-term BBC investigation has discovered new and shocking details about one of the biggest Ponzi schemes of all time. OneCoin, which fraudulently branded itself as a cryptocurrency, appears to have received significant support from high-ranking government leaders in both the United Arab Emirates and Bulgaria. Evidence suggests that included leaking details of an international police search to the fugitives who launched the scam.
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Prometheum ATS Goes Live for Institutions
Shanny Basar - Markets Media
Prometheum ATS has gone live for institutional trading of digital asset securities as the firm also plans to launch retail trading, once it has received regulatory approval. The alternative trading system is a FINRA member firm and registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The ATS operates under federal securities laws and provides institutional investors trading digital asset securities with regulated protections and pricing transparency.
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BlackRock opens door for retail investors to vote in proxy battles; UK pilot by $8tn asset manager signals 'revolution in shareholder democracy', boss Fink says
Brooke Masters - Financial Times
BlackRock will allow retail investors to vote on proxy battles for the first time as it fends off criticism that its stance on environmental, social and governance issues is at odds with some of its shareholders. The world's largest asset manager plans a pilot with UK pooled funds to enable their investors to vote on contested proposals in 2023. Larry Fink, BlackRock's chief executive, said technology is enabling a "revolution in shareholder democracy" that will "transform the relationship between asset owners and companies" as he announced the plans on Wednesday. BlackRock's one-year-old Voting Choice programme already allows institutional investors holding $1.8tn in assets to decide how they want their shares to be voted, and the owners of $452bn have done so. The UK pilot marks the first time that BlackRock will offer the same opportunity to smaller investors.
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Meta's Meltdown Shows How Big Tech's Invincible Era Is Over; For years, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google-the revered FAANG companies-were great investments. But a brutal quarter has revealed that they're no longer sure things.
Jeran Wittenstein - Bloomberg
When a big stock dives, as Meta Platforms Inc. did on Oct. 27, dropping almost 25%, investors are often urged to take the long view of its performance. In this case, it hardly helps. If you bought Meta five years ago-back when the company was still known as Facebook-you'd be down about 49%, in a period when the S&P 500 climbed 45%. Meta has not only erased its gains from the pandemic, which turned social media into an essential technology, but also fallen back to where it was in 2015.
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Vitalik Buterin's 'Proof of Stake': The CoinDesk Megareview
Marc Hochstein, Daniel Kuhn, David Z. Morris, Ben Schiller, Sage D. Young - CoinDesk
While he's best known as the co-creator of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin began his cryptocurrency journey in a role that often gets a bit less respect: journalist. Driven by his interest in Bitcoin, Buterin was a co-founder of and incredibly prolific contributor to Bitcoin Magazine starting way back in 2012. His writing about Bitcoin helped him deeply engage with the theory behind crypto, and formed connections to early projects like MasterCoin that shaped his ideas for Ethereum.
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Exclusive-Morgan Stanley to start layoffs in coming weeks as dealmaking slows -sources
Kane Wu - Reuters
Wall Street major Morgan Stanley is expected to start a fresh round of layoffs globally in the coming weeks, three people with knowledge of the plan said, as dealmaking business takes a hit due to rising inflation and an economic downturn.
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Crypto Cowboys Test the Lonestar State's Grid as Mining Woes Persist; Miners seeking to curb their losses are still being lured to Texas despite the state's grid issues
Victoria Vergolina - Bloomberg
As our colleague David Pan has been reporting, Bitcoin miners have been having a very rough time of it. To paraphrase one of his recent stories, falling Bitcoin prices and rising energy costs "led to combined second-quarter losses of more than $1 billion for the top three US publicly traded players - Core Scientific, Marathon Digital and Riot Blockchain." Yikes. This crunch has led to miners trying to raise cash by selling off their emergency stockpiles of Bitcoin -- into the teeth of a down market.
/jlne.ws/3sSZdoD
Louisa Paul accepts Lifetime Achievement Award at Leaders in Trading 2022; The award is in recognition of notable contribution and longstanding service to the industry.
Editors - The Trade
Louisa Paul, global head of equity dealing at Barings Asset Management, last night accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Leaders in Trading 2022 gala awards dinner. Collecting her award, Paul noted that although the industry had evolved significantly since she first started (with many places and faces no longer around), certain values remained the same.
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Dr Robert Barnes is voted The TRADE's first Industry Person of the Year; The winner received a standing ovation from the room after a landslide victory in the evening's vote.
Laurie McAughtry - The Trade
Turquoise CEO Dr Robert Barnes was named Industry Person of the Year last night following a vote by almost 300 attendees of The TRADE's annual Leaders in Trading. The new awards category for 2022was voted for by ballot throughout the evening by all dinner guests, with the votes collected and counted at the end of the night.
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The TRADE announces the Rising Stars of Trading and Execution 2022; Running for its eighth year, the Rising Stars initiative recognises the budding buy-side talents of the institutional trading space.
Editors - The Trade
Running for its eighth year, the Rising Stars initiative, sponsored by Instinet, has recognised numerous promising talents over the years, many of whom have gone on to expanded roles such as head of trading as the world's largest asset managers and hedge funds.
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Industry legend Robert Barnes to leave LSEG's Turquoise; According to sources familiar with the matter, Barnes will leave his role as CEO of Turquoise at the end of this year.
Annabel Smith - The Trade
Industry veteran Dr Robert Barnes is set to step down as the CEO of London Stock Exchange Group's (LSEG) Turquoise at the end of this year, The TRADE can reveal. He will depart from LSEG's MTF after serving as its chief executive officer for the last nine years.Barnes joined in 2013 to replace Natan Tiefenbrun following his departure for Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | Russian Retreat in Ukraine Exposes Collaborators-and the Finger-Pointing Begins
Yaroslav Trofimov - The Wall Street Journal
'When Russian armored columns drove into this rural community of 20,000 people on the first day of the invasion, Mayor Valeriy Prykhodko tried to count the tanks, artillery pieces and fighting vehicles that rolled past his windows. After the first few hundred, he gave up. "It was too big for counting," Mr. Prykhodko said. "The horror." Located some 35 miles from the Russian border, Shevchenkove fell without a fight the afternoon of Feb. 24. In the six months of Russian rule that followed, many locals came to believe that Moscow, with its awe-inspiring military might, would stay here forever.
/jlne.ws/3DxwvOW
How Ukrainians Are Protecting Their Centuries-Old Culture From Putin's Invasion
Bloomberg
The Palace of Culture in Irpin, west of Kyiv, bombed. It was built in 1954 and housed concerts and public events in its 400-person auditorium.
/jlne.ws/3h8qErO
Bulgaria Breaks Taboo and Backs First Military Aid for Ukraine; Cabinet now has to come up with list of military aid for Kyiv; Ties with Russia, political turmoil hindered move earlier
Slav Okov - Bloomberg
Bulgarian lawmakers approved the first military aid shipments to Ukraine since Russia invaded its neighbor in February, ending months of resistance from Russia-friendly political parties and the nation's president. The Balkan country, a NATO member but one with close cultural and economic ties with Russia, was one of only two European Union states to provide no weaponry to Ukraine so far in the conflict, now into its ninth month. Hungary is the other.
/jlne.ws/3DXnBvz
Russian Shelling Forces Ukraine Nuclear Plant to Run on Backup Generators
Matthew Luxmoore - The Wall Street Journal
Ukraine said its Zaporizhzhia nuclear-power plant has been disconnected from the power grid after Russian shelling damaged transmission lines and left the facility reliant on diesel generators. Two remaining high-voltage transmission lines linking the plant to the Ukrainian power system were damaged following fresh Russian attacks, state nuclear-energy company Energoatom said on Thursday.
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | Hong Kong Exchange Cuts Trading Fees to Boost Market
Kiuyan Wong - BNN Bloomberg
Hong Kong's stock exchange will cut trading fees for its cash market starting next year in an effort to improve market efficiency and boost activity. Overall, the moves by the Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. will lower the effective rate on cash market trades to 0.565 basis points from 0.576 basis points, according to a statement on Tuesday. The bourse is removing a fixed trading tariff of $0.50 on each transaction while raising its ad valorem fee on all trades to 0.00565% from 0.005%.
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HKEX Launches International Carbon Marketplace For Transition To Net Zero
Rick Steves - Finance Feeds
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) has launched a new international carbon marketplace that seeks to connect capital with climate-related products and opportunities in Hong Kong, Mainland China, Asia and beyond. Going by the name of Core Climate, the carbon marketplace will allow participants to source, hold, trade, settle and retire voluntary carbon credits through the Core Climate platform, thus facilitating transparent trading of carbon credits and instruments to support the global transition to Net Zero.
/jlne.ws/3fr4noJ
Nasdaq's Net-Zero Target Approved by The Science Based Targets initiative; Pledges to reduce absolute Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions 100% and Scope 3 GHG emissions 50% by 2030; Pledges to reduce absolute Scope 3 GHG emissions 95% by 2050
Nasdaq
Nasdaq (Nasdaq: NDAQ) announced today that its near- and long-term science-based emissions reduction targets have been approved by The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Nasdaq has pledged to reduce absolute Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 100% and absolute Scope 3 GHG emissions 50% by 2030. SBTi has also validated Nasdaq's pledge to reduce Scope 3 GHG emissions 95% to reach net-zero by 2050.
/jlne.ws/3FGsMBa
Intercontinental Exchange Reports Strong Third Quarter 2022
ICE
Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE), a leading global provider of data, technology and market infrastructure, today reported financial results for the third quarter of 2022. For the quarter ended September 30, 2022, consolidated net loss attributable to ICE was $191 million on $1.8 billion of consolidated revenues, less transaction-based expenses. Third quarter GAAP diluted loss per share was $0.34, primarily due to net losses from Bakkt. Adjusted net income attributable to ICE was $733 million in the third quarter and adjusted diluted EPS was $1.31.
/jlne.ws/3NvAcZU
Intercontinental Exchange Approves Fourth Quarter Dividend of $0.38 per Share
ICE
Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE), a leading global provider of data, technology, and market infrastructure, announced today a $0.38 per share dividend for the fourth quarter of 2022, which is up 15% from the $0.33 per share dividend paid in the fourth quarter of 2021. The cash dividend is payable on December 30, 2022 to stockholders of record as of December 15, 2022. The ex-dividend date is December 14, 2022.
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Intercontinental Exchange Reports October 2022 Statistics
ICE
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE), a leading global provider of data, technology and market infrastructure, today reported October 2022 trading volume and related revenue statistics, which can be viewed on the company's investor relations website at https://ir.theice.com/ir-resources/supplemental-information in the Monthly Statistics Tracking spreadsheet.
/jlne.ws/3NyJ2pH
October 2022 figures at Eurex; Index derivatives continued their positive trend (up 24 percent) in October; Total repo volumes up 32 percent y-o-y; Notional outstanding OTC interest rate swaps with growth over 20 percent
Eurex
Index derivatives continued their strong year-on-year growth, up 24 percent from 56.9 million traded contracts to 70.4 million. Interest rate derivatives increased by a further 2 percent compared with the high level of the previous year, from 52.2 million traded contracts to 53.2 million. Equity derivatives contracts traded fell by 31 percent in October, from 22.5 million to 15.6 million compared to the same month last year. Total contracts traded at Eurex grew by 6 percent from 131.8 to 139.4 million.
/jlne.ws/3zBZj7G
Moscow Exchange announces results for the third quarter of 2022; Unless otherwise indicated, all figures are for the third quarter of 2022, and the dynamics (percentage change) is compared to the third quarter of 2021 based on IFRS financial results.
MOEX
Key Results For The Third Quarter Of 2022; Fee and commission income decreased by 14.3% to RUB 8,927.9 million, which was due to a decrease in the volume of non-resident transactions and the price of ruble-denominated assets. EBITDA increased by 27.5% to RUB 11,906.1 million. Net profit increased by 29.3% to RUB 8,714.8 million.
/jlne.ws/3tdUIoR
NSD appealed to the EU Council with an appeal against the imposition of sanctions
MOEX
On November 2, 2022, the National Settlement Depository (NSD, part of the Moscow Exchange Group) filed an appeal with the Council of the EU as part of the administrative procedure to challenge the decision to include NSD on June 3, 2022 in the EU sanctions lists.
/jlne.ws/3U47Loy
SGX RegCo proposes changes to CDP margining and Clearing Fund
SGX
Singapore Exchange Regulation (SGX RegCo) is consulting the market on proposed changes to the Central Depository's (CDP) margining framework and the CDP Clearing Fund. CDP collects margins and Clearing Fund contributions to mitigate the impact a Clearing Member default could have on the rest of the financial system.
/jlne.ws/3FFfa9m
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | Singapore's MAS Starts Wholesale CBDC Project Ubin+ for Cross-Border Payments
Parikshit Mishra - CoinDesk
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) started a new initiative called Ubin+ aimed at exploring the use of central bank digital currency (CBDC) for cross-border currency transactions. Ubin+ will look at testing the use of CBDCs for foreign exchange and liquidity management as well as the connectivity between CBDC and other digital asset networks. Under the project, the bank will also explore how systems based on distributed ledger technology (DLT) could interact with non-ledger payment systems.
/jlne.ws/3fz4PBh
Fintech in Latin America and Africa Is Breaking the Mold
Helen Li - WIRED
Imagine you open your Venmo balance on a Friday night to move $500 to your bank account. You tap the Transfer Balance button: It could be either "instant" (within 30 minutes) with a 1.75 percent fee, or a free transaction that will take one to three business days if you're lucky. The "instant" option travels via credit card networks, while the free deposit will travel via ACH rails-that's Automated Clearing House, a computer system developed in the 1970s that still serves as the default for most people and businesses who bank today.
/jlne.ws/3UE69Sr
Checkout.com's payments gambit blurs fintech and crypto
Crystal Kim - Axios
Payments shops' deep embrace of crypto is a sign of things to come that the average person might never notice.
Why it matters: Mainstream crypto adoption is often talked about in terms of the masses transacting in bitcoin for everyday purchases. But what if crypto makes its way into backend payment processing that everyone uses, but doesn't spend much time thinking about?
/jlne.ws/3T5L7uu
Chime Slashes 12% of Staff, Marking Latest Casualty in Fintech Meltdown
Maria Heeter - The Information
Online banking startup Chime, which before this year's market meltdown had been widely seen as a candidate for a blockbuster initial public offering, is slashing 12% of its 1,300 person workforce, or around 150 people, a spokesperson said.
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | Layoffs Mount as Cybersecurity Vendors Hunker Down
Robert Lemos - Dark Reading
Cybersecurity firms Snyk and Cybereason separately announced significant layoffs during the last week of October, cutting their workforces by 198 and 200 workers and representing 14% and 17% of their workforces, respectively.
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Solving the People Problem in Cybersecurity - IT News Africa
IT News Africa
After 25 years of experience in IT, including 17 years of experience in the information security industry and, having filled many diverse roles, George-Paul de Lange, founder and CEO of Cyber Intelligent Systems, noticed a big demand for cybersecurity skills development on the African continent. In his own words, "Whilst automation, machine learning, and AI have helped us to address the data problem in cybersecurity, the shortage of skilled professionals has been overlooked and underestimated, and it has come back to bite us."
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Closing the cybersecurity talent gap
Security Magazine
The cybersecurity workforce gap has reached 3.4 million, according to the 2022 (ISC)2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study. Lisa Tetrault, Senior Director of Global Security Operations at Arctic Wolf, says that a focus on broadening talent pools and employee retention can help close the cybersecurity talent gap.
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Netflix's former cybersecurity chief on breaking into the high-demand industry
Sydney Lake - Fortune
A growing number of cyber attacks means that the demand for cybersecurity professionals will continue to grow. The burgeoning industry is expected to hit a $2 trillion addressable market, according to a new survey conducted by McKinsey & Co, which is placing even greater pressure on companies to fill vacancies.
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | Crypto winter 'only going to get worse,' co-founder of Tezos blockchain says
Jenni Reid - CNBC
The ongoing crypto winter is "only going to get worse" as the industry recalibrates to a higher interest rate world, according to the co-founder of blockchain platform Tezos. Asked about the fall in price of many crypto assets this year, Kathleen Breitman said: "A lot of this was inflated on cheap money, and a lot of this was backed by basically, like, VCs trying to pump." "There was a lot of easy money going into the system and I think it was artificially stoking a number of different things, mainly valuations of these companies," she told CNBC's Karen Tso Wednesday at the Web Summit conference in Lisbon, Portugal.
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Crypto exchange volumes hit 23-month low
Adam Morgan McCarthy - The Block
Global crypto exchange volumes have crashed to levels last seen in December 2020. Cryptocurrency exchange volume in October was just $543 billion - down from $733 billion in September - according to The Block's data dashboard. The last time levels were this low was in December 2020, when they came in at $385 billion. (The same month, bitcoin hit multiple new all-time highs, trading above $28,000.)
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Mainland Chinese banks, banned from crypto assets at home, weigh services in Hong Kong after policy change
Xinmei Shen - South China Morning Post
Mainland Chinese financial institutions, strictly banned by Beijing from any involvement with cryptocurrency assets at home, are considering launching related businesses in Hong Kong, where new measures for boosting the city's status as a crypto hub have drawn interest from the industry. Some mainland Chinese banks, family offices and other financial service providers are considering kicking off or reactivating virtual asset projects in Hong Kong, including offering cryptocurrency services to their clients in the city, Robert Lui, Hong Kong Digital Asset Leader at Deloitte China, told the South China Morning Post on Tuesday at Hong Kong's FinTech Week.
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Ethereum Merge Had 'All the Ingredients of a Scammer's Dream,' Chainalysis Exec Says
Fran Velasquez - CoinDesk
There were roughly $2 million in scams before, during and after Ethereum's Merge, the blockchain's transition from a proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS) model, according to Chainalysis' cybercrimes research lead, Eric Jardine. Jardine told CoinDesk TV's "First Mover" the Merge, which took place in September, had "all the ingredients" a scammer would need to grab vast amounts of money.
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Binance CEO Zhao Suggests Exchange Might Still Allow Russian Users
Anna Baydakova - CoinDesk
The head of the largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume said new and stronger EU sanctions have created a "tricky situation" for dealing with Russian users. "We are not against any people," said Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, holding a press conference during the Web Summit here on Wednesday. "We are against dictatorships of war. We're not against the population. But as a business, we're licensed in many different places. We have to follow the rules," he added.
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Binance will re-enter South Korea's crypto market, CZ says
Danny Park - Forkast
Binance, world's largest digital asset trading platform, is preparing to operate in South Korea's crypto market, said chief executive officer (CEO) Changpeng Zhao during a press conference at the Web Summit 2022 held in Lisbon, Portugal on Wednesday. Zhao said that Binance is preparing to register under South Korean financial authorities by complying with local regulations, South Korean news agency News1 reported.
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Digital wallet Cryptillian seeks to back Ripple against SEC in XRP lawsuit
Timmy Shen - Forkast
Digital wallet service provider Cryptillian Payment Systems has requested to file an amicus brief to support Ripple Labs Inc. in the latter's ongoing court battle against the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC).
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Crypto miners hit hard in digital asset industry's downturn; High energy costs and flat coin prices push companies close to the edge
Martha Muir and Scott Chipolina - Financial Times
Crypto mining companies are coming under heavy pressure from this year's digital asset downturn as the high cost of energy and the flatlining price of coins pushes more names close to the financial cliff edge. Nasdaq-listed Core Scientific warned last week it could file for bankruptcy protection as its cash resources would be depleted by the end of the year. On Monday, London-listed Argo Blockchain echoed that gloomy outlook, saying it may be forced to cease operations after a critical fundraising fell through.
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Who is Satoshi Nakamoto and what does the 14-year-old bitcoin white paper mean for the cryptocurrency today?
Frances Yue - MarketWatch
It's the bitcoin white paper anniversary day. On Oct. 31, 2008, a person or a group of people using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto sent a 9-page paper to a mailing list of cryptographers, outlining a "peer-to-peer electronic cash system" called bitcoin BTCUSD, +0.93%. In January 2009, amid the aftermath of a worldwide financial crisis, Nakamoto launched the Bitcoin network.
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Binance CEO sees no threat to crypto from central banks' digital currencies
Sergio Goncalves and Catarina Demony - Reuters
Plans by central banks to launch digital currencies are not a threat to other cryptocurrencies as they would validate blockchain technology and build trust among sceptics, the CEO of the world's largest crypto exchange, Binance, said on Wednesday. Most major central banks, including the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank, are studying the potential launch of a digital version of their currencies, dubbed CBDC.
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OpenSea Rolls Out Two New NFT Theft Protection Features
Eli Tan - CoinDesk
Leading non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea said Wednesday it is offering two new features to prevent theft on its platform. The features, one to prevent NFT theft and the other to detect it, come as part of the company's larger effort to reduce scams and exploits by bad actors within the industry. "Trust and safety issues - specifically scams and theft - are some of the biggest barriers to broader NFT adoption today," OpenSea said in a blog post. "Ultimately, the goal of this work is to help make the ecosystem safer by reducing the downstream sales of stolen items ... and thus reduce the incentive for NFT theft in the first place."
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OpenSea Rolls Out Two New NFT Theft Protection Features
Eli Tan - CoinDesk
Leading non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea said Wednesday it is offering two new features to prevent theft on its platform. The features, one to prevent NFT theft and the other to detect it, come as part of the company's larger effort to reduce scams and exploits by bad actors within the industry.
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Crypto Exchange BitMEX Cuts Staff as It Pivots Back to Derivatives Strategy
Oliver Knight - CoinDesk
Cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX has reduced its workforce as it pivots back to focusing on derivatives trading, a spokesperson told CoinDesk. The extent of the layoffs was not revealed. A BitMEX spokesperson dismissed a report suggesting that 30% of its staff had been let go.
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Meta announces updates on NFT and other new features coming to Instagram and Facebook
Filipe Espósito - 9to5Mac
Meta on Wednesday announced new features coming soon to Facebook and Instagram that will enhance the experience for creators using both platforms. This includes updates on NFT, Instagram subscriptions, and Facebook Stars. The news comes as the company holds its Creator Week conference with in-person events around the world. Earlier this year, Meta introduced support for NFT on Instagram, so that users could show their non-fungible tokens.
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | House Republicans accuse Gensler, SEC of 'skirting' record-keeping, transparency laws
Chris Matthews - Bloomberg
Leading Republicans in Congress took aim at Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler in a Tuesday letter that accused the agency of failing to comply with federal record-keeping laws. The letter cites a Wall Street Journal opinion piece by D.C. lawyer Chris Horner that alleges the SEC staff are making extensive use of private messaging channels rather than official government email for official correspondence. The letter, signed by Republican representatives Jim Jordan of Ohio, Patrick Henry of North Carolina, James Comer of Kentucky and Tom Emmer of Minnesota accuses Gensler of "skirting federal transparency and records laws" by failing to collect and produce records of official business conducted on non-email platforms like Signal, Facebook's META, -4.89% WhatsApp, Microsoft's MSFT, -3.54% Teams and Zoom ZM, -5.18%.
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Joe Biden warns of 'unprecedented' threat to democracy ahead of midterms; President says candidates who refuse to commit to accepting election results could put the US on the 'path to chaos'
Lauren Fedor - Financial Times
Joe Biden said American democracy was facing an "unprecedented" threat from political candidates who refuse to commit to accepting election results, as the US president made an eleventh-hour appeal to voters ahead of next week's crucial midterm elections. "There are candidates running for every level of office in America: for governor, for Congress, for attorney-general, for secretary of state, who won't commit to accepting the results of the elections they're in," Biden said in a primetime speech from Washington's Union Station on Wednesday night.
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Republicans to probe 'cancer' of ESG investing after midterms; Republicans to investigate Wall Street's climate positions if they take back power
Analysis by Maxine Joselow with research by Vanessa Montalbano - The Washington Post
Less than a week before the midterm elections, Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill are gearing up to investigate what they see as "woke capitalism," a reference to Wall Street firms that treat climate change as an economic risk, Maxine reports this morning. Polls suggest the GOP will retake the House, and Republicans there are preparing to grill the chief executives of big financial firms as well as Gary Gensler, the Democratic chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, about their efforts to curb climate change. And in the Senate, where polls show a toss-up battle for control of the chamber, key senators are pushing legislation to punish businesses that prioritize environmental, social and governance causes - known as ESG - rather than pure profits.
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Right-Wingers Are Already Turning on Elon Musk; Pundits who just days ago had lionized the billionaire made a whiplash-worthy U-turn after he revealed part of his content moderation strategy
Nikki McCann Ramirez - RollingStone
Just six days into Elon Musk's reign over Twitter, prominent conservative pundits and commentators who lauded his acquisition of the platform as an opportunity to reshape it in their own image have started to turn on the Tesla billionaire. On Friday, Musk announced that content moderation decisions would be made by a "council," later tweeting to Twitter Head of Safety Yoel Roth that he had met with "civil society leaders," including the Anti-Defamation League's Jonathan Greenblatt, Color of Change President Rashad Robinson, and The Asian American Foundation CEO Norman Chen, to discuss "how Twitter will continue to combat hate & harassment & enforce its election integrity policies."
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Crypto Political Giving Falls Right Before US Midterm Elections; Donors gave $3.9 million in September, down 63% from June; Retreat in donations followed turmoil in crypto market
Allyson Versprille and Bill Allison - Bloomberg
Crypto executives pulled back on political giving in the immediate run-up to the Nov. 8 midterm elections, a move that followed the crash in digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ether. The industry emerged as a significant player in political spending in 2022 and outpaced donor groups such as drugmakers and defense contractors for much of the current two-year election cycle. There has been a spike in the number of political action committees backed by digital-asset companies and executives, including GMI PAC -- a super-PAC whose top contributors include FTX Trading Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Sam Bankman-Fried, stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Financial and venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz.
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The US Climate Bill Is a Bigger Deal Than Most People Realize; Climate spending thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act may end up as high as $1 trillion, says political science professor Leah Stokes.
Akshat Rathi and Christine Driscoll - Bloomberg
While the United States fancies itself a global climate leader, the country is coming off a decade of tumultuous policy: It signed the Paris Agreement in 2015, withdrew two years later and didn't rejoin until 2021. Now, as the country counts down to midterm elections and the start of annual climate talks in Egypt, Americans are taking stock of whether President Joe Biden has lived up to his promises. For Leah Stokes, the answer is a solid "yes." Stokes is a professor of political science at UC Santa Barbara, and one of many individuals whose advocacy factored into the Inflation Reduction Act that became US law in August.
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Canada orders Chinese companies to divest stake in lithium mines; Ottawa says it will 'act decisively when investments threaten our national security'
Demetri Sevastopulo and Edward White - Financial Times
Ottawa has ordered three Chinese groups to divest their stakes in Canadian critical mineral companies after a defence and intelligence review concluded that the investments posed a threat to national security. In a move that reflected a significant hardening of Canada's stance towards China, the government ordered Sinomine (Hong Kong) Rare Metals Resources to exit its stake in Power Metals, a Canadian lithium miner.
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Britain to go it alone for now on reining in 'shadow banking'
Huw Jones - Reuters
Britain, rattled by the recent near meltdown of some pension funds, is pressing ahead to tighten oversight of the so-called shadow banking sector, taking the lead ahead of possible co-ordinated international action. UK regulators could preempt recommendations by the G20's Financial Stability Board (FSB) to require permanently higher liquidity buffers for Liability Driven Investment (LDI) funds - used by UK defined benefit pension schemes - backed by regular stress tests, two sources said.
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City of London Bankers Better Check Rishi Sunak's Meddling; The government wants extra power to change financial rules, but grant it now and it's forever.
Paul J. Davies - Bloomberg
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is having second thoughts about giving the government a new power to overrule financial regulators, according to the Financial Times, just days after the finance ministry said it would push ahead with the plan. Bankers and insurance executives should encourage Sunak to be extremely careful. This route will likely be more trouble than it's worth. The new power was Sunak's idea while he was Chancellor of the Exchequer. He wants Britain's watchdogs to be made more democratically accountable by allowing the finance ministry to tell them what rules to change, create or ditch.
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Suspected Russian Plot Used Political Cartoons to Influence US Voters; Social media activity detected by Graphika Inc. tied the effort to people involved with Russia's IRA.
Jeff Stone - Bloomberg
Social media users tied to Russia are using political cartoons to try to influence the outcome of tight electoral races ahead of the US midterms, according to research provided exclusively to Bloomberg News. Members of a Russian group accused of meddling in prior US elections have pushed internet memes that promote right-wing conspiracy theories in a way that aims to undermine support for Democratic political candidates, according to the social media analysis firm Graphika Inc.
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Egypt Crushes at Home the Climate Action It's Championing Abroad; The road to COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh has been strewn with hurdles for global climate crisis activists, but Egyptian advocates have it worse
Laura Millan Lombrana - Bloomberg
The United Nations flagship climate summit is usually a lively affair. As well as drawing world leaders, scientists, even executives, thousands of activists travel to cities hosting the COP talks, staging colorful demonstrations to demand more urgent action and holding events to raise awareness of specific issues. Not this year. Non-profit organizations and activists seeking to attend COP27 in Egypt's remote seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh say they've faced unprecedented hurdles getting accreditation and finding accommodation, potentially limiting civil society representation and even hindering the outcome.
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | Singapore Regulator Grants Licenses to Stablecoin Issuers Circle and Paxos
CoinDesk
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has granted stablecoin issuer Circle an in-principle license that allows it to operate as a payments company in the country. Circle received its approval the same day fellow stablecoin issuer Paxos received its own license. CoinDesk Global Policy & Regulation Managing Editor Nikhilesh De discusses the significance for the regulatory framework in Singapore.
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SEC proposes mutual fund-pricing rule to protect long-term investors; Industry warns of 'enormous negative impact' for clients as it faces higher costs
Stefania Palma in Washington and Brooke Masters - Financial Times
Wall Street's top regulator has proposed changes to the way stock and bond mutual funds set their daily prices in order to protect buy-and-hold investors from having to bear the cost of rapid inflows or outflows, a move that drew immediate pushback from asset managers. Gary Gensler, chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, said the proposal would "build resiliency" for US open-end funds, which faced a liquidity squeeze in March 2020 as investors scrambled to redeem shares at the start of the pandemic. "A goal of today's proposal is to ensure that redeeming shareholders, rather than remaining shareholders, bear the cost of redemptions, particularly during stress times," he said.
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SEC Charges Halal Capital Founder with Multimillion Dollar Fraudulent Scheme that Targeted Muslim Community
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Jebara Igbara, the founder of Halal Capital LLC, in connection with a more than $8 million scheme that targeted investors from the New York metropolitan area's Muslim community.
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SEC Adopts Rules to Enhance Proxy Voting Disclosure by Registered Investment Funds and Require Disclosure of "Say-on-Pay" Votes for Institutional Investment Managers
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today adopted amendments to Form N-PX to enhance the information mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, and certain other registered funds report about their proxy votes. The amendments will make these funds' proxy voting records more usable and easier to analyze, improving investors' ability to monitor how their funds vote and compare different funds' voting records. The rulemaking will also newly require institutional investment managers to disclose how they voted on executive compensation, or so-called "say-on-pay" matters, which fulfills one of the remaining rulemaking mandates under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
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SEC Proposes Enhancements to Open-End Fund Liquidity Framework
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today voted to propose amendments to better prepare open-end funds for stressed conditions and to mitigate dilution of shareholders' interests. The rule and form amendments would enhance how funds manage their liquidity risks, require mutual funds to implement liquidity management tools, and provide for more timely and detailed reporting of fund information.
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"This Law and Its Effective Administration": Remarks Before the Practising Law Institute's 54th Annual Institute on Securities Regulation
Chair Gary Gensler - SEC
My thanks to the Practising Law Institute and the 54th Annual Institute on Securities Regulation. As is customary, I'd like to note that my views are my own, and I am not speaking on behalf of my fellow Commissioners or the SEC staff. On May 27, 1933, when he signed the first of the federal securities laws, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said: "This law and its effective administration are steps in a program to restore some old-fashioned standards of rectitude."
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Statement on Final Amendments to Form N-PX
Chair Gary Gensler - SEC
Today, the Commission will consider whether to adopt final amendments to bring greater detail, consistency, and usability to the proxy voting information reported on Form N-PX. I am pleased to support these amendments because, if adopted, they will allow investors to better understand and analyze how their funds and managers are voting on shares held on their behalf. Further, part of this final rule fulfills a mandate from Congress directing the SEC to require institutional investment managers to report votes on certain executive compensation matters, or "say on pay."
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Statement on Open-End Funds
Chair Gary Gensler - SEC
Today, the Commission will consider whether to propose amendments to enhance the liquidity risk management of open-end funds. I'm pleased to support the proposal because, if adopted, it would promote investor protection and greater resiliency for open-end funds.
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Closing Act: Statement on Proposed Open-End Fund Liquidity Risk Management Programs and Swing Pricing; Form N-PORT Reporting
Commissioner Hester M. Peirce - SEC
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I cannot support even releasing this proposal for comment. At a time when so much of our rulebook is up for discussion, nobody has the bandwidth to consider properly a proposal that would fundamentally alter the way open-end funds operate, how investors interact with them, and the infrastructure surrounding them. Yet the Commission is poised to kick off such consideration today and to wrap it up early in the New Year when the sixty-day comment period ends.
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Enhancing Fund Voting Reporting
Commissioner Jaime Lizarraga - SEC
Today, the Commission adopts important enhancements to the information mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and certain other funds report about their voting. We also fulfill a congressional mandate in the Dodd-Frank Act requiring managers to report how they vote proxies relating to executive compensation matters. By facilitating investor access to more usable and transparent information, both of these actions strengthen the SEC's investor protection mission.
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Statement on the Final Rule: Enhanced Reporting of Proxy Votes by Registered Management Investment Companies; Reporting of Executive Compensation Votes by Institutional Investment Managers
Commissioner Mark T. Uyeda - SEC
Today, we consider sweeping changes to fund proxy vote reporting.[1] Since 2003, registered funds have been required to report their proxy votes annually on Form N-PX by briefly identifying the proxy voting matter, and disclosing whether 1) the fund voted for, against or abstained, and 2) it voted for or against management, among other information.
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Statement on Enhanced Reporting of Proxy Votes
Commissioner Caroline A. Crenshaw - SEC
Commission rules often focus on corporate transparency and helping investors understand how their money - their ownership stake of U.S. companies - is used. Today's rule does just that. When the Commission adopted Form N-PX in 2003, it stated that investors in mutual funds have a "fundamental right" to know how proxy votes are being cast on their behalf.[1] Today's amendments build on that foundation in a number of ways:
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Voting Obsession: Statement on Final Enhanced Reporting of Proxy Votes by Registered Management Investment Companies; Reporting of Executive Compensation Votes by Institutional Investment Managers
Commissioner Hester M. Peirce - SEC
Thank you, Chair Gensler. Director Birdthistle, congratulations on such a remarkable team. So remarkable is the team that I want to take a moment to recognize an impressive achievement by the Division of Investment Management-four rulemakings between this week's and last week's open meetings. All of these rules are substantial. I cannot overstate what a feat the teams have accomplished in an extremely compressed time period. Rulewriters' midnight oil has been burning for many months now. Complementing their work are the intense efforts of many others across the Division-including staff in DRAO and the Chief Counsel's Office charged with working with funds and advisers as they implement new rules-and across the Commission. Countless people have poured themselves into these rulemakings. The Division of Economic and Risk Analysis and the Office of General Counsel are under tremendous pressure to provide economic and legal analysis very quickly. Even if some of the policy choices embedded in these rules are not choices I would have made, I marvel at the staff's work.
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Strengthening Open-End Fund Resiliency and Liquidity in Stressed Markets
Commissioner Jaime Lizarraga - SEC
Today, the Commission is proposing reforms designed to enhance the resiliency and liquidity of the $26 trillion mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) market during periods of market stress. This proposal addresses key investor protection issues and I am pleased to support it.
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Statement on Proposed Rule: Open-End Fund Liquidity Programs and Swing Pricing; Form N-PORT Reporting
Commissioner Mark T. Uyeda - SEC
Mutual funds have been phenomenally successful as a savings tool for retail investors by offering professional money management at a low cost. The substantial regulatory protections provided by the Investment Company Act of 1940 ("Investment Company Act") help to ensure that funds are managed for the benefit of investors, including important safeguards against self-dealing, conflicts of interest, misappropriation of funds, and overreaching, as well as to ensure the disclosure of full and accurate information about funds and their sponsors.[1]
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Learning from History: Statement on Open-End Fund Liquidity Risk Management Programs and Swing Pricing
Commissioner Caroline A. Crenshaw - SEC
Mutual funds, ETFs and other open-end funds have become primary investment vehicles for the retirement and savings accounts of U.S. families.[1] Through these investments, shareholders can gain access to potentially broad and diverse portfolios easily and - relevant here - with guaranteed liquidity. Specifically, shareholders have a statutory right to receive payment within seven days upon seeking redemption of their investments (and, in some instances, even sooner).[2] Investors rely on this liquidity. As such, it is critically important that open-end funds have robust liquidity risk management programs in place. This is true in normal times, and especially important during times of market stress and volatility.
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Mystery Whales Baffle Gold Market After Central Bank Purchases
Eddie Spence - Bloomberg
A normally dry research report jolted the gold market this week, when it pointed to massive but so far unidentified sovereign buyers. Central banks bought 399 tons of bullion in the third quarter, almost double the previous record, according to the World Gold Council. Just under a quarter went to publicly identified institutions, stoking speculation about mystery buyers.
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Private Asset Managers Should Beware the Gilt Crisis Aftershocks; UK pension plans sold liquid assets during the gilt market meltdown. Portfolios may now be undesirably skewed to illiquid private holdings.
Chris Hughes - Bloomberg
There's a sense the UK gilt crisis is over. Pension plans are no longer scrambling to cut leverage in their government bond portfolios after September's calamitous budget crashed sterling markets. Yields are back at pre-spike levels. But as the dust settles, some pension trustees will be facing difficult decisions regarding the weighting of their portfolio to levered gilt strategies versus higher-returning assets such as private credit, real estate, infrastructure and private equity. That should trouble private asset managers.
/jlne.ws/3U44QvR
The rise and rise of currency hedging raises a financial system risk; Investor moves to protect against foreign exchange volatility might be spurring unsustainable imbalances between countries
Antonio Foglia - Financial Times
The dollar has strengthened by about 20 per cent in the past year and pundits generally attribute this performance to rising interest rates and to "haven" buying at times of turbulence. While the first reason seems more accurate, the main channel through which rising US rates impact the dollar is little understood despite the vast implications it has for the current set up of the international monetary system
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | World's Dirtiest Air Makes Delhi Push People to Work From Home; India capital halts construction work in a bid to control smog; Doctors says Covid has worsened breathing complaints
Archana Chaudhary - Bloomberg
India's capital city has appealed to residents to work from home to avoid the toxic smog that has engulfed the New Delhi region, making it the world's most polluted air. The move comes after the local government imposed a series of measures, including an unsuccessful ban on burning farm stubble in areas surrounding New Delhi and stopping construction and demolition to avoid dust. Pollution levels spike every winter in part due to this practice and these reach multiple times the global safety threshold.
/jlne.ws/3NxWnPp
ESG Investing Is 'Totally Unstoppable' UBS Chair Kelleher Says
Sheryl Tian Tong Lee - Bloomberg
The current challenges to ESG investing won't stop investors' focus on environmental, social and governance considerations, UBS Group AG chairman Colm Kelleher said at the Hong Kong Global Financial Leaders' Investment Summit on Wednesday. "This movement is totally unstoppable," he said. "Our investors clearly are focused on this, so this is not going away. It's what Generation X, Z, millennials, et cetera want."
/jlne.ws/3FGhWLv
Power-Device Shortage Slows Spread of Car Chargers, EVgo Says
David R Baker - Bloomberg
Shortages of a key electricity device are slowing EVgo Inc.'s ability to expand its network of electric-car stations. At the end of the third quarter, 130 newly installed charging stations awaited connections to the local grids, according to Chief Executive Officer Cathy Zoi. She attributed the delays to a paucity of transformers -- devices that step down the voltage of electricity flowing over power lines to a level that appliances can use. Another reason: labor shortages.
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How Investors Feel About ESG Initiatives; A survey finds that investors' attitudes vary widely by age, wealth and the specific ESG issue
Lisa Ward - The Wall Street Journal
Big asset-management companies have increasingly used their voting power as shareholders to encourage companies to adopt environmental, social and governance initiatives.But is that what their clients want? A new research survey by Stanford University sought to better understand individual investors' views about ESG investing. It found that investors' support for ESG measures and their willingness to potentially lose money in that cause varied by their age and wealth, as well as the particular ESG issue. Investors 58 years old and over were the least likely to support ESG objectives in general, and those between 18 and 41 were the most likely-a difference that showed in their willingness to put their savings at risk to support various initiatives.
/jlne.ws/3TanzoA
Transitioning to net zero in the Middle East and North Africa: three focus points
Adithya Subramoni - London School of Economics
Since the COP26 UN climate summit last November, many countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region have made commitments to promote a climate-friendly economy. The United Arab Emirates, Oman and Israel have committed to being net zero by 2050, while Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have announced a net zero target for 2060. Others in the region, including Egypt and Qatar, have updated their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). As COP27 in Egypt approaches, to be followed by COP28 in the UAE in 2023, there is a clear sense that these two summits will echo the Global South perspectives on climate justice and loss and damage more strongly than was the case at COP26 in Glasgow. In this commentary I propose three further points that the participants at the forthcoming COP will need to keep in mind.
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How to Meet Climate Targets: Leave No Economy Behind; How can the poor south become as rich as the rich north without the world broiling?
Eduardo Porter - Bloomberg
Economic development. It was the fundamental challenge of the post-colonial era, embodying an economic, political, moral imperative: How could the poor world in the global south become as rich as the rich nations of the north? The question was never satisfactorily answered. Strategies hawked from opposite ideological corners mostly failed to deliver.
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TotalEnergies challenged on carbon emissions reporting; French energy group accused by Greenpeace of drastically understating its climate impact
Sarah White - Financial Times
TotalEnergies is facing accusations of vastly underestimating its carbon emissions, as scrutiny intensifies over how the oil and gas industry reports on climate change goals. In a study based on the French energy group's own disclosures, campaign group Greenpeace estimates that Total's carbon emissions from 2019 could be almost four times higher than the levels disclosed by the company and that some excluded activities should be included in its reporting.
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Banks Bolster Metals-Trading Desks After Wild Year for Markets
Eddie Spence, Jack Farchy and Archie Hunter - BNN Bloomberg
Top banks are reinforcing their metals divisions to cash in on the volatility that's lifted trading profits over the past three years. Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the Federal Reserve's aggressive rate hikes have extended the wild swings in metals markets. Copper, gold and aluminum have all surged to records, before plummeting in the face of tighter monetary policy. The biggest banks are set for a bumper year in commodities, as the war in Ukraine whipsaws raw materials prices. That follows a sluggish decade during which many lenders scaled back or exited metals trading.
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Struggling Credit Suisse Is Dealt a Sharp Blow
Luc Olinga - The Street
Credit Suisse didn't need this. The bank, founded 166 years ago, is fighting to survive. It wants to convince the market that it still has a future. Meantime, its market capitalization has collapsed and literally makes it an M&A target. Once one of Europe's flagship banks, Credit Suisse has seen its market cap fall to just 10.5 billion Swiss francs ($10.55 billion) at last check.
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Qontigo licenses iSTOXX World Min Vol ESG Index to LGIM for pension fund mandate
Press Releases - Qontigo
Qontigo has licensed the newly launched iSTOXX World Min Vol ESG Index to Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM). The index will be used for a large pension fund mandate. This index is based on STOXX's broadest equity universe, the STOXX World AC (All Countries), including both Developed and Emerging Markets and incorporates both proprietary ESG data provided by LGIM and data from ISS ESG.
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Credit Suisse Saudi Backer Sheds $7 Billion Over Stake Deal
Farah Elbahrawy - Bloomberg
Investors have wiped about $7 billion off Saudi National Bank's market value amid growing concern over the lender's plans to purchase a stake in Credit Suisse Group AG. The Saudi lender, which is 37% owned by the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund, is set to become one of the Swiss bank's biggest investors after announcing its first major international acquisition a week ago. It's poised to own a stake of 9.9% if it participates in Credit Suisse's rights offering, after agreeing to buy shares for about 1.17 billion Swiss francs ($1.16 billion).
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Barclays builds up Asia business, sees growth in India and Australia
Anshuman Daga and Yantoultra Ngui - Reuters
Barclays Plc, which recently made big investments in India and Australia and set up a Taiwan subsidiary in July, is evaluating entering new markets but is currently focused on building up its franchises, its top regional executive said.
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TradFi Firm Marex Makes Crypto Hires to Lead Digital Assets Push
Jamie Crawley - CoinDesk
London-based financial services platform Marex has made two crypto hires to lead its digital assets offering for institutional investors. Marex has hired Ilan Solot and Mark Arasaratnam as co-heads of digital assets. Solot was the former partner at crypto fund Tagus Capital and has also worked at private investment bank Brown Brothers Harriman and worked with the International Monetary Fund. Arasaratnam, a 17-year financial services veteran, has recently worked at food startup M-EAT and online shopping platform The Chapar.
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | Why daylight saving time is worse for your body than standard time; An animated story of what science says about changing our clocks in the fall and spring
Aaron Steckelberg and Lindsey Bever - The Washington Post
Within days, 48 states and the District of Columbia will reset their clocks and fall back into standard time. From a health standpoint, most sleep and circadian experts say we should stay there. Experts say early-morning sunlight is key to maintaining our circadian rhythms, sleep-wake cycles and overall health. Phyllis Zee, a neurologist and chief of sleep medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said without that sunlight, we can slip into circadian misalignment - "when your internal body clocks fall out of sync with that of the sun clock and your social clocks."
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CVS and Walgreens Near $10 Billion Deal to Settle Opioid Cases; The dual agreements would resolve thousands of lawsuits over the retailers' role in the addiction crisis. But a large majority of state, local and tribal governments must sign on.
Jan Hoffman - The New York Times
CVS and Walgreens, two of the nation's largest retail pharmacy chains, said on Wednesday that they had reached tentative agreements to pay about $5 billion each to settle thousands of lawsuits over their role in the opioid crisis, a development that could signal the beginning of the end of years of opioid litigation.
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | A Practical Way to Make Sense of All the Shocks Hammering the Global Economy; Brexit, the US-China trade war, Russia's invasion of Ukraine-more such geopolitical surprises will continue the economic upheaval.
Tom Orlik, Ana Galvao, and Scott Johnson - Bloomberg
For those with a short memory, it's tempting to blame the world's problems on surging populism. In this telling, Brexit, the US-China trade war and America's botched response to Covid-19 become part of a single narrative. Rabble-rousing leaders in the mold of Donald Trump pander to the worst instincts of the body politic, expert voices are drowned out in the echo chamber of social media, and the economy pays the price. The trouble with that version of recent history is that though they're responsible for some real doozies, populists don't have a monopoly on policy failure. Remember the global financial crisis? The European sovereign debt crisis? The stagnation of middle-class wages and upward spiral in inequality? All major shocks to the system. All taking place when the supposed grown-ups were in charge.
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China Traders Gripped by Frenzied Reopening Talk as Stocks Soar
Bloomberg
Trading desks across China have become inundated with unverified talk of a shift in Xi Jinping's Covid Zero policy, sparking an epic rally in stocks and underscoring just how desperate investors have become for signs that the country's $6 trillion market rout is ending. Multiple screen shots purporting to show the world's second-largest economy is moving closer to a reopening have been circulating on Twitter, WeChat and other social media platforms since late Monday.
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How long can Japan's central bank defy global market forces? Governor Haruhiko Kuroda is betting on a royal flush of macroeconomic outcomes to win the battle. But the costs, and the risks, are rising
Leo Lewis and Kana Inagaki, and Tommy Stubbington - Financial Times
There's a Chinese proverb that holds it is better to plan one's means of retreat than 36 different ways to win the battle. The axiom has cropped up on Tokyo trading floors this autumn, after Japan lavished a record $62bn to fight the yen's collapse below a three-decade low, in as many as four separate interventions since September.
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Asian ETF cross-listings 'remove frictions'; DWS's use of ICSD clearing model offers prospect of reduced costs and more choice for investors
Emma Boyde - Financial Times
The launch of a suite of DWS cross-listed exchange traded funds in Hong Kong and Singapore could be game changing for Asian investors, market participants say, offering the prospect of reduced costs and more choice. The excitement in the industry does not revolve around the funds themselves - which, apart from one MSCI USA swap Ucits ETF, offer Hong Kong and Singapore investors more exposure in Asian markets albeit via Ucits ETFs - but instead over the way settlement and clearing will be handled.
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Inside Wealth-Conference Con Man Anthony Ritossa's Wild Web of Lies
Adam Ciralsky - Vanity Fair
It was a warm June evening in Monaco. Outside, yachts were plying the azure sea. Inside, flashbulbs were popping. Anthony Ritossa was in his element. Charming and cherubic, Ritossa was glad-handing in front of a step-and-repeat backdrop at the Fairmont Monte Carlo. His perma-tan, sun-kissed hair, and tailored suit suggested a man of refined wealth and taste. An outsider might easily have mistaken the scene for a movie premiere in nearby Cannes. But that would have undersold the pomp and pomposity of the moment.
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UK Farmers Earn More Money as Social Media Influencers After Rough Year
Helen Chandler-Wilde - Bloomberg
British farmers are facing a difficult harvest. Costs are up almost a third from last year according to government figures, low rainfall and record temperatures have led to poor yields and labour shortages mean some crops are left rotting in the fields. In a bid to diversify their income, some farmers are turning to social media. American farmers started showing off their lives and work a few years ago, now their UK counterparts are following suit to boost unstable incomes. Some are making more money from YouTube than growing food.
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US authorities bust catalytic converter theft ring that raked in over $545m; The justice department charged 21 people and seized millions of dollars in assets in the takedown of the nationwide operation
Reuters - The Guardian
US authorities said they have taken down a massive, nationwide criminal ring to steal thousands of catalytic converters from cars and trucks, charging 21 people and seizing millions of dollars in assets. Various defendants were accused in separate indictments unsealed in Sacramento, California, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, of crimes such as transporting and receiving stolen goods across state lines, and conspiring to commit money laundering.
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Canada Orders Three Chinese Firms to Divest From Country's Lithium Miners
Jacob Lorinc - Bloomberg
Canada's government ordered three Chinese firms to divest from a trio of small lithium miners based in the country, days after introducing tougher rules on foreign investments in the nation's critical minerals sectors. Sinomine (Hong Kong) Rare Metals Resources Co. Ltd. is required to divest in Vancouver-based Power Metals Corp., while Chengze Lithium International Ltd. must exit from Calgary-based Lithium Chile Inc. and Zangge Mining Investment (Chengdu) Co. Ltd., was ordered to divest from Ultra Lithium Inc., based in Vancouver, Canada's federal government said Wednesday in a statement.
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