| August 19, 2021 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | | | John Lothian
Publisher
John Lothian News | |
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CME Group Flatly Denies It's In Talks with Cboe Global Markets
Suzanne Cosgrove - John Lothian News
The CME Group Wednesday issued a firm denial that it was in talks to acquire Cboe Global Markets, a clear attempt to squash a story published by the Financial Times earlier in the day.
The FT story said the CME Group had "approached" Cboe Global Markets about an all-share deal for nearly $16 billion. It also was surprisingly specific about the alleged details of the proposed purchase. Citing unnamed sources, FT said the CME offered 0.75 of its own shares for every Cboe share, which would value Cboe at about $150 per share.
In a statement released publicly via PRNewswire, the CME Group said it "denies all rumors that [it] is in conversations to acquire Cboe Global Markets.
"The company has not had any discussions with Cboe whatsoever. While the company does not typically comment on rumor or speculation, today's inaccurate information required correction," it concluded.
To read the rest of this story, go HERE.
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
Philip McBride Johnson, the first CFTC chairman who knew what he was doing in the job, has passed away. During the last couple of years I reached out to Phil, with whom I used to have regular communication, but he was not replying to emails. I feared he was in failing health. I would also not see him weighing in on the issues of the day with op-ed pieces here or there, which he often did previously. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Acting Chairman Rostin Behnam issued a statement on his passing.
Johnson was part of the Shad-Johnson Jurisdictional Accord, which allowed for the launch of stock index futures and blocked the offering of single stock futures. He brokered the deal for cash settlement of futures, which was previously blocked by precedents about non-delivery futures contracts being equated to gambling. This was a historic breakthrough which allowed Eurodollars and stock index futures to proceed.
Johnson was at one time the outside counsel to the Chicago Board of Trade. His champion for the chairmanship of the CFTC, however, was Leo Melamed of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
All of us at JLN offer our sincere condolences to the family, friends and former colleagues of Mr. McBride Johnson.
Funny how the MIAX/MGEX SPIKES futures make a new record volume day trading on August 17 and shortly thereafter there are rumors the owner of the competing volatility product (the VIX), Cboe Global Markets, is being sold. SPIKES traded 8,202 contracts, which was their best volume day since the product relaunched in December of 2020. -- MGEX
I will weigh in on the CME-Cboe story later today with an update of my 2014 story, "The CME Should Buy the CBOE Soon." The title of my story is "Buy the Sharks, Sell the Bait."
Also, from appearances it looks like the FT and Philip Stafford and James Fontanella-Khan were fed bad information. As Suzanne Cosgrove commented above, the story had "surprisingly specific details." I don't know James Fontanella-Khan, but I do know Phillip Stafford and know him to be a conscientious and disciplined reporter. I am interested to know the origin of this story. The market at first believed the story, then believed the CME Group denial. Somewhere out there is the truth of how this story happened, which I would love to know.
Trading Technologies is looking for a test engineer in the Tokyo Area. It is a work from home or office job. Here are the details.
Former FIA Europe head Simon Puleston Jones announced he has emerged from the shadows and is now the CEO of Climate Solutions, a new global climate-focused capital raising and strategic consultancy business headquartered in London.
The Small Exchange's Donald Roberts and Natalie Oblazny got to ring the closing bell yesterday at Nasdaq for winning the Chicago Innovation Award.
Citadel Founder and CEO Ken Griffin shared advice on embracing challenges, taking risks and making learning a life-long pursuit with interns at the company in this video.
There were no new donations to the JLN MarketsWiki Education GoFundMe campaign yesterday.
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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CME Denies It's in Talks for $16 Billion Takeover of Cboe
Matthew Leising, Katherine Doherty, and Nick Baker - Bloomberg
August 18, 2021, 2:09 PM
CBOE shares surge, then fall back after CME Group's denial
Longstanding speculation has surrounded the two exchanges
CME Group Inc. said it's not in talks to acquire Cboe Global Markets Inc., whose shares surged after the Financial Times said it was the target of a $16 billion takeover approach.
"CME Group denies all rumors that is in conversations to acquire Cboe Global Markets," the company said in an emailed statement Wednesday. "The company has not had any discussions with Cboe whatsoever. While the company does not typically comment on rumor or speculation, today's inaccurate information required correction."
/bloom.bg/3y28hYa
****** When was the last time the CME and Cboe talked about a deal? Those conversations ended. The CME and ICE were in talks for a deal too, back in 2016, but those talks ended when CME allegedly had "antitrust" concerns that were always present from the time they started the conversation.~JJL
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FiscalNote Announces Acquisition of Predata; Acquisition expands FiscalNote's technical capabilities to help global organizations detect and manage geopolitical risk
FiscalNote
FiscalNote, the premier global information services company focused on global policy and market intelligence, announces it has acquired Predata, an AI-based technology company that quantifies online attention to provide a more complete picture of the geopolitical landscape. Founded in 2015 by a group of engineers from Princeton University, Predata's products enable customers to glean insights about their strategic messaging efforts and discover anomalous trends in online attention to inform their perspectives on real-world geopolitical impact. With offices in New York and Washington, DC, Predata has built a team of diverse professionals with backgrounds in finance, data science, and international relations to help customers solve some of the world's most complex geopolitical challenges.
/bit.ly/3CYje0J
****Hazem Dawani can't help but sell the firms he starts.~JJL
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Covid Vaccines Are Less Effective Against Delta, Large Study Finds
Naomi Kresge - Bloomberg
Large study finds Pfizer-BioNTech efficacy ebbed over time; Data show vaccines didn't diminish viral load of delta cases
Covid-19 vaccines are less effective against the delta variant, according to results in the U.K. from one of the largest real-world studies into the efficacy of the shots.
/bloom.bg/37YILZf
****** A really good reason to wear a mask indoors every time.~JJL
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Wednesday's Top Three
Our top story on Wednesday was The Financial Times' US banks and brokers set stage for shift to one-day equities settlement. Second was The Coronavirus Is Here Forever. This Is How We Live With It, from The Atlantic. Third was How 3 Firms Built Outstanding Company Cultures, about Keystone, Acquis Consulting Group, and the DTCC, from Ivy Exec.
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MarketsWiki Stats
26,553 pages; 235,421 edits
MarketsWiki Statistics
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| Lead Stories | CME/Cboe: logical exchange consolidation but the timing might be tardy; Combining the two groups would make a lot of sense
LEX - FT
The Second City of the US may not need two separate financial exchanges. The Financial Times has reported that Chicago-based CME approached smaller neighbour Cboe about an all-stock takeover. The deal would roughly value the company behind the Vix volatility index at $16bn. Even with a 20 per cent premium, Cboe would be a minnow in the consolidating world of exchanges.
/on.ft.com/3D4tGnA
Crypto's 'DeFi' Projects Aren't Immune to Regulation, SEC's Gensler Says; Some peer-to-peer trading and lending projects have features that may trigger the need for regulation, chairman says
Dave Michaels and Paul Kiernan - WSJ
A new breed of digital asset exchanges is potentially the holy grail for cryptocurrencies: online places for people to trade and lend that purportedly involve no middleman setting the rules or taking fees.
/on.wsj.com/3APrVZa
Statement of Acting Chairman Behnam on the Passing of Philip McBride Johnson
CFTC
Commodity Futures Trading Commission Acting Chairman Rostin Behnam issued the following statement on the passing of former CFTC Chairman Philip McBride Johnson: "The CFTC shares in mourning the recent passing of former Chairman Philip McBride Johnson, who served as Chairman from 1981 until 1983. In 1982, as Chairman, he reached an agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman John Shad on the Shad-Johnson Accord, which paved the way for futures on stock indexes. A true CFTC trailblazer, Chairman Johnson was instrumental in drafting key provisions of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Act of 1974 that created the CFTC, giving life to a small independent agency that would become a world leader in the regulation and oversight of derivatives. "We at the CFTC offer our sincere condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues and recognize former Chairman Philip McBride Johnson as one of the CFTC's most influential leaders."
/bit.ly/38bByp7
Robinhood Revenue Surges on Cryptocurrency Trades; Trading app posted a $502 million loss in second quarter due to an emergency funding deal
Peter Rudegeair - WSJ
Revenue at Robinhood Markets Inc. HOOD 6.71% more than doubled in the second quarter thanks to a torrent of customers trading cryptocurrency, but the company posted a big loss due to an emergency funding deal earlier this year.
/on.wsj.com/3kaJzjq
CME in $16bn bid for Chicago exchange rival Cboe; Exclusive: All-share deal would combine futures and equity options specialists
Philip Stafford and James Fontanella-Khan - FT
CME Group has approached fellow Chicago exchange company Cboe Global Markets about an all-share deal to acquire the owner of the Vix volatility indices for nearly $16bn.
/on.ft.com/3sBedXe
*****The FT story that sparked the CME Group's denial press release.~JJL
CME Group Denies Rumors of a Bid for Cboe Global Markets
CME Group
In response to press reports, CME Group today issued the following statement: "CME Group denies all rumors that it is in conversations to acquire Cboe Global Markets. The company has not had any discussions with Cboe whatsoever. While the company does not typically comment on rumor or speculation, today's inaccurate information required correction."
/bit.ly/37VXUup
****** And here is the CME's swift and strong denial.~JJL
Jay Clayton praises blockchain as he joins crypto platform Fireblocks; Former SEC chair is the latest former regulator to embrace the digital assets sector=
Hannah Murphy and Gary Silverman - FT
Jay Clayton, the former US Securities and Exchange Commission chair, has said he believes both in the promise of blockchain technology and the need for more regulation for the crypto sector.
/on.ft.com/3gcr6BW
China's planned anti-sanctions law for Hong Kong unsettles financial sector
Alun John and Scott Murdoch - Reuters
Global banks and other financial institutions in Hong Kong are scrambling to find out details of China's planned imposition of an anti-sanctions law on the city, and trying to understand how it could impact their operations in the financial hub.
/yhoo.it/3z0oQFl
China Is Blocking Fleeing Hong Kongers From Getting Their Retirement Money; HSBC, Manulife and AIA are among financial institutions embroiled in a fight over billions of dollars in savings in retirement accounts.
Bloomberg News
As tens of thousands flee Hong Kong for a new life in the U.K., they're confronting the risk that they will be forced to leave behind their retirement savings as China intensifies its crackdown on the city's freedoms. Scores are being denied access to money in the Mandatory Provident Fund because of the cascading impact of Beijing's decision in January to withdraw recognition of British National Overseas passports as valid official documents.
/bloom.bg/3z44rPD
Electronic Trading Gains Traction in Fixed Income
MarketsMedia
Electronic trading in fixed income markets is gaining traction, driven in part by increased data availability and new regulations, according to the results of the Global Client Fixed Income Markets Structure Survey by the Barclays Market Structure team.
/bit.ly/3k8NFbZ
Swedish CEO Sounds Alarm on 'Excessive' Stock Market Valuations
Charles Daly - Bloomberg
A rally of more than 30% in the Swedish equities market this year has sparked concern at the top of one of the country's most active investment companies. The chief executive officer of Bure Equity AB, with a market capitalization of about $3.5 billion, said that the steep gains raise questions "over whether the stock market has become excessively overvalued."
/bloom.bg/3zfeNwp
Delta Hedging Is Working Its Way Into Investors' Heads; The perceived threat of the Covid variant is affecting U.K. bonds, global stocks and the dollar, even if U.S. corporate executives remain sanguine.
John Authers - Bloomberg
The Delta on Delta
Has the delta variant worked its way into our heads, and into financial spreadsheets? It does look as though it might have done.
/bloom.bg/3D0IOlK
For Bitcoin Futures ETFs, the Future Is Here
Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber - Bloomberg
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has all but made clear it will probably approve Bitcoin exchange-traded funds that hold Bitcoin futures, versus ones that hold the cryptocurrency itself. This has sparked a wave of new filings which, if approved, could hit the market by November. But how do they work, and how will investors respond to them?
/bloom.bg/3gfWXli
SEC sues three former Netflix engineers over insider trading; Ex-employees allegedly made more than $3m in profits by trading on subscriber numbers ahead of release
Anna Nicolaou - FT
The Securities and Exchange Commission has sued three former Netflix engineers over insider trading, alleging they made more than $3m in profits by trading on subscriber numbers before they were released publicly.
/on.ft.com/2XwrfcS
China's Huarong to receive state-backed rescue as it unveils $16bn loss; Investors back country's biggest manager of bad debts prompting rally in company's bonds
Thomas Hale - FT
State-backed Chinese investors will bail out Huarong Asset Management, as the under-pressure bad debt manager unveiled losses of Rmb103bn ($15.9bn) after months of uncertainty over its finances.
/on.ft.com/3gemVWe
GFXC Publishes Last Look Guidance Paper
Colin Lambert - The FullFX
The final piece of the puzzle from the Global Foreign Exchange Committee's three-year review has been slotted into place with the publication of a guidance paper on last look.
/bit.ly/3D1I0Nh
Options clearing corporation leans into technology resilience
CIO.com
For 45 years, the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) has been the only clearinghouse for all U.S. equity options trades. By serving as the buyer to every seller and the seller to every buyer in options trading, OCC manages risk for them. Join us to learn how technology resilience at OCC is part of its DNA, thereby ensuring confidence in the financial markets and the broader economy.
/bit.ly/3CUHXTH
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | White House dismisses WHO objection to U.S. COVID booster program
Dylan Stableford - Yahoo News
Top U.S. health officials are dismissing criticism from the World Health Organization over the plan to offer COVID booster shots to vaccinated Americans while some parts of the world are still struggling to get access to coronavirus vaccines.
/yhoo.it/3xYgdK0
Rise of delta variant and waning immunity are fueling breakthrough infections, experts say
Joel Achenbach and Ben Guarino - Washington Post
Officials in the Biden administration responsible for communicating with the public have repeatedly said this has become a "pandemic of the unvaccinated." Such words may not ring true to people who got their shots and still became sick.
/wapo.st/3gg0Ial
The delta variant is putting America's hospitals back in crisis mode
Frances Stead Sellers, Ariana Eunjung Cha, Hannah Knowles and Derek Hawkins - Washington Post
With only about half of the U.S. population fully vaccinated against the novel coronavirus, hospitals across the country are straining to respond to a deadly fourth surge of infections driven by the delta variant.
/wapo.st/3ma7KkN
People in the U.S. who were vaccinated with Moderna and Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccines will be eligible for a third dose in September
Jaimy Lee - MarketWatch
Federal health officials said Wednesday that a third dose of the COVID-19 shots developed by Moderna Inc. and Pfizer Inc. will be available in mid-September for Americans who have been fully vaccinated for at least eight months. They cited waning protection as the reason for a booster shot.
/on.mktw.net/2UzRdLE
Singapore's Vaccinated Travel Easing Starts With Germany
Philip Heijmans - Bloomberg
Travel bubble idea with Hong Kong scrapped as paths diverge; Singapore eased virus curbs Thursday on work-from-home rules
Singapore will pilot quarantine-free travel lanes for vaccinated passengers next month from Germany and Brunei and open up to visitors from Hong Kong and Macau in its first big move yet to lift border restrictions that have been in place since early in the pandemic.
/bloom.bg/3y15C0T
Kenya Approves Moderna, Sinopharm Vaccines Amid Fourth Wave
David Herbling - Bloomberg
Kenya granted emergency use authorization for Moderna Inc and Sinopharm Group Co. Covid-19 vaccines, said Pharmacy and Poisons Board Chief Executive Officer Fred Siyoi.
/bloom.bg/3mlRayB
As Covid-19 Boosters Loom, Pfizer and Moderna Expected to See Billions More in Sales; The spread of the Delta variant is increasing demand for messenger RNA vaccines and boosters, while the companies raise prices
Felicia Schwartz - WSJ
Vaccine makers Pfizer Inc. PFE -2.20% and Moderna Inc. MRNA -0.76% are on track to notch billions more in sales than previously expected, as new booster-shot strategies and concerns about the Delta variant push demand, and the companies raise prices in the U.S. and elsewhere.
/on.wsj.com/2XzR23T
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | MGEX Announces SPIKES Futures Best Daily Volume and Overall Top 20 Day
MGEX
MGEX, a Designated Contract Market (DCM) and Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO), reports that August 17th, 2021 was the 19th best overall day in the history of the Exchange with a total of 26,196 contracts. SPIKES® Futures contributed 8,202 contracts to the total volume, which was the highest amount since the product relaunched in December 2020.
/bit.ly/3y1Pexk
CME Group denies rumours of $16 billion bid for Cboe; A statement from CME denied the rumours following claims earlier this week that the exchange was in conversations to acquire Cboe.
Annabel Smith - The Trade
US derivatives exchange CME Group has denied any rumours that it is in talks to acquire rival Cboe Global Markets for $16 billion. The denial follows a Financial Times report that an all share deal of $16 billion for Cboe would combine the futures and equities options offerings of the two exchanges.
/bit.ly/3y1tL7N
CME-Cboe Would Face Antitrust Scrutiny
Markets Media
The Financial Times reported that CME Group has approached Cboe Global Markets about possibly buying the fellow Chicago-based exchange operator for nearly $16 billion in stock.
In an article published Wednesday at about 1:30 pm New York time, the FT cited three people familiar with the acquisition talks and said the exchange groups declined to comment.
An hour later, CME issued a press release denying any merger talks.
While the firms' headquarters are just 0.6 miles apart in the downtown Chicago Loop area, a CME-Cboe merger would be complex with potential implications for a number of global markets.
/bit.ly/3sD1wen
Notification of dividend / distribution
ASX
/bit.ly/2TwaCc9
Notice of Annual General Meeting 2021 and Voting Form
ASX
/bit.ly/2TwaCc9
2021 Full-Year Results Media Release
ASX
/bit.ly/2TwaCc9
2021 Tax Transparency Report
ASX
/bit.ly/2TwaCc9
Appendix 4G 2021
ASX
/bit.ly/2TwaCc9
2021 Annual Report and Appendix 4E
ASX
/bit.ly/2TwaCc9
2021 Full-Year Results Presentation Speaking Notes
ASX
/bit.ly/2TwaCc9
2021 Full-Year Results Presentation Slides
ASX
/bit.ly/2TwaCc9
CME Globex Notices: August 16, 2021
CME Group
Critical System Updates
CME Globex Performance Enhancements - This Week
iLink 3 FIXP Messaging Enhancements - September 26
TACO and BTIC Amended Trading Schedule - September 26
Bursa Malaysia Derivatives (BMD) Night Trading Session - December 2021
/bit.ly/3iXFSyj
CME STP Notices: August 19, 2021
CME Group
CME STP
New - EONIA/IBOR Conversion of Interest Rate Swaps - September 12 NEW
New - New Originating Event Enumeration in CME STP Interest Rate Swap (IRS) Messages - September 12 NEW
Enhancement to Trade Number in CME STP - September 19
Defined Fixed Price Ratio Inter-Commodity Futures Spread Supported in CME STP - October 3
New - Exchange-Defined South American Soybean/CBOT Soybean Inter-Commodity Futures Spread Supported in CME STP - October 3 NEW
/bit.ly/3szJYjd
SGX welcomes Shanaya Limited to Catalist
SGX
Singapore Exchange (SGX) today welcomed Shanaya Limited to its Catalist under the stock code "SES". Shanaya Limited is engaged in the provision of waste management and disposal services to industrial and commercial clients. It is one of the leading waste management companies in Singapore specialising in serving the shipping and cruise industries.
/bit.ly/3y08s6y
Publication of TSE-Listed Companies White Paper on Corporate Governance 2021 (English)
JPX
Tokyo Stock Exchange, Inc. published the "TSE-Listed Companies White Paper on Corporate Governance 2021" (English Version). TSE publishes the White Paper in every other year, by gathering data in the Corporate Governance Reports submitted by all the TSE-listed domestic companies.
/bit.ly/3stvDoB
The Director of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation On Promoting Contemporary Photography; Anne-Marie Beckmann discusses her approach to artistic programming and collecting for the corporate sector
Magnumphotos.com
In this piece, former Global Cultural Director of Magnum Photos — now photography and art consultant — Sophie Wright speaks to the Director of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, Anne-Marie Beckmann. Images in this article are by Magnum photographers whose work has been collected by the Foundation.
/bit.ly/2W0oaSf
- EBS Market Integration Notice: New and Updated Content -- CME
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | Meet 24 Fintech Startups on the Rise That Are Based in New York City.
Shannen Balogh, Bianca Chan, Carter Johnson, Candy Cheng, and Melia Russell - Business Insider
Insider profiled 70 fintechs on the rise in July, sourced from more than 40 venture investors.
More than 20 of those startups are based in New York City.
New York fintechs are poaching would-be Wall Street talent as they build out tech for finance.
/bit.ly/38byg5f
The hottest fintech market you aren't paying attention to
Alex Wilhelm - TechCrunch
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch's venture-capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.
For our Wednesday show this week, Natasha and Alex and Danny had colleague Tage Kene-Okafor on the show to chat about the burgeoning African startup scene. Tage has become TechCrunch's key correspondent in the area, chronicling the continent's expanding venture capital totals, public company performance and startup ecosystem.
/tcrn.ch/3svKiPU
Sentiance wins 2021 FinTech Award for "Best FinTech Mobile Telematics Provider - Europe"
Yahoo Finance
Sentiance, an intelligence-driven data science and behavior change company, is awarded the "Best FinTech Mobile Telematics Provider - Europe" award by Wealth & Finance International. The FinTech Awards by Wealth & Finance International recognize and spotlight creative innovation, dedication and commitment to improving and transforming the FinTech industry in 2021. Key criteria for the award include domain expertise, dedication to client fulfillment, noteworthy performance and commitment to innovation.
/yhoo.it/37UnnEH
One banks $40M to offer 'all-in-one' financial services to the middle class
Mary Ann Azevedo - TechCrunch
One, a startup that aims to bring "all-in-one banking" to the middle class, announced today that it has raised $40 million in a Series B round of funding.
Progressive Investment Company (the insurance giant's investment arm) led the round, which included participation from Obvious Ventures, Foundation Capital, Core Innovation Capital and others. The financing brings One's total raised since its 2019 inception to $66 million.
/tcrn.ch/3iXEZWv
The importance of automation, with ION Markets
Disruptivebanking.com
In June, ION Markets was named as the Best Trading Solution for Fixed Income by the TradingTech Insight (TTI) Awards in the USA. ION is the largest global provider of trading, analytics, treasury, and risk management solutions for capital markets, commodities, and treasury management. This award for ION's fixed income team is their second such win of the year: in February they were also named the Best Trading Solution for Fixed Income by the TTI Awards Europe. To discuss these awards, to find out what distinguishes ION in this space, and to learn more about the importance of automation according to ION, we spoke to Edoardo Pacenti. Edoardo is the Head of Trading Tools for Fixed Income at ION Markets.
/bit.ly/3AVEy57
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | T-Mobile: Breach Exposed SSN/DOB of 40M+ People
Brian Krebs - Krebs on Security
T-Mobile is warning that a data breach has exposed the names, date of birth, Social Security number and driver's license/ID information of more than 40 million current, former or prospective customers who applied for credit with the company. The acknowledgment came less than 48 hours after millions of the stolen T-Mobile customer records went up for sale in the cybercrime underground. In a statement Tuesday evening, T-Mobile said a "highly sophisticated" attack against its network led to the breach of data on millions of customers.
/bit.ly/3ARD4c4
Report: Census hit by cyberattack, US count unaffected
Mike Schneider - The Washington Post
U.S. Census Bureau computer servers were exploited last year during a cybersecurity attack, but it didn't involve the 2020 census, and hackers' attempts to keep access to the system were unsuccessful, according to a watchdog report released Wednesday. According to the Office of Inspector General, the Census Bureau missed opportunities to limit its vulnerability to the attack and didn't discover and report the attack in a timely manner. The statistical agency also failed to keep sufficient system logs, which hindered the investigation, and was using operating system no longer supported by the vendor, the watchdog report said.
/wapo.st/3D2NcAM
Half of APAC companies are lost in the process of dealing with remote work
Louis Prives - Texas News Today
Approximately 56% of companies in the Asia Pacific region allow to avoid digital processes to accommodate remote or flexible work arrangements. This is despite 48% expressing growing concern about their ability to manage security threats. The latter number is higher than the corresponding number in the Americas, with 41% being more concerned about the organization's ability to mitigate cyber threats, according to EY's 2021 Global Information Security Survey. It became clear. The survey, conducted in March and May of this year, surveyed 1,010 respondents worldwide, with 20% in Asia Pacific, 36% in the Americas, and the remaining 43% in Europe, the Middle East, India, and more. I answered from Africa (EMEIA).
/bit.ly/3z3woHg
Enterprises in Brazil Seek Help with Pandemic Cybersecurity and Regulatory Compliance
Sao Paulo - Business Wires
Enterprises in Brazil are investing heavily in cybersecurity products and services to protect corporate systems at higher risk during the pandemic and to comply with new data protection regulations, according to a new report published today by Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm.
/bwnews.pr/3mdMNFt
Sedulous Consulting Services and Infinity Support Services Merge to support Government Contractors and Commercial Firms in the Cybersecurity and IT Space
Yahoo! Finance
Today's acquisition of Infinity Support Services by Sedulous Consulting Services brings together three minority veterans of the cybersecurity, IT and logistics space, with over 90 years of collective experience in the US military and private sector. The merger comes as Congress approves an historic and bipartisan $550 Billion infrastructure bill, and in June the Senate directed $250 Billion for basic and advanced technology research.
/yhoo.it/2XFvOBT
In a first for Maine, ransomware hackers hit 2 public wastewater plants
Kate Cough - Bangor Daily News
The Department of Environmental Protection has warned municipalities and water-sector professionals to be on alert after two recent ransomware intrusions, believed to be the first on wastewater systems in Maine. The attacks occurred in the Aroostook County town of Limestone and the town of Mount Desert on Mount Desert Island, said Judy Bruenjes, a wastewater technical assistance engineer for the DEP.
/bit.ly/3k2k0kC
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | Limelight Holdings, LLC Announces New Entity, Lightspeed Crypto, and Plans to Offer Crypto Trading
Newswire.com
Limelight Holdings, LLC ("Limelight" or "Company") announced today the formation of Lightspeed Crypto. The new entity aligns with the Company's core offering, Lightspeed Financial Services Group LLC (Lightspeed). Lightspeed Crypto intends to fill significant gaps in the crypto ecosystem that don't account for active and high-volume traders' unique needs, with trading set to start later this year.
/bit.ly/3yXLr5p
Avalanche Foundation Announces $180M DeFi Incentive Program; Titled "Avalanche Rush," the program will bring blue-chip DeFi applications to Avalanche, starting with two popular protocols, Aave and Curve
The Avalanche Foundation
The Avalanche Foundation has announced Avalanche Rush, a $180M liquidity mining incentive program to introduce more applications and assets to its growing DeFi ecosystem. Avalanche Rush will bring Aave and Curve, two of the largest DeFi protocols by total value locked (TVL), to launch on Avalanche. Phase 1 of the Rush program will launch soon and provide the Avalanche native token, AVAX, as liquidity mining incentives for Aave and Curve users over a 3 month period. The Avalanche Foundation has allocated up to $20M AVAX for Aave users and $7M AVAX for Curve users, with additional allocations planned for Phase 2 in the coming months.
/bit.ly/3xUWkDG
Crypto Adoption Shifts to Emerging Markets as China, US Drop in Chainalysis Global Rankings
Muyao Shen - Coindesk
Crypto adoption has increased 23-fold globally over the past year with India, Pakistan, Ukraine and other emerging markets driving the surge, Chainalysis said in a report Wednesday. In its "2021 Global Crypto Adoption Index," Chainalysis found that Chinese and U.S. positions as crypto adoption leaders have been waning amid an ongoing Chinese crackdown on crypto trading and the growing role of major financial institutions in crypto markets.
/yhoo.it/2W96ymZ
Ethereum Founder Is Skeptical of Dorsey and Zuckerberg Plans
Emily Chang and Joanna Ossinger - Bloomberg
Vitalik Buterin predicts blockchain will beat Big Tech; Bitcoin not designed for what Dorsey wants to do, Buterin says
Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg may be making big plans in the cryptocurrency space, but Vitalik Buterin doesn't see them as likely to gain much traction.
/bloom.bg/2Wb81sw
Coinbase Teams Up With MUFG to Start Japan Crypto Exchange
Taiga Uranaka and Takako Taniguchi - Bloomberg
Japan head at Coinbase aims to recruit product developers; Coinbase Japan starts with trading for five digital tokens
Coinbase Global Inc. teamed up with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. to start a cryptocurrency exchange in Japan, which allows account holders at the nation's biggest bank to buy and sell virtual currencies. The largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange got regulatory approval earlier this year in Japan, where 31 companies are registered to trade the assets, and faces local competition from companies such as Coincheck Inc. that's owned by Monex Group Inc. and GMO Coin Inc.
/bloom.bg/3z0LhKp
Binance crypto traders line up $5m for legal challenge; Exchange's clients claim they suffered $20m losses during outage at height of meltdown
Joshua Oliver and Laurence Fletcher - FT
Traders pursuing Binance for compensation over an outage during crypto market turmoil earlier this year have secured financial backing to wage one of the most significant legal battles to date against the exchange.
/on.ft.com/2XHc8gX
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | Trickle-Down Economics Has Failed Its Growth Mission; Decades of fiscal policy that made it cheaper for companies to invest hasn't succeeded in building many new factories. But the answer isn't trickle up, either.
Noah Smith - Bloomberg
The bipartisan infrastructure bill recently passed by the Senate is a sign that U.S. leaders are starting to think differently about government investment. For decades, legislators have tried to push down the cost of capital, believing it would spur a financial investment boom that would trickle down through the economy. But it never seemed to do much to boost capital spending, so a change in strategy is warranted.
/bloom.bg/3y0JHa4
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | For more regulatory, visit MarketsReformWiki, our website focused on current market reform efforts. | Tesla CEO Elon Musk's Tweets Might Still Be a Problem for the SEC
Max A. Cherney and Al Root - Barron's
Freshly appointed Securities and Exchange Commissioner Gary Gensler has a problem: Tesla CEO Elon Musk and his tweets. The SEC reached an agreement with Tesla (ticker: TSLA) in September 2018 that was intended to establish more oversight over Chief Executive Elon Musk's Twitter (TWTR) posts, some of which have moved the company's stock. The agreement, which was reached after Musk tweeted about taking Tesla private with "funding secured," has rarely been enforced, leaving Gensler with a decision about what to do next.
/bit.ly/3D0Ugh2
SEC Leans Hard on China IPOs to Show How They're Set Up Offshore
Bloomberg News
Chinese companies applying to go public in the U.S. are facing increasingly detailed questions from the Securities and Exchange Commission about their offshore corporate structures, according to people familiar with the matter.
/yhoo.it/3CZIBz6
DeFi Not Immune to SEC Oversight, Gensler Says: Report
Jamie Crawley - Coindesk
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler has warned that decentralized finance (DeFi) projects are not immune to oversight by the markets regulator.
/yhoo.it/2W2GUQy
Evergrande Executives Summoned to Meeting With China's Financial Regulators; Indebted real-estate developer told to maintain stability in the property and financial markets
Xie Yu - WSJ
Chinese financial regulators summoned senior executives of troubled real-estate developer China Evergrande Group EGRNF -1.41% to a meeting on Thursday, and said the company needs to resolve its debt issues without destabilizing the property and financial markets.
/on.wsj.com/3CZgHDq
Sanjay Wadhwa Named Deputy Director of Enforcement Division
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced the appointment of Sanjay Wadhwa as Deputy Director of the Division of Enforcement. Mr. Wadhwa most recently served as the Senior Associate Director of the Division of Enforcement in the New York Regional Office (NYRO), where he managed more than 150 personnel in enforcing federal securities laws. His new role is effective immediately.
/bit.ly/3j69v0B
SEC Charges Netflix Insider Trading Ring
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced insider trading charges against three former Netflix Inc. software engineers and two close associates who generated over $3 million in total profits by trading on confidential information about Netflix's subscriber growth.
/bit.ly/2W2SqeK
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Why Jump's retail move to pull in the likes of the Reddit army could be a hit; The move to execute retail investor trades represents a further blurring of the line between the trading services offered to professional and retail clients
David Ricketts, Bérengère Sim and Trista Kelley - Financial News
The move by Jump Trading Group to launch a new business unit to execute stock orders on behalf of retail investors represents a further blurring of the line between the trading services offered to large, professional investors and the growing army of online retail traders, market experts say.
/bit.ly/3z3Jww8
Wall Street's CFA Program Is a Colossal Waste of Time; For many young finance workers, the three to five years it takes to study and pass all three levels would be better spent on just about any other pursuit.
Jared Dillian - Bloomberg
Twice a year, young finance workers perform a sacred ritual where they file into testing centers with Ziploc bags full of No. 2 pencils and financial calculators to take exams that will determine their future professional success. Maybe. I'm referring to the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) exams, which are notoriously difficult. The latest pass rate plummeted to the lowest ever, with only about 25% of test-takers passing Level I of the exams.
/bloom.bg/3iZNuAv
Rich Investors Are Buying Risky Credit That Banks Won't Touch; Private equity firms including Blackstone, Carlyle and Apollo are offering the wealthy products to invest in loans to midsized companies.
Olivia Raimonde and Heather Perlberg - Bloomberg
The higher risk, higher reward world of private credit is targeting the wealthy. Blackstone Group Inc., Carlyle Group Inc., Apollo Global Management Inc. and other large firms have started offering products for individuals to invest in loans to midsized companies that banks won't touch. The lure is a potential annual return at times surpassing 8%, when corporate bond return indexes are negative, plus a relatively low initial investment.
/bloom.bg/3z37c3B
Kids Jump on the Retail Investing Bandwagon, $5 at a Time; Parents are using fractional trading to teach children about the stock market, and patience.
Daniela Sirtori-Cortina - Bloomberg
One afternoon during a playdate, a friend asked Emmanuel Rodriguez why he didn't yet have a Nintendo gaming console. The 7-year-old shrugged off the question, countering that he owned something better: a piece of the company itself.
/bloom.bg/3yW8ddT
Stockpickers find new niche in thematic ETF strategies; Active ETFs represent a quarter of the 34 thematic ETFs that launched in the first seven months of the year
Jackie Noblett - FT
Stock picking has found a niche in the ETF market through thematic strategies, with more shops choosing to eschew indices in their new trend-following products.
/on.ft.com/3ARCeMs
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | It's Not a Competition, But Renewables Are Beating Nuclear Anyway; There's still a place for nuclear in the energy mix, if only investment would get back on track.
Nathaniel Bullard - Bloomberg
Energy giant BP Plc has been publishing its annual review of global energy statistics for seven decades. (I've been reading it — and digesting its data — for about a fifth of that time.)
/bloom.bg/2W9z3Rn
Banker Bonuses Tied to ESG Metrics Are on the Rise in Europe
Nicholas Comfort and Frances Schwartzkopff - Bloomberg
ESG-linked pay being expanded from executives to wider staff; European banks will soon be obliged to reflect ESG risk in pay
European bankers will soon have to show they're contributing to a cleaner environment, a better society and good governance -- or face a smaller pay package. In the latest sign that ESG is reshaping finance, most of the 20 major European banks surveyed by Bloomberg said they were either working on, or already had, a model that links staff remuneration to a firm's performance on sustainability metrics. That's as European regulators explicitly add ESG risks to pay guidelines, with the change due to take effect by the end of 2021.
/bloom.bg/3z58c7E
China Approves Renewable Mega-Project for Green Hydrogen
Dan Murtaugh - Bloomberg
Inner Mongolian project to use solar, wind to produce hydrogen; It's biggest such development to be driven by government: BNEF
The Chinese region of Inner Mongolia has approved a massive power project that will use solar and wind to produce green hydrogen. Inner Mongolia's Energy Administration has given the go ahead to a cluster of plants in the cities of Ordos and Baotou that will use 1.85 gigawatts of solar and 370 megawatts of wind to produce 66,900 tons of green hydrogen a year, the Hydrogen Energy Industry Promotion Association said in a report. Development will begin in October and the projects will be operational in mid-2023, the association said, without specifying the cost or the developers.
/bloom.bg/37YETYe
Parched Egypt Seeks Partners for $2.5 Billion Desalination Plan
Mirette Magdy - Bloomberg
Renewables-powered plants aim to address water scarcity; Wealth fund wants to team up with local, foreign investors
Egypt is seeking partners to invest in a $2.5 billion initiative to build more than a dozen renewable energy-powered desalination plants by 2025, as the country tries to tackle looming water scarcity.
/bloom.bg/3z0dLnO
Chile Drought Forces Copper Output Cuts in Top Producing Nation
Thomas Biesheuvel - Bloomberg
Antofagasta Plc warned it will produce less copper than expected this year as Chile's ongoing drought hampers its operations. Chile, which includes some of the world's driest deserts, has been struggling with a decade-long drought exacerbated by climate change. That's impacting miners, farmers and wine makers and has led the government to reform its water code.
/bloom.bg/3sxgjqM
Deutsche Bank Plans $1.2 Billion in Turkey ESG Finance Deals
Ercan Ersoy - Bloomberg
Deutsche is in talks with clients to provide ESG-labeled funds; Deutsche, JPMorgan among banks to explore new ESG products
Deutsche Bank AG is in talks with a number of Turkish clients to ramp up funding it says will be tied to environmental, social and governance metrics, as part of a wider plan to tap into an increasingly lucrative corner of finance.
/bloom.bg/37WeEll
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Hedge Funds Blindsided by China Risk With New Warning
Katherine Burton and Brian Chappatta - Bloomberg
Ray Dalio insists that the swings in Chinese markets are little more than "wiggles." But for a certain subset of hedge-fund managers, the consequences of Beijing's crackdown might seem more like an earthquake.
/yhoo.it/3ANh7Lc
Goldman Sachs Buys Dutch Money Manager in $1.9 Billion Deal
Joost Akkermans and Tom Metcalf - Bloomberg
CEO Solomon sees NN deal accelerating ESG, growth strategy; Purchase marks latest expansion of bank's European operations
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. agreed to buy the asset-management arm of Dutch insurer NN Group NV as the bank grabs a toehold in the fast-growing sustainable-investing industry and boosts its European ties.
/bloom.bg/2W4qpU4
***** Here are the FT version, and The Trade version of this story.
Fidelity International Tests Flexible Working, Mulls Pay Rises
Nishant Kumar and Francine Lacqua - Bloomberg
Asset manager considering pay bump in response to inflation; CEO Anne Richards makes comments in Bloomberg TV interview
Fidelity International staff are trying out new ways of flexible working and may get a bump in pay as the asset manager grapples with a pandemic that's upended working habits and fueled inflationary pressures.
/bloom.bg/3y1tuRW
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | Afghanistan has 22 tons of gold in a New York vault. The Taliban can't touch it.
Quartz
The Biden administration has frozen the Afghanistan government's holdings in US banks, preventing the Taliban from accessing billions of dollars—a major, if indeterminate, part of the country's foreign reserves. Among the assets trapped in this freeze is a stash of gold bars deposited in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. According to figures published by Afghanistan's central bank, the deposit amounted to roughly 22 tons of gold as of December 2020, the most recent date for which this data is available. At current prices benchmarked by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), the gold is worth around $1.25 billion.
/bit.ly/2W0bg6K
The City has the richest bankers, but Brexit sees 100 flee; Senior dealmakers are increasingly shifting from the UK to Europe
Paul Clarke - Financial News
Nearly 100 top-earning bankers left the UK for other European Union countries ahead of Brexit, new figures from the European Banking Authority show, but the City remains by far the top location for investment bankers earning over EUR1m. The European regulator, which produces an annual survey of top-earning bankers in the region, showed that 96 left the UK in 2019, the latest period for which numbers are available, with France, Germany and Italy seeing sharp percentage increases in the number of dealmakers.
/bit.ly/2W5jt96
The Taliban are sitting on $1 trillion worth of minerals the world desperately needs
Julia Horowitz, - CNN Business
The swift fall of Afghanistan to Taliban fighters two decades after the United States invaded the country has triggered a political and humanitarian crisis. It's also causing security experts to wonder: What's going to happen to the country's vast untapped mineral wealth?
/cnn.it/3g8GBLh
India's Gold Supply for Festivals May Stumble on New Purity Rule
Swansy Afonso - Bloomberg
India's new purity standards for gold could choke supply in the second-biggest consumer just as demand is expected to rebound. Jewelers may find it difficult to fulfill orders during the peak festival season starting next month, as they are facing delays in getting their goods certified under the country's new hallmarking standards. The new rules were introduced in June and jewelers will be fined for selling non-certified goods from September.
/yhoo.it/2W2TQ9i
China Tech Rout Deepens as New Regulations Mulled; Alibaba Dives
Bloomberg News
The rout in Chinese technology giants deepened on Thursday after the industry was hit with a fresh round of proposed regulations. The Hang Seng Tech Index closed 2.9% lower after earlier falling to lowest since its inception in July 2020 with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. slumping 5.5% to a record low in Hong Kong. Video streaming giant Kuaishou Technology slid 7.1% to close at new all-time low for a fifth consecutive session.
/yhoo.it/3y0gQ5V
Taliban face cash crisis as central banks move to block $340m transfer
Tim Wallace - The Telegraph
Afghanistan faces a financial crunch amid its takeover by the Taliban as the nation braces to be cut off from the next transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars from the International Monetary Fund.
/yhoo.it/2Wb6in2
China lures Western fund managers to tackle looming pensions crisis
Simon Foy - The Telegraph
As tensions rise with the West and its leaders crack down on tech entrepreneurs, China is becoming an increasingly hard place to make a fortune. But one group of professionals is still being welcomed with open arms in the Communist state.
/yhoo.it/3swHbax
How 'Bad Bank' China Huarong Tested Too Big to Fail: QuickTake
Rebecca Choong Wilkins - Bloomberg
What happens when a company set up by the Chinese government to help clean up toxic debt in the country's banking system gets into trouble itself? We're finding out now. Investors were spooked in April after China Huarong Asset Management Co., one of the country's biggest distressed asset managers, failed to release financial statements on time. That raised questions not only about its financial health, but also whether the central government would let a state-backed institution fail. A presumed safety net has long been priced into Chinese bond values -- and a rescue package unveiled in August suggests Beijing isn't ready to pull it.
/bloom.bg/3APpype
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