| March 20, 2023 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | | | John Lothian
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
Well that was fun while it lasted and it did not last very long. Number one seeds Purdue and Kansas lost over the weekend in the Men's NCAA basketball championship tournament and broke apart millions of betting brackets. My Boilers exited in the first round in a train wreck to the fairly ridiculous 16th-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson. Slate called it "That Was the Worst Loss in the History of College Basketball." I can't claim to be a basketball historian, but the claim does not feel that far off.
Kansas, the rival of my two sons' University of Missouri, lost to Arkansas. However, Missouri lost to Princeton, so the family is without an alma mater to root for. As strange as this might seem, I am left rooting for Purdue's arch-rival, Walt Lukken's Indiana University Hoosiers.
It appears that Credit Suisse has been saved from the disgrace of being nationalized. UBS is buying the beleaguered Swiss bank in a deal worth more than $3 billion, The Wall Street Journal reports. As part of the deal, investors in Credit Suisse Additional Tier 1 bonds will have all their value wiped out, $17 billion of it. This is a huge deal as bonds are normally above equity and Credit Suisse stockholders are being paid $3.23 billion under the UBS deal, Reuters reported.
The Financial Times noted that the dress code at the FIA's Boca conference was different this year as the crypto bros had mostly disappeared, and those that were in attendance were in blazers.
The LME discovered bags of rocks that were supposed to be bags of nickel at a warehouse in Rotterdam. However, the amount of metal represented by the rocks is just .04% of live nickel inventories on the LME, worth about $1.3 million at current prices, Bloomberg reported.
A story in Bloomberg about the Chicago mayoral election talks about how frontrunner Paul Vallas is taking a leaf out of former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's book to lure business back. In the story, it mentions the CME Group, Terry Duffy and his wife's carjacking (the story that will not die) and the Cboe and how the exchange giants were persuaded to stay in Chicago.
There is a new tractor that runs on cow manure made into liquified methane, Bloomberg reported. The tractor costs more, but emits less and helps the farms smell better, as they use a system that puts a tent over manure lagoons to capture the methane. For mid-sized farms in the UK, this is a nice solution that cuts down on diesel consumption and can even produce methane gas to sell or use in other ways on the farm.
The world happiness report is out again and Finland has won again for the sixth year in a row. The Nordic countries dominated the top of the happiness ranking, with the United States taking 15th place, Bloomberg reported.
Inflation poses a problem for a store like the Dollar Tree, whose items average $1.25. Dollar Tree recently pulled eggs from the list of items it sold because the price had jumped 60% in the last year and the store was not able to make a profit, the New York Post reported.
It is Leo Melamed's birthday today. Wish him a happy birthday via the Melamed Associates email address, info@melamedassoc.com
Cheryl and I drop our son Robby off at the Sarasota airport today and then start heading north, back to Illinois and Elmhurst. As we drive back from Florida, we should be back in Illinois by Wednesday.
Have a great day and stay safe and treat people the same way you want to be treated: with respect, equality and justice.~JJL
*****
The UN 2023 Water Conference is March 22 - 24 in New York. Representatives of 192 countries will come together to commit to actions that support SDG 6, ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for the planet. You can learn more here. Follow conference developments at the hashtags #UNwaterconference and #wateraction on social media. ~SAED
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Mars chief hits out at 'nonsense' attacks on corporate ESG; Poul Weihrauch says petcare and chocolate group will fail to attract younger employees if it only focuses on profits
Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson - Financial Times
Companies that back off their social and environmental commitments in the face of "nonsense" political attacks risk alienating a generation of talent, Mars' new chief executive has warned as he raised the prospect of doubling the group's revenues over the coming decade. Sales at the family-owned petcare, chocolate and chewing gum group "could well double in a decade" to $90bn, Poul Weihrauch told the Financial Times in his first interview since becoming CEO last September. However, he added, its more important target was "responsible" growth.
/jlne.ws/3JRO94c
***** Don't worry, anti-woke politicians are going to outlaw workers.~JJL
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Unchecked corporate pricing power is a factor in US inflation
Financial Times
There is a strong correlation between the rising share of corporate profits in gross domestic product and the sharp price rises in the US after the Covid pandemic, according to a paper published by the University of Massachusetts. Having made windfall profits on the back of commodity price fluctuations and supply bottlenecks, large companies have been emboldened to raise prices further to increase profit margins.
/jlne.ws/3Z0e26c
****** Large companies without stout competition can and will raise prices.~JJL
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Crypto Wants Its Shine Back; After a miserable year, cryptocurrency companies are looking for ways to rebrand products that many consumers no longer trust.
David Yaffe-Bellany, Erin Griffith - The New York Times
At a cryptocurrency conference in Denver this month, a group of singers clad in bright orange onesies took the stage to perform what one industry website later described as an anthem for the crypto faithful, a "blockchain 'Blowin' in the Wind.'" The chorus was a list of crypto's most notorious villains, from the trash-talking entrepreneur Do Kwon to the disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, punctuated by four-letter expletives.
/jlne.ws/402aAJy
****** The great thing about crypto is that it is like Imelda Marcos; there is always another shoe or pair or shoes to drop.~JJL
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Finland Crowned World's Happiest for Sixth Year Running in Ranking Dominated by Nordics; Nordic countries dominate the top of the happiness ranking; US takes 15th place and Lithuania has soared in recent years
Leo Laikola - Bloomberg
Finland ranks as the world's happiest country for the sixth consecutive year, an unprecedented feat in a list that's now been published for more than a decade.
/jlne.ws/3FAtJtY
******There must be something in the vodka.~JJL
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Friday's Top Three
Our most read item Friday was Cboe's press release Cboe to Host Global Risk Management Conference, October 17-20 in Austin, Texas. Second was Bloomberg's Russian Media, Crypto Scammers Seize on SVB Panic. Third was $2.7 Trillion Wall of Expiring Options a Worry for Traders Reeling From Bank Crisis, also from Bloomberg.
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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 | Credit Suisse Bond-Wipeout Threatens $250 Billion Market; Deal would write down more than $17 billion of the bank's riskiest bonds
Matt Wirz and Caitlin McCabe - The Wall Street Journal
Credit Suisse Group AG's emergency merger with UBS Group AG will wipe out the bank's riskiest bonds, rattling investors in the quarter-trillion-dollar market for similar European bank debt. About 16 billion Swiss francs, or about $17.3 billion, of the so-called additional tier 1 bonds will be completely written down, Switzerland's financial regulator, Finma, said in a Sunday statement. Credit Suisse also referenced the decision in a statement, saying it was informed by Finma that the bonds would be "written off to zero."
/jlne.ws/402sg7X
UBS agrees $3.25bn rescue deal for rival Credit Suisse; Regulators engineer takeover of stricken bank by larger Swiss competitor after frantic weekend
Arash Massoudi, Stephen Morris, James Fontanella-Khan, Laura Noonan, Owen Walker and Sam Jones - Financial Times
UBS agreed to buy Credit Suisse for $3.25bn after a frantic weekend of negotiations brokered by Swiss regulators to safeguard the country's banking system and attempt to prevent a crisis spreading across global markets. The historic deal follows five days in which the Swiss establishment raced to end a deepening crisis at Credit Suisse that threatened to topple the country's second-largest lender.
/jlne.ws/3n7gASG
LME Rocked by New Nickel Scandal After Finding Bags of Stones; Problem found at Access World Rotterdam warehouse: sources; Metal had been registered in the warehouse since early 2022
Jack Farchy, Mark Burton and Archie Hunter - Bloomberg
The London Metal Exchange has discovered bags of stones instead of the nickel that underpinned a handful of its contracts at a warehouse in Rotterdam, in a revelation that will deliver another blow to confidence in the embattled exchange. The amount of metal represents just 0.14% of live nickel inventories on the LME, worth about $1.3 million at current prices, so the immediate impact on metals markets is limited.
/jlne.ws/3Jvoflj
Credit Suisse's Death Gives Birth to New Type of Bank Crisis; Solid ratios were no defense against a rapid loss of confidence at the Swiss lender, and the way it is being unwound sparks fresh banking sector fears
Stephen Wilmot and Telis Demos - The Wall Street Journal
With Credit Suisse, investors just got their first, messy view of what happens when a big global bank fails in the post-2008 era. UBS agreed to buy its local rival over the weekend in a historic deal brokered by Swiss regulators. Credit Suisse shareholders will get UBS shares that were worth the equivalent of about $3.25 billion before the market opened on Monday, and less after the acquirer's stock fell about 5% on Monday morning. Credit Suisse had a market value of some $8 billion at the end of last week and a tangible book value of $45 billion.
/jlne.ws/401qlAE
Opinion: The end of the 'everything bubble' has finally hit the banking system. Credit Suisse and SVB might be just the first of many shocks.
Satyajit Das - MarketWatch
Major financial market regime changes typically take place in stages. The crypto meltdown in 2022, for example, incurred about $2 trillion of losses. The technology meltdown followed, with losses of about $5 trillion, the U.K. government bond (gilt) crisis ($500 billion in losses), plus an ongoing emerging market debt crisis. These problems have now reached the world's financial system, with U.S., European and Japanese banks losing around $460 billion in market value so far in March alone.
/jlne.ws/3JwjFDo
Credit Suisse Bailout Crosses a Debt Rubicon; The world of bank capitalization is about to become a lot more volatile.
Marcus Ashworth - Bloomberg
UBS Group AG, having subsumed Swiss Bank Corp. 25 years ago, is now absorbing Credit Suisse Group AG, creating a single Swiss banking giant. The Credit Suisse shareholders get something, the senior bondholders are protected - but that luxury does not extend down the capital stack. How banks are able to finance themselves is poised to become a lot more challenging.
/jlne.ws/3TuFTKz
It's Still Unstable After the Swiss Avalanche; Can there be only one? The desperate takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS may fend off a crisis, only to push banks further toward natural monopolies.
John Authers - Bloomberg
And Then There Was One
Switzerland is a famously distributed country, with each mountain redoubt guarding its independence. Its banking system has traditionally been like that too. But, it seems, no longer. There are still plenty of small cantonal banks serving local communities, and a few international private banks catering to the wealthy. But this week's desperation move to engineer the acquisition of Credit Suisse Group AG by UBS Group AG (itself formed by the mega-merger of Union Bank of Switzerland and Swiss Bank Corp. 25 years ago) leaves the nation with just one universal bank.
/jlne.ws/40iOxOv
How Scandal and Mistrust Ended Credit Suisse's 166-Year Run; Government-brokered sale to UBS marks final fall from grace; Decline stretched from the 'burning bed' to trading debacles
Marion Halftermeyer and Myriam Balezou - Bloomberg
Credit Suisse Group AG, once one of the stalwarts of the global financial system, is no more. After tense talks over the weekend, UBS Group AG agreed to buy Credit Suisse in an all-share deal for about $3.25 billion, less than the market value of troubled US lender First Republic Bank. The government-brokered sale marks the Swiss bank's final fall from grace, succumbing to a crisis of confidence that threatened to spread to global financial markets.
/jlne.ws/3TrQO7U
*****Also see: Credit Suisse, the Risk-Taking Swiss Banking Giant, Succumbs to Crisis - The Wall Street Journal
Who's Afraid of the Asian Market Open? Despite the region's impressive growth, events in the US still matter greatly. So much for decoupling.
Daniel Moss - Bloomberg
The squalls unleashed by Silicon Valley Bank's failure and the government response are barely a week old. In crisis talks Sunday, UBS Group AG agreed to a government-brokered $3.3 billion deal to buy Credit Suisse Group AG. That hasn't prevented finger pointing and the industry of lessons-learned swinging into full gear. Time to scrutinize another uncomfortable assumption: What is so special about the deadline of the Asian market open on Monday morning? The question is unfinished business from the last big banking blowup.
/jlne.ws/3JSufWQ
US Bank Deposits Fell $54 Billion In Week Before SVB Collapse
Alexandre Tanzi - Bloomberg
Deposits at US lenders continued to slide in the week before three bank failures triggered a bout of global financial turmoil. Bank deposits fell by $54.4 billion to $17.6 trillion in the week ended March 8, according to Federal Reserve data released Friday. Deposits have declined by some $500 billion from their peak in April last year, a steady drop that's added to strains in the financial system.
/jlne.ws/3JPmMb6
FTX Had a Nearly $7 Billion Balance Sheet Hole When it Went Bust; Firm had assets of $4.8 billion, debts of $11.6 billion; Silo that ran US crypto exchange had $87 million shortfall
Jeremy Hill - Bloomberg
The FTX crypto empire had a roughly $6.8 billion gap in its balance sheet when it filed for bankruptcy last year, advisers to the group have determined. Assets across Sam Bankman-Fried's crypto conglomerate totaled about $4.8 billion against debts of roughly $11.6 billion when FTX and affiliates crashed into Chapter 11 protection in November, according to a presentation filed to the bankruptcy court Friday.
/jlne.ws/3Tr7wo2
Bank Turmoil Poses $600 Billion Question for Battered Investors; Market value of largest lenders drops about $600 billion; Analysts say banks in the spotlight are unique cases
Harry Wilson - Bloomberg
Markets are grappling with a $600 billion question right now. Are the half-dozen banks in the spotlight outliers or a warning sign of a wider malaise in the financial sector? Bank investors have largely been selling first and leaving that question for later.
/jlne.ws/40hmwXG
Swiss investors consider legal action over Credit Suisse deal
Owen Walker - Financial Times
Investors have hit out at UBS's takeover of Credit Suisse, saying they will consider legal action over emergency measures that meant shareholders did not get a vote on the transaction. Ethos Foundation, which speaks on behalf of pension funds and other institutional investors that own up to 5 per cent of both banks, said the takeover was "a huge waste for the shareholders and the Swiss economy".
/jlne.ws/42D7IVx
These Credit Suisse Bonds Signal the Bank's $54 Billion Lifeline May Not Be Enough; Bail-in bonds may be converted to equity if regulators step in; Some investors start to see buying opportunity after lifeline
Irene Garcia Perez, Tasos Vossos, Giulia Morpurgo and Abhinav Ramnarayan - Bloomberg
A category of Credit Suisse Group AG bonds is warning that a liquidity lifeline from Switzerland's central bank may not be enough to stabilize the embattled lender. The bank's holding company has almost 76 billion Swiss francs ($82 billion) of bail-in senior bonds and additional tier 1 notes that are trading at distressed levels.
/jlne.ws/3yPLnWT
Leader of International Seabed Mining Agency Admonished by Diplomats
Eric Lipton - The New York Times
Michael Lodge, the head of the United Nations-affiliated agency with jurisdiction over international ocean waters, has pushed diplomats to accelerate the start of industrial-scale mining at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, members of the International Seabed Authority's governing council said in interviews. The criticism of Mr. Lodge, who has served as secretary general of the authority since 2016, comes as the diplomats struggle to decide how to respond when the authority receives an application for commercial seabed mining in international waters, which is expected to happen later this year.
/jlne.ws/3yPOHBl
Close to 190 banks could face Silicon Valley Bank's fate, according to a new study
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy - USA Today
On the heels of Silicon Valley Bank's collapse earlier this month, 186 more banks are at risk of failure even if only half of their depositors decide to withdraw their funds, a new study has found. That is because the Federal Reserve's aggressive interest rate hikes to tamp down inflation have eroded the value of bank assets such as government bonds and mortgage-backed securities.
/jlne.ws/3FCUU7o
BoE plans to overhaul bank capital rules put £44bn in SME lending at risk; Report estimates proposal to remove favourable treatment for small companies could affect quarter of loans
Laura Noonan - Financial Times
Plans to revamp UK bank capital rules risk a 25 per cent cut in lending to small businesses, threatening jobs and economic growth, a new study has warned. The Bank of England's Prudential Regulation Authority announced the controversial plans to overhaul the capital treatment for small business lending in December, as part of broader proposals to introduce the final package of Basel rules in the UK.
/jlne.ws/42rqRJS
'We Never Thought a Bank So Successful Could Collapse So Fast'; Silicon Valley Bank's strength, its close ties to the tech industry, also contributed to its failure
Gregory Zuckerman, Ben Eisen and Hannah Miao - The Wall Street Journal
Silicon Valley Bank was a center of gravity in the tech industry. Its bankers understood technology and were eager to support unproven companies. They gave advice to executives and made personal loans to them, helping them splurge on homes and vineyards. The bankers hosted poker games, cooking classes, boat parties and mixers that brought together entrepreneurs and investors.
/jlne.ws/3LEOqc2
What Was Eating Tom Lee?
William D. Cohan - Puck
Given the shocking nature of the sudden death of Thomas H. Lee last week-by suicide, reportedly from a single gunshot wound to the head from a Smith & Wesson revolver-the paeans to the 78-year-old buyout titan have come fast and furious. He was found shortly after 11 a.m. last Thursday morning by his assistant in the bathroom off his sixth-floor private office in the General Motors building on Fifth Avenue, a skyscraper that Donald Trump once owned and that houses such tenants as Estee Lauder, the cosmetics empire, Weil Gotshal, the law firm, and Perella Weinberg, the boutique investment bank.
/jlne.ws/40h6Fsa
Why People Are Worried About Banks
Christine Zhang, David Enrich, Karl Russell and Ella Koeze - The New York Times
Banks are teetering as customers yank their deposits. Markets are seesawing as investors scurry toward safety. Regulators are scrambling after years of complacency. Fifteen years ago, the world careened into a devastating financial crisis, precipitated by the collapse of the American housing market. Today, a different culprit is stressing the financial system: rapidly rising interest rates.
/jlne.ws/3FAEpIZ
Former Merrill Star Linked to 2008 Crisis in Spotlight Again With Tax Trial; Semerci accused of profiting from Cum-Ex tax dividend scheme; German trial to focus attention on former Duet Group traders
Donal Griffin, Karin Matussek and Greg Farrell - Bloomberg
Osman Semerci, a once-rising star at Merrill Lynch & Co. until the unit he oversaw helped usher in the firm's demise, is in the spotlight again. Authorities charged Semerci and three other people linked to the London-based asset manager Duet Group last year for their involvement in Cum-Ex, a stock-trading strategy that exploited gaps in how Germany collected dividend taxes. They are accused of participating in a scheme that generated more than EUR92 million in allegedly illicit tax refunds in 2010.
/jlne.ws/3YZmDWH
Norway's $1.3 Trillion Wealth Fund Cut Credit Suisse Stake Earlier This Year
Kari Lundgren - Bloomberg
Norway's $1.3 trillion sovereign wealth fund said it reduced its holding in Credit Suisse Group AG earlier this year. "Since year-end we have reduced our holding in Credit Suisse and we now have an ownership stake of around 1%," spokesperson Line Aaltvedt said Monday. "We are closely monitoring the situation in the market, and especially the situation concerning North-American and European banks."
/jlne.ws/3LFgOL8
Global warming of 1.5C in sight and will hit 3 present generations, UN reports; Risks of warming and irreversible changes to the planet greater than thought in previous assessment in 2014
Attracta Mooney and Camilla Hodgson - Financial Times
Global warming is "more likely than not" in the near-term to reach a 1.5C rise since pre-industrial times, the world's top scientists said, and climate change already taking place will continue across the lifespan of three generations born in 1950, 1970 and 2020, The summary of the most advanced climate science by hundreds of scientists as part of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found the risks of warming were greater than was thought at the time of the last assessment in 2014. Some regions had already reached the "limits" of what they could adapt to.
/jlne.ws/3ljJ3o8
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | Russia will extend Ukraine grain deal for 60 days - not 120
Edith M. Lederer - AP
On the eve of the expiration of a deal enabling Ukraine to export grain, the United Nations' humanitarian chief on Friday called its extension crucial to ensuring global food supplies and keeping prices from spiraling as they did after Russia's invasion of its smaller neighbor. Russia's U.N. ambassador reiterated that Moscow is ready to extend the deal - but only for 60 days, just half the 120 days in the agreement.
/jlne.ws/3JxKMyd
War in Ukraine Has Supercharged This German Weapons Maker; Demand for Rheinmetall's ammo has surged, and so has its share price
Alistair MacDonald and Bojan Pancevski - The Wall Street Journal
The war in Ukraine has made munitions maker Rheinmetall AG a key player in the global arms trade, catapulting the once low-profile German manufacturer into one of Europe's most important weapons suppliers. Since Russia's invasion last year, Rheinmetall's shares have risen 150%, and the company has reported record earnings and orders, with the conflict's artillery-heavy nature pointing to strong future demand for its shells.
/jlne.ws/40jRLkZ
Russia says it will destroy fighter jets sent to Ukraine
Reuters
Russia said on Friday that all fighter jets supplied to Ukraine by Western nations would be destroyed after NATO members Poland and Slovakia pledged to send MiG-29 jets to Kyiv. Since Russia's invasion last year NATO countries have sent billions of dollars of military aid to Ukraine, as Kyiv asks for weapons it says are vital to fend off Russian advances.
/jlne.ws/3yQsgMp
The West Can't Afford Hubris About Russia's War in Ukraine; Western nations might fare better in foreign policy if we tried harder to understand why many don't support our campaign for Ukraine's freedom.
Max Hastings - Bloomberg
A military friend of mine recently visited a relatively honestly governed African state. He asked its president why he does not support the West on Ukraine. His host answered: "I can't see what's different between what Russia is doing there and what the West did in Iraq." We could suggest responses to that, starting with an assertion of American good intentions in Iraq - the desire to make its people free, rather than to enslave them as Russia seeks to do with Ukraine.
/jlne.ws/3yRrMWo
Explosives shortage threatens EU drive to arm Ukraine; Scarce gunpowder and TNT supplies delay shift to 'large-scale war production', defence industry and officials warn
Henry Foy, Barney Jopson and Guy Chazan - Financial Times
Europe's push to make arms for Ukraine has been hobbled by a shortage of explosives, which industry insiders fear will delay efforts to boost shell production by as much as three years. Scarce supplies of gunpowder, plastic explosives and TNT have left industry unable to rapidly meet expected EU orders for Ukraine, regardless of how much money is thrown at the problem, according to officials and producers.
/jlne.ws/3FYxSbB
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | Indonesia pledges policy transparency with new palm oil exchange
Bernadette Christina and Dewi Kurniawati - Reuters
Indonesia's plan to channel crude palm oil (CPO) exports via a futures exchange would improve policymaking in the top producer and avoid a need for the type of export ban that sent shockwaves through global markets last year, its chief regulator said. Authorities aim to require all CPO exports to go through a futures exchange starting from June in order to create Indonesia's own benchmark price, similar to benchmarks in exchanges in Kuala Lumpur and Rotterdam. Currently, nearly all CPO shipments from Indonesia are directly conducted with buyers.
/jlne.ws/403HOZa
Kick-off of Euronext STAR Conference 2023
Euronext
From 21 to 23 March 2023, Euronext will host its annual STAR investor conference in Milan, where 63 companies listed on Borsa Italiana's STAR segment will meet with 250 investors representing 153 asset management firms; The Euronext STAR Conference and market segment demonstrate Euronext's ongoing commitment to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in their growth journey. The 22nd edition of the Euronext STAR Conference in Milan will take place from tomorrow, 21 March, until 23 March. The conference is an excellent opportunity for the companies listed on the STAR segment of Borsa Italiana to engage with investors from around the globe. By facilitating these meetings, the conference aims to encourage productive dialogue and support the growth of these companies.
/jlne.ws/42splH8
Nasdaq Stockholm Celebrates its 160th Anniversary
Nasdaq
Nasdaq Stockholm celebrates its 160th Anniversary this year, marking the milestone with the launch of a series of internal and external events over the coming months in recognition of the deep history and heritage of the exchange, including a bell ceremony during the Almedalen Week. Founded in 1863, Nasdaq Stockholm has supported job creation and growth across the Swedish and European economy. As an important part of the Swedish investment community, retail capital flows representing more than a third of First North and 15 percent of our main market.
/jlne.ws/3YZ2Vus
Invalidation Of Nine Nickel Warrants And Asian Hours Nickel Trading Postponement
LME
1. This Notice informs the market of the invalidation of nine nickel warrants, and announces a one-week postponement to the LME's return to Asian trading hours nickel trading.
Invalidation of nine nickel warrants 2. In recent months, the LME has been alert to reports of cargo irregularities in the broader physical nickel market, and in particular, any possible implications for the LME. The Exchange has robust rules and processes, and contractual arrangements in place with warehouse operators, to maintain oversight over LME-warranted metal and to protect the market as a whole.
/jlne.ws/3vimcfa
Changes at NZX Board
NZX
The NZX Board today announced it has withdrawn its endorsement of Rob Hamilton as Chair Elect of the NZX. Following the announcement of the AUSTRAC proceedings against SkyCity Adelaide in December 2022, the NZX Board has considered Mr Hamilton's position. After careful consideration, the Board has determined that, in the interests of NZX and noting its position as the operator of New Zealand's capital markets, it can no longer endorse Mr Hamilton as proposed Chair while the proceedings remain unresolved.
/jlne.ws/3Z3ysLH
Gen Z investors prove their mettle at NUS-SGX Stock Pitch Competition 2023
SGX Group
It was a battle of wits and stock ideas at the NUS-SGX Stock Pitch Competition 2023, with a team from National University of Singapore (NUS) emerging victorious among 68 competing teams from nine pre-tertiary and tertiary institutions. Marking its ninth edition this year, the NUS-SGX Stock Pitch Competition is an initiative that brings together the academic and corporate domains of equity research and investment management with the goal of inspiring the young generation to start investing early. It is a platform that provides students with a chance to showcase their research abilities and compete against each other by presenting their stock pitches to a panel of judges.
/jlne.ws/3JPIM5E
TMX Group to appoint Luc Bertrand as Chair of the Board; Charles Winograd to retire at 2023 annual shareholder
TMX Group
TMX Group today announced its intention to appoint Luc Bertrand as Chair of the Board upon his election as an independent director at the company's Annual and Special Meeting on May 2, 2023. Charles Winograd will retire from the board at that time, following more than a decade of service as Chair.
/jlne.ws/3JQbi7g
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | Wirecard fraudster Jan Marsalek's grandfather was suspected Russian spy; Austrian authorities linked anti-Nazi fighter Hans Marsalek with kidnap and torture of four people in postwar era
Sam Jones - Financial Times
Since 2020, European intelligence agencies have been desperately trying to assess whether Jan Marsalek, the suave and enigmatic mastermind of the Wirecard fraud, was also an agent of Russia's intelligence agencies. A formerly secret document unearthed from Austria's state archives may now provide a missing piece of the puzzle.
/jlne.ws/3LF8gnx
Will software for CFOs create a bright spot in a battered fintech market?
Richard Drury - TechCrunch
The comedown from the venture capital boom of 2021 has shaken up much of the startup world, but the dearth of capital has shown up sharply in one particular niche: fintech. CB Insights data indicates that after reaching a peak in 2021, funding to fintech startups across the world dropped a drastic 46% to $75.2 billion from $139.8 billion a year ago. Early 2023 data is still trickling in, but we've yet to hear from anyone that venture funding to fintech will rebound. Yes, Stripe's $6.5 billion raise might skew tallies somewhat, but let's not forget that it's also a down round.
/jlne.ws/3yQYlnj
Silicon Valley Bank's crash is providing valuable lessons all over the world
Christine Hall - TechCrunch
We've learned a lot more about the Silicon Valley Bank collapse since the last time you read this newsletter (lots and lots). The latest being that SVB Financial filed for Chapter 11. And First Republic Bank, which was ensnared in all this mess earlier this week, found some saviors in the way of some of the nation's largest banks that reportedly came together to bolster the bank with around $30 billion in rescue deposits.
/jlne.ws/407pCOw
GPT-4 from OpenAI shows advances - and money making potential; Microsoft-backed group shifts towards showing less openness amid race to commercialize AI systems
Madhumita Murgia - Financial Times
Klinton Bicknell was let into one of the technology world's great secrets last September. The head of AI at the language learning app Duolingo, was given rare access to GPT-4, a new artificial intelligence model created by Microsoft-backed OpenAI. He soon discovered the new AI system was even more advanced than OpenAI's earlier version used to power the hit ChatGPT chatbot that provides realistic answers in response to text prompts.
/jlne.ws/42nev5s
Virtual Reality Is Still Trying to Get Game; Despite high-profile attempts, VR remains a niche in videogames as Sony tees up another attempt to crack the market
Dan Gallagher - The Wall Street Journal
Far from launching a "metaverse," virtual reality hasn't made much of a dent in what should have been the easiest market to crack. Are videogamers finally ready to strap themselves in? Sony, at least, is betting that they are. The electronics giant that sells one of the world's most popular videogame consoles launched the second version of its virtual-reality headset late last month. Called the PlayStation VR2, the new device comes more than six years after Sony's first attempt to bring VR gaming to the masses.
/jlne.ws/40n0SBd
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | FLASH FRIDAY: Cybersecurity Moves to Front Burner
Editorial Staff - Traders Magazine
Concern about cybersecurity is a quintessential "evergreen" - not especially time-sensitive - topic in financial journalism. Concern is always out there, and presumably always will be, so a reporter can always run a story about that concern. But the topic has recently moved from the newspaper equivalent of perhaps page B6, to front page, above the fold. Cybersecurity, and its close cousin cyber resilience, were indeed headline discussion topics at the annual International Futures Industry Conference in Boca Raton, Florida this week. Cybersecurity is a perennial at FIA Boca, but on the heels of the recent ION ransomware attack and amid war in Ukraine and increased geopolitical tensions, it was decidedly front-burner this year.
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Dark Web 'BreachForums' Operator Charged With Computer Crime
Bob Van Voris and William Turton - Bloomberg
Federal agents have arrested a Peekskill, New York, man they say ran the notorious dark web data-breach site "BreachForums" under the name "Pompompurin." Conor Brian Fitzpatrick was arrested by a team of investigators at his home around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, an FBI agent said in a sworn statement filed in court the next day. Fitzpatrick is charged with a single count of conspiracy to commit access device fraud.
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | Sam Bankman-Fried, U.S. prosecutors near new bail agreement
Jonathan Stempel - Reuters
Lawyers for Sam Bankman-Fried are nearing an agreement with U.S. prosecutors on revised bail conditions for the indicted FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder, who is trying to convince a skeptical judge he should remain free. In a letter filed on Friday night in Manhattan federal court, Bankman-Fried's lawyer Christian Everdell said both sides believed they were "close to a resolution", and expect to formally propose new restrictions by next week.
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FTX's Bahamas Arm a 'Nullity' That Should Be Stripped of Assets: Court Filings
Jack Schickler - CoinDesk
FTX wants to strip the company's Bahamas arm from any claim over company assets, saying it is a mere shell set up to further alleged fraud by founder Sam Bankman-Fried, the company's U.S. leadership said in a Sunday legal filing.
/jlne.ws/3LBKJnI
Signature's Crypto Business Wasn't Part of Takeover Deal; Flagstar's takeover didn't include Signature's crypto business; Signet platform is currently under receivership, FDIC says
Yueqi Yang - Bloomberg
Signature Bank's crypto-related deposits will be returned to customers directly, rather than being taken over by a unit of New York Community Bancorp under a deal announced Sunday.
/jlne.ws/3loHqFD
Humbled 'crypto bros' don blazers for Boca Raton; Digital disrupters in short supply at derivatives conference and those there had given up on shorts and T-shirts
Nicholas Megaw and Nikou Asgari - Financial Times
The new owners of The Boca Raton hotel recently spent $200mn on modernising the luxury south Florida resort. But, for many of the derivatives specialists gathered there this week, for the annual Futures Industry Association conference, walking through the beach club felt like stepping back in time. Rostin Behnam, chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, summed up the mood, when talking to reporters: "This conference hall was filled with a new set of players a year ago - and now it feels like it kind of went back to where it was a few years ago."
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | Warren Says She Favors Increasing FDIC's Deposit Insurance Cap; Massachusetts Democrat amped up criticism of Jerome Powell; She says Powell 'took a flamethrower' to banking regulations
Tony Czuczka and Allyson Versprille - Bloomberg
Senator Elizabeth Warren is calling for more US deposits to be covered by federal insurance and demanding government probes into whether lax regulation fueled this month's collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. The comments this weekend from the Massachusetts Democrat, a frequent critic of the finance industry, raise the political pressure in an already tense situation.
/jlne.ws/3LwcnCp
'Asleep at the switch': Sen. Elizabeth Warren calls for independent probe of Fed, banking regulations
Mike Murphy - MarketWatch
Speaking Sunday on ABC News' "This Week," the Massachusetts Democrat said the chaos of the past couple of weeks - in which three U.S. banks failed, throwing financial markets, especially bank stocks, into extreme volatility - was predictable after financial-crisis-era banking regulations were eased during the Trump administration.
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*****Also see: Elizabeth Warren Calls for Investigation of SVB and Signature Bank Collapses - The Wall Street Journal
Want Better Government? Pay Bureaucrats More; The key to attracting more good people to public service is to make the jobs less political and more lucrative.
Matthew Yglesias - Bloomberg
The National Institutes of Health have been without a permanent director since the end of 2021. But not for lack of trying: At least two good prospects "have walked away," according to the Wall Street Journal - not only out of concern that the role has become more politically contentious since the Covid-19 pandemic, but also because the pay is too low.
/jlne.ws/3JPtXzU
Trump Claims His Arrest Is Imminent and Calls for Protests, Echoing Jan. 6; His indictment by a Manhattan grand jury is expected, but its timing is unclear.
Maggie Haberman, Jonah E. Bromwich, Ben Protess, Alan Feuer and William K. Rashbaum - The New York Times
With a Manhattan grand jury indictment likely but its timing unclear, Donald J. Trump sought to rally supporters to his side, declaring that he would be arrested on Tuesday and calling for protests. Mr. Trump made the declaration on his site, Truth Social, at 7:26 a.m. on Saturday in a post that ended with, "THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE AND FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!"
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Warren Buffett in Contact With Biden Team on Banking Crisis; Billionaire, administration officials have had multiple talks; Calls have centered on possible investment and giving advice
Saleha Mohsin, Sridhar Natarajan and Josh Wingrove - Bloomberg
Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s Warren Buffett has been in touch with senior officials in President Joe Biden's administration in recent days as the regional banking crisis unfolds. There have been multiple conversations between Biden's team and Buffett in the past week, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.
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Sanders Urges Banning Bank CEOs on Fed Boards in Wake of SVB; 'Absurd' that Silicon Valley Bank chief sat on SF Fed's board; Vermont senator's bill would update proposal from a decade ago
Kate Davidson and Steven T. Dennis - Bloomberg
Senator Bernie Sanders said he plans to introduce a measure that would prevent big-bank executives from serving on the boards of the regional Federal Reserve banks that oversee them. "One of the most absurd aspects of the Silicon Valley bank failure is that its CEO was a director of the same body in charge of regulating it: the San Francisco Fed," the Vermont senator said on Twitter on Saturday.
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US Shouldn't Have Bailed Out SVB Depositors, Say Investors Like Ken Griffin and Carson Block; Griffin tells FT US capitalist economy is breaking down; Asness, Block say the rescue reduces need to worry about risk
Ambereen Choudhury and Richard Frost - Bloomberg
The US government's emergency decision to backstop the financial system after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank has earned praise from prominent names including Larry Summers and Bill Ackman. But after a frantic weekend that saw the Federal Reserve and Joe Biden's administration take extreme measures to protect depositors at SVB and the rest of the nation's banks, a small but vocal group of market heavyweights has emerged as critics of the rescue package.
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Chicago Mayor Frontrunner Targets Crime, Taxes to Court Business; Mayoral candidate Vallas pledged to 'hold the line' on taxes; Ex-schools chief touted his experience to navigate a recession
Shruti Singh - Bloomberg
Chicago's mayoral frontrunner Paul Vallas is taking a leaf out of Rahm Emanuel's book to try to lure businesses back. As the city grapples with rising violence and high-profile corporate departures, the former boss of school districts has pledged to be tough on crime, the No. 1 issue for corporations. He also wants to "hold the line" on taxes, fines and fees, and reduce bureaucracy in a bid to sell Chicago as a business-friendly destination.
/jlne.ws/3ZYBORy
White House pressed to expand deposit guarantee to steady banks; Regulators' intervention in crisis has so far failed to calm nerves
James Politi and Joshua Franklin - Financial Times
The Biden administration is under mounting pressure to call for an expansion of the federal guarantee on bank deposits to shore up confidence in the financial system and prevent further distress among US regional banks. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which is funded by banks, guarantees deposits up to $250,000.
/jlne.ws/3n7p8cd
Sunak Backs 'Robust' UK Banking System After Credit Suisse Shock
Kitty Donaldson -Bloomberg
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak believes the UK's banking system remains safe from contagion in the wake of the collapse of Swiss giant Credit Suisse.
/jlne.ws/3yRW3V2
Swiss Parties Demand Special Parliament Session on Credit Suisse
Bastian Benrath - Bloomberg
Switzerland's Greens and Social Democrats intend to call a special joint session of both houses of parliament over the government-brokered takeover of Credit Suisse Group AG by UBS Group AG. Together the two have more than a quarter of the seats in the lower house, a tally which allows them to demand such a meeting, Green party parliament leader Aline Trede told reporters on Monday.
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | New SEC Measures on Cyber Risk
ESG Investor
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued new proposals designed to address the role of IT in the securities markets and enhance cyber resilience. The first proposal amends Regulation S-P, which addresses the handling and safeguarding of personal customer information, adding to existing protections by imposing safeguarding requirements on transfer agents, and requiring SEC registrants to adopt an incident response programme.
/jlne.ws/42qH9T9
Commissioner Goldsmith Romero to Participate on The Ceres Global Panel on Voluntary Carbon Markets: A Positive Contribution to 1.5C?
CFTC
Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero will participate on the Ceres Global panel on Voluntary Carbon Markets: A Positive Contribution to 1.5C? The panel will discuss whether and how emissions-reduction strategies should or could rely on carbon credits as one mechanism, among others, to reach emissions-reduction goals. In addition, the panel will examine guidance, challenges, and opportunities with respect to carbon credit markets, including how to procure high quality carbon credits.
/jlne.ws/40hhY3y
Statement on Retail Options
Commissioner Caroline A. Crenshaw - SEC
I am concerned by reports of retail investors being unable to exercise options they purchased on Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank stock.[1] I am hopeful that broker-dealers and clearing agencies will make efforts to assist retail investors in exercising their options if the investors wish to do so, including by exploring possible cash settlements. In addition, I hope that FINRA and my colleagues at the SEC will move forward with efforts to establish a comprehensive regulatory framework around complex products, including options, which are risky and can expose an investor to sudden and severe losses.[2]
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Responsibilities of Lead Auditors to Conduct High-Quality Audits When Involving Other Auditors
Paul Munter - SEC
The increasing integration of world economies and the resultant globalization of multinational public companies has led to increased use of, and more significant roles for, accounting firms and individual accountants other than the lead auditor ("other auditors") on many issuer audit engagements.[2] In 2021, for example, 26 percent of all issuer audit engagements and 57 percent of large accelerated filer audits involved the use of other auditors by the lead auditor.[3] In some cases, engagements include the use of other auditors that may not even be registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board ("PCAOB") and that work in countries with different business cultures and languages from those of the lead auditor.[4]
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Statement in response to an announcement by FINMA
FCA
Earlier today, the Swiss authorities announced a wide range of actions to support financial stability. The FCA has been in contact with its Swiss counterparts and other UK regulatory authorities in advance of today's announcements. The FCA has indicated that it is minded to approve the actions announced today in relation to the entities which fall under its regulatory and supervisory remit. The FCA continues to engage closely with UK and international regulatory partners to monitor market developments.
/jlne.ws/3FB80lC
UBS AG's acquisition of Credit Suisse AG
Securities & Futures Commission of Hong Kong
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) welcomed the announcements made by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) and the Swiss National Bank (SNB) early this morning (20 March) relating to the acquisition of Credit Suisse AG by UBS AG. SNB will provide liquidity assistance to support the acquisition. Credit Suisse's operations in Hong Kong comprise a branch supervised by the HKMA and two licensed corporations supervised by the SFC. All of them will open for business today as usual. Customers can continue to access their deposits with the branch and trading services provided by Credit Suisse for Hong Kong's stock and derivatives markets.
/jlne.ws/3yNKbDw
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Wait 10 Seconds, Lose $1 Million in Markets Rocked by Volatility; Big bond moves in a flash can make or break a year for traders; Waking at 3 a.m. and trading non-stop, nerves are on edge
Ye Xie, Liz McCormick and Bailey Lipschultz - Bloomberg
Holed up in a Hyatt hotel room in the Caribbean, John McClain whipped out his laptop on Sunday afternoon and started trading bonds. This was supposed to be a family vacation for McClain but, with bank failures piling up and US authorities rushing to stem the panic, that was out now. He needed to overhaul the $2.4 billion portfolio he managed for clients at Brandywine Global Investment Management and overhaul it fast.
/jlne.ws/3FCt4IF
Thousands of Stock Options on Failed Banks in Limbo as Expiration Hits; SVB Financial, Signature Bank halts cause settlement confusion; Put contracts on the banks may be worth around $292 million
Elena Popina - Bloomberg
Stock options worth hundreds of millions of dollars tied to failed lenders SVB Financial Group and Signature Bank are reaching expiration Friday with no certainty whether or how they can be cashed in. Shares of both institutions are no longer trading following their collapse this week, throwing into doubt the ability of in-the-money options holders to exercise those contracts.
/jlne.ws/3lu9Yh2
'Unknown Unknowns': No Weekend for Traders as Bank Woes Deepen; Futures trading kicks off on Sunday for stocks and bonds; Goldman and Morgan Stanley among bond desks open over weekend
Thyagaraju Adinarayan, Abhinav Ramnarayan and Priscila Azevedo Rocha - Bloomberg
6 a.m. wake-up calls. Cancelled tennis dates. Anxious check-ins on bond prices while walking the dog. These are just some of the scenes of traders and money managers over the weekend as the finance world braced for the next, and perhaps, final act of Credit Suisse Group AG's stunning and spectacular fall from grace.
/jlne.ws/3YUVVyJ
Anxious Traders Map Out Strategies for Monday Market Drama; Traders say they're preparing for another big volatile week; 'There is definitely a sense of discomfort' in markets
Ksenia Galouchko and Michael Msika - Bloomberg
With the fate of Credit Suisse Group AG finally decided, investors were getting ready for another gut-wrenching week of trading. Brokers, like Anthony Cohen of Market Securities, jumped on calls with nervous clients over the weekend and scoured through reports on Swiss banks, US regional lenders and how the Federal Reserve's meeting will drive this week.
/jlne.ws/40gayxy
Brevan Howard Grounds a Few Traders After Losses in Bond Rout; The macro hedge fund firm grounded at least three traders; Energy hedge fund Westbeck Capital has also hit loss limits
Nishant Kumar and Donal Griffin - Bloomberg
Brevan Howard Asset Management has grounded some of its traders to stem losses after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank triggered wild moves in the bond market. The macro hedge fund firm curtailed the betting of at least three money managers after they hit maximum loss levels, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The traders all specialized in rates trading, the people said, asking not to be identified because it's private.
/jlne.ws/3mW8gFk
Time to cut banker pay once and for all; As an investor it's the thing that matters for bank shares
Stuart Kirk - Financial Times
What a week. This time it's different, but it sure feels like déjà vu all over again. Big moves in markets. Discount windows. I've taken to poetry to keep sane. My funds are bloodied. Yours too, I'm guessing. The temptation "to do something" is overwhelming. Sell. No, buy! Put your cash in a suitcase. UK readers are also digesting a Budget unusually rammed with morsels. More on this next week.
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Longtime China investor Anatole to open 'outpost' in Singapore; Hong Kong-based asset manager had significantly cut its exposure to China
Mercedes Ruehl and Kaye Wiggins - Financial Times
Hong Kong-based asset manager Anatole is preparing to shift a key part of its business to Singapore, after telling investors it had significantly cut its exposure to China. The firm, which made its name through outsized bets on China's growth, is opening an office in the city-state and may move key functions and decision-making there, said three people familiar with the discussions.
/jlne.ws/3JQWRj5
World's Biggest ETF Adds $7.3 Billion in Day After Bank Rescues; Moves to shore-up banking system help settle nervous market; Major financial-sector funds XLF, KRE also post big inflows
Sam Potter - Bloomberg
Investors rushed back into risk assets amid Thursday's stock market rebound, pouring $7.3 billion in a single day into the biggest ETF tracking US equities. The flow into the $361 billion SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (ticker SPY) was the most since a vaccine for Covid was announced in November 2020, and the sixth largest in over a decade, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | World is on brink of climate calamity, definitive U.N. climate report warns; A dangerous climate threshold is near, but 'it does not mean we are doomed' if swift action is taken, scientists say
Sarah Kaplan - The Washington Post
Human activities have transformed the planet at a pace and scale unmatched in recorded history, causing irreversible damage to communities and ecosystems, according to one of the most definitive reports ever published about climate change. Leading scientists warned that the world's plans to combat these changes are inadequate and that more aggressive actions must be taken to avert catastrophic warming.
/jlne.ws/3n7XUCh
UN report: Window for limiting global warming is closing
Andrew Freedman - Axios
A stark new U.N. climate change report warns that humanity stands at the precipice of a more dangerous world, but says it has the tools needed to pull back from the brink. Driving the news: The final installment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) sixth assessment report amounts to scientists's final warning issued when the world still has a chance to limit global warming's severity to the Paris Agreement's targets.
/jlne.ws/3ZggKox
World's top climate scientists issue 'survival guide for humanity,' call for major course correction
Sam Meredith - CNBC
The latest report from the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change provides world leaders with a gold-standard summation of modern climate science. It is the first comprehensive report from the U.N. climate panel since the 2015 Paris Agreement. "Today's IPCC report is a how-to guide to defuse the climate time bomb. It is a survival guide for humanity," U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said on Monday.
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'The climate time-bomb is ticking': The world is running out of time to avoid catastrophe, new UN report warns
Laura Paddison - CNN
The world is rapidly approaching catastrophic levels of heating with international climate goals set to slip out of reach unless immediate and radical action is taken, according to a new UN-backed report. "The climate time-bomb is ticking," said António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, in a statement to mark the launch of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's synthesis report on Monday. "Humanity is on thin ice - and that ice is melting fast," he added.
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Scientists deliver 'final warning' on climate crisis: act now or it's too late; IPCC report says only swift and drastic action can avert irrevocable damage to world
Fiona Harvey - The Guardian
Scientists have delivered a "final warning" on the climate crisis, as rising greenhouse gas emissions push the world to the brink of irrevocable damage that only swift and drastic action can avert. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), made up of the world's leading climate scientists, set out the final part of its mammoth sixth assessment report on Monday.
/jlne.ws/3n07KGt
'We have money and power': older Americans to blockade banks in climate protest; Demonstrations at 90 sites are billed as first major action by older activists: 'It's not fair to ask 18-year-olds to solve this'
Oliver Milman - The Guardian
Climate activists across the US will on Tuesday blockade branches of banks that finance fossil fuels, cutting up their credit cards in protest and holding rallies featuring everything from flash mobs to papier-mache orca whales. Unusually for such a spectacle, the protests won't be led by young activists but those of a grayer hue. The protests, across more than 90 locations, including Washington DC, are billed as the first set of mass climate demonstrations by older Americans, who have until now been far less visible than younger activists, such as the school strike movement spearheaded by Greta Thunberg.
/jlne.ws/3JRssBf
Finnish School Children Solve This Climate Puzzle Every Year. Can You? The Climate Puzzle, a board game developed by Danish climate company D-mat, uses emissions data to show players how to live more sustainably.
Carly Wanna - Bloomberg
Every year, hundreds of teenagers in Lahti, Finland, play a game. Instructors pull out a large board with a series of squares, each labeled with a climate-friendly action. "I will reduce the energy of doing laundry," reads one. "I will buy items secondhand or recycled (90% of purchased items)," goes another. "I will favour organic food." "I will try a vegan diet (12 months/person/year)."
/jlne.ws/3JUd9rM
BaU Ratings Storing up 'Real-world' Problems
ESG Investor
A study of more than 700 firms has found "no direct relationship" between ESG credit scores and credit ratings, due to ratings providers still "evaluating companies the traditional way". The report, published by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), acknowledged that the three agencies examined - S&P Global Ratings, Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings - are "increasingly viewing risk through an ESG lens" to assess an entity's creditworthiness, including through their development of ESG credit scores.
/jlne.ws/3JuI10z
Water security poses a significant financial risk to the global economy.
CDP
2.3 billion people currently live in water stressed areas, and since 1970, the world has experienced a dramatic 84% decline in freshwater biodiversity. National governments urgently need to raise ambition and political will to solve the crisis.Heads of state will soon be gathering for the first time in 50 years to discuss water security. The UN Water 2023 conference in New York on 22-24 March is a unique opportunity to tackle the crisis head-on.
/jlne.ws/3LwDr4t
The Scourge of Vaping Is Hiding in Plain Sight; Two plastic vaping pens are tossed out every second in the UK as disposable e-cigarettes surge in popularity.
Sabah Meddings - Bloomberg
Three fires broke out at the Grundon waste disposal plant near London's Heathrow Airport in the past six months. In each case, the chief suspects were disposable vaping devices containing lithium batteries. Owen George, who leads recycling for Grundon, said the volume of discarded vapes has soared over the past two years and poses a growing risk because the small batteries "can catch fire or pollute the other recycling."
/jlne.ws/40lvpzC
This Tractor Runs on Cow Manure; The New Holland T6 is as powerful as a diesel tractor, but it's fueled with liquified methane.
Kyle Stock - Bloomberg
Trenance Farm sits at the extreme southwest spit of England, six hours from London and a kicked clod from the Celtic Sea. It's a dairy farm whose owners, Kevin and Kate Hoare, still milk their cows by hand - 120 bovines, twice a day. But the Hoares are also working with some of the most vanguard climate technology on the planet.
/jlne.ws/3yQOxJW
Big Oil Plans to Artificially Freeze the Melting Arctic to Drill More Oil
Hannah Docter-Loeb - VICE
Earlier this week, the Biden administration approved ConocoPhillips' Project Willow, to the dismay of many environmental groups. The project is an oil drilling venture in the National Petroleum Reserve slated to drill oil on federal land in Alaska's North Slope. One part of the plan? Installing "thermosyphons" in the Arctic to artificially freeze it.
/jlne.ws/3JTtPQb
Goldman Call on ESG Debt Paves Way for a Hedge Fund's Big Short; Ardea co-CIO says it's time to take advantage of flatter price; Loss of 'greenium' marks historic moment for ESG debt market
Greg Ritchie - Bloomberg
As analysts at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. call time on the so-called greenium, a hedge-fund strategy is already taking advantage of the new pricing reality. Credit strategists at Goldman Sachs started 2023 by declaring that the long-standing premium on debt targeting environmental, social and governance goals had been consigned to history.
/jlne.ws/3TIoLBv
Microbes on the farm: a solution for climate change?
Emiko Terazono and Alice Hancock - Financial Times
There are few problems larger than the climate crisis. But one potential solution is so small it cannot be seen with the naked eye: microbes. Tegan Nock, a 32-year-old former rancher who grew up on a farm deep in the Australian outback, is betting microbial technology in soil and crops can mitigate the effects that decades of industrialised farming have had on the planet's ecosystems.
/jlne.ws/3FA4SGG
PRI Lists ESG Gaps for Manager Signatories
Vibeka Mair - ESG investor
Seventy per cent of investment managers don't disclose how they deal with conflicts of interest in their responsible investment and close to 50% don't report on having asset class-specific ESG guidelines, new research from the PRI has found. The report, Inside PRI Data: Investment Manager Practices, analysed data submitted by 1,858 PRI signatories during the organisation's most recent reporting window in 2021. It found 85% of investment managers made their overarching approach to responsible investment publicly available and disclose important information about how this approach is implemented and overseen. But 14% did not make their policies on responsible investment public at all.
/jlne.ws/3ls8BPO
SEC Upholds As You Sow DEI Resolution at Eli Lilly
Aaran Fronda - ESG Investor
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has ruled against drugmaker Eli Lilly's attempt to exclude a resolution filed by shareholder activist group As You Sow from its proxy statement. The resolution asks Eli Lilly to report to shareholders on the effectiveness of the company's diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts by releasing quantitative metrics on its hiring, retention and promotion of employees, including data by gender, race and ethnicity. Eli Lilly unsuccessfully sought to exclude the shareholder resolution on grounds of substantial implementation and interference with its ordinary business.
/jlne.ws/3TxjGeX
Voters in city seats support ban on new coal and gas projects, poll shows; Majority in teal seats of Mackellar and Goldstein - and Labor's Moreton and Bennelong - also say industry should not use offsets for emissions
Paul Karp and Adam Morton - The Guardian
The majority of voters in several metropolitan areas support stopping new coal and gas projects and believe industrial polluters should not be able to use carbon offsets for all their greenhouse gas emissions, according to new polling. The progressive thinktank the Australia Institute commissioned uComms to poll more than 800 residents in each of two "teal" electorates - Mackellar and Goldstein - and the Labor-held seats of Moreton Bennelong and Sydney.
/jlne.ws/42D5iGr
CEQ's Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool Needs to Consider How Burdens Add Up
Rajat Shrestha, Sujata Rajpurohit and Devashree Saha - WRI
In November 2022, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) launched a significant update to the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST), a key step towards meeting the goals of the Biden Administration's Justice40 Initiative and broader environmental justice agenda. The Justice40 Initiative aims to direct 40% of the benefits of federal climate and clean energy investments to disadvantaged communities. Two years from its inception, the Justice40 Initiative is taking on fresh urgency as federal agencies are gearing up to target billions of dollars in investment to disadvantaged communities.
/jlne.ws/3n1WxFo
Mercuria launches nature business as demand grows for voluntary carbon offsets; Commodity trader seeks to invest $500mn funding projects to prevent deforestation
Leslie Hook - Financial Times
Swiss-based trading house Mercuria is investing $500mn into a new nature-based solutions business as it seeks to step up its involvement in the fast-growing market for voluntary carbon offsets.
/jlne.ws/3FCCe85
Tesla's Vision of EVs Without Rare Earths Will Spur Magnet Race; Automaker's ambition to eliminate use of the materials in future models is focusing attention on the field of potential alternatives.
Annie Lee - Bloomberg
Tesla Inc.'s ambition to remove rare earths from future models has producers in the sector reeling, but it also should spur global efforts to deliver alternatives for electric car motors that currently rely on the materials. Model 3 and Model Y powertrains have already reduced consumption of heavy rare earths by a quarter, and Tesla's next drive unit includes a permanent magnet motor that doesn't use any of the materials, Colin Campbell, vice president of powertrain engineering, said during the company's investor day early this month.
/jlne.ws/3TxdeF0
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Apollo and Rivals Pushed Aside in Scrum to Own a Piece of SVB; Apollo looking at buying the failed bank's credit business; The alternative investment firms are in wait-and-see mode
Allison McNeely and Dawn Lim - Bloomberg
After Silicon Valley Bank's collapse, Apollo Global Management Inc. and its investment rivals began angling for ways to profit off the once-storied technology bank. They circled SVB's loan book. Apollo was also interested in buying the SVB business and staff dedicated to making loans, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Washington had other ideas.
/jlne.ws/40jIPMl
SVB's Regulators and Managers Ignored the Obvious; Just because an investment is "safe" doesn't mean it can't decline in value.
Clive Crook - Bloomberg
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank illustrates not so much a failure of regulation as of regulators. The distinction points to the difficulty of the task that lies ahead: Simply reworking the rules about capital and liquidity requirements won't be sufficient. What will be necessary is a rethinking of the very notion of risk.
/jlne.ws/3n6UT5z
El-Erian Says US Banks Need a 'Circuit Breaker' After Upheaval; Says a pause by the Fed would be the wrong thing to do; The tumult surrounding banks is a 'multi month episode'
Diana Li and Jonathan Ferro - Bloomberg
Mohamed El-Erian says the latest upheaval surrounding First Republic Bank will make banks rethink their standards and prepare for tougher regulation. "You have had an accident on the freeway and the immediate reaction is going to be to lower the speed limit," El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz SE and a Bloomberg Opinion columnist, said on Bloomberg Television Friday.
/jlne.ws/403iS4a
Wall Street Tweets Through a Banking Crisis; Smartphones and social media weren't nearly as prevalent in 2008, but this time the financial turmoil is playing out online.
Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou - Bloomberg
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman, aka @BillAckman, tweeted to his more than 600,000 followers last Saturday that a trusted source had bad news - very bad news - about beleaguered Silicon Valley Bank. Depositors were going lose roughly half of their money. And without action from regulators, bank runs would start on Monday. That didn't happen.
/jlne.ws/3FAEc8F
Levinson's Graticule Macro Hedge Fund to Shutter After Losses; The macro hedge fund has plunged more than 25% this year; Most of the losses occurred after the collapse of SVB
Nishant Kumar and Bei Hu - Bloomberg
Veteran macro trader Adam Levinson is shutting down his hedge fund after being hit by losses amid ongoing bond market volatility. Levinson's Graticule Asia macro hedge fund has plunged more than 25% this year, mostly during the days after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, according to people with knowledge of the matter. His bets tied to front-end rates imploded and erased years of gains, the people said asking not to be identified because the details are private.
/jlne.ws/3TANabV
First Republic, SVB, Credit Suisse: The latest banks in trouble and why
Ellen Francis - The Washington Post
First Republic Bank is the fourth bank to face a crisis in the past week, as banking and government officials try to dispel fears of a wider financial meltdown. Here's a recap of some of the latest troubled banks, and what this could mean. What is First Republic Bank and why did it need rescuing? It's a San Francisco lender founded in 1985 that specializes in private banking and wealth management.
/jlne.ws/3n7cTMO
Banxico governor sees no contagion in Mexico from U.S. banking crisis
Valentine Hilaire and Noe Torres - Reuters
The Bank of Mexico's Governor Victoria Rodriguez said on Friday the Mexican banking system is solid, vowing to remain vigilant but emphasizing there was no current reason for authorities to intervene. Rodriguez, a former deputy finance minister, was asked about possible contagion from the collapse of U.S. lenders Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank and market turmoil that ensnared Credit Suisse Group AG.
/jlne.ws/3JvRjcq
Goldman Sachs Eyes a Big Payout From Silicon Valley Bank Deal
Andrew Ross Sorkin, Ravi Mattu, Bernhard Warner, Sarah Kessler, Michael J. de la Merced, Lauren Hirsch and Ephrat Livni - The New York Times
As an adviser to Silicon Valley Bank, Goldman Sachs last week tried to pull off a last-minute capital raise to save the firm from collapse. But the Wall Street giant also had another role in the bank's final days, for which it's expected to collect a massive fee: It bought a cache of the bank's debt in a deal that ultimately led to concerns about the bank's viability.
/jlne.ws/401Bykw
Local Banks Could Leave Gaps That Are Hard to Fill
Justin Lahart and Telis Demos - The Wall Street Journal
Tighter belts for smaller banks could count as a big problem for some parts of the U.S. The failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank as well as questions about First Republic Bank's future have cast a sudden pall on the banking sector. An emerging concern is that customers at community and regional banks, worrying that their deposits aren't safe, might pull their money, putting it into money-market funds or accounts at bigger banks.
/jlne.ws/3JUfX8k
Credit Suisse's First Boston Plan in Doubt Amid Crisis Talks; Plan to spin off investment bank caught in broader turmoil; The business was being readied for an IPO in two years
Marion Halftermeyer, Katherine Griffiths, Steven Arons and Dinesh Nair - Bloomberg
Michael Klein, the CEO-designate of Credit Suisse Group AG's investment-banking spin off, may struggle to realize his dream of building a new CS First Boston as the Swiss lender nears a forced sale to UBS Group AG. UBS is showing little appetite for Credit Suisse's investment banking business as part of a government-brokered takeover, putting plans to legally and operationally separate and eventually list that business in doubt.
/jlne.ws/3JRqPUl
First Citizens Weighing Takeover of Silicon Valley Bank
Matthew Monks and Ed Hammond - Bloomberg
First Citizens BancShares Inc. is evaluating an offer for Silicon Valley Bank, according to people familiar with the matter. The Raleigh, North Carolina-based lender is among the handful of potential buyers in the data room for the auction process for the failed bank, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter isn't public.
/jlne.ws/3Jokle6
Fed to Consider a Pause as Fallout From SVB Roils Markets; UK, Switzerland, Norway, Nigeria, Philippines may hike; Brazil and Turkey will probably hold rates this week
Catarina Saraiva and Craig Stirling - Bloomberg
Federal Reserve officials face their biggest challenge in months as they weigh whether to keep raising interest rates this week to cool inflation, or take a pause amid the market turmoil fueled by recent bank failures. Before the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the resulting fallout, Fed policy makers were poised to raise rates by as much as 50 basis points after a string of data suggested the economy was much stronger than officials thought at the beginning of the year.
/jlne.ws/42rB7BC
Apollo's Slok Says Bank Crisis Will Tip US Into Hard Landing; After SVB, 'we all had to go back to our drawing boards'; 'Magnified effect' from bank pullbacks and Fed rate hikes
Vildana Hajric and Michael P. Regan - Bloomberg
If you asked Torsten Slok a week ago how the economy was going to fare this year, he would have told you he was expecting a no-landing scenario, whereby the Federal Reserve would tame inflation without triggering a downturn. But all has changed following the collapse of three US banks over a matter of days. The chief economist of Apollo Global Management now says he's bracing for a hard landing. He joined the What Goes Up podcast to discuss his changing views.
/jlne.ws/3FBuGSU
UBS offers to buy Credit Suisse for up to $1 billion - FT
Reuters
UBS Group AG has offered to buy Credit Suisse for up to $1 billion, with the Swiss government planning to change the country's laws to bypass a shareholder vote on the deal, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. The proposed all-share deal between Switzerland's two biggest banks is set to be signed as soon as Sunday evening, the report said, adding that the deal will be priced at a fraction of Credit Suisse's closing price on Friday.
/jlne.ws/40imwqj
****Also see: Bloomberg's Credit Suisse's $17 Billion of Risky Bonds Are Now Worthless; UBS agreed to buy Credit Suisse in government-brokered deal and UBS Default Swaps Widen After Reaching Deal to Buy Credit Suisse, and Reuters' UBS to take over Credit Suisse, assume up to 5 billion Swiss francs in losses.
FDIC Moves Toward Breakup Plan for Silicon Valley Bank
Matthew Monks and Lydia Beyoud - Bloomberg
US regulators are moving toward a breakup solution for Silicon Valley Bank after failing to line up a suitable buyer for the entire company, according to people familiar with the matter. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is now seeking to sell the failed bank in at least two parts, said the people, who asked to not be identified because the matter isn't public. A representative for the FDIC didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
/jlne.ws/3TsSGNK
The Fed Was Too Late on SVB Even Though It Saw Problem After Problem; New team began flagging problem after problem as it took over; One of their predecessors got new role: monitoring Silvergate
Hannah Levitt, Sridhar Natarajan and Saleha Mohsin - Bloomberg
Just over a year before Silicon Valley Bank's collapse threatened a generation of technology startups and their backers, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco appointed a more senior team of examiners to assess the firm. They started calling out problem after problem. As the upgraded crew took over, it fired off a series of formal warnings to the bank's leaders, pressing them to fix serious weaknesses in operations and technology, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
/jlne.ws/3JwG8QY
Warren Buffett has weighed in on bank runs, bailouts and the dangers of insuring deposits. Here are 9 quotes that shed light on today's banking crisis.
Theron Mohamed - Business Insider
Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and Silvergate have all folded in recent days, fanning fears of a banking-sector meltdown and full-on financial crisis. Warren Buffett, the world-famous stockpicker who runs Berkshire Hathaway, has been studying and investing in banks for more than five decades. Some of his past remarks are strikingly relevant to the current furore around bank runs, government bailouts, deposit insurance, and poor risk management.
/jlne.ws/3FClbTw
Saudis, Qataris and Norway to see big losses on UBS deal for Credit Suisse
Steve Goldstein - MarketWatch
It wasn't even six months ago that Saudi National Bank paid $1.5 billion for a 9.9% stake in Credit Suisse. That stake is now worth about $215 million after UBS reportedly swooped in to acquire its fallen rival for more than $2 billion. And while the Saudis certainly can't be blamed for the raft of scandals and mistakes made by Credit Suisse it may be their own missteps that led to the Swiss authorities finally having enough.
/jlne.ws/3yRcYqU
UBS Vows to Shrink 'Tricky' Credit Suisse Investment Bank; Chairman Keller says unit will be aligned with UBS culture; UBS taking hard to assess portfolio, wins state guarantee
Marion Halftermeyer and Myriam Balezou - Bloomberg
UBS Group AG Chairman Colm Kelleher said he will manage down Credit Suisse Group AG's investment bank, curtailing a source of losses in recent years in a move that potentially spells the end for plans to carve out parts of the unit under the CS First Boston brand. "Let me be very specific on this: UBS intends to downsize Credit Suisse's investment banking business and align it with our conservative risk culture," Kelleher said Sunday at a press conference announcing the deal. "We will be de-risking a lot of the tricky businesses that we are inheriting."
/jlne.ws/3yQuoDT
****Also see Bloomberg's UBS Chairman Says Determined to Keep Credit Suisse's Swiss Unit and UBS Buys Credit Suisse in All-Share Transaction.
What People Still Don't Get About Bailouts; Good financial-crisis management is about doing what it takes to stop the contagion.
Michael Grunwald - The Atlantic
It doesn't seem fair, does it? Just 15 years after our financial overlords went on a bailout binge, showering bankers with trillions of taxpayer dollars, they're once again riding to the rescue of the rich while the public watches in horror. Did they learn none of the lessons from the 2008 meltdown? Actually, yes, they did.
/jlne.ws/3YYUQWn
SVB Mess Demands a Rethink on Government Bailouts; There has to be a better way.
Bloomberg
The demise of Silicon Valley Bank has put the US government into an uncomfortable position, backstopping depositors like never before to prevent a broader and potentially devastating bank run. Given the risks, officials did the right thing. The hard part will be figuring out how to handle the consequences. SVB's failure shouldn't have presented a systemic threat.
/jlne.ws/3lpg8ii
Tom Barrack Playing Key Role in Talks to Save First Republic; He's working with Chairman Jim Herbert on exploring options; Firm racing to avoid collapse after getting $30 billion rescue
Ed Hammond and Gillian Tan - Bloomberg
Colony Capital founder Tom Barrack is taking a leading role in advising First Republic Bank on its options as the lender races to avoid a collapse after a $30 billion rescue last week failed to assuage investors, according to people familiar with the matter. Barrack, 75, a member of First Republic's board and a longtime friend of former President Donald Trump, is working closely with Executive Chairman Jim Herbert in orchestrating any potential deal, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. Barrack declined to comment.
/jlne.ws/3FAH45r
Credit Suisse Said to Push Back Against UBS's $1 Billion Offer
Jan-Henrik Foerster, Eyk Henning and Dinesh Nair - Bloomberg
UBS Group AG is offering to buy Credit Suisse Group AG for as much as $1 billion, a deal that the troubled Swiss firm is pushing back on with backing from its biggest shareholder. Credit Suisse, which ended Friday with a market value of about 7.4 billion francs ($8 billion), believes the offer is too low and would hurt shareholders and employees who have deferred stock, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
/jlne.ws/3JTx3TN
The Long Tail of a Failed Bank; Introducing Bw Reads-and an old financial crisis made new
Reyhan Harmanci - Bloomberg
Daryl Rattigan arrived at Lehman Brothers 18 years ago for a three-month assignment from his law firm. Eventually the bank gave him a full-time job at its real estate finance arm in London. Then the bank suddenly collapsed. And he's still there, almost 14 years later. It turns out that when global financial institutions die, it can take a while. These deaths require caretakers.
/jlne.ws/3LBn4Ud
Fall of Credit Suisse shows more work is needed on bank risk; Lessons should be drawn from how the crisis at the bank developed
Jerome Legras - Financial Times
Bank investors are well aware of the risks; they know that banking relies on trust and that sentiment can change quickly. The crisis now faced by Credit Suisse is, however, a previously unseen phenomenon. Every single bank failure I can remember was caused by hidden losses, be they in loan books, derivatives books or bond books.
/jlne.ws/3TsAOT3
Are banks on the edge of another 2008-style precipice?; Bearish nerves seem to be winning right now - despite good reasons to hope not
Patrick Jenkins - Financial Times
Northern Rock, Bear Stearns, Countrywide Financial and Alliance & Leicester. Back in late 2007 and early 2008, when they all failed or were rescued, none of the above was systemically important. And few observers would have predicted the nightmarish crisis that was to strike within the year, felling behemoths from Wall Street's venerable Lehman Brothers to Royal Bank of Scotland, then the biggest bank in the world.
/jlne.ws/3lueBYs
'Old-School' Signature Bank Collapsed After Its Big Crypto Leap
Max Abelson - Bloomberg
Signature Bank was flying high when co-founder Scott Shay mused about success on a podcast early last year. The best decision he ever made, he told the host, was sticking close to the company as it grew ever larger. His advice: Always learn from your failures. "They become part of you," he said. "And if you go in the wrong direction, you can become incapacitated by them."
/jlne.ws/3n4pTmC
Where is Silicon Valley's J. Pierpont Morgan?
Anita Ramaswamy - Reuters
Wall Street specializes in cutthroat capitalism, but when the going gets tough, banks band together. After withdrawals lashed the banking system in 1907, financier J. Pierpont Morgan corraled his peers into using their own money to calm the crisis. Over a century later, JPMorgan (JPM.N) Chief Executive Jamie Dimon did the same, getting 10 other banking executives on a call with top U.S. regulators to support First Republic (FRC.N) with a $30 billion cash injection.
/jlne.ws/3TsVdHK
Paris-aligned ESG STOXX indices licensed to four German pension funds
Press Release - Qontigo
Qontigo has licensed the global STOXX ESG Länder PAB Index family to four German federal states. PAB (Paris-aligned Benchmark) stands for the most ambitious EU regulation regarding fossil exclusion criteria and greenhouse gas decarbonization for index providers. The indices will serve as passively replicated benchmarks for the pension funds of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Brandenburg, Hesse, and North Rhine-Westphalia. They upgrade the STOXX fossil-free indices the states had previously used to the new PAB standard. The invested assets amount to EUR11 billion.
/jlne.ws/40gD3Ly
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| Work & Management | | Stories impacting work and more about management ideas, practices and trends. | CFA Revised Exam Cuts Study Time, Stresses Practical Skills; New exams will give test takers Python and analyst skills; Focus areas include wealth management and private markets
Katherine Doherty - Bloomberg
The CFA Institute unveiled sweeping changes to its three-level financial analyst exam to emphasize practical skills and reduce the amount of time candidates study, in the biggest reworking since the test was introduced in 1963. Starting next year, chartered financial analyst candidates will take Level I and Level II tests with new content covering skills used in the working world.
/jlne.ws/3Z8f944
Universities Race to Recapture Lucrative International Students; Enrollments are booming after border closures smashed revenues; Sector shows no signs of curbing reliance on overseas market
Carmeli Argana - Bloomberg
When borders slammed shut, universities worldwide were forced to confront a glaring weakness in their business models: a reliance on international students to shore up revenue. Three years on, the sector shows no signs of curbing that dependence. Instead, it's doubled down. China's reopening and demand that anyone pursuing degrees at foreign universities get back to class comes amid a heightened race among English-speaking countries to attract international students.
/jlne.ws/42nm7F5
48 Hours Till Payroll, $200,000 to Go: Diary of a Bank Failure48 Hours Till Payroll, $200,000 to Go: Diary of a Bank Failure
Emma Goldberg - The New York Times
Sara Mauskopf's day-to-day concerns - her customers, her employees, her own three children - don't typically involve the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. She is the chief executive of Winnie, a start-up that helps families find child care and helps child care providers find customers, serving over 250,000 day cares and millions of families. Ms. Mauskopf, 38, has raised over $15 million for Winnie since its founding in 2016 and employs 29 people. All of her company's money was in Silicon Valley Bank.
/jlne.ws/3Lvzr4e
ChatGPT Can Lie, But It's Only Imitating Humans; It's creepy that a bot would decide to deceive, but perhaps we shouldn't be surprised.
Stephen L. Carter - Bloomberg
There's been a flurry of excitement this week over the discovery that ChatGPT-4 can tell lies. I'm not referring to the bot's infamous (and occasionally defamatory) hallucinations, where the program invents a syntactically correct version of events with little connection to reality - a flaw some researchers think might be inherent in any large language model.
/jlne.ws/3FCSGF4
Credit Suisse's 9,000 Job Cuts Are Foretaste of UBS Takeover; Final toll may be multiple of that number: person familiar; Credit Suisse tells staff bonuses, wage increases will be paid
Marion Halftermeyer and Myriam Balezou - Bloomberg
Even before Credit Suisse Group AG's government-brokered takeover, the Swiss lender was in the process of cutting 9,000 jobs in an effort to save itself. That's only the beginning after rival UBS Group AG agreed to buy the troubled bank, according to people familiar with the discussions, with one person estimating the final toll could be a multiple of that number.
/jlne.ws/40bqrW2
The envy at work that dare not speak its name; A younger or more talented work rival is not a foe, it's the passage of time that is our adversary
Pilita Clark - Financial Times
In the space of just one week not that long ago, I made some perplexing discoveries about three people I know through work. One was an FT journalist who was playing himself in a BBC drama. Another, also an FT journalist, was a character in a play being staged at a popular London theatre. A third was an academic working on a project I was involved in who had not one, not two or three degrees but four, and was literally a rocket scientist.
/jlne.ws/40jVizL
We need to create guardrails for AI; The promise offered by this technology must not be allowed to deliver a dystopian future
Rana Foroohar - Financial Times
What if the only thing you could truly trust was something or someone close enough to physically touch? That may be the world into which AI is taking us. A group of Harvard academics and artificial intelligence experts has just launched a report aimed at putting ethical guardrails around the development of potentially dystopian technologies such Microsoft-backed OpenAI's seemingly sentient chatbot, which debuted in a new and "improved" (depending on your point of view) version, GPT-4, last week.
/jlne.ws/3LAqlD6
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | W.H.O. Accuses China of Hiding Data That May Link Covid's Origins to Animals
Benjamin Mueller - The New York Times
The World Health Organization rebuked Chinese officials on Friday for withholding research that may link Covid's origin to wild animals, asking why the data had not been made available three years ago and why it is now missing. Before the Chinese data disappeared, an international team of virus experts downloaded and began analyzing the research, which appeared online in January.
/jlne.ws/3FAAyfh
What Worked Against Covid: Masks, Closures and Vaccines
Tom Frieden - The Wall Street Journal
At the three-year mark of the Covid pandemic, governments are declaring victory, and most people are eager to resume their prepandemic lives. The past three years of fighting Covid feel like a fog of war. Did the world perform well or badly in this massive, varied effort? There are many available metrics, but the death rate is the most important way to assess how effectively we managed the pandemic's health risks.
/jlne.ws/3yOnGhR
China's Flu Outbreak Continues to Spread Despite Warmer Weather
Bloomberg
China continues to report an increase in influenza virus cases countrywide even as the warmer weather returns, with one in two people examined at hospitals with cold symptoms testing positive for the pathogen. Influenza positivity rates at hospitals monitored by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in the week ending March 12 climbed to 53.2%, about 13 times higher than a month earlier, latest data show. In contrast, positivity rates for Covid-19 remain suppressed at 2.7% and the country had not reported any coronavirus-related deaths for three weeks as of March 16.
/jlne.ws/3JsYcez
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | North Korea Fires Short-Range Ballistic Missile, Adding to Barrage; Launch comes as US steps up exercises with South Korea; Missile fell into sea outside Japan's exclusive economic zone
Jon Herskovitz, Hooyeon Kim and Masumi Suga - Bloomberg
North Korea test-fired a suspected short-range ballistic missile, adding to its barrage of launches in the past month that included two rockets designed to deliver a nuclear warhead to the US mainland. The missile was fired around 11:05 a.m. local time on Sunday toward waters to the east of the Korean peninsula, Yonhap News reported, citing South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.
/jlne.ws/3n1smy6
At the China-Russia Border, the Xi-Putin Partnership Shows Signs of Fraying
Brian Spegele - The Wall Street Journal
Years of investment in cities along the China-Russia border were intended to open the door to mutual prosperity and close partnership between the two global powers. The potholed streets, stray dogs and empty storefronts of Heihe, on the border in China's far north, are more reminiscent of a declining U.S. Rust-Belt city.
/jlne.ws/42nqfoz
China's Secret to Preventing a Banking Crisis; An overcautious approach to regulation pays off in the current environment and Beijing is an example of why.
Shuli Ren - Bloomberg
As a global banking crisis envelops financial markets, China, one of the world's most indebted nations, remains relatively calm. It's thus worth asking how Beijing has managed to avert the chaos, while US regulators were blamed for being too lax toward regional lenders, contributing to the collapse of SVB Financial Group.
/jlne.ws/40fp7Bi
Europe's Green Protectionism Will Worsen its Energy Security; Far from guaranteeing a supply of renewable technologies, this latest move will only delay the decarbonization of our economies.
David Fickling - Bloomberg
It's hardly surprising that the year after a war on Europe's borders cut off its largest source of natural gas, Brussels should be looking to armor-plate its supply chain for green technologies. The numbers look stark. In 2021, the European Union got about 42% of its imported gas from Russia. It depended on China for 64% of its wind turbine imports, 89% of its solar panels, and 43% of its electric cars.
/jlne.ws/42sycJd
Finland Crowned World's Happiest for Sixth Year Running in Ranking Dominated by Nordics; Nordic countries dominate the top of the happiness ranking; US takes 15th place and Lithuania has soared in recent years
Leo Laikola - Bloomberg
Finland ranks as the world's happiest country for the sixth consecutive year, an unprecedented feat in a list that's now been published for more than a decade. The World Happiness Report unveiled on Monday by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network showed Finland scores "significantly ahead of all other countries" in the ranking, followed by Denmark in the second place and Iceland in third.
/jlne.ws/3FAtJtY
Mexico Celebrates Oil Anniversary Amid Decade of Output Declines; Pemex has the most debt of any oil company at $107.7 billion; Oil Anniversary event held at 5pm in Mexico City's main square
Amy Stillman - Bloomberg
Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador led a celebration in the capital's main square on the anniversary of the country's 1930s expropriation of the oil industry, stressing that his government was turning around the fortunes of the state oil giant Petroleos Mexicanos after years of neglect and decline. Because of increased exploration and investment in refineries, Mexico will be self-sufficient in oil products next year, the president, known as AMLO, told tens of thousands of cheering supporters Saturday.
/jlne.ws/3TrxCHi
California Strawberry Fields in Danger as Another Soaking Looms
Kim Chipman - Bloomberg
Already submerged strawberry fields across California are girding for yet another deluge, threatening a $3 billion industry in the US's largest food hub. "We were supposed to be picking berries in two or three weeks," said Soren Bjorn, president of the Americas for top berry distributor Driscoll's Inc. "That's clearly not going to happen."
/jlne.ws/40bmHUu
California Braces for Heavy Rain, Snow From New Pacific Storm; Fast-moving system could bring snow to Los Angeles mountains; Rain will add to list of winter storms helping ease drought
Brian K Sullivan - Bloomberg
California is bracing for more heavy rain and snow early this week as another fast-moving storm roars in off the Pacific Ocean. Large areas of the state's coastline will get up to 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) of rain from the storm that'll arrive late Monday and spread through the region Tuesday, said Brian Hurley, a meteorologist with the US Weather Prediction Center.
/jlne.ws/3yRvK1i
Escalating Demand for Soybean Oil Hits Possible Slowdown; EPA regulations could limit the use of the legume byproduct in biofuel
Bob Henderson - Bloomberg
Farmers and refiners are worried that a nascent boom in the market for soybean oil is being stalled by a challenge from an unexpected source: the Environmental Protection Agency. Prices for soybean oil, a byproduct left over after crushing the beans for animal feed, soared to records last year owing to growing government incentives to make it into diesel fuel.
/jlne.ws/3LxrfjN
Trump's Tariffs Couldn't Save the California Olive Industry; A cautionary tale on how protectionism can backfire-just as the US and EU consider new subsidies in strategic industries.
Bryce Baschuk - Bloomberg
Rod Burkett's surrender came more from exasperation than defeat. After cultivating olive trees in the heart of California's farming belt for 30 years, he finally sold his groves in 2022.
/jlne.ws/3Z1m2DZ
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