| February 16, 2023 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | | | John Lothian
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
The SEC yesterday issued a press release with the rather tepid headline of "SEC Finalizes Rules to Reduce Risks in Clearance and Settlement." What this does is shortens the standard settlement cycle for most broker-dealer transactions in securities from two business days after the trade date, or T+2, to one day after, or T+1. It is a huge step forward for the securities markets, but nothing close to the real-time clearing we see in other markets. Put the date of May 28, 2024 in the calendar for when we move to T+1.
Besides my obvious bias from having grown up in Chicago, I have always appreciated the single day clearing of futures, even back in the day when trades were key punched into the computer system. Yes, there were outtrades, but they were mostly cleared up the next morning.
One of the reasons I thought single stock futures would be a success was because of the clearing advantage. There were many other reasons too. It amazes me that this product does not even exist anymore in the U.S.
But congratulations to the SEC for getting this improvement to T+1 passed two years after the meme stock phenomenon. At my church we have a phrase, "the speed of church." Well, this was the speed of regulation, which in most cases is even worse.
Basketball legend Michael Jordan did something very classy for his 60th birthday: he donated $10 million to the Make-a-Wish Foundation. He has been involved in the organization since 1989. I can only imagine many little boys and girls wanting to meet Michael Jordan. He is one of the most requested celebrities, The Wall Street Journal story says. It is also the largest gift to the organization from an individual.
Vermiculus reports that "B3 has selected Vermiculus for a monumental Central Security Depository project, set to modernize and futureproof the centralized deposit services provided by B3. The new CSD system will be based on Vermiculus' VeriClear, an elastically scalable and AI-powered real-time system. The system has a top modern microservice-based architecture enabling a new standard for high efficiency."
The Tradier Options Summit in partnership with Cboe titled "Building your 2023 trading strategy" is set for February 22, 2022 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. EST.
The CboeDigital real-time cryptocurrency data is now available on the Cboe Global Indices Feed.
The CME Group reports that the CME Group Foundation Scholars Program is now accepting applications for next year. The program will award up to $20,000 per year in renewable scholarships to underserved students majoring in finance, technology or applied mathematics at CME Group Foundation partner schools. Eligible applicants must: Be Black or Latinx, Be a current or rising undergraduate sophomore, junior or senior student (Students enrolled in a 4+1 MS program are eligible), Plan to enroll full-time at one of eleven CME Group Foundation partner schools for the entire upcoming academic year, Be majoring in Information Technology, Computer Science, Finance, Data Science, Cyber Security, Math, Statistics, Financial Engineering, or Accounting.
Raquel Welch, the "it girl" of the 1960s and beyond, has died at the age of 82. Welch was a sex-symbol/actress who starred in the unforgettable "One Million Years B.C," The New York Times reports.
Have a great day and stay safe and treat people the same way you want to be treated: with respect, equality and justice.~JJL
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Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) is hosting a webinar, Accelerating SME Net-Zero Action: Call for Collective Action. The seminar examines new research highlighting the roles of commercial banks and multinational corporations in helping small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) reach net zero. The webinar is February 21, 2023, 4:00pm-5:00 pm (GMT) and it is free. You can learn more and register here. ~SAED
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Sam Bankman-Fried's bail guarantors included former Stanford Law dean; Two academics who worked at same university as FTX founder's parents helped secure bond for his release
Joe Miller - Financial Times
Two academics at Stanford University, where Sam Bankman-Fried's parents worked, put up a combined $700,000 to help secure the FTX founder's bail, according to court documents unsealed on Wednesday. Larry Kramer, the former dean of Stanford Law School who is now president of the Hewlett Foundation, and Andreas Paepcke, a research scientist, put up $500,000 and $200,000, respectively, as part of a deal that has allowed Bankman-Fried to reside at his parents' Californian home while awaiting his criminal trial on fraud charges in a federal court in New York.
/jlne.ws/3YM4Oee
****** It is good to have friends who will stick with you through thick and thin, cargo pants and suit jackets.~JJL
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The Vatican and the moral conundrums of AI; Last month, a meeting brought together imams, rabbis and the Pope to discuss the new technology
Madhumita Murgia - Financial Times
Last month, a group of rabbis walked up a winding hill in the heart of the Vatican, past the marbled dome of St Peter's Basilica. They approached Casina Pio IV, a 16th century patrician villa, which now houses the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Just a few metres behind, on a road lined with palm trees and cacti given by churches all over the world, came a group of Muslim imams and academics from Abu Dhabi and Berkeley, California. I followed, a witness to this rare meeting of minds. They were here to discuss an important matter with the Pope: the future of artificial intelligence.
/jlne.ws/3YSJrbd
****** I don't want to comment here for fear of insulting someone's belief in AI.~JJL
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First Brexit, Then Bregrets. Time for Breconciliation? Rapprochement between London and Brussels depends on clearing several hurdles.
Lionel Laurent - Bloomberg
In the heat of Brexit talks in 2018, a frustrated British official asked European Union negotiator Michel Barnier's team: "Imagine our country was not there and suddenly surfaced from the seabed and installed itself at your shores. What relationship would you ideally want with us?"
/jlne.ws/3Kbe8Ek
****** When are we going to get the scandal, Brexit-gate?~JJL
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Fear Made John McAfee Rich. It Also Ruined Him; The cybersecurity pioneer's long, strange saga started in Silicon Valley and ended in a Spanish prison. An exclusive story and podcast.
Jamie Tarabay and Matthew Bremner - Bloomberg
The tattoo kind of said it all. In Cambrils, a beach community on the Spanish Mediterranean coast, Santiago Cuevas had already closed his shop, Scorpio Tattoo, for the 2019 holidays when a pushy customer talked his way in. The guy knew exactly what he wanted: a simple tat across the area just over his right bicep that read "$WHACKD." He said it symbolized a desire "to know that I'm alive." Cuevas and the man chatted amiably for the hour or so the job took. "He never told me who he was," Cuevas recalls. "I found that out the following year."
/jlne.ws/3XCI5jR
****** You have nothing to fear except fear of yourself.~JJL
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WallStreetBets Founder Sues Reddit; Jaime Rogozinski says site ousted him without claim; Reddit calls suit frivolous
Akane Otani - The Wall Street Journal
WallStreetBets' founder is suing the site where it all began. Jaime Rogozinski, creator of the community that sent untold numbers of individual investors piling into meme stocks two years ago, filed a lawsuit against Reddit. Mr. Rogozinski is accusing the social-media platform of breaching contract by ousting him from his role as a WallStreetBets moderator in 2020 and infringing on his right to trademark the WallStreetBets brand, among other complaints.
/jlne.ws/3KgxesH
****** He bet on the wrong playground.~JJL
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Wednesday's Top Three
Our top story Wednesday was America's Priciest Neighborhoods Are Changing as the Ultra-Rich Move to Florida, from Bloomberg. Second was the ever popular topic Oats: From the Original Energy Contract to Trendy Dairy Alternative, from CME Group. Third was a three-way tie between The truth about caffeine: how coffee really affects our bodies, from The Guardian, Why More and More ETFs are Moving to the NYSE Trading Floor, from ETF Central, and ICE warns CFTC about commodity market intervention, from FOW.
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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 | From Math Camp to Handcuffs: FTX's Downfall Was an Arc of Brotherhood and Betrayal; Gary Wang and Sam Bankman-Fried are offering dueling accounts of the FTX fiasco and of who's ultimately to blame.
Ava Benny-Morrison and Annie Massa - Bloomberg
They'd come a long way together, from teenage mathletes to MIT frat brothers to crypto billionaires. Now the feds were closing in on both - and one was going to turn on the other. "We can make this work," Sam Bankman-Fried said over Signal, an encrypted messaging app. Gary Wang didn't reply. The time: mid-November, days after FTX collapsed. The place: a $40 million penthouse in the Caribbean - last stop, US authorities say, on a trail of lies stretching back to the very beginning of the men's FTX cryptocurrency empire.
/jlne.ws/3HXwGFq
US crackdown turns up the heat on crypto market; Spate of regulatory enforcements hits industry beset by series of scandals
Scott Chipolina - Financial Times
US authorities have begun the year with a crackdown on crypto companies and their products at such a pace that executives fear the industry is being pushed out of one of its biggest markets. In recent weeks, US regulators, led by the Securities and Exchange Commission, have fired off a series of enforcement actions against some of the biggest digital asset companies and their tokens. At the same time, many of the banks on which these companies rely for payments and custody of assets are also coming under fresh scrutiny.
/jlne.ws/3S5ycKi
Banks Are Breaking Up With Crypto During Regulatory Crackdown; SEC and banking overseers step up scrutiny following collapse of FTX
Rachel Louise Ensign and David Benoit - The Wall Street Journal
Banks are backing away from crypto companies, spooked by a regulatory crackdown that threatens to sever digital currencies from the real-world financial system. Banking regulators are raising concerns about banks' involvement with crypto clients following last year's blowup of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX. The Securities and Exchange Commission is aggressively pursuing the industry's bigger players in a crackdown that threatens to narrow their reach. That move has alarmed bankers who don't want to do business with customers in the SEC's crosshairs, people familiar with the matter said.
/jlne.ws/411iofv
SEC gives green light to T+1 implementation in May 2024; Commissioners disagreed on the proposed implementation date, with amendments narrowly passing by three votes to two.
Chris Lemmon - The Trade
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has voted to shorten the settlement cycle to one business day, with the implementation date set for 28 May 2024. Hester Pierce, a commissioner at the SEC, voted against the proposed timeline for making the switch, stating that a 28 May 2024 implementation date "could pose a risk to the market" and that the SEC "cannot afford a cavalier approach" to the implementation considering its potential impact on the industry.
/jlne.ws/3Xw3gnr
SEC Proposes Rule That Could Squeeze Crypto Platforms; Proposal would impose heightened standards on entities that hedge, pension funds use to hold customer assets
Paul Kiernan and Justin Baer - The Wall Street Journal
Wall Street's regulator proposed a rule that could make it more difficult for many asset managers to invest customers' money in cryptocurrencies, as policy makers push to rein in the sector following trading platform FTX's collapse. The Securities and Exchange Commission voted 4-1 Wednesday on a proposal that would expand the types of assets that investment advisers, such as hedge funds and pension funds, are required to hold using qualified custodians.
/jlne.ws/3YTN2FR
White House eyes Austan Goolsbee as next Fed vice chair: report
Bloomberg via Crain's Chicago Business
White House officials have reached out to a key Democratic ally in the Senate to discuss filling the vacant role of Fed vice chair, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee is under consideration for the post. Senate Banking Chairman Sherrod Brown says he spoke Wednesday with White House officials about the vacancy created by President Joe Biden's decision to name Vice Chair Lael Brainard to be his top economic adviser.
/jlne.ws/3I6Fqcl
Crypto Giant Binance Expects to Pay Penalties to Resolve U.S. Investigations; DOJ, CFTC have been probing world's largest cryptocurrency exchange
Dave Michaels - The Wall Street Journal
Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, expects to pay monetary penalties to settle existing U.S. regulatory and law-enforcement investigations of its business, the firm's chief strategy officer said in an interview. Binance grew quickly and began as a business powered by software engineers unfamiliar with laws and rules written to address the risk of bribery and corruption, money laundering, and economic sanctions, Patrick Hillmann said. The company has been working to fill gaps in its early compliance efforts, he said, but still expects regulators will impose fines for past conduct.
/jlne.ws/3It9XTb
Binance Says it Had Compliance 'Gaps' and Is Continuing Talks With US Regulators
Olga Kharif - Bloomberg
Binance, the world's biggest crypto exchange, had earlier "gaps" in its regulatory compliance that have since been closed, Chief Strategy Officer Patrick Hillmann said in an interview. An initially small staff was stretched thin as the company tackled international expansion, compliance and cybersecurity after starting up in 2017, he said.
/jlne.ws/3Egquar
BUSD Stablecoin Inches Toward $1 Peg After Binance CEO Comments
Shaurya Malwa - CoinDesk
The Binance USD (BUSD), the third-largest stablecoin by market cap, is returning to its intended $1 peg after Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao commented on the crypto exchange's connection to the popular Paxos Trust Co.-issued token on Tuesday. BUSD, which is backed by short-term treasuries and cash-like assets, rallied to $0.9997 in European morning hours on Wednesday, recovering from a two-year low of $0.9950 hit after the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) on Monday ordered Paxos to stop minting more of the tokens.
/jlne.ws/3S83kJg
The US plan to become the world's cleantech superpower; The Biden administration's revolution in American industrial policy is a gamble with huge geopolitical ramifications
Derek Brower and Amanda Chu - Financial Times
In a huge hangar in Quonset Point, Rhode Island, welders are aiming blazing torches at sheets of aluminium. The hulls of three new ships, each about 27-metres long, are taking shape. The first will hit the water sometime in the spring, ferrying workers to service wind turbines off the New England coast.
/jlne.ws/3lusZPR
European exchanges to collaborate on consolidated tape for equities; The joint venture will work on developing an application to be an equities CT provider.
Wesley Bray - The Trade
A group of 14 European exchanges, present in 26 Member States of the EU, have agreed to work together to develop an application for a European consolidated tape (CT) for equities. The initiative responds to a proposal from the European Commission for an equities tape to contribute to the development of the Capital Markets Union.
/jlne.ws/3EfoFL4
SIX scraps multi-year BME trading platform integration plans due to unexpected complexity; Just months before the planned integration, SIX has concluded the project would be too legally and technologically complex, The TRADE can reveal.
Annabel Smith - The Trade
SIX has scrapped its plans to consolidate its trading platform and that of Bolsas y Mercados Españoles (BME) onto the same technology to form a fully integrated system in the eleventh hour due to complexity. Following SIX's acquisition of BME for EUR2.8 billion in June 2020, the exchange confirmed in June the following year that it intended to migrate trading and trading services for equities, fixed income and equity-like instruments to the SIX platform, alongside market data dissemination for both Swiss and Spanish markets, to generate synergies following the deal.
/jlne.ws/3Ech4wG
Private markets don't 'launder volatility', honest; Private market fund valuations could be better though
Cyril Demaria - Financial Times
Last October, Narv Narvekar of Harvard's $51bn endowment said private market funds did not reflect "general market conditions" and warned of "substantial markdowns" to come. AQR's Cliff Asness has gone even further, and argued that private market funds are "volatility laundering" their valuations.
/jlne.ws/3lEMuW2
The Powerful City Lawyer at The Center of a Private Equity Storm; Era of cheap money gave PE firms upper hand in loan talks; Some lenders critical of designated counsel legal process
Silas Brown, Will Louch and Laura Benitez - Bloomberg
Neel Sachdev has a reputation for going above and beyond to ensure his private equity clients get what they want. The power the London lawyer wields over Europe's $2 trillion buyout market is testament to that, and a reflection of the dominant debt finance practice he has built at US law firm Kirkland & Ellis over the past decade. Now, however, tactics he has used to his clients' advantage - such as influencing which law firms he comes up against in deal negotiations and even playing a role in the recruitment of lawyers into rival law firms - are facing scrutiny by market participants as the era of easy money ends.
/jlne.ws/3S2vyEY
Banks Are Breaking Up With Crypto During Regulatory Crackdown; SEC and banking overseers step up scrutiny following collapse of FTX
Rachel Louise Ensign and David Benoit - The Wall Street Journal
Banks are backing away from crypto companies, spooked by a regulatory crackdown that threatens to sever digital currencies from the real-world financial system. Banking regulators are raising concerns about banks' involvement with crypto clients following last year's blowup of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX. The Securities and Exchange Commission is aggressively pursuing the industry's bigger players in a crackdown that threatens to narrow their reach. That move has alarmed bankers who don't want to do business with customers in the SEC's crosshairs, people familiar with the matter said.
/jlne.ws/3Ecxbum
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | Ukraine war pushes US to review arms stockpiles; Gen Mark Milley says military budget may need to increase to meet ammunition demand
Felicia Schwartz - Financial Times
The Pentagon is reviewing its weapons stockpiles and may need to boost military spending after seeing how quickly ammunition has been used during the war in Ukraine, the most senior US military official said.
/jlne.ws/3Kdo802
He wanted an adventure. He ended up in Ukraine's most brutal war zone; Why the outcome of the war may have been decided years before Russia's invasion
Christopher Miller - Financial Times
I first glimpsed the Donbas through the steamy windows of a clattering overnight train. It was a June morning in 2010, and the rising sun heated the carriage I shared with two dozen half-dressed passengers. The odour of unbathed bodies and boiled eggs, my coachmates' dinner the night before, hung in the stilted air.
/jlne.ws/3lGRI3J
The World's War Machine Is Running Low on Ammunition; As Russia's invasion of Ukraine drags on, the two sides are using more shells than they can buy or produce-which means factories are becoming as critical as troops.
Natalia Drozdiak - Bloomberg
On an average day in Ukraine, the opposing armies lob as many as 30,000 shells at one another. That's more than 200,000 a week, almost 1 million a month-without including the bullets, land mines, hand grenades and other munitions being deployed as Vladimir Putin's invasion enters its second year.
/jlne.ws/3k3eFh2
Ukraine Latest: Russia May Have Lost Half Battle Tanks
Bloomberg News
Russia launched a new cruise missile barrage on Thursday against critical infrastructure facilities. Some three dozen missiles were launched from the air and sea; many were intercepted. It was the first major bombing in a week, but one of more than a dozen such attacks since early October.
/jlne.ws/3XBFHd7
Putin's War Is Crippling Ukraine's Economy-and Maybe Russia's, Too; As the conflict enters its second year, it's clear that the cost to both sides will be intolerably high.
Leonid Bershidsky - Bloomberg
When a large country attacks a smaller, poorer one-with about a quarter its population and one-ninth its economic output-it's not unreasonable to expect some manageable financial strain for the aggressor and catastrophic devastation for the victim. A year into Russia's war in Ukraine, the economic fallout could indeed be described in those terms: Much of Ukraine has been reduced to rubble, with millions of citizens huddled in the cold and dark, while life in Russia, if you're not a soldier on the front lines, remains fairly comfortable.
/jlne.ws/3k3f1nS
Russia Still Needs Europe's Oil Tankers; The shadow fleet built up by Moscow's proxies isn't big enough to haul all its crude to Asia.
Julian Lee - Bloomberg (opinion)
Russia still needs the international tanker fleet to haul its crude to India and China from ports on its western seaboard. The long journeys involved make it unlikely that will change. Moscow spent much of the 1990s building a new oil export infrastructure that bypassed former Soviet territories. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the Baltic, where Primorsk oil terminal opened in 2001, followed by Ust-Luga a decade later. Those ports ship about 1.6 million barrels a day of crude, and before the invasion of Ukraine, the lion's share of it went to nearby customers in Europe.
/jlne.ws/3k2LLNX
Smartphones Are Changing the War in Ukraine; Millions of sensors document the conflict, provide targeting information and much else
Stephen Fidler and Thomas Grove - The Wall Street Journal
Smartphones are making the war in Ukraine the most intensively documented in history, changing the shape of the conflict and transforming the world's understanding of it. Each of the millions of devices in and around Ukraine are sensors that can provide data located to place and time. Their microphones and cameras can record and transmit sounds and images that depict the facts of war or provide tools for propaganda. These records are allowing investigators to build extensive visual archives of the conflict that could eventually provide a reckoning for war crimes.
/jlne.ws/3xwXx6c
Moscow's Military Capabilities Are in Question After Failed Battle for Ukrainian City; A disastrous Russian assault on Vuhledar, viewed as an opening move in an expected spring offensive, has renewed doubts about Moscow's ability to sustain a large-scale ground assault.
Marc Santora - The New York Times
As Moscow steps up its offensive in eastern Ukraine, weeks of failed attacks on a Ukrainian stronghold have left two Russian brigades in tatters, raised questions about Russia's military tactics and renewed doubts about its ability to maintain sustained, large-scale ground assaults.
/jlne.ws/3K8n9hv
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | DTCC Comments On SEC Announcement Regarding The T+1 Implementation Date Of May 28, 2024
DTCC via Mondovisione
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) issued the following statement in response to the recent SEC announcement around the T+1 implementation date: "Today, the SEC adopted final requirements for a May 28, 2024, implementation date for the move to T+1 settlement for transactions in US cash equities, corporate debt, and unit investment trusts. With this regulatory clarity, DTCC continues to be ready to bring this initiative forward. Accelerating the settlement cycle to T+1 will bring many benefits, including reduced risk, lowered clearing fund requirements, improved capital and liquidity utilization and increased operational efficiency.
/jlne.ws/3HXyNJm
ICE Announces Record Trading and Participation Across North American Environmental Markets With Strong Growth in Renewable Energy Markets
ICE
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE), a leading global provider of data, technology, and market infrastructure, today announced record volume and participation in its North American environmental markets, with a record 270 companies trading last year. ICE offers customers the most liquid markets to trade futures and options on California Carbon Allowances, California Carbon credits, RGGI Allowances (RGA), California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) Credits, and Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). Across the portfolio, a record 3.64 million contracts traded last year, a 5% increase over 2021, with average daily volume increasing 5.5% to 14,500 contracts.
/jlne.ws/3KcH5Q7
European exchanges collaborate for the provision of a consolidated tape in the European Union
BME-X
Today, fourteen European exchange groups, present in twenty-six Member States of the EU (1 All EU Members States except Slovakia), announced a joint initiative to participate in the future selection process for the provision of a consolidated tape (CT) for equities in the European Union. The project responds to the European Commission's proposal for an equities tape to contribute to the development of the Capital Markets Union. The participating exchanges - cornerstones of financial markets across Europe with decades of experience in operating critical market infrastructure - have signed a term sheet to establish a joint venture that will evaluate and prepare an application as a CT provider in a future selection process.
/jlne.ws/3EeH76l
ICE Fills Gaps in Fixed Income ESG Data
Shanny Basar - MarketsMedia
Anthony Belcher, head of sustainable finance at ICE, said the exchange has been filling one of the big gaps in environmental, social and governance data which was fixed income and the link to securities issuance. Belcher told Markets Media that market participants have been very focused on equities in sustainable finance and ESG, so Intercontinental Exchange saw fixed income as one of the big gaps. "We can map a company's ESG data to its fixed income issuance and cover 1.4 million debt securities," he added. "Clients can now look at ESG from a multi-asset perspective as we also cover municipal bonds and mortgage-backed securities."
/jlne.ws/3S1J0sX
ASX Limited Half-Year Results To 31 December 2022 (1H23)
Mondovisione
Financial highlights relative to the prior comparative period (1H22) based on Group segment reporting: Statutory profit of $73.7m in the half, impacted by CHESS derecognition charge of $176.3m, announced in November 2022 and recognised as a significant item; Strength of diversified model underpinned operating revenue of $499.5m, marginally down by 0.4%; Resilient 1H23 result with underlying NPAT broadly consistent with pcp, down 0.1% to $250.0m; Interim dividend payment of 116.2c which reflects the Group's payout ratio of 90% of underlying NPAT; CHESS replacement project enters new phase with a new roadmap for solution design, increased stakeholder engagement and a new industry Partnership Program; Click here for full details.
/jlne.ws/3YT3gPI
CCP12 Bi-Annual Newsletter
CCP12
CEO note; Dear Reader, Warm wishes for the new year! I hope that you've enjoyed a peaceful turn of the year with friends and family, and look forward to another orbit about our sun. 2022 was tumultuous, with a breath-taking pace of events both horrendous and the occasional bright spot. Given the tensions of our societal, economic and ecological circumstances, this is unfortunately likely to remain one of the few constants for the new year.
/jlne.ws/3jVIpMV
SET Joins Hands With Partners To Reveal 2023 Trend With 4 Must-Know Factors To Cope With ESG Changes In The 1st SET Sustainability Forum On Feb 15
Mondovisione
The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) organizes the annual "SET Sustainability Forum" on Wednesday February 15, a gathering of experts from various sectors to focus on key sustainability or ESG trends affecting business directions, risk management and investment. SET Sustainability Forum 1/2023: "Comprehending Key Changes for Leaders in a Disrupted World" is presided over by SET Chairman Prasarn Trairatvorakul, who gives a keynote address on "Sustainability Transformation - the Real Test for Leadership", participated by ESG experts to share their viewpoints and envision key ESG trends as follows:
/jlne.ws/3lHGOuv
Advisory Committee On Self-Regulation Of The Regulatory Division Call For Nominations
TMX
On November 17, 2022, the Autorité des marchés financiers published an application from Bourse de Montréal Inc. (the "Bourse" or the "MX") to amend its recognition order so as to implement a new governance structure for the Bourse's Regulatory Division (the "Division"). Under that structure, the Division will be overseen by a new committee of the Bourse's board of directors, to be known as the MX SelfRegulatory Oversight Committee (the "SROC"). To support the SROC's work, the new governance structure also provides for the creation of an Advisory Committee on Self-Regulation (the "ACS"), appointed by the SROC and made up of industry members and persons with expertise in derivatives. In anticipation of the implementation of the new governance structure in the second quarter of 2023, the Bourse is seeking applications from interested and qualified persons to apply as members of the ACS.
/jlne.ws/3lANKcN
Keynote Speech by Lee Beng Hong, Head of Fixed Income, Currencies & Commodities, at ICMA Asia Pacific Primary Market Seminar and Forum
SGX Group
"One trusted ecosystem for a growing debt capital market" - Keynote speech by Lee Beng Hong, Senior Managing Director, Head of FICC, SGX Group 1. Good afternoon to all of you, we are very glad to be hosting the ICMA Asia-Pacific Primary Market Seminar and Forum today at the SGX Centre. It is great to see the community together in-person, after a two-year absence. 2. ICMA has been a great partner to SGX in advocating the development of the debt capital market, and it is great that we have this opportunity today to gather everyone here.
/jlne.ws/3KgBf0f
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | B3 Chooses Vermiculus to Deliver a Best-in-Class CSD System
Vermiculus
B3 has selected Vermiculus for a monumental Central Security Depository project, set to modernize and futureproof the centralized deposit services provided by B3. The new CSD system will be based on Vermiculus' VeriClearâ„¢, an elastically scalable and AI-powered real-time system. The system has a top modern microservice-based architecture enabling a new standard for high efficiency.
/jlne.ws/3S2keZI
Tech start-ups face dilemma over expiring staff stock options; Stripe among groups that have delayed IPOs and must now deal with tax implications of employee share awards
George Hammond and Tabby Kinder - Financial Times
Tech start-ups that have delayed plans to go public during an industry downturn are facing a new dilemma: how to deal with restive employees whose share awards are set to expire without a blockbuster initial public offering on the horizon. Over recent years, some of Silicon Valley's leading private companies, including grocery delivery app Instacart and autonomous ride-sharing group Cruise, attracted staff by offering "restricted stock units" that are triggered when a company has a liquidity event, typically going public.
/jlne.ws/3jWizIB
India Allows Google, Amazon as Online Payment Aggregators
Anup Roy - Bloomberg
The Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday published a list of 32 entities, including Alphabet Inc.'s Google Pay, Amazon.com Inc.'s Amazon Pay and Reliance Payment Solutions Ltd., that are allowed to act as online payment aggregators.
/jlne.ws/3YBVOss
New Standard To Bring Blockchain-Based Internet Closer Date
Mondovisione
Quant, the blockchain for finance pioneer, is among the participants of the recently approved working group developing a new internet protocol which will make the transfer of digital assets more secure and DLT networks more interoperable. ‹Alongside colleagues from MIT, IBM, EY and others, Quant put forward a charter that has led the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to form the Secure Asset Transfer Protocol (SATP) Working Group. The Working Group will develop the SATP, a new technical standard for the Internet.
/jlne.ws/3YHFhU0
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | We're starting a position in a cybersecurity stock that's been in our Bullpen watch list
Jeff Marks and Jim Cramer - CNBC
We're calling up this leader in cybersecurity from the bullpen. We originally added PANW to our "stocks in waiting list," which we call our Bullpen, last August around $167 per share. Since then, shares of Palo Alto Networks have gained roughly 4% compared to the S&P 500's decline of about 1%.
/jlne.ws/3KgLSQG
What we've learned from a year of Russian cyberattacks in Ukraine
Tim Starks - The Washington Post
Nearly a year into Russia's conflict with Ukraine, the world has learned much about both the capabilities and limits of hacking in wartime. Feb. 24 marks the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a war punctuated by cyberattacks from its onset to today. "Importantly, this marks the first time that cyber operations have played such a prominent role in a world conflict," reads a joint one-year analysis from three divisions of Google out today.
/jlne.ws/3XzcMGv
Made in America, stolen by China: We need cybersecurity minimum standards
Eric Noonan - The Hill
The United States is under siege and many threats originate from the same place, even if the day's headlines don't make it obvious. Russia is certainly the threat du jour because of its rampant use of cyberattacks, invasion of Ukraine, and energy extortion on much of Europe. The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) even launched a "Shields Up" campaign that centers around cyber threats originating from Russia. Add the threat of nuclear war to the equation, and it's easy to understand why Russia captures so much of our attention.
/jlne.ws/3lEgfpZ
How the U.S. Can Use Taxes to Improve Cybersecurity
Scott Shackelford - WSJ
Benjamin Franklin famously lamented that in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes. In 2023, we might add a third surety to 21st-century life: cyberattacks.
A recent report from Check Point Research says there was a 38% uptick in global data breaches in 2022. The average cost of a breach rose to a record $4.35 million last year, according to a 2022 survey published by IBM, and more than 80% of organizations surveyed said they had been breached more than once.
/jlne.ws/3S7cXIc
Orange CEO Unveils New Strategy Focused on Africa and Cybersecurity (EPA:ORA)
Benoit Berthelot - Bloomberg
Orange SA's Chief Executive Officer Christel Heydemann announced a new strategic plan to 2030 that will refocus on its core telecom business, boost growth in Africa and restructure its ailing enterprise business with a focus on cybersecurity. The plan will bring low single digit growth annually in its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, which takes into account its leases, France's largest mobile operator said in a statement Thursday. Its 2025 objectives include an increased discipline in investments and growth in organic cash flow from its telecom businesses to reach EUR4 billion ($4.3 billion), Orange said.
/jlne.ws/3YAVxpE
Russian Hackers Slammed Ukraine After Invasion, Google Says; NATO members also hit with malicious cyber activity last year; Suspected Chinese groups also involved in cyber-espionage
Aggi Cantrill - Bloomberg
Russian state-sponsored hackers have inundated Ukrainian targets with a "near-constant digital attack" in the year since the invasion, Alphabet Inc.'s Google said in a new report. In a report released Thursday ahead of the Munich Security Conference, Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) said that Russian government-backed attackers increased their attempted hacks on Ukrainian users last year by 250% compared with 2020. The company used 2020 as a baseline because there was an increase in attacks in the run-up to the war.
/jlne.ws/3KgqvyX
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | Coinbase Says It Already Complies With SEC's Crypto Custody Proposal
Olga Kharif - Bloomberg
Coinbase Global Inc. should not be affected by a proposal from US regulators to make it harder for crypto firms to be "qualified custodians," Paul Grewal, the company's chief legal officer, said on Bloomberg TV Wednesday. "I think that when it comes to Coinbase, we see SEC officials recognize that specifically Coinbase is operating in a qualified manner," Grewal said. "In a lot of ways, this is about bringing the rest of the industry to the standard Coinbase has set for itself."
/jlne.ws/40Z45Iw
Charlie Munger still likes big banks and hates crypto
Paul R. La Monica - CNN
Charlie Munger, the 99-year-old vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and longtime friend and business associate of Warren Buffett, said that he's still a fan of many big bank stocks, even as Berkshire Hathaway has trimmed its top financial holdings. He also stepped up his long-time criticism of cryptocurrencies. "I might have different ideas [than Buffett]," Munger said about bank stocks at the annual meeting for the Los Angeles-based newspaper publisher Daily Journal, where Munger was chairman until last year. Munger remains a board director at Daily Journal and is one of its top investors. The meeting was livestreamed on CNBC.
/jlne.ws/3YXuKn0
Whatever happened to the metaverse? Enthusiasm for a virtual future is draining away - and so is investment
Jemima Kelly - Financial Times
Remember when we were all going to ditch our humdrum lives, tedious physical needs and uninspiring friends and family, so that we could live a life of virtual bliss in the metaverse? When we could give up the endless pursuit of self-improvement and just exist as perfect avatars instead? When Facebook rebranded to Meta because, from now on, the company was going to be "metaverse-first, not Facebook-first"?
/jlne.ws/3XBU80w
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | Lawmakers Continue to Quarrel Over 'Crypto Nightmare'
Mathew Di Salvo - Decrypt
Lawmakers and experts met in Washington, D.C. today to discuss how to better regulate the fast-moving and complex world of cryptocurrency-but didn't really come up with any solid solutions. The Senate Banking Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hosted a meeting Tuesday titled "Crypto Crash: Why Financial System Safeguards are Needed for Digital Assets," where some experts said it would be best to let the industry flourish and allow innovation.
/jlne.ws/3IszAmV
World Bank president David Malpass to leave early; Trump appointee to step down by end of June as institution faces pressure over tackling climate change
Aime Williams - Financial Times
World Bank president David Malpass will step down from his post by the end of June, nearly a year before his term expires, following sustained criticism over its response to climate change under his leadership. The bank issued a statement on Wednesday saying Malpass, who was appointed by former US president Donald Trump, had informed the board of his decision to step down after four years "to pursue new challenges".
/jlne.ws/3KdlhnF
US government risks defaulting on debt as soon as July, agency warns; Congressional Budget Office forecast comes amid growing political war of words over lifting borrowing limit
Lauren Fedor - Financial Times
The US government risks an unprecedented default as soon as July if the debt ceiling is not raised, the Congressional Budget Office has warned amid a growing war of words between the White House and congressional Republicans over lifting the borrowing limit.
/jlne.ws/3YCGgon
Elizabeth Warren is building an anti-crypto army. Some conservatives are on board.
Zachary Warmbrodt - Politico
Sen. Elizabeth Warren is branding herself as the scourge of crypto. And she's not doing it alone. The progressive Massachusetts Democrat is starting to recruit conservative Senate Republicans to her anti-crypto cause and getting some early positive vibes from bank lobbyists, who also want to rein in digital asset startups.
/jlne.ws/3YHDGgY
Slouching towards Britcoin, part 1: Threadneedy Street; Begging the question - BoE-style
Louis Ashworth - Financial Times
If you build it, maybe they will come, maybe not. Or maybe you don't care, and you just want to build it anyway. That seems to be the attitude being taken by the Bank of England, which launched its consultation on a 'digital pound' - which, painfully, appears to have assumed the moniker Britcoin - to mild fanfare last week.
/jlne.ws/3lEOuOf
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | UK financial watchdog hit with claim over prospectus climate risk disclosure; Rare legal action brought by environmental charity over oil and gas producer Ithaca Energy's listing documents
Attracta Mooney - Financial Times
The UK's financial watchdog has been hit with a rare legal action by an environmental group that claims the Financial Conduct Authority unlawfully signed off listing documents that allegedly failed to adequately outline oil and gas producer Ithaca Energy's climate change risks.
/jlne.ws/3I8M561
Norway Police Makes Record Crypto Seizure Linked to North Korea
Ott Ummelas - Bloomberg
Norwegian police seized a record 60 million kroner ($5.9 million) in cryptocurrency linked to a heist of roughly $600 million last March that the US authorities say were stolen by the North Korean hacker group Lazarus. The confiscation of the funds stolen from a blockchain network connected to Axie Infinity, a popular video game, is also among the largest cash seizures made in the Nordic country, Okokrim, Norway's unit for fighting economic and environmental crimes, said in an emailed statement on Thursday.
/jlne.ws/3IcLmki
SEC Proposes Enhanced Safeguarding Rule for Registered Investment Advisers
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today proposed rule changes to enhance protections of customer assets managed by registered investment advisers. If adopted, the changes would amend and redesignate rule 206(4)-2, the Commission's custody rule, under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and amend certain related recordkeeping and reporting obligations.
/jlne.ws/3EciiIj
SEC Finalizes Rules to Reduce Risks in Clearance and Settlement
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today adopted rule changes to shorten the standard settlement cycle for most broker-dealer transactions in securities from two business days after the trade date (T+2) to one (T+1). The final rule is designed to benefit investors and reduce the credit, market, and liquidity risks in securities transactions faced by market participants.
/jlne.ws/3Iu3LKI
Statement on Proposed Rules Regarding Investment Adviser Custody
Chair Gary Gensler - SEC
Today, the Commission is considering a proposal to expand and enhance the role of qualified custodians when registered investment advisers custody assets on behalf of their investors. I support this proposal because, in using important authorities Congress granted us after the financial crisis, it would help ensure that advisers don't inappropriately use, lose, or abuse investors' assets.
/jlne.ws/3lKamb2
Increasing Market Fairness and Efficiency for Investors
Commissioner Jaime Lizarraga - SEC
The Commission's ongoing project to modernize many of the rules that govern the day-to-day operations of our capital markets is essential to advancing the interests of the investing public. Where there are unnecessary risks and inefficiencies, it is our responsibility to tackle them and ensure that we fulfill our mission of maintaining fair, orderly and efficient markets.
/jlne.ws/414DERU
Statement on Final Rule on Shortening the Securities Transaction Settlement Cycle
Commissioner Mark T. Uyeda - SEC
Thank you, Chair Gensler. Today, the Commission considers rule amendments to shorten the settlement cycle for certain securities transactions from two business days to one business day after the trade date, a standard known as "T +1."[1] The Commission is also considering requiring broker-dealers to either enter into written agreements, as specified in the rule, or establish, maintain, and enforce written policies and procedures reasonably designed to address certain objectives related to completing allocations, confirmations, and affirmations and to require investment advisers to make and keep records regarding the same.[2]
/jlne.ws/3KbfsHc
Statement on Rule Amendments Shortening the Settlement Cycle
Commissioner Caroline A. Crenshaw - SEC
It has now been over two years since GameStop and other "meme" stocks brought market structure into the spotlight.[1] While the events of January 2021 are no longer front-page news, the issues that they highlighted related to market structure and retail investing are still front of mind for the SEC. Since then, the SEC has proposed new rules on a wide range of issues implicated in the GameStop events, including securities lending,[2] short sale disclosures,[3] and most recently, a package of equity market structure reforms designed to improve outcomes for investors by increasing competition, transparency, and integrity in the markets.[4]
/jlne.ws/3jZLZFy
Timing Matters: Statement on Shortening the Settlement Cycle
Commissioner Hester M. Peirce - SEC
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you to the staff in the Divisions of Trading and Markets, Economic and Risk Analysis, and Investment Management, and the Office of the General Counsel for your hard work on this rulemaking. I enjoyed our interactions throughout the process and appreciate your work on this important project.
/jlne.ws/412jLLa
Statement on Adopting Rules Regarding the Settlement Cycle
Chair Gary Gensler - SEC
Today, the Commission is considering whether to adopt amendments to important features of the clearing and settling process. I support this adoption because it will reduce latency, lower risk, and promote efficiency as well as greater liquidity in the markets.
/jlne.ws/3YSLZpN
Protecting Investors' Assets
Commissioner Jaime Lizarraga - SEC
Protecting investors' assets is a fundamental component of the SEC's mission. The proposal before us today strengthens and modernizes an existing rule that was designed to provide meaningful and enhanced protections directly to investors, and in particular, to working families who hire an investment adviser.
/jlne.ws/3Kl4COS
Statement on Proposed Rule Regarding the Safeguarding of Advisory Client Assets
Commissioner Mark T. Uyeda - SEC
Thank you, Chair Gensler. Section 223 of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 ("Advisers Act") was added in 2010 by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.[1] It is deceptively simple:
/jlne.ws/3lINjNu
Statement on Safeguarding Advisory Client Assets Proposal
Commissioner Caroline A. Crenshaw - SEC
I am pleased to support today's proposal relating to amendments to the Custody Rule, or the newly minted "Safeguarding Advisory Client Assets" Rule.[1]
The Custody Rule from inception acknowledged that, when clients entrust their funds and securities to their investment advisers, those advisers must hold such assets in safekeeping, so that they are "insulated from and not jeopardized by financial reverses, including insolvency, of the investment adviser."[2] In fact, it is considered a fraudulent, deceptive or manipulative practice to do otherwise. That was true at inception and it remains true today.[3] This premise is foundational to the relationship between adviser and client.
/jlne.ws/3Xv6iZe
Statement on Safeguarding Advisory Client Assets Proposal
Commissioner Hester M. Peirce - SEC
Thank you, Chair Gensler. Safeguarding client assets is at the heart of investor protection. Accordingly, I had anticipated supporting a proposal to amend the custody rule, which, after fourteen eventful years, deserves another update. Significant aspects of the proposed approach and its implementation timeline, however, raise such great questions about the rule's workability and breadth that I cannot support today's proposal. I look forward to hearing from my colleagues today and from commenters during the comment period and hope that I can support the final safeguarding rule.
/jlne.ws/3I34L6V
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Luxury Swiss Watches Still Beat Stocks and Crypto Despite Rolex and Patek Drop; Rolex prices fell less than shares in 2022: Morgan Stanley; Supply glut reverses pandemic boom in coveted timepieces
Andy Hoffman and Eamon Akil Farhat - Bloomberg
Prices for the most coveted Rolex, Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet watches are still falling but have outperformed returns from stocks and cryptocurrencies, according to Morgan Stanley. Luxury watches on the secondary market declined 8% in value last year, an index compiled by research platform WatchCharts found. That compares to a drop of 19% for the S&P 500 stock index and a 65% plunge for Bitcoin.
/jlne.ws/3Iv9NdK
World's Top Junk-Muni Fund Is Loaded With a Rarely Traded Stock; Energy Harbor shares are top holding in 15 of Nuveen's funds; Received in debt workout, shares deliver boon - and a risk
Martin Z Braun and Miles Weiss - Bloomberg
The biggest holding in the world's biggest high-yield municipal bond fund isn't a municipal bond. It's a $1.5 billion stake in shares of Energy Harbor Corp., a thinly traded power company that's not listed on any US stock exchange. The Nuveen High Yield Municipal Bond Fund - like many others run by the investment giant - received the stock three years ago after the company's precursor, FirstEnergy Solutions, restructured its debts in bankruptcy.
/jlne.ws/414G82G
Centrica's Trading Profit Tops $1.6 Billion on Energy Crisis;l UK's top power and gas supplier benefited from high prices; Trading business helped lift overall profits to a record
Elena Mazneva - Bloomberg
Centrica Plc reaped a record profit from trading power and liquefied natural gas, helping to drive the UK utility's best-ever earnings in 2022. Britain's top power and gas supplier joined peers across Europe in benefiting from the energy crisis triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Energy costs soared to historic highs last year, combining with extreme volatility to make some previously loss-making deals profitable.
/jlne.ws/3I5b7mq
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | What the New Deal Can Teach Us About How to Electrify Everything; The Depression-era government agency that brought power to US farms used skillful communication to emphasize that electricity makes life better.
Nathaniel Bullard - Bloomberg
A century ago, the US electric power industry was well on its way to providing service to every building in every town and city. But even as late as 1936, more than 90% of American farms still lacked electricity. The magazine Literary Digest published a fascinating cartogram illustrating this disparity in 1921, with US states depicted according to their respective electricity consumption. New York is, not surprisingly, massive, followed by Pennsylvania and then California. By contrast, the rural South is tiny, and states like the Dakotas, New Mexico and Wyoming are practically invisible. In the South in particular, there was a distinct mismatch between state population and electricity consumption: Mississippi ranked 23rd in population in 1920 but 44th in electricity sales.
/jlne.ws/3xvrF25
The EU Green Deal Industrial Plan - what it says, and doesn't say, for investors
Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change
On 1 February the European Commission published its Green Deal Industrial Plan, designed to boost the competitiveness of EU net zero industries using the strength of the single market. The plan was announced in the context of a a global energy crisis, international competition for green technologies, and the ongoing threat of European deindustrialisation. Championed by European Commission President Von Der Leyen, the plan is designed to complement the ongoing implementation of the European Green Deal and REPowerEU, which aims to reduce Europe's reliance on Russian fossil fuels and fast forward the green transition.
/jlne.ws/3YT0bz8
China's World-Beating Solar Boom Is Heading for a Record Year; Industry group forecasts 95 to 120 gigawatts of extra capacity; Likelihood of lower polysilicon prices to spur installations
Luz Ding - Bloomberg
China is set to install a record 95 to 120 gigawatts of solar power this year as equipment costs fall and it pushes ahead with plans to build a massive amount of renewables in inland areas. The forecast from the China Photovoltaic Industry Association follows additions of 87.4 gigawatts last year, also an all-time high. The growth in 2022 occurred even as prices of polysilicon, a key material for panels, soared to the highest in a decade on a supply shortfall. A decline this year looks set to spur more installations.
/jlne.ws/3Yz97cV
Chile's Green Hydrogen Ambitions on Show in Patagonia; A wind-powered demonstration plant delivered its first batch of synthetic fuel in December.
Shery Ahn - Bloomberg
Visitors to Chile's Punta Arenas, one of the southernmost cities in the world, should beware: Winds of as high as 120 kilometers per hour (75 miles per hour) can easily topple the unwitting pedestrian. Ropes have been strung up between some of the buildings in the city's downtown to give people something to grasp during a gust. Capitalizing on Chile's powerful winds is an important agenda item for President Gabriel Boric, who assumed office almost a year ago promising to green an economy dependent on fossil fuels and copper mining.
/jlne.ws/3jXWx8n
France's Need to Burn Gas Pushed Power Emissions to Five-Year High; Gas-fired power output rose 34% in 2022 amid nuclear outages; France was a net power importer for first time since 1980
Francois De Beaupuy - Bloomberg
France's greenhouse gas emissions from its power sector jumped to a five-year high in 2022 as nuclear outages forced it to use more gas to keep the lights during the energy crisis. Emissions from generating electricity rose 16% to 25 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, grid operator Reseau de Transport d'Electricite said in a report on Thursday. The increase shows how the country's green goals have faced short-term threats from nuclear maintenance and repairs.
/jlne.ws/3Ee7Z6C
CEO Daily
Alan Murray - Deloitte
Good morning. The anti-ESG campaign is gaining steam in the U.S. and will continue to do so as the 2024 presidential election approaches. And it's not just presidential politics driving it. The American Legislative Exchange Council has been pushing a bill on state legislatures to combat ESG investors, and some 17 states have either considered or enacted a version of it. Anti-ESG groups are also pushing more shareholder initiatives this year. But here's the thing: I still can't find a big company that is backing off its ESG plans. Earlier this week, I moderated a virtual call among members of the Fortune Impact Initiative, which included around 50 top executives at large companies who are responsible for ESG. Not one of them reported changing their ESG-related plans.
/jlne.ws/414A5Lw
2023: A watershed year for action on deforestation; The global context
Forest 500 - Global Canopy
It is now universally accepted that tackling deforestation is a critical step towards achieving the Paris climate goals. The UN-backed Race to Zero and world leaders have stepped up their rhetoric and demands, making it clear that net-zero policies that don't mention deforestation are incomplete. The Glasgow Financial Alliance on Net Zero (GFANZ), a group of powerful financial institutions representing assets worth over $140 trillion, has included action on deforestation as a key pillar in its newly published transition guidance. The recently agreed Global Biodiversity Framework at COP15 underlines the connection between climate change, the growing nature crisis and ending tropical deforestation, and adds yet another reason for companies and financial institutions to start taking action rather than putting off the inevitable.
/jlne.ws/3Iv88ow
World Bank chief resigns after climate stance misstep; David Malpass was criticised when he dodged question about fossil fuels' link to climate crisis
Kalyeena Makortoff - The Guardian
The World Bank president, David Malpass, has announced his resignation months after sparking controversy by failing to say whether he accepted that fossil fuels were driving the climate crisis.Malpass, who was appointed to the post by Donald Trump in 2019, said he would step down from the multilateral development bank, which provides billions of dollars a year in funding for developing economies, by the end of June.
/jlne.ws/3S14eHm
BNP Paribas Asset Management Study Shows Strong Growth In Female Board Membership
Mondovisione
For a second successive year BNP Paribas Asset Management ('BNPP AM') has published the results of its global study on female board membership, ahead of the 2023 AGM season. Board diversity is a source of financial outperformance and helps to create sustainable value1. For this reason, improving gender diversity is a major focus of BNPP AM's voting and engagement policy, which is being strengthened further this year. The study compares more than 3,000 companies in which BNPP AM invests with around 17,800 listed companies included in the Institutional Shareholder Services2 ('ISS') database. Data is as at the end of December 2022.
/jlne.ws/3EchAuw
Boutique ESG Funds Are Latest Target for Pioneer Austria; Treasury in Vienna will sell green commercial paper from March; Unique instruments help expand investor base with ECB exiting
Marton Eder - Bloomberg
Austria is targeting specialist ethical investment funds with plans for green money market notes, its latest innovation in sovereign debt. The nation, which brought benchmark-size century bonds to the euro area and issued the world's first sovereign green Treasury bills last year, will start selling commercial paper linked to environmental projects from March. These are effectively short-term IOUs that organizations typically use to fund day-to-day operations.
/jlne.ws/3IsTtdx
Apollo, Goldman Plan Private Credit Funds for Rich Europeans; Firms will target wealthy European individual investors; Funds follow similar move by Blackstone in booming market
Lisa Lee and Silas Brown - Bloomberg
Apollo Global Management and Goldman Sachs Asset Management LP are preparing to launch private credit funds aimed at wealthy European investors, trying to capitalize on a burgeoning corner of the credit market. The firms are developing strategies to target affluent individual investors interested in private lending for leveraged buyouts in the region, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified as the information is private. Arcmont Asset Management is also exploring a similar idea, according to some of the people. The moves would follow a similar fund started by Blackstone Inc. last year.
/jlne.ws/3YT1uy2
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Credit Suisse Has Paid Georgian Billionaire $210 Million; Bank says it paid sum "over time" for the proceedings; Rogue banker Patrice Lescaudron was convicted in 2018
Low De Wei and Hugo Miller - Bloomberg
Credit Suisse Group AG says it has paid $210 million to date to billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili in a long-running legal saga. The bank has paid in the sum "over time for the proceedings across all the plaintiff's accounts," a spokesperson for the Swiss lender said by email. The statement didn't break out a figure for an ongoing trial in Singapore or give a time frame for when the money was paid out in a case of fraud that was only detected in 2015.
/jlne.ws/3S66Xiw
Finally, a Payday for European Bank Investors; Profit momentum and a regulatory green light on payouts drive European bank shares after more than a decade of underperformance
Marc Rubinstein - Bloomberg
For more than a decade, one of the most reliable stories in global finance has been the lagging performance of European banks against their US peers - in both earnings and investor returns. Lenders in Europe are still trading at 70% below their 2007 peak before the global financial crisis, a summit US lenders reoccupied in 2018. But things are looking up on the Old Continent. In the past three months, European banks have outperformed US banks by 20% in dollar terms. There are two principal reasons why this may be more than a false dawn.
/jlne.ws/3lI97sy
Credit Suisse's Klein Says First Boston Staff Will Own Firm; 'Super boutique' has lined up investors, town hall told; Executive tries to rally the troops at internal meeting
Gillian Tan and Myriam Balezou - Bloomberg
Credit Suisse Group AG's Michael Klein, appointed to run the First Boston investment-banking spinout, told a town hall meeting that everyone there would be shareholders in the new venture. Trying to rally the staff to support the planned overhaul, Klein pledged that the new "super boutique" will be profitable, and said that should mean this year's bad bonus round won't happen again.
/jlne.ws/3I7PkKU
FSB - Call For Papers: 2023 Annual Meeting Of The Central Bank Research Association (CEBRA)
Mondovisione
The FSB invites academic paper submissions for a session on the topic of the 'Effects of Financial Reforms on Securitisation Markets' at the 2023 Annual Meeting of CEBRA. The meeting is jointly organised by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (Columbia SIPA) and the Leibniz Institute for Financial Research "Sustainable Architecture for Finance in Europe" (SAFE). It will take place in person at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on 5 July and Columbia SIPA on 6-7 July in New York City, USA.
/jlne.ws/3E8GafJ
BlackRock's Hedge Fund Star Seeks $1 Billion After 12% Loss; Hibbert's $7.6 billion strategy had its biggest fall in 2022; He is wagering shares will rise after brief bearish period
Nishant Kumar - Bloomberg
BlackRock Inc. star money manager Alister Hibbert is raising $1 billion for his hedge fund following the worst ever annual loss for his equity-focused strategy. London-based Hibbert will reopen the BlackRock Strategic Equity Hedge Fund for additional cash from the end of March, according to an investor document seen by Bloomberg. The fund had been closed to new investments since 2019.
/jlne.ws/3I94u2k
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| Work & Management | | Stories impacting work and more about management ideas, practices and trends. | A Quarter of London Companies Downsize Offices for Flexible Work; Vacancy rates rising as sustainable spaces command top rents; Landlords are adjusting with long and short-term contracts
Jack Sidders - Bloomberg
London businesses are shrinking their office footprints and giving up traditional long leases as the pandemic-induced shift to flexible working settles in. A quarter of companies are downsizing office holdings and a further 18% are opting for coworking and flexible office spaces, according to a survey of 500 London workers conducted by Bloomberg Intelligence. This trend is helping drive up vacancy rates, and is increasing the gap between rental prices in highly sought after new spaces and less desirable older buildings, Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Sue Munden and Sirine Bouzid wrote in a note on Thursday.
/jlne.ws/3lGVLNt
Bonus cap blues
Craig Coben - Financial Times
Investment bankers are having a difficult time. Dealmaking collapsed in 2022, job cuts are savage and remuneration is being chainsawed. The recent market recovery has given some cheer, but business remains slow. Now a new danger lurks for senior bankers in the City: the prospect that the UK government will rescind the cap on bonuses later this year. Because contrary to public and media perception, most investment bankers like the bonus cap, and many don't want to see it eliminated. They just can't openly admit it.
/jlne.ws/3YCGeN2
NYC Mayor May Relax 5-Day Office Policy for City Workers as Agency Vacancies Rise; Adams's office is exploring ways to make city jobs more flexible, signaling a potential retreat from his strict return-to-office mandate.
Jo Constantz and Gregory Korte - Bloomberg
New York City Mayor Eric Adams is reconsidering his requirement that city employees work in the office five days a week as jobs go unfilled. "We are sending out a survey to our agencies, and we're saying to our agencies, 'Come up with creative ways of having flexibility,'" Adams said at a press conference on Tuesday. He was asked about the city's work-from-home policy as some departments grapple with high vacancy rates.
/jlne.ws/3EguTKv
Worker Burnout Is Even Worse Than at the Peak of the Pandemic; Economic unrest, layoff fears and more stringent return-to-office policies are unsettling white-collar employees globally.
Matthew Boyle - Bloomberg
Workers of the world are more exhausted than ever. More than 40% of people with desk jobs feel burned out at work, a pandemic-era high, according to a survey released Wednesday by Future Forum, a research consortium backed by Salesforce Inc.'s Slack Technologies. The pain is particularly acute outside the US, where the burnout rate has been rising enough to offset slight improvements seen by American workers.
/jlne.ws/3XxlLrH
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | Bureaucrats are telling your doctor how to treat pain. And patients suffer needlessly; Thanks to pressure from lawmakers, government agencies and policymakers who inserted themselves into the patient-doctor relationship, patients became the victims of the never-ending war on drugs.
Jeffrey A. Singer and Josh Bloom - USA Today (opinion)
A decade ago, most people thought of Tylenol (acetaminophen) as a medicine for fever, malaise and minor aches and pains. Nobody imagined that it would become the go-to drug for treating moderate, let alone severe, postoperative pain. But this is just what has happened. Thanks to pressure from lawmakers, government agencies and policymakers who inserted themselves into the patient-doctor relationship, patients became the victims of the never-ending war on drugs.
/jlne.ws/3YCJo3r
The race to an RSV vaccine could soon be over, decades after the first attempt; The FDA is poised to approve multiple RSV vaccines this year. The leading candidates are for older adults, but shots to protect infants are in the pipeline.
Aria Bendix - NBC News
Roughly six decades after the first attempt to develop a vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus, the Food and Drug Administration is poised to approve several shots by next winter. No RSV vaccine has ever been approved in the U.S. The FDA is reviewing two applications - a vaccine from Pfizer and another from GlaxoSmithKline, both of which are for people ages 60 and up.
/jlne.ws/3S2DIgG
China's Leaders Declare Victory Over Covid as Deaths Drop
Bloomberg News
China's top leaders said Thursday that the country has achieved "decisive victory" over Covid as its death toll drops sharply. A meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee said the Communist Party's judgment, policies and adjustment of Covid controls since November have been "totally right," according to China's state television. The public would agree with the conclusion, the report said.
/jlne.ws/3k2QoaN
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | Nigeria Central Bank May Delay Forex Loan Payments on Dollar Shortage, Moody's Says; Central bank rations dollar supply to cut pressure on reserves; Payments delay may create dollar shortages for local lenders
Emele Onu - Bloomberg
Nigerian central bank could delay payments of foreign-currency loans as acute dollar shortage in Africa's largest economy may hamper the ability of the regulator to meet its obligations, according to Moody's Investors Service. The regulator owes as much as $10.4 billion as of June to local lenders who placed the funds in form of derivative transactions including swaps and forwards contracts, Moody's analysts including Mik Kabeya and Lynn Merhi said in a report on Thursday. "There is a risk that the central bank may decide to temporarily prolong those contracts beyond their original maturity date."
/jlne.ws/3Irau88
Turkey's Latest Lira Defense Is More-Costly Forward Contracts; Lenders asked to raise charges on dollar forward contracts; Authorities seeking to cool investor demand for dollars, gold
Asli Kandemir, Kerim Karakaya and Beril Akman - Bloomberg
The Turkish central bank has asked local lenders to make forward contracts for hard currency more expensive, in a further effort to support the lira. Lenders were asked to charge a minimum 40% interest rate on dollar forward contracts, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be named because the request wasn't public. Previously the price of the contracts was capped at 30%.
/jlne.ws/3XCs79t
Polish Banks Risk Extra FX Loan Costs After EU Court Opinion; EU court adviser gives non-binding opinion on mortgage fights; Final EU top court ruling on dispute expected in coming months
Stephanie Bodoni and Konrad Krasuski - Bloomberg
Polish banks suffered a potentially costly setback in the long-running saga over Swiss Franc mortgages after an adviser to the European Union's top court said they can't pass on extra fees to customers whose interest payments were deemed unfair.
/jlne.ws/3S1esrf
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| Miscellaneous | | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | Ex-JPMorgan Executive's Jeffrey Epstein Emails Revealed in Lawsuit Against Bank; Emails cited in USVI suit claiming JPMorgan facilitated abuse; JPMorgan has said any knowledge by Staley doesn't apply to it
Ava Benny-Morrison - Bloomberg
Former JPMorgan Chase & Co executive Jes Staley engaged in a discussion of Disney princesses with Jeffrey Epstein in July 2010, according to several emails cited in a lawsuit filed against the bank by the US Virgin Islands. "That was fun," Staley allegedly wrote. "Say hi to Snow White."
/jlne.ws/3YQMsJD
The world's largest outdoor ice rink is closed due to lack of ice
Julia Buckley - CNN
First it was ski resorts not being able to operate due to the climate crisis. Now, the world's largest outdoor ice rink is facing the possibility of a season fully closed, due to a lack of ice. Confirmed by Guinness to be the world's largest naturally frozen ice rink, the Rideau Canal Skateway in Ottawa sees more than a million visitors each year.
/jlne.ws/3S5ZdwZ
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