| August 10, 2022 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | | | John Lothian
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
When I was reading JLN yesterday after it was published, and saw the image from the sponsored content from FIA, I thought I was having an acid flashback. For me that would be an acid-reflux flashback, but still, the image was all wrong relative to the text below. The image was for last June's FIA IDX in London and the text for the upcoming FIA EXPO in Chicago. The skyscraper ad for FIA was also for IDX.
Today's JLN has the correct images for the FIA EXPO to be held on November 14 and 15 at the Sheraton Grand Chicago Riverwalk. Our apologies have been offered to the FIA for the error and compensation has been offered and accepted. Anyone know where I can get a case of Turtle Wax and some shammies? I have a lot of cars to wash.
Today we have a podcast of an interview I did with Social Market Analytics, Inc. CEO Joe Gits. This was originally going to be a video, but we had some issues with the video feed so we turned it into a podcast. Presto chango, bingo bango, just like that. This is a follow-up interview from the very first interview Joe did when he started SMA. Joe was also featured in our MarketsWiki Education World of Opportunity program in 2017 and in the FinTech Exchange 2015 Chicago event put on by Barchart.
The Washington Post has a great story titled "Why does the IRS need $80 billion? Just look at its cafeteria." You have to see the pictures in this story and the descriptions of the technology to understand the disinvestment that has occurred in the IRS and why it is the black hole that it is.
MEMX has been approved by the SEC to trade options and plan to launch its U.S. options exchange in 2023, which would be the 17th U.S. options exchange trading.
Victoria Vergolina of Bloomberg has taken the time to offer us "A Bored Ape Explainer: What gives nonfungible tokens their value and how do they work in practice?"
If you are visiting China, stay away from the shrews, as they are being blamed for carrying the latest virus. According to Bloomberg, nearly three dozen people in China have been sickened with the new "Langya Virus" carried by shrews.
One of the problems of running a small company is that employees often have a common problem, the boss. That would be me. So The Wall Street Journal has offered some advice, in an article titled "The Right Way to Vent at Work; How to safely unload all the stresses and frustrations of this moment, without hurting your career."
Rolf Andersson, the CEO, CTO and co-founder of Sequitor Engineering, shared on LinkedIn that Magnus Hedin has joined Sequitor as chief product officer. Magnus will lead the development of products and services. Just for fun, here is the MarketsWiki Education Short of Rolf's presentation in Stockholm at our World of Opportunity event at KTH, the Royal Institute of Technology.
Due to a pick up in commodity prices, Ford is raising the price of its electric F-150 pickup, Reuters reported. The automaker said prices for the 2023 F-150 lightning would be increased by $6K to $8.5K depending on various factors.
My daughter Kat has returned home so she can attend the Williams Bay Lions Club Corn and Brat Roast this weekend. In the meantime, it is nice to have her home and have another dog walker in the house.
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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JLN Podcast: Social Market Analytics CEO Joe Gits Reflects on Company Growth and New Features
JohnLothianNews.com
John Lothian News was the first media company to take an interest in Social Market Analytics, Inc. when it first started. We recently caught up with its founder and CEO, Joe Gits, for an update on the company and trends in social media and trading analytics.
Listen to the podcast »
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Registration is open for FIA Expo taking place this 14-15 November at a new location - the Sheraton Grand Riverwalk Chicago. Experience compelling panels that build your knowledge, product demos that deliver innovative solutions, and networking opportunities that celebrate human connections. Whether you're a trader chasing the latest trends affecting the markets, a back office manager seeking ways to increase operational efficiency or a business strategist looking for what's next, you'll find it at Expo. This year, FIA is offering full conference, single day and exhibits plus registration options. Learn more and register by 2 September for the best rates!
Register HERE
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Bank Of England's Apocalyptic Prophesies Fall on Deaf Ears; With the next UK prime minister likely to slash taxes, the central bank's gloomy prognosis is being ignored by financial markets.
Marcus Ashworth - Bloomberg
The Bank of England delivered an unusually apocalyptic economic outlook at last week's quarterly economic review, overshadowing the biggest interest-rate hike in more than a quarter of a century. Yet UK markets have barely moved, and their skepticism is entirely understandable and completely justified. Like a bad pianist playing the right notes but not in the correct order, the central bank's doom-mongering has fallen on deaf ears among traders who reckon its forecasts are an exercise in futility given the fiscal splurge that's coming from whoever becomes the next prime minister.
/jlne.ws/3zIv3r3
****** The market hears all and sees all. It just does not share all in the way that we comprehend all the time. The market is a mystery.~JJL
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Historic Drought Threatens to Cripple European Trade; From the Rhine to the Danube, waterways are failing at the worst possible moment as the climate crisis worsens.
William Wilkes, Jack Wittels, and Irina Vilcu - Bloomberg
In the midst of an arid summer that set heat records across Europe, the continent's rivers are evaporating. The Rhine — a pillar of the German, Dutch and Swiss economies for centuries — is set to become virtually impassable at a key waypoint later this week, stymieing vast flows of diesel and coal. The Danube, which snakes its way 1,800 miles through central Europe to the Black Sea, is gummed up too, hampering grain and other trade.
/jlne.ws/3JHVxNU
******What will the impact be on Octoberfest? That is what I want to know.~JJL
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'He Was Helping Us': Investors Cheer CEO Accused of Scamming Them; Crowd at Manhattan courthouse applauds alleged fraudster and denounces prosecutors. 'Because of EminiFX, I have only one job right now.'
Evan Peng - Bloomberg
For Louisiana Francois, who sank $10,000 into what prosecutors say was a Ponzi-like crypto scheme, driving four hours from her home outside Boston to watch the man who allegedly took her money appear in court was an easy call. But she didn't go to condemn him. She went to cheer him on.
/jlne.ws/3vPSSvJ
****** If you got in early enough in the Ponzi scheme, you might think the same too. But a scoundrel is a scoundrel.~JJL
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Tuesday's Top Three
Our top three stories on Tuesday were really all about the same story. Number one was SEC Proposes Rules to Improve Clearing Agency Governance and to Mitigate Conflicts of Interest, an SEC press release. Number two was Statement on Clearing Agency Governance and Conflicts of Interest, the dissenting statement from Commissioner Mark Uyeda on the SEC's rule proposal. And third was SEC Chair Gary Gensler's Statement on Proposal to Enhance Clearing Agency Governance, also from the SEC.
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MarketsWiki Stats
26,968 pages; 240,122 edits
MarketsWiki Statistics
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| All MarketsWiki Sponsors» | | | | | | | John Lothian News (JLN) is the news division of John J. Lothian & Company, Inc. (JJLCO). The online media and financial services firm is staffed by derivatives industry, journalism and technology professionals. | | | | | | | John Lothian News Editorial Staff: | | | John Lothian
Publisher | | | Sarah Rudolph
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| Lead Stories | Over New York, London and Hong Kong? Time to Move On; The world's financial centers are in danger of becoming passe, as workers opt for a better life post-pandemic.
Anjani Trivedi - Bloomberg
The financial capitals of the world have lost their luster. The bright lights of New York City seem to have dimmed. London has far too many issues to contend with, from inflation, messy politics and homes not built for the heat to a dysfunctional international airport. Hong Kong is a dark shadow of what it once was: A former British colony filled with tycoons and billionaires whose fast, wheeling-dealing, free spirit has faded. Other close contenders like Tokyo, Singapore and Shanghai don't hold the same allure as they once did. So what's left? Financial centers have typically been places with well-formed regulatory oversight and deep capital markets. Naturally, an ecosystem of workers is created around this, drawing in professionals like bankers, lawyers, accountants and headhunters.
/jlne.ws/3Pbjxdh
MEMX Gains SEC Approval to Trade Options; U.S. Options Exchange MEMX Options to Launch in 2023
Sophie Sohn, MEMX - BusinessWire
MEMX, a market operator founded by a diverse group of participants to benefit all investors, today announced that the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") has approved MEMX's rule filing to launch a platform for trading listed options. The U.S. options exchange, MEMX Options, will leverage the strengths of MEMX's data-centric exchange architecture and state-of-the-art infrastructure. The exchange will use a price time-model and is expected to launch in early 2023.
/jlne.ws/3BTrjWd
No, Crypto Exchanges Are Not Like Stock Exchanges; SEC Chair Gary Gensler lays out some sensible goals, but his proposals are a nonstarter.
Aaron Brown - Bloomberg
US Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler has released a video explaining how the agency will regulate cryptocurrency trading platforms. He lays out some sensible goals, but the proposals would prevent them from ever being reached. Gensler is concerned about market manipulation, spoofing, front-running, phantom liquidity (orders that will be canceled before they can ever be executed), shadow liquidity (people willing to transact who will not expose their willingness in public orders), flash crashes and other ills. He says the New York Stock Exchange does a good job on these points thanks to SEC regulation, so those regulations should be ported to crypto exchanges.
/jlne.ws/3p7jzZ9
Crypto Hit by New Security Woes in Incident at DeFi Protocol; Crypto exchange Curve says issue 'found and reverted'; Incident follows attacks on Nomad and Solana ecosystem
Olga Kharif - Bloomberg
Cryptocurrency exchange Curve Finance appeared to have been buffeted by a security incident on Tuesday, adding to a litany of recent breaches afflicting the digital-token sector. Viewed as one of the most important projects in decentralized finance, Curve tweeted that an "issue has been found and reverted" after earlier warning against using its curve.fi website.
/jlne.ws/3Qv2Ydu
Coinbase racks up $1.1bn loss as crypto trading volumes slump; Exchange tries to ease investor concerns about ability to weather downturn amid questions about growing losses
Richard Waters - FT
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase said its revenue had plummeted 61 per cent in the latest quarter as crypto prices fell and trading volumes slumped. The San Francisco-founded company on Tuesday reported an after-tax loss of $1.1bn, compared with the $1.6bn net profit it registered in the middle of the crypto boom a year ago. It said $446mn of the loss reflected an impairment charge on its crypto and venture investments.
/jlne.ws/3Qh5JPR
U.S. SEC to propose new rule boosting hedge, private fund leverage disclosures - source
Katanga Johnson - Reuters
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will propose a new rule on Wednesday aimed at boosting hedge and private fund leverage disclosures, among other details, according to a source familiar with the agency's thinking. The proposal by the Wall Street regulator would require funds to provide more information on leverage as part of their confidential "Form-PF" disclosures, the person said, adding that the measure would also apply to fund advisers who operate as commodity investors and traders under Commodity Futures Trading Commission rules, the person said.
/jlne.ws/3vVxWno
Vanguard Steals BlackRock Crown for World's Biggest Bond ETF; BND surpasses AGG in assets as the latter sheds cash; AGG's expense ratio was cut in April to match BND's fee
Katherine Greifeld - Bloomberg
Vanguard Group has ushered in a new world order in the fixed-income exchange-traded fund arena. The Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (ticker BND), with assets of roughly $83.8 billion, has surpassed the $83.2 billion iShares Core US Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG) to become the world's biggest bond ETF, Bloomberg data show. Larry Fink's BlackRock Inc. has long reined as the largest issuer in the $6.6 trillion ETF arena, but Vanguard has been tightening its grip on the industry. Armed with ultra-low fees, the John Bogle-founded giant, which is now the second-biggest US ETF issuer, has increased its market share of industry assets for 20 straight years. That has dramatically narrowed the gap between Vanguard's $1.86 trillion US ETF assets under management and BlackRock's $2.2 trillion US ETF business.
/jlne.ws/3QzsWwm
Franklin CEO Warns Bitcoin Distracts From 'Greatest Disruption'; Jenny Johnson also discusses the "democratization" of private assets on "Bloomberg Wealth With David Rubenstein."
Josephine Walker and Annie Massa - Bloomberg
Franklin Templeton's Jenny Johnson is confronting the kind of problem her grandfather encountered decades ago. With companies now taking longer to go public, Johnson wants to bring more private investment opportunities to everyday customers. The chief executive officer of the $1.4 trillion money-management giant sees the "democratization of private assets" as analogous to her grandfather offering mutual funds to retail investors at a time when it was hard to diversify. "I describe it as a bit like running with scissors," Johnson said in an episode of "Bloomberg Wealth with David Rubenstein" on Bloomberg Television.
/jlne.ws/3bMtu3p
Hedge Funds Deserve the Drubbing By Private Equity; Investors are getting impatient with money managers, who are on track for their second-worst return on record.
Shuli Ren - Bloomberg
When the liquidity tide recedes, investors from sovereign wealth to billionaire family offices are getting even more impatient with hedge funds. They are discovering that a lot of these expensive money managers don't really hedge, and the pivot toward private equity was the right decision after all. Hedge funds are on track for the second-worst year of return on record, beaten only by the steep losses during the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. Star managers are nursing billion dollar losses. Tiger Global Management's main hedge fund, which started the year with $21 billion, lost about half of its value as of July. Melvin Capital Management, a once-high-flying manager that got an unusual bailout from Steve Cohen's Point72 Asset Management, shut its door in May.
/jlne.ws/3BVKI99
MicroStrategy Explored Options From Art to Real Estate Before Bitcoin Buys, New CEO Says
Michael Bellusci - CoinDesk
New MicroStrategy (MSTR) CEO Phong Le backed up Michael Saylor's decision to hold bitcoin on the company's balance sheet. Speaking Tuesday at a conference sponsored by investment bank Canaccord Genuity, Le said that prior to first purchasing bitcoin (BTC) in August 2020, MicroStrategy considering purchasing Treasurys, corporate bonds, gold, commodities, real estate and even artwork. Digital assets, however, kept popping into management's conversations, Le said. "We at our core are inventors, we're innovators," he said, explaining why bitcoin won out.
/jlne.ws/3bN86uY
Coinbase Executives Misled Shareholders About Public Listing, New Lawsuit Alleges
Sandali Handagama - CoinDesk
Coinbase (COIN) made history last year when it became the first crypto exchange to go public in the U.S. Now, a shareholder wants the exchange's executives to pay damages to the firm for allegedly mismanaging its public listing, according to a complaint filed with a federal court in Delaware. The complaint, filed with the U.S. District Court in Delaware, was made by Donald Kocher on behalf of Coinbase Global, Inc. It alleges the company's leadership made "false and misleading statements" in the firm's public filings ahead of its direct listing in April 2021. Those statements allowed investors to purchase company shares on the Nasdaq stock exchange without the involvement of intermediaries like Wall Street investment banks, he claims. https://jlne.ws/3vSpLYT
The Most Curious Nation About Crypto Is Nigeria, Study Shows
Helen Nyambura - Bloomberg
Africa's most-populous nation showed more interest in cryptocurrencies than any other country since the digital assets began to decline in April, according to a study by price tracker CoinGecko. Nigeria scored 371 in the study that looked at Google Trends data for six searches such as "buy crypto" or "invest in crypto" that were then combined to give each English-speaking nation a total search ranking. The West African country was followed by the United Arab Emirates and Singapore.
/jlne.ws/3JQOSB5
Robinhood suffers harshest hangover after pandemic stock trading boom; Active users desert upstart retail broker while stodgier rivals weather market slump
Madison Darbyshire - FT
Robinhood, the retail broker whose growth reached the stratosphere as stock trading boomed in the coronavirus pandemic, has fallen back to earth. Active users have fled the platform. The number of funded accounts has levelled off. Robinhood's market capitalisation has dropped by two-thirds since it went public last summer. Last week it announced lay-offs for nearly a quarter of its staff.
/jlne.ws/3SEUtOY
Coinbase Posts Steep Second-Quarter Loss Amid Crypto Meltdown; Largest U.S. crypto exchange hurt by sharp loss in trading fees
Paul Vigna - WSJ
Coinbase Global Inc. reported a surprisingly large second consecutive quarter of losses, driven by the crypto market's spring meltdown. Coinbase lost $1.1 billion, or $4.98 a share, in the second quarter, the company said Tuesday, compared with a profit of $1.6 billion, or $6.42 a share, a year ago. Revenue fell to $808 million from $2.2 billion a year ago.
/jlne.ws/3zMds1l
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | Russia says it destroyed HIMARS ammunition depot in Ukraine
Reuters
Russia's defence ministry said on Tuesday that Russian forces had destroyed an ammunition depot near the central Ukrainian city of Uman storing U.S.-made HIMARS missiles and M777 howitzers. Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield reports. In its daily briefing, the ministry said it had destroyed more than 300 rockets in the strike. Kyiv has hailed the arrival of the advanced, long-range HIMARS from the United States as a possible gamechanger, while Moscow has accused the West of "dragging out" the conflict by arming Ukraine.
/jlne.ws/3Qe5Go9
Russia Is Scouring the Globe for Weapons to Use Against Ukraine; The passage of a sanctioned cargo ship from Syria to a Russian port shows how Moscow is bringing equipment home again.
Alberto Nardelli, Alex Wickham, and Jennifer Jacobs - Bloomberg
A merchant ship under US sanctions passed Turkey's Bosphorus Strait on its way from Syria to Russia late last month. European intelligence officials who tracked the Sparta II say it carried military vehicles to bolster President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine. The ship's journey to the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk underlines the Kremlin's efforts to tap resources for the invasion that's now in its sixth month, as supply lines strain under the pressure of Europe's largest military campaign since World War II.
/jlne.ws/3P6RiN2
Russia Set to Resume Oil Flow to Central Europe as Fee Paid; Transneft says oil may reach Slovakia by end of Wednesday; MOL agreed to pay pipeline-transit fee to Ukraine instead
Bloomberg News
Russia is getting ready to resume oil flows through a pipeline to central Europe after Hungary's sole refiner stepped in to resolve a problem over the payment of a transit fee to Ukraine. Crude flows via the southern leg of the Druzhba link may reach Slovakia by the end of Wednesday, Transneft PJSC spokesman Igor Dyomin told Bloomberg on Wednesday. The Russian crude-pipeline operator has received a confirmation from Ukraine that it's ready to resume oil transit, he said.
/jlne.ws/3vQNeK8
In the Energy Markets, Putin Is Winning the War; Europe's energy crisis will test the resolve of Western governments to curb their addiction to Russian oil and gas.
Javier Blas - Bloomberg
No matter what indicator you use, Russian President Vladimir Putin is winning in the energy markets. Moscow is milking its oil cash cow, earning hundreds of millions of dollars every day to bankroll the invasion of Ukraine and buy domestic support for the war. Once European sanctions against Russian crude exports kick in from November, the region's governments will face some tough choices as the energy crisis starts to bite consumers and companies.
/jlne.ws/3JHM8pJ
Putin's Gas Weapon Blunted by Europe's Stock Build, StanChart Says
Julian Lee - Bloomberg
Europe's natural gas stockbuild is running about nine weeks ahead of last year, reducing the leverage available to Russian President Vladimir Putin through his country's exports to the region. "EU gas inventories are still building relatively strongly, despite Russia cutting flows through the Nord Stream pipeline to just 20% of capacity," Standard Chartered analysts including Emily Ashford and Paul Horsnell said in a note dated Aug. 9.
/jlne.ws/3JGNReV
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | Demand for FX derivatives jumps as central banks prep rate rises - CME Group
Reuters
Demand for currency derivatives has shot up this year, data from CME Group showed on Wednesday, in a sign investors are positioning for hefty interest rate hikes from the U.S. Federal Reserve and other big central banks. "Open interest" -- the number of outstanding futures and options -- was at $272.5 billion at the end of July, up 8.8% year-on-year, according to CME, the world's largest financial derivatives exchange.
/reut.rs/3SHwRJC
JPXI Launches One-Stop Platform for Listed Company ESG Disclosure "JPX Listed Company ESG Information WEB (Beta Version)"
JPX
JPX Market Innovation & Research, Inc. (JPXI) has collaborated with DATAZORA, Inc. (CEO: Aram Zinzalian), a company which collects and disseminates a wide range of listed company IR information and other information, to establish "JPX Listed Company ESG Information WEB (beta version)," a new portal which collects*1 links to ESG-related information disclosed by Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE)-listed companies on their own websites*2 and enables users such as investors and shareholders to search and browse this information in a single place free of charge. The new portal is scheduled to launch around fall 2022.
/bit.ly/3PdlgPt
Borsa Istanbul: "Chimera S&P Turkey Shariah" Exchange Traded Fund Listed On Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange
Mondovisione
"Chimera S&P Turkey Shariah" ETF was launched in Abu Dhabi to invest in companies listed on Borsa Istanbul. The fund listed on Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange on August 9, 2022. Within the scope of relations and mutual visits with the United Arab Emirates under the leadership of our President Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the initiatives between Borsa Istanbul and Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange first started with the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the stock exchanges of the two countries during the visit of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to Türkiye on November 24, 2021.
/jlne.ws/3vWNwir
DTCC Launches New DTC Service Designed To Help Lower Excess Tax Withheld For Non-us Investors; The service, known as the 1042-S Classification Announcement, is anticipated to reduce tax withholding by hundreds of millions of dollars
DTCC
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the premier market infrastructure for the global financial services industry, today announced the launch of a new DTCC service, the 1042-S Classification Announcement ("1042-S Announcement"), following recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approval. The new offering will enable issuers to directly provide DTCC's subsidiary, The Depository Trust Company (DTC), with IRS Form 1042-S tax withholding information on distributions prior to the payable date, lowering the amount of tax withheld on distributions for non-US investors. DTCC collaborated with BlackRock and Citi Securities Services on the launch of this service and to establish a formal process for providing interest-related dividends on bond ETFs at the time of distribution. Citi Securities Services is leveraging the new Announcement service to reduce the amount of taxes withheld on payments to its clients.
/bit.ly/3p6kucz
Market Participants Can Now Gauge Volatility in Real-Time with CME Group's Live Streaming CVOL Indexes
CME Group
CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, today announced that its suite of CME Group Volatility Indexes (CVOL) are now streaming in real-time, allowing investors to keep an up to the minute pulse on what nearly every major market is signaling about future risk.
/bit.ly/3vTgJLo
Passive Liquidity Protection: Deferral Time for OESX
Eurex
With this circular, Eurex would like to provide you with additional information on the planned rollout of the Passive Liquidity Protection (PLP) for the EURO STOXX 50® index option family, which is scheduled for 10 October 2022. The PLP deferral time will be set to 1 millisecond for the EURO STOXX 50® index option products for production and simulation.
/bit.ly/3dllvdP
Extension of Volatility Control Mechanism ("VCM") and Dynamic Price Banding ("DPB") Mechanism to Hang Seng TECH Index ("HTI") Futures
HKEX
Hong Kong Futures Exchange Limited ("HKFE") announces the extension of VCM and DPB to HTI Futures applicable contracts (see attachment I) to enhance market integrity. The effective date will be 17 October 2022 (Monday). VCM protects the market from extreme volatility. It is triggered when a potential execution price deviates by more than 5% from the last traded price 5 minutes ago. Once VCM is triggered, the market will enter into a cooling-off period for 5 minutes where trading is only allowed within a predefined price band. Normal trading with VCM monitoring will resume after the lapse of the coolingoff period. Please refer to the Trading Mechanism of VCM on HKEX website for more details.
/bit.ly/3Qdmuvx
Nasdaq Announces End-of-Month Open Short Interest Positions in Nasdaq Stocks as of Settlement Date July 29, 2022
Nasdaq
At the end of the settlement date of July 29, 2022, short interest in 3,424 Nasdaq Global Market? securities totaled 10,421,775,644 shares compared with 10,591,951,910 shares in 3,422 Global Market issues reported for the prior settlement date of July 15, 2022. The end-of-July short interest represent 3.25 days average daily Nasdaq Global Market share volume for the reporting period, compared with 3.11 days for the prior reporting period.
/bit.ly/3vVeabo
TMX Group Equity Financing Statistics - July 2022
TMX
TMX Group today announced its financing activity on Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) and TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV) for July 2022. TSX welcomed four new issuers in July 2022, compared with five in the previous month and 19 in July 2021. The new listings were two technology companies, one exchange traded fund and one financial services company. Total financings raised in July 2022 decreased 48% compared to the previous month, and were down 65% compared to July 2021. The total number of financings in July 2022 was 11, compared with 45 the previous month and 46 in July 2021.
/bit.ly/3vPwjra
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | Snapchat Introduces Its First Parental Controls; The messaging app, which is popular with teenagers, has faced legal pressure to roll out tools so parents can keep an eye on their children's social media activity.
Kalley Huang - NY Times
Snapchat, the ephemeral messaging app, introduced its first parental controls on Tuesday, as social media platforms face increasing scrutiny for exposing young users to potentially harmful content. Snap, Snapchat's parent company, said in a blog post that its new tools would let parents see whom their teenagers were friends with on the app and whom they had communicated with in the previous seven days. Parents will also be able to report accounts that their children are friends with if they violate Snapchat's policies. Parents will not be able to see their children's conversations on the app.
/jlne.ws/3AbLBJy
Chinese technology in the 'Internet of Things' poses a new threat to the west; US companies are using components from Quectel, Fibocom and China Mobile, but the risk is being largely ignored
Alexi Drew - FT
The UK's move to ban Huawei from its 5G telecoms networks has brought the debate about the security threat from Chinese equipment into the mainstream. There are increasing concerns about western exposure to potentially risky technology: only last month, British MPs and peers called on the government to crack down on the use of surveillance equipment from two Chinese companies, Hikvision and Dahua, which have already been blacklisted by Washington. However, there is one threat that has gone under the radar: the tiny components made by Chinese companies in devices connected by the Internet of Things.
/jlne.ws/3AaLMo9
Parameta Solutions partners with PeerNova to launch consensus network for independent price valuation; New network launch comes as parent company TC ICAP announces strong results for H1.
Wesley Bray - The Trade
TP ICAP's data and analytics division, Parameta Solutions, has joined forces with PeerNova to launch ClearConsensus, a transparent high-fidelity consensus network for independent price valuation (IPV). The two firms claim that the service improves both business resilience and regulatory response by addressing the evolving risk environments for price valuation and control groups at banks globally.
/jlne.ws/3zP6Dfs
Injective Raises $40M from Jump Crypto and BH Digital to Accelerate Growth
Injective
Injective, a blockchain built for finance, today announced a new $40 million funding round led by Jump Crypto. BH Digital, the crypto arm of famed hedge fund manager Alan Howard, has also joined the round. Injective is the first fully decentralized smart contracts platform optimized for building decentralized finance applications such as exchanges, derivatives, prediction markets, and options. Finance dApps, such as Injective Pro and Frontrunner, leverage Injective's interoperable blockchain alongside its out-of-the-box cross-chain primitives, such as an on-chain order book and binary options module, to power a new ecosystem of connected DeFi applications.
/jlne.ws/3dkMczF
QuantmRE partners with Texture Capital and Launches Its Blockchain-Based Real Estate Marketplace; Through QuantmRE's Marketplace investors can buy and sell tokenized interests in the equity in residential homes
QuantmRE
QuantmRE today announces its partnership with Texture Capital and the launch of its blockchain-based Home Equity Marketplace that allows investors -- including individuals, family offices and institutions -- to buy, sell and trade tokenized interests in the equity in residential homes, thereby enabling digital access to this asset class estimated to be over $25 trillion in size according to Freddie Mac.
/jlne.ws/3SAbh9M
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | Cybersecurity and Technology Industry Leaders Launch Open-Source Project to Help Organizations Detect and Stop Cyberattacks Faster and More Effectively
Yahoo Finance
A coalition of cybersecurity and technology leaders announced an open-source effort to break down data silos that impede security teams. The Open Cybersecurity Schema Framework (OCSF) project, revealed today at Black Hat USA 2022, will help organizations detect, investigate and stop cyberattacks faster and more effectively.
/jlne.ws/3zMekmD
Cybersecurity: The Last Crusade
Spiros Liolis - Forbes
In a scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) and Dr. Henry Jones (Sean Connery) are on the beach, out of bullets, and a Nazi fighter plane is headed straight toward them. Dr. Jones has a revelation. He takes his umbrella and uses it to scare a flock of seagulls. The birds soar into the sky, straight into the plane's blade engine, resulting in the plane being destroyed. Dr. Jones states, "I suddenly remembered my Charlemagne. 'Let my armies be the rocks and the trees and the birds in the sky.'"
/jlne.ws/3bQiQsh
Cybersecurity Budgets Are Wasted By An Overabundance Of Tools
Saryu Nayyar - Forbes
Of all the potential threats to business continuity—supply chain disruption, pandemic shutdowns, inflation, etc.—what is most concerning to business risk management experts? It turns out they lose the most sleep worrying that cyberthreats will hurt their companies. This is according to the Allianz Risk Barometer, an annual report based on a global survey of risk management professionals. For the second year running, cyberthreats top the list with 44% of the responses.
/jlne.ws/3QhCaO4
Tech, Cyber Companies Launch Security Standard to Monitor Hacking Attempts
Kim S. Nash - WSJ
A group of 18 tech and cyber companies said Wednesday they are building a common data standard for sharing cybersecurity information. They aim to fix a problem for corporate security chiefs who say that cyber products often don't integrate, making it hard to fully assess hacking threats.
Amazon. com Inc.'s AWS cloud business, cybersecurity company Splunk Inc. and International Business Machines Corp.'s security unit, among others, launched the Open Cybersecurity Schema Framework, or OCSF, Wednesday at the Black Hat USA cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas.
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | Sam Bankman-Fried's crypto firms had deep ties to Voyager Digital and its bankruptcy wipeout
MacKenzie Sigalos and Rohan Goswami - CNBC
Sam Bankman-Fried became a crypto billionaire and one of the most famous players in the industry by building cryptocurrency exchange FTX into a top site used by traders and investors. His company was valued at $32 billion in January and currently has more than a million users averaging a total of nearly $10 billion in daily trading volume. But it's still privately held, so the public doesn't know how badly it's been harmed by the "crypto winter" of the last few months. As a point of reference, Coinbase, which is public, has lost roughly two-thirds of its value this year, and mining company Marathon Digital is down by more than half. While Bankman-Fried, who lives in the Bahamas, has the financial benefit of opacity, his exposure to the broader industry washout became readily apparent last week during a five-hour Chapter 11 bankruptcy hearing in the Southern District of New York for beleaguered crypto brokerage Voyager Digital.
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CoinFlex Crypto Exchange Files for Restructuring in Seychelles; CoinFlex seeking to recover $84 million from single client; Expects more partial withdrawal pending votes on proposal
Yueqi Yang - Bloomberg
Cryptocurrency exchange CoinFlex said it has filed for restructuring in a Seychelles court, as it seeks to resolve a shortfall due to a counterparty failing to make a margin call. The company sent out a notice on its restructuring process in emails to customers on Tuesday. It will seek approval from depositors and court on a proposal to issue depositors with rvUSD tokens, equity, and locked FLEX Coin.
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Coinbase Reports 63 Percent Drop in Revenue Amid Industry Slump; The cryptocurrency exchange lost more than $1 billion in the second quarter.
David Yaffe-Bellany - NY Times
When the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase went public in April 2021, it was a triumphant moment for the nascent crypto industry. But the company has endured a grim 2022, grappling with a crypto market crash that has tanked its stock price and forced it to lay off hundreds of employees. Those struggles continued on Tuesday when Coinbase reported a 63 percent decline in revenue in the second quarter and swung to a $1.1 billion loss from a year ago. https://jlne.ws/3QcUEPL
Coinbase Disappoints With User Forecast, Revenue Miss; Second-quarter revenue and trading volume miss estimates; Core retail users are sitting on the sideline, COO says
Olga Kharif and Yueqi Yang - Bloomberg
Coinbase Global Inc. posted a record $1.1 billion second-quarter loss and lower-than-expected revenue as the largest US cryptocurrency exchange was battered by tumbling digital-asset prices. Shares of the company, which were first listed last April, dropped about 5% after the close of regular trading. Coinbase has slumped 65% so far this year amid what has been labeled as the latest "crypto winter."
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Binance CEO Hits Back at 'Weak' KYC Claims
Sam Reynolds - CoinDesk
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao countered claims the exchange has a weak know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) regime.
/jlne.ws/3JKmAbB
Crypto exchange Coinbase posts loss as trading volumes plunge
Reuters
Coinbase Global Inc reported a loss for the second quarter on Tuesday, hurt by a plunge in trading volumes as this year's rout in risky assets curbed investor appetite for trading in cryptocurrencies. Shares of the company were down 6% in extended trading. Investors have dumped speculative assets from stocks to crypto this year on fears that aggressive central bank policy tightening could tip the U.S. economy into a recession. That has sent bellwether token bitcoin lower and forced several companies in the sector including Coinbase - which earns the bulk of its revenue from trading fees - to cut jobs.
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Crypto exchange Nuri files for insolvency in Germany
Reuters
The crypto exchange Nuri GmbH has filed for insolvency with a Berlin court, the company said in a statement on Tuesday, the latest in a string of failures to hit the sector. The company, founded in 2015, said the sell-off in the cryptocurrency market, the bankruptcy of the Celsius network, and uncertainty in financial markets forced it to take the step. It said customers would still have access to their deposits. Handelsblatt first reported the development.
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Reserve Bank of Australia Starts Pilot to Explore CBDC Use Cases
Jamie Crawley - CoinDesk
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will develop a "limited-scale" pilot to explore use cases and potential economic benefits of a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
/jlne.ws/3A7Mhj0
Ethereum Layer 2s Could Take Revenue From the Blockchain as They Become More Competitive: Coinbase
Will Canny - CoinDesk
The Ethereum blockchain needs layer 2 systems to help deal with its "shortcomings on cost and throughput," though those same scaling products could leech revenue from the network as they become "competitive rather than complementary," crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) said in a research report Monday. "It's feasible that layer 2s could become the application layers hosting the bulk of economic activity while Ethereum exists exclusively to store transaction data," David Duong, head of institutional research at Coinbase, wrote in the report.
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Understanding NFTs: A Bored Ape Explainer; What gives nonfungible tokens their value and how do they work in practice?
Victoria Vergolina - Bloomberg
At the height of NFT mania, everyone from athletes like Tom Brady to celebs like Justin Beiber seemed to be buying (or talking about) collections like Bored Ape Yacht Club. Nonfungible tokens aren't just pictures of monkeys, though — they exist on the blockchain, and buying or selling them typically requires paying in some kind of cryptocurrency, often Ether. While the link between NFT prices and the those of tokens such as Ether or Solana is not always straightforward, it's true that nonfungible tokens haven't been entirely spared from the chill of the crypto winter. For more on NFTs, and how and whether they're holding up these days, Bloomberg reporter Prarthana Prakash joins this episode.
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A Growing Metaverse Poses Systemic Risks Regulators Need to Recognize, BOE Researchers Say
Camomile Shumba - CoinDesk
Regulators need to be aware of the systemic risks posed by the possible increased use of the metaverse and be ready to mitigate those risks, Bank of England researchers said. If an open metaverse develops, existing risks from digital assets may have systemic financial stability consequences, they said in a blog post on Tuesday. Regulatory bodies, including the BoE, international financial watchdog Financial Stability Board and the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the global standard setter for banking regulations, are looking to set standards and regulations to limit potential crypto risks.
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | We Shouldn't Be Afraid to Prosecute Trump; Strong democracies can hold political leaders accountable for breaking the law.
Mark Gongloff - Bloomberg
It's easy enough to say stuff like "Let justice be done though the heavens fall," as famous lawyers from William Prynne to Saul Goodman are always doing. It's not so easy when the business end of that justice is pointed at a former president of the United States, especially one whose followers have an annoying tendency to try to violently overthrow the government. America's top Justice-Doer Merrick Garland yesterday sent FBI agents to the Mar-a-Lago home of Donald Trump, reportedly looking for top-secret documents he "accidentally" carried out of the White House when he was boxing up his desk tchotchkes and the one good US government stapler. Trump fans responded with grace and equanimity. Ha ha, no. They suggested the FBI's search party was worse than Pearl Harbor and threatened to revive the nullification crisis over it. The GOP overnight became the party of defunding the police.
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To Truly Protect the Climate, Biden Must Tighten Methane Limits; A loophole in the Inflation Reduction Act could allow dangerous amounts of pollution unless the EPA acts.
Carl Pope - Bloomberg
The Democrats' long-sought tax and energy legislation finally passed by the Senate is a critical breakthrough in America's effort to meaningfully reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. That's the good news. More worrisome is what the bill fails to do to limit fugitive methane from oil and gas production.
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Bedrock, USA: A County Declares the End of the Pandemic; Episode 4 of the podcast looks at how a far-right majority governing California's Shasta County used its newfound power to lift Covid restrictions.
Laura Bliss - Bloomberg
On Feb. 1, 2022, voters in Shasta County, California, decided to recall Leonard Moty. His seat on the county board of supervisors would now be filled by a candidate backed by the recall campaign.
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This political veto on City regulation can only end in trouble; Politicians are generally acknowledged to be quite bad at weighing short-term gain against longer-term risk
Helen Thomas - FT
Perhaps we need a new rule. When a politician complains that regulators are being too slow, too cautious or a bit of a "dog in the manger" about overhauling insurance rules for the glorious benefit of Brexit Britain, they should be asked to explain the issues involved.
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Stock-Buyback Tax Helps Offset Cost of Changes to Inflation Reduction Act; The 1% excise tax is expected to make up for parts of Democrats' climate, healthcare and tax bill that were scaled back to reach deal
Theo Francis - WSJ
Democrats added an all-new tax on corporate stock buybacks to the tax and spending legislation that narrowly cleared the Senate and is headed for a vote in the House later this week. The measure was included late in the negotiations over the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, the latest iteration of a Democratic bill that came to a head over the weekend. The 1% excise tax on buybacks, along with a 15% minimum tax on large company profits, would help raise revenue for government spending on climate and health programs.
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House Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters Calls for CFPB to Take Action Against Equifax; Top-ranking Democrat says federal regulator shouldn't let Equifax sell credit scores until it can prove it has controls to ensure accurate scores
AnnaMaria Andriotis - WSJ
A top-ranking Democrat is calling on a federal regulator to take action against Equifax Inc. for its erroneous credit scores. Maxine Waters, chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, asked the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stop Equifax from selling credit scores to lenders until the credit-reporting firm can prove it has the controls in place to ensure its scores are correct. In a letter to the CFPB, viewed by The Wall Street Journal, the congresswoman also called for "more robust enforcement action" against the company that goes beyond fines.
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | SEC approves MEMX's rule filing to trade listed options; The US options exchange is expected to launch early next year.
Wesley Bray - The Trade
MEMX, the member's exchange, has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch a platform for trading listed options. MEMX Options, the US options exchange, is expected to launch early next year and will use a price time-model, leveraging the strengths of MEMX's data-centric exchange architecture and infrastructure.
/jlne.ws/3zM4gu3
Colombia has detected $20 billion likely tied to money laundering -official
Nelson Bocanegra - Reuters
Colombia's financial crimes unit, intensifying efforts to catch fraud, has detected some $20 billion in financial operations potentially tied to money laundering over the last 3-1/2 years, the unit's director said. The figure is equivalent to more than 6% of Colombia's annual gross domestic product. Money laundering occurs when funds earned from illegal activities like drug trafficking are invested in front businesses which integrate illicit money into the legitimate financial system. The funds were detected through more than 20,000 suspicious activity reports flagged each year by the Financial Information and Analysis Unit (UIAF).
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Canadian Regulators Probing Crypto Lender Celsius Network Alongside US: Report
Elizabeth Napolitano - CoinDesk
Canadian regulators are working in tandem with their U.S. counterparts to investigate the impact of New Jersey-based crypto lender Celsius Network's multibillion-dollar collapse, according to a Financial Post article. Although Celsius never registered with Canada's provincial securities regulators, authorities in the country are working with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate the trans-border issue, the Financial Post, a Toronto-based newspaper, reported Tuesday. Regulators have launched investigations across jurisdictions in the U.S. and Canada to look into the insolvent lender's post-crash actions. The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) is also investigating how Celsius' collapse and subsequent bankruptcy has affected the platform's Canadian users. In Quebec, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) is investigating the ramifications of Celsius' mid-June effort to freeze withdrawals.
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Smart Beta—What You Need to Know
FINRA
There has been significant growth in the number of financial products, primarily exchange-traded products (ETPs), that are linked to, and seek to track, the performance of alternatively weighted indexes. These indexes are commonly referred to as "smart beta" indexes.
/jlne.ws/3AaCMiR
Special Election to Fill a FINRA Large Firm Governor Vacancy; Petitions for Candidacy Due: September 23, 2022
FINRA
FINRA will conduct a special meeting of large firm members on or about October 31, 2022, to elect one individual to fill a vacant Large Firm Governor seat on the FINRA Board of Governors (FINRA Board).1 A formal notice of the special meeting, including the precise date, time and location, will be mailed to executive representatives on or about October 10, 2022.
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PODCAST: Introducing FINRA's Complex Investigations and Intelligence team and Cyber and Analytics Unit
FINRA
The new Complex Investigations and Intelligence (CII) team and Cyber and Analytics Unit (CAU) are driving a shift in terms of how Member Supervision's National Cause and Financial Crimes Detection Program comes at its work and leverages intelligence and analytics to drive decision making and operations.
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SEC Awards More Than $16 Million to Two Whistleblowers
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced awards of more than $16 million to two whistleblowers who provided information and assistance in a successful SEC enforcement action. The first whistleblower prompted the opening of the investigation and provided information on difficult-to-detect violations. This whistleblower also identified key witnesses and provided critical information, which helped staff in their investigation. As a result, this whistleblower will receive an award of approximately $13 million. The second whistleblower submitted important new information during the course of the investigation and will receive an award of more than $3 million.
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ASIC's approach to breach reporting: implementation of reportable situations regime
ASIC - Australian Securities and Investments Commission
As part of its 2022-23 priorities, ASIC will focus on improving the operation of the reportable situations regime.
The new regime, which applies to Australian Financial Services (AFS) Licensees and Credit Licensees, commenced on 1 October 2021.
The lodgement of reports by licensees under the reportable situations regime provides a critical source of intelligence to enable ASIC to identify emerging trends of non-compliance in the industry. It also allows detection of significant non-compliant behaviours early, facilitating prompt regulatory action where appropriate.
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Cigna admits making false and misleading representations over its communication of inflation adjustments to insurance cover
Financial Markets Authority
Cigna Life Insurance New Zealand Limited has admitted to making false and/or misleading representations to customers in proceedings brought by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) - Te Mana Tatai Hokohoko.
The case was filed in the Wellington High Court and alleges that Cigna breached the Fair Dealing provisions of the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 (FMC Act), when communicating and charging customers for inflation increases to premiums and cover in respect of 52,363 policies.
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Retail Traders Push Meme Strategies Into Stock Options, Worrying Pros; August has seen a surge in call buying by retail investors; Jump in options trading typically followed by stock declines
Natalia Kniazhevich - Bloomberg
Retail traders are splashing around in the options market again, in what has historically been a bad omen for stocks. Day traders who have driven outsize gains in the likes of Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. in recent weeks have also been piling into calls -- bullish bets that can amplify returns on individual stocks. For professional traders, the uptick in call buying by the retail set is yet another warning that the surge in stocks since late June might not last. Since 2006, there have been six jumps in speculation by small options traders during period of limited stock rallies, followed by declines over the next three and six months every time but one, according to the latest research from SentimenTrader.
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College Endowments Post Biggest Losses Since Financial Crisis; Results contrast sharply with last year's gain of 27%; Larger funds showed increases of 0.9% for year ended in June
Janet Lorin - Bloomberg
Investments in US college endowments declined the most since the global financial crisis, owing in part to double-digit losses in US equity markets. Endowments lost a median 10.2% before fees for the 12 months through June, according to data to be published Tuesday by Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service. The largest funds -- those with assets of more than $500 million -- fared substantially better, with a slight gain of 0.9%. Larger endowments tend to invest more in alternatives such as private equity funds, which offered a buffer against the equity-market losses, while smaller ones rely more heavily on US stocks. The S&P 500 declined by 12% for the period. That left smaller endowments in particular with nowhere to hide, although commodities and private equity offered some relief, said Mike Rush, a senior vice president at Wilshire.
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Ford raises prices of electric F-150 pickup amid high commodity costs
Reuters
Ford Motor Co (F.N) said on Tuesday it would raise the prices of its electric F-150 Lightning pickup as the U.S. carmaker deals with surging raw material costs. The automaker said prices for its 2023 F-150 lightning will be increased in the range of $6,000 and $8,500 depending on the variant, with the cheapest Pro model now priced at about $47,000. Customers who have ordered the truck and awaiting delivery will not be impacted by the price hike, Ford added. Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford said last month it was expecting commodity costs to rise by $4 billion this year and that it would offset them by raising prices. Prices of raw materials such as lithium used in batteries have jumped of late as car companies, including the likes of Elon Musk's Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) and EV pickup maker Rivian Automotive Inc (RIVN.O), rush to secure supplies to avoid disruptions to production.
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Shrinking U.S. cattle herd signals more pain from high beef prices
Tom Polansek - Reuters
U.S. consumers grappling with soaring inflation face more pain from high beef prices as ranchers are reducing their cattle herds due to drought and lofty feed costs, a decision that will tighten livestock supplies for years, economists said. The decline in cattle numbers, combined with stiff costs for other production expenses, illustrate why a recent fall in grain prices to levels not seen since Russia's invasion of major corn and wheat exporter Ukraine may not immediately translate into lower food prices at the grocery store. Feed is the largest cost component of raising a cow for beef, so lower grain prices often help to reduce meat prices. But meat companies like Tyson Foods Inc (TSN.N), which reported weaker-than-expected earnings on Monday, must pay top dollar for animals when there are fewer to slaughter. Processors are also paying more for labor, fuel and other items.
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LNG traders absorb huge losses after supply outages
Ron Bousso and Marwa Rashad - Reuters
Major energy traders are taking hundreds of millions of dollars in losses as they scramble to plug a liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply gap after several outages hampered efforts to fill European storage ahead of the winter heating season. Unplanned disruptions at LNG plants in the United States, Nigeria and Australia have wrong-footed traders, including BP and Shell, forcing them to pay inflated costs for alternative supplies. In a market already struggling to meet global demand for natural gas after Russia sharply reduced pipeline supplies into Europe, the lost LNG cargoes which can be transported by ship, have pushed global prices sharply higher in recent months.
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OPEC's Token Supply Boost Looks Astute as Oil Sentiment Sours; Price have dropped 5% this month on fears of a global slowdown; Druzhba pipeline halt shows need to conserve spare capacity
Grant Smith - Bloomberg
OPEC's latest supply increase seemed too small to satisfy anyone when it was unveiled last week, but it's increasingly looking like the right call.
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EU Watchdog Says Pigs Should Get More Space for Animal Welfare; Opinion on pig welfare is first of a series expected this year; Farm-to-fork plan aims to make Europe's food more sustainable
Aine Quinn - Bloomberg
The European Union's food watchdog set out recommendations on how to rear pigs, in its first scientific opinion on animal welfare since the bloc launched a sustainable food plan. The European Food Safety Authority recommended that minimum space allowance for pigs should be increased, and that some sows should be housed in pens rather than crates, among other measures. The practice of tail docking -- which is used to stop pigs biting their tails if distressed -- should not be performed routinely, it said.
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Baillie Gifford has thoughts on stock selection versus natural selection; To err is human, to underperform divine
Bryce Elder - FT
Apologies. In Tuesday's news rush we somehow overlooked annual results from UK-listed tech fund Baillie Gifford US Growth Trust, which contain one of the more inventive excuses on public record so far for losing investors' money on modish stuff like Peloton and Vroom.
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | UK Plans for Blackouts in January in Emergency Energy Plan; Reasonable worst-case scenario envisages 4-day power shortfall; Industry, households could face planned power outages
Alex Wickham and Rachel Morison - Bloomberg
The UK is planning for several days over the winter when cold weather may combine with gas shortages, leading to organized blackouts for industry and even households. Under the government's latest "reasonable worst-case scenario," Britain could face an electricity capacity shortfall totaling about a sixth of peak demand, even after emergency coal plants have been fired up, according to people familiar with the government's planning. Under that outlook, below-average temperatures and reduced electricity imports from Norway and France could expose four days in January when the UK may need to trigger emergency measures to conserve gas, they said.
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State Regulation of ESG Investment Decision-making by Public Retirement Plans: An Updated Survey
Ropes & Gray
Last year, Ropes & Gray published an Alert that described the different approaches states were considering (or had implemented in several cases) regarding the regulation of ESG investments by state retirement systems. The growing divide in the ESG regulatory landscape in different states became clear with the passage of legislation in Maine and Texas in 2021, which adopted contradictory ESG policies for state pension fund investments. This converse approach deepened over the past year, as more than a dozen states introduced new initiatives either to divest state pension funds from gun and ammunition companies or oil and gas companies and coal companies or, conversely, to require state pension fund divestment from companies that boycott fossil fuel companies. While many state pension divestment bills expressly exclude managed investment funds and private equity funds, some do not. Some initiatives further require that the pension fund board request that investment fund managers create similar funds without the targeted holdings. Beyond legislation on divestment and state contracts, states are deploying task forces, investigations and report committees to encourage or discourage ESG investing, while some pension funds are adopting their own investment and proxy voting policies that incorporate ESG.
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The rise of ESG and Sustainable Fund Finance in Europe
JD Supra
Challenges create opportunities and the environmental and social challenges we currently face are no exception. In this paper we consider the opportunities provided by sustainable finance, and more specifically impact financing and sustainability linked lending, in the context of fund financing. Before we delve into the detail on these relatively new types of financing we consider the key factors driving the move towards sustainable finance.
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MUFG Research: Contours of the GCC ESG ecosystem set to accelerate; The GCC set to become a market leader in the global energy transition by 2050; COP 27 and COP 28 in Egypt and the UAE to accelerate conversations around transition to clean energy in the Middle East, including hydrogen, solar and wind. Favourable regional intrinsics translates into extremely low costs for renewable power, which in turn underpins the economics of green hydrogen production in the region.
Zawya.com
The GCC is undergoing a series of impactful transitions, ranging from energy and fiscal reforms to market dynamics and now a burgeoning ESG agenda, according to a recent study by MUFG titled "ESG in the GCC region: Journey towards the next normal is underway." As oil and gas intensive states, climate change and the energy transition are top of mind, but social and governance considerations are equally part of the strategy. Rapid development of ESG disclosures continues to propel corporates' sustainability plans which is enabling investors to strengthen engagement.
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Emerging Fraud Risks to Consider: ESG
Michael Brodsky and Amy Edwards - Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance
Many audit committees are highly focused on the risk of financial statement fraud, but a case is growing for audit committees to expand their discussion of fraud risk to encompass a growing variety of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues. ESG-related topics increasingly appear on audit committee agendas and factor into financial reporting discussions, but they tend to arise less often in the context of discussions about fraud risk.
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ESG Is a Moving Target: How to Design Programs That Land
Jan Risi - Newsweek Experts
Companies are finally becoming serious about environmental sustainability, social inclusivity and responsible governance (ESG) goals. Some are even putting it into their charters to become a new brand of certified "benefit corporations" balancing profit and public benefit. Others are still trying to figure out what ESG goals should look like for their company. Not everyone finds the same aspects equally important, and ESG can mean different things to different people. No one can know everything there is to know about ESG because ESG is fluid — a moving target, constantly evolving as new ways to approach it crop up or draw closer to the horizon. While this makes it harder to commit to an approach, corporations should want to take accountability for their impact on society because ESG can improve a company's bottom line.
/bit.ly/3QdvuR3
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Citigroup, Morgan Stanley Say Bets on China Liquidity to Unwind; Further drop in interbank repo rates may be limited: Citigroup; Morgan Stanley tells clients to bet on flatter 1-5 year curve
Bloomberg News
The relentless decline in China's short-term rate swaps fueled by bets on persistently abundant liquidity may be about to end, according to Citigroup and Morgan Stanley strategists, who recommend clients to position for a flatter curve. The difference between one- and three-year non-deliverable China interest-rate swaps expanded to 30 basis points Tuesday, the widest since 2017. Driven by low funding costs for banks during the pandemic, the spread is approaching the top of the range since China adopted the current monetary framework and started to set policy rates on a series of open-market tools as anchors in 2016, according to Citigroup.
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Carlyle boss quit after failed request for $300mn pay package; Kewsong Lee resigned from US private equity group following co-founders' rejection of deal
Kaye Wiggins, Antoine Gara and James Fontanella-Khan - FT
Carlyle Group's ousted chief executive Kewsong Lee asked for a pay package worth up to $300mn over five years and resigned from the US private equity group after its co-founders refused to even discuss the deal, multiple people with knowledge of the matter said.
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Record outflows from commodity ETPs obscure long-term demand; 'Recency bias' is scaring some investors off, experts say, despite shortage of materials for energy transition
Emma Boyde - FT
Investors pulled record amounts of money out of commodity exchange traded products (ETPs) in July, but industry observers said the rush for the exits ignored some long-term factors. About $11.2bn was pulled from commodity ETPs globally, surpassing the combined outflows of $9.7bn recorded in May and June and marking the third month in a row of net outflows, according to data from BlackRock. The previous record was set in April 2013 when investors withdrew $9.5bn.
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Olivetree Group acquired by Alvar Financial, CEO departs; Following rumours earlier this year regarding a merger with StoneX, The TRADE can reveal that Olivetree Group has been bought by prime brokerage Alvar Financial, while founder and CEO Daryn Kutner has left the firm.
Laurie McAughtry - The Trade
Independent investment bank Olivetree Group has been acquired by London-based trading solutions provider Alvar Financial Services, The TRADE can reveal.
/jlne.ws/3A8JIx9
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | The Omicron BA.5 Wave Is Starting to Ebb. We Need to Know Why; Scientists are starting to figure out why infection rates rise and fall. But a collapse in Covid testing will make it much harder to predict the next surge.
Faye Flam - Bloomberg
The Covid wave fueled by the omicron BA.5 surge is finally starting to ebb in the UK and in some of the harder-hit parts of the US. But why? It's no longer tenable to argue that disease waves peak and fall primarily because people start taking precautions. People, especially in these two countries, are taking fewer precautions all the time.
/jlne.ws/3JKxWMC
Dozens in China Infected With New 'Langya' Virus Carried by Shrews
Michelle Fay Cortez - Bloomberg
Nearly three dozen people in China have been sickened by a newly identified virus from the same family as the deadly Nipah and Hendra viruses, though there's no evidence the pathogen can be transmitted from person-to-person.
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | China Orders Surprise Audit of $3 Trillion Trust Industry; Top state auditor said to check more than 20 trust firms; Industry is facing increased defaults from developers
Bloomberg
China's top auditor is conducting a review of the $3 trillion trust industry, paving the way for a potential overhaul of a key shadow banking sector where losses on property loans are mounting. In an unscheduled move, the National Audit Office -- which previously led an examination of bank exposures to Jack Ma's Ant Group Co. -- has for the past month been inspecting the books of at least 20 trust firms, including the top five, to gauge the risks they pose to financial stability, according to people familiar with the matter. The firms are being asked to report on their risky loans to developers and any plans to dispose of them, the people said, asking not to be named as they're not authorized to speak publicly. The audit office is expected to submit its conclusions to policy makers in Beijing, who may decide on the future reforms of the sector, the people said.
/jlne.ws/3AcMhOS
Bankers Turned Billionaires for an Instant, Then Came 89% Crash; Founders of Magic Empire saw fortunes briefly rise after IPO; Latest Hong Kong stock to show baffling surge on US debut
Venus Feng - Bloomberg
Two founders of a little-known Hong Kong investment bank briefly became billionaires in recent days following a baffling stock surge, only to see their paper fortunes quickly tumble when the shares plunged. Magic Empire Global Ltd., which provides underwriting and advisory services and has helped just one company go public in two years, soared as much as 6,149% since debuting in the US on Friday, giving it a market value of $5 billion at one point.
/jlne.ws/3bNASvd
Investors shun Pakistani bonds over rising default threat; Country's debt is trading at distressed levels as scorching inflation compounds economic woes
John Reed and Nikou Asgari - FT
Investors are on alert for Pakistan to follow Sri Lanka into default as the south Asian country struggles with soaring commodity prices and tighter credit conditions. Pakistan's foreign bonds due to mature in 2024, 2025 and 2026 are trading firmly in distressed territory, at about 71, 65 and 63 cents on the dollar, respectively, according to Bloomberg data.
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Roman Abramovich's London Empire Unravels as Sanctions Bite; The Russian billionaire's UK assets have either been sold or frozen since Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
Benjamin Stupples - Bloomberg
Roman Abramovich's cream-colored Kensington mansion has more than a dozen bedrooms and police vans posted at each end of its tree-lined street. Nearby neighbors include British royals, steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal and Warner Music Group owner Len Blavatnik. It's one of several London assets the Russian billionaire acquired in recent decades that have helped make the city the hub of his fortune. But that foothold has proven tenuous in recent months as his prize possessions in the English capital — from Chelsea Football Club to luxury homes to a stake in London-based steel group Evraz Plc — have been sold or frozen following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
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Norway's unexpected energy crisis; Unusually dry weather has reduced hydropower production, leading to pressure to cut electricity exports
Richard Milne - FT
Norway is in many ways a lucky country. Its abundant oil and gas resources are much in demand since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Numerous rivers and reservoirs up and down the country mean that more than 90 per cent of its electricity needs are covered by its own hydropower. But in a sign of just how deeply the energy crisis is shaking Europe, Norway is suddenly facing its own electricity problems that are affecting everything from politics and international relations to business.
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Appointment of experienced economist, Mr. Birahim DIOUF, as Managing Director of the Central Depositary/Settlement Bank (DC/BR), an important entity in the West African Monetary Union's (WAEMU) financial ecosystem
Dépositaire Central/Banque de Règlement (DC/BR)
At the end of the meeting of the Board of Directors held on Tuesday, June 7, 2022 at the institution's headquarters, Mr. Birahim DIOUF is appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Central Depository/Settlement Bank (www.BRVM.org). The appointment effective from 1 July 2022 marks an important step in the process of empowering the structures of the WAEMU Regional Financial Market.
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World's Top Coffee Crop Shrinks in a Market Thirsty for Supply; Yield losses from Brazil's bad weather is higher than expected; Lower arabica supply may keep global prices high for consumers
Tatiana Freitas, Marvin G Perez, and Tarso Veloso Ribeiro - Bloomberg
Arabica farmers in Brazil, the world's top exporter, are seeing bigger-than-expected losses for a coffee crop that already had setbacks due to freakish weather, bringing lower yields that threaten to extend a global supply crunch. Luis Fernando Ferreira da Silva, a grower in Brazil's top producing Minas Gerais state, expected this season's crop to be cut by more than half after drought and frost hit his farm last year. He initially expected to reap 8,000 60-kilogram bags, but later slashed his estimate to 3,500 bags. Things ended up even worse. "Now I believe it won't reach 2,000 bags," da Silva said in an interview. "It was definitely a year to forget."
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| Miscellaneous | | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | Why does the IRS need $80 billion? Just look at its cafeteria.
Catherine Rampell - The Washington Post
It's part of what the IRS calls the "Pipeline": a 1970s-era assembly line used to process tax returns at several locations around the country. And it might give you a sense of why Congress is on the verge of handing the agency $80 billion through the Inflation Reduction Act — not only for more enforcement but also for tech modernization. As of July 29, the IRS had a backlog of 10.2 million unprocessed individual returns. Blame the pandemic, sure, but also the agency's embarrassingly outdated, paper-based system, which leaves stacks and stacks of returns cluttering shelves, hallways and even the cafeteria. On the Pipeline, paper tax returns aren't scanned into computers; instead, IRS employees manually keystroke the numbers from each document into the system, digit by digit.
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