Author: 5amResearch

The crisis at Credit Suisse has traders wondering who’s next. Japanese lenders, with their staid depositor bases, look like unlikely targets for bank runs. Yet their collective overseas bond portfolio is in focus. 

For years the country’s ultra-low interest rates encouraged deposit-taking institutions, lenders and other investors to borrow yen and buy higher-yielding but relatively safe assets. This helped Japan overtake China as the top foreign owner of U.S. Treasuries in 2019; they owned an estimated $2 trillion of foreign bonds as of last year. On paper the sequence of rate hikes in Western economies make such positions even more profitable.

Yet the rising cost of short-term dollar and euro credit, combined with extreme yen volatility, have made hedging much more expensive. The inversion of the American yield curve makes it unprofitable to borrow short-term dollars and buy long-term Treasuries. Japan Inc was reducing positions well before Silicon Valley Bank imploded.

Frankfurt (dpa) – A US court has ordered German stock operator Deutsche Börse’s Clearstream subsidiary to turn over about $1.7 billion in assets held by Iran’s central bank, Bank Markazi.

The court decision comes as part of a long-running US legal case in which victims of a terrorist attack 40 years ago have sought compensation from Iran. Clearstream said it is considering an appeal of the decision.

The assets are held in a customer account in Luxembourg by Clearstream, a wholly owned subsidiary of the German stock exchange operator. The company announced on Wednesday evening in Frankfurt that those suing Iran were granted a right to the assets attributed to the Iranian central bank held in a customer account at Clearstream.

Iranian-held assets at Clearstream, which manages securities on behalf of customers and handles purchases and sales, have been frozen on suspicion of terrorist financing and locked in several legal disputes for a number of years.

According to Deutsche Börse, that case remains pending but Clearstream maintains it is without merit.

PM Anwar says the loan option allows quick financing without members dipping into their pensions but analysts say loan applicants already face high default risk
Anwar has been under pressure for a fresh round of withdrawals from the pension fund, after his predecessors allowed four rounds of withdrawals in 2020-2022

Malaysia’s government needs to carefully weigh the risks of allowing members of a national private pension fund to use their savings as “support” to secure personal loans, experts have said, as Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim pushes ahead with the plan to help households in financial distress from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Anwar this week defended the move, saying that it was one of several measures that the government is considering to help households get back on their feet without allowing further withdrawals from the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), as had been done during the pandemic years.

Eleven of the biggest banks in the U.S. agree to provide funds to shore up First Republic as shares plummet by as much as 70 per cent over the past week.

San Francisco-based First Republic is caught in the fallout from Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse last Friday. Its shares have plummeted as much as 70 per cent over the past week. Much like SVB, First Republic has not reported any sudden loan losses or writedowns. But clients nervous about its stability have been pulling deposits and transferring them to larger institutions, something known as a flight to quality.

With First Republic looking like the next domino to fall in a cascade of bank failures, the larger lenders and investment banks are hoping their deposits will keep it standing, and prevent the situation from spiralling out of control.

It is an unusual approach.

Top New York federal prosecutors on Wednesday unveiled a new effort to encourage companies to voluntarily disclose wrongdoing to U.S. attorneys. Under the new policy, which is effective immediately, companies that self-report misconduct will receive more lenient treatment than if prosecutors discover the misconduct through whistleblowers or of their own accord. Damian Williams and Breon Peace, the U.S. attorneys in…

Credit Suisse shares tumbled more than 20% in pre-market trading on Wednesday after its biggest backer ruled out investing any more into the troubled Swiss bank. 

“The answer is absolutely not, for many reasons outside the simplest reason, which is regulatory and statutory,” Saudi National Bank Chairman Ammar Al Khudairy said in a Bloomberg interview, responding to whether the Gulf lender would dole out more money. 

Shares in Credit Suisse slid 21.91% to $1.96 in pre-market trading in US-listed shares. Meanwhile, in Zurich, it’s stock fell 19% to $1.79, marking a new record low on Switzerland’s stock exchange. The bank’s stock is down about 24% since the start of the year.

US stocks tumbled Wednesday, as the banking sector saw renewed turmoil — but this time focused on Europe. US-listed shares of Credit Suisse plunged more than 20%, as Saudi backers ruled out further investment in the embattled lender.

Since regulators shut down Silicon Valley Bank on Friday, investors have been concerned about another 2008-style financial crisis. On Tuesday, Moody’s cut its outlook for the entire US banking system. Meanwhile, the Labor Department reported wholesale prices posted a monthly decline of 0.1% in February, versus expectations for a 0.3% increase.

March 14, 2023. Blick Online: Dark hours for Credit Suisse Bank Dark hours for the bank Credit Suisse, which continues to fight against the outflow of cash from its coffers. The trend has slowed but not reversed, the bank said in its annual report on Tuesday. The Zurich group suffered massive liquidity withdrawals last year, of 123.2 billion francs, including…

“In January, Germany imported 3,500 metric tons of Russian oil,” the Office said, adding that such volumes were imported by the EU before January 1, 2023. In January 2022, Germany imported 2.8 mln metric tons of Russian crude oil.

To substitute the Russian oil, Germany scaled up supplies from Norway (plus 44%), the United Kingdom (+42%), and Kazakhstan (+34.6%).

The EU’s embargo on seaborne supplies of Russian oil became effective on December 5 of the last year.

The Russian army launched 81 missiles in twenty-four hours, including six Kinjal, which Kiev claims cannot intercept.

Russia has intensified its strikes on Ukraine by imposing, on Thursday, March 9, a missile and drone dam on several areas of the country, including in the west, yet far from the front lines. The strikes, which have been the most significant in weeks, have left at least six people dead and deprived of power, as well as temporarily, the Zaporijia nuclear power plant.

Moscow has described these attacks, which it carried out in particular with the help of new Kinjal hypersonic missiles, as « reprisals » to an incursion into its territory on March 2 from « saboteurs » Ukrainian. Kiev denied the charges, and warned that Moscow could use these allegations to justify further assaults.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced this daily message on the Internet in his daily message on the Internet « new attempt by the terrorist state to wage war on civilization, which temporarily cut the power, heating and water in some of our regions and cities ».

BEIJING — Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang warned Tuesday that Beijing and Washington are headed for “conflict and confrontation” if the U.S. doesn’t change course, striking a combative tone at a moment when relations between the rivals are at a historic low.

There is no evidence that China is spying on telecom equipment suppliers’ technology. Nevertheless, they are to be banned from the 5G network for fear of dependencies.

A Norfolk Southern train derailed in Clark County on Saturday, prompting Clark County officials to ask residents to shelter in place out of “an abundance of caution.” “The Clark County Emergency Management Agency is asking residents within 1,000 feet of a train derailment at Ohio 41 near the Prime Ohio Business Park to shelter-in-place out of an abundance of caution,”…

State Secretary – Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgeny Ivanov said that these are countries such as Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia, The Bahamas, Barbados, Haiti, Zambia, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago MOSCOW, March 5. /TASS/. Russia is preparing intergovernmental agreements on visa-free travel with 11 countries, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, The Bahamas, Malaysia and Mexico, State Secretary – Russian Deputy…

On the 25th of February 2023, the European Union (EU) introduced its 10th sanctions package since the invasion of Ukraine. Josep Borrell, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy stated that the new sanctions were addressed to those “instrumental” in the war’s continuation.

The measures target a further 87 individuals and 34 entities in the political, economic and military sectors, bringing the total number to 1,473 and 205 respectively.

The Justice Department announced today that it filed statements of interest in Espin et al. v. Citibank, N.A. and Padao v. American Express National Bank, two lawsuits currently pending in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, to address the right of the nation’s servicemembers to bring and participate in class action litigation under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) instead of being forced into privatized arbitration proceedings on their own.