Category: Finance and Markets
US official sees China-Russia ties posing long-term challenge to European security
WASHINGTON, July 6. /TASS/. The US administration views Moscow’s cooperation with Beijing which Washington alleges has supported Russia’s defense industry as a long-term challenge for security in Europe. Speaking at a special press briefing in the run-up to NATO’s summit in Washington on July 9-11, a senior US official said that the summit communique would have “strong language” on China….
EU foreign ministers approve decision to transfer profits from Russian assets to Ukraine
BRUSSELS, June 24. /TASS/. At a regular meeting of the EU Council foreign ministers of 27 EU countries approved the decision to transfer 1.4 billion euros of profits from Russia’s frozen assets to the European Peace Facility for military assistance to Ukraine, EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell told a press conference following the results of the meeting. “The ministers…
Crypto firm Terraform and Do Kwon to pay $6 billion to settle SEC fraud case
NEW YORK – Terraform Labs and its co-founder Do Kwon will pay US$4.47 billion (S$6 billion) to resolve a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit over the company’s 2022 collapse, which wiped out US$40 billion in investor assets and shook the cryptocurrency world. The SEC on June 12 asked a federal judge in New York to approve the settlement….
Lead fund manager Gregoire Tournant in Allianz fraud case pleads guilty
The lead manager in a funds scandal that led to a $6bn settlement between Germany’s Allianz and US authorities has pleaded guilty to investment adviser fraud, two years after two other managers pleaded guilty for their roles in the scheme. The scandal at one of its US asset management units rocked Allianz, one of the world’s biggest insurance groups, casting…
What’s behind a historic, unusual U.S. military cash transfer to Canadian mines
The United States was growing desperate, months before its entry into the Second World War. It was gravely short of aluminum, and scrambling for suppliers. Its solution: turn north to Canada. American public money flooded into Quebec, building the aluminum industry that supplied raw materials for Allied planes and tanks. “I would be willing to buy aluminum from anybody,” said…
Competition watchdog clears ANA’s proposed acquisition of Nippon Cargo Airlines
SINGAPORE – Singapore’s competition watchdog has assessed that ANA Holdings’ proposed acquisition of Japanese cargo airline Nippon Cargo Airlines (NCA) will not result in a substantial lessening of competition within any market in Singapore. The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) said on May 24 that it arrived at this conclusion after a six-month review, which also took into…
Credit Suisse takes fight over $1 billion awarded to billionaire to Singapore’s top court
A unit of defunct lender Credit Suisse will seek to overturn an order to pay US$743 million (S$1 billion) to a billionaire client over the actions of a notorious rogue banker at Singapore’s top court on April 8. The sum was awarded after a lower court earlier ruled that the bank’s trust had failed to safeguard the assets of Bidzina…
A year on from Credit Suisse’s rescue, banks remain vulnerable
LONDON/ZURICH – A year after the banking crisis that felled Credit Suisse, the authorities are still considering how to fix lenders’ vulnerabilities – including in Switzerland, where the bank’s takeover by rival UBS created a behemoth. The Swiss government-sponsored rescue of Credit Suisse and US bank salvages in March 2023 doused the immediate fires kindled by a run at little-known…
JPMorgan fined almost $350M for issues with trade surveillance program
JPMorgan is facing nearly $350 million in fines from bank regulators due to issues with its trade surveillance program. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said Thursday that it was assessing a $250 million civil penalty against JPMorgan Chase Bank because it found that the company “operated with gaps in trading venue coverage and without adequate data controls…
Bitcoin tops US$71,000 for the first time as rally builds steam
Bitcoin topped US$71,000 for the first time, advancing for a sixth straight day and taking this year’s rally to almost 70 per cent on the back of massive inflows into US exchange-traded funds. The original cryptocurrency jumped as much as 3.2 per cent to US$71,631.45 on March 11. “This rally comes following a weak Asian trading session in which…
Boeing faces criminal investigation by DOJ for Alaska Airlines plane blowout
As you read through the details of the DOJ investigation, ask yourself why Boeing was permitted to regulte itself. Deregulation is a choice made by government. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has initiated a criminal investigation into the Boeing jetliner incident that occurred on an Alaska Airlines plane earlier this year, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. According to…
Barclays sells credit card debt to Blackstone: Profiting from Poverty
Barclays (BARC.L), opens new tab has agreed to sell about $1.1 billion of credit card debt in the United States to Blackstone. Banks globally have been making greater use of credit risk transfers to shed risk from loan portfolios, Reuters has reported, with investors sharing the risk of losses. (See Corporate home buyouts: homelessness, mortgage & rent crisis rising) Barclays’ investment…
China Evergrande liquidation ordered by court
A Hong Kong court has ordered the liquidation of China Evergrande, the real estate firm with more than $300bn (£236.1bn) of debts, amid deepening fears for the territory’s wider corporate health. Justice Linda Chan ruled Evergrande had been unable to offer a concrete restructuring plan to creditors – more than two years after defaulting on a bond repayment and after…
Morgan Stanley and exec Pawan Passi avoid criminal misconduct prosecution for the price of $249 million
Morgan Stanley will pay $249 million to settle a criminal investigation, as well as a related Securities and Exchange Commission probe. The SEC said the bank generated more than $100 million in illicit profits as a result of misconduct by Pawan Passi, the bank’s former head of its US equity syndicate desk, and another employee. Morgan Stanley has been under…
SEC ‘deeply regrets’ its ‘errors and lapses in judgment’ in crypto case
Attorneys for the Securities and Exchange Commission apologized to a judge on Thursday for misrepresenting facts used to secure a restraining order and asset freeze against a crypto firm. In a filing submitted to the U.S. District Court of Utah, in response to the judge’s order to show cause for its misstep, the SEC attorneys wrote that the commission “deeply…
US dollar set for worst year since 2020
NEW YORK – The US dollar is poised for its worst year since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic as Wall Street bets the Federal Reserve is set to lower interest-rates after safely reining in prices. After being whipsawed by false starts calling for the end of the Fed’s rate hiking regime, a Bloomberg gauge of the greenback is down…