| January 30, 2023 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | |  | John Lothian
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
Evidently the reports of Sam Bankman-Fried only talking to his parents and his dog were grossly misleading, as prosecutors are seeking to block him from contacting former FTX colleagues and from using encrypted messaging apps to do so. One wonders why one would need an encrypted messaging app in the first place, except to hide one's tracks. The Financial Times and others have the story.
Congratulations to OCC Executive Director for Business Continuity and Cyber Resilience Clint Fransen, who was re-elected to and promoted to chair of the ChicagoFIRST board of directors. ChicagoFIRST is a nonprofit that facilitates collaboration between critical businesses and relevant local, regional and national public sector agencies on resilience and emergency management planning and response.
FIA is holding an event in Stockholm on March 9, 2023 to discuss regional and local issues and developments impacting the use of listed and cleared derivatives. You can learn more and register HERE.
Rumi Morales has been a board member of the Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA), but she was just named a Girl Scouts International Commissioner and a member of the GSUSA's Executive Committee. In this capacity, she will help not only GSUSA troops overseas, but work with the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, representing 10 million girls in 150 countries. Congratulations, Rumi, and do as much good for these young women to reach their leadership potential wherever they are in this world.
Sean Feeney shared on LinkedIn that he has been promoted to head of US options at Nasdaq, which he described as a lifelong dream come true.
Sean Ristau is starting a new position as vice president - business development - Digital Fund Services at Figure.
In chess news, Optiver ambassador Anish Giri won the 2023 Tata Steel Chess Tournament after a victory in his final game against Richard Rapport.
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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The FIA/SIFMA AMG Asset Management Derivatives Forum 2023 is February 8-10, 2023, at the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel in Dana Point, California. The eighth annual Asset Management Derivatives Forum is an opportunity for market participants from all sides of a trade and leading regulators to examine the latest developments impacting the use of derivatives by asset managers, including business, clearing, regulatory and operations issues. You can view the agenda and register here. ~SAED
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Superhuman Algorithms Could 'Kill Everyone' in Due Time, Researchers Warn
Tim Newcomb - Popular Mechanics
Before we get too far into this artificial intelligence race, let's make sure we aren't just setting ourselves up for certain death. That's the gist of the recent message that a pair of Oxford University researchers delivered to the U.K. Parliament's House of Commons. "With superhuman AI, there is a particular risk that is of a different sort of class, which is that it could kill everyone," said Michael Cohen, an engineering sciences doctoral candidate, during a January 25 hearing.
/jlne.ws/3XONpkS
***** I have a normal human algorithm to kill off this superhuman algorithm; it is called unplugging the computers it is running on.~JJL
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'Flying with one engine': why global food supplies are at risk despite falling crop prices; Geopolitical uncertainty, volatile energy markets and climate change all pose a threat
Emiko Terazono - Financial Times
Fertiliser and crop prices have fallen sharply since their peaks after last year's Russian attack on Ukraine. Yet agriculture specialists and analysts have warned that the world's food supplies are still under threat. Food prices were already elevated before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine early last year, due to droughts and coronavirus pandemic-related hoarding by governments and businesses. Then crop nutrient prices soared as a result of Moscow's position as the world's largest fertiliser exporter, while the jump in natural gas prices, a critical ingredient for nitrogen fertilisers, also piled pressure onto agricultural markets.
/jlne.ws/3Rj3Vr9
****** I am not sure I want to glide with global food supplies.~JJL
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Friday's Top Three
Our top story Friday was Bloomberg's ICE to Start Rival London Gas Market to Dodge EU Price Cap, about the new market on benchmark Dutch Title Transfer Facility futures and options on ICE Futures Europe. Second was Business Insider's Sam Bankman-Fried's new dog is reportedly trained to attack would-be assailants with a secret code word. And third was Randy Myers' news via LinkedIn that he is "happy to share that I'm starting a new position as Head of Crypto at Trading Technologies!"
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| All MarketsWiki Sponsors» | | | | | | | John Lothian News (JLN) is the news division of John J. Lothian & Company, Inc. (JJLCO). The online media and financial services firm is staffed by derivatives industry, journalism and technology professionals. | | | | | | | John Lothian News Editorial Staff: | | | John Lothian
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| Lead Stories | Regulator Says FTX's LedgerX Auction Shows Need for More CFTC Clout on Acquisitions
Lydia Beyoud - Bloomberg
A senior Commodity Futures Trading Commission official says the agency needs the power to approve or reject an unregulated company's acquisition of a derivatives exchange. The planned sale of crypto derivatives exchange LedgerX, a solvent piece of Sam Bankman-Fried's collapsed FTX empire, has raised concerns about the CFTC's authority over these acquisitions. LedgerX and other parts of the business are being auctioned off as part of the FTX bankruptcy proceedings.
/jlne.ws/3kV3EOI
The Fear of Being J. Crewed Is Once Again Roiling Leveraged Loans; Also, Russia's incredibly shrinking international bond market; Japan's bond market gets shorter amid BOJ pivot concern
Shannon D Harrington - Bloomberg
It's the notification every lender fears: designation of an unrestricted subsidiary. In plain English, it means that the company that you lent to has just shifted some assets backing your loan - very often among the most valuable assets - into a new unit that's beyond your reach. And it signals that, in due time, that company will look to strike a deal to borrow more money against those shifted assets from another group of lenders.
/jlne.ws/40a7cwJ
How SPDR changed the investment landscape
Jennifer Hughes - Financial Times
Picture the setting: Bill Clinton has been US president for just over a week, jeans are worn baggy and Whitney Houston is topping the charts with I Will Always Love You. The year is 1993 and a big change in financial markets and fund management is being launched with the hoisting of a giant inflatable spider over the trading floor of the American Stock Exchange in downtown Manhattan.
/jlne.ws/3XOOWYa
After 30 Years, the King of ETFs Faces a Fight for Its Crown; State Street's SPDR S&P 500 fund changed investing forever, ushering in the era of indexing and instant access to funds.
Katherine Greifeld and Sam Potter - Bloomberg
Few champions can stay on top forever-even the ones who virtually invent the game. On Jan. 29 the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust turns 30. With $375 billion in assets, it's the biggest exchange-traded fund on the planet, but competition for the No. 1 spot is getting fierce.
/jlne.ws/3JqSwng
Republicans vow to probe US banks and asset managers' 'ESG agenda' in Congress; Lawmaker Andy Barr says the financial system has been 'co-opted by the intolerant left'
James Politi - Financial Times
Banks and asset managers will face scrutiny from Congress on their "ESG agenda", according to a senior Republican lawmaker, pointing to tensions ahead between the new House majority and America's financial sector. The comments by Andy Barr, the chair of the House financial services subcommittee responsible for financial institutions and monetary policy, fire a new salvo at Wall Street banks and asset managers for their social and climate goals.
/jlne.ws/3WMEbUY
BlackRock steps up spending on US lobbying in face of anti-ESG attacks; Republican politicians have sought to punish asset manager they accuse of being hostile to fossil fuel
Brooke Masters - Financial Times
BlackRock sharply increased its spending on lobbying in the US last year as the world's largest asset manager came under attack over its use of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in investing. BlackRock disclosed spending $2.38mn in 2022 on federal lobbying, up 63 per cent from 2021. Within that, it more than doubled the amount of money it paid to high-powered lobbying companies to $1.2mn.
/jlne.ws/3WIleTq
Commodity trade costs surge as industry seeks up to $500bn in extra finance; Rising rates, market volatility and the war in Ukraine are making it more expensive to move goods around the world
Leslie Hook - Financial Times
High interest rates, volatile prices and the war in Ukraine have made it significantly more expensive to finance commodity trade, forcing the industry to hunt for an extra $300bn to $500bn in working capital to keep raw materials moving around the world. Changing trade patterns have made the global flow of raw materials less efficient and more costly to finance and are also likely to push up the price of commodities for consumers, according to a new study by consultancy McKinsey.
/jlne.ws/3wF0Tnr
Big Oil's Big Buybacks Are Tip of $1 Trillion Iceberg; As profit margins widen in wartime, scrutiny on payouts will grow - as will talk of more taxes.
Lionel Laurent - Bloomberg
Chevron Corp.'s blockbuster $75 billion share buyback has drawn the ire of Joe Biden, whose call for more investment in pumping oil - alongside a new 1% tax on buybacks - doesn't seem to have done much to steer cash into unloved fossil fuels and away from short-term investor sweeteners. Corporate America spent an estimated $1 trillion on buybacks last year.
/jlne.ws/3JrdfY2
Wall Street Is Losing Out to Amateur Buyers in the Housing Slump; Big money spent a fortune snapping up homes. Now, regular folk are outsmarting the pros.
Prashant Gopal and Patrick Clark - Bloomberg
Raad Yousif drives his pickup truck past cactuses and sandstone cliffs, hunting for Phoenix's best real estate bargains. On this December weekday, he pulls into a subdivision of blocky pueblo-inspired town homes from the 1970s, the bare, dusty landscaping evoking the surrounding desert.
/jlne.ws/3kNBVzv
'City is defining the rules of Continental Europe more than ever post-Brexit', says Euronext cash and derivatives head; European regulators have made several U-turns in the last few months, in particular around their stance on systematic internalisers and dark trading, that mimic UK proposals.
Annabel Smith - The Trade
The influence of the City of London and the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on European regulation has never been greater, says Euronext's head of cash and derivatives, Simon Gallagher. Regulators in the UK and Europe have been shoring up their newly separate regulatory regimes following Brexit, taking seemingly divergent stances to transparency and dark trading. However, a U-turn proposal put forward the Czech Presidency and then approved by Member States at the end of last year signals a change of direction for EU regulation.
/jlne.ws/405Fm4K
Changing of the guard at FINRA; The regulator's longstanding head of enforcement is set to depart, with her deputy stepping in until a permanent replacement is selected.
Laurie McAughtry - The Trade
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)'s head of enforcement, Jessica Hopper, who has served with the US brokerage regulator for the past 18 years, is to step down on 3 February. She will be replaced in the interim by deputy head of enforcement Christopher Kelly as acting head, during the process of selecting a permanent replacement.
/jlne.ws/3WNmUeq
The Stock That Went From 50 Cents to $260
Joshua M Brown - The Reformed Broker
We had a great time learning from Nathan Vardi this week. Nathan is the author of the new book For Blood and Money, which documents the story behind the biggest winners the stock market has ever. It's also the story of some very interesting characters who were involved, including the hedge fund manager Joe Edelman, who is the best performing hedge fund manager from 1999 to 2020.
/jlne.ws/3WHaRPO
Netherlands and Japan Said to Join U.S. in Curbing Chip Technology Sent to China
Ana Swanson - The New York Times
The Netherlands and Japan, both makers of some of the world's most advanced equipment for manufacturing semiconductors, agreed on Friday to join with the United States in barring some shipments of their most high-tech machinery to China, people familiar with the agreement said. The agreement, which followed high-level meetings with U.S. national security officials in Washington, will help expand the reach of sweeping restrictions issued unilaterally by the Biden administration in October on the kinds of semiconductor technology that can be shared with China.
/jlne.ws/3wFhNSY
The Outlook for Diesel: Supply Woes Aren't Going Away Soon
Denton Cinquegrana - The Wall Street Journal
Diesel makes the economy go, but it was only last year that the price of the fuel became the stuff of dinner-table conversation. Retail diesel prices soared to an all-time high of $5.816 a gallon last June 19, part of the big run-up in energy costs following Russia's invasion of Ukraine that strained transportation budgets and fed inflationary pressures. Though prices have dropped by more than $1 a gallon since then, many of the same elements that drove the surge in prices remain firmly in place.
/jlne.ws/3JpkVdb
China's Oil and Gas Use Fell in 2022 for First Time in Decades; Pandemic lockdowns curbed Chinese energy demand, but the International Energy Agency expects a rebound this year.
Clifford Krauss - The New York Times
With its economy severely hampered by stringent measures to curb the spread of Covid-19, China's oil and gas consumption declined in 2022 for the first time in decades, the International Energy Agency said on Friday. But after China's recent reversal of its lockdown policies, the agency's executive director, Fatih Birol, said he expected a sharp rebound in demand, which could mean higher energy prices in other markets.
/jlne.ws/3XKuN5y
OneCoin Founder Ruja Ignatova Resurfaces After Five Years in Hiding
Andre Beganski - Decrypt
OneCoin founder Dr. Ruja Ignatova has resurfaced more than five years after vanishing from the public eye, linked to a London property in a filing submitted to the British government this month. The filling lists Ignatova as a so-called beneficial owner of Abbots House Penthouse Limited, a Guernsey-based company that had purchased a multimillion-dollar penthouse in the London suburb of Kensington.
/jlne.ws/3Y4WWUP
FTX Seeks to Remove Turkish Units From Bankruptcy Case
Jack Schickler - CoinDesk
Crypto exchange FTX is seeking to remove Turkish units from the scope of its bankruptcy case, saying in a Friday court filing that Turkish authorities are unlikely to follow instructions from U.S. courts. FTX filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11 in the U.S., and its new owners are attempting to unwind the affairs as many as 134 entities across the world.
/jlne.ws/3Ycw05H
Global fixer of corrupt energy deals to be sentenced in Houston court; Unaoil's Saman Ahsani helped build an empire of bribery involving 27 companies
Kadhim Shubber and Kate Beioley and Justin Jacob - Financial Times
A British-Iranian consultant whose company fixed billions of dollars of corrupt energy deals will be sentenced in Houston on Monday, bringing a partial close to a bribery scandal that strained US-UK relations and tarnished Britain's Serious Fraud Office. Saman Ahsani, who helped run Monaco-based Unaoil, was at the heart of a sprawling empire of fixers and middlemen who paid bribes on behalf of companies such as Rolls-Royce and UK oilfield services group Petrofac.
/jlne.ws/3jg5b1r
Spain's biggest banks prepare to challenge windfall tax; Lenders say they will make the first payment due next month but are ready for legal action
Owen Walker and Barney Jopson - Financial Times
Spain's biggest banks will challenge the country's controversial windfall tax after they have made the first payment next month, according to people familiar with their plans. The levy was proposed last summer by Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez to raise EUR3bn to cushion people from surging energy prices. Several other European governments have targeted the profits banks have made from rising interest rates. But Spanish lenders have decided to challenge the tax authorities after paying their first instalment by February 20.
/jlne.ws/3DsuYum
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | Kremlin says Biden has key to end Ukraine conflict but doesn't use it
Reuters
The Kremlin said on Friday that U.S. President Joe Biden had the key to end the conflict in Ukraine by directing Kyiv, but that Washington had so far not been willing to use it. "The key to the Kyiv regime is largely in the hands of Washington," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a daily briefing. "Now we see that the current White House leader ... does not want to use this key. On the contrary, he chooses the path of further pumping weapons into Ukraine," he added.
/jlne.ws/3wKTbYN
Poland to send 60 modernised tanks to Ukraine in addition to Leopards
Reuters
Poland will send an additional 60 tanks to Ukraine on top of the 14 German-made Leopard 2 tanks it has already pledged, the Polish prime minister said in an interview with Canadian television on Thursday. Warsaw, which has positioned itself as one of Kyiv's staunchest allies, had pressed hard for Germany to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine and to allow other countries to do so as well, a demand which Berlin agreed to on Wednesday.
/jlne.ws/3WVpuiI
Ukraine says Russia's putting inflatable tanks on the battlefield - but the decoys deflated
Erin Snodgrass - Business Insider
Ukrainian military forces accused the Russian army of deploying inflatable tanks in the south of Ukraine in an effort to deceive the opposing side, saying the country's "rubber" decoys had deflated in an anticlimactic display. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in a Thursday Facebook post said Russia's army had run out of steam in the Zaporizhzhia region, where Russian troops have been incessantly firing on Ukrainian defenses in recent days, according to the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration.
/jlne.ws/3HcmYP4
West to deliver 321 tanks to Ukraine, says diplomat, as North Korea accuses US of 'crossing the red line'
Pierre Meilhan and Heather Chen - CNN
Western countries will deliver more than 300 tanks to Ukraine, Kyiv's ambassador to France said Friday. "As of today, numerous countries have officially confirmed their agreement to deliver 321 heavy tanks to Ukraine," Vadym Omelchenko told French TV station and CNN affiliate BFM television. He did not specify which countries would provide the tanks or provide a breakdown of which models.
/jlne.ws/3XQKuZc
To defeat Putin, we must support the brave Russian journalists telling the truth
Mark Rice-Oxley - The Guardian (opinion)
Battlefield tanks are really only half the battle. Beyond military might on the ground in Ukraine, there is another critical confrontation in which the Kremlin has a superiority that must be challenged. The information war. Russia's media space has reverted to a grotesque parody of the Soviet-era model. (In fact, it's far worse, as in the latter Soviet years at least, most people knew they were being fed lies). Television and the domestic press is utterly captured. Millions are fed a daily diet of Ukrainian "fascists", western pederasts, and nuclear revenge on Anglo-Saxon civilisation.
/jlne.ws/40gH17U
How tanks from Germany, US and UK could change the Ukraine war
Jonathan Beale - BBC
Germany said it would send Leopard 2 tanks and the US said it would send M1 Abrams tanks. Both the UK and Poland have already made concrete pledges, and other nations are expected to follow. Some commentators have described the move as a potential "gamechanger". But is it really enough to win the war? Ben Barry, senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (ISS), tells the BBC that Western tanks will make a difference. But the former British Army Brigadier also warns that the pledges made so far are unlikely to prove decisive.
/jlne.ws/3XKVxmH
Will tanks set up Ukraine for a spring offensive?
Ben Hall and Christopher Miller - Financial Times
Ukrainian soldiers will face a steep learning curve when they clamber into a Leopard 2 tank for the first time next month. But the new tanks will be a serious upgrade from the Soviet-era models they have been fighting in over the past year. "It's like you have a car from the 1950s and then you sit in a Porsche," says a person involved in organising training for Ukrainian troops.
/jlne.ws/3wEV7Cc
Tanks for Ukraine Have Shifted the Balance of Power in Europe
Phillips Payson O'Brien - The Atlantic
When the German and U.S. governments finally agreed this week to supply some of their most formidable battle tanks to Ukraine, the balance of power within Europe perceptibly shifted. For months, President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, fearing an escalation of conflict between the West and Russia, had stubbornly put off Ukrainian requests for the powerful, highly maneuverable vehicles, and the European states most directly vulnerable to Russian aggression-in Scandinavia, the Baltic region, and Central and Eastern Europe-had grown more and more frustrated with Washington and Berlin.
/jlne.ws/3HCND87
Some Western Backers of Ukraine Worry That Time Might Be on Russia's Side; Kyiv seen needing powerful new weapons urgently as Moscow sets in for the long haul
Laurence Norman and Stephen Fidler - The Wall Street Journal
Behind the decision to sharply step up Western military aid to Ukraine lies a worry in some Western capitals that time might be on Russia's side. That concern suggests the window for Ukraine isn't indefinite and it needs powerful Western weapons-main battle tanks, other armored vehicles and more air-defense systems-soon to reinforce the momentum it achieved in offensive successes around Kyiv, Kharkiv and Kherson last year.
/jlne.ws/3WLvbiX
Boris Johnson says Putin claimed he could send missile to hit UK 'in a minute'
Harry Taylor - The Guardian
Boris Johnson has said that Vladimir Putin claimed he could have sent a missile to hit Britain "within a minute", in a call just before the invasion of Ukraine. The former prime minister's comments came in a three-part documentary for BBC Two looking at the conflict in Ukraine and the lead up to Russia's invasion in February last year. It had been in a conversation about hypothetical support for Nato on Russia's borders if Putin decided to invade, as Johnson tried to talk Putin down.
/jlne.ws/3HDwpbM
Russia's Oil Cargoes Surge With Pipe Down and Fuel Ban at Hand; Four-week average flows of Russian crude highest since June with new EU curbs looming
Julian Lee - Bloomberg
Russia's seaborne oil flows look as if they are moving higher. Two possible explanations: the nation is pushing more cargoes onto the water after Germany and Poland all but halted piped imports, and Moscow has one eye on an impending ban on fuel purchases by the European Union.
/jlne.ws/3XLHk95
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | NSE world's largest derivatives exchange for fourth straight year in 2022; Sovereign Gold Bond's daily average turnover in the secondary market was Rs 7 crore in CY 2022, a jump of 59 per cent YoY
Press Trust of India
The National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) has again emerged as the world's largest derivatives exchange in 2022, in terms of the number of contracts traded, according to the Futures Industry Association (FIA). This is the fourth consecutive year when the exchange earned the top spot, the NSE said in a statement on Sunday. In addition, the exchange was ranked third in the equity segment by the number of trades (electronic order book) in 2022, an advancement from the previous year when it was in the fourth position, as per statistics maintained by the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE).
/jlne.ws/3wFLaob
Strong Volume Year Expected for Listed Derivatives; Global listed derivative volumes are expected to remain strong in 2023 after reaching a record last year according to data tracked by Liquidnet.
Shanny Basar - MarketsMediaGroup
2022 global listed derivatives volumes (excluding single stock options) reached 71.1 billion contracts, an increase of 47.7% from the previous year according to Liquidnet's 2022 Listed Derivatives Review. However, options trading on Indian indices accounted for 20.2 billion contracts of growth, almost all of the global increase of 22.5 billion contracts exchanged globally last year. Removing India from the data reduces total global growth to 7%.
/jlne.ws/3Rjbg9P
Derivatives volumes are up - and it's giving the buy-side a headache; Equity index derivatives volumes jumped 73% in 2022, according to the Futures Industry Association (FIA) - but the increase is causing higher operational risk and capacity burdens for asset managers and buy-side traders.
Laurie McAughtry - The Trade
The FIA futures and options exchanges data findings for December 2022 and annual year 2022 show that numbers are broadly up for listed futures and options, with equity index derivatives volumes increasing 73% to 48.6 billion in 2022, making up more than half the overall global total. The worldwide volume of exchange-traded derivatives reached 8.44 billion contracts in December, up 8.9% from November 2022 and up 37.4% from December 2021.
/jlne.ws/3XJg6zO
Commodity trade costs surge as industry seeks up to $500bn in extra finance; Rising rates, market volatility and the war in Ukraine are making it more expensive to move goods around the world
Leslie Hook - Financial Times
High interest rates, volatile prices and the war in Ukraine have made it significantly more expensive to finance commodity trade, forcing the industry to hunt for an extra $300bn to $500bn in working capital to keep raw materials moving around the world. Changing trade patterns have made the global flow of raw materials less efficient and more costly to finance and are also likely to push up the price of commodities for consumers, according to a new study by consultancy McKinsey.
/jlne.ws/407fC8h
ICE Announces Plans to Implement EU Market Correction Mechanism and Related Price Cap on TTF Natural Gas
Intercontinental Exchange
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE), a leading global provider of data, technology, and market infrastructure, today announced how it intends to implement the European Union's Market Correction Mechanism Regulation (MCM Regulation) and related price cap on TTF natural gas derivatives, in time for entry into force of the regulation. ICE Endex, based in the Netherlands and operator of the world's most liquid trading venue for TTF natural gas futures and options, plans to change its Rulebook to promote compliance with the MCM Regulation, effective February 15, 2023, subject to completion of relevant regulatory processes.
/jlne.ws/3kGNyIp
"Kyodai-Kawakita/JPX Japan Index" Launches
JPX
Kyoto University and JPX Market Innovation & Research, Inc. (JPXI) today announce the launch of " Kyodai-Kawakita/JPX Japan Index". For details, please refer to the following URL.
/jlne.ws/3YaF8aD
CCP's Blockchain Technology Utilization - Implement for Rubber Futures Settlement by Delivery as a First Shot
Japan Exchange Group
This is to announce that, with cooperations of the stakeholders, starting from January 2023, Japan Securities Clearing Corporation, CCP under Japan Exchange Group, Inc., implements a blockchain technology in the settlement by delivery of rubber futures as detailed below, as a first shot of its utilization of a blockchain technology.
/jlne.ws/40f6b6Q
Japan Exchange Group, Inc. and Consolidated Subsidiaries
Japan Exchange Group
Consolidated financial results for the nine months ended December 31, 2022 (Based on IFRS), unaudited
/jlne.ws/3Y9sKrG
Overview of Earnings for Q3 FY2022 Japan Exchange Group, Inc. January 30, 2023
Japan Exchange Group
Contents; 1 Overview of Earnings for Q3 FY2022 ãEUR"IFRSãEUR•2 Reference Materials.
/jlne.ws/3HixF2G
Decision on Matters Regarding Acquisition of Own Shares(based on Provisions of the Articles of Incorporation Pursuant to Article 459, Paragraph 1 of the Companies Act) and Revision to Dividend Forecast
Japan Exchange Group
Japan Exchange Group, Inc. (JPX) reached a resolution in its Board of Directors meeting, held on January 30, 2023, on matters regarding acquisition of own shares in accordance with the provisions of its Articles of Incorporation and Article 459, Paragraph 1 of the Companies Act.
/jlne.ws/3HGpYob
News about Adani Enterprises Limited
National Stock Exchange of India
The media had reports that Adani Enterprises allots Rs 5,985-cr worth shares to anchor investors. The Exchange, in order to verify the accuracy or otherwise of the information reported in the media and to inform the marketplace so that the interest of the investors is safeguarded, had written to the company on January 27, 2023. A copy of the clarification is available on the NSE website (http://www.nseindia.com) under (List > Corporate filings > Announcements)
/jlne.ws/3HbIp2A
The Taiwan Futures Exchange (TAIFEX) has announced the margin restoration of TX, MTX, TE, ZEF, TF, ZFF, GTF, G2F, XIF, E4F, BTF, SOF, SHF, TJF, UDF, SPF, UNF, F1F, RTF, RHF, XAF, XBF, XEF, XJF, GDF, TGF, BRF, NYF, NZF, OAF, OBF, OCF, OJF, OKF, OOF, PFF, TXO, TEO, TFO, TGO, NYO, NZO, OAO, OBO, OCO, OJO, OKO and OOO to the previous levels in respect of the end of Lunar New Year holiday. The margins will be effective after the close of the regular trading session on 2023/01/31.
Taifex
/jlne.ws/3WToGKR
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | Are There Tech Solutions to the Privacy and Compliance Trade-Offs for CBDCs?
John Kiff and Jonas Gross - CoinDesk
A retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) has the potential to give authorities more information on users and their transactions as well as facilitate detection, supervision, monitoring and law enforcement efforts. However, this opens the central bank to criticisms that CBDCs could be used as a surveillance tool not only by itself, but by banks and payment service providers that are part of the CBDC ecosystem.
/jlne.ws/3jfgHKt
The Best Tool for Designing Effective DeFi Policies Is Web3 Itself
Matthew Niemerg - CoinDesk
Most of the conversation about policy in Web3 has centered around what crypto pioneer Nick Szabo calls "wet code" - in this case, the laws that govern human institutions. The world of crypto offers an alternative - "dry code," or computer code - to protect investors and users, which may be a more efficient approach by literally encoding rules in verifiable, permissionless and self-custodial protocols. It is an approach that relies on incentives and the transparency of the technology itself.
/jlne.ws/3kMQPpH
EY came close to uncovering Wirecard fraud in 2016; Collapsed payments firm's trustee accidentally told the auditor that he did not hold any money on its behalf
Olaf Storbeck - Financial Times
EY came close to discovering fraud at the heart of Wirecard in 2016, when the collapsed payments firm's trustee in Singapore accidentally told the auditor the truth, stating he did not hold any money on its behalf. At the time, Wirecard's accounts fraudulently stated that Citadelle Corporate Services in Singapore oversaw escrow accounts in Asia that held about EUR150mn in cash.
/jlne.ws/3Riwx3t
China's Baidu Developing Its Own ChatGPT, Joining Latest Global AI Race; Search giant plans to release AI-powered chatbot and integrate it into search in March
Karen Hao and Raffaele Huang - The Wall Street Journal
China's Baidu Inc. BIDU 0.44%increase; green up pointing triangle has thrust itself into a global race to commercialize the next-generation of artificial-intelligence technologies like ChatGPT that could bring major transformations to the internet.
/jlne.ws/3WMJKmf
CloudMargin Wins 2023 Risk Markets Technology Award for Collateral Management & Optimisation Product of the Year
CloudMargin
CloudMargin, creator of the world's first and only collateral and margin management solution native to the cloud, has won the 2023 Risk Markets Technology Award for Collateral Management & Optimisation Product of the Year. This is CloudMargin's second consecutive win and third win since 2019 in the category, marking its fifth award from Risk.net. Last month, the firm won the FOW International Award for Collateral Management Solution of the Year.
/jlne.ws/3JqyoRT
State Street, MSCI Add to Cloud Migrations
Shanny Basar - Traders Magazine
State Street has engaged two cloud providers for a multi-year technology transformation and MSCI will build a cloud-native investment data acquisition and development platform. Brian Franz, State Street On 26 January State Street announced that it has engaged both Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft as providers of cloud and infrastructure solutions to consolidate its current network of segregated data center facilities to a more optimized data center footprint with fit-for-purpose designed and managed facilities.
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | Infrastructure Companies Say Suppliers Pose a Growing Cyber Threat
James Rundle - The Wall Street Journal
Companies in critical infrastructure sectors say weak cyber defenses at suppliers are becoming a significant threat to their business, and that rules to boost security down the supply chain might be needed. While federal and industry rules for specific areas such as aviation, pipeline companies and other critical infrastructure operators are well-established, said Curley Henry, vice president and deputy chief information security officer at power utility Southern Co., cyber regulations for businesses supplying those operators are less so.
/jlne.ws/3RhJESv
Titan Stealer: A New Golang-Based Information Stealer Malware Emerges
Ravie Lakshmanan - The Hacker News
A new Golang-based information stealer malware dubbed Titan Stealer is being advertised by threat actors through their Telegram channel. "The stealer is capable of stealing a variety of information from infected Windows machines, including credential data from browsers and crypto wallets, FTP client details, screenshots, system information, and grabbed files," Uptycs security researchers Karthickkumar Kathiresan and Shilpesh Trivedi said in a recent report.
/jlne.ws/40hy8Lk
Why Cybersecurity Regulations And Oversight Are As Important As Safety Standards In The Modern Workplace
JD Harris - Forbes
Now is the time for cybersecurity policies to become as ubiquitous and accepted as workplace safety policies. Cybersecurity today is where physical safety was 40 years ago-there are few regulations or standards, and those that exist often feel arbitrarily imposed. Cybersafety is not an expected or regulated part of corporate culture. This is a critical moment not only in the cybersecurity landscape but in baseline corporate behavior. It is time for leaders to create cultural changes that support cybersecurity policies and make them as requisite as safety and compliance standards.
/jlne.ws/3wYLcI5
How to survive below the cybersecurity poverty line
Michael Hill - CSO Online
The security poverty line broadly defines a divide between the organizations that have the means and resources to achieve and maintain mature security postures to protect data, and those that do not. It was first coined by cybersecurity expert Wendy Nather in 2011, and the concept is just as relevant today as it was then (if not more so). It has widely become the benchmark for acceptable cybersecurity, often associated with factors such as company size, sector and disposable income, but also know-how and appetite for recognizing and addressing security inadequacies.
/jlne.ws/3kPrUSu
Black swans events are shaping the cybersecurity present and future
Moshe Lipsker - VentureBeat
First coined by Lebanese-American thought leader Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the term "black swan" refers to unexpected global events that have a profound effect on society. Some are beneficial, like the invention of the printing press; and others are destructive, such as the subprime crisis in 2008. But they have all altered the course of history.
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | U.S. seeks tighter bail for FTX founder Bankman-Fried to prevent tampering
Jonathan Stempel - Reuters
U.S. prosecutors on Friday asked a Manhattan judge to impose tougher bail conditions on Sam Bankman-Fried, expressing concern that the founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange might tamper with witnesses or destroy evidence in his criminal case. Citing Bankman-Fried's "recent attempts to contact prospective witnesses," prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan to ban Bankman-Fried from communicating with current or former employees of FTX or his Alameda Research hedge fund, other than family, unless a lawyer is present.
/jlne.ws/3WVpm2I
FTX's lawyers are reportedly making $2,000 an hour as they untangle the failed crypto exchange's chaotic finances
Jennifer Sor - Business Insider
FTX's lawyers are making up to $2000 an hour as they untangle the failed crypto exchange's chaotic finances, according to a report from Bloomberg Law. After imploding in late 2022, FTX has been advised through bankruptcy proceedings by law firm Sullivan & Cromwell. According to court filings seen by Bloomberg, the firm has 150 lawyers working on the case, who are charging rates ranging from $810 to more than $2,000 an hour.
/jlne.ws/3Y1ToT8
Sam Bankman-Fried Seeks Right to Transfer FTX's Crypto
Jack Schickler - CoinDesk
Lawyers for Sam Bankman-Fried have argued he should be allowed access to assets and crypto held by his former company FTX, saying there's no evidence he's responsible for previous alleged unauthorized transactions. Bankman-Fried, who resigned as FTX's chief executive officer on Nov. 11, 2022 when the crypto exchange filed for bankruptcy, is currently on bail facing charges including wire fraud and money laundering, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
/jlne.ws/3kR2C6q
Anthony Scaramucci's SkyBridge Capital limited redemptions as bets on FTX and crypto resulted in a 39% loss last year
Brian Evans - Business Insider
SkyBridge Capital's biggest funds suffered a 39% loss in 2022 thanks to losing bets on FTX and cryptocurrencies, according to a report from Bloomberg. The firm's largest fund was rocked in November by FTX's collapse. Cryptocurrencies made up some 28% of the fund, while its stake in FTX accounted for 14%. FTX filed for bankruptcy in November amid a liquidity crisis and reports that its transferred billions of dollars in client funds to prop up Sam Bankman-Fried's Alameda Research trading arm.
/jlne.ws/3XONqoW
UK Man Sentenced to 4-1/2 Years in Jail for Stealing $2.5M in Crypto
Helene Braun - CoinDesk
A U.K. man was sentenced to four years and six months in jail after pleading guilty to stealing more than 2 million pounds (US$2.5 million) in cryptocurrency, the U.K.'s South East Regional Organised Crime Unit (SEROCU) said Friday. Wybbo Wiersma, a 40-year old Dutch native living in Oxford, England, had been under investigation by U.K. and Dutch authorities after they seized computers, drugs and cash in his Oxford home in 2019, following a police investigation.
/jlne.ws/3kOx1lU
WazirX Says Binance Lied About Ownership as Dispute About India's Largest Exchange Escalates
Elizabeth Napolitano and Cheyenne Ligon - CoinDesk
Emails obtained by CoinDesk shed new light on the ongoing debate over the opaque and disputed ownership of WazirX, India's largest crypto exchange. In November 2019, the ownership of WazirX was uncontested: Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, published a blog post saying that it had purchased the Indian exchange. WazirX's executives talked openly about the acquisition.
/jlne.ws/3WLWXMq
Binance stablecoin BUSD sees a sharp market cap drop amid solvency and mismanagement worries
Kyle White - CoinTelegraph
Stablecoins in the cryptocurrency market help provide U.S. dollar-pegged tokens within the volatile industry. In bull markets, the market capitalization of stablecoins tends to decrease as investors flock to more volatile assets; and in bear markets, investors seek shelter in low-volatility stablecoins, thus increasing their market caps. On Jan. 26, the total market capitalization for stablecoins like Tether, USD Coin, Binance USD and Dai is over $131 billion.
/jlne.ws/3wXU5lb
Prosecutors say Sam Bankman-Fried's contact with FTX's ex-general counsel is 'suggestive' of witness tampering
Kara Scannell - CNN
Federal prosecutors said FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried contacted the former general counsel of the crypto trading platform earlier this month in a move they say may constitute witness tampering. A spokesperson for Bankman-Fried declined to comment. Prosecutors with the US attorney's office for the Southern District of New York asked the judge to amend Bankman-Fried's bail conditions to prohibit him from communicating with current or former employees of FTX or its sister hedge fund Alameda research unless he is with his attorney or has approval from the government.
/jlne.ws/40dK8Nz
US Prosecutors Seek to Ban SBF from Signal after alleged witness contact
Ciaran Lyons - CoinTelegraph
Federal prosecutors have requested that former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried's (SBF) bail conditions are modified to prevent further alleged attempts at influencing witnesses' testimonies. Court documents filed on Jan. 27 revealed that The Department of Justice (DOJ) had asked United States District Court Judge LEwis Kaplan to ban Bankman-Fried from communicating with "current or former employees" of FTX or Alameda.
/jlne.ws/3HGQDBq
Sam Bankman-Fried Denies US Witness Tampering Claim; FTX co-founder was offering his 'assistance,' his lawyer says; Lawyer asks judge to let Bankman-Fried meet with FTX people
Patricia Hurtado and Ava Benny-Morrison - Bloomberg
FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried's lawyer insisted Saturday his client didn't seek to influence a witness in the US government's fraud case against him, accusing prosecutors of trying to portray him "in the worst possible light." Mark Cohen, a lawyer for Bankman-Fried, asked the federal judge presiding over the case to allow his client to meet some people involved in FTX, saying his client needs to participate in his defense.
/jlne.ws/3jfi1wV
FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried and US Justice Department tussle over his communications
Associated Press - South China Morning Post
Federal prosecutors are trying to prohibit FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried from privately contacting current and former employees of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange to prevent potential witness tampering in a criminal case accusing him of bilking investors and customers. The request, made in a letter filed late on Friday by US Justice Department lawyers, prompted an indignant response from Bankman-Fried's lawyer, who accused prosecutors of twisting the facts to cast the FTX founder in a sinister light ahead of his trial scheduled later this year.
/jlne.ws/3HDOoPo
FTX founder Bankman-Fried objects to tighter bail, says prosecutors 'sandbagged' him
Jonathan Stempel - Reuters
Lawyers for Sam Bankman-Fried on Saturday urged a U.S. judge not to ban the indicted FTX cryptocurrency executive from communicating with former colleagues as part of his bail, saying prosecutors "sandbagged" the process to put their client in the "worst possible light." The lawyers were responding to a Friday night request by federal prosecutors that Bankman-Fried not be allowed to talk with most employees of FTX or his Alameda Research hedge fund without lawyers present, or use the encrypted messaging apps Signal or Slack and potentially delete messages automatically.
/jlne.ws/3HlgIEV
Sam Bankman-Fried's Prosecutors Ask Judge to Tighten Bail Conditions
David Yaffe-Bellany and Benjamin Weiser - The New York Times
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said on Friday that the disgraced cryptocurrency executive Sam Bankman-Fried had tried to contact a potential witness in his criminal case, and they asked a judge to impose new bail conditions limiting his ability to communicate with former colleagues. In a court filing, the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York said Mr. Bankman-Fried sent messages over email and the encrypted messaging app Signal this month to the general counsel of the U.S. arm of FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange he founded.
/jlne.ws/3Y6DDdL
Who is Coffeezilla, the crypto detective who says he got Sam Bankman-Fried to admit to fraud?
Jennifer Sor - Business Insider
Stephen Findeisen, better known by his YouTube alias, Coffeezilla, found himself in the spotlight when he interviewed Sam Bankman-Fried in late 2022, just weeks before the crypto magnate would be arrested and charged with fraud following the collapse of FTX. Not many outside of the industry knew who Findeisen was, but he's been watched for years by crypto sleuths, an online community of amateur detectives who investigate scams and frauds in the scandal-ridden market-and try to hold bad actors accountable.
/jlne.ws/3YbvUex
Should You Try Fidelity's Crypto Platform? (Podcast); Some financial companies are determined to offer clients easy entry digital-assets, despite the volatility.
Sharon Beriro and Janet Babin - Bloomberg
For the past several months, long time Fidelity customers have been getting an interesting offer in their inboxes from the financial services company: A new crypto trading platform for retail investors. Last November, the brokerage firm launched a waitlist for those interested in the services, which include custody and zero-commission trading for Bitcoin and Ether.
/jlne.ws/3HGDDLY
Fed rejects crypto bank's application to join U.S. payment system
Anushree Dave - MarketWatch
The Federal Reserve Board on Friday rejected a Wyoming-based crypto-centric bank's application to become a member of the central bank's exclusive payment system. In a press release, the Fed said the firm's proposed business plan, and focus on crypto assets, presented significant safety and soundness risks. The bank, called Custodia, does not have federal deposit insurance. The company describes itself as a "special purpose depository institution."
/jlne.ws/3HFH0mB
CZ predicts 'existential implications' for anti-crypto traditional finance
Arijit Sarkar - CoinTelegraph
As traditional institutions proactively reduce exposure to cryptocurrencies as a reaction to ecosystem collapses in 2022, Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao believes this move could potentially have a negative impact on such traditional financial players. The collapse of major crypto companies, such as FTX and Terraform Labs, reduced trust among investors and forced the traditional market to reevaluate their strategies for stepping into the crypto ecosystem.
/jlne.ws/3XOQd1r
Fed Delivers Devastating 'Surprise' Bitcoin And Crypto Blow After Huge Price Surge
Billy Bambrough - Forbes
Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies have rocketed into the new year with the combined crypto market climbing back over the $1 trillion mark (a rally that some think could be just getting started). The bitcoin price has settled at around $23,000 per bitcoin after a $200 billion crypto market earthquake. Now, the U.S. Federal Reserve has delivered a shattering blow to the crypto industry's hopes of mainstream acceptance by rejecting crypto bank Custodia's application to become a member of the Fed's system-warning it suffers from "significant safety and soundness risks."
/jlne.ws/3JlSGMn
Opinion: Cryptocurrency might be the greatest Ponzi scheme of all time
Robert Park - The Enquirer
The seemingly limitless innovations that are springing out of information technology have created enormous opportunities for all kinds of predatory behavior uninhibited by social regulation. Cryptocurrencies are one of the leading contestants in this competition. Crypto is a Ponzi scheme. It's the IT version of what Bernie Madoff did in a mutual fund fraud in New York City in the 1980s and '90s, which was the greatest Ponzi scheme of all time âˆ' until now.
/jlne.ws/3WIf5Xf
Better Policy Can Turn NFTs Into an Intellectual Property Powerhouse
Diana Stern - CoinDesk
Securities laws issues have often driven crypto policy, but when it comes to non-fungible tokens, we need to prioritize intellectual property interests. Treating all NFTs as financial assets will compromise the U.S.' position as the gold standard of intellectual property (IP) protection and enforcement. The immediate danger of this one-size-fits-all approach is that it will damage the commercial prospects of this emerging technology.
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | 'Grave Mistake'-Joe Biden Reveals Game-Changing Crypto 'Roadmap' After $2 Trillion Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB, XRP, Cardano, Dogecoin, Polygon And Solana Price Crash
Billy Bambrough - Forbes
BitcoinBTC -1.9%, ethereum and other cryptocurrencies suffered a "tough year" in 2022, according to Biden administration officials-promoting a devastating Federal Reserve blow.
/jlne.ws/3RwAJgt
Clusters of pandemic relief loans went to the same Chicago addresses, including homeless shelters, Sun-Times finds
Frank Main and Lauren FitzPatrick - Chicago Sun Times
Most of the 69 applications for the federal Paycheck Protection Program loans asked for about $20,000 each. That meant they had claimed to previously have had at least $100,000 in yearly revenue. Many of these "sole proprietors" said they were barbers, beauty salon owners and providers of "personal care services," though state records show that not a single one of them was licensed to practice those professions in Illinois.
/jlne.ws/3Rofmh5
FTX Execs Maxed Out Donations to Rep. George Santos
Sander Lutz - Decrypt
Multiple top ex-employees of collapsed crypto exchange FTX maxed out donations to alleged scammer George Santos (R-NY) during his successful 2022 campaign for Congress, FEC filings have revealed. Ryan Salame, FTX's co-CEO, Claire Watanabe, a former FTX senior executive, and Ramnik Arora, the company's ex-head of product, all donated the maximum possible amount to Santos' campaign permitted under federal law during the summer of 2022. SFGATE first reported the news.
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DOJ Signals Launch Of George Santos Criminal Probe After Telling FEC To Stand Down: Report
Mary Papenfuss - HuffPost
The Department of Justice has told the Federal Election Commission to hold off on any enforcement action against Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) in the DOJ's clearest signal yet that it's conducting its own criminal investigation into Santos' campaign finances, The Washington Post reported Friday. The Justice Department also asked the FEC to provide any relevant documents for an investigation, sources told the Post.
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Trump Drops Deutsche Bank Subpoena Fight With New GOP-Led House
Zoe Tillman - Bloomberg
Former President Donald Trump has ended his long-running legal fight with two congressional committees over access to his financial records now that Republicans have a House majority. Trump's lawyers filed notice in court on Friday that they were dropping a lawsuit against the House Financial Services Committee and the House Intelligence Committee over subpoenas to Deutsche Bank AG seeking records about Trump, his family, and his businesses.
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New 'PELOSI' bill may have a spiteful name - but there's still 'tremendous momentum' in the crusade to stop politicians from insider trading. Here's why
Bethan Moorcraft - MoneyWise
In a mic drop moment in the debate around insider trading in Congress, Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri has introduced the PELOSI Act - trolling former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. With his acronym game on point, the GOP senator announced the Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments (PELOSI) Act on Jan. 24 - after news broke that Pelosi's venture capitalist husband sold 30,000 shares of Google stock just one month before the tech giant was sued over alleged antitrust violations.
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US General Sees China War Risk for 2025 in Memo Cited by NBC; Air Mobility commander reported to address message to officers; Defense official tells outlet it's not the Pentagon's view
Tony Czuczka - Bloomberg
An Air Force general said in an internal memo that the US and China risk going to war in two years and told officers under his command to prepare, including with target practice, NBC News reported. General Mike Minihan, head of the Air Force's Air Mobility Command, said he has a gut feeling that the fight will happen in 2025, while saying he hopes he's wrong, according to NBC. He said presidential elections in the US and Taiwan in 2024 would create an opportunity for China to move against Taiwan.
/jlne.ws/3RdRqgl
Wall Street warns of riskiest US debt limit showdown since 2011
Kate Duguid and Harriet Clarfelt - Financial Times
Wall Street banks including JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs are warning that Washington is heading for the riskiest debt ceiling confrontation since 2011, when the US lost its risk-free credit rating. The fight over the debt ceiling could be the most important issue facing the US economy in 2023, according to a JPMorgan note to clients on Friday.
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U.S. House passes bill limiting drawdowns from strategic oil reserve
Timothy Gardner - Reuters
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on Friday limiting the ability of the energy secretary to tap the strategic oil reserve without developing plans to increase the amount of public lands available for oil and gas drilling. Representatives backed the bill 221 to 205, with support from only one Democrat. President Joe Biden would veto the legislation should it pass Congress, the White House said this week. The bill is expected to face an uphill battle in the Senate, which unlike the House, is controlled by Biden's fellow Democrats.
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Your Investment Lost Money Last Year. So Why the Big Tax Bill?
Jeff Sommer - The New York Times
Tax planning is usually the least of my financial concerns. Most of the time, just making a living, paying the bills and salting away money in suitable investments are much bigger deals. But this is a special time of year. Tax season has begun, and brokerages and fund companies are sending out tax forms that the Internal Revenue Service requires for this year's returns. A lot of them contain bad news.
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'Keep No Traces:' Guidebook to Secret Billions Exposed in Ruling; Rich French families avoided wealth tax in Canada, court says; The parties managed billions of euros in at least 300 trusts
Gaspard Sebag and Mathieu Dion - Bloomberg
To leave "no traces" as they hid billions in Canadian trusts for rich French families, a group of asset managers and lawyers referred to clients as "the old lady" or "the painter." They periodically destroyed office computers. But relationships soured and spilled into court, and now their methods have been exposed in a ruling that reads as a guidebook to tax avoidance tricks.
/jlne.ws/409UQ7U
Russia faces further sanctions on energy exports - but China and India may not come to Putin's rescue this time
Business Insider
Russia faces new sanctions on its energy exports, but this time China and India may not come to President Vladimir Putin's rescue. The European Union will ban imports of refined Russian fuels on February 5, adding to its embargo on seaborne Russian crude oil that began in December. But while China and India eagerly snapped up discounted supplies of Russian crude that Europe shunned, they are unlikely to buy refined Russian fuels that were once sold to the EU.
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Wagner Inc: a Russian warlord and his lawyers
Miles Johnson - Financial Times
In April 2020 a cargo flight took off from Zhukovsky airport outside Moscow heading towards Khartoum. According to the documentation, the aircraft was carrying 28,000 kilos of Russian gingerbread cookies being flown to the Sudanese capital by an obscure company registered in St Petersburg called RN Trading.
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Western Nations Discuss Price Caps on Russian Oil Products; The West prepares to impose caps for diesel and fuel oil
Laurence Norman and Andrew Duehren - The Wall Street Journal
The U.S. and its allies are discussing the levels for two price caps on Russian petroleum products, which the Western nations are preparing to impose on Feb. 5 in an expansion of their sanctions on Russia's oil industry. The two caps, one on high-value oil products such as diesel and the other on low-value products such as fuel oil, come in addition to the West's cap on Russian crude. The allies decided last month to set that at $60 a barrel.
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Russia Can't Replace the Energy Market Putin Broke; A network of gas fields and pipelines developed at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars has been effectively thrown away.
Julian Lee - Bloomberg
Russia spent almost 50 years building its energy market in Europe. President Vladimir Putin destroyed it in under 50 weeks. Finding a replacement will be almost impossible. While Russia has found alternative markets for its crude oil, mostly in India, switching sales of refined products and - perhaps even more so - natural gas will take years and come at huge cost. That's if it's even possible to create markets as the world turns away from fossil fuels.
/jlne.ws/3kUmW7b
Hong Kong traders dump stocks of CBD products linked to cannabis ahead of February 1 ban
Danny Mok - South China Morning Post
Peter Li* dumped more than 200 items of cannabidiol (CBD) products at an official collection point, anxious to avoid trouble once Hong Kong's ban on the cannabis-derived wellness goods takes effect on February 1. The 35-year-old fashion designer began his side business in July 2021, tapping into the growing popularity of CBD products, which users said relieved stress and pain and improved their sleep. He developed his own brand of oil, softgel capsules and candies which he sold online and at a shop in Kwun Tong.
/jlne.ws/3Jq48qw
Indian Tycoon's Conglomerate Shaken by Market Rout
Alex Travelli - The New York Times
The conglomerate controlled by Gautam Adani, the politically connected Indian industrialist, lost about $50 billion in value this week after it was upended by a small investment firm in New York. Late in the day on Tuesday, Hindenburg Research, a firm that made its name by betting against cryptocurrency companies and unprofitable electric vehicle makers, published a report accusing the billionaire tycoon's company, the Adani Group, of "a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme."
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | A crypto regulatory storm front is coming in 2023. Are we ready for it?
Gergo Varga - Forkast
After the spectacular crash of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX and its associated organizations, financial regulators worldwide have to keep their attention on two places at once. As one eye stays firmly on precluding terrorism funding, the other is glued on the fallout among FTX retail investors and its knock-on effects throughout the greater financial landscape.
/jlne.ws/3RdSZLn
Australian Regulators Flagged FTX Concerns Months Before Collapse: Report
Alys Key - Decrypt
FTX had already set off alarm bells with Australia's financial regulator several months before the crypto exchange's catastrophic collapse, according to a report. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) first began looking into the company's local operations in March 2022, according to documents revealed through a freedom of information request by The Guardian Australia. The concerns were first prompted by an article in the Australian Financial Review, which covered FTX's plans to launch in the country within a matter of weeks.
/jlne.ws/3WNpnFC
CFTC Chair Confirms CFTC's Planned Involvement in Policing the U.S. Carbon Markets
Peter Malyshev and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP - JD Supra
On January 23, the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ("CFTC"), Rostin Behnam, announced in his keynote speech at the Commodity Markets Council's annual conference that the CFTC "can play a role in voluntary carbon markets." This is not the first time that the CFTC has publicly stated that it is considering its role vis-a-vis regulation of voluntary carbon markets ("VCMs") or compliance carbon markets ("CCMs"), but it is the first time that the CFTC Chair has articulated a clear action plan for regulation.
/jlne.ws/3jioRSw
Congress should reinvigorate the CFTC so it can regulate shadowy financial markets
Todd Phillips - MarketWatch
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, is the federal regulatory agency that is charged with regulating derivatives, the complex financial products that helped cause the 2007-08 financial crisis and subsequent recession. Despite its importance in ensuring the stability of the nation's financial system, the CFTC's authorization lapsed in 2013. After a decade and several failed attempts, Congress should reauthorize the CFTC this year, perhaps as part of the farm bill.
/jlne.ws/3wCMt7d
SEC Chair Gary Gensler Says There Are Three Ways to Tell If a Crypto Project Is a Scam
Jason Nelson - Decrypt
How hard is it to spot a crypto scam? According to SEC Chair Gary Gensler, it's not nearly as difficult as it might sound. Speaking to the U.S. Army during a Twitter Spaces earlier this month, Gensler and SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw discussed what they consider the dangers of investing in crypto and how to tell if a project is a scam. "If something looks too good to be true, sometimes they really are," Gensler said. "There are certain red flags that you can look for beyond it being too good to be true."
/jlne.ws/3HgP4IT
U.S. SEC probes Elon Musk's role in Tesla self-driving claims - Bloomberg News
Reuters
The U.S. securities regulator is investigating Elon Musk's role in giving shape to EV maker Tesla's self-driving claims, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing a person with knowledge of the matter. The review is part of an ongoing Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) probe of the company's statements about its Autopilot driver-assistance system, the report added.
/jlne.ws/3HHxAa6
SEC Reportedly Steps Up Probe Into How RIAs Custody Crypto Assets
Kenneth Corbin - Barron's
The Securities and Exchange Commission is ramping up its review of how registered investment advisors are handling custody of clients' digital assets following the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX, according to a Reuters report. The SEC said it was reviewing custody arrangements involving crypto when it announced its updated examination priorities last May, saying that it would "assess the offer, sale, recommendation, advice, and trading of crypto assets."
/jlne.ws/3HCKpS3
Regulatory Clarity? Financial Watchdogs Could Not Be More Clear
Gareth Rhodes - CoinDesk
In settling a lawsuit in January with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the co-founder of crypto platform Nexo stated that he is "confident that a clearer regulatory landscape will emerge soon, and companies like Nexo will be able to offer value-creating products in the United States in a compliant manner." Nexo's desire for "regulatory clarity" is far from unique: Over the past year, the executives of Binance, Coinbase and Circle have issued similar statements and "regulatory clarity" has been the buzz phrase at crypto panel discussions and happy hours.
/jlne.ws/3JpjFGZ
ESG: Everything Everywhere All at Once
Commissioner Mark T. Uyeda - SEC
Good afternoon. I am pleased to join you today at the first large gathering of the California '40 Acts Group since the start of the pandemic. This group provides an important forum for discussing matters affecting the investment management industry, and I hope that this event marks the return to normalcy. My remarks today will focus on issues related to asset managers' use of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment strategies. These remarks reflect my individual views as a Commissioner at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.[1]
/jlne.ws/3RgLT8F
Gold Coast director banned from providing financial services for four years
ASIC
ASIC has banned a Gold Coast director of a business that leased an automated trading robot, designed to work on foreign exchange (FX) trading platforms from providing any financial services for four years.
ASIC banned Gregory William Finerty, the sole director of Bradford AI, after finding he carried on a financial services business without an Australian financial services (AFS) licence and engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct. He is banned from controlling, whether alone or with others, an entity that carries on a financial services business and performing any function involved in carrying on a financial services business.
/jlne.ws/3jbUu02
ESMA publishes data for the quarterly liquidity assessment of bonds
European Securities and Markets Authority
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU's financial markets regulator and supervisor, has published its new quarterly liquidity assessment of bonds. Due to a technical error, the data was published earlier than the usual publication date (1 February 2023). This does not have any impact on the application date. The transparency requirements for bonds deemed liquid will apply from 16 February 2023 to 15 May 2023.
/jlne.ws/3XLrLOl
SFAT affirms SFC decision to fine Cardinalasia Consulting Limited $1.5 million and imposes a heavier suspension on its responsible officer for failures in managing private funds
Securities & Futures Commission of Hong Kong
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has reprimanded and fined Cardinalasia Consulting Limited (CCL) $1.5 million over its failures in acting as a principal investment adviser to five private funds between August 2014 and October 2017 after the Securities and Futures Appeals Tribunal (SFAT) upheld the SFC's disciplinary action against it (Notes 1 to 5).
/jlne.ws/3kVVMMU
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | How AlphaSimplex Rode 'Uncomfortable' Markets to 32% Return; Trend-following in 2022 made shorting bonds a winning trade; Inflation unlikely to revert to 2% this year, Kaminski says
Vildana Hajric and Michael P. Regan - Bloomberg
A rare bright spot in investing in 2022 was strategies that follow trends in markets rather than fundamentals, including the AlphaSimplex Managed Futures Strategy Fund that returned more than 32% for the year. Kathryn Kaminski, chief research strategist and portfolio manager at AlphaSimplex Group, joined the "What Goes Up" podcast to discuss the firm's strategies and what she's expecting in 2023. One development she anticipates that could make investors uncomfortable this year is the likelihood that inflation bottoms out at around 4%, rather than the Federal Reserve's target of 2%.
/jlne.ws/40bRHo4
"Myths of Short Seller"; Adani vs Hindenburg
Alexandra Scaggs - Financial Times
Adani Group has published a response to what it calls a "malicious combination of selective misinformation and stale, baseless and discredited allegations" from Hindenburg. The firm has promised a more detailed response, according to reports, but we haven't seen it yet. Until then, we thought the slides could be worth a look alongside Hindenburg's original report. Gotta hear both sides, etc.
/jlne.ws/40aygMv
When Private Equity Came for the Toddler Gyms
Lydia DePillis and Michael Corkery - The New York Times
Tiffany Cianci spends most of her days in socks, padding around the fitness studio she operates in Frederick, Md., about an hour outside Washington. Her clients are young: kids ranging from 4 months to 12 years old. They come to learn somersaults, try the monkey bars, sing some songs. ("Little Red Caboose," complete with a train whistle accompaniment, is one of her favorites.)
/jlne.ws/3jflDPz
Short Sellers Feel the Pain in Stock Market's 2023 Rally
Jack Pitcher and Akane Otani - The Wall Street Journal
The market's comeback in 2023 has been very bad news for one group: short sellers. Short sellers profit from stock declines by borrowing shares of companies that they believe are overvalued, selling them, and then buying them back at a lower price later. They made huge gains in 2022, when markets around the world tumbled. But their fortunes have reversed in January as the stock market has clawed back some of its losses.
/jlne.ws/3Y8CP8g
Pension Funds in Historic Surplus Eye $1 Trillion of Bond-Buying; Corporate plans ending years of shortfalls want to derisk; Funding ratio at biggest US pension plans surges to 110%
Denitsa Tsekova and Vildana Hajric - Bloomberg
For some of America's biggest bond buyers, the soft-versus-hard-landing debate on Wall Street might be a sideshow. They're getting ready to swoop in with as much as $1 trillion, no matter what happens. One of the pillars of the trillion-dollar pension fund complex is now awash in cash after struggling under deficits for two decades. This rare surplus at corporate defined-benefit plans, thanks to surging interest rates, means they can reallocate to bonds that are less volatile than stocks - "derisking" in industry parlance.
/jlne.ws/3jm7cZX
Investors Who Bet on Bitcoin Fund in Retirement Accounts Pay the Price; The $14.6 billion Grayscale Bitcoin Trust is selling at a 42% discount to its underlying assets
Vicky Ge Huang - The Wall Street Journal
For many years, individual investors used the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust as a way to bet on bitcoin in their retirement accounts. Now they are paying the price. The $14.6 billion trust, known by its ticker GBTC, was one of the few options for individual investors to get exposure to bitcoin without having to purchase the cryptocurrency directly.
/jlne.ws/3XMgXzv
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | Biden's IRA Has $46 Billion Manager in London Reviewing Options; Impax has started looking at assets once deemed too volatile or expensive, after doing a deep analysis of how US subsidies will ripple through supply chains.
Gautam Naik - Bloomberg
Impax Asset Management Group Plc, one of the world's largest ESG fund managers, is exploring stocks and sectors it once avoided as the US Inflation Reduction Act redraws the green investing map. The IRA, which promises to inject at least $369 billion into clean energy, is a game changer for the future of ESG investing, said David Winborne, a senior portfolio manager at Impax in London.
/jlne.ws/3WOZZzt
Feeding Chickens Stale Bread and Unsold Cookies for Zero-Carbon Eggs; Dutch egg producer Kipster cuts emissions by replacing the fresh grains hens consume with leftovers humans won't eat.
Paul Tullis - Bloomberg
In the mid-aughts, Ruud Zanders was running a company with more than $40 million in annual sales from 1 million hens across Europe laying hundreds of millions of eggs a year. But a combination of overleveraging, the credit crunch that foretold the Great Recession and an outbreak of avian influenza cost him his farm and his home. "We could have survived any one of these, but not all three," Zanders says.
/jlne.ws/40qDHan
Ford Cuts Price of Electric Mustang Mach-E in Response to Tesla; Discounts of $4,500 a car are aimed at gaining market share
Keith Naughton - Bloomberg
Ford Motor Co. is slashing the price of its electric Mustang Mach-E by an average of $4,500 following Tesla Inc.'s own recent cuts, stepping up the price wars in a slowing EV market. The discount comes on a model that Ford has already described as unprofitable, but the automaker said it hopes to offset further margin deterioration by boosting production 67% this year. The lowest priced Mach-E now starts at $45,995, down $900, while the largest cut comes in the GT Extended Range version, which falls $5,900 to start at $63,995.
/jlne.ws/3Y96qON
Slow Start Expected for ESG Audits
Tom Lydon - VettaFi
Global regulators are slated to up scrutiny of companies boasting of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards, but those efforts could take time to deploy. Whether imminent or further out, audits of ESG standards could have profound effects on a variety of multi-national firms, including members of the Invesco ESG Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQMG B+). QQMG follows the Nasdaq 100 ESG Index, and while the exchange traded fund is home to just 91 stocks, many of the companies behind those equities operate well beyond U.S. borders, meaning that their application of ESG standards is pertinent beyond this country.
/jlne.ws/3HiEOjp
Republicans vow to probe US banks and asset managers' 'ESG agenda' in Congress; Lawmaker Andy Barr says the financial system has been 'co-opted by the intolerant left'
James Politi - Financial Times
Banks and asset managers will face scrutiny from Congress on their "ESG agenda", according to a senior Republican lawmaker, pointing to tensions ahead between the new House majority and America's financial sector. The comments by Andy Barr, the chair of the House financial services subcommittee responsible for financial institutions and monetary policy, fire a new salvo at Wall Street banks and asset managers for their social and climate goals.
/jlne.ws/40cCuDe
Release of the 2023 Reporting Framework and updates on Accountability
Principles for Responsible Investment
We are pleased to share that the 2023 Reporting Framework has now been published, representing an important milestone in the delivery of a reporting process which is both mission-led and signatory-centric. An update on accountability - minimum requirements and the Leaders' Group - is also provided. There have been changes to the Reporting Framework since the 2021 Pilot and releasing the 2023 Reporting Framework in January provides signatories with more than three months to prepare their responses before the reporting cycle opens in mid-May. This release is a key step forward in the development of the PRI's Reporting and Assessment functionality as the industry-leading reporting framework, globally.
/jlne.ws/3HH2103
Global Sustainable Fund Flows: Q4 2022 in Review; European investors show continued appetite for ESG products despite headwinds, while U.S. investors retreat.
Morningstar
Key Takeaways; Global sustainable funds attracted USD 37 billion of net new money in the fourth quarter of 2022, compared with USD 24.5 billion of inflows in the previous quarter. The rebound in sustainable fund flows was felt in only three regions: Europe, Australia, and Canada, while the rest of the world; including the United States, experienced outflows. Amid inflationary pressures, rising interest rates, lingering recession fears, and the conflict in Ukraine, global sustainable fund flows proved resilient again relative to the broader market, which experienced USD 200 billion of net withdrawals over the fourth quarter. Global sustainable fund assets recovered to hit USD 2.5 trillion at the end of December, from USD 2.24 trillion three months earlier. This 11.6% surge put an end to three quarters of asset decline and was almost double the growth of the broader global fund market.
/jlne.ws/3Y9iu2E
US Attorneys General Sue Over ESG Retirement Plansblank
Jack Grogan-Fenn - ESG Investor
The attorneys general of 25 Republican states have filed a lawsuit which looks to stop a rule that allows retirement plan managers to weigh environmental and social issues when making investments. The rule is set to come into effect on 30 January, and if introduced will allow - but not require - fiduciaries to weigh ESG factors when making investment decisions for US retirement accounts.
/jlne.ws/3wD1OVq
Sleeve Labelling Offers Short-Term Recycling Solution
Jack Grogan-Fenn - ESG Investor
Recycling rates could rise in the short term through improvements to sleeve labelling on packaging, a new report by non-profit financial think tank Planet Tracker said. The report found that only 9% of plastic waste is recycled globally and 15% for plastic packaging, a rate which the organisation describes as "woefully inadequate".
/jlne.ws/3XZ1P1E
UK's Power Switch-Off Shows Future for Cleaner Energy Grid; Measure aims to try to shift demand to avoid burning more gas; Consumers could play a major role in integrating renewables
Will Mathis, Todd Gillespie and Celia Bergin - Bloomberg
For a few hours last week, British consumers were asked to make a choice: keep consuming power as normal or just turn the lights off.
/jlne.ws/40oUH0C
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Goldman Sachs cuts Solomon, and his pay, down to size
John Foley - Reuters
Chief executives: they're just another member of the team. Or at least that is the apparent message Goldman Sachs (GS.N) is trying to send by slashing boss David Solomon's pay by a third for 2022, to $25 million. The decision makes sense for the Wall Street bank's leadership since, like many of its peers, it is shrinking headcount and bonuses. The risk is that where employees see solidarity, investors see instability.
/jlne.ws/40fJ7ov
Private-Equity Funds Turn to Yuan Offerings, Defying Wider Slowdown in China
Jing Yang - The Wall Street Journal
Some international private-equity firms investing in China are choosing to denominate new funds in the country's local currency, going against a wider slowdown in global demand for bets on Chinese startups. The appetite for allocating capital to funds focused on China has waned over the past year, the result of factors including tensions between Beijing and Washington, higher U.S. interest rates and a prolonged crackdown on China's once-hot internet sector.
/jlne.ws/3DoNHqm
Goldman Sachs Slashes C.E.O.'s Pay After Bank's Poor Performance; David M. Solomon earned $25 million in 2022, still a hefty sum but nearly 30 percent lower than a year earlier.
Rob Copeland - The New York Times
David M. Solomon, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, saw his 2022 pay slashed by nearly 30 percent following missteps that have weighed on the elite Wall Street bank's profits and performance. Mr. Solomon took home $25 million last year, the bank said in a filing Friday, down from $35 million a year earlier. Although that paycheck was still hefty compensation by most standards, Mr. Solomon ceded his title as the highest-paid bank chief executive to Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, whose pay for 2022 was $35 million.
/jlne.ws/40gIIlM
Goldman Sachs Cut CEO David Solomon's Pay to $25 Million in 2022; The decline in pay reflects a sharp drop in the bank's revenue and profit last year
AnnaMaria Andriotis - The Wall Street Journal
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive David Solomon took a nearly 30% pay cut in 2022. Mr. Solomon received $25 million in total compensation last year, down from $35 million in 2021. His 2022 pay package consisted of a $2 million base salary, a cash bonus of $6.9 million and a $16.1 million stock award that is tied to how well the bank performs in the next few years, Goldman said in a regulatory filing.
/jlne.ws/3ReOxM8
Brookfield in Talks on Deal for DWS's Private Equity Secondaries Unit; Deutsche Bank unit was on the block as bank seeks to simplify; Brookfield's Flatt has said secondaries are a growth area
Layan Odeh and Laura Benitez - Bloomberg
Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. is in talks to take over the private equity secondaries business of Deutsche Bank AG's asset management arm, according to a person familiar with the matter.
/jlne.ws/3XNIYHb
Morgan Stanley Names Arun Kohli as New Country Head For India; Arun Kohli, COO for EMEA at US bank, will relocate to Mumbai; Sanjay Shah, a veteran of 26 years at the bank, is retiring
Anto Antony - Bloomberg
Morgan Stanley named Arun Kohli as the new India head to replace Sanjay Shah, a veteran of 26 years at the firm, who is retiring. Kohli, currently the chief operating officer for EMEA, will head the US bank's business in the country, according to a memo seen by Bloomberg News. With the bank since 2007, Kohli will relocate to Mumbai from London where he headed the firm's post-Brexit strategy and implemented growth strategies across markets in the region.
/jlne.ws/3HQJJtD
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| Work & Management | | Stories impacting work and more about management ideas, practices and trends. | Coding is still a good career bet; Tech job losses and AI advances do not mean computers can program themselves
Financial Times
"Just one word...plastics" is the career advice offered by the family friend Mr McGuire to a bemused Benjamin Braddock, played by Dustin Hoffman, in the 1967 movie The Graduate. A modern-day Mr McGuire might well advocate coding as the route to decently paid job security. Or he might have done before the tech industry axed 200,000 jobs in the past 12 months - and the clamour around the artificial intelligence platform ChatGPT raised awareness that machines can write code, too. Computers, it seems, may soon be programming themselves. So is what we've been telling our kids about safe jobs all wrong?
/jlne.ws/3kLMXFn
Anthropic, an A.I. Start-Up, Is Said to Be Close to Adding $300 Million
Erin Griffith and Cade Metz - The New York Times
Anthropic, a San Francisco artificial intelligence start-up, is close to raising roughly $300 million in new funding, two people with knowledge of the situation said, in the latest sign of feverish excitement for a new class of A.I. start-ups. The deal could value Anthropic at roughly $5 billion, though the terms were still being worked out and the valuation could change, one of the people said. The start-up, which was founded in 2021, previously raised $704 million, valuing it at $4 billion, according to PitchBook, which tracks private investment data.
/jlne.ws/3Jk6UNY
Layoffs by Email Show What Employers Really Think of Their Workers
Elizabeth Spiers - The New York Times (opinion)
Google's parent company, Alphabet, recently announced that it would lay off around 12,000 people, 6 percent of its work force. Employees who were let go, some of whom had worked for the company for decades, got the news in their inbox. "It's hard for me to believe that after 20 years at #Google I unexpectedly find out about my last day via an email," a Google engineer, Jeremy Joslin, tweeted. "What a slap in the face." That sting is becoming an all-too-common sensation. In the last few years, tens of thousands of people have been laid off by email at tech and digital media companies including Twitter, Amazon, Meta and Vox. The backlash from affected employees has been swift.
/jlne.ws/3HlZIyl
As Wall Street drops drug-testing policies, could microdosing be next?
Dan DeFrancesco - Business Insider
Welcome back! Dan DeFrancesco in NYC. Lots of good responses to my callout for guesses on what Sam Bankman-Fried's code word is for his attack dog. Two of my favorites: crypto (if it ain't broke, don't fix it) and conquistador (it was a crypto empire, after all). On tap, we've got stories on how comp varied among the big-bank CEOs, FTX has IOUs with some top Wall Street firms, and how to upgrade your Starbucks order. But first, say, man, you got a joint?
/jlne.ws/3HGhrBF
Top Bankers in Asia See 50% Pay Cuts After Drought in Deals
Cathy Chan - Bloomberg
Top investment bankers in Asia ex-Japan at Wall Street's biggest firms are having their worst payouts since the financial crisis more than a decade ago, according to people familiar with the matter.
/jlne.ws/3jdmvUX
Why Companies Can't Quit Jack Welch's Much-Hated Employee-Ranking System; A manager at video-game maker Activision Blizzard left after he protested the firm's performance evaluation policy, which can pit employees against each other
Matthew Boyle - Bloomberg
Workers have plenty to fret about these days - layoffs, return to office mandates, annual evaluations. But there's another concern lurking, one that's rooted in the bygone era of Ronald Reagan and oversized blazers: Stacked performance rankings.
/jlne.ws/3j90iaF
Want a Pay Raise? Work Five Days a Week in the Office; Staff shortages give workers leverage to ask for pay and perks; Brexit and the pandemic reduced the pool of available workers
Tom Rees - Bloomberg
British companies are starting to pay a "five days in the office" premium to lure in staff who have retained bargaining power because workers are in such short supply, the nation's biggest recruitment agency said.
/jlne.ws/3Y9gUOk
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | Absence from work at record high as Americans feel strain from Covid
Melody Schreiber - The Guardian
For many Americans it feels like everyone is out sick right now. But there is a good reason: work absences from illness are at an all-time annual high in the US and show few signs of relenting. And it's not just acute illness and caregiving duties keeping workers away. About 1.5 million Americans missed work because of sickness in December.
/jlne.ws/3HIfHbq
China Gives Conditional Nod to Two Homegrown Covid Antivirals; Simcere and Shanghai Junshi given approval for Covid drugs; Nation struggled with limited antivirals after Covid pivot
Bloomberg
China gave conditional approval for the use of two locally made Covid-19 antivirals as the nation struggles with limited drugs following the end of virus restrictions. Simcere Pharmaceutical Group Ltd. and Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co. got approval for their antivirals from the National Medical Products Administration, according to a statement from the government on Sunday. The statement didn't elaborate on the conditions for approval.
/jlne.ws/3kOzoFk
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | Risky Manila Currency Move Tells a Big Global Story; When canvassing intervention, vagueness is good. The Philippines decided otherwise and survived - with help from a friend.
Daniel Moss - Bloomberg
Economic policy in the Philippines strayed into the forbidden zone and survived. That a risky tactic to counter pressure on emerging markets worked out also tells the story of a shift in the global interest-rate terrain in recent months and points to where they might be headed. Things could have gone very wrong after the top Philippines finance official identified a specific value for the-then beleaguered currency that the government would defend, perhaps at considerable cost to the nation's coffers. Failure would have dented the nation's credibility - or worse.
/jlne.ws/40eCmTS
Philippines May Tax Nickel Exports to Follow Indonesia's Success; The two Southeast Asian nations are the top nickel suppliers; Philippines targeting three more mineral processing plants
Manolo Serapio Jr and Andreo Calonzo - Bloomberg
The Philippines is considering taxing nickel ore exports among options to push miners in the world's second-biggest supplier of the metal to invest in processing instead of just shipping raw minerals, a route that top nickel producer Indonesia has taken and succeeded in.
/jlne.ws/3HEFscw
Nigeria Extends Deadline to Swap Old Currency Notes by 10 Days; Central bank says 1.9 trillion naira returned to banks; Deadline sparked long queues at bank ATMs across the country
Anthony Osae-Brown - Bloomberg
Nigeria's central bank extended a deadline for the expiration of higher denomination naira notes to Feb. 10 after long queues developed at banks and commercial activities almost came to a halt for lack of the new currency. The extension will give "all Nigerians that have naira legitimately earned" the opportunity to return them to banks, Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele said Sunday in an emailed statement.
/jlne.ws/3wBXJki
Vital Farms raised egg prices 'reluctantly and in small amounts': CEO
Brooke DiPalma - Yahoo! Finance
Vital Farms (VITL) CEO Russell Diez-Canseco says the recent spike in egg prices, up more nearly 60% year-over-year, is "a head scratcher." "Over the course of 2022, we certainly saw inflationary impacts to our key inputs like the grains we feed our girls [hens] and the diesel fuel that the truckers use to fuel their trucks as they deliver the eggs to the grocery stores," Diez-Canseco told Yahoo Finance. "Our approach to price increases has been to take them reluctantly in small amounts."
/jlne.ws/3wD4Vwz
In Texas Oil Country, an Unfamiliar Threat: Earthquakes
J. David Goodman - The New York Times
The West Texas earth shook one day in November, shuddering through the two-story City Hall in downtown Pecos, swaying the ceiling fans at an old railroad station, rattling the walls at a popular taqueria. The tremor registered as a 5.4 magnitude earthquake, among the largest recorded in the state. Then, a month later, another of similar magnitude struck not far away, near Odessa and Midland, twin oil country cities with relatively tall office buildings, some of them visible for miles around.
/jlne.ws/3wFicos
Bitter cold, waves of storms target nation's midsection; Texas, Gulf Coast states could see tornadoes: Updates
John Bacon, Jorge L. Ortiz and Thao Nguyen - USA Today
A triple threat of winter storms was roaring toward the nation's midsection Sunday, threatening travel headaches through the week as the Upper Midwest hunkered down in biting cold and wind chills that could reach minus-50 degrees. At least three storms will be responsible for the threat of ice and snow from Sunday through Thursday, AccuWeather reported. The storms will be fueled by moisture coming off the Gulf of Mexico and colder air sweeping south. In some areas, the precipitation will be almost constant for days, AccuWeather said.
/jlne.ws/3WLZtlQ
Texas Oil and Gas Producers Told to Prepare for Winter Storms
Katherine Doherty - Bloomberg
Texas oil and gas producers have been told to secure their equipment and facilities ahead of potentially treacherous winter weather this week. The Railroad Commission of Texas advised operators in areas that could be impacted to take action including securing personnel, equipment and facilities to prevent injury or damages, according to a statement Sunday. The RRC also asked all operators to monitor and report road conditions throughout the weather event.
/jlne.ws/3kU2Slj
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| Miscellaneous | | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | Disappearing Barbecues Show Global Beef Demand Is Under Pressure; Consumers in some of the world's biggest beef markets are shifting to chicken and lentils.
Agnieszka de Sousa, Jonathan Gilbert and Leslie Patton - Bloomberg
The world's consumers have been cutting back on meat eating since the early days of the pandemic. In 2022, the demand hit came for beef, and even as inflation cools, all signs point to continued pressure this year, especially in some of the world's most carnivorous nations. It's not uncommon to see meat buying slide during downturns for the economy. What's striking is that demand is falling faster in many of the countries where beef has traditionally been the protein of choice.
/jlne.ws/3HleepZ
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