| October 26, 2021 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | |  | John Lothian
Publisher
John Lothian News | |
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$53,806/$300,000 (17.9%)
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
The FIA Law & Compliance Division will hold a webinar on November 18 from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. ET on "Gaming and regulation of events contracts." This webinar will address the unique authority Congress gave the CFTC in the Dodd-Frank Act to review event contracts - contracts relating to terrorism, assassination, war, gaming, and activities that are illegal under state or federal law - and to prohibit them if the CFTC determines they do not serve the public interest. -- FIA
It is nice to see Forbes with a deep dive profile of Jennifer Just of Peak6 in the piece titled, "This Little-Known Woman Billionaire Built A Fortune Powering Fintech Firms Like SoFi And Webull." It was our second most read story yesterday, only beaten out by an always popular real estate news story. -- Forbes
Here is what Cboe's Henry Schwartz, head of product intelligence, information solutions group, had to say about the action in Tesla yesterday via LinkedIn:
"Truly mind blowing Tesla option flow today as shares blew through the $1000 level. Records included total option volume of 3.55M contracts, and total premium over $16 billion (55% of the entire US market). Implied volatility increased nearly 10 points to 45% in the Nov term with upside skew suggesting bulls are looking for further short-term gains (on top of the 29% two-week climb). 10/29 weeklys made up 54% of today's flow." -- LinkedIn
The Financial Communications Society's next Virtual Spotlight event features an interview of Stephanie Dobbs Brown, CMO of ICE (Intercontinental Exchange) by Jennifer Prosek, the founder and managing partner of Prosek Partners. -- Financial Communications Society
The HKEX traded $1 billion in notional value of the MSCI ChinaA50 index futures in the first week of trading, HKEX said.
Thom Thompson finally came out from behind the curtain and updated his LinkedIn page to show he is now the chief compliance officer at CX Futures Exchange, a new futures endeavor from Cantor.
The month of October is coming to a close and we have only had two donations to the JLN MarketsWiki Education GoFundMe campaign that are eligible for the five minutes of video production raffle from John Lothian Productions. Give $100 or more to qualify before the end of October.
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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Exchange Analytics, a Sarasota, Florida-based company that specializes in futures/derivatives and securities compliance training and certification, announced the formation of a new Cyber Advisory Group that will include Robert Bigman, a former chief information security officer for the CIA, and Mark Morrison, a former chief information security officer for the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency and current chief security officer of OCC. The company said the advisory group will provide guidance on practices and procedures related to cybersecurity, privacy and disaster recovery. More information is here.~SC
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Kenny Polcari - Open Outcry Traders History Project Part 2
JohnLothianNews.com
When Kenny Polcari started out at the New York Stock Exchange, "It was paper and pencil until the turn of the century," he said.
The exchange started to introduce handheld computers in the late 1990s, but it was only in beta, not full blown yet. Everyone was preparing for Y2K. When Y2K happened and the technology didn't fail, Polcari said, there was a push on the industry to move forward with modernization. They converted all the stocks over to decimals alphabetically, one at a time, over a six-month period, starting with the stocks named A to D.
Watch the video »
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Is Whistle-Blowing Really Worth $200 Million? It's important that incentives be preserved, but an enormous recent award might mean it's time to recalculate the math behind it all.
Paul J. Davies - Bloomberg
Good incentives for blowing the whistle on bad behavior are great. But $200 million is a hell of a big prize. That's the amount awarded to a single source of critical information that led to nearly $2.5 billion in fines for Deutsche Bank AG in 2015 for manipulating the discredited and soon-to-be-defunct Libor interest rate, according to reports. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced the award last week. It is a record payment to a whistle-blower.
/bloom.bg/3jyK9YQ
***** I asked myself this same question when I saw the amount of the award. That is too much.~JJL
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Mastercard Partners With Bakkt to Bring Cryptocurrency Payments to the Masses; Banks will be able to issue debit or credit cards that let people pay with bitcoin and earn cryptocurrency as rewards
AnnaMaria Andriotis - WSJ
Mastercard Inc. MA 0.61% and crypto firm Bakkt Holdings Inc. BKKT 234.43% on Monday said they have partnered to enable cryptocurrency card payments. The companies said the partnership will make it easier for banks, financial-technology firms and merchants to offer and accept crypto payments. Banks and other financial institutions that issue cards through Mastercard will be able to issue cryptocurrency debit or credit cards that let people make payments and earn rewards in bitcoin. Other cryptocurrency assets could follow.
/on.wsj.com/2ZxPSaD
*****Count me as a laggard on this one for now. I will use good ole greenbacks for now. ~JJL
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Harvard's endowment return is worse than the S&P 500 and that should be a lesson for your own portfolio
Mark Hulbert - MarketWatch
What investing lessons can be learned from Harvard University's failure to beat the S&P 500 (SPX) in its latest reporting period? It's a timely question, given the university's report of its endowment's investment return in the fiscal year that ended Jun. 30. Lagging the stock market is nothing new for Harvard; the endowment has done so more often than not in recent years.
/yhoo.it/3EfUhNY
***** So much for beating the S&P 500 benchmark with a highly paid investment team.~JJL
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Monday's Top Three
Our top three stories on Monday had something in common: vast amounts of wealth. The most-read story Monday was Richard Driehaus' Lake Geneva estate for sale at almost $40 million, from Crain's Chicago Business. Second was This Little-Known Woman Billionaire Built A Fortune Powering Fintech Firms Like SoFi And Webull, from Forbes. And third was Crypto Boss Laughs All the Way to the Bank, from the Wall Street Journal, about FTX chief Sam Bankman-Fried.
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MarketsWiki Stats
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| Lead Stories | SEC Gets Path to Rein In Stablecoins as U.S. Weighs New Rules
Jesse Hamilton, Joe Light, and Benjamin Bain - Bloomberg
Behind the scenes, Wall Street agency has pushed for key role; Some U.S. officials want to saddle tokens with bank rules
Wall Street's top watchdog won concessions in a debate between U.S. regulators over how to police stablecoins, clearing a path for the Securities and Exchange Commission to crack down on the $131 billion market. The Treasury Department and other agencies will specify in a highly-anticipated report -- expected to be published this week -- that the SEC has significant authority over tokens like Tether, said people familiar with the matter. The report will also urge Congress to pass legislation specifying coins should be regulated similarly to bank deposits, one of the people said, asking not to be named because discussions are private.
/bloom.bg/3pHCH1o
Central Banks Are Getting Serious About Digital Money
Carolynn Look - Bloomberg
The rise of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has prompted a major push among central banks to develop their own digital currencies. This week, Nigeria's central bank joined those of the Bahamas and the Eastern Caribbean region in launching the world's first digital versions of cash. China is likely to be among the countries to follow next as it prepares a digital yuan trial in time for the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022.
/bloom.bg/3pC6UPk
New companies raising cash swell US junk bond market to record size; Outstanding debt rises above $1.5tn as nearly 150 issuers borrow from investors seeking yield
Joe Rennison - FT
A generation of new arrivals to the US junk bond market have propelled it to a record size, with debut issuers borrowing cash cheaply from investors eager for yield. A record 149 companies, including cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and medical supplies manufacturer Medline, have joined the high-yield bond market this year, where lower-rated, riskier companies borrow money from large asset managers, pension funds and other investors, according to data provider Leveraged Commentary & Data.
/on.ft.com/3jDeJAE
Banks' Debt Sales Are Driving the Corporate Bond Market; Financial institutions account for more than one-third of all the investment-grade debt issued this year
Ben Eisen - WSJ
U.S. banks are overrun with cash. So they are loading up on debt. The six largest U.S. lenders have issued some $314 billion of bonds so far this year, already the most for any year since 2008, according to Dealogic. Since banks reported their third-quarter financial results earlier this month, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., GS 0.10% Morgan Stanley MS 0.11% and Bank of America Corp. BAC -0.13% have all come out with multibillion-dollar bond sales. In April, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase & Co. completed the largest-ever bank debt sales.
/on.wsj.com/3jExtzB
Big moves keep changing Europe's CCP scene
Alexander Kristofersson - Posttrade360.com
On stage with PostTrade 360° Amsterdam on 13 October, EuroCCP's Jan Treuren shared his company's outlook on the fast-changing clearing landscape - where it is not always clear who is a partner and who is a competitor.After EuroCCP was fully taken over by US-based derivatives exchange group Cboe last year, Cboe has this autumn launched a pan-European derivatives exchange, based in Amsterdam - and EuroCCP has expanded its product scope from equities to derivatives to cater for its clearing services.
/bit.ly/3nuxO9f
SEC's Gensler: Meme stock trading restrictions 'not good' for retail investors
Brian Cheung - Yahoo Finance
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is still weighing its response to the frenzy over meme stocks, but its leader acknowledged that investors were among the losers when brokerages abruptly restricted trading in late January. "Restrictions on trading that fateful Friday in January was not good for the retail investors that wanted access to the markets," said SEC Chair Gary Gensler during Yahoo Finance's All Markets Summit.
/yhoo.it/3CkzE2U
Wall Street Risks Becoming Regulators' 'ESG Police,' Mayo Says
Jenny Surane - Bloomberg
The biggest U.S. banks are at risk of becoming regulators' enforcement arm for climate matters and other social issues, Wells Fargo & Co. said. The five largest U.S. banks have committed a combined $4 trillion to address climate issues during the next decade, according to Wells Fargo analysts led by Mike Mayo. The companies -- JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley -- are also making a push for carbon neutrality in their own operations.
/yhoo.it/3CctTE8
Major cryptocurrency project Terraform Labs is suing the SEC
Zack Guzman - Yahoo Finance
In a flipping of the script, a leading cryptocurrency project and its co-founder are suing the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The lawsuit was filed Friday by Terraform Labs, the company behind the Terra decentralized finance protocol, and its co-founder Do Kwon, who confirmed in the filing that he and his company were served with SEC subpoenas at last month's Messari crypto conference in New York City. Terra's Luna cryptocurrency is currently the 11th largest by market cap.
/yhoo.it/3Ghv1J7
U.S. Treasury Creates New Post Focused on Racial Equity; Secretary Janet Yellen says appointment would help department address pre-pandemic economic inequalities
Amara Omeokwe - WSJ
The Treasury Department said Monday it had created a new position to support the Biden administration's efforts to promote economic opportunities for communities of color as the nation recovers from the coronavirus pandemic.
/on.wsj.com/3EhbW7Z
Co-Head of Blackstone's Hedge-Fund Business to Leave Firm, Officials Say; With John McCormick stepping down, Joseph Dowling to be sole head of Blackstone Alternative Asset Management
Juliet Chung, Miriam Gottfried and Dawn Lim - WSJ
The co-head of Blackstone Inc.'s BX 1.41% big hedge-fund unit plans to leave the firm as the private-equity giant seeks higher returns and faster growth for the business. Blackstone veteran John McCormick told the firm last week he had decided to resign, the firm told The Wall Street Journal. His co-head, former Brown University endowment chief and hedge-fund manager Joseph Dowling, who joined the firm in January, will become sole head of Blackstone Alternative Asset Management, the world's largest funds-of-hedge-funds business.
/on.wsj.com/3pEpoic
The City after Brexit: With Refinitiv, Shearman & Sterling and the Investment Association
Michiel Willems - City AM
Brexit, 'greenwashing', COP26, the EU/UK taxonomy, China in the wake of the Evergrande affair, the EU's push for 'strategic autonomy' as well as privacy and the use of data are being discussed by CSFI director Andrew Hilton and this panel.
/bit.ly/3GrItue
Drift to office slows as workers put off by Covid concerns
Emily Hawkins - City AM
A return to the office has appeared to have stalled as London's office hubs marked a drop in footfall last week. Retail experts Springboard found that footfall declined by 4.2 per cent in areas in central London dominated by offices in the week beginning October 17. The 'Back to the Office' benchmark metric suggests that workers may be opting to stay at home as rumours of winter Covid restrictions swirl.
/bit.ly/3nsfb5T
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | World 'woefully unprepared' for next health crisis, says WHO-backed report; 'Geopolitical divisions' and disjointed decision making by global agencies mean lessons are being missed
Sarah Neville - FT
A top-level inquiry has concluded that the world was still "woefully unprepared" for any health emergency, with "neither the capacity to end the current pandemic in the near future nor to prevent the next one".
/on.ft.com/2Zob2YQ
US will require foreign travellers to get WHO-authorised vaccines; Biden administration outlines requirements as it prepares to ease travel restrictions from November 8
Kiran Stacey - FT
The Biden administration will allow all international travellers to enter the US as long as they have received any vaccine authorised by the World Health Organization, even the relatively untested Chinese-made Sinovac and Sinopharm jabs, from November 8.
/on.ft.com/3jzsHmT
FDA panel considers Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines for 5-11 year olds; Biden administration says younger kids could get shots within weeks if it gets US regulator's approval
Jamie Smyth and Kiran Stacey - FT
A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel will consider whether the US should become the first country in the world to green light the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine for children aged between 5 and 11 years.
/on.ft.com/3pC8C3c
Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine for Young Children to Be Reviewed by FDA Advisers; Vaccine experts are expected to give a recommendation on whether the FDA should broaden use of the shot to children ages 5 to 11 years
Jared S. Hopkins - WSJ
Experts advising the Food and Drug Administration are scheduled to meet Tuesday to consider endorsing the Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer Inc. PFE -0.02% and BioNTech SE BNTX 5.96% for use in young children.
/on.wsj.com/3GpBSQU
Covid Poses Bigger Risk of Brain Conditions Than Vaccines, Study Says
Joel Leon - Bloomberg
U.K. study comes after countries restricted use of Astra shot; Researchers analyzed health records of 32 million people
Covid-19 is more likely to cause rare neurological conditions than vaccines, according to a study published in the Nature Medicine journal. The study, led by the University of Oxford, analyzed the health records of 32 million people in England to identify the risks of developing rare brain conditions before and after testing positive for Covid, or receiving the first dose of either the Oxford-AstraZeneca Plc or Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE jabs.
/bloom.bg/3jBAHnw
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | Second Best Volume Day in MGEX History
MGEX
MGEX, a Designated Contract Market (DCM) and Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO), announces that Friday, October 22nd, 2021 was the second best volume day in history with a total of 36,900 contracts, merely missing the first place spot by 491 contracts. Having its best volume day, SPIKES® Futures contributed 22,872 contracts to the total. This is the 11th entry into the top-25 daily exchange volume record book for 2021.
/bit.ly/3Bcs9JY
CME Leveraged Funds Raise Bets Against Bitcoin to Record High as Futures Premium Spikes
Omkar Godbole - Coindesk
Leveraged funds on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) raised their bets against bitcoin to record high in the week ended Oct. 19, possibly to profit from the widening gap between futures and spot markets prices. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC) Commitments of Traders report released on Friday showed leveraged funds held a net short position of 31,000 contracts in the seven days to Oct. 19, marking an increase of 6,000 from the previous week.
/yhoo.it/3ny5pPy
Eurex Exchange Readiness Newsflash | Optimize your information management
Eurex
We have entered the last quarter of the year facing new projects that require our attention and dedication. In order to be able to make quick and well thought-out decisions in the daily work life, the delivery of reliable and well-structured information in a time of information overload is essential.
/bit.ly/3EersBJ
"Share Day": Buy DAX shares and DAX ETFs free of charge; Deutsche Börse calls for stock savings on October 29th - Share-based retirement provision must become more attractive
Deutsche Börse
For the seventh time, Deutsche Börse and numerous banks are calling for stock savings on October 29, "Share Day". The campaign was launched to raise awareness of the share as an indispensable element of retirement provision.
/bit.ly/3pIcv6P
Option Assignment Processing Modification on Thanksgiving Holiday (November 25, 2021)
CME
Please be advised that due to the November 25th Thanksgiving Holiday, CME Clearing will be modifying Exercise and Assignment processing for the January 2022 contract month of the following Brent option contracts: Brent Crude Futures-Style Margin Option (BZO), Brent Crude Oil Option (OS), and Brent Last Day Financial European Option (BE). The last trade date for the expiring options and the settlement prices of the underlying Futures contracts will remain the 25th; however, the option assignment processing and reporting will occur on Friday, November 26th. The option assignment will use settlement prices from November 25th to determine moneyness, and final mark to market for the end of day clearing cycle will use settlement prices from November 26th as normal.
/bit.ly/3GmrLw4
SET Jointly With Shenzhen Stock Exchange Showcases EV Potential To Chinese Institutional Investors
MondoVisione
The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE) today organized the "2021 China-Thailand Electric Vehicle Cooperation Seminar" virtual event which attracted 340 institutional and retail investors from China. Prominent speakers, consisting of executives from Thailand's government-related agencies, the capital market and listed companies, collectively presented potential of the infrastructures and businesses in supporting the use of electric vehicles (EVs) to reduce energy consumption and preserve the environment, while also promoting innovation and new industries, and increasing investment opportunities in both countries. All of these are on Chinese institutional investors' radar.
/bit.ly/3pAq4Fv
Six partners with BMLL for best execution analysis; The Swiss exchange is using the vendor's data and analytics to provide insight to brokers around Swiss EBBO liquidity.
Joanna Wright - Waters Technology
Over the past 15 years or so, platforms like multilateral trading facilities and systematic internalizers have emerged to supplement the incumbent exchanges. This market fragmentation has made it difficult for brokers to prove best execution to their customers. "To do so, they need to have a strong view over all these liquidity pools while maintaining the infrastructure costs to access these markets at a reasonable level," says Marc Berthoud, head of exchange data strategy at Six Securities
/bit.ly/3EfrA3R
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | Small-town India may hold the key to success for India's blockchain-based digital rupee
Mimansa Verma - Quartz
Small-town India may hold the key to success for India's blockchain-based digital rupee
The adoption of digital payments by the country's smaller towns has laid the groundwork for the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) digital currency based on blockchain technology. The banking regulator has been working on the phased implementation of its digital currency—the central bank digital currency (CBDC) or the rupee in electronic form. The initiative, like offline digital payments, aims to actualise the government's vision of a financial system with less cash.
/yhoo.it/3Gqh3oa
Stripe Strikes Tie-Up With Klarna After Frenzy of Rival Deals
Ivan Levingston - Bloomberg
Merchants that use Stripe will be able integrate Klarna; Stripe competes with Square Inc. and PayPal Holdings Inc.
Stripe Inc. will allow retailers to add Klarna Bank AB's buy-now-pay-later service as a purchasing tool for customers, a deal that pairs up two of the world's most valuable financial technology startups. The business partnership comes at a time when rivals are striking deals worth billions in a bid to win a share of the increasingly competitive flexible repayment industry.
/bloom.bg/3nxky3x
Venmo Crypto Wallet Draws Tons of Users and Some Rolling Eyes; With the digital-currency craze showing no signs of slowing down, financial companies are feeling the pressure to boost their services.
Claire Ballentine and Olga Kharif - Bloomberg
Salome Gongadze is tired of hearing about crypto. Whether it's her friends talking about their latest gains or ads clogging up her newsfeeds, she can't seem to escape the world of Bitcoin and digital wallets.
/bloom.bg/3nv7Keb
EY and Wirecard: anatomy of a flawed audit; First-hand testimony paints a picture of missed opportunities to uncover the fraud and a failure to understand a company EY audited for a decade
Olaf Storbeck - FT
In December 2018, just weeks before doubts about one of its most high-profile clients began to circulate widely, the auditor EY Germany decided to investigate Wirecard's operations more closely. It wanted to scrutinise the German fintech group's internal processes for payments settled by outsourcing partners in Asia — an integral part of the business once valued at EUR24bn.
/on.ft.com/3jXo9r1
Klarna and Stripe announce 'buy now, pay later' partnership; Tie-up will allow retailers easily to add option for customers to pay in instalments at checkouts
Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan - FT
Online payments processor Stripe has entered a strategic partnership with "buy now, pay later" company Klarna, allowing retailers easily to add an option for customers to pay in instalments.
/on.ft.com/3pEqH0w
Pension fund CDPQ plans to pour $12bn into European and UK assets; Canadian group to target private investments in areas including fintech and infrastructure
Josephine Cumbo - FT
One of Canada's largest pension fund managers has unveiled plans for a C$15bn ($12bn) spending spree on private assets in the UK and Europe in a significant expansion of its efforts to drive up returns offshore.
/on.ft.com/3Gk7VSl
Fintechs and traditional lenders do battle across south-east Asia; Competition intensifies as digital services leapfrog legacy financial systems
Akito Tanaka - FT
South-east Asia's tech giants are in an intensifying battle with large conventional banks over the region's burgeoning digital banking services. As "superapp" providers such as GoTo and Grab look to bolt banking on to their expanding range of services, and existing players use the region as a sandbox for digital experimentation, long-neglected rural populations may soon have access to some of the most technologically advanced financial services in the world.
/on.ft.com/3GqOHdu
Quantitative Brokers expands Striker to create first two-in-one algorithm; Newly expanded algo now allows traders to seek out, display, and trade in-between minimum exchange tick increments alongside existing capabilities.
Annabel Smith - The Trade
Quantitative Brokers has expanded the remit of its Striker options on futures algo to create the first two-in-one algorithm in the marketplace. Following the update, the Striker 2.0 algo allows traders to seek out, display, and trade in-between minimum exchange tick increments, alongside Striker's existing capabilities that allow traders to participate in exchange increments.
/bit.ly/3pDW1fX
Bloomberg technology increasingly catering for multi-asset buy-side; Global head of buy-side solutions at Bloomberg tells The TRADE that unified technology across the order management process and asset classes is increasingly in demand.
Annabel Smith - The Trade
Bloomberg's global head of buy-side solutions, Ian Peckett, said the company was focused on unifying functions along the order management process to help the buy-side achieve greater efficiency when trading their whole portfolio.
/bit.ly/3EgSU1B
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | Exchange Analytics Launches Cyber Advisory Group
Exchange Analytics
Decades of Field Experience Will Help Clients Better Manage Their Cybersecurity Regulatory and Compliance Challenges
Exchange Analytics (XA), a leader in futures/derivatives and securities compliance training and certification, today announced the launch of its new Cyber Advisory Group. As XA and its customers continue to confront the many present and evolving cyber risks, the Cyber Advisory Group will provide guidance and thought leadership on two important fronts:
/bit.ly/3GlAwq9
Millions of Android Users Scammed in SMS Fraud Driven by Tik-Tok Ads
Elizabeth Montalbano - Threatpost.com
UltimaSMS leverages at least 151 apps that have been downloaded collectively more than 10 million times, to extort money through a fake premium SMS subscription service. Threat actors are using malicious Android apps to scam users into signing up for a bogus premium SMS subscription service, which results in big charges accruing on their phone bills.
/bit.ly/3pCX2oB
Nearly all US execs have experienced a cybersecurity threat, but some say there's still no plan
Charlie Osborne - ZDNet
A new survey suggests the majority of US executives have encountered a cybersecurity incident but this has not translated into the creation of incident response plans.
Security
On Tuesday, Deloitte published the results of a new survey, taking place between June 6 and August 24, 2021, which includes the responses of 577 C-suite executives worldwide (159 in the US) on today's cybersecurity threats.
/zd.net/3vNTOQ1
State Department reportedly plans new cybersecurity office
Steven Musil - CNET
The US State Department plans to create a new bureau of cyberspace and digital policy as part of an overhaul to confront global cybersecurity challenges such as ransomware attacks, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. The restructuring will also include creation of a separate position of special envoy for critical and emerging technology, the Journal reported, citing unidentified US officials.
/cnet.co/3GhRoOJ
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | BlockFi, Neuberger Berman join forces for crypto fund as Bitcoin ETFs boom
David Hollerith - Yahoo Finance
Cryptocurrency lending company BlockFi is partnering with investment manager Neuberger Berman to launch a series of crypto investment products, like exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which are taking the digital currency market by storm. Only weeks ago, BlockFi filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to list its "BlockFi Bitcoin Strategy ETF," which kicks off a 75-day regulatory approval process. As proposed, the fund will hold Bitcoin (BTC-USD) futures contracts, similar to ETFs listed last week by ProShares and digital asset manager Valkyrie.
/yhoo.it/3Bj6Oi4
Mastercard Is Integrating Crypto Payments Through a New Partnership With Bakkt
Michael Bellusci - Coindesk
Mastercard and Bakkt are partnering to allow merchants and banks to build cryptocurrency into their offerings, the firms announced Monday. The two plan to also shake up the way consumers can collect loyalty rewards.
/yhoo.it/2XLgwMk
Mastercard, Bakkt offer crypto-based credit, debit cards
Jennifer Schonberger - Yahoo Finance
Cryptocurrency exchange Bakkt is partnering with Mastercard (MA) to offer crypto debit and credit cards, making it easier for consumers to pay using digital coins. Via Mastercard and Bakkt (BKKT), businesses and banks will be able to issue their own branded crypto debit and credit cards to consumers who want them. Holders can use bitcoin purchased through Bakkt with the card, or link to a fiat-based funding source, and receive bitcoin rewards.
/yhoo.it/3Bfe91X
Bakkt CEO on the interconnection between crypto and the traditional financial system
Yahoo Finance
In a cryptocurrency panel hosted by Yahoo Finance's Jennifer Schonberger, Bakkt CEO Gavin Michael discusses the future of cryptocurrencies and the traditional banking system.
/yhoo.it/3Gk13US
Tencent, Ant Rebrand NFTs After Beijing's Crypto Crackdown
Bloomberg News
Chinese tech giants now call them 'Digital Collectibles'; NFTs are grey area in China where crypto trading is banned
China's technology giants are playing down their links to non-fungible tokens amid investor concern that this booming area of the crypto universe may become the next target of regulators.
/bloom.bg/3EiT8Fq
Art is drawing family offices — and me — into the crypto world; Investors that may have once dismissed it, ought now to consider taking part in it
Stephen Foley - FT
After watching the cryptocurrency craze from the sidelines for a decade, even hardened sceptics are plunging in and buying their first digital assets. Is this a moment of vindication for the pioneers who promoted digital currencies as an asset class and heralded a technological and financial revolution? Or is it a sign that the hype cycle is reaching its final, frenzied moments before the fever breaks? I wish I knew — because I am one of those sceptics. And now I own a non-fungible token, or NFT.
/on.ft.com/3pFbMmL
FTX US completes acquisition and rebrand of LedgerX; Following the acquisition, LedgerX has been rebranded to FTX US Derivatives but will continue to provide its current offering to its existing customer base.
Wesley Bray - The Trade
US-regulated cryptocurrency exchange FTX US has finalised its acquisition of Ledger Holdings, parent company of LedgerX. The deal was first announced in August this year for an undisclosed sum. Following the successful acquisition, FTX US has disclosed that it has rebranded LedgerX to FTX US Derivatives.
/bit.ly/3GngzPI
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | A Fight Over Biden's Pick for a Banking Watchdog Gets Nasty; Progressives say Saule Omarova would deliver much-needed industry skepticism as comptroller of the currency. Republicans suggest she's a Marxist.
Robert Schmidt, Jesse Hamilton - Bloomberg
Cornell Law School professor Saule Omarova was thrust into the spotlight in September when the Biden administration announced her nomination for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a branch of the Treasury Department that polices some 1,125 banks. The choice of the avowed liberal and outspoken finance industry critic united Wall Street and tiny community lenders against her. So far, a pretty standard Washington story.
/bloom.bg/30RhZ4L
Federal Judges Would Face Tougher Stock-Trading Rules Under Bipartisan Bill; House hearings set; planned actions follow Wall Street Journal reports on financial conflicts in the judiciary
James V. Grimaldi, Coulter Jones and Joe Palazzolo - WSJ
Federal judges would be required to report stock trades over $1,000 within 45 days and post their financial-disclosure forms online under legislation proposed by a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the Senate and House of Representatives.
/on.wsj.com/3pCS8Id
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | For more regulatory, visit MarketsReformWiki, our website focused on current market reform efforts. | Citadel Securities and SEC Battle Over Microseconds in IEX Case
Katherine Doherty and David Yaffe-Bellany - Yahoo
A federal judge challenged a lawyer for Citadel Securities LLC about its motives in trying to thwart a new type of market order from IEX Group Inc., the stock exchange operator made famous by "Flash Boys."
/yhoo.it/3jvSSer
SEC Chair Gensler reiterates concern over investor protection, despite bitcoin ETF optimism
Brian Cheung - Yahoo Finance
The hot demand for investment securities linked to bitcoin does not appear to be moving the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's stance toward other products more directly linked to the cryptocurrency.
/yhoo.it/3GnL8om
FCA statement on Liverpool Victoria
UK FCA
The FCA has confirmed its non-objection to LV taking forward its next steps towards asking its members for their views on de-mutualisation. The FCA has no objections at this stage towards LV proceeding to the Court (with respect to the Scheme of Arrangement) and to putting the proposals (on both the overall Bain transaction and the Scheme of Arrangement) to member votes, subject to LV meeting a small number of additional requirements.
/bit.ly/3jCBhSe
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Alibaba Has Lost $344 Billion in World's Biggest Wipeout
Jeanny Yu - Bloomberg
Few people could have predicted the downward spiral for Alibaba Group Holding, when founder Jack Ma delivered a blunt criticism of China's financial system last October.
/yhoo.it/3Glr1aD
World's Richest Person Elon Musk Is Now Worth More Than Exxon
Simon Casey - Bloomberg
It's just one more arresting data point amid a flurry of superlatives, but Elon Musk's soaring net worth now makes him more valuable than Exxon Mobil Corp. The wealth of the world's richest person jumped to $288.6 billion Monday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The $36.2 billion gain followed a surge in Tesla Inc.'s stock price after Hertz Global Holdings Inc. ordered 100,000 cars.
/bloom.bg/3GmcKKO
How Superstar Firms Win Big From Low Interest Rates; A new paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research shows that low borrowing costs disproportionately aid the top 5% of companies within each industry.
Peter R. Orszag - Bloomberg
Low real interest rates and the rise of so-called superstar firms are two of the most prominent features of the macroeconomy over the past decade. A new analysis suggests the two are intricately related, highlighting the interaction between monetary policy and the industrial organization of companies.
/bloom.bg/3GocV8j
The Stock Market Just Loves Biden Not Getting Things Done; This year's rally reflects a lack of faith in the president's ability to push through corporate tax hikes. The market still wants a fiscal boost, though.
John Authers - Bloomberg
President Joe Biden is having a tough time of it. Few would disagree that he is in serious political difficulties at present. But the stock market, always taken as a critical validator and benchmark by his predecessor, is going gangbusters under his leadership. It's interesting to explain why.
/bloom.bg/3GnwKwp
Magnesium Crisis Is Showing Signs of Easing
Bloomberg News
Chinese producers are restoring output in key province: SMM; Supply crunch triggered warnings from users around the world
Magnesium buyers hit hard by a shortage of the critical material for hardening aluminum used in cars have some good news -- there are signs the supply crisis in top producer China is easing.
/bloom.bg/3jD4WL3
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | Swiss National Bank Warns of Risks With Green Economy Push
Catherine Bosley - Bloomberg
Actively pushing for a green transformation of the economy could undermine the effectiveness of the Swiss National Bank's monetary policy, Governing Board Member Andrea Maechler said.
/bloom.bg/3jCSNFS
The World's Top Business Cities Are Still Failing Working Women; No city is doing enough to keep women safe while ending gender inequality.
Ruth David and Adam Blenford - Bloomberg
For the millions of working women in the world's leading cities for doing business, daily life is often shaped by what they cannot do and how they're excluded.
/bloom.bg/3pDLiCd
Jeffrey Sachs: 'I see no financial obstacles to getting to net zero by 2050'; With COP26 looming, the expert in sustainable development explains how we can have both decarbonisation and robust growth
Martin Sandbu - FT
For more than three decades, Jeffrey Sachs has had a knack for placing himself at the heart of urgent economic policy issues — all of which seem to converge in our current crisis. In the late 1980s he worked on macroeconomic stabilisation and taming runaway inflation. From 1989 on, he advised governments on their economic transition from communism to liberal democracy — a model now under threat in some of those very countries as well as challenged in the west.
/on.ft.com/3jyv9u7
UN warns climate goals are off track and emissions rise could lead to 2.7C warming; COP26 host Johnson admits chance of breakthrough at Glasgow summit will be 'touch and go'
Camilla Hodgson, Leslie Hook and Sebastian Payne - FT
Global climate pledges are drastically off track and could lead to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions of nearly a fifth by 2030 if countries do not raise their ambitions, a UN analysis of national goals has warned.
/on.ft.com/2ZxNj8v
European ESG funds found not to charge higher fees; Research debunks criticism that switching to sustainable options is a costly choice
Ed Moisson - FT
New research has debunked the idea that funds integrating environmental, social and governance factors charge higher average fees than their non-ESG peers. Several analyses reveal that there is no fee premium built into active or passive ESG funds, indicating previous criticism that such funds charge higher fees than their non-ESG counterparts is now inaccurate.
/on.ft.com/2Zzc4kx
This Movement Is Taking Money Away From Fossil Fuels, and It's Working
Bill McKibben - NY Times
I remember the night in the autumn of 2012 when the first institution in the U.S. publicly committed to divest from fossil fuel. I was with a group of other climate activists in a big theater in Portland, Maine, halfway through a month long road show with rallies in cities across the country, and the president of tiny Unity College in the state's rural interior announced to the crowd that his trustees had just voted to rid their endowment of coal, gas and oil stocks. We cheered like crazy.
/nyti.ms/3EiDLNj
Dutch pension giant ABP to dump EUR15bn in fossil fuel holdings; Retirement scheme says 'radical change' needed as global temperatures rise
Chris Flood and Josephine Cumbo - FT
One of the world's largest pension funds, ABP of the Netherlands, is to sell its entire holdings in fossil fuel companies worth more than EUR15bn as pressure mounts on retirement schemes to protect long-term savings from the threat of catastrophic climate change.
/on.ft.com/30SSzUm
Goldman Sachs to join Net Zero Banking Alliance
Goldman Sachs
Today, Goldman Sachs announced it has joined as a signatory to the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA). This announcement marks the firm's ongoing commitment to work with industry peers, clients and policymakers to deliver in the transition to net zero.
/bit.ly/3pSY2oX
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Robinhood shares have dropped as regulatory worries stack up
John Detrixhe - Quartz
CEO Vlad Tenev will have plenty to discuss with investors and analysts when Robinhood reports third-quarter results tomorrow (Oct. 26). Shares of the Menlo Park, California-based brokerage have fallen about 12% during the past month, going in the opposite direction from rivals like retail-brokerage pioneer Charles Schwab and Coinbase, the crypto exchange.
/bit.ly/3vVwFLX
UBS Joins Wall Street Rivals With Third-Quarter Profit Surge
Marion Halftermeyer - Bloomberg
Wealth management, investment bank earnings top estimates; Wealth had $18.8 billion of net new fee-generating assets
UBS Group AG posted a surprise jump in profit as wealth management fees soared the most in almost three years and the firm followed Wall Street rivals in seizing on the deal boom.
/bloom.bg/3ntLbGT
UBS wealth management profits surge on back of thriving markets; Swiss bank beats analysts' estimates for third quarter
Owen Walker - FT
UBS capitalised on the booming market conditions for its affluent customers in the third quarter, with profits at its wealth management business soaring 43 per cent. The Swiss bank also benefited from a wave of dealmaking, with its investment bank increasing its pre-tax profits 32 per cent compared with a year earlier, the group reported on Tuesday.
/on.ft.com/3GpyYvu
UBS Third-Quarter Earnings Driven Higher by Fees From Wealthy Clients; Profit for UBS's investment bank rose 32%
Margot Patrick - WSJ
UBS Group AG UBS 0.57% posted its highest quarterly net profit since 2015 and announced plans for a digital investing tool that it hopes will expand its wealth-management business beyond the very rich.
/on.wsj.com/3EnH99T
Why UK bank M&A is still stuck in the doldrums; Recent rejections point to a valuation gap between buyers and sellers on what assets are worth
Cat Rutter Pooley - FT
When the Co-operative Bank last put in a bid for TSB, it had yet to discover a £1.5bn capital black hole in its own balance sheet, that its then-chair had a drug problem, and that it would need to be bailed out by its bondholders.
/on.ft.com/2ZvzGqj
JP Morgan latest top tier bank to close its small and mid-cap trading desk in London; Stocks are now being covered by sector pitches or by offices in Europe as JP Morgan follows peers in moving the desk out of London.
Will Canny - The Trade
JP Morgan is the latest bulge bracket bank to disband its dedicated small and mid-cap trading desk in London according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The restructure of the equities business occurred in recent months and has seen staff and coverage of companies move to larger pitches organised by sector or to colleagues working in offices in Europe, with the US bank's Paris office seeing an influx of staff, the person added.
/bit.ly/3jXtZZt
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | Italy's Banking Money Pit Gets Deeper After Draghi's Sale Fails
Alessandra Migliaccio and Sonia Sirletti - Bloomberg
Troubled Monte Paschi becomes Italy's latest 'zombie firm'; Draghi's administration may inject another 3 billion euros
Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA has burned through about 18 billion euros ($21 billion) of taxpayer and investor cash since 2008, and there's still no fix in sight. Fears in Italy are growing that the world's oldest bank will become an even deeper money pit for Prime Minister Mario Draghi's administration after talks to sell the troubled lender to UniCredit SpA collapsed over the weekend.
/bloom.bg/3nyzgHT
California Rains Help End Wildfires and Fill Reservoirs; Atmospheric rivers deliver record rainfall and much-needed water to state beset by drought and a destructive fire season
Jim Carlton - WSJ
Heavy rains that drenched Northern California over the past week put an end to two of the state's largest wildfires and delivered water to its drought-addled reservoirs. Since last Tuesday, as much as two feet of rain has fallen on the parched region from two weather events called "atmospheric rivers" because of the prodigious amounts of moisture they carry from the tropics. The second river—the biggest in the state in more than a decade—slammed into the California coast over the weekend, breaking daily rainfall records in San Francisco, Sacramento and other cities.
/on.wsj.com/3EeJ8gs
Severe Drought Hits South America; Hydroelectric dams are struggling, river transport of exports has been hampered by drought some scientists link to Amazon deforestation
Juan Forero - WSJ
Most years, when rains are normal, four Olympic swimming pools worth of water passes each second through the mammoth Itaipú Dam, churning out electricity for both Paraguay and Brazil and allowing ships and barges to export grains as far away as China. Since 2019, however, rainfall levels have dropped sharply—not just here, but in much of the heart of South America—and left a vast swath baking in drought. Dozens of hydroelectric dams in Brazil have sputtered, driving up energy prices there. And the river transport of soybeans, the regional cash cow, has been severely hampered in the grain hub of Rosario, Argentina.
/on.wsj.com/3nAZ9H4
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