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March 24 (Reuters) - Financial sector headwinds are creating fresh openings for private equity investments in aerospace, as suppliers' need for capital to meet soaring demand for planes and parts risks further turbulence, executives said. He said he would not oppose a private equity investment, as long as he maintains control and the combination makes sense by lowering costs. Global private equity deals among companies with aerospace portfolios rose to 216 in 2022, more than double 2019's figure and the highest in over a decade, according to Refinitiv data. Permanent Equity wants to invest in repair stations and suppliers with large inventories of aerospace parts. In Canada, while bank loans remain accessible for small suppliers, rising rates have flattened real estate pricing.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell sought to reassure investors about the soundness of the banking system, saying that the management of Silicon Valley Bank "failed badly," but that the bank's collapse did not indicate wider weaknesses in the banking system. "These are not weaknesses that are running broadly through the banking system," he said, adding that the takeover of Credit Suisse seemed to have been a positive outcome. The Federal Open Market Committee policy statement also said the U.S. banking system is "sound and resilient." The much-anticipated rate cut by the Fed, which had delivered eight previous rate hikes in the past year, sought to balance the risk of rampant inflation with the threat of instability in the banking system. The banking sector has been in turmoil after California regulators on March 10 closed Silicon Valley Bank in the largest U.S. bank failure since the 2008 financial crisis.

☆ Bundesbank chief: rate-setters must be ‘stubborn’ in inflation fight -FT
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 22 (Reuters) - Eurozone policy-setters must be "stubborn" and continue increasing borrowing costs to battle inflation, Bundesbank chief Joachim Nagel told the Financial Times in comments published on Wednesday. “Our fight against inflation is not over,” Nagel told the newspaper, adding that he certainly felt "price pressures are strong and broad-based across the economy." Nagel said it was possible for European banks to become more cautious in lending following the turmoil. But he dismissed concerns it could affect them, saying it was "too early" to conclude the region was heading for a credit crunch. Reporting by Kanjyik Ghosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Clarence FernandezOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Australia regulator seeks risk reports from banks on startups, crypto -report
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SYDNEY, March 22 (Reuters) - Australia's prudential regulator has started asking the country's banks to declare their exposure to startups and crypto-focused ventures following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, according to the Australian Financial Review (AFR). The APRA declined to comment on the report but referred to its statement last week that it would intensify supervision of the local banking industry and seek more information on any potential impact from Silicon Valley Bank's collapse. ANZ Group Holdings (ANZ.AX) declined to comment, while Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA.AX), Westpac Banking Corp (WBC.AX) and National Australia Bank (NAB.AX) did not immediately respond to requests seeking comment. Treasurer Jim Chalmers last week said Australia was in a good position to withstand some of the market volatility because the country's banks were well capitalised, well regulated and had strong liquidity. Reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney; Editing by Jamie FreedOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ What would a federal expansion of deposit insurance look like?
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Ramishah Maruf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

That’s the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s standard limit, meaning any bank deposits up to that amount are protected by the independent government agency. But now there’s growing support for raising that insurance cap. A higher insurance cap doesn’t automatically mean banks will be subject to tighter regulations, Dollar noted, but there could be some call for it. The FDIC insurance limit has been raised seven times since 1950 — and $250,000 also isn’t a calculated number, Collins said. In 2008, the FDIC used the same system for temporary unlimited deposit insurance guarantee on certain accounts.

☆ JPMorgan Chase buys data platform for startups in push to serve venture capital investors
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Hugh Son | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesDisrupting ExcelJPMorgan decided to buy Aumni after leading its 2021 investment round, said Elanjian. Founded in 2018 by Tony Lewis, a former corporate lawyer, Aumni is a data platform that helps users analyze and understand their holdings via a simple dashboard. That's because contracts underpinning a single equity round can exceed 600 pages of dense legal writing, he said. "This is a problem for anyone investing in any private alternative asset; it is based on a private contract, that's where your economics and legal rights reside," he added. In other instances, VC investors can use Aumni to avoid errors tied to missing key details buried in legal documents.

☆ Regional bank shares fall as Fed persists with rate hikes despite industry turmoil
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Alex Harring | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Regional bank stocks spiraled lower Wednesday as investors weighed the Federal Reserve's latest interest rate hike and commentary about the health of U.S. financial institutions. The SPDR S&P Regional Bank ETF (KRE) closed down 5.7%. The fate of regional banks has been in question since the closure of Silicon Valley Bank sparked a broader industry crisis. "The U.S. banking system is sound and resilient," the FOMC said in its statement. Adding to the drop in regional bank shares were comments from Treasury Secretary Yellen, who told the U.S. Senate appropriations subcommittee that the U.S. was not currently working on "blanket insurance" for bank deposits.

☆ PacWest falls 17% after regional bank discloses deposit outflows, additional liquidity
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Jesse Pound | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

In this article PACW Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNTA Pacific Western Bank branch in Los Angeles, California, US, on Friday, March 10, 2023. Eric Thayer | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesShares of regional bank PacWest Bancorp dropped Wednesday after the company disclosed it had shed more than $6 billion in deposits during the recent squeeze on midsized banks, though PacWest said it did not plan to raise more capital. The change appears to have largely come from venture banking deposits, which accounted for a third of PacWest's deposits at the end of December and now stand at just 24%. The stock extended its losses after the Federal Reserve's announced another rate hike. Stock Chart Icon Stock chart icon PacWest shares were under pressure after revealing deposit outflows.

☆ Interest rate decision: What to expect from the Fed meeting
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Christine Romans | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Among the choices, the Fed could continue its aggressive rate-hike campaign to cool inflation that is running at triple the central bank’s target of 2%. Warren — already a critic of the Fed’s inflation fight — leveled further blistering criticism of the Republican Fed chief. In addition to achieving price stability and financial stability, the Fed’s broader mandate includes supervision of individual financial institutions, Leer says, and “that’s where the failure lies. “The Fed needs to secure both price stability and financial stability, something that it has failed to so recently,” he told CNN. And this Fed chief inherited an unprecedented economy.

"This is all a bit of a mess," Krishna Guha, vice chair of ISI Evercore and a former New York Federal Reserve official, wrote ahead of a Federal Open Market Committee meeting that has veered from a dead-certain jump in interest rates two weeks ago to a speculative morass. The yield on the 2-year Treasury note - particularly sensitive to Fed policy expectations - rose steadily through the day, adding roughly a quarter of a point from the overnight low and approaching 4%. Analysts trying to parse what recent bank stress might mean said a coming credit contraction could be the equivalent of an additional quarter point Fed rate increase, or as much as a recession-inducing 1.5 percentage points, rendering further rate hikes obsolete. "The emergence of financial stress is likely to indicate to the committee that monetary policy is closer to being 'sufficiently restrictive' than some may have thought previously," BOA economists wrote. "At the very least, stress in financial markets suggests that the Fed should proceed with caution."

California banking regulators on March 10 closed Silicon Valley Bank in the largest U.S. bank failure since the 2008 financial crisis. Kurt Gwynne, an attorney for the FDIC as receiver for Silicon Valley Bank, disputed at Tuesday's hearing that regulators had done anything improper. Destroyed SVB (Silicon Valley Bank) logo is seen in this illustration taken March 13, 2023. Glenn said he was prepared to allow SVB Financial to use up to $100 million for investment activity. Silicon Valley Bank was SVB Financial's largest asset, accounting for more than $15.5 billion of SVB Financial's $19.7 billion in total assets.

March 20 (Reuters) - Shares of U.S. lender First Republic tumbled nearly 50% on Monday on fears it will need a second rescue to stay afloat, bucking a broader rally in bank shares driven by UBS Group's state-backed takeover of Credit Suisse. "First and foremost, the Credit Suisse, UBS merger certainly takes a lot of stress out of the global banking system." The 3 billion Swiss franc ($3.2 billion) deal for the troubled Swiss bank - which was once worth more than $90 billion - was engineered by Swiss regulators and announced on Sunday. European bank shares (.SX7P) rebounded from recent losses, while on Wall Street the S&P 500 banks (.SPXBK) index recovered 0.6%. [1/2] Buildings of Swiss banks UBS and Credit Suisse are seen on the Paradeplatz in Zurich, Switzerland March 20, 2023.

There is so much money out there," he said, from pandemic spending programs as well as recent federal government initiatives like the Inflation Reduction Act. Is the economy really standing firm against the Fed's aggressive rate moves? Rate increases have averaged more than half a percentage point at each of the eight Fed meetings since March of 2022, and pushed the benchmark overnight interest rate from the near-zero level to the current 4.50%-4.75% range. Reuters Graphics Reuters GraphicsDOGS THAT DIDN'T BARK (YET)Construction: The status of the construction industry shows the Fed's pandemic-era dilemma. The Fed's rate increases have had an impact.

☆ U.S. lawmakers to examine merits of higher FDIC bank deposit insurance cap
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

"I think that lifting the FDIC insurance cap is a good move," Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, said on CBS's "Face The Nation" program, referring to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's current $250,000 limit per depositor. "What I will do though, legislatively, and in an oversight function, is to determine whether or not we need to address the FDIC deposit level," McHenry told the same CBS program. During the financial crisis that erupted in 2008, the FDIC temporarily backstopped all deposits to safeguard smaller banks. Pressure on midsized and smaller banks from deposit outflows continued on Friday despite a move by several large banks to deposit $30 billion into First Republic Bank, an institution rocked by the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. McHenry said he wanted to examine the trade-offs of higher deposit insurance limits, "the moral hazard of having more risk-taking in the financial sector, and also the impact it would have on community banks."

☆ U.S. lawmakers to examine merits of higher bank deposit insurance cap
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( David Lawder | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/4] Signs explaining Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and other banking policies are shown on the counter of a bank in Westminster, Colorado November 3, 2009. "I think that lifting the FDIC insurance cap is a good move," Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, said on CBS's "Face The Nation" program, referring to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's current $250,000 limit per depositor. During the financial crisis that erupted in 2008, the FDIC temporarily backstopped all deposits to safeguard smaller banks. Pressure on midsized and smaller banks from deposit outflows continued on Friday despite a move by several large banks to deposit $30 billion into First Republic Bank (FRC.N), an institution rocked by the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SIVB.O) and Signature Bank (SBNY.O). McHenry said he wanted to examine the trade-offs of higher deposit insurance limits, "the moral hazard of having more risk taking in the financial sector, and also the impact it would have on community banks."

☆ Joe Manchin says he looks at his 2018 vote on easing bank regulations 'differently now' after Silicon Valley Bank's collapse
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

In 2018, Sen. Joe Manchin was one of 13 Democrats to vote for easing some banking regulations. The rollback of those regulations meant that Silicon Valley Bank was subject to less scrutiny. That vote has come under renewed scrutiny after the abrupt shuttering of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and subsequent bailout of its depositors. Manchin did tell Raju that it was not a mistake to vote through that 2018 legislation, or at least it wasn't at the time. Other Democratic lawmakers who also voted for the 2018 legislation are similarly standing by their decisions.

☆ Should you be worried about your money, your bank or the U.S. banking system? Experts weigh in
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Jessica Dickler | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

However, the unexpected shutdowns of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank have many consumers concerned about their deposits, their bank and the U.S. banking system. Here, experts answer what a bank run is, how FDIC insurance works and whether your deposits are still secure. andresr | E+ | Getty ImagesThe short answer is "possibly," according to Stacy Francis, a certified financial planner and president and CEO of Francis Financial in New York. "This is happening, in part, because of the Federal Reserve's sharp rise in interest rates," Francis said. Further, "many banks are seeing large withdrawals from cash depositors who are looking [for higher rates] to make more money," Francis added.

☆ Why Trump is being called out in the Silicon Valley Bank collapse
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Some Democrats have been blaming Trump-era regulations for Silicon Valley Bank's collapse. In 2018, Trump signed into law a bill that rolled back provisions in the Dodd-Frank Act and loosened oversight over banks. On Friday, regulators shut down Silicon Valley Bank following a tumultuous few days of failing to raise capital and a flood of customers withdrawing their funds from the bank. "Greg Becker, the chief executive of Silicon Valley Bank, was one of the ‌many high-powered executives who lobbied Congress to weaken the law," Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren wrote in a Monday opinion piece. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said in a statement that the "failure of Silicon Valley Bank is a direct result of an absurd 2018 bank deregulation bill signed by Donald Trump that I strongly opposed."

☆ Instant view: US intervenes to shore up SVB deposits, limit financial fallout
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +11 min

March 13 (Reuters) - The U.S. government announced actions to shore up deposits and stem any broader financial fallout from the sudden collapse of tech startup-focused lender Silicon Valley Bank (SIVB.O) (SVB), sending U.S. stock futures higher. ALVIN TAN, HEAD OF ASIA FX STRATEGY, RBC CAPITAL MARKETS, SINGAPORE:"Markets remain unsettled from the SVB failure. "The market turbulence sparked by SVB has upended rising market expectations on the Fed rate path. ANTHONY SAGLIMBENE, CHIEF MARKET STRATEGIST, AMERIPRISE FINANCIAL, TROY, MICHIGAN:"It was imperative that regulators stepped in and decisively acted before markets around the world opened for the week. GREG MCBRIDE, CHIEF FINANCIAL ANALYST, BANKRATE:"While the Fed has talked about a lot in the past year, until today it has been in the context of monetary policy.

☆ Bank rescue buys stability at a high price
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( John Foley | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Along the way, they also closed down another struggling lender, Signature Bank of New York. First, the FDIC will reimburse all of the two banks’ depositors, not just those whose balances are within the $250,000 guaranteed limit. In the event that the bank’s assets, after a sale, are below the value of the deposits, that cost will be spread among all FDIC-insured banks. Follow @johnsfoley on TwitterCONTEXT NEWSFinancial authorities teamed up on March 12 to protect the depositors of failed U.S. lender Silicon Valley Bank. The authorities also said that Signature Bank, a New York-based lender, was also closed on March 12.

☆ Best Buy will set up in-home hospital care through a new deal with Atrium Health
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Melissa Repko | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Best Buy is best known for installing TVs and home theater systems. Best Buy began setting up virtual-care systems in mid-February for 10 hospitals in and around Charlotte, North Carolina. Best Buy and Atrium did not disclose specific financial terms, but said Atrium will buy the devices from Best Buy and use Geek Squad services for installation and retrieval when the patient is cleared from care. For Best Buy, the hospital-at-home program represents the latest push to turn health care into a more meaningful revenue driver. Best Buy, like retailers including Walmart and Target , has seen consumers buy fewer big-ticket and discretionary items as they pay more for food and housing.

☆ Private equity firms lend less as demand cools
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Chibuike Oguh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The amount of loans disbursed by direct lenders so far in 2023 has not shown any pickup, the Refinitiv data shows. Also weighing on deal volumes is the cost of borrowing from private equity firms. This has dampened demand for loans from private equity firms. For their part, private equity firms have also become more risk-averse when it comes to lending, as the economic slowdown and sticky price inflation erode the credit worthiness of some borrowers. To be sure, major deals using private equity firms as lenders are still getting done as banks have continued their retrenchment from risky debt.

☆ 7 hidden-gem cities and towns to buy an Airbnb in this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Dan Latu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

They were picked for their high rate of bookings, growing revenue, affordability, and regulations. The list of 25 cities and towns captures destinations with "momentum," said AirDNA economist Jamie Lane. This year, the team also responded to the growing wave of regulations cities and towns are putting on short-term rentals. Locations like Burlington, Vermont and Madison, Wisconsin, for example, were removed because of new rules that limit who can own short-term rentals or require month-long stays. The list, however, is mostly dominated by midsized cities in the Midwest, where home prices are cheaper than in more expensive coastal cities.

☆ Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Microsoft, Moderna, Mobileye, Chegg and more
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Sarah Min | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The company reported fourth-quarter results fell short of analysts' expectations on both top and bottom lines, according to StreetAccount. Chegg — Shares fell 15% after Needham downgraded Chegg to hold from buy, saying the online education company will have trouble reaching consensus for full-year revenue growth in Chegg Services, according to StreetAccount. Mobileye — Shares of the assisted driving company gained 8% after Deutsche Bank initiated coverage of the stock as a buy. Oatly Group — Shares of Oatly Group fell nearly 2%, losing steam after Mizuho upgraded the stock to buy from neutral. Hancock Whitney — Shares fell more than 4% after the bank reported earnings that came mostly in line with expectations, but net interest income came in below expectations, according to StreetAccount.

☆ Biden's plea to lawmakers in rare op-ed: Unite to hold tech accountable
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

"We need bipartisan action from Congress to hold Big Tech accountable," Biden wrote. Biden's call for bipartisanship on tech issues is notable since the split Congress will complicate the landscape for passing legislation in any domain. The decision to focus the op-ed on tech suggests it may be a rare area of hope for progress while working across the aisle. Biden focused on three key areas of tech legislation he hopes to see this Congress. Finally, Biden called for "fairer rules of the road" when it comes to competition in the tech sector.

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