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☆ Deutsche Bank turnaround victory is really a loss
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Liam Proud | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LONDON, Feb 2 (Reuters Breakingviews) - In many ways, Christian Sewing has successfully rejuvenated Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE). Counterparties no longer fret about the German lender’s solvency, and he’s axed 3 billion euros of costs since starting as chief executive in 2018. The centrepiece of Sewing’s turnaround, however, was an 8% return on tangible equity (ROTE) target for 2022, which he’s effectively missed. The main question now is whether Sewing’s 2022 miss makes his 2025 ambitions even more farfetched. Sewing wants to cut another 2 billion euros in the coming years by closing retail branches, merging IT systems and decommissioning old ones.

☆ Cathie Wood's Ark Invest says bitcoin could hit $1.5 million by 2030, doubling down on its bullishness for the world's largest cryptocurrency
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Morgan Chittum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Ark Invest said bitcoin could hit nearly $1.5 million by 2030, a 6,326% increase from its current price. The famed money manager predicted bitcoin will scale unto a "multi-trillion dollar market," per a recent report. The bullish estimates come amid a severe and lengthy crypto market rut. Bitcoin is down 65% from its all-time high in November 2021, with the industry's total market value off over 64% from its peak. Since the start of the year, Ark's flagship exchange-traded fund, ARKK, bought 108,548 Coinbase shares, worth $6.3 million at its current price.

☆ Britain sets out plans to regulate crypto industry in wake of FTX collapse
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

In a widely-anticipated industry consultation launched Tuesday, the government proposed a number of measures aimed at bringing regulation of crypto asset businesses in line with that of traditional financial firms. A big theme that emerged in 2022 was the rise of risky loans made between multiple crypto firms and a lack of due diligence done on the counterparties involved in those transactions. The collapse of FTX has added urgency to global regulators' attempts to govern the regulation-averse crypto space. The regulatory move comes as crypto firms in both the U.K. and beyond are feeling the chill of a deep downturn known as "crypto winter." Global crypto hub ambitionsThe U.K. wants to become a leader in crypto and blockchain technology on the global stage.

Binance was the only major crypto exchange among Bitzlato's top counterparties, FinCEN said. The Justice Department and FinCEN declined to comment. Bitcoin worth about $175 million was transferred to Binance from Bitzlato in that period, making Binance its largest receiving counterparty, the data show. The U.S. action against Bitzlato comes as the Justice Department investigates Binance for possible money laundering and sanctions violations. The Justice Department said Bitzlato exchanged more than $700 million in crypto with Hydra, either directly or through intermediaries.

Binance was the only major crypto exchange among Bitzlato's top counterparties, FinCEN said. A Binance spokesperson said via email it had "provided substantial assistance" to international law enforcement to support their investigation of Bitzlato. Bitcoin worth about $175 million was transferred to Binance from Bitzlato in that period, making Binance its largest receiving counterparty, the data show. The U.S. action against Bitzlato comes as the Justice Department investigates Binance for possible money laundering and sanctions violations. The Justice Department said Bitzlato exchanged more than $700 million in crypto with Hydra, either directly or through intermediaries.

☆ How WWE’s Vince McMahon ruthlessly got his job back despite allegations of sexual assault and misuse of company funds
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( Kyle Feldscher | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

WWE has always been a family business – Vince McMahon, Sr., handed over the reins to his son in the 1980s – and it seemed set to continue that way. Why was Vince McMahon stepping aside such a big deal? Vince McMahon was more akin to a king than a business executive in the world of WWE, his fingerprints on everything. Once considered a wrestling genius, critics have more recently come to consider Vince McMahon a creative liability. McMahon,” Vince McMahon’s devious on-screen character, who served as wrestling’s greatest heel for years in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The four each held a sizeable short position of between 13,000 and 24,000 lots, equivalent to 78,000 to 144,000 tonnes. LME warehouses held just 80,088 tonnes of nickel stocks when Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. The mix of producer hedging and speculative overlay in the short position landscape is impossible to know with any precision. It's worth remembering that Tsingshan is itself a huge nickel producer, albeit not in a form that can be delivered against an LME short position. Excerpt from Oliver Wyman reportLATE ARRIVALThe shorts were not helped by the rapid build-up of a long position on March 7 which the report links to "one financial client with no material existing nickel position".

☆ Over 100 parties have expressed interest in buying at least one part of FTX, lawyers handling the crypto giant's bankruptcy say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

117 parties have expressed an interest in buying at least one of four FTX businesses up for sale. Court filings said Embed, LedgerX, FTX Europe, and FTX Japan had segregated customer accounts. FTX Europe and FTX Japan are also up for sale, both with around 40 interested parties, the documents show. It also noted that that Embed, LedgerX, and FTX Europe maintained separate computer systems, while FTX Europe and FTX Japan had distinct headquarters. Lawyers handling the bankruptcy case did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, sent outside normal working hours.

☆ Vince McMahon is back at WWE to ensure a smooth sale process. Here's who might want to buy it
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Alex Sherman | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

WWE has hired JPMorgan to help the company advise on a potential sale, according to people familiar with the matter. But it remains unclear what type of role, if any, McMahon would want at WWE if he sold the company. WWE has a market capitalization of more than $6 billion after rising nearly 17% percent on Friday, buoyed by heightened sale speculation. McMahon's company already has an exclusive streaming deal with Comcast's streaming service, Peacock, and a cable TV deal with NBCUniversal's USA Network. Fox sold off most of its entertainment assets in its $71 billion sale to Disney in 2019, but WWE fits with the smaller company's sports and live events focus.

☆ WWE shares jump as Vince McMahon stages comeback
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Rebecca Picciotto | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Vince McMahon is staging a comeback at World Wrestling Entertainment , months after he retired from the company over a sexual misconduct scandal. McMahon said that his return is necessary as the company gears up for negotiations over media rights and strategic alternatives. WWE, which styles itself as a media company, has been mentioned as a potential acquisition target. McMahon retired last year amid an investigation into payments the former CEO made regarding alleged instances of sexual misconduct. A special committee probe found that McMahon had paid nearly $15 million to four women over the course of 16 years in order to silence sexual misconduct allegations.

☆ Nonstop partying, lavish spending, and sexual-harassment accusations: Inside the self-destruction of Pollen, the music startup once worth $800 million
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Melkorka Licea | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +41 min

About 400 Pollen employees were camped out in Mendocino County, California, for five straight days of partying. Two former Pollen employees told Insider that they recalled the assistant telling them about Callum's inappropriate comments at the time. (The Pollen representative said Callum and Bedi didn't date at Pollen or at any other company connected to Pollen. Out of 360 events Pollen announced over the past 12 months, 39 were canceled, the Pollen representative said. (The Pollen representative said that "out of hundreds of thousands of customers, fewer than 100 people were moderated" online.)

☆ U.S. Sanctions Russia’s Rosbank, Subsidiaries of VTB
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( David Smagalla | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

The U.S. government has sanctioned Russian lender Rosbank and has expanded sanctions against VTB, one of the country’s largest banks, in a move to further limit the Russian government’s efforts to fund its war in Ukraine. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on Thursday announced sanctions against 17 subsidiaries of VTB, building on sanctions placed on the parent company in February, after Russia invaded Ukraine. The Treasury cited the importance of Rosbank to the Russian government, given that the lender is considered a “systemically important credit institution” in the country. The U.S. sanctions follow similar sanctions of Rosbank by the U.K. and Canada earlier this year. Nornickel wasn’t included in the State Department’s sanctions package.

☆ EU gets another reason for a gas cap U-turn
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BRUSSELS, Dec 9 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The European Commission’s gas cap has taken some withering friendly fire. The European Central Bank has slammed the proposal for threatening financial stability and putting the central bank in an untenable position, in an opinion published on Thursday. The gas cap, put forward under intense political pressure, has exposed divisions among European Union member states. Instead of crafting a workable compromise, the Commission plan seems to have achieved the impressive feat of being both unusable and a danger to financial stability. Ahead of next week’s European leaders’ summit, the smart move is to scrap it.

☆ SEC issues new guidance requiring companies to disclose cryptocurrency risks
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Chelsey Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The Securities and Exchange Commission released new guidance Thursday, requiring companies that issue securities to disclose to investors their exposure and risk to the cryptocurrency market. On Wednesday, SEC Chair Gary Gensler fended off accusations that the agency has failed to prevent crypto firms from misusing customer funds. Gensler also said the SEC would take more enforcement actions if the firms fail to comply with existing rules. Under the new guidance, companies will have to include crypto asset holdings as well as their risk exposure to the FTX bankruptcy and other market developments in their public filings. The SEC's corporate finance division encouraged companies to adopt these recommendations as they prepare documents "that may not typically be subject to review by the Division before their use."

☆ U.S. SEC advises public companies on disclosing crypto impacts
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON, Dec 8 (Reuters) - The U.S. securities regulator on Thursday warned public companies to examine whether they need to disclose to investors any potential impacts from recent market volatility and bankruptcies in the cryptocurrency industry. In guidance to public companies, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) detailed information that businesses may be required to share with their investors, including whether the firms have any financially material exposures to counterparties that have filed for bankruptcy or become insolvent. Public companies are already required by law to disclose financially material information to investors, but the SEC frequently issues guidance to firms about how they should address exposure to major events. Thursday's guidance comes after months of turmoil in crypto markets and the recent collapse of major crypto firms FTX and BlockFi Inc. Reporting by Chris Prentice in Washington Editing by Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ U.S. SEC issues new guidance on disclosing crypto risks
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Chris Prentice | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Dec 8 (Reuters) - The U.S. securities regulator on Thursday advised public companies to examine whether they need to disclose to investors any potential impacts from turmoil in the cryptocurrency industry. In guidance to public companies, the SEC laid out information businesses may have to share with their investors, including whether the firms have any financially material exposures to counterparties that have filed for bankruptcy or become insolvent. The guidance applies to any public companies that have exposure to the recent ructions in crypto. Publicly traded firms are already required by law to disclose financially material information to investors, but the SEC frequently issues more specific guidance about how they should address risks from major events. Public firms should be prepared to share with investors any risks from disruptions in crypto asset markets, including depreciated stock prices, loss of customer demand and risk of legal proceedings, the guidance said.

☆ EU's gas price cap scheme could backfire, raise volatility -ECB
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

FRANKFURT, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Proposed European Union rules aimed at tempering natural gas price spikes may actually jeopardize financial stability and need to be redesigned, the European Central Bank said on Thursday in a formal opinion. The EU proposed a "market correction mechanism" last month aimed at tempering natural gas prices and market volatility after a spike in energy costs pushed inflation to record highs and raised financial market stress in energy derivatives trading. The ECB, a guardian of the bloc's financial stability, acknowledged that the goal was to moderate extreme price levels and volatility, but warned that the rules could achieve the exact opposite. "The ECB considers that the current design of the proposed market correction mechanism may, in some circumstances, jeopardise financial stability in the euro area," the ECB said an opinion signed by President Christine Lagarde. Instead, the EU should merely have the "possibility" to seek the ECB's advice, the ECB added.

FTX's implosion has heightened the need for more trustworthy, regulated cryptocurrency players, and big banks see an opportunity to pick up business, Mathew McDermott, Goldman's head of digital assets, told Reuters. Goldman is doing due diligence on a number of different crypto firms, he added, without giving details. HSBC (HSBA.L) CEO Noel Quinn, meanwhile, told a banking conference in London last week he has no plans to expand into crypto trading or investing for retail customers. Goldman Sachs has also together with MSCI and Coin Metrics launched data service datonomy, aimed at classifying digital assets based on how they are used. The firm is also building its own private distributed ledger technology, McDermott said.

☆ Goldman Sachs plans to spend millions on crypto-related investments after FTX's downfall, report says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Morgan Chittum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Goldman Sachs plans on spending tens of millions on crypto company investments, Reuters reported. "We have seen more client interest since the demise of FTX," Goldman's head of digital assets said. In fact, the Wall Street giant plans to spend "tens of millions" on investments in crypto companies even after FTX's implosion, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Amid continued layoffs in crypto, Goldman sees the time as a recruitment opportunity to snatch up talent in the industry. Goldman Sachs did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

☆ BIS warns of $80 trillion of hidden FX swap debt
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Marc Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

LONDON, Dec 5 (Reuters) - The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has warned that pension funds and other 'non-bank' financial firms now have more than $80 trillion of hidden, off-balance sheet dollar debt in the form of FX swaps. Its main warning though was what it described as the FX swap debt "blind spot" that risked leaving policymakers in a "fog". FX swap markets, where for example a Dutch pension fund or Japanese insurer borrows dollars and lends euro or yen in the "spot leg" before later repaying them, have a history of problems. For both non-U.S. banks and non-U.S. 'non-banks' such as pension funds, dollar obligations from FX swaps are now double their on-balance sheet dollar debt, it estimated. Market volatilityDINO-MITEOther sections of the report focused on findings from its recent global FX market survey.

“In terms of thinking about what the mid- and long-term goals should be…the task force has been focused on facilitation networks, procurement networks, money-laundering networks,” he said. Newsletter Sign-up WSJ | Risk and Compliance Journal Our Morning Risk Report features insights and news on governance, risk and compliance. Mr. Bonham-Carter worked primarily as a property manager for the Russian oligarch, according to the indictment. Bonham-Carter is a U.K. citizen, living in the U.K., arrested in the U.K.,” Mr. Adams said. In some cases, OFAC may not add companies that prosecutors deem are subject to the control of sanctioned oligarchs, he said.

Distressed crypto firm BlockFi has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey following the implosion of putative acquirer FTX. Like FTX, BlockFi also has a Bahamian subsidiary. BlockFi's bankruptcy filing shows that the company's largest disclosed client has a balance of nearly $28 million. The company started talking with restructuring professionals in the days after FTX's bankruptcy filing, according to people familiar with the matter. Approximately 130 additional affiliated companies are part of the proceedings, including Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried's crypto trading firm, and FTX.us, the company's U.S. subsidiary.

☆ EU sets out plans to shift derivatives clearing from London to Frankfurt
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The loss of clearing in contract worth trillions of euros would be a further knock to the City as it faces new competition from EU financial centres like Paris and Frankfurt, alongside longstanding rivals such as New York and Singapore. Global banks have warned Brussels they could clear contracts in the United States if the EU is too heavy-handed. The commission is due to publish the draft law on Dec. 7, with the European Parliament and EU states having the final say. Global banks have warned Brussels that heavy, mandatory action forcing them to shift euro derivatives clearing out of London would backfire on EU banks, who need access to global liquidity pools in London, and could send clearing activity to the United States. The draft law tentatively proposes requiring EU clearers of commodity derivatives to hold a standalone default fund for that particular asset.

☆ German financial system under strain but property correction not seen: Bundesbank
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( Cynthia Kim | Jihoon Lee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

FRANKFURT, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Risks in the German financial system are building as the economy heads for a recession and struggles with rising interest rates and sky-high energy prices, but a correction in the housing market is not imminent, the Bundesbank said on Thursday. "The macro-financial environment has deteriorated substantially," the Bundesbank said in a Financial Stability Review. Still, the Bundesbank did not expect a significant correction in house prices, which were in the past seen 15% to 40% overvalued. "A worsening energy crisis, a sharp economic slump and abruptly rising market interest rates could put the German financial system under considerable pressure," the bank added. Extreme volatility in energy prices sharply increased the collateral requirements of central counterparties in derivatives trading but government measures cushioned the liquidity shortage and the overall supply of credit "has worked well", it said.

☆ Hong Kong's leading crypto retail operator says it ceases trading as FTX fallout roils sector
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Georgina Lee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

HONG KONG, Nov 18 (Reuters) - A leading cryptocurrency retail service provider in Hong Kong said it has ceased trading as the broader fallout from the collapse of FTX, and solvency issues at other major crypto firms, continues to roil the sector. Genesis Block has no connection with a separate crypto player called Genesis Global Capital which suspended customer redemptions this week. One person with knowledge of the matter said one Genesis Block official was previously a director in FTX Hong Kong, but resigned from the directorship this month. FTX Hong Kong is one of the about 130 FTX-affiliated companies backed by Sam Bankman-Fried that have filed Chapter 11 bankrupcy proceedings in the United States. CoinHero's website offers a guide for its customers on how to buy FTT through Genesis Block's trading desk in Hong Kong.

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