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☆ FDIC retains BlackRock unit for Signature Bank, SVB securities portfolio sale
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 5 (Reuters) - The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has retained BlackRock Inc (BLK.N) unit Financial Market Advisory to sell the securities portfolios it kept in receivership after the collapse of Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank. The face values of the two portfolios are about $27 billion and $87 billion, the regulator said in a statement on Wednesday. Reuters earlier reported that the FDIC retained advisers to sell the securities portfolios that the new owners of the two banks had rejected. On Monday, the FDIC announced the marketing process for an about $60 billion loan portfolio retained in receivership following the failure of Signature Bank. The securities are primarily comprised of agency mortgage-backed securities, collateralized mortgage obligations and commercial mortgage-backed securities, the FDIC said on Wednesday.

☆ Cash App founder Bob Lee stabbed to death in San Francisco, says father
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 5 (Reuters) - Block Inc (SQ.N)-owned Cash App's founder Bob Lee was stabbed to death in San Francisco on Tuesday, according to a Facebook post shared by his father. loading"I just lost my best friend, my son Bob Lee when he lost his life on the street in San Francisco early Tuesday morning," said Rick Lee in a post which linked a TechCrunch article on the stabbing. The San Francisco Police Department said late on Tuesday that a 43-year-old man was stabbed early in the day and succumbed to injuries in the hospital. Cash App allows users to transfer money through a mobile application and is touted by the company as an alternative to traditional banking services. Lee was the chief product officer for cryptocurrency company MobileCoin, where he was also previously an early-stage investor and adviser, the company said on Twitter.

☆ FDIC announces sale process of former Signature Bank loan portfolio
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 3 (Reuters) - The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) on Monday announced the marketing process for the about $60 billion loan portfolio retained in receivership following the failure of Signature Bank. The FDIC expects to begin its marketing of the retained loan portfolio of the former Signature Bank later this summer, it said in a statement. The portfolio is comprised primarily of commercial real estate (CRE) loans, commercial loans and a smaller pool of single–family residential loans. Last week, Reuters reported that FDIC has retained advisers to sell the securities portfolios that the new owners of failed Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank rejected. The FDIC said on Monday it has retained Newmark & Company Real Estate Inc as an advisor on the sale.

☆ Jared Kushner's PE firm was backed by Emirates, Qatar - NYT
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 30 (Reuters) - Wealth funds in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar have invested hundreds of millions of dollars with former U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner's private equity firm, the New York Times reported on Thursday. The Emiratis invested more than $200 million with Kushner's Affinity Partners, while a Qatari entity also put in a similar sum, the newspaper said, citing people with knowledge of the transactions. Kushner, who was also a top adviser to Trump, formed the Miami-based Affinity Partners in 2021, Reuters had reported. The investment from the UAE came through a sovereign wealth fund, but the Qatari investor's identity was unclear, the NYT report said. Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Mubadala, Emirates Investment Authority, Affinity Partners, and the Qatar and UAE embassies in Washington did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

☆ U.S. FDIC tells Signature Bank's crypto clients to close accounts by April 5
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 28 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) has informed collapsed lender Signature Bank's (SBNY.O) crypto clients that they have until April 5 to close their accounts and move their money. "Flagstar's bid did not include about $4 billion in deposits related to Signature's digital-asset business," an FDIC spokesperson said. Flagstar on March 19 entered into an agreement with U.S. regulators to buy deposits and loans from New York-based Signature Bank. The FDIC had said that the deal would see Flagstar Bank assume substantially all of Signature Bank's deposits, some of its loan portfolios and all 40 of its former branches. Roughly $60 billion of Signature Bank's loans and $4 billion of its deposits would remain with it in receivership.

☆ Voyager Digital's sale to Binance.US halted by district court - Bloomberg News
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

March 27 (Reuters) - A federal judge has granted the U.S. government's request to temporarily halt Voyager Digital's bankruptcy plan, putting the crypto lender's proposed sale to Binance.US on hold, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing court papers. Reporting by Jaiveer Singh Shekhawat in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika SyamnathOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Judge halts Voyager Digital's $1.3 bln sale to Binance.US
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

March 27 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Monday temporarily stopped bankrupt Voyager Digital (VYGVQ.PK) from completing a proposed $1.3 billion sale to crypto exchange Binance.US, allowing the U.S. government more time to pursue appeals that challenge the legality of the deal. Trustee, the Department of Justice's (DOJ) bankruptcy watchdog, filed appeals in early March over a bankruptcy court's approval of the sale. Binance.US has agreed to pay $20 million in cash to Voyager, and take on crypto assets deposited by Voyager customers. Those assets, valued at $1.3 billion in February, account for the bulk of the deal's valuation, according to Voyager. Binance.US maintains publicly that it is entirely independent of Binance.com, operating as the "U.S. partner" to the world's biggest crypto exchange.

March 27 (Reuters) - Major cryptocurrency exchange Binance and executives, including CEO and founder Changpeng Zhao, have been sued by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for regulatory violations, according to a court filing on Monday. Binance's compliance program has been "ineffective" and the firm, under the direction of Zhao, told employees and customers to go around compliance controls, the CFTC said. It also accused Binance's former Chief Compliance Officer Samuel Lim of aiding and abetting Binance's violations. "For years, Binance knew they were violating CFTC rules, working actively to both keep the money flowing and avoid compliance. Its core Binance.com exchange, the world's biggest, processed trades worth about $23 trillion last year, according to data provider CryptoCompare.

The CFTC sued Binance, Zhao and its former top compliance executive with "willful evasion" of U.S. law, "while engaging in a calculated strategy of regulatory arbitrage to their commercial benefit." "Upon an initial review, the complaint appears to contain an incomplete recitation of facts, and we do not agree with the characterization of many of the issues alleged in the complaint," Zhao said in a statement. Firms such as brokers that facilitate U.S. customers' trading of such products are required to register with the agency. 'PIRATE SHIP'Founded in Shanghai in 2017, Binance sits at the heart of the global crypto industry. With a holding company based in the Cayman Islands, Binance has never revealed the location of its core exchange.

☆ Binance pauses deposits, withdrawals due to issue affecting spot trading
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

March 24 (Reuters) - Cryptocurrency exchange Binance is working on an issue that has impacting spot trading on its platform, its Chief Executive Changpeng Zhao said in a tweet on Friday. "Initial analysis indicates matching engine encountered a bug on a trailing stop order," he said in a tweet, adding that deposits and withdrawals have been paused as a standard operating procedure. loadingReporting by Jaiveer Singh Shekhawat in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun KoyyurOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Binance halts deposits, withdrawals after technical glitches - CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, March 24 (Reuters) - Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has suspended deposits and withdrawals on its platform due to technical issues affecting its spot trading, Chief Executive Changpeng Zhao said in a tweet on Friday. "Initial analysis indicates matching engine encountered a bug on a trailing stop order," he said in a tweet, adding that the pause in deposits and withdrawals was a standard operating procedure. Last week Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, said it will be halting its sterling deposits and withdrawals, a month after it ceased dollar transfers. Reuters has previously reported that the Justice Department is investigating Binance for suspected money laundering and sanctions violations. A top Binance executive told The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg last month that Binance expected to pay penalties to resolve U.S. investigations into the company.

☆ Canadian lender RBC increases work-from-office time as COVID ebbs
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 21 (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO) on Tuesday asked its employees to return to office three or four days a week, as Canada's largest lender eases its COVID-19 protocols. In an internal memo to employees seen by Reuters, RBC said that "starting May 1, employees in hybrid work arrangements will come together in person for the majority of the time. This means you have the option to work remotely for one to two days each week, depending on your team". Nearly three years after the onset of the pandemic, companies across the globe have ramped up efforts to bring more employees back to offices. RBC Chief Executive Officer Dave McKay last year asked its employees to return to office more often, but said the hybrid work approach was "here to stay".

☆ Advisory firm Innisfree sues Twitter for $1.9 million in unpaid bills
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] The Twitter logo is seen outside the offices in New York City, U.S., November 9, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan McDermidFeb 4 (Reuters) - U.S.-based advisory firm Innisfree M&A Incorporated sued Twitter on Friday in New York State Supreme Court, seeking about $1.9 million for what it says are unpaid bills after it advised the social media company on its acquisition by Elon Musk last year. Twitter and a lawyer for Innisfree did not immediately respond to request for comment. Advertising spending on Twitter Inc dropped by 71% in December, data from an advertising research firm showed, as top advertisers slashed their spending on the social-media platform after Musk's takeover. Twitter made its first interest payment on a loan that banks provided to help finance Musk's purchase of the social media company last year, Reuters reported last month.

☆ Adani Enterprises shelves $122 million bond plan - Bloomberg News
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Feb 4 (Reuters) - Adani Enterprises Ltd (ADEL.NS) has shelved a plan to raise as much as 10 billion Indian rupees ($121.65 million), Bloomberg News reported on Saturday. ($1 = 82.2060 Indian rupees)Reporting by Jaiveer Singh Shekhawat in Bengaluru, Editing by Alexandra HudsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Credit Suisse nears deal to buy Michael Klein's advisory firm - Bloomberg News
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Jan 9 (Reuters) - Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN.S) is close to an agreement to acquire former Citigroup executive Michael Klein's advisory boutique, Bloomberg News reported on Monday. The Swiss bank will value M. Klein & Company at around a few hundred million dollars, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. Credit Suisse declined to comment on the report. M. Klein & Co did not immediately respond to a Reuters' request for comment. The potential deal is expected to allow M. Klein & Co. shareholders to take an eventual stake in CS First Boston using proceeds from the sale, Bloomberg said.

☆ China may ease 'three red lines' property rules - Bloomberg News
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Jan 6 (Reuters) - China is planning to relax restrictions on borrowing for property developers to support the troubled sector by dialing back the "three red lines" policy, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. The "three red lines" policy was unveiled in August 2020 to tackle property developers' unbridled borrowing by restricting the amount of new borrowing they can raise each year. Beijing may allow some property firms to add more leverage by easing borrowing caps, and push back the grace period for meeting debt targets set by the policy. Under the new proposal, China will ease restrictions on debt growth for developers depending on how many red lines they meet, easing borrowing caps to companies that meet all three thresholds, the report added. The "three red lines" metric put caps on debt-to-cash, debt-to-assets and debt-to-equity ratios and asked property developers to provide more details about their debts.

☆ Dutch governor Knot signals ECB will keep raising rates in months ahead- FT
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Dec 26 (Reuters) - Head of Dutch Central Bank Klaas Knot said with five policy meetings between now and July 2023, the ECB would achieve "quite a decent pace of tightening" through half percentage point rises before borrowing costs eventually peaked by the summer, the Financial Times reported on Monday. "The risk of us doing too little is still the bigger risk," Knot told the newspaper in an interview. "We are just at the beginning of the second half." Reporting by Jaiveer Singh Shekhawat in Bengaluru; Editing by Himani SarkarOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Tesla offers discount on some car models in U.S., Canada
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Dec 21 (Reuters) - Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) is offering discounts on Model 3 and Model Y vehicles delivered in the United States and Canada this month, sales pages on its website showed on Wednesday, amid concerns the automaker is facing softening demand as economies slow. The latest discount comes just days after the U.S. Treasury Department delayed releasing its proposed guidance on the required sourcing of electric vehicle batteries. Investors are worried Tesla has been facing softening demand. Earlier this month, news website Electrek reported that Tesla had offered a $3,750 discount on Model 3 and Model Y vehicle delivered in the United States in December. The U.S. automaker has also given a discount of 6,000 yuan ($860) on some models in China to the end of 2022.

☆ Snap employees to work from office starting February
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Nov 28 (Reuters) - Snap Inc (SNAP.N) will require 80% of its employees to return to office from end-February, a company spokesperson told Reuters on Monday. "After working remotely for so long, we're excited to get everyone back together next year with our new 80/20 hybrid model," the company spokesperson said in an emailed statement. Bloomberg News first reported the development and said the owner of photo messaging app Snapchat had asked its employees to be in office four days a week starting in February. The tech industry was among the first to allow employees to work from home when COVID-19 hit the United States in 2020. Last month, ride-hailing service Uber (UBER.N) asked its employees to work from office twice a week.

☆ Snap employees to be in offices 80% of time from end-Feb
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Nov 28 (Reuters) - (This Nov. 28 story has been corrected to say Snap employees will work from office 80% of the time, not that 80% of employees will return to office, in headline and paragraph 1 and changes source to company)Snap Inc (SNAP.N) will require employees to work from its offices 80% of the time, starting from the end of February, the company said on Monday. Bloomberg News first reported the development and said the owner of photo messaging app Snapchat had asked employees to be in office four days a week from February. The tech industry was among the first to allow employees to work from home when COVID-19 hit the United States in 2020. But the extent to which tech companies are embracing permanent remote work is now diverging. Last month, ride-hailing service Uber (UBER.N) asked its employees to work from office twice a week.

☆ News Corp shareholder T Rowe Price raises concerns over Fox merger - NYT
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Nov 25 (Reuters) - T. Rowe Price (TROW.O), a major shareholder in News Corp (NWSA.O), said it had strong reservations about Rupert Murdoch's plan to reunite News Corp and Fox Corp (FOXA.O), The New York Times reported on Friday, joining other investors in dissent over the plan. T. Rowe Price told the newspaper that a merger of the two companies would probably undervalue News Corp, which it believes is trading for less than it is worth. T. Rowe Price owns about 17.88% of News Corp, according to Refinitiv data, and is the largest shareholder after the Murdoch family. Fox and News Corp declined to comment, while T. Rowe Price did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment. Independent Franchise Partners owns about 7% of News Corp's Class A shares and 6.4% in Fox Corp.

☆ FTX's founder Bankman-Fried says he failed to see warning signs - NYT
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] The logo of FTX is seen at the entrance of the FTX Arena in Miami, Florida, U.S., November 12, 2022. REUTERS/Marco BelloNov 14 (Reuters) - FTX founder and former Chief Executive Sam Bankman-Fried said he expanded his business too fast and failed to notice signs of trouble at the exchange, whose downfall sent shock waves through the crypto industry, the New York Times reported late on Monday. Bankman-Fried, who is based in the Bahamas, declined to comment on his current location, citing safety concerns, the newspaper said. When asked whether FTX used customer funds to prop up the trading firm Alameda Research that he founded, Bankman-Fried told the New York Times that Alameda had accumulated a large "margin position" on FTX. Reuters reported last week that Bankman-Fried had secretly transferred $10 billion of customer funds from FTX to Alameda.

☆ Musk says Twitter will let organizations identify their associated accounts
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Nov 13 (Reuters) - Twitter's billionaire owner Elon Musk on Sunday said that Twitter will soon enable organizations to identify twitter accounts associated with them as the new Twitter owner continues to find ways to limit fake accounts on the platform. "Rolling out soon," Musk in a tweet on Sunday said. "Twitter will enable organizations to identify which other Twitter accounts are actually associated with them." Musk in a tweet yesterday said that Twitter Blue will probably "come back end of next week". Twitter Inc's new owner Elon Musk on Thursday raised the possibility of the social media platform going bankrupt, the day it's trust and safety leader exited the company.

☆ Apple warns of hit to iPhone shipments from Chinese COVID disruptions
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-06 | by ( Jaiveersingh Shekhawat | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] A man holds an iPhone 14 as Apple Inc's new models go on sale at an Apple store in Beijing, China, September 16, 2022. REUTERS/Thomas PeterNov 6 (Reuters) - Apple Inc (AAPL.O) on Sunday said it expects lower iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone Pro Max shipments than previously anticipated as COVID-19 restrictions temporarily disrupt production at an assembly facility in Zhengzhou, China. "The facility is currently operating at significantly reduced capacity," the iPhone maker said in a statement. Its main Zhengzhou plant in central China, which employs about 200,000 people, has been rocked by discontent over stringent measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, with many workers fleeing the site. Separately, Taiwan's Foxconn, Apple Inc's biggest iPhone maker, said on Monday it was working to resume full production at a major plant in Zhengzhou that had been hit by COVID-19 curbs, and revised down its fourth quarter outlook.

☆ Twitter asks some laid off workers to come back, Bloomberg reports
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Some of those who are being asked to return were laid off by mistake. Twitter recently laid off 50% of its employees, including employees on the trust and safety team, the company's head of safety and integrity Yoel Roth said in a tweet earlier this week. Tweets by staff of the social media company said teams responsible for communications, content curation, human rights and machine learning ethics were among those gutted, as were some product and engineering teams. Twitter on Saturday updated its app in Apple's App Store to begin charging $8 for sought-after blue check verification marks, in Musk's first major revision of the social media platform. Reporting by Jaiveer Singh Shekhawat in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa ShumakerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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