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☆ How safe are America’s biggest banks? The Fed’s imminent stress tests may offer clues
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-28 | by ( Elisabeth Buchwald | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

That’s because no stress test scenario could perfectly predict the conditions that would cause a bank to collapse. And besides, that’s not the purpose of stress tests, said Covas, a former Fed economist who developed some of the central bank’s early stress tests. The test scenarios were designed before the banking crisisFed officials update the stress test scenarios each year to capture the latest vulnerabilities in the economy. It’s a misconception that “if no bank fails these stress tests are not useful,” or the tests were too easy, Covas said. “You really don’t need a stress test to figure out that SVB had some significant issues,” he added.

Persons: Francisco Covas, that’s, Covas, “, ”, João Granja, they’ve, SVB Organizations: New, New York CNN, Federal, Bank Policy Institute, University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Fed, Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, First Republic Bank, CNN Locations: New York, Silicon

Under the "stress test" exercise, the Fed tests big banks' balance sheets against a hypothetical severe economic downturn, the elements of which change annually. WHY DOES THE FED 'STRESS TEST' BANKS? It announces the size of each bank's stress capital buffer in the subsequent months. For example, the 2022 stress test envisioned a 5.8 percentage point jump in unemployment under a "severely adverse" scenario. This extra test will not count towards banks' capital requirements but will allow the Fed to explore applying multiple adverse scenarios in future.

Persons: Banks, Wells, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Michael Barr, Pete Schroeder, Michelle Price, Andrea Ricci Organizations: U.S . Federal, Big, Fed, Citigroup, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase &, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank's U.S, JPMorgan Citigroup, Wells Fargo & Co, Bank, U.S, Treasury, Thomson Locations: Big U.S, Silicon

☆ Baupost Group's Seth Klarman found the next 'hunting ground' for value investors
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( Sarah Min | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Baupost Group's Seth Klarman called real estate a "hunting ground" for investors searching for opportunities. "There are hunting grounds that one would want to look," the press-shy Klarman told CNBC's "Squawk Box" in an exclusive interview Tuesday morning. "We think real estate is an area that is full of so many fundamental challenges. The S & P 500 sector is down nearly 1%, even as the broader index is 12% higher. Last year, the billionaire investor posted a mid-single-digit decline, outperforming the S & P 500's double-digit retreat, according to a Financial Times report .

Persons: Baupost, Seth Klarman, Klarman, CNBC's, Warren Buffett Organizations: Investors, Harvard, Cornell, Financial

Under the "stress test" exercise, the Fed tests banks' balance sheets against a hypothetical severe economic downturn, the elements of which change annually. WHY DOES THE FED "STRESS TEST" BANKS? It typically publishes aggregate industry losses, and individual bank losses including details on how specific portfolios - like credit cards or mortgages - fared. It announces the size of each bank's stress capital buffer in the subsequent months. For example, the 2022 stress test envisioned a 5.8 percentage point jump in unemployment under a "severely adverse" scenario.

Persons: Banks, Wells, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Michael Barr, Pete Schroeder, Michelle Price, Andrea Ricci Organizations: U.S . Federal, Fed, Citigroup, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase &, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank's U.S, JPMorgan Citigroup, Wells Fargo & Co, Bank, U.S, Treasury, Thomson Locations: Silicon

☆ Analysis: Forex derivatives nudged out into the open as regulations increase costs
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Laura Matthews | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationNEW YORK, June 20 (Reuters) - Foreign-exchange investors are moving more of their over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives trades to lookalike products on exchanges to avoid higher costs due to recent global regulations, helping inject transparency into a multitrillion-dollar market that is largely hidden from the public eye. The gradual behavioral change in FX derivatives trading is being caused by increasing margin and collateral costs, said Joe Midmore, chief commercial officer at OpenGamma, a derivatives analytics firm. OTC derivatives are privately negotiated contracts while cleared derivatives, though bilaterally negotiated, are booked with a clearinghouse such as a listed exchange. "They will also incur the operational, legal and custody costs of setting up margin facilities as well as the capital costs of posting margin," Houston said. "There is inherently risk involved in lots of people transacting derivatives with each other," said Riddle.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Ben Feuer, Joe Midmore, ”, Michael Riddle, Paul Houston, Houston, ForexClear, James Pearson, Tom Arnold, Joe Spiro, Peter Vassallo, Riddle, Laura Matthews, Shankar Ramakrishnan, Megan Davies, Matthew Lewis Organizations: REUTERS, Societe Generale, Banking Supervision, International Organization of Securities Commissions, CME, CME Group, FX, Reuters Graphics British, Financial, ForexClear, BNP, Management, Thomson Locations: Saudi, New York, Hazeltree

☆ JPMorgan invests in financial technology provider Cleareye.ai
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, June 20(Reuters) - JPMorgan (JPM.N) has made a strategic investment in Cleareye.ai, a financial technology firm focused on trade finance, the companies said on Tuesday. The parties, which entered into a commercial partnership last September, did not provide the financial terms of the transaction. Trade finance refers to financial products offered by banks and other institutions that seek to facilitate global trade by reducing counterparty risk between importers and exporters. Cleareye.ai operates a platform that it claims can expedite trade finance processes and compliance by analysing documents and data and removing manual checks. JP Morgan's trade finance business receives nearly 4 million individual documents every year.

Persons: Cleareye.ai, Andres Gonzalez, Louise Heavens Organizations: JPMorgan, Trade, Cleareye.ai, Thomson Locations: Cleareye.ai, U.S

The recent crypto platform bankruptcies trapped customer assets now worth around $34 billion, according to Xclaim, which allows creditors to trade such claims. To protect themselves, institutional crypto investors are switching to exchanges that offer stronger asset protection, boosting due diligence on trading partners, and executing trades in smaller chunks, among other new risk management measures, according to executives and industry data. European crypto asset manager CoinShares ramped up its counterparty due diligence after losing 26 million pounds ($32.65 million) in the collapse of FTX. Financial regulators like the SEC say many crypto companies flout applicable rules, meaning risk management still lags the traditional financial sector. "This is inevitably risk we're all carrying in crypto - we have uncomfortable concentration risk on one large exchange called Binance," said Nickel's Crachilov.

Persons: Samed Bouaynaya, Coinbase, Altana, Binance, Anatoly Crachilov, Martin Lee, Nansen, Stephen Richardson, CoinShares ramped, cybersecurity, Jean, Marie Mognetti, Changpeng Zhao, Nickel's Crachilov, Wes Hansen, Hansen, Elizabeth Howcroft, Michelle Price, David Gregorio Our Organizations: Voyager, London, Coinbase, U.S . Securities, Exchange Commission, SEC, Asset Management, Arca, Thomson

☆ How to negotiate virtually and win difficult Zoom conversations, according to research
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Leigh Thompson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

How virtual communication differs from face-to-faceSo, how can we build our VCQ? However, there is a profound, yet rarely acknowledged difference between in-vivo and virtual communication: namely shared mutual gaze, which occurs when two people lock eyes. That's partly because mutual gaze produces an immediate release of oxytocin, the bonding hormone. However, volleying offers back and forth at the virtual negotiation table can lead to transactional interaction. For this reason, negotiators should work to bring their best virtual self to the negotiation table by following the research-backed best practices here.

Persons: Leigh Thompson, Thompson, —, Chris, It's, we've, I've, volleying Organizations: Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Service, Communication Intelligence

☆ Exchange operator Cboe gets nod to launch leveraged crypto derivative products
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( John Mccrank | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved Cboe Digital to be the first U.S.-regulated crypto exchange and clearinghouse platform to offer leveraged derivatives when the contracts launch in the second half. The margined contracts will let users trade crypto futures while putting less collateralized capital up front, with trades executed and cleared through an approved set of member futures commission merchants, Chicago-based Cboe said. Cboe Digital currently allows trading and clearing of bitcoin and ether futures on a fully collateralized basis, meaning users must provide the full amount of futures contracts upfront. Cboe Digital also supports the spot trading of bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ether, litecoin and USDC. On Oct. 20, 2021, Chicago-based Cboe announced its intention to buy crypto exchange and clearinghouse ErisX.

Persons: Cboe, John Palmer, Jane Street, FTX, John McCrank, Hannah Lang, David Gregorio Our Organizations: YORK, U.S . Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Cboe, Robinhood Markets, Interactive, Virtu, IG Group, CFTC, Thomson Locations: U.S, Chicago, Washington

☆ BNY expands short-term investment options as investors chase yields
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Laura Matthews | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, May 22 (Reuters) - BNY Mellon is expanding its offering of short-term investment products as investors chase higher yields, the bank announced on Monday. The bank is now offering access to mutual funds, interest-bearing deposits and sponsored cleared repurchase agreement sweep products through its LiquidityDirect platform, a portal for institutional investors. BNY currently oversees $1.3 trillion of cash investments across deposits, money market funds and other instruments. Cash management is quickly becoming a top priority for finance executives as some regional banks, a key source of market liquidity, undergo stress as rates rise. LiquidityDirect saw a 16% increase in money-market funds flows in mid-March, BNY data showed.

☆ Bitcoin could rally 40% by the end of the year, according to a top blockchain founder
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

A pile of Bitcoin slugs sit in a box ready to be minted on April 26, 2013 in Sandy, Utah. And bitcoin is front-running this scenario, pointing to a future that is effectively a return to relatively low rates. A big reason why bitcoin has performed so well was that it was just really oversold during the collapse of FTX. In such a scenario, all assets would have a correlation of one with each other, including bitcoin and even gold. Big gold buyers like HSBC and JPMorgan have shunned business with Moscow — leaving billions of dollars worth of gold in need of new landing spots.

☆ Bitcoin could more than double and hit a new record high next year as the token sees a big shakeup, blockchain exec says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Bitcoin could hit a new record high next year, said Bob Ras, cofounder of blockchain firm Sologenic. He cited bitcoin halving, which will reduce mining rewards and supply of the token. The banking crisis and expectations that the Fed will start easing may also lift bitcoin, he added. "When bitcoin's halving kicks in a year from now, we'll likely be well on our way past the previous all-time high," Ras told Insider. Meanwhile, bitcoin appears to be front-running the belief that looser policy from the Federal Reserve is on the way, Ras explained.

☆ U.S. SEC adopts new rules around private fund disclosures, share buybacks
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( John Mccrank | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, May 3 (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday adopted new disclosure rules for hedge fund and private equity fund advisors aimed at increasing transparency, competition, and efficiency in the $25-trillion marketplace. The regulator also adopted a final rule to enhance the disclosures companies make around share buybacks that requires quantitative disclosure of daily repurchases on a quarterly or semi-annual basis, depending on the type of issuer. The aim of the rule is to provide investors with more information to assess the purposes and effects of share repurchases, which last year amounted to nearly $950 billion, the SEC said. "Through these disclosures, investors will be able to better assess issuer buyback programs," Gensler said. "The disclosures will also help lessen some of the information asymmetries inherent between issuers and investors in buybacks.

☆ NY Fed limits types of firms that can access its reverse repo facility
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Michael S. Derby | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Accessing the reverse repo facility “should be a natural extension of an existing business model, and the counterparty should not be organized for the purpose of accessing [reverse repo] operations,” the bank said. The New York Fed did not say in its statement what prompted it to clarify the terms of access for reverse repo counterparties. The last time the Fed issued a statement on the reverse repo tool was two years ago, when it clarified some of the conditions a firm must meet to use the reverse repo tool. The reverse repo facility, now at 4.8%, sets the low end of the range. Fed officials have long argued that as they raise rates and normalize monetary policy, they expect money to drain out of the reverse repo facility.

☆ Credit Suisse mess leaves scattered Swiss debris
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Lisa Jucca | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

ZURICH, April 24 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Swiss government intervention to save Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) from collapse last month may have avoided a financial market storm. SWISS “TRINITY” QUESTIONThe rescue of Credit Suisse has other consequences. The Swiss Bankers Association has called for an independent inquiry, and lawmakers gave a symbolic thumbs-down to the rescue of Credit Suisse on April 12. A Senate Finance Committee report found last month Credit Suisse had violated a 2014 deferred prosecution agreement with U.S. authorities by continuing to help rich Americans dodge taxes. Switzerland’s parliament on April 12 rejected a Credit Suisse rescue package that included 109 billion Swiss francs in financial guarantees.

☆ Upfront's Mark Suster has become the star of LA's booming startup scene. Not everyone is a fan.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Ben Bergman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +29 min

"I have worked with more than 50 VCs and nobody comes close to what it is like to work with Mark Suster," said a founder backed by Suster. "Mark and the Upfront Summit helped put LA tech and investing on the map," said Jeffrey Katzenberg, the cofounder of DreamWorks and WndrCo. Several years ago, a founder whose startup Suster invested in was in a conference room rehearsing their presentation for the Upfront Summit. If you're going to put him on your board, you're letting the fox guard the henhouse. "If you're going to put him on your board, you're letting the fox guard the henhouse."

☆ Protesters shout down Macron on visit to the Netherlands
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Christian Levaux | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

THE HAGUE, April 11 (Reuters) - Anger against an unpopular pension reform in France followed President Emmanuel Macron to the Netherlands where protesters interrupted a speech he was giving on Tuesday at the start of a two-day state visit. Other protesters in the audience targeted the pension law and climate change, while one displayed a banner that read: "President of violence and hypocrisy". During his speech, he defended the pension law, which will delay retirement age by two years to 64. "I will pass (retirement age) from 62 to 64," he said, speaking in English. "When I compare, they (French protesters) should be less angry with me, because in your country it's much higher, and in a lot of countries in Europe, it's much higher than 64."

☆ Jamie Dimon is riding to the rescue again. This time, he's poised to come out on top.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Carter Johnson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

Why, then, has Dimon been so willing to swing back into action in the wake of Silicon Valley Bank's collapse? But it's starting to look like JPMorgan — and Dimon — will end up winners no matter how things turn out. In backstopping First Republic, JPMorgan helps a client and a bank that experts say would fit nicely into its business. By saving First Republic, JPMorgan also stands to gain goodwill from Silicon Valley startups, which are customers of the smaller bank. The paper also reported that regulators asked Dimon, Bank of America, and other banks to buy Silicon Valley Bank and pay out depositors over the insured limit.

Bankman-Fried is expected to be arraigned on the new indictment on Thursday before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan federal court. The new indictment said Bankman-Fried ordered the $40 million cryptocurrency payment to a private wallet from Alameda's main trading account, to persuade Chinese government authorities to unfreeze Alameda accounts with more than $1 billion of cryptocurrency. Prosecutors said the Alameda accounts had been frozen as part of an investigation into an unnamed Alameda counterparty, and Bankman-Fried's prior efforts to lobby Chinese officials to lift the freeze were unsuccessful. They also said Bankman-Fried around November 2021 authorized a transfer of tens of millions of dollars of additional cryptocurrency to "complete" the bribe. Concerns that Bankman-Fried might tamper with witnesses prompted Kaplan to threaten jailing him unless tighter restrictions could be worked out.

NEW YORK, March 28 (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors on Tuesday unveiled a new indictment against Sam Bankman-Fried, accusing the founder of now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange of conspiring to pay a $40 million bribe to Chinese government officials. The indictment said Bankman-Fried ordered the $40 million cryptocurrency payment to a private wallet from Alameda's main trading account, to persuade Chinese authorities to unfreeze Alameda accounts with more than $1 billion of cryptocurrency. Prosecutors said the Alameda accounts had been frozen as part of an investigation into an unnamed Alameda counterparty. They also said Bankman-Fried later authorized a transfer of tens of millions of dollars of cryptocurrency to "complete" the bribe. Under the new conditions, Bankman-Fried would be barred from using electronics except for a phone with no internet capability and a basic laptop with limited functions.

☆ Explainer: What are credit default swaps and why are they causing trouble for Europe's banks?
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Amanda Cooper | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

LONDON, March 28 (Reuters) - Turbulence in Europe's banks following the implosion of 167-year-old Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) and runs on regional banks in the U.S. has focused attention on the role played by credit default swaps in all the turmoil. The moves followed a surge in the cost of insuring Deutsche Bank's debt against default via credit default swaps (CDS) to a more than four-year high last week. Credit default swaps are derivatives that offer insurance against the risk of a bond issuer - such as a company, a bank or a sovereign government - not paying their creditors. The CDS market is worth around $3.8 trillion, according to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association. The CDS market is small relative to equities, foreign exchange or the global bond markets, where there are more than $120 trillion bonds outstanding.

☆ Analysis: Banking woes, Fed keep U.S. market investors on edge
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( David Randall | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

But investors are guarded, wary that another bank run could erupt if people believe U.S. or European regulators won't protect depositors. Uncertainty over the Fed's intentions is amplifying investors’ hesitation in stocks and sparking huge swings in U.S. government bond prices. The Fed raised rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday but indicated it was on the verge of pausing further increases. Risk assets have been somewhat resilient despite the concerns in the banking sector, said Jason England, global bonds portfolio manager at Janus Henderson Investors. England expects longer-duration bond yields to start to rise from current levels, making short-term bonds and money market funds more attractive.

☆ Explaining the relative calm of the stock market as the Fed hikes rates into a mini-financial panic
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( Michael Santoli | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

.SPX 1Y mountain S & P 500, 1-year So, are equities under-reacting to a badly contorted bond market, a potentially trapped Fed and faltering economy? This has allowed the S & P 500 excluding financials and real estate to outperform the headline index by a couple percentage points year to date. Microsoft alone has added some $240 billion in market value since that date, more than the entire market cap of the S & P 500 regional-banks sub sector. Only about 60% of the S & P 500 members are positive over the past six months even as the index is up 7.5%, a loss of internal energy. The flash S & P Global U.S. Composite PMI for March, reported Friday, was up to 53.3 from 50.1 the prior month and above the 49.5 forecast, a reading S & P says is consistent with around a 2% real GDP pace.

☆ JPMorgan defends Deutsche Bank stock, says market getting it wrong
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

JPMorgan isn't concerned about Deutsche Bank , and investors should focus on the European bank's "solid" fundamentals, analysts from the firm said Friday. Shares of the German lender slid more than 11% on Friday following a spike in the company's credit default swaps Thursday night. Credit default swaps act as a insurance for bondholders in the event of the company defaults. To be sure, there was no clear catalyst for the spike in Deutsche's credit default swaps. DB 1D mountain DB falls JPMorgan, however, is maintaining its overweight rating on Deutsche Bank.

☆ This Sequoia-backed startup bringing a form of buy now, pay later to B2B payments just raised $19.3 million. Check out the 10-slide pitch deck Two used to land the funds.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Sequoia-backed payments startup Two just raised $19.3 million in a Series A round. The Oslo-based company plans to bring a version of buy now, pay later to B2B transactions. Check out the 10-slide pitch deck Two used to land the fresh cash below. A Sequoia-backed startup that wants to bring a version of the buy now, pay later model to B2B transactions just raised $19.3 million in fresh funds. Two's solution is to effectively offer a form of buy now, pay later for B2B payments to both small and medium-sized businesses and multinational corporations.

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