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May 2 (Reuters) - Tinder owner Match Group (MTCH.O) has said it will quit Russia by June 30, citing the need to protect human rights, one of many Western firms to leave since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine last year. "We are committed to protecting human rights," Match said in an annual impact report published on Monday. "Our brands are taking steps to restrict access to their services in Russia and will complete their withdrawal from the Russian market by June 30, 2023." Match shareholder Friends Fiduciary Corp said Match had set an example for others to follow in tying its decision to the human rights risks faced by the Ukrainian people. Moscow denies committing war crimes including forced deportations of children, and says the ICC decision is meaningless as Russia is not a member.

☆ CEO of India's Byju assures company's compliance after raids over alleged forex law violations
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Byju Raveendran, founder and chief executive officer of Think and Learn Pvt., speaks during the Credit Suisse Asian Investment Conference in Hong Kong on March 26, 2019. Indian education platform Byju's CEO is confident that the country's financial crime-fighting agency will find the company compliant after raids on its premises over suspected breaches of foreign exchange laws, according to an internal memo. Byju's is one of India's biggest startups, once valued at $22 billion. It has attracted global investors such as General Atlantic, BlackRock and Sequoia Capital, which have invested in the company over the years. Byju's did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

☆ Byju's CEO assures company's compliance after raids over alleged forex law violations
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Aditya Kalra | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

India's Enforcement Directorate raided three premises linked to the company on Saturday over alleged foreign exchange law violations. The searches revealed that Byju's parent firm Think & Learn Pvt Ltd had received foreign direct investment of nearly 280 billion rupees ($3.43 billion) between 2011 and 2023, the agency said on Saturday. The agency also said that the company remitted 97.5 billion rupees to various foreign jurisdictions between 2011 and 2023 in the name of overseas direct investments. In the internal memo, Raveendran said that the company had sent some money overseas to fund its international acquisitions. The company had taken all efforts to comply with foreign exchange laws and all cross-border transactions were routed through regular banking channels, he added.

April 27 (Reuters) - The rouble steadied on Thursday, with the market looking ahead to Friday's interest rate decision, as favourable month-end tax payments propped the Russian currency up amid a significant drop in oil prices. By 1322 GMT, the rouble was 0.2% stronger against the dollar at 81.44 and had gained 0.6% to trade at 89.76 versus the euro . Month-end tax payments that usually lead exporters to convert foreign currency revenue to meet local liabilities are putting a floor under the rouble. Oil prices dropped almost 4% on Wednesday, extending sharp losses from the previous session, driven by fears of a U.S. recession and an increase in Russian oil exports which dulled the impact of OPEC production cuts. "We still see no reason for the central bank to change the rate and its rhetoric, but inflation risks will continue to concern the central bank more than economic growth," said Dmitry Polevoy, head of investment at Locko-Invest.

MOSCOW, April 24 (Reuters) - Russia should consider taking over and managing the assets of foreign firms such as Fortum (FORTUM.HE) in Russia, giving them back only when sanctions are lifted, Andrei Kostin, the CEO of state-owned bank VTB (VTBR.MM), said on Monday. "Completing the exit is likely to take further time and there still are significant uncertainties – including regulatory approvals – related to the ongoing divestment process," Fortum said in February 2023. Kostin said Russia should consider taking over foreign companies' assets, a process that he said would mirror restrictions imposed on Russian assets abroad. Kostin named Fortum as an example of a large foreign company whose assets could be targeted. Reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya; Writing by Alexander Marrow Editing by Gareth JonesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

"It could be some kind of non-controlling stake in public companies," Kostin said in the interview. COMPETITIONHe said some industries lacked competition, a hangover from Soviet times, a consequence of which would ultimately see more investors take money elsewhere. Telecoms operator Rostelecom (RTKM.MM), defence conglomerate Rostec and state nuclear energy company Rosatom could have subsidiaries privatised, he said, adding: "The main thing is not to miss the moment when we can attract private money here." Under that programme, state property was sold very cheaply to well-connected businessmen who became known as "oligarchs". "We have a different country now, a different president, a different government that cannot allow what happened then," he said.

April 21 (Reuters) - Demand for the Chinese yuan is growing in Russia, the CEO of Sberbank (SBER.MM) said on Friday, adding that the lender has made use of central bank currency swaps providing yuan liquidity. CEO German Gref said Sberbank was gradually raising its interest rates on yuan deposits and had resorted to borrowing from the Russian central bank in yuan several times. Gref said shareholders at the bank's annual general meeting on Friday had supported the board's recommendation to pay a record 565 billion roubles ($6.94 billion) in dividends. Gref said the bank would take advantage of an early payment option and direct around 10 billion roubles to the budget. Gref said Sberbank was not engaged in any talks with Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International (RBIV.VI) over an asset swap.

April 20 (Reuters) - Cybersecurity company Group-IB has finalised its exit from Russia, the group said on Thursday, cutting ties with its original market in an effort to spur its global expansion ambitions. Already harbouring global ambitions, Group-IB moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2019. Volkov has sold his 10% stake in the Russian company, Group-IB said in a statement. The stand-alone Russian business has been sold to local management and will be operating under the new brand F.A.C.C.T. Group-IB said Sachkov had sold his 37.5% stake in the Singapore entity to members of top management there.

Wall Street on Tuesday upgraded two underperforming Club stocks — Emerson Electric (EMR) and Danaher (DHR) — to the equivalent of buy ratings. Historically, the iPhone's expensive price tag has hindered its ability to gain meaningful market share in the Indian smartphone market. We're confident Apple is gaining traction with Indian consumers , one reason why we continue to see Apple is a long-term investment. The company's two-pronged strategy of growing both its manufacturing- and consumer market share in India should prove fruitful in the coming years. As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade.

☆ Eleven people die of sunstroke near Mumbai after open-air award function
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MUMBAI, April 17 (Reuters) - At least eleven people died on Sunday after suffering from sunstroke at an event attended by India's home minister on the outskirts of Mumbai, the chief minister of Maharashtra state said. Hundreds of thousands of people attended an award function on Sunday afternoon where federal home minister Amit Shah presented an award to a well-known social activist, on the outskirts of the country's financial capital of Mumbai in Maharashtra. Around 50 people were admitted to hospital after the event and 11 had died, Maharashtra's chief minister, Eknath Shinde, told reporters late on Sunday night. India is likely to experience heat waves between March and May, the weather office said in February this year. Reporting by Shilpa Jamkhandikar and Rajendra Jadhav in Mumbai; Editing by Sonali PaulOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The economy ministry forecast GDP growth of 2% in 2024, down from 2.6% when it last provided macroeconomic forecasts in the autumn. SHRINKING SURPLUSRussia's current account surplus is shrinking sharply, down around 73% in the first quarter of 2023. Economists from the Institute of International Finance said Russia had a large "excess" current account surplus in 2022, with a surplus above and beyond the normal seasonal path in 2021 and 2022. "This windfall has ended in 2023, with Russia's current account surplus below 'normal', likely one reason why the rouble has weakened year-to-date," it added. The economy ministry lowered its rouble rate forecast to 76.5 to the dollar in 2023, from 68.3 in the previous forecast, and to 76.8 from 70.9 in 2024.

April 13 (Reuters) - The banking stress in the United States and Europe has had a limited impact on Canada's financial system so far, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said on Thursday, adding though that there was a need to actively monitor risks to the system. "You're seeing a little bit of spillover to Canada, but honestly, it's really been quite muted," Macklem said when asked about how the country's financial system had been affected. Macklem spoke at the International Monetary Fund in Washington where he is attending an annual meeting. The failures of U.S. lenders Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, followed by Credit Suisse's rescue, are prompting central bankers to closely monitor the potential for banking stress to trigger a credit crunch. On Wednesday the Bank of Canada (BoC) held its key overnight rate steady at 4.50%.

April 12 (Reuters) - Sberbank (SBER.MM), Russia's dominant lender and a leading technology company, is finding graphics cards the trickiest hardware item to replace in the absence of Western providers, CEO German Gref said on Wednesday. Sberbank needs the cards for its artificial intelligence services and super computers and Western sanctions over Moscow's actions in Ukraine have curbed Russia's access to some technology imports. "We depend first and foremost on technology called hardware," Gref told lawmakers in the Federation Council, Russia's upper house of parliament. "And probably the most critical position is graphics cards, microelectronics - video cards for high-performance computing." In the absence of Western imports, local companies have enhanced efforts to increase domestic production and cushion the blow.

☆ Credit Suisse job cuts must be frozen -bank employees leader says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ZURICH, April 11 (Reuters) - Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) and UBS (UBSG.S) must freeze any job cuts planned as part of their emergency merger, the Swiss Bank Employees' Association (SBPV) said on Tuesday, in an open letter to the country's parliament. The Swiss parliament is due to meet in extraordinary session on Tuesday to discuss the state-sponsored rescue of Credit Suisse which took place last month. "For the past three weeks, many of the approximately 17,000 employees at Credit Suisse and the 22,000 UBS employees have been looking at their future with uncertainty," said Ferrara, referring to the staff numbers in Switzerland. Credit Suisse employs 45,000 people globally, while UBS has 74,000 in total. "But the affected employees of the two banks remain only a side note.

☆ Credit Suisse job cuts must be frozen, Swiss Bank Employees' Association says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ZURICH, April 11 (Reuters) - Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) and UBS (UBSG.S) must freeze any job cuts planned as part of their emergency merger, the Swiss Bank Employees' Association (SBPV) said on Monday, in an open letter to the country's parliament. The Swiss parliament is due to meet in extraordinary session on Tuesday to discuss the state-sponsored rescue of Credit Suisse which took place last month. Credit Suisse employs 45,000 people globally, while UBS has 74,000 in total. "But the affected employees of the two banks remain only a side note. "Now it is time for the affected employees of the two banks to be given protection and respect," Ferrara wrote.

☆ Credit Suisse job cuts must be frozen -bankers leader says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Credit Suisse and UBS must freeze any job cuts planned as part of their emergency merger, the Swiss Bank Employees' Association (SBPV) said on Monday, in an open letter to the country's parliament. SBPV managing director Natalia Ferrara has written to lawmakers to demand they consider staff affected by the collapse of Credit Suisse and halt any job losses until the end of 2023. The Swiss parliament is due to meet in extraordinary session on Tuesday to discuss the state-sponsored rescue of Credit Suisse which took place last month. Credit Suisse employs 45,000 people globally, while UBS has 74,000 in total. "Now it is time for the affected employees of the two banks to be given protection and respect," Ferrara wrote.

By 2027, the IMF expects Russia's economic output to be 7% lower than forecasts made before Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, had suggested. "An exodus of multinationals, loss in human capital, isolation from global financial markets, and impaired access to advanced technology goods and know-how will hamper the Russian economy," an IMF spokesperson said. "A sharp worsening in the terms of trade could lead to a significant decline in both the current account surplus and in fiscal revenues," the IMF spokesperson said. Russia says its 2023 deficit will not exceed 2% of gross domestic product (GDP), but many analysts think it will surpass that level. The current account surplus shrank by a little over 73% in the first quarter on an annual basis to $18.6 billion, the central bank said on Tuesday, hurt by the sharply lower energy revenues.

☆ Austrian banks unaffected by banking turmoil - finance minister tells NZZ
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

They are very well prepared," Brunner told Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung. He also defended Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) (RBIV.VI) which has come under fire for continuing to operate in Russia despite the war in Ukraine. "As for RBI, the bank complies with all international sanctions," Brunner told NZZ. "Incidentally, there are other European banks that continue to operate legally in Russia. The minister also said Austrian inflation, which fell to an estimated 9.2% in March, was still too high and called on the European Central Bank to do more to contain price increases.

☆ Austrian banks unaffected by banking turmoil, finance minister tells Neue Zuercher Zeitung
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

They are very well prepared," Brunner told Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung. He also defended Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) (RBIV.VI) which has come under fire for continuing to operate in Russia despite the war in Ukraine. "As for RBI, the bank complies with all international sanctions," Brunner told NZZ. "Incidentally, there are other European banks that continue to operate legally in Russia. "The European Central Bank (ECB) in particular can do something about this, as a member of the euro zone we are dependent on the ECB," Brunner said.

But based on Friday's figures, Russia posted a surplus in March of 181 billion roubles, improving on deficits of 821 billion roubles in February and 1.76 trillion roubles in January. Spending accelerated 34% in the quarter to 8.1 trillion roubles, the preliminary data showed. Overall government income was down 20.8% in the quarter compared with 2022 at 5.7 trillion roubles, led by a 45% dive in energy revenues to 1.64 trillion roubles, the data showed. "The large budget deficit...increases nervousness on the market in relation to the price that geopolitical tensions are costing, and requires efforts directed at improving budget revenues," she said. The central bank has repeatedly warned that the budget deficit poses inflationary risks and may compel it to raise interest rates from the current 7.5%.

Last week's official data showed annual industrial output decline slowed in February, largely thanks to the defence sector, offsetting some of the damage wrought mainly by sanctions on Russia's key energy exports. Russian industrial output fell 1.7% year-on-year in February after a 2.4% drop in January, data from the federal statistics service Rosstat showed. Polevoy estimated that non-defence industrial production shrank about 8% year-on-year, while output of sectors with a high share of state defence orders jumped 36%. The decline in energy revenues has pushed Russia's budget deficit to $34 billion in January-February, compared with a surplus of $4 billion in 2022. LONG-TERM DECLINEAn independent study last month suggested Russia's middle class will shrink as social inequality grows, even if sanctions get relaxed.

☆ Credit Suisse AT1 bondholders hire law firm for possible litigation
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, April 3 (Reuters) - Some holders of Credit Suisse AT1 bonds wiped out by the bank's planned merger with UBS have instructed law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan to represent them for discussions with Swiss authorities and possible litigation to recover losses. The bondholder group holds a "significant percentage of the total notional value" of the AT1 bonds, the law firm said in a statement on Monday. AT1 bonds are the riskiest type of debt banks can issue, ranking immediately after equity in the event of losses. Banks' AT1 bonds fell after the Swiss decision highlighted the risks of investing in these securities. Meanwhile, Switzerland's Federal Prosecutor has opened an investigation into the state-backed takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS Group, the office of the attorney general said on Sunday.

☆ Swiss prosecutor probes Credit Suisse takeover
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SummarySummary Companies UBS agreed to acquire Credit Suisse last monthDeal orchestrated by Swiss authoritiesPoll shows Swiss economists disagree with dealGENEVA, April 2 (Reuters) - Switzerland's Federal Prosecutor has opened an investigation into the state-backed takeover of Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) by UBS Group (UBSG.S), the office of the attorney general said on Sunday. Credit Suisse and UBS did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Last month, UBS said it would acquire rival Credit Suisse for 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.3 billion) in a deal orchestrated by the Swiss government, the central bank and market regulator. A poll of Swiss economists found that nearly half think the takeover of Credit Suisse was not the best solution, and warned that the situation had dented Switzerland's reputation as a banking centre. Up to 30% of staff could lose their jobs due to the takeover, according to an unnamed senior UBS manager quoted in Swiss media.

☆ Up to 30% of jobs to be cut by enlarged UBS, Tages-Anzeiger reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/4] The logo of Swiss bank UBS is seen in Zurich, Switzerland, March 20, 2023. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File PhotoGENEVA, April 2 (Reuters) - The bank created by the UBS (UBSG.S) takeover of Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) is poised to reduce its workforce by 20-30%, Swiss daily Tages-Anzeiger reported on Sunday, citing an unnamed senior UBS manager. The report said the bank could cut about 11,000 jobs in Switzerland. Jobs in its U.S. investment banking arm will also be affected, the report said, with UBS set for talks to terminate a deal that would have given Wall Street dealmaker Michael Klein control of much of Credit Suisse's investment bank. Reporting by Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber Editing by David GoodmanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Swiss economists question UBS takeover of Credit Suisse in poll
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

ZURICH, March 31 (Reuters) - A poll of Swiss economists found that nearly half think the takeover of Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) by UBS (UBSG.S) was not the best solution, warning the saga has dented Switzerland's reputation as a banking centre. Switzerland's KOF economic research institute found that 48% of the 167 university economists it questioned would have preferred a state takeover and possible later sale of Credit Suisse. Restructuring Credit Suisse under 'too big to fail" rules was favoured by 28% of respondents. This would have meant rescuing the systemically important Swiss business of Credit Suisse and the international part restructured or wound up. Some 40% of the public thought a temporary state takeover of Credit Suisse would have been a better solution, the GFS Bern survey said.

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