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Tag: banking

  • Federal government warns banks about offering buy-now, pay-later lending that could come back to bite them

    Federal government warns banks about offering buy-now, pay-later lending that could come back to bite them

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    A top U.S. financial regulator is warning banks about potential risks in offering buy-now, pay-later products that have surged in popularity with consumers.

    Traditional lenders are joining firms like Affirm Holdings Inc., Klarna Bank AB and Afterpay Ltd. in giving customers shorter-term borrowing options. Despite their surging popularity, the arrangements can pose major challenges for big banks, according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. 

    The OCC, part of the Treasury Department, said Tuesday the products present credit, compliance and reputation challenges for the banks. Lenders should ensure that marketing materials are clear, the regulator said. 

    The warnings follow similar assessments by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and possible new government regulations. Meanwhile, buy-now, pay-later offerings helped fuel a record start to the holiday shopping season in the US, according to Adobe Inc.   

    “We think this is well-timed to say, ‘Hey, banks, if you get into this, this is how to do it responsibly,’” Michael Hsu, the acting comptroller of the currency, said in an interview.

    Hsu added that if consumers aren’t careful with the products they can get overextended and that can lead to loan delinquencies. He said that even if the loans don’t have any finance charges, they can spur charges like overdrafts or late fees when they’re linked to credit or debit cards. “That’s where the risks are,” Hsu said.

    The regulator cautioned banks about:

    • Consumers not fully understanding repayment terms
    • Borrowers who may not have credit history applying for buy-now, pay-later loans, making underwriting more difficult
    • Third-party relationships possibly exposing banks to operational or compliance risks outside of their control
    • Limited capture of buy-now, pay-later borrowing activity by credit reporting agencies
    • Complications tied to returning items or disputing purchases
    Subscribe to the CFO Daily newsletter to keep up with the trends, issues, and executives shaping corporate finance. Sign up for free.

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    Paige Smith, Bloomberg

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  • Will Canadian HISA ETFs survive the new rule change? – MoneySense

    Will Canadian HISA ETFs survive the new rule change? – MoneySense

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    The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) issued a ruling on Oct. 31, 2023, that requires banks taking deposits from ETF issuers to have 100% of the capital needed to support those deposits in case they get rapidly withdrawn.

    The most popular HISA ETFs 

    The reason for HISA ETFs’ popularity with investors is not hard to see. After a couple of the worst years ever for fixed income, they present a place to park your money with essentially zero volatility, combined with yields tracking ever-higher interest rates (now more than 5%). Not only do these funds find some of the best deals in savings accounts for you, but you can also buy and sell them on a whim.

    As of Oct. 31, the CI High Interest Savings ETF (CSAV) ranked as the fourth largest ETF in Canada, with $8.7 billion in assets under management, CEFTA figures show. And HISA ETFs’ appeal seems undiminished, even as fixed income reasserts its position in investors’ portfolios with interest rates expected to top out soon, if they haven’t done so already. Over the month of October, the Horizons High Interest Savings ETF (CASH) and CSAV were the number two and number three ETFs in Canada, respectively, in net inflows.

    Are HISA ETFs safe?

    The sudden shift of capital into HISA ETFs caught the attention of the OSFI, which oversees banks operating across the country. The regulator was concerned about the potential for instability in the banking system should investors withdraw their money as fast as, or faster than, they deposited it, as the ETF format enables them to do. The OSFI undertook a public consultation process last spring, considering “systemic concerns with contagion, potential for regulatory arbitrage, and the absence of guarantees or deposit insurance typically found with traditional savings accounts,” it said in its ruling on Hallowe’en.

    When new regulations around HISA ETFs take effect

    The OSFI ruled that, as of Jan. 31, 2024, “any deposit-taking institutions exposed to such funding must hold sufficient high-quality, liquid assets, such as government bonds, to support all HISA ETF balances that can be withdrawn within 30 days.” 

    What it means for Canadian investors

    While the decision is directed at the banks offering HISAs, it will have indirect effects on the ETFs holding these savings accounts. Some Canadian investors have expressed concern that the new rules might restrict the number of banks taking deposits from fund companies and might constrain yields as a result. 

    An analysis by TD Securities suggested yields would drop around half a percentage point come January. However, Naseem Husain, senior vice president and ETF strategist at Horizons ETFs, emphasizes the upside of regulatory clarity.

    “At the end of the day, the OSFI decision regulates and confirms the ongoing viability of HISA ETFs, ensuring they’re here to stay and will continue to be a viable investment option,” says Husain. “This decision will likely lead to greater competition in the space from a product perspective, and that could incentivize more investors to consider using HISA ETFs in their portfolios.”

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    Michael McCullough

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  • Why the U.S. economy isn't out of the woods as stock market soars

    Why the U.S. economy isn't out of the woods as stock market soars

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    A rally in the U.S. stock and bond markets in the past week defied the bears and fueled hopes for more gains to come by year-end and in 2024 as Wall Street bought into the idea that the economy will pull off a “soft landing” after a run of interest-rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.

    But market skeptics are putting investors on alert that the “soft-landing” scenario is still at risk with consumer spending and job growth slowing, along with corporate earnings.  

    “The equity market is misguided,” said Josh Schachter, senior portfolio manager at Easterly Investment Partners, in a phone interview with MarketWatch. “The markets are behaving in almost a bipolar fashion — some asset classes such as bonds
    BX:TMUBMUSD10Y,
    oil
    BRN00,
    -0.29%    ,
    and dollar
    DXY,
    are being priced for a recession, while other assets such as equities and bitcoin
    BTCUSD,
    +2.16%    ,
    are priced risk-on.” 

    U.S. stocks built on their November gains in the past week, with the S&P 500 index
    SPX
    ending at new 2023 high on Friday and the Dow Jones Industrial Average
    DJIA
    logging its fifth week in the green. The rebound in stocks was due in part to bond investors starting to believe the Fed is done raising interest rates and is likely to begin cutting them by the first quarter of 2024. 

    Meanwhile, the narrative that a resilient labor market and steadier-than-expected economic growth should keep a recession at bay has gained traction, bolstering the “goldilocks” scenario for the financial markets. 

    See: These two leading indicators suggest a U.S. recession has already begun, according to Wall Street’s favorite permabear

    However, signs are emerging that consumer spending, which accounts for about 70% of the U.S. economic output and has boosted the economy this year, has likely run its course following the post-pandemic recovery. Credit card and car loan delinquency rates are rising, student loan payments have resumed, consumer spending is cooling, and there are warnings from top retailers.

    Joseph Quinlan, head of CIO market strategy for Merrill and Bank of America Private Bank, said the “softness” in the U.S. consumer sector is visible but not huge, referring to that as “a canary in a coal mine,” he told MarketWatch via phone on Thursday. 

    The pullback in consumer spending is welcome news for Fed officials, who have increased interest rates 11 times since March 2022 to get inflation back to its preferred target of 2%. However, some analysts are worried that high interest rates and a decline in pandemic savings could eventually translate to weaker consumers in 2024, potentially another sign of a long-predicted slowdown in the U.S. economy.

    “One of the things I’m most concerned about is consumers’ ability to continue to pace the economy — you’ve got several headwinds that haven’t really borne completely out yet,” said Jason Heller, senior executive vice president at Coastal Wealth. “Does the consumer continue to behave the way they behaved the last 36 months? I think you will eventually see a slowdown in consumer spending which is going to mandate a slowdown in the labor market.” 

    Lauren Goodwin, economist and portfolio strategist at New York Life Investments, acknowledged that a modest slowdown in inflation and employment growth means that a “Fed relief rally” in stocks can be sustained, but her concern is this late-cycle limbo is no different than those of the past, which is a moment of “goldilocks” before the very reason that inflation is moderating — slowing economic growth and employment — becomes clear in the data.

    See: ‘We Are Still Headed for a Pretty Hard Landing,’ Ex-Treasury Secretary Larry Summers Says

    That’s why the November employment report, which will be released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics next Friday at 8:30 a.m. Eastern, will be key for investors to watch. The U.S is expected to add 172,500 jobs in November after a 150,000 increase in the prior month, according to economists polled by Dow Jones. The percentage of jobless Americans seeking work is forecast to stay the same at 3.9%, leaving it at the highest level since the beginning of 2022.

    See: U.S. job growth pick up on the radar this coming week

    In fact, nonfarm payroll report publication days have been among the most volatile for stocks in 2023, compared with the release of monthly consumer-price index readings, which sparked some of the biggest daily up and down moves for the S&P 500 and other major indexes in 2022. 

    See also: Do CPI days still rock the stock market? How 2023 stacks up to 2022

    This year, the S&P 500 saw an absolute average percentage change of 1.12% on employment situation release dates, compared with an average percentage move of 0.64% on CPI days, according to figures compiled by Dow Jones Market Data. 

    That said, analysts are skeptical if the employment data is able to tell “a radically different story” but suggest the labor market will remain relatively tight into 2024, said Quinlan and Lauren Sanfilippo at Merrill and Bank of America Private Bank, in a phone interview. 

    See: What 2024 S&P 500 forecasts really say about the stock market

    Too much optimism in 2024 earnings growth

    Corporate America and their shares are telling investors a different story about next year. 

    With an estimated average S&P 500 earnings growth of 11.7% next year, the U.S. stock market is nowhere near recessionary concerns, said Heller. “We’ve [the stocks] priced in pretty significant growth in 2024.” 

    Strategists at Merrill and Bank of America Private Bank are in the camp of expecting a “mid-single digit” earnings growth for the S&P 500 in 2024, as earnings have troughed and the economy will fall back to the 2%-level of real growth after high rates confine consumer spending and corporate profits, cooling a red-hot economy. 

    To be sure, Wall Street analysts tend to overestimate the earnings-per-share (EPS) for the S&P 500, said John Butters, senior earnings analyst at FactSet. 

    The current bottom-up EPS estimate for the S&P 500 in 2024 is $246.30. If that holds true, that would be the highest EPS number reported by the large-cap index since FactSet began tracking this metric in 1996. 

    However, over the past 25 years, the average difference between the EPS estimate at the beginning of the year and the actual EPS number has been 6.9%, meaning analysts on average have overestimated the earnings one year in advance, said Butters in a Friday note (see chart below).

    SOURCE: FACTSET

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  • Bitcoin is up 130% this year. Could it extend the rally in December and 2024?

    Bitcoin is up 130% this year. Could it extend the rally in December and 2024?

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    Bitcoin has extended its rally on Friday, rising to the loftiest level since May 2022, pushing its yearly gain up to over 130%, on pace to be one of the best performing assets this year. 

    The crypto
    BTCUSD,
    +1.28%
    rose about 2.5% over the past 24 hours to around $38,676 Friday afternoon, as excitement about the potential approval of bitcoin exchange-traded funds continues to build. Bitcoin is still 44% down from its all-time high in 2021. 

    Risk assets in general performed well in November, as concerns eased around several pressure points, including the surge in long-term Treasury yields and inflation, analysts at Grayscale Research wrote in a Friday note.

    Despite outperforming many major assets year-to-date, bitcoin underperformed long-term Treasurys and the S&P 500 in November on a volatility-adjusted basis, gaining 9% for the month.


    Bloomberg; Grayscale Investments

    Sam Callahan, market analyst at Swan Bitcoin, said he expects bitcoin to trade between $36,000 and $40,000 by the end of the year, “provided that the macroeconomic environment doesn’t take a turn for the worse, and barring any significant positive development, such as the approval of a Spot Bitcoin ETF or the adoption of Bitcoin by a major corporation, sovereign-wealth fund, or nation-state.”

    Despite bitcoin’s rally so far this year, December has historically been a particularly volatile month for the crypto, since it was created in 2009. It rose seven out of 13 times in December, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

    In years when bitcoin gained more than 100% through November, the digital asset saw an average gain of 20% in December, rising four of the six times it occurred, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

    To be sure, bitcoin has a relatively short history and was particularly volatile during its early years. 

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  • 7% Dividend Yields or Higher: The S&P 500’s 6 Best Payouts

    7% Dividend Yields or Higher: The S&P 500’s 6 Best Payouts

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    7% Dividend Yields or Higher: The S&P 500’s 6 Best Payouts

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  • Why do people keep suing celebrities like Ronaldo and Tom Brady over crypto losses?

    Why do people keep suing celebrities like Ronaldo and Tom Brady over crypto losses?

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    Ever since the collapse of crypto currencies last year, the lawsuits have been flying.

    But a series of class-action suits targeting celebrity endorsers of crypto exchanges like FTX and Binance have been piling up in federal court in Miami, all filed by the same group of south Florida lawyers.

    The latest suit names global soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo for allegedly promoting “the mass solicitation of investments in unregistered securities” sold by Binance, the crypto exchange that was hit with a $4 billion fine last week after pleading guilty to violating the bank secrecy act.

    The suit was filed in federal court in the southern district of Florida this week and centered around Ronaldo’s role in a global marketing campaign launched in 2022 for a series of Binance NFTs — or non-fungible tokens, a form of blockchain-backed art works that were, for a brief time, wildly popular.

    A representative for Ronaldo didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

    The filing against Ronaldo on Monday came alongside similar class action suits naming Major League Baseball, Formula 1 racing, Mercedes Benz and the advertising giants Dentsu and Wasserman, who created much of FTX’s global promotion campaign.

    Messages left with representatives for MLB, Formula 1, Mercedes Benz, Dentsu and Wasserman weren’t immediately returned.

    Those suits are the latest in a series of similar class action suits starting last year against celebrity endorsers of failed crypto exchanges such as Voyager and FTX, in which customers lost billions of dollars in deposits.

    Over the past 18 months, a group of south Florida lawyers led by Adam Moskowitz have brought the suits on behalf of investors who lost money in last year’s crypto collapse, against paid celebrity endorsers including Shaquille O’Neal, Mark Cuban, Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen, Shohei Ohtani, Larry David, Steph Curry and Naomi Osaka.

    “All of these celebrities were paid hundreds of millions of dollars taken directly from customer deposits,” Moskowitz said in a statement. “Some of the most famous and wealthiest groups in the world may now be held responsible for the dramatic $20 billion dollar crypto collapse and biggest financial scandals in U.S. history.”    

    Moskowitz, who has been joined in the suits by lawyers with the firms Mark Migdal & Hayden and Boies Schiller and Flexner, headed by famed litigator David Boies, is seeking at least $5 billion in damages from those who helped promote the crypto exchanges. 

    The cases from last year are ongoing and each of the celebrities named have been fighting the suits in court. 

    Moskowitz, who specializes in class-action lawsuits, says issues revolving around crypto first got his attention more than two years ago, before the entire market crashed, when he came to believe that the special tokens each exchange was minting amounted to an unregistered security.

    He first filed a lawsuit against Voyager early last year, before the exchange collapsed and the Securities and Exchange Commission began filing suits against many in the industry accusing them of dealing in unregistered securities.

    “Right then what we were doing started to gain traction,” he said.

    A series of favorable court rulings have allowed his cases to gain steam, he said, and has allowed to him to take the lead in such actions.

    In another class action suit filed earlier this year, Moskowitz and his partners sued a group of YouTube financial influencers for their role in promoting FTX, accusing them of taking cash for uncritically singing the exchange’s praises.

    Moskowitz said several of those suits have been settled but that others have continued. 

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  • Apple scotches credit-card partnership with Goldman Sachs: report

    Apple scotches credit-card partnership with Goldman Sachs: report

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    Apple Inc. AAPL is calling it quits on its credit-card partnership with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS, ending the Wall Street bank’s push into consumer lending, according to a Wall Street Journal report Tuesday. The iPhone maker sent a proposal to Goldman to leave the contract within 15 months, according to people briefed on the matter. The exit would cover the companies’ consumer partnership, which includes the credit card the companies launched in 2019 and the savings account rolled out in 2023. It is unclear if Apple has lined up a new issuer for the card.

    …

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  • Dow Jones ends about 80 points higher as U.S. bond yields keep falling

    Dow Jones ends about 80 points higher as U.S. bond yields keep falling

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    U.S. stocks posted modest gains on Tuesday, resuming a strong rally in November that has been propelled by tumbling U.S. bond yields. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA closed up about 83 points, or 0.2%, ending near 35,416, according to preliminary FactSet data. The S&P 500 index SPX was 0.1% higher, while the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP closed up 0.3%. Equity investors were emboldened after Fed Governor Christopher Waller said on Tuesday that a cooling economy could help bring inflation down to the central bank’s 2% yearly target, even though he also said it’s unclear if more interest rate hikes were warranted. The…

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  • Safe Harbor Financial’s Year of Living Dangerously – Cannabis Business Executive – Cannabis and Marijuana industry news

    Safe Harbor Financial’s Year of Living Dangerously – Cannabis Business Executive – Cannabis and Marijuana industry news

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    Safe Harbor Financial’s Year of Living Dangerously – Cannabis Business Executive – Cannabis and Marijuana industry news






























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    Tom Hymes

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  • The Cost of Doing Business With China? A $40,000 Dinner With Xi Jinping Might Be Just the Start

    The Cost of Doing Business With China? A $40,000 Dinner With Xi Jinping Might Be Just the Start

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    Updated Nov. 28, 2023 12:54 am ET

    Broadcom Chief Executive Hock Tan shelled out $40,000 to sit at Xi Jinping’s table for the Chinese leader’s recent dinner in San Francisco with the heads of American businesses. Tan had a lot more at stake—a $69 billion deal he was waiting on China to approve.

    For months, Chinese regulators wouldn’t clear the U.S. chipmaker’s bid to buy enterprise software developer VMware, leading Broadcom to put off its date for completion of the deal—first announced in May 2022—three times. Beijing had held up previous mergers involving U.S. companies. Intel’s planned acquisition of Israeli firm Tower Semiconductor, for more than $5 billion, was scuttled in August after Chinese regulators failed to approve it.

    Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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  • New-home sales drop in October to much lower level than expected

    New-home sales drop in October to much lower level than expected

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    The numbers: U.S. new-home sales fell 5.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 679,000 in October, from a revised 719,000 in September, the government reported Monday. 

    Analysts polled by the Wall Street Journal had forecast new-home sales to occur at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 725,000 in October.

    The data are often revised sharply….

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  • Congress returns to face big to-do list: Israel and Ukraine aid, possible border or tax deals, and more

    Congress returns to face big to-do list: Israel and Ukraine aid, possible border or tax deals, and more

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    Both the House and Senate are due to get back to work this week after their Thanksgiving break, and lawmakers have a lot on their plates.

    A divided Washington put off the threat of a partial government shutdown until mid-January by enacting a short-term spending bill in mid-November, but the measure didn’t address President Joe Biden’s $106 billion funding request that includes wartime aid for Israel and Ukraine.

    So…

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  • Crypto bulls eye $40,000 as bitcoin’s next level as the coin refreshes yearly high

    Crypto bulls eye $40,000 as bitcoin’s next level as the coin refreshes yearly high

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    Crypto bulls are eyeing $40,000 as bitcoin’s next level, with the recent rally sending the crypto to a new high for the year, as the market shakes off the news that Binance’s co-founder Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty on Tuesday to criminal charges related to violating U.S. anti-money-laundering laws, and stepped down as head of the company.

    The largest crypto BTCUSD on Friday rose to as high as $38,294, the loftiest level since May 2022, according to CoinDesk data. It climbed over 3% over the past 24 hours. 

    Bitcoin…

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  • SEC charges crypto platform Kraken with operating as an unregistered exchange

    SEC charges crypto platform Kraken with operating as an unregistered exchange

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    The Securities and Exchange Commission charged cryptocurrency trading platform Kraken with operating as an unregistered securities exchange.

    The charges are the latest effort by regulators to crack down on crypto companies, some of which the SEC views as illegally selling securities without registering with the commission.

    Kraken didn’t immediately…

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  • Cannabis Banking Today – Cannabis Business Executive – Cannabis and Marijuana industry news

    Cannabis Banking Today – Cannabis Business Executive – Cannabis and Marijuana industry news

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    Technology-stock gains drive big day, week on Wall Street

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  • Wilbur Ross Fast Facts | CNN Politics

    Wilbur Ross Fast Facts | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at the life of former Commerce Secretary Wilbur L. Ross Jr.

    Birth date: November 28, 1937

    Birth place: Weehawken, New Jersey

    Birth name: Wilbur Louis Ross Jr.

    Father: Wilbur Louis Ross Sr., a lawyer

    Mother: Agnes (O’Neill) Ross, a teacher

    Marriages: Hilary (Geary) Ross (October 9, 2004); Betsy (McCaughey) Ross (December 7, 1995-August 2000, divorced); Judith (Nodine) Ross (May 26, 1961-October 1995, divorced)

    Children: with Judith Nodine: Jessica and Amanda

    Education: Yale University, A.B., 1959, Harvard University, M.B.A., 1961

    He was called the “King of Bankruptcy,” as he built new companies from the assets of defaulted ones.

    Ross was known for investing in distressed companies in a wide range of industries including auto parts, steel, textiles and financial services.

    1976-2000 – Works for the investment bank Rothschild Inc. During his tenure, he becomes a top bankruptcy adviser.

    January 1998 – Pledges $2.25 million towards then-wife and Lt. Governor Betsy McCaughey Ross’ campaign for governor of New York. He withdraws the funding in September and files for divorce in November.

    2000 – Purchases a small fund he started at Rothschild and opens his own private equity firm, WL Ross & Co. LLC.

    2002 – Establishes the International Steel Group (ISG), with himself as chairman of the board, through a series of mergers and acquisitions starting with Bethlehem Steel Corp.

    December 2003 – ISG goes public.

    2004 – Forms the International Coal Group (ICG) after purchasing the assets of Horizon Natural Resources in a bankruptcy auction.

    October 2004 – Merges ISG with Mittal Steel for $4.5 billion.

    January 2, 2006 – Twelve miners are killed after an explosion at a West Virginia mine operated by an ICG subsidiary. Families of the dead and Randal McCloy, the lone survivor, sue ICG and WL Ross claiming negligence. All of the lawsuits are settled by November 2011.

    April 2010 – Purchases a 21% stake in Richard Branson’s Virgin Money. In November 2011, Ross helps Branson fund a successful bid for the British bank Northern Rock.

    August 2, 2010 – During an interview with Charlie Rose, Ross states that he’s fine with higher taxes on the wealthy as long as the government puts the money to good use.

    June 2011 – Arch Coal, Inc. acquires ICG for $3.4 billion.

    September 2011 – WL Ross is one of five US and Canadian companies that purchase a 34.9% stake in the Bank of Ireland. Ross’ share is reportedly 9.3%.

    March 21, 2016 – Nexeo Solutions, a chemical distribution company, announces their merger agreement with WL Ross Holding Corporation. The merger is valued at nearly $1.6 billion.

    August 24, 2016 – The Securities and Exchange Commission announces that WL Ross will pay a $2.3 million fine for failing to properly disclose fees it charged.

    November 30, 2016 – Ross announces in a CNBC interview that President-elect Donald Trump has asked him to serve as his commerce secretary.

    February 27, 2017 – The Senate confirms Ross as commerce secretary by a 72-27 vote. He is sworn in the next day.

    November 5, 2017 – The New York Times reports that Ross has financial ties to a shipping company whose clients include a Russian energy company co-owned by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s son-in-law. Another customer of the shipping company is Venezuela’s state-run oil company, which has been sanctioned by the US government. The information comes from the Paradise Papers, a release of 13.4 million leaked documents.

    November 7, 2017 – Two days after the Paradise Papers are released, Forbes reports that Ross inflated his net worth to be included in the magazine’s annual list of the world’s wealthiest individuals. His name is removed from the magazine’s website. An investigation by the magazine reveals that Ross has likely been providing inaccurate financial information since 2004. Ross claims that the magazine overlooked trusts for his family while tallying his fortune.

    March 2, 2018 – During an appearance on CNBC, Ross says the Trump administration’s steel and aluminum tariffs won’t hurt consumers. He holds up a can of Campbell’s soup as he explains that the price of soup will go up less than a penny due to the tariffs.

    March 26, 2018 – Ross announces that a citizenship question will be added to the 2020 census.

    July 12, 2018 – Ross admits to “errors” in failing to divest assets required by his government ethics agreement and says he will sell all his stock holdings. The admission comes after the Office of Government Ethics took Ross to task for what it said were inconsistencies in his financial disclosure forms.

    September 21, 2018 – A federal judge rules that Ross must sit for a deposition in a lawsuit regarding his department’s decision to include a question about citizenship in the 2020 census. The US Supreme Court later blocks the deposition.

    December 19, 2018 – The Center for Public Integrity reports that Ross failed to sell a bank stock holding within the required time frame after his 2017 confirmation and subsequently signed ethics documents indicating the holding had been sold.

    February 15, 2019 – Ross’ financial disclosure form is rejected by the Office of Government Ethics. Ross later releases a statement saying, “While I am disappointed that my report was not certified, I remain committed to complying with my ethics agreement and adhering to the guidance of Commerce ethics officials.”

    June 27, 2019 – The Supreme Court issues a 5-4 ruling that blocks the citizenship question from being added to the census.

    July 17, 2019 – The House votes to hold Ross in criminal contempt over a dispute related to the citizenship question on the census. Attorney General William Barr is also held in contempt. Ross releases a statement in which he dismisses the vote as a political stunt. “House Democrats never sought to have a productive relationship with the Trump Administration, and today’s PR stunt further demonstrates their unending quest to generate headlines instead of operating in good faith with our Department.”

    July 18, 2020 – A department spokesman says that Ross has been hospitalized for “minor, non-coronavirus related issues.” On July 27, the Commerce Department says Ross has been released from the hospital.

    September 28, 2020 – Ross announces that he intends to conclude the 2020 census on October 5. This is more than three weeks earlier than expected and against the October 31 court reinstated end date. Ross asks Census Bureau officials if the earlier date would effectively allow them to produce a final set of numbers during Trump’s current term in office, according to an internal email released the following day as part of a lawsuit.

    October 13, 2020 – The Supreme Court grants a request from the Trump administration to halt the census count while an appeal plays out over a lower court’s order that it continue. The Census Bureau announces that the count is ending on October 15.

    July 19, 2021 – According to a letter made public from Commerce Department Inspector General Peggy Gustafson to Democratic lawmakers, the Justice Department decides to decline prosecution of Ross for misrepresentations he made to Congress about the origins of the Trump administration’s failed push to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

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  • Rahm Emanuel Fast Facts | CNN

    Rahm Emanuel Fast Facts | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at US Ambassador to Japan and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

    Birth date: November 29, 1959

    Birth place: Chicago, Illinois

    Birth name: Rahm Israel Emanuel

    Father: Benjamin Emanuel, a pediatrician

    Mother: Martha (Smulevitz) Emanuel, a psychiatric social worker

    Marriage: Amy Rule (1994-present)

    Children: Leah, Ilana and Zach

    Education: Sarah Lawrence College, B.A., Liberal Arts, 1981; Northwestern University, M.A. Speech and Communication, 1985

    Religion: Jewish

    Emanuel’s father is Israeli, and his mother is American.

    Emanuel worked at Arby’s during high school. Part of his finger had to be amputated after a cut from a meat slicer became severely infected.

    Took ballet in high school and received a scholarship to study dance at the Joffrey Ballet School, attended Sarah Lawrence instead.

    Maintained dual American-Israeli citizenship until the age of 18.

    Is sometimes called “Rahmbo” by news outlets such as the Economist and Salon for his tough, no-nonsense approach to politics and fundraising.

    1980 – Works as a fundraiser on David Robinson’s congressional campaign for Illinois’ 20th district, in Chicago.

    1984 – Works on Paul Simon’s campaign for US Senate.

    1988 – Serves as national campaign director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

    1989 – Chief fundraiser and senior adviser for Richard M. Daley’s campaign for mayor of Chicago.

    1991-1992 – Serves as national finance director for the Bill Clinton/Al Gore presidential campaign.

    1993-1998 – Serves as a senior adviser to President Clinton, including roles as deputy director of communications, executive assistant, senior adviser on policy and strategy and senior adviser on political affairs.

    1999-2002 – Managing director of investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in Chicago.

    February 2000-May 2001 – Member of the Freddie Mac board of directors.

    November 5, 2002 – Wins election to the US House of Representatives for Illinois’ 5th District; is re-elected in 2004, 2006, and 2008.

    November 5, 2008 – Is named White House chief of staff for President-elect Barack Obama.

    December 29, 2008 – Announces he will resign his seat in the House of Representatives.

    January 20, 2009-October 1, 2010 – Serves as White House chief of staff.

    October 1, 2010 – Resigns as White House chief of staff and moves back to Chicago.

    November 13, 2010 – Formally announces that he is running for mayor of Chicago.

    January 24, 2011 – An Illinois appellate court panel rules that Emanuel does not meet the residency standard to run for mayor.

    January 25, 2011 – The Illinois Supreme Court grants a stay on the appeals court ruling, and orders that any ballots printed include Emanuel’s name while the case is pending.

    January 27, 2011 – The Illinois Supreme Court issues a ruling allowing Emanuel’s name on the Chicago mayoral ballot.

    February 22, 2011 – With 55% of the vote, Emanuel is elected the 46th and first Jewish mayor of Chicago.

    May 16, 2011 – Is sworn in at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park.

    February 5, 2013 – Reports for jury duty but is ultimately dismissed. He says he’ll donate his $17 paycheck back to Cook County.

    April 7, 2015 – Is reelected mayor of Chicago.

    September 4, 2018 – Emanuel announces that he will not seek reelection to a third term as mayor of Chicago.

    May 21, 2019 – The day after he leaves the mayor’s office, Emanuel signs a deal with ABC News to become an on-air contributor, two people familiar with the matter tell CNN. The Atlantic also announces his new role at the magazine as a contributing editor.

    June 5, 2019 – Emanuel announces he will be joining the investment bank Centerview Partners, LLC. He will open a Chicago office and act as an adviser to the firm’s clients.

    August 20, 2021 – President Joe Biden announces his intention to nominate Emanuel as ambassador to Japan.

    December 18, 2021 – Is confirmed as the US ambassador to Japan by a vote of 48-21, with 31 senators not voting, ending a months-long Republican-led blockade on quick consideration of more than three dozen diplomatic nominations.

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  • How ransomware attack on ICBC rattled the Treasury market and shook up a 30-year bond auction

    How ransomware attack on ICBC rattled the Treasury market and shook up a 30-year bond auction

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    It was a trading day unlike any other for traders in the $25 trillion Treasury market, with a 30-year bond auction seen as having been partially undermined by a cyberattack on the U.S. unit of a Chinese bank.

    In recapping Treasury’s poorly received $24 billion bond auction on Thursday, traders said the weaker-than-expected results likely had at least something to do with this week’s ransomware hit on the American arm of Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, known as ICBC. That attack reportedly caused disruptions across the market and had some impact on liquidity, with the Financial Times citing unnamed sources as saying hedge funds and asset managers were forced to reroute trades.

    Traders were grappling on Friday to answer the question of what created the sudden lack of interest at the auction, which went so badly that it also shook up U.S. stock investors. Thursday’s sale was the worst since November 2021, based on the extent to which primary dealers were forced to step in and pick up the slack in demand, one trader said. And it reinforced a recent pattern of weak auctions for the 30-year bond that may not bode well for future sales of that long-dated maturity.

    It’s possible that bonds simply “look much less attractive” following a recent “explosive rally” since late October, according to Charlie McElligott, a cross-asset macro strategist at Nomura Securities in New York. However, “this might be the case of ‘more than meets the eye’ to this ‘ugly auction evidencing low demand for duration’ story,” he wrote in a note.

    “One dynamic that makes yesterday’s ugly auction results murky was the ICBC cyberattack described across various financial media, which gunked-up anybody who clears UST trades through them, and made it so that many dealers were then likely unable to trade with those clients until resolved, on account of unsettled trades which weren’t able to be matched,” McElligott said.

    Adding to Thursday’s uncertainty was another random event. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell appeared on stage in an International Monetary Fund panel, was interrupted by a climate protester, and then uttered a seven-letter expletive that could be heard on the event’s livestream.

    Powell’s policy-related remarks, which indicated the central bank might take further action to control inflation, “didn’t help things and kind of spooked people again,” said John Farawell, head of municipal trading at New York bond underwriter Roosevelt & Cross.

    Read: Fed’s Powell Made Cryptic Comments. How He’s Guiding the Market.

    On Friday, the Treasury market found stabilization as buyers returned to segments of government debt in a sign that calm was being restored. A rush of buying was seen on the 30-year bond
    BX:TMUBMUSD30Y,
    sending its yield down to 4.733% and to a third straight weekly decline.

    Meanwhile, Bloomberg News reported that the repercussions of the ICBC cyberattack included an inability to deliver U.S. debt that was being pledged as collateral. ICBC’s U.S. unit was forced to rely on a messenger carrying a USB stick across Manhattan to complete disrupted trades, according to the news service, which also described Thursday’s $24 billion 30-year bond auction as one of the worst in a decade.

    The ICBC attack “might have had a dramatic impact on the auction. I don’t know how much, but I also can’t imagine it didn’t,” said Tom di Galoma, co-head of global rates trading for BTIG in New York. “When people see that there are trade-settlement issues, there’s a willingness to back off and that’s exactly what happened yesterday. Institutional accounts were saying, ‘We don’t know who is settling this trade.’ If the cyberattack hadn’t happened, I think the auction would have gone a lot better.”

    Ben Emons, a senior portfolio manager and head of fixed income for NewEdge Wealth in New York, said that once the Treasury market got upended by the ICBC cyberattack, the bad auction, and the interruption during Powell’s appearance, liquidity on U.S. government debt “was, for a moment, a dark matter.”

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