Article: FINRA Fines Credit Suisse $345K For Worker Oversight Lapse

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FINRA Fines Credit Suisse $345K For Worker Oversight Lapse

Al Barbarino, 06 April 2021

Credit Suisse Securities failed to monitor thousands of its employees’ outside brokerage accounts for “potentially deceptive” trading practices, according to a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority settlement that censures the broker-dealer and slaps it with a $345,000 fine.

The New York-based subsidiary of Credit Suisse Group failed to adequately track whether its new employees had disclosed outside brokerage accounts, according to the settlement, which was published Monday. Continue reading “Article: FINRA Fines Credit Suisse $345K For Worker Oversight Lapse”

Article: After Taking $4.7 Billion Hit, Credit Suisse Executives Step Downs

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After Taking $4.7 Billion Hit, Credit Suisse Executives Step Downs

Alicia McElhaney, 06 April 2021

The hits keep coming for investment banking giant Credit Suisse.

The firm announced Tuesday that it expects to take a CHF 4.4 billion (USD $4.7 billion) writedown following losses related to family office Archegos Capital Management’s failure to meet its margin requirements.

Executives are stepping down, and the firm has launched two investigations: one into Archegos, and another into Credit Suisse’s purchase of Greensill Capital’s supply chain debt. Thomas Gottstein, chief executive officer of the firm, called the losses tied to Archegos “unacceptable.” Continue reading “Article: After Taking $4.7 Billion Hit, Credit Suisse Executives Step Downs”

Article: Deutsche Bank dodges bullets and goes mainstream

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Deutsche Bank dodges bullets and goes mainstream

PATRICK JENKINS , 06 April 2021

It is a striking paradox that postwar Germany has achieved sustained success as an economy, even with a flailing banking sector, headed by the flag-carrying Deutsche Bank, to underpin it. But there are signs the contradiction may be resolving.

Over the past three years, Deutsche has beaten its European rivals in share price terms — sketchy evidence, perhaps, especially as that share price has actually fallen and Deutsche has paid next to no dividends. But it is a notable outperformance nonetheless.
Continue reading “Article: Deutsche Bank dodges bullets and goes mainstream”

Article: Credit Suisse overhauls management as it takes $4.7 billion hit on Archegos

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Credit Suisse overhauls management as it takes $4.7 billion hit on Archegos

Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi, Matt Scuffham, 06 April 2021

ZURICH (Reuters) -Credit Suisse said on Tuesday it will take a 4.4 billion Swiss franc ($4.7 billion) hit from dealings with Archegos Capital Management, prompting it to overhaul the leadership of its investment bank and risk division.

The scandal-hit bank now expects to post a loss for the first quarter of around 900 million Swiss francs. It is also suspending its share buyback plans and cutting its dividend by two thirds. Continue reading “Article: Credit Suisse overhauls management as it takes $4.7 billion hit on Archegos”

Article: Flourishing Financially: Corporate Finance In Switzerland

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Flourishing Financially: Corporate Finance In Switzerland

RHEA WESSEL, 02 April 2021

Switzerland is reasserting its reputation as a stable and resilient economy in times of turbulence. While markets elsewhere are concerned about overleveraged companies and ballooning public debt, credit and capital markets in Switzerland appear to be quietly ticking along with the reliability of a proverbial Swiss watch.

It is not for nothing that the country and its currency are considered among the safest of havens. After the Alpine republic and its internationally oriented companies weathered the 2008 global financial crisis, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) tackled the relentless appreciation of the Swiss franc by massively intervening in the currency market, opening Switzerland to accusations of currency manipulation.

But it worked. The SNB’s efforts stemmed the franc’s rise, protecting Swiss companies’ competitiveness and creating favorable funding conditions in the country. Corporate bond spreads hardly budged throughout the financial crisis, a stark contrast to the adverse environment CFOs faced in the eurozone and the US. Continue reading “Article: Flourishing Financially: Corporate Finance In Switzerland”

Article: Another Wirecard? Invoices Backing Greensill-Issued Bonds Never Existed, Administrator Finds

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Another Wirecard? Invoices Backing Greensill-Issued Bonds Never Existed, Administrator Finds

TYLER DURDEN, 02 April 2021

As the collapse of Greensill Capital threatens to ensnare former PM David Cameron in a humiliating public probe, the Financial Times on Thursday reported some disturbing new details that appear to suggest Greensill wasn’t merely reckless, but potentially guilty of a Wirecard-style fraud.

According to the FT, Greensil’s administrator – who is responsible for winding down whatever assets remain and managing creditors’ claims -“has failed to verify invoices underpinning loans to Sanjeev Gupta, after companies listed on the documents denied that they had ever done business with the metals magnate.”

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Article: Turkey fines firms over short selling irregularities

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Turkey fines firms over short selling irregularities

Reuters, 01 April 2021

Turkey fined 10 securities firms for up to 7.8 million lira ($1 million) in relation to irregularities in short-selling transactions, the country’s Capital Markets Board said in its weekly bulletin on Thursday.

Fines of various amounts were imposed on firms including Merrill Lynch International, JP Morgan Securities, Goldman Sachs International, Credit Suisse Securities Europe and Barclays Capital Securities, the statement said.

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Article: Influential UK Standards Watchdog Targets Cameron’s Greensill Lobbying

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Influential UK Standards Watchdog Targets Cameron’s Greensill Lobbying

TYLER DURDEN, 31 March 2021

By now, the British media has been inundated with reports about the special access afforded Greensill Capital, the trade-finance firm that collapsed and filed for administration three weeks ago after its main insurer declined to renew policies on some of Greensill’s assets, setting off a chain reaction that ensnared some of Europe’s biggest banks (including the embattled Credit Suisse, which is simultaneously fighting off another scandal in the Archegos Capital blowup).

And many of these stories have focused on the firm’s relationship with former Prime Minister David Cameron, who was hired as a senior advisor by the firm after he left No. 10 Downing Street. Cameron continued to lobby on the firm’s behalf, even after the michegas at GAM a few years back that led to the departure of star trader Tim Haywood, one of the most high-profile investors in London. It was reported that alleged misconduct attributed to Haywood had to do with his investments in Greensill paper – paper that was reportedly tied to Sanjay Gupta’s GFG Alliance group of companies, who have also emerged as main characters in the collapse of a group of Credit Suisse funds (the bank is now tallying client losses and even weighing the possibility of reimbursing some of its more important clients who have threatened to take their business elsewhere). Continue reading “Article: Influential UK Standards Watchdog Targets Cameron’s Greensill Lobbying”

Article: In Archegos fire sale, Credit Suisse, Nomura burned by slow exit

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In Archegos fire sale, Credit Suisse, Nomura burned by slow exit

Matt Scuffham, Elizabeth Dilts Marshall, Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi, 31 March 2021

NEW YORK/ZURICH (Reuters) -While banks including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank were able to exit their trades with Archegos Capital relatively unscathed, Credit Suisse and Nomura have been burned in the fire sale.

The blowup of the Archegos fund, a family office run by former Tiger Asia manager Bill Hwang, is still reverberating across the financial system, with global banks so far standing to lose more than $6 billion.

Switzerland’s Credit Suisse and Japan’s Nomura are expected to bear the brunt of that. Continue reading “Article: In Archegos fire sale, Credit Suisse, Nomura burned by slow exit”

Article:SEC Opens Probe Into Archegos Chaos, Deutsche Bank Confirms ‘Quick Sale’ To Avoid All Losses

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SEC Opens Probe Into Archegos Chaos, Deutsche Bank Confirms ‘Quick Sale’ To Avoid All Losses

TYLER DURDEN, 31 March 2021

As more details from the now infamous debacle surrounding Tiger cub Archegos, whose massive derivative-based exposures spilled out into the open and transformed into the biggest and most painful rolling margin call to hit Wall Street since Lehman, we now know that at least six Prime Brokers scrambled to unwind the biggest hedge fund blowup since LTCM without hammering the overall market.

To “make a living in this business… be first, be smarter, or cheat…”

We previously noted that Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs were the “first” to break ranks and rejected the efforts of Credit Suisse’s emissaries who tried to create consensus to unwind the positions without sparking a panic.

As we now also know, Nomura and Credit Suisse which dithered and were unsure what to do, seeing their stock crushed and their counterparty risk hedge premia explode higher.. Continue reading “Article:SEC Opens Probe Into Archegos Chaos, Deutsche Bank Confirms ‘Quick Sale’ To Avoid All Losses”

Article: Nomura CEO’s Honeymoon Ends With $2 Billion Archegos Debacle

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Nomura CEO’s Honeymoon Ends With $2 Billion Archegos Debacle

Takashi Nakamichi and Takako Taniguchi,  31 March 2021

Nomura Holdings Inc.’s chief executive officer was having a bumper inaugural year in charge — until a U.S. family office spoiled the party.

Just days before Kentaro Okuda’s first anniversary as head of Japan’s biggest brokerage, the company warned of a “significant” loss from an unnamed U.S. client. That’s tied to the massive unwinding of leveraged bets by Bill Hwang’s Archegos Capital Management, according to people familiar with the matter. Continue reading “Article: Nomura CEO’s Honeymoon Ends With $2 Billion Archegos Debacle”

Article: Big banks win dismissal of U.S. Treasury rigging litigation

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Big banks win dismissal of U.S. Treasury rigging litigation

Jonathan Stempel, 31 March 2021

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Wednesday dismissed long-running litigation accusing 10 large banks of conspiring to suppress competition in the now $21.2 trillion market for U.S. Treasury securities.

U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe in Manhattan ruled against 21 pension, retirement and benefit funds, as well as unions, banks, individuals, and companies that traded in Treasuries, in the proposed antitrust class action.

The defendants included Bank of America, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, NatWest Group and UBS, as well as trading platform operator Tradeweb Markets. Continue reading “Article: Big banks win dismissal of U.S. Treasury rigging litigation”

Article: Comeback quashed for faith-driven investor Bill Hwang

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Comeback quashed for faith-driven investor Bill Hwang

Lawrence Delevingne, 30 March 2021

(Reuters) – Bill Hwang’s comeback was nearly complete. Once punished by U.S. and Asian regulators for stock trading rule violations at his former hedge fund, the New York investor rebuilt his fortune to about $10 billion. Major Wall Street banks once again competed for his business. And his charitable foundation’s coffers swelled by hundreds of millions of dollars.

Hwang was making big money again, inspired by a renewed Christian faith.

“When we create good companies through the capitalism that God has allowed, it enhances people’s lives….God delights in those things,” Hwang said in a video posted online in 2019 here. Continue reading “Article: Comeback quashed for faith-driven investor Bill Hwang”

Article: US and eurozone consumer confidence hit one-year highs; German inflation jumps – as it happened

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US and eurozone consumer confidence hit one-year highs; German inflation jumps – as it happened

Graeme Wearden,  30 March 2021

US consumer confidence has leapt sharply this month, hitting its highest level since the pandemic began. Stimulus spending and vaccine rollout are spurring hopes of an economic recovery.

US house prices have also continued their recent climb:

In the eurozone, economic confidence has also jumped to a one-year high. Industrial firms, services companies and consumers all reported more optimism about the future.

French consumer confidence also picked up.

In Germany, inflation has risen – hitting 2% on an EU-harmonised basis. Economists predict it will keep rising in the coming months, with higher energy prices partly to blame. Continue reading “Article: US and eurozone consumer confidence hit one-year highs; German inflation jumps – as it happened”

Article: Wall Street Giants Beat Treasury Auction Rigging MDL

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Wall Street Giants Beat Treasury Auction Rigging MDL

Dean Seal, 30 March 2021

A New York federal judge ruled Wednesday that he has yet to see any direct evidence that Wall Street banks including Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse conspired to manipulate the $14 trillion market for securities issued by the U.S. Treasury Department.

U.S. District Judge Paul G. Gardephe dismissed long-running multidistrict litigation accusing a group of banks that also included JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley of rigging auctions for Treasury Department bonds and other securities, on top of reducing competition in a secondary market for those securities. Continue reading “Article: Wall Street Giants Beat Treasury Auction Rigging MDL”

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