Good morning New York,
FT ALPHAVILLE
WMPs and China's shadow banking whack-a-mole game: The China Banking Regulatory Commission last week issued several strict-sounding new rules applying to the issuance of Wealth Management Products. The investment products have seen massive growth in the past year, with assets tripling to RMB10tn in the past two years, equivalent to 10 per cent of all China's bank deposits. Apart from upsetting share prices of mainland Chinese banks, Kate wonders: what are the new rules actually going to achieve — if anything?
Expectations reconsidered at the BoJ: As the Bank of Japan starts trying to meet some mightily high expectations, David points to the changing relationship between the yen and US, Japanese rates. It's more exciting than it sounds... if you're into that kind of thing.
'Uncomfortable' reading material: The Salz Review, looking at business practices at Barclays, is out. Paul's post has more.
Les holdouts misérables: As the pari passu saga in New York rattles towards its (potential) end, the contest of wills and/or highly-paid lawyers between Elliott and Argentina goes on elsewhere, of course. On that note Joseph suggests we pay attention to how the Cour de cassation in France treated some of NML's judgement debt last week.
NEWS
The SEC has given US companies permission to tweet their earnings and other financial data. The regulator said postings on services such as Facebook and Twitter are just as good as news releases and company websites — as long as the companies have told investors which outlets they intend to use. (Wall Street Journal) (Financial Times)
Health insurers prevail in Medicare fight with Washington: "Shares of health insurance companies soared Tuesday after federal officials scrapped proposed payment cuts to carriers that run Medicare plans amid pressure from senior citizens and lawmakers. Insurers including Humana, UnitedHealth Group and Cigna Corp. get paid by the federal government to run Medicare plans for more than 14 million Americans. Known as Medicare Advantage plans, the policies have been a growth spot for insurers as baby boomers turn 65 and appeal to seniors with perks like free gym memberships. Nearly one in three people on Medicare is on such a plan." (Wall Street Journal)
A debate in the open on the Fed: "Charles Evans, president of the Chicago Fed, said the U.S. must avoid the fate of deflation-plagued Japan as he argued for maintaining record easing. "There's still work to do," he said at yesterday's forum. Richmond's Jeffrey Lacker raised the specter of 1970s-style inflation as he warned against keeping interest rates low for too long. "I am trying to look around the bend, trying to anticipate what could go wrong," he said." (Bloomberg) (New York Times)
BP puts US wind power units up for sale, estimated to be worth about $1.5bn, as it continues its retreat from renewable energy to focus on its core oil and gas business. BP was the only large oil group with a substantial wind operation. Royal Dutch Shell made some moves into the industry in the past decade, but gave up on its ambitions in 2009. (Financial Times)
"The International Monetary Fund will contribute 1 billion euros over three years to the 10 billion euro bailout for Cyprus, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in a statement on Wednesday. Lagarde said she expected the IMF board to approve the funds in early May." (Reuters)
Ofgem fines SSE £10.5m over mis-selling: SSE has been fined £10.5m by Ofgem, the UK energy regulator, for using misleading sales practices to lure consumers away from their existing supplier. In a damning report Ofgem said that SSE had failed consumers "at every stage of the sales process", which had led to "prolonged and extensive mis-selling" by the power provider between 2009 and 2011. (Financial Times)
Putin decree targets elite's foreign assets: Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has moved to inject some moral fibre into the country's top-level bureaucrats and state employees by giving them a three-month deadline to close their foreign bank accounts and divest themselves of offshore assets – or face the sack. The decree is the president's latest move to "de-offshore" Russia's economy, a mission he outlined last December in a major policy address. According to a number of policy makers, the aim is not just to tackle corruption among the political elite – famed for its ability to extract and squirrel away vast sums – but also to make its members less vulnerable to foreign influence. (Financial Times)
"The men who ran HBOS in the lead-up to its collapse face castigation on Thursday in a damning parliamentary report that reveals that the total cost of bailing out the bank rose to close to £30bn, according to people familiar with the report… According to people familiar with the parliamentary investigation, Lord Stevenson, chairman of the bank from its creation up to 2008, Sir James Crosby who was chief executive up to early 2007, and Andy Hornby, CEO for the following two years, are set to be the main focus of the report's criticism. (Financial Times)
Israel strikes at sites in Gaza Strip: The Israeli Air Force struck two sites in the Gaza Strip overnight, the first such attack since last November's Operation Pillar of Defence, after a night that also saw Israel return fire in the Golan Heights region bordering Syria. The Israeli attack came after what was described in Gaza as two mortar shells fired toward Israel as a retaliation for the death of a Palestinian prisoner in an Israeli jail on Tuesday. (Financial Times)
Several EU data watchdogs take action against Google: "The move by data-protection authorities from Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands is the first co-ordinated and formal procedure by EU states against a single company on privacy, underscoring European frustration with Google." (Financial Times)
Vitol expands into grain trading: The independent commodities house is making the expansion with the hire of a team from Viterra, the Toronto-based grain trading company recently acquired by Glencore. (Financial Times)
Markets: European stock markets followed Asian exchanges lower on Wednesday, paring some of the gains made in a surprisingly buoyant, data-defying performance the previous day. The Eurofirst 300 index slipped 0.1 per cent, with the Italian and Spanish markets leading the decline. The former dropped 0.6 per cent in by mid-morning, and the latter 0.4 per cent. The French CAC 40 and Germany's Dax both fell 0.2 per cent, and the FTSE 100 declined 0.3 per cent writes the FT's Global Markets viking Robin Wigglesworth.
