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ARCHEGOS LOSSES: UBS TAKES UNEXPECTED $774 MILLION HIT
UBS reported on Tuesday a net income of $1.8 billion for the first quarter, revealing that it had taken a considerable hit to earnings from the collapse of Archegos Capital Management.
The Swiss bank said that it had taken a $774 million hit to revenue as a result of Archegos’s default earlier in the quarter. The hedge fund was a client of UBS’s prime brokerage business.
UBS added that it had ended all exposure to Archegos and that any related losses in the second quarter would be “immaterial”.
UK ECONOMY EXPECTED TO GROW AT FASTEST RATE ON RECORD
The UK economy is predicted to grow at the fastest rate since the second world war this year, according to a widely cited economic forecaster.
The EY Item Club has upgraded its forecast for GDP growth during 2021 from 5% to 6.8%, which would mark the fastest annual growth since 1941. This comes in the wake of relaxing COVID-19 restrictions and optimism that rapid progress with the country’s vaccine programme will enable a swift return to business as usual.
FTSE 100 REBOUNDS AFTER WORST DAY IN TWO MONTHS
The FTSE 100 rose on Wednesday, rallying after a mass sell-off led to a 2% fall in the previous session.
The index rose 0.6%, lifted by oil giants BP Plc’s and Royal Dutch Shell’s respective gains of 2.0% and 1.7%. The surge followed a report from Azerbaijan’s energy ministry said BP’s oil output reached 5.9 million tonnes in the first quarter.
Some stocks continued to slip, however. Just Eat Takeaway.com fell 4.2%, slumping to the bottom of the index, following news that rival Uber Eats plans to expand into Germany.
MEME STOCKS: DOGECOIN RISES AS BITCOIN FALLS BACK
Bitcoin and Ethereum fell during Tuesday trading, extending a price decline that began last week, while joke cryptocurrency Dogecoin rallied further after a record surge.
Bitcoin was down 4.6% by 9.20 AM in London, while Ethereum was down around 5.3%. The world’s two most highly valued cryptocurrencies were trading at $54,763.19 and $2,134.70 respectively.
Meanwhile, Dogecoin was up 18% at $0.4075, a jump that coincided with social media attention on 20 April. Supporters of the cryptocurrency are celebrating the date – which is also International Weed Day – as “DogeDay” and are urging fans to buy up the token in a bid to raise its price to $1.
JPMORGAN TO FINANCE BREAKAWAY EUROPEAN SUPER LEAGUE
JPMorgan confirmed on Monday that it is financing the nascent European Super League, a breakaway group featuring 12 of Europe’s biggest football clubs that threatens to shake up the sport.
Six Premier League teams – Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur – are involved in the deal, alongside AC Milan, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Juventus and Real Madrid.
MORGAN STANLEY FLAGS HIGH PROFITS AND $1 BILLION ARCHEGOS LOSS
Morgan Stanley on Friday disclosed a loss of almost $1 billion from the collapse of private fund Archegos Capital Management, undercutting an otherwise upbeat 150% jump in first-quarter profit.
The Wall Street giant was one of six banks that had exposure to Archegos, a family office fund run by controversial former hedge fund manager Bill Hwang. Last month, Archegos defaulted on margin calls and triggered a stock fire sale.
COINBASE HITS $100 BILLION VALUATION IN NASDAQ DEBUT
Coinbase, the US’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, reached a valuation of over $100 billion on its first day of public trading on Wednesday.
The company was valued at $99.6 billion when trading opened, with stocks priced at $381 apiece. This price would later fall to $328.28, but not before reaching the $100 billion milestone.
GOLDMAN SACHS AND JPMORGAN INVESTMENT BANKING PROFITS SOAR
US stock indexes were set to rise on Wednesday following positive earnings reports from investment banks.
JPMorgan Chase & Co and Goldman Sachs Group Inc both beat analysts’ expectations for first-quarter profit.
Goldman saw its overall investment banking revenue jump 73% to $3.77 billion, the highest amount seen since 2010. The bank managed to effectively capitalise on record global investment banking activity, which Refinitiv data showed as reaching an all-time high of $39.4 billion in the March quarter.
NUMERATED ACQUIRES FINCURA TO TAKE THE PAIN OUT OF FINANCIAL SPREADING FOR BUSINESS LENDERS AND THEIR BORROWERS
Numerated, the Inc. 5000’s fastest-growing fintech SaaS company, has acquired Fincura Inc., adding spreading automation and financial analysis to Numerated’s Digital Loan Origination System. The strategic acquisition expands Numerated’s underwriting capabilities for business loans that require deep financial analysis, improving the experience for lenders and their borrowers, and ultimately saving valuable time while improving the financial institution’s understanding of risk.
BLOCKCHAIN SECURITY SOLUTION PROVIDER CYBAVO SELECTED TO PARTICIPATE IN TOKYO FINANCIAL AWARD
Blockchain security firm CYBAVO has been selected as a participant for the Tokyo Financial Award, Financial Innovation Category. Chosen from a pool of 88 applicants, CYBAVO is one of the 16 companies that have moved into the next phase of the prestigious award.
The Tokyo Financial Award is hosted by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) as part of its “Global Financial City: Tokyo” project, which aims to revitalize the city’s financial sector and reaffirm Tokyo’s position as the top global financial city in Asia. The award is designed to attract FinTech companies, both local Japanese and international organizations, to develop and provide innovative products and services that contribute to enhancing Tokyo residents’ daily lives and solve problems that Tokyo’s government may face.
XY FINANCE RAISES $12M FUNDING ROUND FROM INVESTORS INCLUDING CIRCLE
Rapidly growing blockchain startup XY Finance has announced that it has closed a $12M funding round led by some of the most prominent venture capital firms in the cryptocurrency space. Led by investors including Circle Internet Financial, LLC, Infinity Ventures Crypto, Mechanism Capital, TRON Foundation, Morningstar Ventures, Yield Guild Games Ventures, Block Capital and Animoca Brands, the full consortium includes more than forty investment firms.
The fund raise also comes as XY Finance is about to conduct its Initial DEX Offering (IDO) on December 9. “XY Finance is excited to acquire significant support from our investors. In the near future, the cross-chain mechanism will be a game-changer of the DeFi ecosystem and GameFi market.” says XY founder Wilson Huang. “Including cross-chain transactions, GameFi, and NFT, what we’re doing will become essential for advanced DeFi users; therefore, we are eyeing more than $1 trillion transaction growth in 2022.”
UDEGO FINANCE LAUNCHES NEW TOKEN ON THE BINANCE SMART CHAIN WITH THE POTENTIAL TO CREATE AN ECOSYSTEM OF FINANCIAL APPLICATIONS
Udego Finance, an open-source, permissionless, and transparent financial service ecosystem launches new cryptocurrency Udego today on the Binance Smart Chain. Udego Finance is an Automated Market Marker (AMM) built on top of blockchain networks. It has the potential to create entirely new financial markets, products, and services.
CETERA EXTENDS INVESTOR ACQUISITION PROGRAM TO ALL AFFILIATED FINANCIAL PROFESSIONALS BASED ON ORGANIC GROWTH RESULTS
Cetera Financial Group, one of America’s largest networks of financial professionals, today announced that its investor acquisition program is expanding to all Cetera-affiliated financial professionals and that participants are eligible for reimbursement of their investment into the program. LeadEngine, which is powered by SmartAsset – the largest lead generation platform for financial professionals – is Cetera’s exclusive investor acquisition program that connects financial professionals directly with highly qualified prospects who are actively seeking a financial professional.
DAKOTA CREDIT UNION ASSOCIATION COLLABORATES WITH LEADING AI-BASED CREDIT DECISIONING PLATFORM PROVIDER SCIENAPTIC AI
Scienaptic announced today a collaboration with the Dakota Credit Union Association (DakCU) enabling the company to offer its AI-based credit underwriting technology to credit unions throughout North and South Dakota.
The Dakota Credit Union Association (DakCU) is a professional financial trade association serving 69 credit unions with more than 520,000 members in North and South Dakota, with assets of more than $9.4 billion and are currently providing Dakota consumers with over $5.7 billion in loans. The goal of this alliance is to extend the accessibility and power of AI to smaller credit unions in the region. The collaboration will help reach more credit unions regardless of asset size, making AI more attainable across the states.
PAYSAFE PARTNERS WITH HUAWEI FOR ONLINE CASH PAYMENTS IN THE HUAWEI APPGALLERY
Leading specialised payments platform, Paysafe , today announces a new partnership with Huawei, a leading global provider of information technology and communications technology infrastructure and smart devices. Paysafe’s online cash payment solution paysafecard is now available as an alternative payment method in the Huawei App Gallery in Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the UK. Plans to continue the rollout throughout most countries where paysafecard is available, will make cash-based online purchases available to millions of customers.
MOODY’S ANALYTICS LAUNCHES ASSET-LIABILITY MANAGEMENT TOOL FOR INSURANCE INVESTMENT
Moody’s Analytics is pleased to announce the launch of RiskIntegrity™ Investment Insight, an asset-liability management (ALM) solution for insurance companies. The new tool combines data and modeling capabilities from across Moody’s Analytics to help insurers to build liability-aware investment portfolios and better evaluate their investment strategies across a range of business metrics.
Insurance companies face a variety of challenges in managing their organization’s investment strategy including understanding the impact of alternative asset classes, reducing the operational risk of maintaining complex data and models, and adapting to regulatory change. Available as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution, RiskIntegrity Investment Insight helps insurers’ ALM and investment teams address these challenges by bringing Moody’s Analytics core content and models to life to deliver user-friendly analytics and reports on demand.