Above Photo: Greta Acosta Reyes (Cuba), Women Who Fight, 2020. ‘[T]here is great intellectual poverty on the part of the right wing’, Héctor Béjar says in our latest dossier, A Map of Latin America’s Present: An Interview with Héctor Béjar (February 2022). ‘There is a lack of right-wing intellectuals everywhere’. Béjar speaks with a great deal of authority on these matters because, for the past sixty years, he has been intimately involved in the intellectual and political debates which have taken place in his native Peru and across Latin America. ‘In the cultural world’, Béjar notes, ‘the left has everything, the right has nothing’. When it […]
Banks
45 posts
Above Photo: Oil pumpjacks line the horizon in Chevron’s Kern River Oil Field, one of the largest in the United States, located just north and east of Bakersfield, on July 7, 2021, in Oildale, California. George Rose / Getty Images. As climate change accelerates and environmental disasters proliferate around the world, a Big Oil-funded business lobbying group has decided to attack financial firms that are taking their money out of fossil fuel companies, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) has learned. This month at the annual States and Nation Policy Summit of the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a pay-to-play organization that brings together corporate […]
Above photo: Beyond Extreme Energy. Ultimately finds 11 Rocking Chair Rebels Guilty of Disorderly Conduct. In a trial that took place on the last scheduled day of the COP 26 global climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, Judge Kerry Taylor allowed the 11 pro se defendants who last June sat in rocking chairs in the main thoroughfare in front of JP Morgan Chase Bank’s credit card headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, to submit testimony about the climate crisis and the role of banks in funding it. Defendants pursued a “choice of evils” strategy, which under Delaware law allows someone to break the law […]
Above Photo: Samuel Corum / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images The past year has exposed the myth that central banks are neutral bodies which exist outside of politics – and made clear that their crucial economic functions must be brought under democratic control. In the US, two senior central bank officials recently stepped down after concerns were raised about their trading activities during the pandemic. Robert Kaplan, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, will step down next month, and Eric Rosengren, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, will step down at the end of September. Both were […]
Above Photo: Erik McGregor. This op-ed talks about the youth climate movement’s plan to pressure banks like JPMorgan Chase. The biggest banks are using your money to fund the climate crisis. We have seen this story before. In 2008, the recklessness of megabanks sank the global economic system. Now, in 2021, the youth climate movement is saying that we’ve had enough. We’re not going to let the banks bring down the entire planet too. On October 29, young people are occupying and shutting down banks across the globe to demand an end to fossil fuel financing and the beginning of a Fossil-Free Future, […]
Why The Fed Needs Public Banks By Ellen Brown, ScheerPost.com. December 2, 2020 Why The Fed Needs Public Banks2020-12-022020-12-02https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.pngPopularResistance.Orghttps://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2020/12/fed-e1606925552730.jpg200px200px Above photo: Kurtis Garbutt/Flickr. The Fed’s policy tools – interest rate manipulation, quantitative easing, and “Special Purpose Vehicles” – have all failed to revive local economies suffering from government-mandated shutdowns. The Fed must rely on private banks to inject credit into Main Street, and private banks are currently unable or unwilling to do it. The tools the Fed actually needs are public banks, which could and would do the job. On November 20, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin informed Federal Reserve Chairman […]
By Sajjad Shaukat Pak VT For years, India has been lobbying the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an international watchdog, to blacklist Pakistan, accusing Islamabad of using the banking system to sponsor terrorism. Pakistan has been on the grey list of the FATF since June 2018. In this regard, some Western countries and particularly India have been calling on Islamabad to take action against the terror groups to avoid ‘Dark Gray’ list status of the FATF. They have long failed to do. Especially, Indian media spreads disinformation that Pakistan may be put on ‘Dark Grey’ list. Islamabad is confident to avoid […]
As the world undergoes its incredible transition to lower carbon energy alternatives, Big Banks are turning their backs on the oil industry. JP Morgan pledged to help clients align their business with Paris Agreement emission targets. HSBC announced up to a $1 trillion in green energy funding. An investor group worth $20 trillion in assets urged heavy emitters to clean up their act. Another group, worth $5 trillion, said it will set lower-emission targets for its own investment portfolio. These are stories from just the last two weeks and they seem to point in the same direction: banks and other financial […]
The Italian Banking Association claims that about 100 local banks are now operating on a blockchain network designed to speed up interbank transactions and processes. Source link
The seven central banks, along with BIS, have released a report setting out agreed core objectives that must be met by national digital currencies. Source link
Whichever cameraman caught Dancing with the Stars professional dancer Keo Motsepe’s confused look as Tyra Banks announced the wrong bottom two dance duos on Monday night deserves a big raise. Ever since she took over as host of the beloved, long-running competition show, fans have been complaining about Banks’ on-stage antics, and more specifically her mistakes. The vitriol has been harsh—which might be why as soon as Banks realized something was wrong on Monday night, she struggled to improvise her way through it. Three couples remained on-stage Monday night when Banks announced the week’s bottom two pairs—a discrepancy Banks quickly noticed. […]
Once the world’s sixth richest person, India’s Anil Ambani, pleaded before a UK court on 25 September that he has “zero net worth”, saying he sold off all his jewellery to pay the legal fees for an ongoing case concerning debt repayment. Ambani’s business group owes around $716 million to three Chinese banks. Three Chinese banks – the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the Export-Import Bank of China, and China Development Bank – have decided to pursue enforcement action against Indian businessman Anil Ambani on his worldwide assets for recovery of more than $716 million in dues from him. The […]
Investments in precious metals by Russian banks increased in August, reaching almost $7.4 billion (568 billion rubles), data released by the country’s central bank (CBR) showed. In terms of gold, reserves have amounted to a record 121 tons, which is 10.9 percent higher than the maximum reached in October 2019. According to Maxim Osadchiy, an analyst at BKF Bank, last month, Russian banks increased their bullion reserves by 23.3 tons. He told RBC Daily that this was the most noticeable increase on the balance sheets of Russian banks for the entire period of statistics disclosure. Also on rt.com Russia continues stockpiling […]
The massive leak of suspicious activity reports shows how banks let the government know about likely money laundering, then go right on providing services. The FinCEN Files are a leaked cache of suspicious activity reports filed by banks with the U.S .Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. The more than 2,000 files, representing $2 trillion in transactions, were leaked to BuzzFeed News more than a year ago. BuzzFeed, in turn, shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, who then helped distribute them to 108 publications in 88 countries. This episode provides an overview of the leaks and explains why they show […]
Thefts tracked through Trump Soho/Bayrock to Simon Mogelievich, Trump’s long suspected Russian boss. Read about Trump’s connections to the named individuals who stole $2,000,000,000,000 of taxpayer cash so far. Tied to a partial list below are Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, Steve Bannon, Rudy Giuliani and every member of the Trump family above the age of 18. The crimes alleged are corruption, embezzlement, fraud, sanctions evasion and material support of terrorism. How Trump became the Russian mafia’s bitch (video restored) Guardian: Thousands of documents detailing $2 trillion (£1.55tn) of potentially corrupt transactions that were washed through the US financial system have been […]
Some say that meaningful change happens gradually. Others insist it erupts unexpectedly. This week, we saw that both are true. Earlier this week, the Wyoming Banking Board voted to approve the application from San Francisco-based crypto exchange Kraken for a Special Purpose Depositary Institution (SPDI) banking charter. Yes, one of the crypto industry’s oldest exchanges has become a bank. This is a big deal, one that heralds a coming transformation of the crypto asset industry. Market participants and commentators understandably reacted with glee and surprise. Both are warranted, yet both overlook the bigger shift that has been building up for some […]
The central bank of Thailand announced on Friday it has launched the “DLT Scripless Bond Project” aimed at building a secure and efficient government bond infrastructure. Source link
Mauricio Claver-Carone, nominated to head the Inter-American Development Bank, speaks with Ricardo Ospina of Caracol TV at the 2019 Concordia Americas Summit in Bogotá, Colombia. Gabriel Aponte/Getty Images for Concordia Summit hide caption toggle caption Gabriel Aponte/Getty Images for Concordia Summit Mauricio Claver-Carone, nominated to head the Inter-American Development Bank, speaks with Ricardo Ospina of Caracol TV at the 2019 Concordia Americas Summit in Bogotá, Colombia. Gabriel Aponte/Getty Images for Concordia Summit In yet another Trump-era break with longstanding tradition, it now seems all but certain that the Inter-American Development Bank will be led by a non-Latin American citizen. Mauricio Claver-Carone, […]
Frances Coppola, a CoinDesk columnist, is a freelance writer and speaker on banking, finance and economics. Her book “The Case for People’s Quantitative Easing” explains how modern money creation and quantitative easing work, and advocates “helicopter money” to help economies out of recession. The 2008 financial crisis created an extraordinary financial melting pot. Into the soup went the legacy system, now shown to be unfit for this purpose: new ways of transacting in old currencies and new types of money. This witches’ brew has now been stewing for over a decade, but the type of potion it will eventually produce is […]
These Six Banks Have Frozen $4.6 Billion Belonging To Venezuelans By La IguanaTV/La Tabla. August 29, 2020 These Six Banks Have Frozen $4.6 Billion Belonging To Venezuelans2020-08-292020-08-29https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.pngPopularResistance.Orghttps://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2018/07/bull-by-arturo-di-modica_sam-valadi_flickr-1024×595.jpg200px200px Above photo: Charging Bull by Arturo Di Modica: “Wall Street icon” the symbol of aggressive financial optimism. Flickr/Sam Valadi. The looting, theft and hijacking of resources from Venezuela has been of great magnitude, six banks withhold under the excuse of US sanctions, around 4.6 billion dollars much needed by and belonging to the Venezuelans, currently facing a spike in Covid-19 cases. #Secuestro Seis bancos retienen, por medidas coercitivas impulsadas por el #proyectoGuaidó, cerca de 4 […]
Banks Have Made $18 Billion From ‘Paycheck Protection Program’ Processing Fees By Collen Boyle, In These Times. August 22, 2020 Banks Have Made $18 Billion From ‘Paycheck Protection Program’ Processing Fees2020-08-222020-08-22https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.pngPopularResistance.Orghttps://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2020/01/jpmorgan-chase-building-nyc_credit-ben-sutherland_creative-commons.jpg200px200px Fees paid to banks eclipse funding allocated to develop vaccines, provide medical supplies and feed children. Whether or not a single job or company is saved through the CARES Act’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), lenders will be paid hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money. As of mid-July, PPP lenders, including JPMorgan Chase Bank, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, had racked up $18 billion in fees—more than was allocated to other programs […]
Online fintech and blockchain investment platform BnkToTheFuture is moving client assets to a Hong Kong-based trust company citing a “systemic risk” with traditional banking. Disclosure The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups. Source link
On Wall Street, the major stock indexes rose on Monday evening, as Congress remained deadlocked over the next coronavirus pandemic legislation. Asia-Pacific stocks were higher in Tuesday morning trade, according to CNBC News. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 added 1.04 percent, while the Topix index gained 1.34 percent. Overall, Japanese major markets were higher on Tuesday morning. In South Korea, the Kospi also advanced 1.03 percent. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 went 1.01 percent up. Investors are now awaiting the Australian Reserve Bank’s decision on interest rates, as coronavirus-induced measures have been reinforced in the state of Victoria, where virus cases have been on […]
New Delhi (Sputnik): As COVID-19 has slowed down the Indian economy, the government’s revenue collections have not been matching the pandemic-induced expenditures. The government needs funds to roll out a $12 billion economic stimulus package without inflating the fiscal deficit beyond a certain level. The Indian government is planning to sell a part of its stake in some select state-owned banks to raise $3.3 billion amid the challenges posed to the revenues during the pandemic. Sources in the Indian Ministry of Finance told Sputnik on condition of anonymity that the government has held discussions on the matter with the banking regulator, […]
Banks across Italy are using R3’s Corda blockchain to vastly speed up the process of double-checking transaction logs. Silvia Attanasio, head of innovation at the Italian Banking Association (Associazione Bancaria Italiana or ABI), said both the process of interbank reconciliation and the technology underlying the exchange of data had to change. In the old system, reconciliation took a long time and was unpredictable. The average time for reconciliation was between 30 and 50 days, Attanasio said. On Corda, reconciliation is completed within a day. The Interbank Agreement, a part of Italian law that governs interbank transfers, was passed in 1978 and […]
https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/07/19/1079980281_0:0:1601:900_1200x675_80_0_0_875696fb3d234ba748527c565d3e3590.jpg Sputnik International https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png Sputnik https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png https://sputniknews.com/latam/202007251079980310-ceo-of-banco-do-brasil-rubem-novaes-resigns-to-ensure-banks-renewal/ RIO DE JANEIRO (Sputnik) – Rubem Novaes, CEO of Banco do Brasil – the largest Latin American bank in terms of assets – has announced his resignation to ensure the company’s renewal. Novaes said in a statement on Friday that he had asked Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and Economy Minister Paulo Guedes for resignation starting from August “understanding that the company needs renewal to meet future innovations in the bank system”. Rubem Novaes has publicly defended the bank’s privatization in recent months, local media reported. Novaes has been heading Banco do Brasil since 2018, […]
Cryptographers call out Craig Wright’s latest claims, blockchain business deposits are growing at Signature and Carlos Ghosn’s smugglers were paid in crypto. You’re reading Blockchain Bites, the daily roundup of the most pivotal stories in blockchain and crypto news, and why they’re significant. You can subscribe to this and all of CoinDesk’s newsletters here. Top shelf Cryptic PaymentsThe son of former Renault and Nissan head and fugitive Carlos Ghosn used Coinbase to pay two men $500,000 in bitcoin to get his father out of Japan last December. U.S. prosecutors said Wednesday that Anthony Ghosn sent 63 bitcoin to Michael and Peter Taylor, a father and […]
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), a federal banking regulator in the U.S., is rapidly expanding crypto awareness on Capitol Hill. The OCC published an interpretive letter Wednesday announcing that in its view, nationally chartered banks are able to provide custody services for cryptocurrencies, a move that the industry widely praised as one that could help mainstream adoption of crypto, even though it’s unclear as to whether banks will immediately act on the regulatory clarification. This development is likely to be very positive for the digital assets space, but major U.S. banks probably won’t be holding Bitcoin any […]
Out of the nearly $8 billion in deposit growth that Signature Bank saw in the second quarter of 2020, $1 billion was raked in by the firm’s digital assets team, according to the bank’s most recent earnings report. While Signature doesn’t break out its total deposits by business line, the increase is a record for the New York-based, crypto-friendly bank. On an earnings call, Signature CEO Joseph DePaolo also attributed deposit growth to an increase across every business line in the bank, including the blockchain-based payment platform Signet. The crypto industry is often a rich source of low-cost, non-interest bearing deposits […]
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is letting all nationally chartered banks in the U.S. provide custody services for cryptocurrencies. In a public letter dated July 22, Senior Deputy Comptroller and Senior Counsel Jonathan Gould wrote that any national bank can hold onto the unique cryptographic keys for a cryptocurrency wallet, clearing the way for national banks to hold digital assets for their clients. The letter marks a major development for the crypto industry. Previously, custody was the province of specialist firms, such as Coinbase, which typically needed a state license, such as a trust charter, to offer […]
Thailand’s digital currency is backed by the central bank’s foreign currency reserves, which have grown by $25 billion over the past 12 months. Source link
A leading economist shares why crisis-time central bank policies are saving zombie companies while hurting small businesses and startups. Our main discussion is with Daniel Lacalle. Daniel is chief economist at Tressis and is the author of numerous books including “Life in the Financial Markets,” “Escape from the Central Bank Trap” and his most recent, “Freedom or Equality.” He has been named one of the 100 most influential economists in the world by Richtopia. In this conversation, he and NLW discuss: Disclosure The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides […]
https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo-itemprop.png Sputnik International https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png Sputnik https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png https://sputniknews.com/us/202007021079778672-us-senate-passes-bill-to-sanction-banks-over-hong-kong-security-law/ The new national security bill that penalises secession, subversion and terrorism in the special administrative region was adopted by Chinese lawmakers and signed by President Xi Jinping on 30 June. The US Senate passed a bill on Tuesday sanctioning banks that do business with those Chinese officials who implement Beijing’s new national security law on Hong Kong, sending it to the White House for President Donald Trump’s signature. “This is an urgent moment. Our timing could not be more critical”, Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen said in a speech, urging support for the legislation. […]
The Italian Banking Association (ABI) announced Thursday that its banks are willing to pilot a digital euro. The group shared 10 considerations for a digital euro in Thursday’s announcement, starting with, “Monetary stability and full compliance with the European regulatory framework must be preserved as a matter of priority.” The group prioritized the need for a digital currency framework to be fully compliant with EU regulations to win the public’s trust, and said banks will play a critical role in upholding that trust. In its second guideline, the group said Italian banks are already working with distributed ledger technology, referencing the […]
Chance Barnett is chairman of Jewel, a proposed Bermudian bank providing digital asset banking infrastructure to global businesses. He previously founded Crowdfunder, an equity crowdfunding investment platform. Michael Dowling is chief technology officer at Jewel and was the chief technology officer at IBM in its Blockchain Financial Services Group. The U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin market has grown nearly 100% since January, jumping from roughly $5.5 billion in January to more than $11 billion in June (chart). But with demand for USD fiat-backed stablecoins experiencing tremendous growth, we think it will soon become clear that not all stablecoins are created equal and not […]
Central bank digital currencies might one day replace commercial banks. But that comes with risks, according to new research from the Federal Reserve of Philadelphia. The 32-page research paper – titled “Central Bank Digital Currency: Central Banking for All?” – investigated the implications of an account-based central bank digital currency (CBDC), focusing on its potential competition with the traditional maturity transformation role of commercial banks. “The introduction of digital currencies may justify a fundamental shift in the architecture of a financial system, a central bank ‘open to all,’” the paper, which was published on June 1, reads. Questions posed by the […]
Three of Japan’s largest banks are among major players joining a study group looking at developing a digital payment system that may address concerns about cryptocurrencies. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), Mizuho Financial Group, and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group – institutions that control more than $6.6 trillion in assets between them – will participate in a study group to determine the feasibility of a national digital payments solution. Japanese cryptocurrency exchange DeCurret, which is hosting the study group, said in a statement Wednesday, that the members would “examine and discuss challenges and solutions concerning digital currencies and digital settlement infrastructure, to […]
An Iranian lawmaker wants his country’s central bank to take bitcoin seriously. Representative Mohammad Hossein Farhangi (Tabriz), speaking Tuesday before the nation’s parliament, called on the Governor of the Central Bank of Iran, Abdolnaser Hemmati, to handle oversight of bitcoin, according to the Tasnim news agency. Calling proper management of bitcoin a “good opportunity for the country,” Farhangi warned against ceding its potential to financial institutions. “Take the issue of bitcoin seriously,” he said. “We do not understand that the government has entrusted the monitoring of bitcoins to the Ministry of Industry and Mines,” he said, “because the central bank must […]
Alexander Lipton is the CTO of Sila, a visiting professor and Dean’s Fellow at the Jerusalem Business School of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a Connection Science Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As many still wait to receive the check from the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act, which is set to distribute $484 billion in an effort to boost the U.S. economy, it brings to the forefront the question of why central banks have still not created a true digital alternative to cash. When completed, the Economic Impact Payment program will distribute 150 million payments. […]
Brazil’s biggest private banks are not out of the woods yet. On Wednesday, Brazil’s antitrust watchdog, the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE), voted to continue its investigation of banks who denied financial services to crypto brokers in alleged violation of Brazilian competition law. CADE’s nearly two-year-old inquiry into Itaú Unibanco, Banco do Brasil, Santander, Inter, Bradesco and Sicredi now returns to the General Superintendency for further review, as per the decision by CADE’s chief tribunal. Those six banks comprise the lion’s share of Brazil’s banking sector. The ruling, made by a seven-member tribunal, reopens the possibility that these powerhouse banks […]
Scheer Intelligence: Big Banks Got The Sweetest Deal From The Covid-19 Bailouts By Robert Scheer, Popular Resistance. May 15, 2020 | Educate!, Featured Campaign Scheer Intelligence: Big Banks Got The Sweetest Deal From The Covid-19 Bailouts2020-05-152020-05-15https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.pngPopularResistance.Orghttps://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2020/05/page-header.jpg200px200px Above image: Mr. Fish. The banking expert explains why Congress’ stimulus bill has been a boon for Wall Street and not the small businesses that need it most. It’s been over a decade since the 2008 banking meltdown, and yet many Americans are still living with the consequences of the financial crisis and the Obama administration’s decision to bailout banks over people with their own tax […]
Central banks in 46 countries are considering creating a central bank digital currency (CBDC) using a constrained form of distributed ledger technology (DLT), according to a new survey. But they’re leery of blockchain. London-based journal Central Banking, a specialized publication supported, among others, by the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) and the European Central Bank (ECB), found in its inaugural CBDC survey released last week that 65% of respondents had actively researched digital currencies. But the survey, conducted in February, found only one central bank would use blockchain as the basis for a CBDC. Described as a “small African central bank,” […]
Visa looks to be laying the groundwork for a future in which fiat currencies, like the U.S. dollar, could be easily turned into a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The California-based payments giant, which processes upwards of 100 million transactions every day on average, has filed a patent application for a process for turning physical fiat currency into a newly digitized version. The filing, which was filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in November and made public on Thursday, says the system would be able to mint new digital fiat currency and keep a tally of all issuances on […]
Things are settling in on the third day of Blockchain Week. Tuesday saw Nym’s Harry Halpin give an in-depth demonstration on how to shield your transactions, while Vitalik Buterin walked back a comment he made the previous day. Here’s what my colleague Nikhilesh De watching for throughout the day: Good morning folks, and welcome to day three of CoinDesk’s Consensus: Distributed. There’s a lot to look forward to today, but in the interests of keeping this newsletter opening relatively short I’m going to focus on two themes I’m personally interested in: financial inclusion and the Travel Rule. Financial inclusion is an issue that’s […]
CipherTrace, a blockchain analytics partner of governments and cryptocurrency exchanges, is pitching itself to a fresh clientele: central banks. The crypto investigations firm announced Tuesday that it is establishing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) initiative. As described by chief financial analyst John Jefferies, the outreach effort will seek to place CipherTrace in the growing conversation around designing and securing CBDCs. Part of the initiative will center on business outreach, Jefferies said. Partnering with even one central bank would be a lucrative business proposition for CipherTrace. With 80% of central banks polled by the Bank for International Settlements reporting they are […]