A free webinar on February 25 organised by Reuters Events will address social aspects of responsible investment. You may register for the webinar, Integrating the ‘S’ in ESG: Modern Slavery, Conditions of Work and Employment, here. The event starts at 1400 GMT (3pm BST). It is part of the Reuters Events ESG calendar of events… Continue Reading
ActivTrades analyst: U.S. rates unlikely to rise, so dollar likely to edge down
A key analyst at London-headquartered financial brokerage ActivTrades on February 23 reiterated his earlier forecast that interest rates in the United States are unlikely to rise any time soon and that this would make the dollar edge down. “Any hints” to a Federal Reserve plan to raise interest rates in reacting to rising inflation could… Continue Reading
Russia’s Fix Price retailer reaffirms London, Moscow IPO plan
By Andrei Skvarsky. Fix Price, Russia’s largest discount retailer, has reaffirmed a plan for an initial public offering of shares (IPO) in London and Moscow, having hired BofA Securities, Citigroup, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley and VTB Capital as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners. The final offer price will be announced when the book building… Continue Reading
ActivTrades analyst: U.S. labour market data likeliest cause of dollar’s Feb 19 drop
The U.S. dollar’s further slide in the morning on February 19 after losses the day before was most likely a reaction to rather bleak statistics on employment in the United States, argues Ricardo Evangelista, senior analyst at London-based foreign exchange broker ActivTrades. According to Evangelista, the greenback’s February 18 dip was attributable to a Federal… Continue Reading
ActivTrades: Fed policy may push dollar further down after currency’s slight setback
A key analyst at London-based foreign exchange broker ActivTrades predicts possible further weakness for the U.S. dollar, which was on the back foot during the start of February 18 trade after winning some ground from other major currencies during the first half of the week. ActivTrades senior analyst Ricardo Evangelista bases his forecast on the… Continue Reading
Russia’s Sberbank stops clients from losing $838m to cyber rogues in 2020 – CEO
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank prevented online fraudsters from stealing 57bn roubles ($838m) from its clients in 2020, a year that saw a dramatic global cyber crime surge triggered by coronavirus, Sberbank chief executive officer Herman Gref said on February 16. “We have achieved the highest level of security in the world,” Gref… Continue Reading
ActiveTrades expects WTI’s Feb 11 price to stay on for a while, is bullish on gold
London-based foreign exchange broker ActiveTrades said it did not believe that WTI oil, after going up for a few days and staying between $58 and $58.50 per barrel on February 11, was currently strong enough for a further rise. However, the price might get a boost from potential future stimulus measures by central banks, according… Continue Reading
RenCap: Russian GDP to grow faster than most analysts expect
By Andrei Skvarsky. Investment bank Renaissance Capital predicts economic growth of between 2 and 6 per cent for 2021 for the majority of former Soviet republics and expects Russia to end the year with a gross domestic product increase of 3.8 percent. The Russian percentage is higher than the consensus forecast, RenCap’s economist for Russia… Continue Reading
EVENTS: Opal-organised online forum on Feb 10-11 to explore Covid effects on investment in U.S. pension system
The Public Funds Summit, a virtual conference on February 10-11, will focus on effects of Covid-19 on investment in the U.S. public pension system. The event has an extensive programme with presentations, panel discussions and plenty of time for networking. Please email the summit organiser, New York-based event management company Opal Group, at info@opalgroup.net for a copy… Continue Reading
Russia’s GV Gold boosts gold production by 5% YoY
By Andrei Skvarsky. GV Gold, one of Russia’s top gold mining companies, has reported gold output of 272 kilo ounces (koz) for 2020 or five per cent up on 2019 and announced it expects to produce between 290 and 300 koz in 2021. The statistics are combined figures for the parent company and the subsidiaries,… Continue Reading
Moscow’s Japanese-owned SBI Bank to get investment from sovereign funds
By Andrei Skvarsky. Two state-owned investment promotion funds, one of them Russian and the other Russian-Japanese, have pledged to make a joint investment in SBI Bank, a Russian lender owned by Japanese group SBI Holdings. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and the Russia-Japan Investment Fund, which has been instituted by RDIF and a subsidiary… Continue Reading
Swiss bank Julius Baer hires six relationship managers for Hispanic America business
By Andrei Skvarsky. Swiss bank Julius Baer has hired six relationship managers for its Hispanic America operation, with five of the newcomers joining from Zurich-based bulge bracket bank Credit Suisse and two having worked at Spanish lender BBVA. All six are due to take their jobs on February 1 and will be based in Zurich,… Continue Reading
ActivTrades: Pound doing better than dollar, euro, due to good start of UK Covid vaccination
London-based foreign exchange broker ActivTrades has reported the British pound to have done better than the dollar or the euro in early January 27 trading, attributing this to perceived investor optimism brought about by Britain’s successful start of Covid-19 vaccination. Markets see the successful roll-out of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Britain, where coronavirus has killed… Continue Reading
Russia’s Sovcombank says receiving its first ESG loan
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sovcombank, one of Russia’s largest banks by assets, has announced it has signed an agreement to receive its first loan to be based on environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles. Financing Sovcombank’s buy-now-pay-later Halva card programme is the purpose of the ESG tranche of a two-tranche syndicated loan of $350m arranged for… Continue Reading
ActivTrades broker abolishes some fees, offers to sell fractional shares
ActivTrades, an online foreign exchange (forex) and contract for differences (CFD) broker, has started off 2021 with special offers, abolishing some of its trading fees and allowing purchases of parts of shares rather than full shares. There will be no trading fees for any European, British or U.S. stocks sold to non-leveraged retail investors. Nor… Continue Reading
Waning of risk-on feelings getting the dollar up – ActivTrades
London-headquartered financial brokerageActivTrades argues that recent risk-on sentiments in financial markets about U.S. monetary policies are going away and that this explains the current edging up of the dollar versus other principal currencies. With the Democrats having won control of the White House and both houses of Congress, the Federal Reserve is likely to move… Continue Reading
EVENTS: HSBC, BNP Paribas, Lloyds to focus on AI’s anti-fraud potential during online summit on Jan 28-29
Senior executives in about a dozen banks, among them big names such as HSBC, BNP Paribas, Lloyds Bank and NatWest Group, will address the Artificial Intelligence in Payments and Fraud Risk Management (Europe) Summit, a virtual conference set for January 28-29. Altogether there will be more than 50 speakers during the event, which is expected… Continue Reading
TSC, Anatase co-design indices of water risk to corporate earnings
By Andrei Skvarsky. Financial consultancies Thomas Schumann Capital (TSC) and Anatase Ltd have developed, with support from financial markets data company Refinitiv, a family of indices to show whether the quantity and quality of water used by a company in its business pose any risk to its earnings and how serious such risk is. The… Continue Reading
Russia’s Sberbank upbeat about its Islamic finance record
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank’s business areas include Islamic finance, and Russia’s biggest lender has shown good performance in this field in 2020, according to a statement from the bank. Sberbank, which is currently rebranding itself as Sber, has obtained regulatory approval in Russia and the United Arab Emirates for opening a subsidiary in Abu Dhabi,… Continue Reading
Sberbank media chief Dobrokhvalova to simultaneously head Rambler
Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, has announced that the head of its media, advertising and entertainments division, Tatyana Dobrokhvalova, has been appointed as chief executive officer of Russian internet company Rambler, a Sberbank subsidiary, a position she will combine with her current Sberbank post. As CEO of Rambler, a company that runs one of Russia’s key… Continue Reading
Russia’s Sovcombank to lend up to $300m for building Akkuyu nuclear plant in Turkey
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sovcombank, one of Russia’s largest banks, has entered into a deal in which it would lend a maximum of $300m to co-finance Russia’s current construction of a nuclear power plant at Akkuyu, Turkey, the first Turkish nuclear generating facility. The borrower is construction project operator Akkuyu Nuclear JSC, a subsidiary of Russian… Continue Reading
Deal with identity verifier Sumsub provides Leverate fintech firm with anti-fraud solutions
By Andrei Skvarsky. Leverate, a Limassol-headquartered technology provider for foreign exchange brokerages, has clinched a deal with London-based identity verifier Sumsub that supplements packages offered to clients by the Cyprus-based company with anti-fraud technologies. The terms of the deal save customers of Leverate, whose technology is used by about 65,000 traders, the trouble of going… Continue Reading
M4Markets forex, CFD broker upgrades arsenal by launching MT5 platform
By Andrei Skvarsky. M4Markets, a foreign exchange and contract-for-differences (CFD) brokerage, has announced it has rolled out a MetaTrader 5 (MT5) electronic trading platform in addition to the less sophisticated MetaTrader 4 (MT4) it used until then. MT5 offers a range of features that MT4 does not possess. They include an in-built economic calendar, the possibility… Continue Reading
Sberbank adopts role of Russian vehicle of WEF’s climate-related initiative
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank has taken on the mission of a key vehicle in Russia for a World Economic Forum (WEF) initiative to encourage companies to take better account of risks caused by climate change in their business planning. Sberbank, which is rebranding itself as Sber, has become general partner of Russian… Continue Reading
M4Markets FX and CFD broker launches festive rebate promo
By Andrei Skvarsky. M4Markets, a foreign exchange (FX) and contract-for-difference (CFD) brokerage, has announced that clients of the company will receive $2 for every lot they trade as a Christmas-New Year rebate promotion launched on December 1 and expiring on January 31. Only direct clients, both current and new ones, and only those holding a standard… Continue Reading
Sberbank uses character from 1970s movie in deepfake ad
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank has shot a humour-tinged deepfake ad video showing a character transferred from a 1973 Soviet comedy film into the Moscow of 2020 being amazed by and enjoying a variety of services offered by the bank’s ecosystem. Petty burglar George Miloslavsky from the movie Ivan Vasilievich Changes His Profession,… Continue Reading
Russian timber business Segezha reports 38 pct YOY revenue growth
By Andrei Skvarsky. The revenue of Russian timber products manufacturer Segezha Group showed a year-on-year increase of 38 per cent as of the end of September, according to the company, which is part of Russian conglomerate Sistema. Segezha had a revenue of 19bn roubles ($256m) for the third quarter of 2020, which was 38 per… Continue Reading
Dubai’s Emirates NBD says new device for clients is all-in-one cash admin system
By Andrei Skvarsky. Dubai’s largest bank Emirates NBD has launched a digital platform for its business clients that, according to the lender, enables them to manage all their financial activities. The businessONLINE platform offers “a full suite” of cash and liquidity management and trade finance solutions to clients “ranging from small and medium-sized businesses to… Continue Reading
EVENTS: Day 2 of the Future of Insurance Europe in Progress
Day two of The Future of Insurance Europe, a two-day online conference organised by Reuters Events and bringing together more than 3,500 insurance professionals, is live now. Please check the list of speakers on https://www.linkedin.com/posts/alexanderjhbird_insurance-disruption-future-activity-6737294463779004416-E8q9. Continue Reading