Vista Equity Considering Transfer of Pluralsight to Creditors in Ongoing Talks, Sources Say

Private equity firm Vista Equity is in talks to cede control of its company Pluralsight to lenders, according to three people familiar with the matter and fund documents reviewed by Reuters. The financial information in the documents sheds light on how Pluralsight is set to become the first major debt restructuring of a company that borrowed from "shadow banks". The term is used on Wall Street...Read More

Food Security Update | World Bank Response to Rising Food Insecurity

Domestic food price inflation remains high in low- and middle-income countries. Inflation higher than 5% is experienced in in 59.1% of low-income countries (2.0 percentage points higher since the last update on April 25, 2024), 63% of lower-middle-income countries (0.8 percentage points lower), 31% of upper-middle-income countries (2.0 percentage points lower), and 14.5% of high-income countries (1.8 percentage points higher). In real terms, food price inflation exceeded...Read More

Record-Breaking Global Carbon Pricing Revenues Surpass $100 Billion

In 2023, carbon pricing revenues reached a record $104 billion, according to the World Bank’s annual “State and Trends of Carbon Pricing 2024” report released today. There are now 75 carbon pricing instruments in operation worldwide. Over half of the collected revenue was used to fund climate and nature-related programs. “Carbon pricing can be one of the most powerful tools to help countries reduce emissions. That’s why it is good to see these instruments expand...Read More

Martina Polasek Assumes Role of ICSID Secretary-General

Member States of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) have elected Martina Polasek as Secretary-General of ICSID.  ICSID’s Administrative Council—its governing body—confirmed Ms. Polasek’s appointment in a resolution adopted on April 30, 2024. Her term begins on July 1, 2024. She succeeds Meg Kinnear, who has served as ICSID’s Secretary-General since 2009...Read More

Empowering the Future: Ambitious Partnership Targets Electricity Access for 300 Million by 2030

The World Bank Group and African Development Bank Group are partnering on an ambitious effort to provide at least 300 million people in Africa with electricity access by 2030. The World Bank Group will work to connect 250 million people...Read More

World Bank and UN Collaborate on Report Assessing Gaza's Infrastructure Damage

The cost of damage to critical infrastructure in Gaza is estimated at around $18.5 billion according to a new report released today by the World Bank and the United Nations, with financial support of the European Union. That is equivalent to 97% of the combined GDP of the West Bank and Gaza in 2022...Read More

Innovative Strategies: KeyBank's Influence on Fintech-driven Product Development

The bank is launching KeyVAM, a virtual account management offering it designed with fintech Qolo. Both companies said the nature of the relationship was as important as the technology it produced...Read More

Regulators push Citi to move faster on risk management fixes:

Citi received three notices late last year from the Federal Reserve, which implemented six-month and 12-month deadlines by which the bank must make changes to the way it measures particular risks, according to the story, which cited an email and an anonymous source. The $2.4 trillion-asset bank also recently failed exams by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the report said. Those exams were meant to determine whether the company is advancing on data integrity....Read More

20 banks and thrifts with the largest home equity loan portfolios

The top five banks and thrifts in the ranking have combined home equity loan portfolios of nearly $96 billion as of September 30, 2023. Several increased their home equity loans over the previous year, with one seeing a rise of 115.33%. Scroll through to see which banks and thrifts are in the top 20 and how they fared in the 12 months....Read More

Bank earnings to shine spotlight on loan charge-offs

Credit quality proved pristine through the pandemic's aftermath and into this year. Soured loans were rare, and losses held below historical averages for most of this decade. That is changing. Loan charge-offs are beginning to accumulate. More losses are expected, bringing the health of loan portfolios into focus just ahead of third-quarter earnings season in October......Read More

20 community banks with the largest farm loan portfolios

The top five community banks in our ranking have combined farm loan portfolios of more than $1.2 billion as of March 31, 2023. Several also increased their farm loans over the previous year, with one seeing a rise of more than 33.83%. Scroll through to see which community banks are in the top 20 and how they fared in the 12 months ending...Read More

Banks may gain deposits amid debt-limit talks. But what happens next?

The debt ceiling impasse is adding another layer of volatility to an already unstable funding situation at U.S. banks, and there are no signs that it will ease up in the near future. Over the next week or so, the deadlock threatens to upend financial markets and incite widespread chaos if a deal isn't reached before the U.S. Treasury runs out of cash, which administration officials estimate could happen......Read More

Comerica bolsters its capital markets business by adding M&A arm

Comerica has formed a national investment banking unit within its capital markets business, expanding the number of products and services available to its commercial and wealth management clients. Comerica Securities, a subsidiary of the Dallas-based parent company, will provide merger-and-acquisition services as well as private placement advisory services, the firm said......Read More

Debt investors losing millions on Libor switch start to fight back

The request from Allied Universal to its lenders last month seemed innocuous and logical enough. With the deadline rapidly approaching to phase out Libor as the benchmark for trillions of dollars of floating-rate debt, the provider of security guards and janitors wanted to start using a replacement to set the rate on more than $4 billion of loans. Under the terms of its credit agreement, the company didn't even need its debtholders to formally sign off on the plan — it just needed more than half of them to refrain from objecting.....Read More

Bankers to see bonuses plunge amid drop in mergers, stock sales

Bonus season is looking grim on Wall Street, with year-end incentive pools expected to drop sharply across the finance industry amid a pullback in mergers and acquisitions, persistent inflation and the threat of a potential recession.....Read More

Bank OZK gets a boost from falling loan repayments

Bank OZK in Little Rock, Arkansas, had predicted that loan paydowns could hit a record level in 2022, hampering growth even as the company expands its national customer base. Conditions changed in the third quarter. The $26.2 billion-asset bank, whose bread-and-butter business is commercial real estate lending, struggled to grow its loan portfolio in the first half of the year........Read More

Fall legislative preview: Risk and reward ahead for banks in runup to midterms

 It's been a historically busy session for Congress, but lawmakers may not be quite done yet as the nation barrels towards a midterm election.  Today's legislative landscape is a far cry from the winter of 2021, when it had appeared that the legislative core of the Biden administration's agenda — the Build Back Better Act — had been scrapped over differences between moderate and progressive Democrats.....Read More

Why businesses are growing frustrated with the service at their bank

Small and midsize businesses are increasingly frustrated with the quality of service they’re receiving from their banks, which are struggling with the effects of high employee turnover. Among business clients that recently switched banks, 44% said that a primary reason was dissatisfaction with an employee assigned to their accounts, according to a survey conducted in May and June.......Read More

Joe Biden Is Right, Inflation Is a Global Problem as Europe Sees Record Price Spike

Joe Biden got one thing right about soaring inflation: it’s not just a U.S. phenomenon. On Friday, European economic data showed prices rose in June at an annual rate of 8.6%, a record, and a level identical to that seen last month in the U.S. The news comes as the European Central Bank, which has lagged the Federal Reserve in tightening monetary policy, is poised to raise interest rates......Read More

7 Best Stagflation Stocks to Buy

In May, the U.S. consumer price index gained 8.6%, its highest inflation growth reading since 1981. The S&P 500 has been pressured in recent weeks as investors grow increasingly concerned that the Federal Reserve will be unable to get inflation in check without triggering a U.S. recession.....Read More

How Do Conflicts and War Affect Stocks?

Escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine came to a head early Feb. 24 when Russia launched a deadly invasion into its neighboring nation, with explosions and missile strikes in Ukraine's capital of Kyiv and several other cities. The potential for Russian military aggression in Ukraine has been weighing on global financial markets for weeks. The military assault triggered a sharp sell-off in the S&P 500 and pushed the Nasdaq briefly into bear market territory before both stock....Read More

Will the Stock Market Crash Again? 10 Risk Factors

The S&P 500 is on a seven-month winning streak and hasn't had even one 5% pullback so far in 2021. The stock market is showing signs of weakness so far in September, however, including stringing together five consecutive down days. The S&P 500 more than doubled after its March 2020 lows in less than a year and a half, but there are several factors suggesting that the next market crash could be just.....Read More

8 Financial Stocks to Buy As Interest Rates Rise

Over the past six months, 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yields have nearly doubled. Although they remain historically low, a growing number of investors and analysts now believe inflation will push interest rates even higher in 2021 following more than $6 trillion in U.S. stimulus spending. Rising interest rates are good news for bank stocks because higher rates create an opportunity for net interest margin.....Read More

Fintech firm Klarna is raising $1 billion at a $31 billion valuation, sources say

Klarna is close to finalizing a $1 billion funding round that would give the Swedish fintech company a valuation of $31 billion, two people familiar with the matter told CNBC. The Stockholm-based firm is one of the world’s largest providers of “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) services, which allow shoppers to spread out the cost of their purchases over a period of interest-free installments........Read More

Strategas’ Chris Verrone says banks will lead in 2021

Chris Verrone, Strategas, on where the banks are headed in 2021. With CNBC’s Melissa Lee and the Fast Money traders, Guy Adami, Tim Seymour, Dan Nathan and Jeff Mills.

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Tired of Trump, Deutsche Bank games ways to sever ties with the president

Deutsche Bank AG is looking for ways to end its relationship with President Donald Trump after the U.S. elections, as it tires of the negative publicity stemming from the ties, according to three senior bank officials with direct knowledge of the matter......Read More

US red-flag 44 Indian banks for transactions of $1 billion: High-risk of money laundering and financial crimes

A Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) is a document that financial institutions, and those associated with their business, must file with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) whenever there is a suspected case of money laundering or fraud. SARS was designed to be the centerpiece of a new approach,,,,,,,,,Read More

UDR to Participate in Bank of America Securities 2020 Virtual Global Real Estate Conference

UDR, Inc. (the “Company”) (NYSE: UDR), a leading multifamily real estate investment trust, today announced that the Company will participate in the Bank of America Securities 2020 Global Real Estate Conference being held virtually on September 15-17, 2020. The UDR Executive Team will host a roundtable discussion.....Read More

Bank of America pledges $1 billion to address racial, economic inequality

Bank of America Corp on Tuesday pledged $1 billion to help communities across the country address economic and racial inequality, the first big bank to vow monetary support following violent protests after the death of an unarmed black man at the hands of police in.....Read More