Receiving Wide Coverage ...
Technical fault
The Federal Reserve said “an unspecified error disrupted all of its financial-services systems in an extraordinary event that
While the cause of the glitch was unknown, the Treasury Department said “there is no indication that the issue is the result of a cyberattack.”
“Although the problems were resolved within a few hours, the breakdown will
Wall Street Journal
Cooling off period
“The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 2.81%” last week, “the highest since the second week of November,” according to Freddie Mac. The increase helped “cool off home purchase and refinance applications ahead of the all-important spring selling season,” with
As good as it gets?
Shares of big banks have
Tied to bitcoin
Square “bought an additional $170 million worth” of bitcoin in last year’s fourth quarter, and the digital currency “
“This may perhaps import a bit of bitcoin’s volatility into the company’s share price, which dipped 6% on Wednesday morning. Though any discount to its multiple would hardly make a dent: Square is trading at over 190 times forward earnings. Still, it emphasizes the point that Square may need some pandemic-era trends, including the enthusiasm for bitcoin, to last into the future to reach the goals investors are betting on.”
Financial Times
Moonlighting
A senior investment banker at Italy’s UniCredit has
Last year, the banker, Jana Hecker, “helped to arrange loans on behalf of Braun’s family office in the run-up to Wirecard’s collapse. The work was separate from her job at UniCredit. Between February and May 2020, she advised the former Wirecard chief executive on the refinancing of €110 million in loans that Deutsche Bank wanted to terminate.” The German payments company failed in June 2020.
Separately, Hubert Barth, the head of EY Germany, Wirecard’s longstanding auditor, is
Elsewhere
Cutting at home
Spain’s BBVA “is considering cutting around 3,000 jobs in its home market, or around 10% of its staff there,
“Spanish and European lenders are pursuing different alternatives to cut costs, either through tie-ups or on a standalone basis, as they grapple with the effects from the COVID-19 pandemic and ultra-low interest rates. BBVA’s main competitor in Spain, Santander, last year announced it would lay off nearly 3,600 employees and cut around 30% of branches in the country.”
Quotable
“Higher rates are a signal of expectations of faster growth and a stronger job market ahead. This last week,