January, 2021

• 31 January

  One-third of UK’s virus loans forecast to be written off

  

  Bloomberg More than one-third of the 89 billion pounds ($122 billion) of lending handed out by the UK government to help businesses through the pandemic will never be repaid, according to the National Audit Office. The report, based on government estimates, says 31 billion pounds ($42.51 billion) will need to be written off, highlighting the dire position of many firms ...

  Read More »
• 31 January

  BOE unlikely to cut rates below zero in near term

  

  Bloomberg The Bank of England (BOE) probably won’t cut interest rates below zero in the foreseeable future even as the growth outlook deteriorates. Just one of 14 economists surveyed by Bloomberg anticipate a move to sub-zero rates for the first time in the BOE’s three-century history. The central bank is due to publish the results of a consultation about how ...

  Read More »
• 31 January

  China central bank drains most short-term funds since October

  

  Bloomberg China’s central bank is winning the battle against leverage, yanking billions of funds from the financial system and crushing a popular trade in the bond market. The People’s Bank of China drained a net 150 billion yuan ($23 billion) of funds using open-market operations, the largest such amount since October. That adds to its 178 billion yuan withdrawal from ...

  Read More »
• 31 January

  Wells Fargo slashes CEO’s pay to $20.3m

  Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co. cut Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Charlie Scharf’s compensation about 12% for 2020, a year in which shares tumbled and the company slashed its dividend and reported its first quarterly loss since 2008. The board paid Scharf $20.3 million for 2020, his first full year atop Wells Fargo, down from $23 million for 2019. The San Francisco-based ...

  Read More »
• 31 January

  Ghana banks keep lower interest rates as Covid-19 cases surge

  Bloomberg Ghana banks are extending relief measures to cushion clients from fallout of pandemic as a resurgence in the number of infections threatens an economic recovery. Lenders are retaining measures such as reduced borrowing costs, restructured credit facilities and repayment holidays to customers into 2021 to “ensure that the wheels of the economy continue grinding,” John Awuah, chief executive officer ...

  Read More »
• 31 January

  Jaguar’s newest car is actually 70 years old

  

  Bloomberg Jaguar’s classics department has announced it will make eight more of the curvaceous C-Type that was originally produced from 1951 to 1953. The continuation cars, set to converge on a special track day in 2022 to mark 70 years since the original release, will be the fourth of its kind for the Coventry, England-based company. Jaguar started developing Jaguar ...

  Read More »
• 31 January

  Twitter, Facebook had even more deceptive news in 2020

  

  Bloomberg Content from discredited websites that masquerade as journalism proliferated on Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc. in 2020 despite the companies’ efforts to stem disinformation, according to research from the German Marshall Fund. On Twitter, the spread of deceptive websites was driven by accounts that have been verified as real but tweet out content from other sites that repeatedly post ...

  Read More »
• 31 January

  ‘Millions in UK stopped using WhatsApp’

  

  Bloomberg The UK’s top data-protection regulator told lawmakers that millions of people have stopped using WhatsApp in favour of alternative messaging services such as Telegram and Signal. Elizabeth Denham said that changing terms of service have led consumers to vote with their virtual feet away from the Facebook Inc. business. WhatsApp delayed introduction of a new privacy policy after confusion ...

  Read More »
• 31 January

  Xiaomi sues US seeking to reverse investment ban

  

  Bloomberg Xiaomi Corp. sued the US Defense and Treasury departments, challenging a blacklisting that blocks American investors from buying the Chinese smartphone giant’s securities. The lawsuit came after the Defense Department determined earlier this month that China’s biggest smartphone maker was affiliated with the People’s Liberation Army. Beijing-based Xiaomi called the blacklisting “unconstitutional” and seeks a court ruling to reverse ...

  Read More »
• 31 January

  Apple CEO slams tech giants ahead of new privacy features

  

  Bloomberg Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tim Cook lambasted tech giants for “data exploitation” and called for reform around the practices of selling user data to target ads. The iPhone maker is rolling out new privacy features that restrict how mobile apps such as those from Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google gather data about users to target ads. ...

  Read More »