December, 2019

• 21 December

  Greece to extradite Russian cyber suspect to France, US

  Bloomberg Greece agreed to hand over a Russian citizen accused of cryptocurrency-related charges in several countries, a move that could bring him closer to facing trial in France or the US. The Russian, Alexander Vinnik, will be extradited to France, the Russian embassy in Athens said in social media postings that sharply accused Athens of ignoring Moscow’s request for Vinnik’s ...

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• 21 December

  Trump quest to expose whistleblower hard to pull off

  

  Bloomberg President Donald Trump says his impeachment trial should deliver on a goal he’s nurtured for months: unmasking the whistle-blower who started it all. But that would pose legal and ethical challenges that would be hard to overcome. Federal laws promise anonymity for workers who step forward with alleged wrongdoing. In this case, a government employee — reportedly a CIA ...

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• 21 December

  Italian lawmakers urge govt for Huawei 5G ban

  

  Bloomberg An Italian parliamentary body has told the government to “very seriously” consider banning Huawei Technologies Co and other Chinese equipment suppliers from the country’s fifth-generation mobile networks. In a report concluding a yearlong review, the intelligence and security committee said concerns about using Chinese companies to install and maintain 5G networks in Italy were “largely grounded,” given the Beijing ...

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• 21 December

  India trying to stop Reliance Industries from selling assets

  

  Bloomberg The Indian government is trying to stop Reliance Industries Ltd from paring its assets including a plan to sell a 20% stake to Saudi Aramco, the Times of India reported. The demand was made in an ongoing court case against Reliance Industries and British Gas, the paper said. The government has sought to prevent the two companies from selling ...

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• 21 December

  Rich family lost $820m in Muddy Waters row

  

  Bloomberg It’s been a long week for the Shetty family. The billionaire clan behind hospital operator NMC Health Plc and financial services firm Finablr Plc has seen its fortune drop by about $820 million since short-seller Carson Block issued a report criticising the medical company’s accounts and disclosing a short position. NMC shares tumbled 32% in response to the report, ...

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• 21 December

  Southeast Asia nations may soon need a ‘Plan B’ to deal with low inflation in 2020

  

  Bloomberg Southeast Asia is set for another year of low inflation, generating difficult choices for the region’s central banks. S&P Global Ratings sees inflation remaining below central bank targets in most cases in 2020, according to Shaun Roache, S&P’s chief APAC economist in Singapore. Policy makers may soon have to think about using tools other than interest rates to achieve ...

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• 21 December

  Indians google ‘Operation Twist’ after RBI decision

  Bloomberg Google searches for “Operation Twist” surged in India after the central bank announced its version of the US Federal Reserve’s unconventional monetary policy. Most searches for the term came from Maharashtra, the state that’s home to the financial hub Mumbai, and could climb through the day. The benchmark 10-year yield plunged following the RBIs announcement.

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• 21 December

  Japan’s record $939bn budget does little to rein in debt

  

  Bloomberg Japan’s cabinet approved a record budget for next fiscal year, with social security costs pushing up the bill for a government already struggling to rein in the developed world’s biggest public debt load. Spending by the Japanese government will increase by about 1.2% to 102.7 trillion yen ( in the year starting April, the Finance Ministry confirmed. Outlays on ...

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• 21 December

  Ex-HSBC North America executive sued for fraud

  

  Bloomberg The former head of HSBC Holdings Plc’s North American interest rates business was sued for fraud by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Christophe Rivoire helped manipulate the price of an interest rate swap between the bank and a bond issuer, the CFTC said in a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court. The agency claimed the issuer had ...

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• 21 December

  Leveraged-loan stress could ripple through economy: BofA CEO

  

  Bloomberg Bank of America Corp, which tops the league table for US leveraged-loan issuance, is watching that market closely for signs of stress. “The real concern is: Is there too much leverage in the system in certain companies, and if they have trouble, will that impact the economy?” Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “We ...

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