HSBC settles FX deals worth $250 billion on blockchain in last year

HSBC has settled $250 billion (£194.15 billion) worth of forex trades using blockchain in the last year, it said on Monday, suggesting the heavily hyped technology is gaining traction in a sector until now hesitant to embrace it. The bank has settled over three million forex trades and made over 150,000 payments since February using blockchain, it said in a statement. HSBC would not give data on forex trades settled by traditional processes, saying only that those settled by blockchain represented a “small” proportion. Still, the data marks a significant milestone in the use of blockchain by mainstream finance, which has until now been reluctant to start using the technology at any scale.

Blockchain is a shared database that can process and settle transactions in minutes. Originally conceived to underpin the cryptocurrency bitcoin, the technology does not require third-parties for checks and its entries cannot be changed, making it highly secure. Banks and other financial firms have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the technology, hoping it will simplify and slash costs in processes from settlements to payments. But few banks moved from testing to implementation of blockchain in large-scale projects. Many are worried about high costs, uncertainty over regulation and the risk of disruption to existing systems. HSBC said its blockchain technology has automated manual processes and reduced its reliance on external technology. Blockchain has also lowered the risks of errors and delays, cut costs, and helped the bank to better optimise its balance sheet, it said. Richard Bibbey, the bank’s acting head of forex and commodities, said in a statement the bank was looking at how the technology could help multinational clients better manage forex flows.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-coal/president-trump-cant-stop-u-s-coal-plants-from-retiring-idUSKCN1P80BY

Gannett gets hostile bid from hedge fund-backed MNG

Newspaper chain MNG Enterprises Inc (MNGE.PK), controlled by secretive hedge fund Alden Global Capital LLC, on Monday offered to buy Gannett Co Inc (GCI.N) in a $1.36 billion deal to add the USA Today and scores of other newspapers to its stable of regional publications. MNG, better known as Digital First Media, said it had approached Gannett’s board and management on multiple occasions about a potential combination, but the latter had not “meaningfully engaged”.

Alden Global started buying distressed newspapers a decade ago and now owns newspapers ranging from the Denver Post to the San Jose Mercury News, and has been criticized by the publications it has acquired for ruthless cost-cutting, asset sales and job cuts. MNG, one of the largest newspaper holding companies in the United States, owns more than 200 publications. Buying Gannett would give it access to about 100 more newspapers, including the Detroit Free Press. The USA Today is the largest circulated daily newspaper in the United States, according to a list by market research firm Cision Media Research.

MNG, which holds a 7.5 percent stake in Gannett, said it will offer $12 per Gannett share, representing a premium of 23 percent to the company’s close on Friday. Gannett’s shares rose 18 percent to $11.52 in afternoon trading. Like other newspapers, Gannett is struggling with a fall in revenue and has invested millions to scale up its digital footprint. It is also in the middle of a management shuffle, with Chief Executive Officer Robert Dickey slated to retire in May this year.

“I think the offer is a little opportunistic, given the fact that there are some leadership changes at the company and that it had guided towards some pretty weak fundamentals in the fourth quarter,” said Michael Kupinski, an analyst with Noble Financial Capital Markets.

The company said it would review the proposal, which comes three years after Gannett abandoned here its plan to merge with Tribune Publishing Co, formerly Tronc Inc, the publisher of the Chicago Tribune and the Baltimore Sun. MNG on Monday also urged Gannett to hire an investment bank to conduct a review of options, including a potential sale, and opposed its digital acquisition strategy. Alden’s website is non-operational and its top executives Randall Smith and Heath Freeman have rarely given public interviews. Reuters could not locate an email address for the hedge fund, and it did not respond to calls. An MNG spokesman declined to comment.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gannett-co-m-a-mng-enterprises/gannett-gets-hostile-bid-from-hedge-fund-backed-mng-idUSKCN1P8126?il=0

House panels discussing subpoena for Trump interpreter: Engel

Two congressional committees are considering whether to subpoena President Donald Trump’s interpreter to testify about what was discussed in his meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin, U.S. Representative Eliot Engel said on Monday.

Engel, Democratic chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the panel was working with intelligence committee staff on whether a subpoena should be issued after a Washington Post report that Trump took the interpreter’s notes. “I would prefer not to do that. We have to see what we can find out. We may have no choice,” Engel told CNN in an interview.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-engel/house-panels-discussing-subpoena-for-trump-interpreter-engel-idUSKCN1P8219

U.S. high court rebuffs challenge to Trump appointee Whitaker

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday stayed out of the fight over whether President Donald Trump’s appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general is unlawful by rejecting a motion relating to the matter filed in a pending firearms-related case. The court turned away the request made by Barry Michaels, a criminal defendant in a federal case whose lawyers challenged Whitaker, a former federal prosecutor, being named in court papers as the acting attorney general after Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Nov. 7. The court in a brief order also declined to hear Michaels’ appeal in the underlying case.

Michaels filed suit in Nevada challenging a U.S. law that bars him from buying a firearm due to prior non-violent criminal convictions. His lawyers decided to make Whitaker’s appointment an issue in their pending appeal before the high court because Sessions was originally named as a defendant in the case. Michaels’ lawyers argued that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the department’s No. 2 official, should have succeeded Sessions under a federal law that vests full authority in the deputy attorney general should the office of attorney general become vacant.

Trump has nominated William Barr, who served as attorney general under former President George H.W. Bush, to succeed Sessions as attorney general. The Senate is due to begin its confirmation hearing on Barr’s nomination on Tuesday. Rosenstein is preparing to leave his job soon after Barr takes office, a department official said last week. Some of the same lawyers are involved in a similar effort to challenge Whitaker’s appointment brought before a federal judge in Maryland. Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh asked a federal judge to bar Whitaker from appearing in an official capacity as acting attorney general in the state’s lawsuit against the Trump administration over the Obamacare healthcare law. Maryland also argued Trump violated the Constitution’s “appointments clause” because the attorney general is a “principal officer” who must be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. A similar lawsuit has been filed by Democratic U.S. senators.

The Justice Department has defended the legality of Whitaker’s appointment, saying Trump was empowered to give him the job under a 1998 law called the Federal Vacancies Reform Act even though he was not a Senate-confirmed official. Congressional Democrats had raised concerns Whitaker could undermine Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible conspiracy between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Moscow.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-whitaker/u-s-high-court-rebuffs-challenge-to-trump-appointee-whitaker-idUSKCN1P81MM

>>4752749

Agreed, it looks like we are closer to the wheels coming off.

>>4752796

Hmmm, and you are here, so what does that make you, hmmm

>>4752881

Hmmm, puffing, Are you insecure with all of this awesomeness?