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Bitcoin falls 4% to $99,237

Bitcoin falls 4% to $99,237

Reuters6 hours ago

June 22 (Reuters) - Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency by market value, was down by 4.13% at $99,237 at 10:52 a.m. ET (1452 GMT) on Sunday.
Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, was down by around 8.52% at $2,199.

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ALEX BRUMMER: Beware of bank mergers - they can go horribly wrong
ALEX BRUMMER: Beware of bank mergers - they can go horribly wrong

Daily Mail​

time5 minutes ago

  • Daily Mail​

ALEX BRUMMER: Beware of bank mergers - they can go horribly wrong

Europe's banking scene is very different from 2007 when Royal Bank of Scotland, aided and abetted by Santander and Fortis, gate-crashed a proposed £69billion merger of Barclays with Dutch lender ABN Amro. Barclays boss John Varley, married to a scion of one of the bank's founding families, even conceded that the headquarters would be canal-side in Amsterdam. RBS's intervention led to all the parties involved being bailed out by governments, with RBS, later renamed NatWest, only escaping the clutches of the Treasury on May 31 this year. The road back for European banking has been perilous. Paradoxically, Wall Street banks, at the core of the Great Financial Crisis (GFC), bounced back to health bigger and stronger. Among Europe's challengers, only HSBC, with its stranglehold on Hong Kong, is in the same league as JP Morgan and Bank of America. The repairs to Europe's fractured banking system are now more-or-less done and the industry is throwing off huge volumes of cash. Consultants Oliver Wyman note that European banks have returned $300billion to shareholders since 2022. The cash generated by a restored sector is fostering an M&A boom, with $36billion of deals this year and dizzying reports of new alliances. Andrea Orcel, the investment banker behind the disastrous RBS-ABN Amro transaction, is leading the charge. Now boss of Italy's UniCredit, he is in hot pursuit of Commerzbank in Germany. He has been also trying to buy Banco BPM in Italy in a deal which has been on and off. The last bout of European bank mergers was brought to a nasty end by the GFC. The subsequent 2010 euro crisis, which began in Greece, saw the banking systems in the Club Med: Greece, Italy and Spain, struggling with bad debts. There is now a recognition that Europe's fractured banking system is no match for the bigger US beasts. If the euro is to establish itself as an alternate reserve currency to the dollar, cross-border bank mergers and capital markets must be established. Christine Lagarde, president of the ECB, is leading the charge. Britain is on the sidelines of European debate. Authorities in Frankfurt and Brussels are gung-ho for cross-border mergers, but national authorities are more circumspect. BBVA's multi-pronged effort at buying Sabadell in Catalonia has shaken Britain's TSB, spun-out from Lloyds after the financial crisis, out of the tree. There is no end of speculation about the fate of TSB and for that matter Santander in the UK. The latter was pieced together by Santander chairman Ana Botin out of the remains of consumer banks Abbey National, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley in the detritus of the financial crisis. NatWest reportedly wanted to buy Santander but the price was lofty. Santander itself is in search of more scale by buying TSB. Meanwhile in the UK, challenger banks are consolidating with the supermarket banks now owned by High Street lenders. The owner of RBS spin-off Shawbrook is looking at a deal with Metro Bank. NatWest chief executive Paul Thwaite, freed of government interference, makes no secret of its ambition to bolt on more customers. But NatWest has taken itself out of the TSB race. The former RBS learnt the hard way that bank bids can go horribly wrong. Investing in customer loyalty and financing growth for UK start-ups would be a smarter deployment of surplus resources.

What happened to Michelle Mone's Dubai bitcoin property empire?
What happened to Michelle Mone's Dubai bitcoin property empire?

Times

timean hour ago

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What happened to Michelle Mone's Dubai bitcoin property empire?

Baroness Mone's £250 million Dubai property project, hailed as the first major development to be sold using bitcoin, was never actually built, it has emerged. Mone, who was made a peer in 2015 for services to business, announced proposals to build two 40-floor skyscrapers complete with shopping centre and sports facilities. With her husband, Doug Barrowman, Mone announced in 2017 that the properties would be available to buy for virtual currency rather than cash. However, work on the site has been abandoned, despite claims from Mone and Barrowman that buyers had already invested in flats using cryptocurrency. 'I'm a baroness so I wouldn't be getting involved in it if it was a kind of 'dodgy' industry,' Monetold an American news network at the time. Yet, the Mail on Sunday reports, Dubai government records show that the couple's Aston Plaza and Residences, located in the Science Park district of the city, were never built. A property inspection report carried out by the Dubai Real Estate Regulatory Agency confirmed that the project started but was later 'cancelled' at just 32 per cent completion. Pictures taken by inspectors who visited the site in January 2018 show the concrete shell of one tower abandoned in the middle of the desert. Promotional mock-ups on the project's website showed sleek, minimalist homes set across two glass tower blocks. According to the development's website, 150 apartments were available to buy directly from the developers using bitcoin, a digital currency. It added: 'The highly anticipated selection of 1,133 studio, one and two bedroom apartments, is due for completion in summer 2019. Apartments offer floor-to-ceiling windows with unobstructed views of the Dubai Hills and the iconic city skyline.' The project was sold on to a Dubai-based developer. Representatives for Mone and Barrowman said that no one lost any money and all deposits were held in escrow, in accordance with the law in Dubai. In the UK the Scottish business couple are at the centre of an anti-corruption inquiry connected to the coronavirus pandemic which has led to £75 million of their assets being frozen by the National Crime Agency. Investigators are focused on PPE Medpro, a company led by Barrowman, which was placed in a VIP priority lane for government personal protective equipment contracts worth £203 million of taxpayers' money after a recommendation by Mone. The Department of Health and Social Care is suing PPE Medpro over claims that surgical gowns supplied by the firm were not fit for use. The government told the High Court in London recently that the company should pay back more than £121 million for breaching a Covid contract for 25 million of the gowns.

Bank of New York Mellon approached Northern Trust to discuss potential merger, WSJ reports
Bank of New York Mellon approached Northern Trust to discuss potential merger, WSJ reports

Reuters

time3 hours ago

  • Reuters

Bank of New York Mellon approached Northern Trust to discuss potential merger, WSJ reports

June 22 (Reuters) - Bank of New York Mellon Corp (BK.N), opens new tab approached Northern Trust (NTRS.O), opens new tab last week to express interest in merging with its smaller rival, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. The chief executives of BNY and Northern Trust had at least one conversation, but no offer was discussed, the newspaper reported citing people familiar with the matter. BNY may approach Northern Trust in the future with a formal bid, however it may not result in a transaction, the report added. BNY has a market cap of $65.55 billion while Northern Trust has a market cap of $21.76 billion, according to LSEG. In May, BNY received a licence to set up a regional headquarters in Saudi Arabia, joining other banks lured by incentives as the kingdom seeks to boost its appeal as a financial hub. Bank of New York Mellon declined to comment, while Northern Trust did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment.

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