Latest news with #Barclays
Bloomberg
5 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Conviction Overturned: Tom Hayes Slams Politicised Trial as ‘Disgusting'
On Wednesday, the UK Supreme Court quashed the convictions of Hayes and ex-Barclays Plc trader Carlo Palombo, stating that the juries had been misdirected by judges at both criminal trials. Hayes was given an 11 year sentence after appeal for rigging Libor in 2015, while Palombo was jailed for four years in 2019 for manipulating Euribor. Former UBS Group trader Tom Hayes Spoke to Stephen Carroll and Joumanna Bercetche on Bloomberg Radio. (Source: Bloomberg)
Hindustan Times
6 hours ago
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Chinese Social Media Hashtag Signals Growing Frustration With Job Market
Chinese social media buzzwords can offer insight when official data is unreliable. One hashtag making the rounds shows mounting frustration among jobseekers, signaling that efforts to boost employment are falling short. The phrase 'beauty in the time of economic upturns' has been trending on Chinese sites for months, a nostalgic reference to the 2000s-2010s when it was common for fresh graduates to field multiple job offers. China's youth nowadays aren't as fortunate. The private sector can't accommodate millions of young people entering the labor market each year, forcing many to accept positions that don't deliver on dreams of fat paychecks and job security. Many compete to join the ruling communist party to lock down a job in its vast bureaucracy. This year's trade war with the U.S. has added to the sense of uncertainty about the future. Hitting the official 5% economic growth target looks like a stretch, consumer confidence is weak, deflationary pressure is entrenched and there's no end in sight for the property sector's slump. 'We see continued signs of deterioration in the labor market,' Barclays economists said in a recent note, pointing to employment subindexes in recent purchasing manager surveys showing that angst surrounding U.S. tariff is slowing hiring. Economists look at PMIs and other indicators due to the unreliability of official job market figures. China's statistics bureau paused the release of youth unemployment data for a few months after the rate hit a record high in June 2023, and started posting them again after making changes to how it calculates the number. Goldman Sachs's wage tracker suggests the pay growth has been trending down since the first quarter of 2023 when China ended its zero-Covid policy. Despite economic growth in the most recent quarter, sluggish pay increases could weigh on consumption through the rest of this year, GS said in a recent note. Beijing's stepped-up efforts to bolster employment don't seem to be bearing fruit yet, even though its introduced tax incentives for companies and more vocational training for job seekers. Barclays's gauge of private-sector indicators, plus anecdotal evidence across industries and regions, point to scant improvement in the labor market. Instead, there have been more reports of pay cuts and layoffs, the economists said. A poll by Beijing-based Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business shows that hiring has been much weaker than average for the past two years, said Ernan Cui at Gavekal Dragonomics. Those who do get hired are making less and less, indicators suggest. Chinese wages fell sharply across multiple sectors last year, eclipsing the rout seen during the pandemic in 2020, to mark the worst outcome on record, she said. The tech sector has been the worst-hit in the private sphere, but public-sector employers have also cut wages, reflecting local governments' fiscal stress, Cui said. That's feeding into low consumer confidence, Cui said. 'Many people sense that their job and income prospects are precarious, and are thus unwilling to spend.' Policymakers will need to strengthen the social safety net and encourage private sector growth to boost the availability of high-quality jobs, economists say. Until things improve, 'beauty in the time of economic upturns' could continue to trend on Chinese social media. As one blogger on lifestyle app RedNote put it: What people are reminiscing about is when income growth and appreciating housing prices were a certainty, 'and there was a sense that entrepreneurial spirit will be rewarded, things that were never questioned during better economic times.' Write to Singapore editors at singaporeeditors@
Daily Mail
7 hours ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Could YOU do a child's maths homework? Take our test to find out
One in three adults, 32 per cent, say they don't have enough basic maths knowledge to help a child with their homework - and their finances could be suffering as a result. As many as 27 per cent of adults have faced financial issues or put off financial tasks in the last year, according to research from Barclays. Of course, Pythagoras' Theorem and quadratic equations might not exactly translate to problems involving your mortgage or credit card rates, but they can teach useful skills such as critical thinking and logic. Despite a number of benefits from school maths classes, they tend to be lacking in direct financial applications to help students in later life, leading to the current situation in which many adults are finding themselves. This is Money has previously reported that financial education is falling short in schools. Recent figures show 84 per cent of schoolchildren want financial education to be included in the new national curriculum. How much primary school maths could you help with? You might not be willing to try your hand at A-Level or GCSE maths papers, but what about when it comes to primary school maths? How many of these questions, taken from past SATs papers, can you answer? 1. Write the missing square number (X) to make this addition correct. 8² + X² = 73 2. Write the missing number to make this calculation correct. 754 × 6 + 754 × 3 = 754 × [ ] 3. Write the missing number to make this division correct. 15,000 ÷ [ ]= 75 Vim Maru, CEO of Barclays UK said, 'We know that people's relationship with money starts to be formed around the age of seven so it's crucial that we are providing children with the number confidence to help them manage and grow their finances in later life.' Figures from audience research firm KidsKnowBest reveal that 46 per cent of children aged 7-14 are worried about money and their future, with 38 per cent saying they are stressed about finances. Eight out of ten adults believe that more resources dedicated to using maths in everyday life would improve financial confidence in the future, with the same proportion recognising that these skills are essential for making informed financial decisions. People are at least aware of their shortcomings, with 39 per cent keen to improve their number skills, according to the research. More younger people too, some 61 per cent, said they would like to improve their numeracy skills. Some 43 per cent said they think their finances would be in a stronger position if they had better skills and confidence when it comes to maths. Among those aged 18 to 27, this figure is even higher, with 76 per cent saying their finances would benefit from having deeper mathematical knowledge. Sam Sims, chief executive of charity National Numeracy said: 'We encourage everyone to have the basics of numeracy in place before they reach for their calculators, so they can understand the calculation, make sense of the numbers, and spot if something is not right. 'Having the confidence to use numbers in daily life is a vital skill - whether for work, helping children with homework, or managing money. And not feeling number confident is nothing to be ashamed of - millions of people in the UK feel the same, but everyone can improve with some practice and the right support.' Barclays has partnered with National Numeracy to train 'numeracy champions' in 60 primary schools, which it says will help to boost the numeracy skills or 13,000 children, parents, carers and staff. Sims said: 'Our new partnership with Barclays will help thousands of people build that confidence, supporting better decisions at home, in school and with their finances.'
Bloomberg
7 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Hayes: Other Seven Rate-Rigging Convictions 'Need to Go'
Former UBS Group AG trader Tom Hayes says the convictions of the other traders of manipulating Libor should also be overturned. Speaking on Bloomberg Television, he says the other seven convictions "all need to go." He made his comments a day after the UK Supreme Court quashed his and ex-Barclays Plc trader Carlo Palombo's convictions. (Source: Bloomberg)
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The Rate Renaissance: How Benchmark Rates Unlock DeFi's Potential
Benchmark rates have long been a cornerstone of traditional finance (TradFi), underpinning trillions in financial instruments. Benchmarks like LIBOR and SOFR play a crucial role in determining lending and borrowing costs. However, these benchmarks have faced criticism for their centralization and vulnerability to manipulation. Notably, in June 2012, Barclays admitted to manipulating LIBOR, resulting in a $450 million settlement with U.S. and U.K. regulators. Although SOFR, as an overnight rate, resolves some of LIBOR's issues, it still faces centralization concerns, as the U.S. Federal Reserve oversees its publication. Despite these challenges, TradFi's fixed income market has continued to thrive, growing into the largest asset class in the investable universe. In contrast, the fixed income market within crypto is fragmented and opaque. Yield sources, such as staking, borrowing rates and funding rates are highly volatile, loosely correlated and often poorly understood. This lack of clarity has hindered growth in the crypto fixed income space. A potential solution? Establish an infrastructure for decentralized benchmark rates similar to those that exist in TradFi, but more robust. In crypto, we could decentralize the forecasting of these benchmark rates, incorporating fundamentals of oracle mechanisms where accurate predictions are rewarded and inaccurate ones are slashed. This way, the benchmark rate combines elements of both LIBOR's opinion-driven methodology and SOFR's transaction-based approach. By decentralizing the process, we could mitigate centralization risks and reduce the potential for manipulation, ensuring fairness in how benchmark rates are determined. Fixing fixed income with FRAs Reliable benchmarks are key to building new financial derivatives markets crucial for DeFi to mature and grow. In particular, forward rate agreements (FRAs) and other fixed income derivatives could be developed using stable benchmarks to hedge interest rate risks more effectively. In TradFi, FRAs account for approximately 10% of the global fixed-income market's total notional outstanding amount. To put this into perspective, approximately $116 billion worth of ether is currently staked. Capturing just 10% of this market via FRAs represents an $11 billion opportunity, highlighting the potential of benchmark rates in unlocking the fixed income market in DeFi. So, what are FRAs? Forward rate agreements (FRAs) allow participants to lock in future borrowing or lending rates, reducing exposure to volatile market conditions. Think of a futures contract, but instead of locking in the price of an asset, you secure an interest rate — akin to reserving a deal for the future. For example, if the current staking rate for ETH is 3.2%, an FRA would allow you to secure that rate for a future date, making your return on investment a deterministic percentage. Implementing reliable benchmarks could unlock the next evolution of DeFi — one that is not driven by speculation, but by structure, scalability and institutional-grade infrastructure. Interested in this concept? Read more about the potential of FRAs in the rest of the article here.
