Bob Goulooze

In order to create economies of scale, national airline companies are looking for partners. Preferably equal ones but certainly ones that may complement the current services of the flag carrier. In 2004 Air France ‘merged’ with KLM. Since that date troubles began. Air France is the biggest partner in the joint venture with KLM and claimed the lead from day 1. Those who are familiar with the way the French work couldn’t believe in the first place, that this would be a match made in heaven. The French have the patronage system. That is a social inequal relationship between a powerful and less powerful partner. The powerful ‘patron’ renders favors to the subservient one in return for services, adherence, and homage. You don’t have to be culturally savvy to understand that such a patronage relationship is so un-Dutch. At least being at the receiving end. The Dutch have a more ‘equal culture’ in which reaching consensus is the bottom line. Continue reading…

Author : Yogita Khatri

B2C2, an electronic OTC trading firm and crypto liquidity provider, has just got the green light to offer crypto derivatives in the U.K. The London-based firm announced Thursday that its subsidiary B2C2 OTC Ltd. is now authorized and regulated by country’s financial watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), to arrange and deal in crypto contracts for difference (CFDs). Crypto CFDs allow traders to predict the future price change of specific cryptocurrencies, and in turn, provide an opportunity to make profit in both rising and falling markets by going long or short.
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This report assesses FinTech market developments in the financial system and the potential implications for financial stability. The FSB defines FinTech as technology-enabled innovation in financial services that could result in new business models, applications, processes or products with an associated material effect on the provision of financial services.
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has issued a decision which finds that 3 asset management firms breached competition law. This is the FCA’s first formal decision under its competition enforcement powers. The firms are: Hargreave Hale Ltd, Newton Investment Management Limited and River and Mercantile Asset Management LLP (RAMAM). The FCA has fined Hargreave Hale £306,300 and RAMAM £108,600. The FCA has not imposed a fine on Newton because it was given immunity under the competition leniency programme.
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The French trial court issued its judgment on the cross-border matter finding UBS AG and UBS (France) SA guilty of illicit solicitation and laundering of the proceeds of tax fraud and assessed a penalty of EUR 3.7 billion and EUR 15 million respectively and civil damages of EUR 800 million. UBS strongly disagrees with the verdict. The bank has consistently contested any criminal wrongdoing in this case throughout the investigation and during the trial. The conviction is not supported by any concrete evidence, but instead is based on the unfounded allegations of former employees who were not even heard at the trial.

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Estonia is investigating allegations linking Swedbank to suspicious transactions in the country involving Danske Bank, Estonia’s state prosecutor said on Wednesday. Estonian branch. A Swedish television program said it had uncovered documents indicating at least 40 billion Swedish crowns ($4.30 billion) had been transferred between accounts at Swedbank and Danske in the Baltics between 2007 and 2015. “We can confirm that, as the published information relates to Danske Bank, we are checking out the claims as part of our Danske investigation,” a spokeswoman at Estonia’s state prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday. The Estonian Financial Supervisory Authority said Danske had not operated in isolation in the financial system and that its transactions necessarily involved banks in other EU countries, not all of which were suspect.

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Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Crețu and Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Vytenis Andriukaitis have brought together health professionals to kick-start the reflection on future EU investments in health under the 2021-2027 Cohesion Policy programmes. The Commissioners launched a pilot project to improve cross-border emergency services in the Pyrenees between the border regions of France, Spain and the Principality of Andorra. They also announced that health will be this year’s new category for the RegioStars Awards.
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In a case brought by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Manraj Virdee was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court to a 2 year prison sentence suspended for 2 years and he was further ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work in the community. The sentence followed earlier guilty pleas to 4 charges relating to misleading consumers, fraud and the illegal operation of an unauthorised investment scheme worth over half a million pounds.
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The Financial Stability Board (FSB) published a report on FinTech and market structure in financial services. The publication is part of the FSB’s ongoing work to monitor FinTech market developments and their potential implications for financial stability. The FSB defines FinTech as technology-enabled innovation in financial services that could result in new business models, applications, processes or products with an associated material effect on the provision of financial services.
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The European Central Bank (ECB) has launched a sensitivity analysis of liquidity risk to assess the ability of the banks it directly supervises to handle idiosyncratic liquidity shocks. The exercise will constitute the supervisory stress test of 2019. The results of the exercise will feed into the ECB’s ongoing supervisory assessments of banks’ liquidity risk management frameworks, including the Supervisory Review and Evaluation Process (SREP). However, the outcome of the stress test will not affect supervisory capital and liquidity requirements in a mechanical way.
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