A Pennsylvania Republican House candidate is trying to win over union workers in a critical race in this must-win state.

Wall Street indexes rebounded from Tuesday’s selloff, driven by strong earnings from TSMC and positive economic data. Nasdaq 100 approaches all-time highs, fueled by TSMC’s success and AI demand. Market sentiment remains optimistic, but concerns persist over high valuations. Most Read: GBP Price Action Ideas: GBP/USD, GBP/JPY and EUR/GBP The major Wall Street indexes have bounced back completely from Tuesday’s selloff, which was driven by concerns over tech stocks, particularly chip stocks. The indices surged after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) released its Q3 earnings. The world’s largest contract chipmaker smashed market estimates for profit while also predicting an increase in fourth quarter revenue (Q4) on AI demand. The U.S.-listed shares of the chipmaker, TSM.N, skyrocketed by 12.2%, while Nvidia, a popular AI-trade stock and TSMC customer, rose by 3%, reaching a new record high. Nasdaq 100 Heatmap Source: TradingView This renewed optimism was further enhanced by an increase in retail sales of 0.4% and a drop in the weekly jobless claims print. All of the data together has led the S&P 500 to fresh highs and the Nasdaq 100 closer to its all-time highs. The question now is will the remaining earnings from the magnificent 7 be enough to push indices even higher? Later today we have Netflix reporting after the bell which could have an impact as well. There is a lack of high impact data from the US to end the week and general market sentiment is likely to drive markets toward the end of the week. We could see a short-term pullback as some market participants might embark on profit taking ahead of the weekend. The Morgan Stanley current market sentiment indicator reflects a risk-positive outlook which suggests that market participants are optimistic about the market’s future performance. Source: Morgan Stanley, Isabelnet Over the medium-term, many analysts remain concerned that stock prices might be too high, with big expectations for earnings and potential market swings as the U.S. presidential election in November approaches. This makes the reporting by the magnificent 7 even more intriguing as it arrives just before the US election.   Technical Analysis  S&P 500 From a technical standpoint, the S&P is continuing its long term move to the upside. For those who have followed my previous articles, the S&P 500 broke out of a triangle pattern a few weeks back. As technical patterns go, the potential targets following the breakout rest around the 5910 handle 6100 handle with the index reaching a fresh high of 5880 today. The pullback on Tuesday is a positive in my book but as discussed above the risks around stretched valuations etc may concern bulls as we trade at unprecedented levels.  A break above the 5910 handle will lead to a run toward the psychological 6000 handle which could prove a stubborn stumbling block. This could mean that a retracement may take place before the index makes a run for the 61000 handle. Looking at immediate support and a key level rests at 5757 with a break lower running into the ascending trendline. A daily candle close below the swing low at 5669 invalidates the bullish setup and could see the S&P 500 record a deeper pullback. S&P 500 Daily Chart, October 17, 2024 Source: TradingView (click to enlarge)  Support 5757 5669 5635 Resistance 5880 5910 6000 Nasdaq 100 The nasdaq 100 looked set to be closing as a morningstar candlestick pattern but a pullback just before i wrote this article leaves the pattern up in the air. A morningstar candlestick pattern is no guarantee but would increase the probability of a breakout above the immediate highs at 20484. The bullish trend remains valid as long as the Nasdaq 100 remains above the swing low at 19750. A daily candle close below this level would invalidate a potential bullish continuation. Immediate support rests at 20000 and then of course 19750 and the 100-day MA at 19536.  Nasdaq 100 Daily Chart, October 17, 2024 Source: TradingView (click to enlarge)  Support 20000 19750 19536 Resistance 20484 20790 (all-time highs) 21000 Follow Zain on Twitter/X for Additional Market News and Insights @zvawda

Linklaters has advised an international banking syndicate on a syndicated credit line for BASF SE. The credit agreement has a volume of six billion euros. The new five-year revolving credit facility with an extension option is available to the group for very short-term liquidity requirements if needed and serves to finance general corporate purposes. BASF SE is a leading global chemical company with approximately 112,000 employees and 234 production sites. The company's portfolio comprises the segments Chemicals, Materials, Industrial Solutions, Surface Technologies, Nutrition & Care and Agricultural Solutions. BASF generated global revenues of EUR 68.9 billion in 2023. Linklaters advised with Fabian Neumeier and Martin Reschke (both lead, both Banking) and Dr Ulrich Johann and Dr Benedikt Kruse (both Tax).

Broadridge Financial Solutions introduced an instant payment service to enhance the handling of real-time money transfers. The new service promises high resiliency and continuous 24/7/365 operations.Broadridge's Instant PaymentsAccording to the company's statement, the service reportedly processes payments within 10 seconds. It utilizes Swift Alliance Gateway Instant, a service integrated with SwiftNet Instant for instant payments.The new service also allows businesses and individuals to access instant transactions for various use cases, from payroll processing to refunds. The system is designed to enhance operational efficiency while improving customer satisfaction.Speaking about the launch, Heidi Dittmar, the Head of Broadridge’s Swift services business and Country Head for Germany, said: “We are thrilled to introduce our new Instant Payments service, which sets a new benchmark for resiliency and availability in the financial services industry.” “This innovative technology stack enables businesses and individuals to benefit from instant payments across a variety of use cases, from payroll to refunds, enhancing both operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.”The launch comes as the European Union implements new regulations that mandate euro instant credit transfers. These regulations aim to promote the use of real-time payments across the region. The changes are expected to accelerate the adoption of instant payments, with compliance deadlines set for 2025.As the financial services sector evolves, instant payments are becoming the preferred method for recurring transactions such as bill payments. The increasing adoption of "request for payments" technologies is expected to drive the shift toward real-time transactions.Instant PaymentsWhile Broadridge's focus is currently on the Eurozone, the company is preparing for global expansion to adapt its services to meet evolving regulations worldwide. The infrastructure they've built is scalable and designed to respond to the growing demand for instant payments across different regions.Broadridge's Instant Payments service, with its state-of-the-art technology stack, will empower banks and payment providers worldwide to deliver faster, more reliable payment solutions.Recently, Broadridge launched a range of operational resilience services for international post-trade processing. This step aims to curb rising cyberattacks and enable financial firms to navigate the compliance deadline of the European Union's Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), which will take effect in January 2025. This article was written by Jared Kirui at www.financemagnates.com.

Palo Alto, United States, October 17th, 2024, Chainwire Akord, a web3 platform for securing and managing data, also begins its migration to Walrus Protocol Mysten Labs, the web3 infrastructure company, today announced that following a successful Devnet, Walrus Protocol, a decentralized storage network, has launched its public Testnet.  Walrus Protocol stores and delivers large data files, including rich media content, audio files, video, images, PDFs and more, from any web2 or web3-based source. These large files, known as blobs, are stored quickly and efficiently by Walrus, whose storage is resilient, scalable, programmable, and secure. Walrus’s public Testnet, and its Testnet token, WAL, are served by Sui as the coordination layer. Sui provides a dedicated management architecture for Walrus to store its global state and metadata offering speedy consensus, composability, and the opportunity to integrate storage into smart contracts on Sui. Walrus’s Testnet launch will include:  API endpoints that support deletable blobs, meaning data can be deleted.  Dedicated Walrus explorer, allowing users to search data quickly and comprehensively, built by Stakestab Inc, maker of Suiscan & Blockberry API Platform.  Full tokenomics ecosystem for the Walrus token, WAL, including epoch management, staking and unstaking, and rewards, as well as the WAL token faucet for developers. WAL staking app, developed by Mysten Labs. “As blockchain projects aim to become more decentralized, it has been apparent for quite some time that a decentralized storage network was needed for networks of all kinds, L1s and L2s, to support end-user applications with rich media and larger storage needs,” said George Danezis, Chief Scientist and Co-Founder at Mysten Labs. “Walrus Testnet going live is a pivotal moment in that journey. With Akord and Decrypt beginning the migration over to Walrus, we’ll begin to see that a decentralized storage network can be used to bring various applications to a mass audience.” Coinciding with the launch of Walrus’s public Testnet, Akord, a secure storage and collaboration platform, providing user-friendly, cost-effective, and decentralized storage solutions for any digital asset, announces its migration from Arweave to Walrus. Akord is set to migrate to Walrus within the next week. The move comes on the heels of Decrypt Media’s recent announcement of its plans to integrate with Walrus, making the publication the first media outlet to commit to storing media articles and video content on Walrus.   “At Akord, our mission is to create a platform that empowers individuals and businesses with meaningful data ownership – the ability to secure data publicly and tokenize it, or store it privately with end-to-end encryption, controlling the keys and access,” said Pascal Barry, CEO of Akord. “Migrating to Walrus allows us to offer our existing customers a more cost-effective, versatile and performant solution, as well as giving us the opportunity to realize our mission at a much larger scale.” Powered by a system that divides large data files into smaller fragments, referred to as ‘Red Stuff,’ Walrus distributes slivers of data files across various storage nodes. This process ensures that even if some pieces go missing, the whole of the data can still be reconstructed. This approach reduces the need for data redundancy, allowing the network to grow seamlessly while ensuring fast and reliable access to data. Walrus introduces advanced storage verification through proofs and attestations, incentivizing nodes to store slivers of each file. Instead of verifying individual files, Walrus assesses the entire storage node, significantly lowering the cost of proving data storage.   Walrus, whose original contributor is Mysten Labs, launched on Devnet in June 2024. Its whitepaper was available as of September 2024, presented by Janet Wu, Head of Product, Platform, at Mysten Labs, at Sui’s Singapore Builder House Event. Walrus Mainnet is slated to launch in 2025. About Mysten Labs Mysten Labs is a team of leading distributed systems, programming languages, and cryptography experts whose founders were senior executives of Meta’s Novi Research and lead architects of the Diem blockchain and Move programming language. The mission of Mysten Labs is to create foundational infrastructure for web3. Learn more: https://mystenlabs.com.  About Walrus Walrus is a next-generation decentralized storage network for data and rich media content such as large text files, videos, images, and audio. Leveraging innovations in erasure coding, Walrus offers exceptional data availability and robustness with minimal replication overhead for cost efficiency. Powered by Sui as the coordination layer, Walrus scales to hundreds or thousands of networked decentralized storage nodes without compromising performance. Learn more: https://www.walrus.xyz/.  About Akord  The Akord platform is built on a digital vault protocol that offers file management, end-to-end encryption, file sharing, access control, minting and token gated access. The platform consists of an app, API, SDK and CLI with a strong focus on user and developer experience. Learn more: https://akord.com/  Contact Lexi WanglerMysten Labslexi.wangler@mystenlabs.com The post Decentralized Storage Protocol Walrus Launches Public Testnet appeared first on Fintech Review.

The closure of the Vienna-based European American Investment Bank AG (EURAM) has sent shockwaves through the financial world in Vienna. The Financial Market Authority (FMA) has intervened, halting the bank’s operations entirely due to severe deficiencies. With deposits totaling €276.3 million, the fallout from this move is significant, leaving hundreds of clients in uncertainty about their funds. The EURAM Bank has long been under scrutiny, particularly for its failure to comply with anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CTF) regulations. Established in 1999, EURAM built its reputation through its dealings with foreign clients, often engaging in international transactions. However, repeated failures in AML compliance, identified as early as 2022, placed the bank squarely on the regulatory radar. A follow-up review in October 2023 showed no improvements, triggering the FMA’s decisive action to suspend the bank’s business activities. One of the major red flags highlighted was EURAM’s loan portfolio, which had been marked by significant write-downs, pointing to high-risk lending practices over the past years. These internal financial issues only exacerbated the problems related to compliance with legal standards. Despite the FMA’s escalating concerns, EURAM repeatedly refuted the allegations. The situation became untenable by early 2023 when the FMA barred the bank from conducting new business and installed a government administrator in August to oversee operations. Ultimately, the bank’s failures were deemed too severe to rectify. For EURAM’s 757 clients, the collapse of the bank has triggered fears over their savings. While the majority of the bank’s clientele—often high-net-worth individuals—held substantial deposits, only €37.6 million of the total €276.3 million is secured through Austria’s deposit guarantee scheme. Fortunately, for deposits up to €100,000, the Austrian deposit protection entity, Einlagensicherung Austria (ESA), has assured customers that compensation will be processed within seven working days. ESA has promised swift action to reimburse affected clients. Stefan Tacke, ESA’s managing director, assured that the process will be handled online for maximum efficiency. He also noted that ESA is closely cooperating with the Austrian Financial Intelligence Unit (A-FIU), reflecting the gravity of the AML deficiencies uncovered at EURAM. Share Information with FinTelegram CategoriestickerTagsEURAMEuropean Amercian Investment Bank

It’s fast looking like the first industry AI will disrupt is not technology but energy.In this edition of "Latest in AI", we analyse moves by Big Tech to resuscitate a nuclear energy industry that has stalled since the heyday of the 1970s and 1980s as they scramble to meet the electricity needs of their AI-driven data centers. We also examine why last week's AI Nobel prizes matter; AI risks to the financial system; and why it's so hard for rivals to chip away at Nvidia's dominance in AI.

Der Bundesrat hat am 16. Oktober 2024 weitere Sanktionsmassnahmen gegen Russland beschlossen. Er reagiert damit auf die anhaltende militärische Aggression Russlands gegen die Ukraine und schliesst sich der Europäischen Union (EU) an, welche im Juni ihr 14. Sanktionspaket verabschiedet hat. Der Bundesrat hat dafür die Verordnung über Massnahmen im Zusammenhang mit der Situation in der Ukraine (SR 946.231.176.72) geändert.

On 3 October , the three European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) – the European Banking Authority (EBA), the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) – organised the 11th edition of their annual Consumer Protection Day, in Budapest.

Batumbu, an Indonesian fintech lending company and part of Validus Investment Holding, has appointed a new Board of Directors. Reza Perazi Armadi has been appointed as the new President Director, succeeding Tan Glant Saputrahadi, who stepped down from the role. Reza previously served as Deputy President Director and has over two decades of experience in the banking industry, particularly in MSMEs and supply chain finance. Paulus Adinata Widia has been appointed as Deputy President Director, and Mochamad Tommy Hersyaputera will serve as Director, pending approval from the Financial Services Authority (OJK). Batumbu, now in its sixth year of operation, will continue focusing on supporting MSMEs and collaborating with its partners in the financial sector. Manggi Taruna Habir “Under Glant’s leadership, Batumbu has successfully provided affordable financing solutions to MSMEs in Indonesia while consistently posting positive monthly EBITDA growth to date. These achievements have positioned Batumbu as a company with strong and sustainable business performance. Going forward, I am confident that Reza will elevate Batumbu, beyond just a financing platform, transforming it into a strategic partner for businesses across the supply chain network, as part of Validus,” said Batumbu’s Independent President Commissioner, Manggi Taruna Habir. Nikhilesh Goel “I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Glant for his exceptional leadership. Under his guidance, Batumbu has become the largest profitable SME financing platform in Indonesia. Looking ahead, I am confident that given Reza’s extensive experience in supply chain financing, Batumbu will further cement its position as the largest SME financing platform in Indonesia.” said Nikhilesh Goel, Co-Founder and Group CEO of Validus.     Featured image: (From left) Paulus Adinata Widia, Deputy President Director; Reza Perazi Armadi, President Director; Mochamad Tommy Hersyaputera, Director Edited from Freepik  The post Batumbu Names Reza Perazi as President Director, Adds 2 New Board Members appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

There's excited, and there's frothy, and we are starting to enter frothy territory. Individual investor sentiment shows bullishness near the highs this year. 

Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (“FINRA”) is filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or “Commission”) a proposed rule change to adopt FINRA Rules 6151 (Disclosure of Order Routing Information for NMS Securities) and 6470 (Disclosure of Order Routing Information for OTC Equity Securities).

In today's Elliott Wave update of USDJPY we discuss the very clear pattern that seems to be forming on the pair's 4h chart and identify the key level to watch for trading purposes. To access this article you need to have an active subscription The post Elliott Wave Update of USDJPY – October 16th, 2024 appeared first on EWM Interactive.

16 October 2024 ICMA has responded to ESMA’s Consultation Paper on Technical Standards specifying the criteria for establishing and assessing the effectiveness of investment firms’ order execution policies. The response was provided via ICMA’s MiFID Working Group which consists of buy-side, sell-side and market infrastructure providers. A link to the response can be found here.

Multitude Bank, a wholesale bank based in Malta, has acquired a 9.9% stake in Lea Bank, a listed Norwegian digital challenger, thereby becoming a majority shareholder. This initial purchase will be followed by an additional 8.7% stake, with a separate agreement already signed, pending approval from the Norwegian Financial Authority and the Swedish Financial Authority. The total cost of the transaction is approximately €15 million, financed entirely through Multitude’s liquidity. Upon completion, this will result in an 18.6% ownership stake. Founded in 2016, Lea Bank specializes in consumer loans and deposit products, serving 70,000 customers across Europe. Lea Bank secured a banking license in Sweden in June and plans to list on Nasdaq Stockholm next year, alongside transitioning its headquarters, while currently being listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. Multitude Bank anticipates that its majority shareholding in Lea Bank will yield attractive financial returns in terms of dividend yield and income. Multitude operates as the wholesale banking subsidiary of Finland’s Multitude PLC, which also includes Ferratum and CapitalBox for consumer and SME banking services, respectively.

As part of its supervision of information published by issuers, the FSMA has published the following warning.This press release is not available in English. Please consult the French or Dutch site.

I would like to welcome the Minister for Finance - Minister Jack Chambers TD - and everyone here today to the Central Bank’s offices for the launch of the National Payments Strategy.  Let me also echo the Minister’s thanks to all involved in the development of the strategy.  In particular, I would like to thank the Department’s Strategy Team for their collaboration over the past 16 months, and for providing the Central Bank with the opportunity to contribute to the development of the Strategy. My thanks also to the members of the Central Bank’s Payments Steering Group and the internal expert group who has been supporting the our input into the Strategy. Call for collaborationThe National Payments Strategy represents a significant milestone for the future development of the Irish payments ecosystem. The Central Bank looks forward to contributing to the successful realisation of the Strategy over the next 5 years and beyond. We see the Strategy as an opportunity to: Ensure that the Irish market stays up-to-date with modern payment functionalities and technologies; Put in place initiatives that strengthen the security and resilience of retail payments; and To ensure that the Irish payments ecosystem remains interconnected with the rest of the Europe. As the Minister has referenced, the Strategy outlines a number of ambitious actions that will lay the foundation for the future growth of the Irish payments ecosystem. In terms of specific actions I would call out, I would highlight that: the Strategy will require cooperation in the advancement of Pay-by-Account solutions built upon the effective implementation of instant payments and Open Banking; and  A role for the Central Bank around a Research and Insights Programme that we will lead.   Enhancing our research and analytical capabilities is critical to understanding the direction and possible impacts of the future evolution of the Irish payments ecosystem.FraudAnother area I will highlight and that relates to the issue of Fraud.  This is an issue which cuts right across the work of the Central Bank – from consumer protection, to our work in payments and to our financial integrity / AML work. Whilst the volume of payments fraud is quite low in Ireland as a percentage of total transactions, nevertheless it can have a detrimental impact on individuals and businesses. As payments evolve, so too do the techniques used by fraudsters. The rise of social engineering scams has exposed consumers to increasingly sophisticated fraud schemes that can be difficult to detect and prevent. This is why individual firms must be proactive, ensuring they incorporate security by design when developing new payment solutions.Innovation is required to keep pace with criminal elements seeking to disrupt the payments ecosystem, thereby undermining public trust in the broader financial system.The fight against fraud is not limited to any individual firm - the entire ecosystem, including both financial and non-financial stakeholders, must work together to meet the challenge of evolving fraud techniques and typologies.  This is why – at the Central Bank - we have been engaging with a number of large tech firms since the start of the year, including Google, encouraging them to do more to ensure they are not facilitating consumer harm. I am pleased that progress has been made in this regard and welcome Google’s announcement last week that they will introduce a verification process for financial services advertisers. An effective financial services verification policy is a key disruptive tool in the fight against online financial scams.For that reason, in particular, I want to welcome the establishment of the Anti-Fraud Forum under the Strategy.  This Forum will seek to enhance the formal cooperation between the financial sector, telecoms, and social media companies, whose networks and platforms are often utilised to propagate fraudulent activity. Let me conclude. As Minister Chambers outlined, the overarching objective of the National Payments Strategy is to build and enhance public trust in the payment system, by ensuring that it works in the best interests of all consumers and businesses.  Ultimately, the success of the National Payments Strategy will be largely determined by the organisations in attendance today, and the degree to which we all engage in and support this multi-year programme of work. The Department of Finance has set out the roadmap for the future of the Irish payments ecosystem, and it is now up to us, as a collective, to put our words into action. I would like to thank you all again for attending the event today. We have arranged a small reception which I hope some of you will be able to stay to attend.Thank you.

Judge also rules the venue must reveal its own matching code in class action case