The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is investigating several reported examples of Google allowing ads from “predatory lenders”. The findings follow a report published in the Observer on Sunday which found that 24 advertisements had been paid for by 12 advertisers, including loan companies and credit brokers.

A payment processor that allegedly helped a bogus discount club system debit tens of millions of dollars from consumers without authorization will have to pay $2.3 million and face a permanent ban from working with high-end customers. risk following a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit.

According to the FTC’s complaint in the case, which was first filed in 2017, iStream Financial Services and its senior executives, Kris Axberg and Richard Joachim, allegedly debited money from consumers seeking loans on salary or cash advances, but were signed up for a bogus coupon service and charged an upfront fee of up to nearly $100 plus up to $19.95 per month. Consumers were enrolled in the discount club program online and through outbound telemarketing.

The complaint alleged that 99.5% of consumers illegally charged for “discount clubs” never accessed any coupons, and that tens of thousands of them called the defendants to try to reverse the charges, while that thousands more disputed the fees directly with their banks.

“The order announced today prohibits iStream from processing high-risk payments and orders it to pay $2.3 million that can be used to reimburse defrauded consumers,” said Samuel Levine, director of the Bureau of FTC Consumer Protection. “Unfortunately, this amount represents a small fraction of the approximately $40 million in total losses suffered by consumers as a direct result of the Supreme Court’s decision in AMG. Without a legal solution to restore the FTC’s strongest authority to obtain refunds, these consumers, and millions more like them, cannot be cured.

Payment processors, like iStream, offer merchants the ability to obtain customer payments for products and services through electronic banking. According to the complaint, iStream, in conjunction with merchants, used a type of payment called a remotely created check (RCC) to withdraw money from consumer accounts, causing significant harm to hundreds of thousands of consumers, often those who could least afford to have funds unexpectedly taken from their accounts without authorization.

iStream, which processed all payments for the discount club from November 2010 to April 2016, consistently ignored the high return rates generated by discount club transactions, a red flag indicating illegal debit. According to the FTC’s complaint, iStream also ignored other indications of fraudulent activity, including that the primary merchant client involved in the scheme from 2010 through September 2013 was EDebitPay, LLC, a company that had previously subject of previous enforcement actions by the FTC for engaging in very similar misconduct.

Under the proposed settlement order, defendants will be permanently prohibited from using any form of remotely created payment orders, including RCCs, as well as from processing payments on behalf of any customer whose activity involves outbound telemarketing, discount clubs or offers to help consumers. with payday loans. The order will also prohibit the defendants from providing payment services to any customer that the defendants know or should know violates the FTC Act or the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR).

The order will require the defendants to conduct a thorough screening of all of their existing customers as well as all future customers to ensure that the customers do not violate FTC or TSR law.

The FTC’s case against the other defendants in the case, including the merchants operating the discount club system, is ongoing.

The Commission’s vote approving the stipulated final order was 4-0. The FTC filed the draft order in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

REMARK: The stipulated final orders have the force of law when approved and signed by the judge of the district court.

The city council voted 15-1 to pass legislation that will launch the creation of the Philadelphia Public Financial Authority on Thursday.

The entity is supposed to provide loans and improve access to credit and other financial services to disadvantaged communities. It is also seen as a first step towards the city creating its own municipal bankwho would be the first in the country.

Although the PPFA does not initially provide checking or savings accounts, it could potentially do so in the future, which some supporters of the bill hope.

The authority “will have the ability to provide letters of credit as well as guarantees to businesses, especially black and brown businesses…that have not traditionally had this type of financial product,” council member Derek Green said. , who introduced the bill.

these financial tools are essentially a promise from the authority to traditional lenders that it will repay whatever an entrepreneur borrows.

Green, who was himself a banker, said he started working on the bill when he took office six years ago. He knows many residents who could have benefited from the program, including a friend who has a small tech business.

The business owner entered into a contract with the city in October 2021 and provided the agreed services, but was not paid due to issues on the city side. The owner then needed to borrow money to pay the payroll.

“They went to their traditional lender, who they had a 17-year relationship with, and that lender wouldn’t increase their line of credit that they needed for their cash flow,” Green said. “They were actually thinking of going to an alternative lender and paying a much higher interest rate just to generate cash flow for their employees.”

The authority’s focus on entrepreneurs of color stems from the country’s long history of redlining and loan discrimination. Green says these factors have left African Americans and Latinos own only 10% of businesses have employees in Philadelphia, even though they represent 44% and 15% of the city’s population, respectively.

Green said the PPFA was formed under the aegis of Pennsylvania Economic Development Financing Actwhich allows municipalities to form an agency that can borrow money to provide residents with loans and letters of credit.

Municipalities in Pennsylvania are prohibited from creating their own municipal banks, so this is a way around this rule, Green Recount Billy Penn.

But some of the bill’s supporters would like to see Philly enter the realm of personal banking, given that 10% of households in the city do not have a checking or savings account and 22% are underbanked. This leaves them with limited access to credit and financial services such as payday loans or check cashing services not offered by the banks where they have accounts.

The PPFA will be led by a nine-person board of directors appointed by the mayor, the Philadelphia Business Journal reports. Whenever a position becomes available, the city council will have the opportunity to recommend candidates. These trustees will appoint a nine-person policy council that will guide the day-to-day operations of the authority.

At least five board members would need five years of experience working on issues such as neighborhood small business development, public transportation, and environmental and racial justice.

Additionally, a board member must be an officer of the Pennsylvania Community Development Financial Institutions Network – a coalition financial institutions focused on community development. Another must be a member of the board of directors of a minority-owned bank and another must have worked for two years to defend the economic interests of consumers and the community.

But not everyone thinks creating a public bank is a good idea. The city government is far from free from its own financial problems.

“Do you really trust that a city that hasn’t reconciled its bank statements for seven years can reliably take taxpayers’ money and play banker with it?” Larry Platt, co-founder of the Philadelphia Citizen, wrote in a editorial on the site last month.

In the article, he points out that the city would need large public subsidies to launch the project and notes that a study of starting a public bank in San Francisco found that it would take 56 years for the project reaches the break-even point.

Platt also points out that there are other ways to increase access to credit in underserved communities of color, some of which are already being implemented in Philadelphia.

Several organizations focused on improving the flow of capital in communities like the ones Green focuses on have been created in recent years.

This includes the Philadelphia Growth, Resiliency, Independence, Tenacity Fund – a $100 million fund collaboration between 30 financial institutions to provide credit to black and brown communities through CDFI of Pennsylvania.

Platt added that there is currently a movement create more black-owned banks in the country. Currently, only 21 of the country’s more than 4,000 banks are owned by African Americans, but many believe they would do a better job providing credit to communities of color.

By Amit Kumar Gupta

People who grew up in the 1980s/90s would remember the kind of anticipation and excitement that Doordarshan’s (DD) New Year’s Eve entertainment program used to ignite among class households. medium. While the elite partied the night away, the middle classes ushered in the new year sitting in front of their B&W television sets, listening to Gurdas Mann sing his most popular song – Dil da maamla hain and watching a few comedians striving to make people to laugh.

The current situation of the Union budget is somewhat similar.

It used to be that the wealthy looked forward to the budget for incentives to invest and loopholes to evade taxes. The middle classes would expect some tax relief. The poor would expect more subsidies and welfare schemes.

This situation prevails, not anymore.

Tax incentives and deductions have been largely streamlined. Tax rates are generally predictable. Indirect taxes are off budget and totally under the GST council. Most social protection schemes have been transferred to the states.

The union budget is now a boring accounting exercise. Changes to the Long-Term Capital Gains Tax (LTCG) arising from the sale of publicly traded shares is one such story that is served up almost every year. If my email is a reference, at least half of the market players are discussing it and worrying about it, once again!

Budget Day is usually one of the most volatile days of the year on an intraday basis as traders wildly speculate on one of the announcements made by the FM during the Budget Keynote. Position wise, given that the markets saw a decline before the budget, presumably a lot of expectations are factored in and now the actual announcements, if anything major will only induce more movement important.

Historically, each time we have seen a big drop before the budget, it has given traders and investors an opportunity to build positions with a fresh perspective after the budget announcement.

Stakeholders seek massive investments in infrastructure; tax support for MSMEs; stimulate private consumption by leaving more cash in the hands of citizens (lower taxes); higher spending on health care, agriculture and education; aggressive divestment; lower budget deficit; revival of the housing sector; etc No one is proposing new or higher taxes. The capital market would not expect any tinkering with the LTCG or the STCG. A deletion of STT which is now there as an anomaly after LTCG will be a major surprise if removed.

Finance ministers have always struggled to maintain a balance between increased social sector spending and fiscal consolidation. This struggle will continue this year as well. I think the conditions are too fragile to introduce new taxes like inheritance tax or any significant increase in existing tax rates.

Much of the indirect taxation now falls under either the GST Board (GST), state legislatures (excise duties and Cess), or international agreements (tariffs); the union finance minister has a very limited role to play in this regard. This largely limits its discretion to direct taxes only. Moreover, since most direct taxes have already been rationalized, it would have very limited room for maneuver to reduce direct taxes. If anything, it can impose new taxes or additional taxes. The best outcome for taxpayers would therefore be for the FM to maintain the status quo on taxes.

Given the various Supreme Court decisions, legislations, rules and regulations implemented over the past two decades, the sale of public assets (mines, waves, PSE shares, land, etc.) must meet the criteria sustainability, development, transparency, viability, socio-political opportunity; etc and highly dependent on current market conditions. In the past, there was absolutely no correlation between the asset sales targets announced in the budget and their actual achievement. But other targets such as increasing FDI from PSU banks to 74% will be monitored.

As investment advisors, we stick to our investment strategy and don’t tinker with budget announcements. We are overweight major financial stocks, both private banks (ICICI Bank, Axis Bank) and PSU banks (SBIN). We are underweight specialty chemicals and have no allocation to metals, commodities and API-based pharmaceuticals. We continue to be positive on trade unblocking and betting on consumer discretionary stocks like Devyani International, Chalet Hotels and Safari Industries, and we are also overweight the real estate sector – both developer and ancillary and continue to invest in these stocks for our clients.

One could appreciate the argument of “capital market development” in case of investment in IPOs, private equity funds or venture capital funds, etc., because in such cases the companies get much-needed venture capital. But transactions on the secondary market do not pass this course.

The incentive for longer holding periods has failed miserably to improve market liquidity or minimize market volatility. It is common knowledge in the market that the LTCG tax exemption has been widely used for money laundering purposes. In fact, over the past two years, the regulator and tax authorities have also taken action in many cases for misuse of the LTCG tax provision for money laundering.

On the contrary, the day traders, jobbers and market makers who provide much-needed liquidity to our shallow markets, and therefore motivate risk-taking, deserve serious tax incentives. The abolition of the Securities Transaction Tax (STT) can actually lead to a significant increase in daily volumes and deeper markets, thereby significantly reducing transaction cost and market volatility.

In the absence of a functioning retail debt market, companies rely heavily on “fixed deposits” from investor households to meet their working capital needs. These deposits are completely unsecured and carry high risk for investors, instead of slightly higher interest rates compared to bank loan rates.

Unsecured debt providers take much higher risks and therefore deserve more tax incentives.

(Amit Kumar Gupta is a fund manager and head of the research office at Adroit Financial Services Pvt. ltd. The opinions expressed are those of the author. Please consult your financial advisor before investing.)

In terms of niche positions for developers in the financial services industry, it is difficult to get more niche positions than engineering positions working on ultra-low latency systems in systematic hedge funds and corporations. high-speed market making. They don’t come back often, and when they do, they need a special talent: the ability to program. Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA).

Quantitative hedge funds and high-speed market-making companies hire FPGA engineers. In finance, they can be found everywhere from Citadel Securities, to DE Shaw, Susquehanna International, Maven Securities and Jump Trading. Few come from the financial services community: most come from chip design and hardware engineering companies. Ben Hodzic, executive director specializing in quantitative analysis at recruiting firm Selby Jennings in New York City, says they can be hard to find – there just aren’t many FPGA programmers. “Most commercial companies will consider FPGA talent outside the industry, given the difficulty in finding it and the niche of a skill set.. “

The appeal of a good FPGA programmer is speed. FPGAs are literally “programming metal,” creating the circuit that will execute the trading signal. “Companies that strictly focus on low latency are always looking for ways to beat the others,” says a London consultant specializing in high-speed applications. “It’s about using C / C ++ and FPGA and other specialized techniques to reduce the delay by one nanosecond. Java, C ++ and FPGA can be used in parallel.

How much can you make as an FPGA programmer in a quantitative hedge fund or high speed market making firm? It is possible to be fairly specific, at least in the US market. Citadel Securities hired two FPGA programmers in America with H1B visas this year, and both salaries were disclosed in the H1B visa database: an FPGA programmer at Citadel Securities in Chicago has a salary of $ 180,000; another in Palm Beach costs $ 200,000; bonuses will be added to it.

One of the best known FPGA specialists in finance is located outside the northern hemisphere. David Snowdon, Director of Engineering at Arista Networks, is based in Sydney, Australia. Snowdon co-founded Metamako, a specialist supplier of low-latency, Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) compatible networking products to the financial services industry in 2013. Arista has acquired Metamako in 2013. Arista is also hiring FPGA designers and engineers for its offices around the world.

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Photo by Michael Dziedzic on Unsplash

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler on Thursday warned lawmakers that increasing concentration in the wholesale and securities brokerage industries could lead to market “fragility” and increased costs for investors. retail and institutional.

“At the heart of the proper functioning of markets and the SEC’s mission of fair, orderly and efficient markets is to promote competition in the markets,” Gensler said in a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee. “It can be done through transparency, but we also need to look at our set of rules to ensure that our set of rules inspires more competition than concentration. “

ABU DHABI: ADQ, one of the region’s largest holding companies with a broad portfolio of major businesses spanning key sectors of Abu Dhabi’s economy, today announced the launch of Q Market Makers LLC (QMM ). The new market maker began trading today on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX).

Market makers are key market players that provide a highly efficient means of facilitating trading activity and ensuring liquidity in a strong stock exchange. A highly liquid exchange generates greater interest and confidence in capital markets, attracting order flow and quotes. Prices become more efficient, volumes increase as the average spread narrows and overall transaction costs are reduced. This in turn provides a credible platform for companies to raise capital and expand and diversify their shareholder base.

On this occasion, HE Mohamed Ali Al Shorafa Al Hammadi, Member of the Executive Council of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange (ADX), said: “The Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange is working to encourage the participation to the securities markets in order to increase liquidity while promoting capital formation and economic growth. Capital markets with more liquidity and efficiency are essential for any country to diversify its economy and contribute to creating a trading system that is more competitive, transparent and engaged in the global economy thanks to the expertise and the adoption of global best practices.
HE Al Shorafa added: “Market making is a key pillar in the development of financial markets and significantly advances financial trade. The launch of Q Market Makers is an important milestone for the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange, paving the way for increased market activity at all levels. »

HE Mohamed Hassan Alsuwaidi, CEO of ADQ, said: “The creation of QMM brings together a combination of highly specialized expertise, innovative technology and capital deployment for the benefit of listed companies and their shareholders. As an additional market maker for ADX, QMM will help increase liquidity and improve the market quality of the state-of-the-art Abu Dhabi Exchange. This goes to the heart of the ADQ’s goal of generating economic activity supported by a leading capital market that helps drive Abu Dhabi’s growth and development.

To facilitate and support its activities as an independently managed market maker, QMM will be able to access funding allocated for market making earlier this year as part of Abu Dhabi’s economic stimulus package. This financing was set up by the government of Abu Dhabi under Ghadan 21 to improve liquidity in the capital markets.

About the ADQ

Headquartered in Abu Dhabi, ADQ was established in 2018 as a public joint-stock company (PJSC). It holds a diversified portfolio of large companies spanning key sectors of Abu Dhabi’s economy, including utilities, tourism and hospitality, aviation, transport, logistics, industry, real estate , media, health, food and agriculture and financial services.

As a strategic partner of the Government of Abu Dhabi, the ADQ is committed to supporting the development of Abu Dhabi as a modern, competitive, prosperous and sustainable economy. The ADQ stimulates the creation of value by developing leading sectoral ecosystems and by instilling a culture of performance in its entire business portfolio. ADQ is also an asset owner and investor in target sectors, both locally and internationally, that align with Abu Dhabi’s leadership vision.

For more information, visit adq.ae or write to [email protected].

About the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange

Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) is part of ADQ, one of the largest holding companies in the region with a large portfolio of major companies spanning key sectors of Abu Dhabi’s diverse economy.

ADX is a securities trading market; including shares issued by public joint-stock companies, bonds issued by governments or corporations, exchange-traded funds and any other financial instruments approved by the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) of the United Arab Emirates. It is the second largest market in the Arab region and its strategy of providing stable financial performance with diversified revenue streams is aligned with the guiding principles of the UAE’s Towards the Next 50 program. The National Plan sets out the UAE’s strategic development blueprint which aims to build a sustainable, diversified and high value-added economy that positively contributes to the transition to a new global sustainable development paradigm.

© Press release 2020

São Paulo – Citi now offers institutional clients of its US-based Futures Commission Merchant (FCM) transportation brokerage services to trade in the Brazilian futures market at B3S.A. – Brazil stock exchange and over-the-counter market (“B3”).

Through its FCM, Citi provides customers with an efficient and cost effective way to access the Brazilian market. FCM relies entirely on Citi’s network of local affiliates for the clearing, settlement and loading of client positions. Local brokerage Citigroup Global Markets Brasil CCTVM SA and the local custodian Citibank DTVM SA are the members of B3 who will ensure the administrative and operational management of the futures contracts, as well as the management of client guarantees, ensuring that they are processed by Citi from start to finish. end, enabling a superior operational experience for customers.

“By providing solutions that facilitate cross-border transactions, we underscore our commitment to meet the clearing, settlement, and administrative and operational management requirements of our clients in international markets,” said Jerome Kemp, Global Head of Futures. , clearing and FXPB. “Our customers value our ability to leverage our understanding of local market practices and procedures and provide them with access to important growing markets such as Brazil. “

Citi is one of the world’s largest participants in exchange-traded derivatives markets and has also established itself as a market leader in OTC clearing and FX Prime Brokerage. Citi offers institutional clients a full range of products and services, including central clearing; global execution on all major futures exchanges; leading e-commerce platforms and leading post-trade online reporting tools. The company offers the breadth and reach of a global market leader while designing solutions tailored to specific customer needs.

About Citi

Citi, the world’s largest bank, has approximately 200 million accounts receivable and operates in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, businesses, governments and institutions with a wide range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, business and investment banking, securities brokerage, wealth management and transaction services.

Citi Brazil

Citi is the most globalized bank in the world, with more than 200 years of activity, 105 of which in Brazil.

Present in 98 countries, including 23 in Latin America, Citi is the largest American bank in terms of assets present in the country. We offer a comprehensive portfolio of financial products and services in all the markets in which we operate: Trade Finance, Local and International Cash Management, Custody, Derivatives, Foreign Exchange, Project Finance, Mergers and Acquisitions, Structured Operations and Capital Markets (ECM & DCM).

We serve clients in over 160 countries, handling an average of US $ 4 trillion per day, with the ability to make transfers and payments in more than 25 currencies. No other bank offers its customers the possibility of centralizing their cash flow in more than 100 countries. In Brazil, Citi offers a full range of financial services focused on serving businesses, institutions and the wealthy. We serve governments, investors, large and medium-sized businesses and wealthy families who rely on our local and global expertise to achieve the highest indicators of growth and economic progress.

This material is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to buy or sell any securities, even though mentioned here. This document presents information for different investment profiles, and investors should check and pay attention to information specific to their investment profile, as the information in this document is not suitable for all investors. Investments made by investors for their portfolios are subject to several risks inherent in the markets and the assets included in the portfolio, including, without limitation, market risk, credit risk, liquidity risk, currency risk , concentration risk, risk of loss of invested capital and the provision of additional resources, among others.

Korea Exchange plans to implement additional measures to mitigate the impact of short selling by reducing the obligations of market makers.

He announced on March 18 that the measures are aimed at preventing the disadvantage of market makers due to failure to meet the obligation in the process of reducing short sales. Specifically, the time and volume requirements and the bid-ask spread will be halved.

Market makers borrow stocks and set asking prices for both buy and sell for smooth trading. The work is carried out mainly by local institutional investors. Earlier, on March 13, the Financial Services Commission banned short selling for six months. However, some local institutional investors have been exempted from the temporary ban as market makers. Then some investors asked the commission to include market makers in the ban as well. For example, the Korea Stock Investors Association issued a statement to this effect on March 14.

Korea Exchange’s action is to adjust the duty of market makers in response to the call and not to take any disciplinary action against market makers who refrain from taking short positions. “In short, we have told local institutional investors that they are not required to do short sales as we will not have any non-market making issues resulting from non-short selling,” Korea explained. Exchange.