The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) announced today that it has entered into consent orders with two debt buyers, National Credit Adjusters, LLC (NCA) and Webcollex LLC (doing business as CKS), resulting in restitution of $3 million to New York consumers. NCA and CKS improperly purchased and collected on illegal payday loans from New York consumers. As part of the restitution, NCA will discharge more than $2.26 million in New York consumers’ payday loan debts and provide refunds totaling $724,577 to more than 3,000 New Yorkers. CKS will issue $66,129 in refunds to the 52 New York consumers affected by its unlawful practices, as well as discharge $52,941 in debt to 106 New Yorkers. Today’s settlements represent the first DFS settlements to provide consumer restitution to New York consumers harmed by payday loans.
read more...New York State Department Of Financial Services Announces Settlement With Two Debt Buyers Resulting In $3 Million of Restitution To Thousands Of New York Consumers - National Credit Adjusters To Pay $200,000 Penalty And CKS To Pay $25,000 Penalty For Collecting On Illegal Payday Loans
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Emirates NBD Signs Partnership Agreement With Hawkamah Institute For Corporate Governance
Emirates NBD, one of the leading banks in the region, has signed a partnership agreement with Hawkamah Institute for Corporate Governance to promote best practices of Corporate Governance in the UAE. The agreement reflects Emirates NBD’s commitment to furthering Corporate Governance, not only at the bank level, but also at the national level.
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Bahamas International Securities Exchange Executive Speaks At The Caribbean Group Of Securities Regulators Conference
BISX Chief Operating Officer, Holland Grant (2nd from right) with other panel discussion participants
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Semi - Annual Review Of ATHEX Index Series
ATHEX Index Series Advisory Committee approved today the following changes in the composition of the ATHEX Index Series, taking into consideration the results of the review for the period October 2015 - March 2016.
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Indexing Forum 2016 With SIX Swiss Exchange
SIX Swiss Exchange will take part in a panel discussion on smart beta at the Indexing Forum organized by "Finanz und Wirtschaft."
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Minutes Of The Federal Open Market Committee, April 26-27, 2016
The Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Open Market Committee on Wednesday released the attached minutes of the Committee meeting held on April 26-27, 2016.
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NYSE - Technical Issue Resolved
NYSE experienced a technical issue in one trading unit, which affected a subset of symbols listed on the NYSE Market Status website here. All open orders, including MOC and LOC orders, were cancelled. Trading has resumed in those symbols at 1:17 pm ET and all systems are now operating normally.
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Autorité Des Marchés Financiers: Cyber Risks - Financial Institutions Concerned About Cyber Risks
Financial institutions operating in Québec are concerned about the cybersecurity threats facing them. They are adopting concrete measures to protect their operations while recognizing that further efforts are needed to improve their practices.
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CFTC Swaps Report Update
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May 18, 2016 - SS&C Announces Quarterly Dividend
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Optimal martingale transport between radially symmetric marginals in general dimensions. (arXiv:1412.3530v2 [math.OC] CROSS LISTED)
We determine the optimal structure of couplings for the \emph{Martingale transport problem} between radially symmetric initial and terminal laws $\mu, \nu$ on $\R^d$ and show the uniqueness of optimizer. Here optimality means that such solutions will minimize the functional $\E |X-Y|^p$ where $0<p \leq 1$, and the dimension $d$ is arbitrary.
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Far from equilibrium: Wealth reallocation in the United States. (arXiv:1605.05631v1 [q-fin.EC])
Studies of wealth inequality often assume that an observed wealth distribution reflects a system in equilibrium. This constraint is rarely tested empirically. We introduce a simple model that allows equilibrium but does not assume it. To geometric Brownian motion (GBM) we add reallocation: all individuals contribute in proportion to their wealth and receive equal shares of the amount collected. We fit the reallocation rate parameter required for the model to reproduce observed wealth inequality in the United States from 1917 to 2012. We find that this rate was positive until the 1980s, after which it became negative and of increasing magnitude. With negative reallocation, the system cannot equilibrate. Even with the positive reallocation rates observed, equilibration is too slow to be practically relevant. Therefore, studies which assume equilibrium must be treated skeptically. By design they are unable to detect the dramatic conditions found here when data are analysed without this constraint.
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Elections in Russia, 1991-2008. (arXiv:1605.05545v1 [q-fin.EC])
In this paper, I review the main trends in voting in national elections in Russia since 1991, discuss the evidence of manipulation or falsification by the authorities, and use statistical techniques to examine the determinants of voting trends.
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CME Group Inc. Announces Preliminary Results From Its 2016 Annual Meeting Of Shareholders
CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CME) today announced the preliminary shareholder voting results from its 2016 annual meeting.
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MNI China Business Sentiment Indicator: Chinese Business Sentiment Slips In May - Production Increases Despite Fall In New Orders
Sentiment among executives at China’s largest companies slipped back in May with a fall in New Orders offsetting an increase in Production.
The MNI China Business Sentiment Indicator fell 0.9% to 50.0 in May from 50.5 in April, leaving it exactly at the breakeven 50 level, meaning that the same proportion of companies saw an improvement in business conditions as those who saw a deterioration. Firms were more optimistic that the situation might change over the coming three months. But while the Future Expectations Indicator increased sharply to 54.6 in May, this looks more like a rebound from April’s surprisingly weak outturn of 45.3, rather than concerted vote of confidence in future business conditions.
The continued weakness in confidence is particularly disappointing given that it comes against the backdrop of March’s cut to the Reserve Ratio Requirement and a pledge of further fiscal stimulus at the National People’s Congress.
Positive takeaways were a rise in Production on the month to 55.8 in May from 53.8 in April, and the fact that New Orders managed to hold on to most of last month’s rise, coming in at 54.6 compared with 55.8 in April. Firms were also more optimistic about the coming three months, with expectations for both orders and output rising to the highest since October 2015.
The Production Indicator has increased for three consecutive months, even as overall confidence flat-lined over the same period. In April, the surprise increase in output prompted companies to revise up their assessment of the number of employees they required to the highest since 2011, a view which was tempered in May with the Employment Indicator down 8.9% to 51.9. Similarly, more companies reported that they reduced capacity over the month.
Easier credit conditions continued to be felt by panellists in a sign that policy measures are being felt to some extent. The Availability of Credit Indicator rose 5% to 52.4 in May from 49.9 in April, while Interest Rates Paid rose to 43.8 from 36.6, although remained well below the 50 breakeven level with not a single company on the panel reporting that the interest rates they paid increased over the month.
“A year and a half since the authorities embarked on the current programme of monetary stimulus, the MNI China Business Sentiment Indicator is still languishing at a low level. Measures of credit availability in the survey show that looser policy is flowing through to companies on our panel, although it’s having only a limited impact on the real economy metrics of output and orders”, said Philip Uglow, Chief Economist of MNI Indicators.
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New Zealand's Financial Markets Authority: Licensing Obligations For Property Investment Schemes Imminent
The Financial Markets Authority is putting the call out to businesses of all sizes providing property investment schemes or property syndication funds to get licensed now.
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SGX Welcomes Second Oxley Holdings Retail Bond Offering
Singapore Exchange (SGX) today welcomed the listing of Oxley Holdings Limited’s (Oxley Holdings) four-year retail bonds with a coupon rate of 5.15% per annum, payable half-yearly, on the Mainboard under the stock code, “BTNZ”.
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Listing Of Myanmar Thilawa SEZ Holdings Public Ltd. On Yangon Stock Exchange
Trading on the Yangon Stock Exchange (YSX), Myanmar's first-ever stock exchange, began on March 25, 2016 with the listing of First Myanmar Investment Co., Ltd. Following this inaugural listing, Myanmar Thilawa SEZ Holdings Public Ltd. (MTSH) will also be listed on YSX on May 20, 2016.
MTSH’s main business is investing the company that has undertaken development of the industrial park in the Thilawa Special Economic Zone (Thilawa SEZ) located in the suburbs of Yangon City. Development of Thilawa SEZ is a joint project between Myanmar and Japan, placing MTSH in close association with Japan in a similar vein to that of YSX.
As YSX continues to work on increasing the number of listed companies, so will JPX continue contributing to the development of Myanmar’s capital market.
Overview of MTSH
â Company Representative: U Win Aung (Chairman)
â Consolidated Revenue (as of March 2015): 3.9 billion Kyat (Approx. JPY 370 million)
â Consolidated Net Profit (as of March 2015): 16.2 billion Kyat (Approx. JPY 1,510 million)
â Consolidated Gross Assets (as of March 2015): 57.4 billion Kyat (Approx. JPY 5,370 million)
*Please refer to the YSX website for more details.
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GMEX Avenir Warehouse Receipt System Goes Live At The Agricultural Commodity Exchange For Africa - The Latest Phase Of Programme Supporting The Automated Issuance, Management, Trading, Clearing And Settlement Of Warehouse Receipts For Soft Commodities
GMEX Technologies (GMEX TECH), part of the GMEX Group and Avenir Technology Limited (Avenir), the UK based post-trade software firm, today announced phase 2 of the project to implement the warehouse receipt system, AvenirWRS, is live at the Agricultural Commodity Exchange for Africa (ACE) in Malawi.
This latest project phase delivers warehouse receipts creation, management and financing. Associated activities include enhanced contact management and accounting functions for warehouse charges and fees. The solution also extends SMS messaging, documentation and auditing functionality.
The implementation follows the successful launch of the contact database functionality, in February in phase 1, allowing operators and agents (e.g. farmer cooperative societies, brokers etc.) to set-up and maintain a database of farmers who are interested in taking part in the warehouse receipt arrangements immediately or in the future. Phase 3 of the project will introduce electronic trading of warehouse receipts during Q3 2016.
The new system integrates the functionality of the existing ACE systems and processes into a high performance, agile, scalable technology platform. In addition to the traditional warehouse receipt systems which tend to focus on the depository function, ACE has evolved systems and processes which are custom-designed for frontier markets integrating depository services with pricing, financing, trading and information vending solutions.
Kristian Schach Møller, CEO of ACE commented, “ACE very pleased to be continuing to extend our services catering to the needs of small farmers enabling the growth and development in rural economies.” He added, “Our partnership with GMEX and Avenir is bringing world class technology to deliver an effective warehouse receipt solution providing proven, tangible benefits for poor farmers as they can better maximise their returns for the benefit of their families and the wider community.”
Hirander Misra, CEO and Co-Founder of GMEX Group added, “We are pleased that our strategy to offer our exchange business expertise and technology through the creation of sustainable local partnerships in Emerging Markets such as Malawi is proving to be successful.” He added, “We expect that ACE will become a template for other exchanges trading physical soft commodities across Africa and globally requiring an efficient warehouse receipts system and delivery mechanism.”
Stuart Turner, CEO and Co-Founder of Avenir commented, “We are delighted the project to provide a cost effective, easily accessible automated soft commodity exchange solution for Malawi has been successful. This part of the project has run smoothly and we are looking forward to phase 3 and continuing our relationship with ACE and GMEX.”
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Engagement: Transforming Difficult Relationships at Work
Engagement is the manager's essential primer for dealing with difficult people and managing your team. Bestselling authors Lee G. Bolman and Joan V. Gallos are back with an engaging business novella that relates real, practical techniques captured in the 4-step SURE model for handling people problems. The story centers around a manager in a new job, and her experiences
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