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September 21, 2021 LONDON (Reuters) – Regulators have little understanding of risks from banks setting up digital marketplaces and need a framework for spotting potential contagion if things go wrong, the European Union’s banking watchdog said on Tuesday. So-called platformisation refers to banks creating a digital marketplace for their products and services, and non-banking services, […]

Small and medium businesses regularly face cashflow problems. But if that’s an already-inconvenient predicament, it has been exacerbated to the breaking point for too many during the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, a UK startup called MarketFinance — which has built a loans platform to help SMBs stay afloat through those leaner times — is announcing a […]

September 21, 2021 JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s Mediclinic has refinanced 8.45 billion rand ($575.26 million) in loans through Rand Merchant Bank, the hospital operator said on Tuesday, in what the bank described as Africa’s first sustainability-linked banking facility. Investors and environmentalists have been critical of South African banks for not doing enough to meet […]

September 21, 2021 BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand’s cabinet approved on Tuesday a further 27 billion baht ($807.17 million) in relief measures and extended a scheme to boost domestic travel to the end of February, as the government deals with the country’s biggest coronavirus outbreak to date. The relief support, such as a subsidy on utilities, […]

September 21, 2021 FRANKFURT (Reuters) – European Central Bank policymakers still see the recent inflation surge as temporary but a growing number appear to be acknowledging the risk that price growth may exceed their relatively benign projections. Inflation hit 3% last month, well above the ECB’s 2% target and could even climb to 3.5% by […]

September 21, 2021 AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Universal Music Group’s shares leapt more than a third in their stock market debut on Tuesday as investors bet a boom in music streaming still has a long way to run. Here are facts about Universal and its flotation: FROM THE BEATLES TO BILLIE EILISH By revenue, Universal Music […]

September 21, 2021 KHARTOUM (Reuters) -Sudanese authorities have foiled an attempted coup, the army said on Tuesday, warding off a challenge to a civilian-military council that has run the country since Omar al-Bashir was overthrown in 2019. A civilian member of the ruling council told Reuters the situation was under control after the attempted coup […]

September 21, 2021 (Reuters) – Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers said on Tuesday there was no evidence of Islamic State or al Qaeda militants being in the country, days after Islamic State claimed responsibility for bomb attacks in the eastern city of Jalalabad. Since toppling the Western-backed government in Kabul last month, the Taliban have faced pressure […]

September 21, 2021 (Reuters) – Europe may be viewed as the underdogs in the forthcoming Ryder Cup compared to their American opponents, but Tommy Fleetwood said his team will head into the biennial competition starting on Friday full of confidence. Europe have an average world ranking of 30 compared to nine for the United States, […]

September 21, 2021 By Simon Johnson STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Sweden’s central bank kept policy unchanged on Tuesday and said it expected its key interest rate to remain at zero in the coming few years, despite a recent up-tick in inflation. Sweden’s economy is back to its pre-pandemic size and with public restrictions coming to an […]

September 21, 2021 By Leigh Thomas PARIS (Reuters) – A rapid rebound in global growth is on track but it is too early for governments and central banks to withdraw exceptional support for their economies despite a spike in inflation, the OECD said on Tuesday in an update of its economic outlook. After slumping 3.4% […]

September 21, 2021 LONDON (Reuters) – Investors have placed more than 90 billion pounds ($123 billion)in orders for Britain’s first green government bond, one of the bookrunners on the transaction said on Tuesday — a figure which would exceed all previous records for British government debt sales. Books opened on the 0.875% July 2033 gilt […]

September 21, 2021 By Kantaro Komiya TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese land prices fell for the second straight year as the country’s closed borders and state of emergency curbs to combat the coronavirus pandemic hit demand for new restaurants and hotels, an annual government survey showed. In a sign the pandemic is reshaping the economy, however, […]

September 21, 2021 By Aditya Kalra NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s plan to tighten rules on its fast-growing e-commerce market has run into internal government dissent, memos reviewed by Reuters show, with the Ministry of Finance describing some proposals as “excessive” and “without economic rationale”. The memos offer a rare glimpse of high-stakes policy-making governing […]

September 21, 2021 By David French and Jessica Resnick-Ault (Reuters) -Royal Dutch Shell said on Monday it would sell its Permian Basin assets to ConocoPhillips for $9.5 billion in cash, an exit from the largest U.S. oilfield for the energy major shifting its focus to the clean energy transition. For ConocoPhillips, it is the second […]

New York-based Blackbird.AI has closed a $10 million Series A as it prepares to launched the next version of its disinformation intelligence platform this fall. The Series A is led by Dorilton Ventures, along with new investors including Generation Ventures, Trousdale Ventures, StartFast Ventures and Richard Clarke, former chief counter-terrorism advisor for the National Security […]

Pipe, a two-year-old startup that aims to be the “Nasdaq for revenue,” announced today it has snagged former Stripe EIC Sid Orlando and HubSpot’s ex-Chief Strategy Officer Brad Coffey to serve on its executive team. The Miami-based fintech also revealed today its first expansion outside of the United States with its entry into the U.K. […]

September 21, 2021 COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Denmark risks falling short of its 2030 climate targets unless it builds far more wind and solar farms and overcomes bureaucracy and local resistance to turbines, lobby group WindDenmark said on Tuesday. Home to wind pioneers Orsted and Vestas, Denmark is viewed as a front-runner in combating climate change […]

September 21, 2021 BRUSSELS (Reuters) – France is assessing all options in response to Australia’s scrapping of a $40 billion submarine contract, French European affairs minister Clement Beaune said on Tuesday, while urging Britain to respect its post-Brexit commitments. Australia said last week it would cancel an order for conventional submarines from France and build […]

September 21, 2021 LA PALMA, Spain (Reuters) -Lava gushing from the Canary Islands’ first volcanic eruption on land in 50 years has forced authorities to evacuate another part of El Paso municipality on the island of La Palma and to urge sightseers attracted by the phenomenon to stay away. People from the neighbourhood of Tacande […]