2025-07-15 07:04
SEOUL, July 15 (Reuters) - South Korea will prepare within this year a roadmap for its stock market to win developed market status from a global index provider, the country's acting finance minister said on Tuesday. The move is part of market reform pledges by President Lee Jae Myung, who took office last month, to win an upgrade from emerging market status to developed market status by Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) to attract capital inflows. Sign up here. The government will prepare a comprehensive roadmap to bring improvements in market accessibility and implement measures as soon as they are prepared, Acting Finance Minister Lee Hyoung-il said at a task-force meeting. "Through the promotion to the MSCI developed market index, we will establish an investment environment that is in line with global standards and advance our foreign exchange and capital markets," Minister Lee said. Last month, MSCI kept South Korea on its emerging market index, as it said more needed to be done, particularly on the foreign exchange market, though it acknowledged an improvement in short-selling accessibility. The benchmark KOSPI stock index (.KS11) , opens new tab has been rallying since President Lee's election victory in early June, hitting its highest level in nearly four years on Tuesday. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/south-korea-prepare-roadmap-developed-market-upgrade-2025-07-15/
2025-07-15 07:02
HONG KONG, July 15 (Reuters) - Standard Chartered (STAN.L) , opens new tab will allow institutional clients to trade bitcoin and ether through its UK branch, the bank said on Tuesday, becoming what it said was the first global systemically important bank to offer such crypto services. Some financial institutions have said they are seeing more client demand for crypto products as the price of bitcoin hits record highs, helped by U.S. President Donald Trump's pro-crypto stance. Sign up here. Institutional clients around the world, including corporates, investors and asset managers, will be able to conduct spot crypto trading through Standard Chartered's existing platforms, and will soon be offered non-deliverable forwards trading, the bank said in a statement. Standard Chartered already offers crypto products, including trading, via two independent subsidiary companies: Zodia Markets and Zodia Custody. Zodia Markets allows clients to trade more than 70 crypto assets, a spokesperson for Standard Chartered said. "As client demand accelerates further, we want to offer clients a route to transact, trade and manage digital asset risk safely and efficiently within regulatory requirements," Chief Executive Bill Winters said in the statement. Crypto asset markets have gradually recovered in recent years, after a series of crypto company bankruptcies in 2022 revealed widespread misconduct across the nascent industry and left millions of investors out of pocket. The U.S. House of Representatives is set to pass a series of crypto-related bills this week, which the Republican majority has dubbed "crypto week". Some U.S. banks are holding internal discussions about expanding into crypto, a sector many had previously avoided, and France's Societe Generale last month became the world's first major bank to launch a dollar-pegged stablecoin. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/stanchart-launches-bitcoin-ether-spot-trading-institutional-clients-2025-07-15/
2025-07-15 07:00
TOKYO, July 15 (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co (7201.T) , opens new tab said on Tuesday it will stop producing vehicles at its Oppama plant in Japan by March 2028 and transfer operations to its factory in the southern prefecture of Fukuoka as part of a global restructuring plan to reduce capacity. CEO Ivan Espinosa has announced sweeping plans aimed at turning around the embattled automaker - Japan's third-largest - including slashing production capacity to 2.5 million vehicles from 3.5 million and manufacturing sites to 10 from 17. Sign up here. Reuters reported last week that Nissan was in talks to allow Taiwan's Foxconn (2317.TW) , opens new tab to use the Oppama factory, in the port city of Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, to produce EVs and avert a closure. "Today, Nissan made a tough but necessary decision," Espinosa said in a statement. "It wasn't easy - for me or for the company - but I believe it's a vital step toward overcoming our current challenges and building a sustainable future." Nissan said it would explore "a wide range of options" for the future use of the Oppama plant. Costs related to the transfer of production to Nissan Motor Kyushu will be disclosed along with first-quarter financial results, it said. When the Oppama factory first opened in 1961, it was one of Japan's first large-scale auto factories and a symbol of Nissan's - and Japan's - global ambitions. Long referred to as Nissan's "mother factory", it employs 3,900 workers and has produced more than 17.8 million vehicles to date. Other facilities and functions in the district such as the Nissan Research Center and a crash-test facility, will be unaffected, Nissan said. Battered by declining sales in the United States and China, Nissan faces a mountain of debt repayment and mounting losses. https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/nissan-says-oppama-plant-will-stop-production-by-end-fy202728-2025-07-15/
2025-07-15 06:47
MELBOURNE/LONDON, July 15 (Reuters) - Rio Tinto (RIO.AX) , opens new tab, (RIO.L) , opens new tab on Tuesday named Simon Trott, the head of its iron ore division, as its new chief executive officer, replacing Jakob Stausholm, who announced his intention to step down in May. Trott, a more than 20-year veteran at the world's biggest iron ore miner, has led the engine of the company's profit for the past four years. He will take over the duties of group CEO effective August 25. Sign up here. Trott's appointment has come swiftly on the heels of the surprise news of Stausholm's departure and his appointment will raise hopes in Australia for a locally domiciled CEO. "It's a relatively safe appointment," said Kaan Peker at RBC in Sydney. "He knows the iron ore business very well and that's the main driver of free cashflow and earnings. Obviously he has proven himself in the eyes of the chair." Trott brought to market Rio Tinto's biggest iron ore mine in more than a decade in Western Australia and is building out a huge programme of replacement tons. "Simon and the Board are aligned that Rio Tinto's next phase is about unlocking significant value for shareholders from our portfolio, driven by operational performance, and cost and financial discipline," chair Dominic Barton said in a statement. Trott, who also served as the miner's chief commercial officer from 2018 to 2021, has faced pushback from investors because the quality of ore in Rio's exports has dropped during his tenure and the miner has struggled to reach the top end of its production forecast. Stausholm, who oversaw a big bet on lithium and expansions in iron ore and copper, was named CEO in 2020 as the miner grappled with legal, public and investor angst over the destruction of Australia's ancient Juukan Gorge rock shelters, which led to the ousting of its former CEO. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/rio-tinto-names-simon-trott-new-ceo-2025-07-15/
2025-07-15 06:45
US CPI data due at 1230 GMT EU threatens countermeasures over US tariffs Trump urges Ukraine to consider striking Moscow Silver hovers near 14-year peak July 15 (Reuters) - Gold prices firmed on Tuesday as concerns over the global trade war fuelled demand for safe-haven assets, while investors awaited a key U.S. inflation reading. Spot gold rose 0.4% to $3,354.84 per ounce, by 1153 GMT. U.S. gold futures were up 0.1% at $3,363.40. Sign up here. The U.S. dollar (.DXY) , opens new tab was down 0.1%, making gold cheaper for buyers holding other currencies. "Gold is edging higher as bulls look to take advantage of the dollar that's a touch lighter today," said Han Tan, chief market analyst at Nemo.Money. "Gold enjoys plenty of supportive factors, from expectations for Fed rate cuts, U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats, as well as persistent geopolitical and economic risks." Trump escalated his trade war on Saturday, announcing a 30% tariff on most European Union and Mexican imports, after issuing similar warnings to other trading partners. The EU responded on Monday by accusing the U.S. of resisting efforts to strike a trade deal and threatened countermeasures if no agreement is reached. On the geopolitical front, Trump has privately urged Ukraine to ramp up strikes deep inside Russia, even asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy if Moscow could be targeted with U.S.-supplied long-range weapons, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday. The Kremlin meanwhile said on Tuesday that Trump's recent statements, including a threat of sanctions on buyers of Russian exports, are serious and require analysis. Elsewhere, the U.S. consumer price index (CPI) report, due at 1230 GMT, could give investors more guidance on the Federal Reserve's policy path. U.S. consumer prices likely picked up in June, potentially marking the start of a long-anticipated, tariff-induced increase in inflation that has left the Fed cautious about resuming rate cuts. Elsewhere, spot silver gained 0.2% to $38.22 per ounce, after hitting its highest level since September 2011 on Monday. "If the current gold to silver price ratio is maintained, at gold prices above $3,440/oz, we will see silver above $40/oz," said WisdomTree commodities strategist Nitesh Shah. Platinum rose 1.6% to $1,385.60, while palladium rose 1.8% to $1,215.30. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/gold-ticks-higher-with-focus-us-inflation-data-2025-07-15/
2025-07-15 06:42
BoE delays trading rule to 2028, sticks with 2027 for rest of Basel Central bank also eases capital rules for mid-sized banks Deadline shift comes as other jurisdictions delay Basel rules UK finance minister to address City of London later LONDON, July 15 (Reuters) - Britain's central bank on Tuesday delayed implementing a key part of new, global rules governing banks' trading activities by a year to 2028, as it waits for clarity on what other jurisdictions including the United States will do. As part of a series of changes unveiled to help British lenders, the Bank of England also announced an easing of capital requirements for mid-sized banks, a change that had been expected. Sign up here. The announcements follow calls from the Labour government for regulators to replace a risk-averse stance with one that supports financial sector growth. UK Finance Minister Rachel Reeves on Tuesday also announced a plan to rein in regulators and get more savers investing in shares to boost the financial services industry and the economy. The BoE said it would stick with a January 2027 implementation date for most of the Basel 3.1 rules but that it would postpone part of the rules known as Fundamental Review of the Trading Book (FRTB) to 2028. The FRTB governs capital and reporting requirements relating to banks' trading assets, crucially including how risk should be measured using a standard method or banks' own calculations. The BoE said it had proposed delaying implementation of the internal models approach to give firms more time to prepare and given "continued uncertainty" over implementation elsewhere. "Today's announcements will give certainty to firms of all sizes about the future capital framework ... and allow an extra year for part of the implementation of new investment banking rules," Bank of England Deputy Governor Sam Woods said. Supervisors globally have been delaying the full implementation of banking reforms known as Basel 3.1 to avoid burdening their own companies with extra rules before other countries have introduced them and to get a better understanding of what the United States would do under Donald Trump after the president pledged to deregulate. The BoE said in January it was delaying the broader Basel rules by a year to January 2027, which prompted the European Union to say it would consider its options. A few months later the EU delayed implementation of its FRTB rules until 2027. The initial batch of Basel III rules from the Basel Committee of banking regulators from the world's main financial centres were rolled out in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, and the final batch, which the BoE calls Basel 3.1, were set be implemented from January 2025. MID-SIZED BANKS Separately, the BoE raised the minimum asset threshold at which banks must issue loss-absorbing debt known as MREL — designed to ensure banks can be "bailed in" rather than bailed out — to a range of 25 billion to 40 billion pounds ($53.73 billion), up from 15 billion to 25 billion pounds. The new range is slightly more generous than the 20 billion to 30 billion pounds range proposed during a consultation last year. Banks that have above 40 billion pounds in assets will be expected to prepare full bail-in plans, while those within the new band will be assessed on a case-by-case basis. Mid-sized lenders such as OneSavings Bank (OSBO.L) , opens new tab and Metro Bank (MTRO.L) , opens new tab, long critical of the post-crisis rules as disproportionately punitive, are among those expected to benefit. Shares in Metro rose 0.5% while OneSavings Bank stock gained 0.62%, slightly ahead of the broader market. Paragon Banking Group (PAGPA.L) , opens new tab Chief Executive Nigel Terrington welcomed the BoE's increase to the MREL capital requirement threshold, describing it as a "strong step in harnessing the full potential of this sector." ($1 = 0.7444 pounds) https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/bank-england-delays-basel-rule-banks-trading-2028-2025-07-15/
