European banks are concerned that the payment system which connects them to Russia could become a casualty of the Ukraine crisis, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing its sources. The banks describe the potential disconnection of Russia from SWIFT as an “atomic bomb” for the industry because it would prevent the repayment of debts, it said.

According to research by JPMorgan, European banks with subsidiaries in Russia are most at risk from economic restrictions. The study said a handful of lenders, including UniCredit, RBI, France’s Societe Generale, and ING of the Netherlands, have notable exposure to the country.

Data from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) shows Italian and French banks each had outstanding claims of some $25 billion on Russia in the third quarter of 2021. Austrian banks had $17.5 billion, while US banks were owed some $14.7 billion.

Foreign bank exposure to Russia has more than halved since the US and the EU introduced anti-Russia sanctions in 2014, BIS data shows. Back then, the SWIFT international payment system had refused to consider delisting Russia from its services in response to calls it had received.

However, the renewed threat to cut Russia from the payment network, which handles global financial transfers and is used by more than 11,000 financial institutions in over 200 countries, is a major concern for international banks.

The short-term consequences of such a ban are opaque, and might backfire, according to Jan Pieter Krahnen, a finance expert at Frankfurt’s Goethe University and adviser to the German Finance Ministry. He told Reuters that in the long term it could lead to the establishing of a parallel mechanism that would be “a loss for the global system, and also facilitate conflicts further down the road as opportunity costs vanish.”

Heinrich Steinhauer, who represents the German lender Helaba in Moscow, explained that such a move would be tantamount to a giant debt forgiveness program by prohibiting payments. He described it as a “sort of atomic bomb,” saying “For many this would be a catastrophe. For many in the European Union and Russia, and less so for the US because economic ties are fewer.”

Experts add that financial institutions involved in swaps, futures, forwards, and other derivatives that trade with Russian counterparties could also become subject to sanctions rules. Jonathan Moss, partner at the law firm DWF, has noted that a prohibition of trading of Russian bonds in the secondary market would mean that holders of Russian bonds might be forced to sell.

European banks oppose including Russian bonds in a sanctions package, another source said.

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Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/548754-european-banks-russia-ukraine-crisis/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

US pharmaceutical company Pfizer has predicted that it will earn as much as $102 billion in revenue this year – the highest in the company’s history – thanks to its Covid-19 vaccine, booster shots, and coronavirus treatment pill.

In an earnings release published on Tuesday, Pfizer estimated that it would earn between $98 billion and $102 billion in revenue this year. Pfizer expects to earn $32 billion in revenue from its Covid-19 vaccine alone, with another $22 billion of revenue from its Paxlovid antiviral Covid-19 pill.

“The midpoint of the guidance range for revenues represents 23% growth from 2021 revenues,” the company declared in the report.

Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine made the company nearly $37 billion in revenue in 2021, with the company earning a total of $81.3 billion – double the amount of revenue from 2020.

Following the release of the report, The Guardian branded Pfizer’s vaccine as “one of the most lucrative products in history.”

Pfizer CEO Dr. Albert Bourla boasted on Tuesday that the company’s pandemic “successes” had “fundamentally changed Pfizer and its culture forever.”

READ MORE: Pfizer seeks FDA approval to vaccinate 6-month-old infants

In his own statement, Pfizer CFO Frank D’Amelio said he was “proud to see that the company is performing better than at any other time during my nearly 15 years here.”

D’Amelio noted that, if achieved, Pfizer’s 2022 expectations “would represent the highest level of annual revenues” ever in the company’s “long history.”

“I have never been more confident in the future of Pfizer,” he concluded.

Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/548731-pfizer-forecasts-record-earnings/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

President Joe Biden has referred to Tesla as the largest electric car manufacturer in the United States after CEO Elon Musk launched a scathing tirade at the US president for seemingly ignoring the company while praising its competitors.

“Since 2021, companies have announced investments totaling more than $200 billion in domestic manufacturing here in America,” said Biden during a speech on US manufacturing on Tuesday, citing “iconic companies like GM and Ford building out new electric vehicle production, to Tesla, our nation’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer.”

Biden praised the companies for helping to bring “microchip manufacturing back to America after decades of decay.”

Musk responded to the mention with a smiley face sunglasses emoji and thanked a petition calling on the White House “to acknowledge Tesla’s leadership in regards to electric vehicles,” which received over 58,000 signatures, claiming it “made a difference.”

Musk has repeatedly complained about the Biden administration seemingly turning a blind eye to his company while praising more traditional car manufacturers with smaller electric-car output for their efforts against climate change.

Musk became particularly enraged last month after Biden released a video with General Motors CEO Mary Barra and commended the company – along with Ford – for “building more electric vehicles here at home than ever before.” Tesla did not receive a mention.

READ MORE: Musk unloads on ‘puppet’ Biden in Twitter rant

“Starts with a T… Ends with an A… ESL in the middle,” Musk tweeted in response at the time. In a series of strongly worded posts, the billionaire entrepreneur called Biden a “damp [sock] puppet in human form” and accused him of “treating the American public like fools.”

Tesla investor Scott Wainner also unloaded on Biden, questioning whether his video was “some kind of joke.” “You’re congratulating someone who sold *** 26 EV units *** in Q4,” he tweeted, in reference to GM.

Tesla’s Model Y and Model 3 – which are both manufactured domestically – are the top-selling electric vehicles in the US by a huge margin, with little competition.

Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/548729-biden-elon-musk-wish/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Worker unions across the United Kingdom have lashed out at the governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey for telling Britons to hold off on demands for higher pay, despite admitting that the cost-of-living crisis could last until 2024.

In an interview with the BBC last week, Bailey said that businesses should assert “restraint” in pay negotiations to help battle 30-year-high inflation. His comments came hours after the central bank had raised interest rates for the second time in three months.

When asked whether the regulator was asking workers not to demand big pay rises, Bailey, whose latest annual pay packet was worth over £575,000 ($779,309), said: “Broadly, yes.” He explained that while it would be “painful” for workers, some “moderation of wage rises” is needed to prevent inflation from becoming entrenched.

“Telling the hard-working people who carried this country through the pandemic they don’t deserve a pay rise is outrageous,” general secretary of the pan-industry GMB trade union Gary Smith was quoted by CNBC as having said.

“According to Mr Bailey, carers, NHS workers, refuse collectors, shop workers and more should just swallow a massive real-terms pay cut at the same time as many are having to choose between heating and eating.”

A spokesperson for PM Boris Johnson has also rejected Bailey’s calls for wage restraint, saying it’s not the government’s role to “advise the strategic direction or management of private companies.”

Britain is currently battling skyrocketing living costs. Despite inflation hitting a 30-year high in December, wages have remained stagnant, putting intense pressure on household finances. Economists fear that soaring energy bills will push inflation to more than 7% by April, a higher rate than expected.

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A Swiss criminal court opened trial proceedings on Monday against Credit Suisse, accusing the bank of failing to do enough to stop money laundering linked to drug trafficking by a Bulgarian criminal organization. Associated Press reports that the gang employed a wrestler who once hauled millions in currency by car to Switzerland.

The names of the defendants have not been made public, to protect their privacy, but Swiss prosecutors identified Credit Suisse by name in an indictment announced in December 2020.

The charge, which centers on a former manager at the Swiss bank and two members of the criminal ring, follows a years-long investigation into allegations of wrongdoing that apparently took place between 2004 and 2008.

According to AP, the case against the bank revolves around charges that it “did not take all necessary measures to halt the infraction of money laundering” by one of its employees.

Credit Suisse has denied any wrongdoing, saying during the hearing on Monday that it “unreservedly rejects as meritless all allegations in this legacy matter raised against it and is convinced that its former employee is innocent.” The bank added that it “will defend itself vigorously in court.”

The Swiss attorney general’s office said that, after the fall of communism, top-level athletes in Bulgaria “turned towards other sources of income, and numerous wrestlers received approaches from mafia clans.” Thus, one unnamed wrestler aimed to cash in by trafficking tons of cocaine through “mules” from South America to Europe by air and sea and then laundering the profits.

The proceeds from the drug sales entered Swiss bank accounts from 2004 to at least 2007 and were used to buy real estate in Bulgaria and Switzerland in particular, court proceedings show.

Prosecutors said that the wrestler’s “main offense was committed in February 2006, when he transported the equivalent of more than four million Swiss francs (over $4 million) in small denomination notes hidden in his car from Barcelona to Switzerland.”

They also said that a former Credit Suisse executive in charge of business relations with the criminal organization carried out transactions for the ring despite “strong indications that the funds were of criminal origin.”

The executive is accused of preventing the identification of the origin of the funds, which ultimately involved transactions of more than 140 million Swiss francs (about $150 million).

Credit Suisse has consistently rejected the allegations and has said the court could order the “disgorgement of profits” and a maximum fine of about $5 million.

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Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/548577-%D1%81redit-suisse-cocaine-trafficking-trial/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Washington is considering a proposal by US oil major Chevron to allow the company to accept and trade Venezuelan oil cargoes to recoup unpaid debt, Reuters reported on Monday, citing its sources.

People close to the discussions said that Chevron representatives in recent months held at least one high-level meeting with US diplomats along with Venezuelan opposition envoys.

Chevron has been lobbying for a year to secure a change in its license to operate in Venezuela. The energy giant wants Washington to reinstate trading privileges it enjoyed for a time under then-President Donald Trump’s administration. Back then the company, along with other foreign producers, were permitted to take and export Venezuelan oil to recoup dividends and debt from joint ventures with state-run oil company PDVSA.

Under that arrangement, Chevron was allowed to trade up to two million barrels per month of Venezuelan crude until mid-2020. Venezuela owes hundreds of millions of dollars to Chevron from joint ventures.

“The Biden administration has more and more incentives to ease sanctions on Venezuela after Trump’s failed strategy,” one of the sources told Reuters. “One of the most important ones is to bring something to the negotiation table” with Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, he added.

The US State Department spokesperson said the government “does not preview sanctions actions.” According to the official, sanctions “deny the Maduro regime revenue streams that finance repression and line the pockets of regime officials, as well as protect the US financial system from exposure to corrupt and illicit financial flows.”

Most Venezuela-related trade permitted by Washington since 2019 has been through oil-for-fuel swaps that ensured Venezuelan crude could not be resold, and that no cash payments would get to Maduro’s government or to PDVSA.

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, who has repeatedly called for restarting political negotiations with Maduro after they were suspended in October, said last month a US offer to loosen sanctions if talks resume “is not indefinite” and could be reversed.

The Maduro government has long withstood US and European sanctions. Last year, Venezuela was denied access to its almost $2 billion of gold reserves stored in the UK, with London saying Maduro should not be recognized as its president “for any purpose.”

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Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/548540-us-weighs-seizing-venezuelan-oil/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Tesla has reported that the fair market value of its Bitcoin holdings as of December 31 was $1.99 billion. The figure was revealed on Monday in Tesla’s annual filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

In the filing, the company reports that, in the year ending December 31, 2021, it recorded approximately $101 million of impairment losses resulting from changes to the value of Bitcoin, and gains of $128 million on certain sales of Bitcoin. The company accepted the cryptocurrency for payment for its products for several months in 2021.

Tesla invested an aggregate $1.5 billion in Bitcoin in the first quarter of 2021, according to the previous filing. The filing doesn’t disclose the date of the purchase but, during that period, the price of the digital currency fluctuated between $29,405 in early January and $61,177 in mid-March. On December 31, 2021 the price of Bitcoin fluctuated between $45,700 and $48,500. According to a database from the crypto analytics firm CoinGecko, Tesla owns 48,000 Bitcoin.

Tesla is the second-biggest holder of Bitcoin in the corporate world, with the largest being the Virginia-based business intelligence software maker MicroStrategy, which owns more than 121,000 Bitcoin worth more than $5 billion, according to CoinGecko. 

Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk has influenced the value of Bitcoin on numerous occasions by posting messages on Twitter. In January last year, he added #bitcoin to his Twitter bio, which helped push the token’s price up by as much as 20%. He also said he believed the token would gain ‘broad acceptance’ in finance.

Later, however, he did a U-turn on the cryptocurrency, voicing concerns about its energy usage and cost to the environment. In May last year, he announced that Tesla would stop accepting Bitcoin as payment for its products because of concerns about “rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel.”

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