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Rohit Chopra, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will speak Wednesday at DC Fintech Week in Washington, D.C.
The bureau finalized its personal financial data rights rule on Tuesday, a measure that would require financial services firms to unlock an individual’s personal financial data and then transfer it for free to another provider at the request of the customer.
The rule would apply to data associated with a range of products, spanning from bank accounts and credit cards to payment apps and mobile wallets. The bureau said it would also allow customers to comparison shop more easily for favorable rates on deposits or credit.
“By allowing consumers to permission their personal financial data, and make it over time more seamless, people can more easily sign up, switch accounts, and take their financial history with them,” Chopra said Tuesday in prepared remarks at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
The CFPB’s new rule garnered mixed reviews from trade groups. The American Bankers Association raised concerns around data security, while the Financial Technology Association – whose members include Plaid and PayPal – said the regulation “will increase competition, improve consumers’ choices, and drive momentum for future innovations that benefit customers.”
A logo on the UniCredit SpA headquarters in Milan, Italy, on Saturday Jan. 22, 2022.
Bloomberg | Getty Images
Italian lender UniCredit on Monday offered to snap up its domestic rival Banco BPM for roughly 10 billion euros ($10.5 billion) in a move it says is separate from its pursuit of German bank Commerzbank.
The move would, if completed, merge two of Italy’s largest lenders. UniCredit said in a statement early Monday that it is offering 6.657 euros for each share — a slight premium on Friday’s close price of 6.644 euros.
UniCredit said the purchase, which would be an all-stock deal, would allow the bank to “further strengthen its role as a leading pan-European banking group.”
This is a breaking news story, please check back later for more.
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect the correct spelling of Banco BPM.
For two fund managers at Fidelity International, Beijing’s latest stimulus announcements were significant enough for them to buy more beaten-down real estate stocks. Chinese authorities have released a series of incremental measures since late September that range from cutting interest rates to extending financial support for finishing construction on apartments that have already been sold. “This round of the policy pivot is quite significant in the sense that it is a well-coordinated [number of] supporting measures issued by different levels of government bodies,” Theresa Zhou, a fund manager at Fidelity International, told CNBC in an interview Wednesday. “We have been moderately increasing our position in China,” Zhou said. After the September policy announcements, she said the firm turned more positive on “certain cyclical names” in China real estate, after previously focusing on online platforms in the sector. If household confidence returns, that can pave the way for real estate prices to stabilize, especially in China’s larger cities, she said. As of late 2023 and early this year, Zhou said she had been concerned about the housing downcycle given relatively high inventories and falling home prices. Zhou and Ben Li are co-managers of Fidelity’s Greater China Fund . The firm does not disclose exact stock transactions. “We have been selectively increasing positions in quality companies in say the consumer and property sectors,” Li said. “In terms of consumer and property sector, we think they were hurt by the macro challenges in the last few years [and with the policy turning, some] may start to see incremental improvements.” “We think experienced-based consumption will continue to do well,” he said, noting the firm’s investment in online travel agencies. One of the top 10 holdings of Fidelity’s Greater China Fund is Chinese online booking platform Trip.com . In McKinsey senior partner Daniel Zipser’s latest assessment of Chinese consumer sentiment , he pointed out that property transactions in October and the first half of November rose by 2%, the first increase this year. That’s according to the firm’s analysis of daily transaction data for 30 cities. “It is fair to say that October has seen an uptick in consumption, creating positive momentum,” Zipser said. While China has not handed out cash to the public, authorities have used targeted trade-in subsidies to spur purchases of home appliances and other big-ticket items. Companies, such as Alibaba , have noted a boost in sales. Those trade-in measures helped increase panel TV sales in China since the third quarter, Nomura analysts said in a Nov. 20 note. They estimate that, in a sign of growing demand, utilization of TV production lines at BOE and TCL Technology will likely increase in November from October. Nomura rates the two Chinese electronics companies, both listed in Shenzhen, as buy. The two Fidelity fund managers emphasized that their strategy focuses on selecting companies based on their individual competitive advantage. They added that it will take time to see the impact of stimulus, and said that they are watching upcoming government meetings in December and March for more policy details. China’s top leaders typically gather in mid-December to discuss economic plans for the year ahead. Those measures and growth targets are then announced at a meeting of parliament in March. “The positive change from that stimulus package is removing the tail risk and putting a floor [under] the market,” Zhou said, noting she is “cautiously optimistic.” Earnings comments in the last two weeks from major Chinese companies have underscored how it will take time to see the impact of stimulus . “When we talk to companies on the ground after the earnings, it’s positive that we do sense some improvement in their tone in terms of the enterprise confidence and also their expectation for the next year,” Zhou said. In terms of geopolitical risk, she pointed out that Chinese companies have built out their overseas supply chain, making them better prepared today than they were several years ago for President-elect Donald Trump’s threat of tariffs.
The bitcoin rally is generating a false sense of security among investors, according to the strategist behind the so-called granddaddy of gold exchange-traded funds.
State Street Global Advisors’ George Milling-Stanley warns cryptocurrency plays don’t offer the stability of gold.
“Bitcoin, pure and simple, it’s a return play, and I think that people have been jumping onto the return plays,” the firm’s chief gold strategist said on CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week.
Milling-Stanley’s comments came as his firm’s SPDR Gold Shares ETF (GLD) celebrated its 20-year anniversary this week. It is the world’s largest physically backed gold ETF, and it’s up more than 30% in 2024.
“Gold was $450 an ounce [20 years ago],” said Milling-Stanley. “It’s now five times what that price was then. If you look at a five-times price, then gold should be somewhere over $100,000 in twenty years’ time.”
Gold just had its best weekly performance since March 2023. Gold futures settled at $2,712.20 on Friday, the highest settle since Nov. 5. Gold prices are now just 3% below the record high hit on Oct. 30.
Milling-Stanley thinks investors who treasure gold’s safety qualities should reconsider piling into bitcoin. He suggests the crypto world is trying to manipulate them.
“This is why they [bitcoin promoters] called it mining. There’s no mining involved. This is a computer operation, pure and simple,” he said. “But they called it mining because they wanted to seem like gold — maybe take some of the aura away from the gold.”
Yet, he acknowledges it is unclear how high the yellow metal can actually go.
“I have no idea what’s going to happen over the next 20 years except it’s going to be a fun ride,” Milling-Stanley said. “I think that gold is going to do well.”