Finance

DoubleLine’s Gundlach sees more risk coming, and greater chance of recession

Published

4 weeks ago

March 20, 2025

Business Finance News

Jeffrey Gundlach speaking at the 2019 SOHN Conference in New York on May 5, 2019.

Adam Jeffery | CNBC

DoubleLine Capital CEO Jeffrey Gundlach said Thursday there could be another painful period of volatility on the horizon as the fixed income guru sees heighted risk of a recession.

“I believe that investors should have already upgraded their portfolios … I think that we’re going to have another bout of risk,” Gundlach said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell.”

Gundlach, whose firm managed about $95 billion at the end of 2024, said DoubleLine has lowered the amount of borrowed funds to amplify positions in its leveraged funds to the lowest point in the company’s 16-year history.

Volatility recently spiked after President Donald Trump‘s aggressive tariffs on leading trading partners triggered fears of an economic slowdown, spuring a month-long pullback in the S&P 500 that tipped the benchmark into a 10% correction last week. The index is now about 8% below its all-time high reached in February.

The widely-followed investor now sees a 50% to 60% chance of a recession in coming quarters.

“I do think the chance of recession is higher than most people believe. I actually think it’s higher than 50% coming in the next few quarters,” Gundlach said.

His comments came after the Federal Reserve downgraded its outlook for economic growth and hiked its inflation outlook Wednesday, raising fears of stagflation. The Fed still expects to make two rate cuts for the remainder of 2025, even though it said the inflation outlook has worsened.

Gundlach is recommending U.S. investors move away from American securities and find opportunities in Europe and emerging markets.

“It’s probably time to pull the trigger for real on dollar-based investors diversifying away from simply United States investing. And I think that’s going to be a long term trend,” he said.

Finance

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April 15, 2025

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Finance

Digital bank Bunq accelerates US expansion effort as profit jumps

Published

7 hours ago

April 15, 2025

Business Finance News

Dutch digital bank Bunq is plotting re-entry into the U.K. to tap into a “large and underserved” market of some 2.8 million British “digital nomads.”

Pavlo Gonchar | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Dutch digital bank Bunq on Tuesday said it’s filed for broker-dealer registration in the U.S. as it looks to further expand across the Atlantic.

Bunq CEO Ali Niknam said the broker-dealer application will be an initial step toward securing a full banking license. He couldn’t offer a firm timeline for when Bunq will secure this authorization in the U.S. — but said he’s excited for its growth prospects in the country.

Obtaining a broker-dealer license will mean Bunq “can offer our users who have an international footprint — which is the user demography we’re aiming for — a great number of our services,” Niknam told CNBC. Bunq mainly caters for “digital nomads,” individuals who can live and work from anywhere remotely.

Bunq will be able to offer most of its services in the U.S. with the exception of a savings account after securing broker-dealer authorization, Niknam added.

Bunq, which touts itself as a bank for “digital nomads,” currently has a banking license in the European Union. It has applied for an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) in the U.K. Bunq previously had operations in Britain but forced to withdraw from the country in 2020 due to Brexit.

Bunq initially filed for a U.S. Federal bank charter in April 2023. However, it withdrew the application a year later, citing issues between its Dutch regulator and U.S. agencies. The company plans to resubmit its application for a full U.S. banking license later this year.

65% jump in profit

Beyond the update on international expansion, Bunq also on Tuesday reported a 65% year-over-year jump in profit to 85.3 million euros ($97.2 million). That jump was primarily driven by a 55% increase in net interest income, while net fee income also grew 35%.

Similarly to fintech peers such as N26 and Monzo, Bunq has benefited from a high interest rate environment by pocketing yields on customer deposits sat at the central bank.

Bunq’s CEO told CNBC that, while high interest rates have certainly helped, more generally Bunq is seeing increased usage of the platform and has been focused on cost efficiency from an operational perspective.

“Because we are so lean and mean, and because we have set up all of our systems from scratch … we have been able to not only increase our profits, but also offer very good interest rates in the European market in general, and in the Netherlands specifically,” Niknam said.

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More recently, central banks in the EU and U.K. and U.S. have moved to slash interest rates in response to falling inflation and concerns of an economic slowdown, which can bite into bank earnings.

Niknam said he’s not concerned by the prospect of rates coming down and expects potential declines in interest income to be offset by a “diversified” revenue mix that includes income from paid subscription products, as well as new features. Bunq recently launched a tool that lets users trade stocks.

“This is different in continental Europe to the U.K. We had negative interest rates for long,” Niknam told CNBC. “So as we were growing, actually our cost base was also growing because we had to pay for all the deposits that people deposited a Bunq so I think we’re in a great position in 2025

Bunq is coming up against heaps of competition, especially in the U.S. market. America is already served by established consumer banking giants, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup. It’s also home to several major fintech brands, such as Chime and Robinhood.