Lazard plans restructure of Australia business; Robinhood lifts trading limits

TOP NEWS IN BANKING & FINANCIAL SERVICES

* Lazard Ltd. is set to exit its investment banking business in Melbourne and Sydney as part of a planned reorganization, Australian Financial Review's Street Talk blog reported Feb. 4. The current local leadership team in Australia will set up a new boutique that would be managed in collaboration with Lazard. The changes are expected to result in some job cuts, with a number of redundancies announced internally.

* Robinhood Markets Inc. removed limits on buying shares of GameStop Corp. and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc., Bloomberg News reported, citing an update on the company's website. The decision comes days after it imposed trading restrictions on the aforementioned stocks and the shares of a few more companies.

➤ Big payments firms show quarterly earnings growth in Q4'20

Three of the largest companies in the payments sector reported lower EPS for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2020, on a year-over-year basis, but earnings rebounded relative to the linked quarter.

➤ State Farm hikes homeowners rates in California, cuts in others in December 2020

California regulators signed off on a pair of rate increases requested by State Farm General Insurance Co. in December 2020, one of which may be the most impactful homeowners hikes approved by any state regulator during the month.

EARNINGS SPOTLIGHT

* Lazard Ltd. and Cboe Global Markets Inc. released their most recent financial results today.

BANKING

* On Feb. 2, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston terminated the written agreement dated March 21, 2017, with Santander Holdings USA Inc. and Santander Consumer USA Inc. The Fed ordered the company to improve transparency and accountability around compliance risk processes and ensure senior management's attention to ongoing and emerging compliance risks.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

* The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Feb. 4 charged three individuals and their affiliated entities for allegedly running a Ponzi-like scheme, which raised over $1.7 billion from securities issued by GPB Capital Holdings LLC. The complaint alleges that GPB Capital CEO David Gentile and Jeffry Schneider, the owner of GPB Capital's placement agent Ascendant Capital, lied to investors regarding the source of money used to make an 8% annualized distribution payment to investors.

* The founder of two cryptocurrency hedge funds, Stefan Qin, pleaded guilty to securities fraud on the same day, Bloomberg News reported, citing an emailed statement of federal prosecutors. Qin, who was charged with duping investors, claimed he used a trading algorithm to take advantage of price differences for several cryptocurrencies, the report added.

* RBC Capital Markets signed a consent order with Massachusetts securities regulators, Investment News reported. The company accepted a censure and a $200,000 fine for failing to supervise former broker Bruce Cameron, who allegedly over-concentrated the portfolios of senior citizens in energy sector master limited partnerships. RBC Capital was further ordered to reimburse affected investors.

* Fitch Ratings believes that while U.S. financial institutions effectively handled the recent share price volatility, the latest market dynamics could pose long-term implications in terms of regulation, market structure, risk management, financial stability, political and reputational risks.

POLICY AND REGULATION

* President Joe Biden on Feb. 4 withdrew Judy Shelton's nomination for a vacant seat at the Federal Reserve, Reuters reported. Her nomination was blocked in November 2020, after certain concerned Republicans along with the Democrats opposed her election.

* On the same day, Reps. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., co-led a resolution to cancel $50,000 of federal student loan debt per person. Waters and Pressley urged President Joe Biden to exercise his executive authority to cancel student loan debt while ensuring no tax liability for federal student loan borrowers emerges from administrative debt cancellation.

* During a recent meeting with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to discuss recent financial market volatility, top financial regulators believed the core infrastructure was resilient during high volatility and heavy trading volume, according to an emailed statement from the U.S. Treasury Department.

* Technical issues are preventing some banks from submitting the latest Paycheck Protection Program forgiveness forms for their customers' small loans. According to financial advisers, the easier form for loans of $150,000 or less is generally welcomed by PPP participants, but many banks are still trying to get their own systems in place to accept the new applications.

MARKETS

Click here to read about today's financial markets, setting out the factors driving stocks, bonds and currencies around the world ahead of the New York open. Click here for a summary of indexes on the MI platform.

The Daily Dose is updated as of 8 a.m. ET. Some external links may require a subscription. Links are current as of publication time, and we are not responsible if those links are unavailable later.