Russian lawmakers attend a session of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, in Moscow
February 27, 2024 BY Simon Mugo

Russia Approves the Use of Digital Currencies for International Trade

The approval by lawmakers is part of Russia's broader effort to counteract the impact of potential sanctions threatened by Western countries, particularly the United States, against nations like Turkey and China that facilitate commerce with Russia. Before these proposals become law, they must receive the nod from both the upper chamber of Russia's parliament and…

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Qatar Investment Authority
February 27, 2024 BY Simon Mugo

Qatar’s SWF Plans To Invest Over $1Bn in Venture Capital Deals

The initiative was unveiled by Qatar's Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, emphasising that the investments would focus solely on venture capital funds, excluding private equity and debt investments. This venture capital "Fund of Funds" seeks not only to achieve commercial returns at market rates for the sovereign wealth fund but also to…

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February 27, 2024 BY PureContent

Lloyds Makes £450m Provision to Cover Possible Regulatory Issues

The FCA investigation was launched in January this year, following complaints from members of the public who believe they were charged too much commission to arrange finance for car purchases. According to the Financial Ombudsman, around 17,000 complaints have been received so far. This raises the prospect of the bank being forced to pay compensation…

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February 27, 2024 BY Elizabeth Anderson

Berkshire Hathaway heading for a $1tn market cap

Should the Omaha-based organisation pass the $1tn mark, it would be the first US non-tech company to do so. At one stage, Berkshire’s value rose above $925bn. In 2023, the company’s stock increased by 15%. In his yearly address to shareholders, Buffett justified the company’s conservative financial approach and added: The ‘margin of safety’ approach…

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February 27, 2024 BY Elizabeth Anderson

AWS plans for an infrastructure region in Mexico

This AWS Mexico Region will allow businesses, the government, education facilities and nonprofits more flexibility in app usage and data storage. This latest initiative from Amazon aims to offer updated and secure cloud computing. Mexico’s Secretary of Economy, Raquel Buenrostro, said: Cloud services are an essential part of everyday life, helping us to digitally and…

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February 26, 2024 BY Simon Mugo

EU Approves Instant Euro Payments To Compete With Visa, Mastercard

The groundbreaking regulation enables the swift transfer of funds denominated in euros, allowing transactions to be completed within a mere 10 seconds, irrespective of the time or whether it involves transfers within a single country or across EU member states. Traditionally, transaction processes through conventional card payments and banking deposits have been slow, often extending…

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February 26, 2024 BY Simon Mugo

Citi Appoints JPMorgan’s Raghavan as Banking Head, Says CEO

Raghavan, who recently held the position of head of global investment banking at JPMorgan, is slated to commence his new role at Citigroup during the summer. Peter Babej, who has been serving as the interim banking head at Citi, will continue in his role until his retirement later in the year. In the memo, Jane…

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February 26, 2024 BY PureContent

NVIDIA Sets Single-Day Record for Market Value Increase

This massive gain overtook the previous best day of trading set by Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc. (META) when it added $196bn to its value on February 2 this year. Analysts had hotly tipped NVDA to make huge profits thanks to its groundbreaking artificial intelligence (AI) technologies; however, even those analysts were taken aback by…

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February 26, 2024 BY Elizabeth Anderson

US judge accepts Binance’s $4.3bn guilty plea

The penalty includes $1.81bn criminal and $2.51bn forfeiture fines. Binance already submitted its guilty plea in November 2023 and this legal approval, which was given on Friday, 23 February 2024, brings the matter to a close. According to Reuters, the plea resolved an extensive probe that investigated Binance’s failure to report over 100,000 transactions attached…

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