Europe

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma) have signed an agreement to expand cooperation on FinTech.

This initiative was launched at the second Financial Dialogue between the MAS and the State Secretariat for International Finance (SIF) held today.

The accord will help spur opportunities for FinTech businesses from Singapore and Switzerland to grow into each other’s markets. MAS and FINMA have also committed to sharing the information regarding emerging fintech trends and regulatory issues pertaining to innovation.

The European Commission, in response to growing pressure around the former European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, decided to conduct an investigation in respect of the new ethics commission that the Portuguese has agreed in Goldman Sachs last July.

The Community executive chairman Jean-Claude Juncker made the announcement through a letter of response to the request for clarification received a few days ago by the European Ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly. The Secretary-General of the Commission, tells Juncker, has sent a letter to Barroso "asking him to provide clarifications on its nine responsibilities and the terms of his contract, on which – still the President of the Commission – will ask the opinion of an ad hoc ethics committee" which however is not binding.

PostFinance will lower rates for the companies for payments made with the PostFinance Card at the electronic terminals EFT / POS, after Mister Price had pushed towards this direction.

The reductions agreed upon by both parties globally will reduce PostFinance SA revenue of at least CHF 3.5 million in 2017 and at least 4 million francs in 2018, as stated in today’s press release of Price supervisor. The authorities took action in the second quarter 2015: the investigation had established that the business segment in question the Post Office branch has too high margins.

Swiss carried 1.62 million people in August, an increase of 0.1% compared to the same month last year. The Swiss airline, controlled by the German Lufthansa, has increased by 9.6% in terms of seats / km compared to August 2015. As a result, the load factor declined by 3 percentage points to 86.8%: in July, had reached 87.9%.

Overall, the number of flights has remained unchanged at 13,285 in August, while traffic, expressed in passenger-kilometers flown, was up 6%, it said in a note today’s Swiss.

DLT Financial &Tramonex, a London-based start-up said they would launch the first fund to track an index of digital currencies such as bitcoin in the coming weeks. The project could open up the market and simplifying access to this particular type of asset, breaking the wall that still separates many people from understanding what are the bitcoins and how they work.

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena said Chief Executive Fabrizio Viola has agreed with the bank’s board to resign; the summit was dedicated to updates on the business plan and the rescue maxi-operation institution with a recapitalization of up to 5 billion euro.
Just the difficulties of placing an increase of that magnitude, as evidenced by the banks business operation to work on the market, would have led to the choice to present the third increase in three years with a different banker.

German industry lost momentum again in July, canceling the recovery implemented in the previous period, due to a sharp drop in manufacturing production (-2.3%). This is the worst figure in the last two years. By contrast, building activity recorded a 1.8% advance.

According to the German Statistical Office Destatis, production fell by 1.5% after a revised 1.1% in June (+ 0.8% the first reading). The figure is much worse than analysts’ estimates, which had expected a marginal increase of 0.2%.

Karsten Lauritzen, Denmark’s taxation minister, declared authorities will buy leaked data from a Panamanian law firm that helped customers open offshore companies to avoid paying taxes.

Lauritzen says Denmark’s Customs and Tax Administration had received an anonymous offer over the summer to acquire data from the so-called "Panama Papers". The information pertains to 320 Danish cases and could affect between 500 and 600 Danish taxpayers. It’s the first time that Scandinavian country is granted the option to purchase confidential information.

Lauritzen says "everything suggests that it is useful information" and "we owe it to all Danish taxpayers who faithfully pay their taxes." The ministry hopes to get hold of the documents by the end of September.

In April, Nordea and Jyske Bank, Denmark’s second and third largest banks were among the institutions accused of helping customers avoid taxes.