2024-12-11 20:07

BNY invests in AI and digital asset services for client solutions Vince emphasizes growth under Trump presidency and new leadership BNY explores tokenized asset services and crypto custody platform NEW YORK, Dec 11 (Reuters) - BNY (BK.N) , opens new tab expects a U.S. economic growth boost under the new Donald Trump U.S. presidency and is investing in artificial intelligence and services for digital assets to enhance solutions for its clients, CEO Robin Vince said on Wednesday. "Growth is good for the U.S. economy and President-elect Trump has been very clear that he believes in growth," he said during an interview at the Reuters NEXT conference in New York. "We're pro-growth ... our clients want to be able to take advantage of the opportunities here," he added. Founded 240 years ago by Alexander Hamilton, a U.S. founding father, BNY's businesses include custody, treasury services, markets, wealth and investment management. Vince, a former Goldman Sachs veteran who joined BNY in 2020, assumed the role of CEO in 2022. Earlier this year, the bank, originally known as BNY Mellon, rebranded to BNY. Vince has brought in new leadership and focused on growth in areas like real-time payments and artificial intelligence, while boosting efficiency. The company's stock is up more than 50% so far this year. BNY plans to continue investing in artificial intelligence, Vince said. "This is human leverage ... I see the opportunity and we're investing in and we have tools live that create more leverage for our people, that create solutions for clients, and insights and data for clients that otherwise would have been almost impossible to derive through traditional means." BNY, which launched a crypto custody platform in 2022, is also investing to provide a full range of services to digital assets once they're tokenized, said Vince. Tokenizing converts ownership of traditional assets into digital tokens on a blockchain, a decentralized, user-controlled database. Advocates claim its consensus mechanism boosts transparency, security, and tradeability. "We can custody tokenized assets, and now we're looking at participating in a variety of pilots around issuance platforms," he said. To view the live broadcast of the World Stage go to the Reuters NEXT news page: https://www.reuters.com/world/reuters-next/ Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/bny-ceo-optimistic-us-economic-growth-ai-potential-2024-12-11/

2024-12-11 20:06

BRASILIA, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Brazil's Federal Police said on Wednesday they had dismantled an illegal mining scheme that extracted gold from Indigenous lands worth 4 billion reais ($166 million). The investigations revealed that the illegal scheme recruited foreigners - mostly Venezuelans - to transport the illegal gold in luggage checked on commercial flights to neighboring Venezuela and Guyana, police chief Pedro Henrique Melo said. The Federal Police was authorized to serve nine arrest warrants and 19 search and seizure warrants in six Brazilian states, including the seizure of more than 615 million reais in assets and cash. In November, a major operation involving 20 agencies was launched to remove miners from the Munduruku Indigenous Land. A followed actions at the beginning of the operation, and found that the involvement of indigenous people in illegal mining made it difficult to repress mining in the Amazon. The Munduruku territory, a reservation with 140 villages where about 9,000 indigenous people live, has become a critical point for illegal mining, which under Brazilian law is banned on Indigenous lands. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazil-police-bust-166-million-illegal-gold-scheme-indigenous-lands-2024-12-11/

2024-12-11 20:05

VIENNA, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Austria's OMV said on Wednesday (OMVV.VI) , opens new tab it had terminated its long-term gas supply contract with Gazprom (GAZP.MM) , opens new tab after the Russian firm stopped deliveries last month amid a row that has been highly politicized due to the war in Ukraine. The step formally ends the moribund contract since Gazprom halted 50 years of gas flows to the Austrian firm after OMV won an arbitration case against Gazprom over a separate contract and said it would recoup its 230 million euros ($241 million) in damages by not paying Gazprom's invoices for the main contract. "OMV today announced the termination of its long-term natural gas supply contract with Gazprom Export in reference to multiple fundamental breaches of contractual obligations by Gazprom Export. This termination takes immediate effect," OMV said in a statement, referring to Gazprom's delivery stop. The contract was due to run until 2040. OMV was among the few remaining large, long-term buyers of Russian pipeline gas in Europe after Gazprom lost almost all its customers there after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Before the war, Russia was Europe's single biggest supplier of natural gas. Russian gas has kept flowing into Austria via pipeline through Ukraine and Slovakia, albeit at lower volumes now OMV has been cut off. The spat has placed the spotlight on Austria's continued reliance on Russian gas even though it has made contingencies for a cut-off and has large volumes in storage. "Gazprom did not abide by the contracts, which is why OMV is immediately terminating the contract," Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said on X after OMV's announcement. The Austrian state owns 31.5% of OMV. "Our energy supply is secured because we are well prepared. Austria will not be blackmailed by Russia," Nehammer added, accusing Russia of trying to weaponize its energy supplies. ($1 = 0.9541 euros) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/austrias-omv-terminates-gazprom-gas-contract-after-supply-row-2024-12-11/

2024-12-11 20:02

Dec 11 (Reuters) - Firefighters made some progress in containing a wildfire in the beach community of Malibu, California, on Wednesday, but it continued to threaten several structures, force residents to flee and close schools in the area. More than 1,500 firefighters were battling the Franklin Fire, which had scorched nearly 4,000 acres (1,620 hectares) and was 7% contained as of Wednesday morning, as it burned in the steep, rugged terrain northwest of Los Angeles. The fire, which started on Monday night, has destroyed at least seven structures and damaged nine others, Chief Anthony Marrone of the Los Angeles County Fire Department said on Wednesday. No deaths or injuries from the fire have been reported, and its cause remains unknown, officials said. A red flag warning issued by the National Weather Service remained in effect on Wednesday as strong Santa Ana winds and low humidity were expected in the area. The winds were set to die down, but arid conditions were due to continue throughout the day, forecasters said. Evacuation orders and warnings remained in place on Wednesday for parts of the city of 10,000 people. Roadways, including a portion of the Pacific Coast Highway, were shut down as the fire burned nearby. The public school system canceled classes for Wednesday and Thursday due to the fire, local media reported. Governor Gavin Newsom said California had obtained a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to secure resources to suppress the fire. Pepperdine University in Malibu said the threat of fire had greatly diminished after it issued a shelter-in-place order for some students. There was little to no damage to structures around campus. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/stubborn-wildfire-destroys-several-structures-malibu-california-2024-12-11/

2024-12-11 19:21

ABUJA, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Nigeria's Dangote Refinery said on Wednesday it has made its first export of petrol to Cameroon, a milestone that could pave way for regional energy integration and help stabilise fuel prices across the region. The 650,000 barrel refinery built by Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote in Lagos aims to compete with European refiners when operating at full capacity and is expected to change trading of refined products in the Atlantic basin. The company did not provide details of how much was exported. Cameroon's energy firm Neptune Oil said in the statement that both companies were exploring new initiatives to establish a reliable supply chain that will help stabilize fuel prices and opportunities across the region. Neptune Oil said the petrol supply transaction was executed without intermediaries. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/nigerias-dangote-refinery-makes-first-petrol-export-cameroon-2024-12-11/

2024-12-11 19:17

Dec 11 (Reuters) - Meta-owned (META.O) , opens new tab Instagram said its services were back online after thousands of users experienced technical issues accessing its platform on Wednesday, according to outage tracking website Downdetector.com. At the peak of the outage, which started around 12:50 p.m. ET., more than 100,000 incidents were reported with Facebook and nearly 70,000 with Instagram. The number of reports has come down to over 1,000 for both apps as of 6 p.m. ET. Downdetector's numbers are based on user-submitted reports. The actual number of affected users may vary. Some Facebook and Instagram users posted on X that they were encountering an error that said "something went wrong" and that Meta was working to get it fixed. Earlier this year, a technical issue led to an outage that impacted hundreds of thousands of Facebook and Instagram users globally for more than two. The platforms faced another outage in October , opens new tab, when services were largely restored within an hour. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/technology/facebook-instagram-down-thousands-users-2024-12-11/