“TOP READS OF THE WEEK” (for week 30 October to 5 November)

This is the final edition of TOP READS OF THE WEEK in this format.

However, you can still get all the top reads in banking, fintech, payments, cybersecurity, AI, IoT, risk management by reading / subscribing to the “Citadel Advantage News Digest”.

The Citadel Advantage News Digest is published at least twice a week with all the latest news on Banking, Fintech, Payments, Operations Risk and much, much more. Check it out!

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In this weeks selection;

Top Reads

• Meta CEO Zuckerberg predicts the metaverse will be mainstream in 5-10 years
• Banks' green pledges under scrutiny
• What We Can Learn From The Sub-Saharan African FinTech Infrastructure
• Sorry, Mark. You Don't Own the Metaverse
• Starling CEO says open banking a flop: Other fintech chiefs beg to differ
• Citi makes COVID-19 vaccine mandatory for 65,000 US employees
• Regulator previews coming crypto, stablecoin policy
• Fintech Apps Still Depend on Old-School Banks to Move Money
• A Battle for Earth: 5 Ways IoT Can Help Save Our Planet
• Elon Musks Lessons In Business Scaling
• The advantages of an AI/ML-enabled search engine for FDA records
• UK regulators warn financial sector still failing to account for key climate risks
• Protecting The United States' Critical Infrastructure From Cyberattacks
• Global rule maker created for ESG disclosure standards
• Pandora Papers highlight the importance of PEP checks as part of AML armoury

From our Blog

• The Great Resignation: Why Millions Of Workers Are Quitting
• Facebook Name Change Signals High-Stakes Race for 'Metaverse'
• China's Race for AI Supremacy
• Understanding and Responding to Bribery & Corruption Red Flags
• See what three degrees of global warming looks like
• The Cost to Reduce Global Warming? $131 Trillion Is One Answer

China's Race for AI Supremacy

Artificial intelligence is set to revolutionize the world, empowering those nations that fully harness its potential. The U.S. is still seen as the world AI leader, but China is catching up. The race is central to the U.S.-China rivalry and a critical facet of the economic and military competition that will define the decade.

 

China Urges Evergrande Founder to Pay Debt With Personal Wealth

Chinese authorities told Hui Ka Yan, the billionaire founder of China Evergrande Group, to use his personal wealth to alleviate the deepening debt crisis of the troubled real estate developer, according to people familiar with the matter. John Liu reports on "Bloomberg Daybreak: Asia."

 

What China's Economic Slowdown Means for Global Investors

China recorded a steep economic slowdown in the third quarter as its pandemic bounceback fades—and now, Beijing is taking on longer-term issues including household debt and energy consumption. WSJ’s Anna Hirtenstein explains what investors are watching.

 

WTO director-general says supply chain problems could last months

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the first African head of the World Trade Organization, tells the FT Africa Summit that she expects global supply chain difficulties to last several months. She tells FT editor Roula Khalaf that the rhetoric about a decoupling of the US and Chinese economies is not matched by reality on the ground, and she blames a lack of global leadership for Covid-19 vaccines not ending up where they are needed most. 

 

China’s Power Crisis Threatens to Delay Apple Gadgets, Other Goods - WSJ

China’s electricity shortages have hit factories that produce a lot of the goods we use every day, including Apple gadgets and furniture. The country’s coal problems expose the growing pains in transitioning to a greener future and risks to the global supply chain.

 

“TOP READS OF THE WEEK” (for week ending 22 October)

This week’s top reads in banking, fintech, payments, cybersecurity, AI, IoT, risk management and much more

In this weeks selection;

Top Reads

• What is Google FLoC and How Does It Affect Your Privacy
• Facebook's Novi launches digital currency wallet pilot
• Is ethical banking a thing?
• 4 Women-led Crypto Projects That Are Driving the Blockchain Industry
• Broadcom Software's Symantec Threat Hunter Team discovers first-of-its-kind ransomware
• SEC Revives Proposal to Claw Back Executive Pay
• The surge of fintech in South America
• Forensics Monitoring Is Blockchain’s New Sheriff
• Essential Aspects of Cloud Compliance for Financial Services
• Amex will let employees work wherever they want one month a year
• Supply-Crunch Inflation Gives Central Banks an Unfixable Problem
• Treasury goes into damage control on bank data reporting
• Ransomware summit takeaways: Pledges to disrupt safe havens, money laundering
• No profit worries? Earnings week still served up drama
• What Emerging American Legislation Means for Crypto Assets and CBDCs
• Deutsche Bank’s ESG executive slams industry’s greenwashing practices
• These are the top 10 tech trends that will shape the coming decade, according to McKinsey
• 8 security and risk management trends to watch: Gartner
• Is PayPal pining for Pinterest?
• 3 Reasons Financial Institutions Can't Let Mergers Stall Innovation

From our Blog

• Three ways to make better decisions - by thinking like a computer
• China’s Silicon Valley is Hiding a $30 Billion Fortune
• How to Plan and Implement an Ethics & Compliance Risk Assessment Program
• Podcast “American Kleptocracy”
• China's Xi Dials Back Economic Overhaul
• Is China's economic model broken?

China’s Silicon Valley is Hiding a $30 Billion Fortune

Shenzhen’s urban villagers have quietly amassed a combined fortune of more than $30 billion in ways that escape most outsiders. Villages like Huanggang sit on what has become some of the most expensive real estate anywhere in the world. But as millions of people face uncertain times as they flock to China’s Silicon Valley in search of better lives, resentment is building. Allen Wan reports from Shenzhen and Stella Ko in Hong Kong.

 

China's Xi Dials Back Economic Overhaul

There are more signs the Chinese government is dialing back its sweeping economic and regulatory overhaul that is starting to hit ordinary citizens. Stephen Engle reports on "Bloomberg Daybreak: Asia." 

Is China's economic model broken? - FT

Since the early 2000s some China watchers have been predicting that the building boom would lead to a crash. Twenty years on they may have been proven right. The FT Global China editor James Kynge and FT Beijing correspondent Sun Yu discuss what is happening in it's real estate sector, what that could do to China’s economy and means for the world.

 

Evergrande Woes Spread to China’s $12 Trillion Local Market

After months of resilience in the face of concern over China Evergrande Group, the country’s $12 trillion domestic credit market has begun to show signs of strain. Bloomberg’s Rebecca Choong Wilkins reports on “Bloomberg Markets: China Open.” 

3 Major Questions Around Evergrande's Debt And China's Economy That Remain Unanswered

In the past month, Chinese property developer Evergrande has dominated financial headlines for being over $300 billion in debt. Many media reports have made parallels to Lehman Brothers role in the 2008 financial crisis. In this episode of Money Always Talks, we take a look at how things at Evergrande got this bad and what greater questions the saga raises about China's economic growth. 

 

What China’s New Data Rules Mean for Tesla and Other Auto Makers

China's new rules on auto data require car companies to store important data locally. Cars today offer high-tech features and gather troves of data to train algorithms. As China steps up controls over new technologies, WSJ looks at the risks for Tesla and other global brands that are now required to keep data within the country. Screenshot: Tesla China 

 

Why China’s Evergrande Has Global Markets on Edge

What the Chinese property giant's crisis means for global investors. Evergrande, China’s most indebted property developer, has kept global markets on edge and sparked protests at home as it struggles to survive. WSJ explains why the company’s crisis is raising questions about the state of the world’s second-largest economy.

 

Ray Dalio on Evergrande, China, Bitcoin and the Fed

Ray Dalio, founder and co-chief investment officer at Bridgewater Associates, talks about the China Evergrande Group’s debt crisis, doing business in China, the value of Bitcoin and when the Federal Reserve might start to taper its monthly bond purchases. He spoke to Tom Keene on "Bloomberg Surveillance" from the Greenwich Economic Forum in Connecticut.

China Seeks to Break Up Alipay, Separate Loan Business

China seeks to break up Ant Group’s Alipay and create a separate app for its loan business. That’s according to the Financial Times. Bloomberg’s Stephen Engle reports on “Bloomberg Daybreak: Asia.”

Why China’s Tough Stance on Crypto Mining Is a Boon for Miners Elsewhere...

Cryptocurrency miners in China are turning off their machines after Beijing warned it would tighten its control over the industry. This has created an opportunity for miners elsewhere, as the power behind crypto becomes less dependent on one place.

The end of Chinese Bitcoin mining

The Chinese government's clampdown has forced most Bitcoin miners offline.

In May, a government committee tasked with promoting financial stability vowed to put a stop to bitcoin mining. Within weeks the authorities in four main mining regions—Inner Mongolia, Sichuan, Xinjiang and Yunnan—ordered the closure of local projects.

China had accounted for about 65% of bitcoins earned through mining, according to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index. But analysts think about 90% of its mining has now ceased.  

Read the full story "Deep in rural China, bitcoin miners are packing up" from The Economist. HERE

Did covid-19 leak from a Chinese lab? - The Economist

 

For most of 2020 the theory that covid-19 leaked from a Chinese lab was dismissed as unlikely. However, in the past few months it has gained currency. The Economist experts explain why. 

You can also read more here: https://econ.st/3gzOVnV

What Happened to China's Superstar Entrepreneur Jack Ma? - WSJ

After Jack Ma criticized Chinese regulators, Beijing scuttled the initial public offering of his fintech giant Ant and he largely disappeared from public view. WSJ looks at recent videos of the billionaire to show how he got himself into trouble.