North Korea has reportedly arrested former state cyber operators for hacking its central bank and Foreign Trade Bank, laundering stolen funds via cryptocurrency through China.
J.P. Morgan Asset Management reports AI-themed ETFs are a top 5 theme by assets under management, despite Q2 volatility, with ETFs attracting more inflows than mutual funds due to tax benefits.
Bitcoin traded around $64,000 after the ECB kept interest rates unchanged, tightening financial conditions through quantitative tightening and reduced bond demand, affecting crypto markets through global capital allocation and liquidity.
India's Akasa Air seeks $110M for expansion, while Malaysia's AirBorneo launches international service, both growing despite high jet fuel prices and Middle East conflict, signaling smaller Asian carriers' growth amidst larger airlines' capacity issues.
The revised CLARITY Act faces unusual divisions among Wall Street, Washington, and the crypto industry. While Goldman Sachs supports advancing the bill, banking groups oppose stablecoin reward provisions. Cardano's founder aligns with Senator Warren on presidential involvement, complicating its path to Senate passage.
Indian banks and insurers will launch the Central Know-Your-Customer 2.0 (CKYC) system in August, allowing customers to access financial products without repeated ID submissions. Asset managers will join later, aiming to deepen financial participation and combat fraud by simplifying data access with customer consent.
The European Union, in its 21st anti-Russian sanctions package, has blacklisted the Indian branches of VTB and Sberbank, along with Indian companies Falcon Toolings and Zepto Microwave and Chip Devices Assembly. Restrictions on the banks are set to take effect on August 13, 2026.
The EU unveiled its largest sanctions package in four years against Russia, leading FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich to suspend his activity. The measures target 218 individuals and entities, including banks, vessels, and military-industrial complex, while Ukraine faces ongoing attacks.
Two major international banks in Hong Kong reportedly lost access to Anthropic's Claude AI tool for their local teams, a move seen as weakening the city's global financial hub status and highlighting AI's strategic geopolitical treatment rather than neutral infrastructure.
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon supports the US Senate's Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, acknowledging it's "not perfect" but necessary for market stability. His stance contrasts with other financial leaders like Jamie Dimon and many Democrats, who raise concerns about investor protection and ethics provisions related to presidential crypto investments.
The EU has enacted its 21st sanctions package, expanding measures against Russia's financial and banking sector with asset freezes and transaction bans on 94 institutions. It also targets a Kyrgyz bank and three other non-Russian banks for circumventing sanctions, and introduces a new instrument for a full third-country ban on crypto-asset services used by Russia.
The European Union has implemented its 21st sanctions package, targeting Russian individuals including Vladimir Tabak, Maxim Grigoriev, and Arkady Dvorkovich, along with investment corporation Sistema, several gold miners, and numerous banks for their alleged roles in supporting pro-Kremlin activities and undermining Ukraine's territorial integrity.
Hedge fund manager John Paulson believes gold is in the early stages of a long-term bull market, citing declining faith in paper currencies and growing demand from central banks and the private sector. He advises investing in early-stage gold miners, specifically mentioning NovaGold Resources.
Top Indian private sector banks, including HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Axis Bank, reported weaker net interest margins (NIMs) in the June quarter. This decline was primarily due to sluggish retail loan demand, pushing lenders towards lower-yielding corporate loans, a trend partly influenced by rising bond yields and the West Asia war.
JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon warned Andy Burnham that raising bank taxes could jeopardize the bank's £3bn London headquarters project and deter investment from Britain. Dimon, a long-standing critic of the UK's bank tax surcharge, emphasized the adverse consequences of penalizing companies.
A cross-party group of UK lawmakers has initiated a parliamentary inquiry into the banking challenges faced by the country's crypto industry. The probe aims to understand why firms struggle with bank accounts and why banks restrict crypto-related payments, assessing if these barriers undermine the UK's goal to be a digital assets leader.
South Korea's Bank of Korea is expanding its central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot, Project Hangang, involving nine banks and up to 500,000 users. Starting in September, Phase 2 will test new features like biometric approvals and government subsidy disbursements with programmable tokens, aiming for commercialization.
Indian banks have attracted $20.7 billion in foreign currency inflows through the Reserve Bank of India's special incentive window. FCNR(B) deposits contributed $17.4 billion, with State Bank of India leading the mobilization. The facility, open until late 2026, aims to boost capital inflows and support the balance of payments.
The UK government admitted its outsourced civil service pension scheme, run by Capita, failed, leaving thousands, including a 98-year-old and a young widow, in financial hardship. The Cabinet Office plans to bring the scheme back in-house due to "unacceptable" service levels and missed targets.
The Bank of Korea is reportedly planning to launch the second phase of its wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot, Project Hangang, as early as September. This phase will expand participation to nine banks, introduce new payment features, and test government subsidy disbursements using tokenized bank deposits.
Major European banks, including Deutsche Bank, UniCredit, and Commerzbank, are suing German industrial group Linde for hundreds of millions of euros. The dispute arises from Linde's withdrawal from a €10 billion Russian gas project due to EU sanctions, which led to Russian courts seizing bank assets.
A Reuters analysis reveals 28 of 53 publicly traded business development companies (BDCs) reported losses in Q1 2026, contradicting major bank CEOs' assurances that private credit poses no systemic risk. Hidden leverage and payment-in-kind income obscure the true extent of bank exposure to this market.
Visa has launched its Stablecoin Platform (VSP) for banks, fintechs, and payment providers, enabling them to issue, hold, and transfer stablecoins through its network. The platform supports Open USD, Circle's USDC, and Paxos' USDG, and is entering a beta phase with select customers before a wider rollout.
The European Central Bank (ECB) warns that stablecoins threaten European bank deposits by operating outside the traditional banking system, potentially reducing lending capacity. Executive board member Piero Cipollone presented the digital euro as a structural solution to safeguard deposits and transaction data for commercial banks.
