Tom Saunders

Financial Correspondent at The Telegraph. One of MHP's "30 To Watch" young journalists.

[Tom Saunders @tomjs]

Despite being publicly announced as ambassador, Mandelson delayed taking the job so he could give a paid talk on China with UBS.

[Tom Saunders @tomjs]

Interesting findings in the Mandelson files - a thread.

"Quite a bit of senior interest" in the vetting process of Mandelson, a civil servant appears to write to his people - "Not the details merely that it goes smoothly"

[Tom Saunders @tomjs]

Mandelson worked with the deputy chief of staff at Number 10 to appoint a secret economic advisor for Starmer, who could "quietly second guess the OBR" and push back on the Treasury.

[Tom Saunders @tomjs]

Saba Capital just sees "an opportunity to get it on the cheap.”

Read my interview with Jonathan Simpson-Dent, the chairman of the embattled Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust, as it gears up for an existential shareholder vote next week.

https://t.co/mj1f3H4ND4

[Tom Saunders @tomjs]

EXC: The UK's first prediction market might be launched as soon as this week. EasyBet is launching a similar product in February.

Matchbook will launch its product at the end of January at the latest, and is also providing a white-label product for easyBet

https://t.co/27dRVbTHWx

[Tom Saunders @tomjs]

In years past, Venezuela bonds removal from JPM EMBIG after US sanctions were a massive factor in their significant drop in value

[Tom Saunders @tomjs]

This is quite a big deal re Venezuela bonds. JP Morgan Emerging Market Bond Index has increased V bond weighting yesterday, by 30bps.

That equates to a lot of forced buying (spread over months) that will likely see bonds head up to 60/70c.

[Tom Saunders @tomjs]

As one hedge fund told me, trading in Venezuelan bonds after the country defaulted in 2017 was essentially a way to trade the Monroe Doctrine

The bonds are now trading ~40c, up from lows of around 15c at the start of the year.

It's unsurprising then, that some are contemplating investing further on the basis that Maduro's ouster is just the start.

https://t.co/Tfu3Jc9BvI

[Tom Saunders @tomjs]

Last week, the US military stormed a supertanker after it departed Venezuela's Puerto José terminal, carrying roughly 1.1 barrels of oil.

Barely a week after the ship was captured, a tanker carrying British insurance departed from the exact same terminal
https://t.co/TM88gjlxCt

[Tom Saunders @tomjs]

NEW: FCA to allow crypto retail trading on margin

The FCA has released its latest set of proposals for regulating crypto in the UK. While the rules are broadly similar to those set out in May by the agency, there are a few key differences.

Namely, retail traders will now be able to trade crypto on margin. FCA said in May it would ban margin trading, over concerns that retail investors rarely understand the risks involved in leveraged trading - though they appear to have reversed their initial position.

Crypto platforms wont be required to issue credit checks before lending digital assets to customers, nor will they be required to exercise forbearance in the case of a default.

However, traders won't be allowed to lose more money than the collateral they put up to trade, meaning the heavy retail losses that were common in 2021/2022 are unlikely to be repeated.

[Tom Saunders @tomjs]

Read the full article here:
https://t.co/v853vlNCxx

[Tom Saunders @tomjs]

Two weeks ago a climate study widely used by central banks and other influential organisations was retracted from Nature, over concerns that its findings were exaggerated.

That paper formed a key part of some of the climate scenarios published by the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), an influential global coalition of central banks and financial supervisors.

The NGFS was forced to issue a warning about its scenarios after the paper was retracted, and has committed to changing the way it models the economic toll of global warming by next year.

However, some these now-flawed NGFS scenarios have formed a key part of a number of UK banks own climate forecasts.

It's unclear how banks use these forecasts, though they could well have influenced who they choose to lend to and where they decided to invest.

[Tom Saunders @tomjs]

Unfortunate timing:
Yesterday: Dame Debbie Crosbie, Nationwide CEO, appointed government's new Women in Finance champion

Today: Nationwide fined record £44m over financial crime controls, including failing to spot a customer receiving £27m in fraudulent Covid furlough payments!

[Tom Saunders @tomjs]

Some personal news - after 3 years at The Times, I've joined The Telegraph as Financial Correspondent.

So anyone with anything interesting to say about banks, hedge funds and the like - please do drop me a message!

[Tom Saunders @tomjs]

You can read our contribution to this investigation, as well as those of our 13 other partners, here: https://t.co/ZrK0i9Xg5c

[Tom Saunders @tomjs]

Honoured to have won the European Parliament's Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize for Journalism with @jameshurley and 13 other newsrooms across Europe.

Our investigation looked at former owners of ships now in the Russian Shadow Fleet.

https://t.co/jiX33WxMGL

[Tom Saunders @tomjs]

EXC: The Treasury opposed government plans to force a Chinese company to sell its stake in a UK chipmaker on national security grounds.

With @GeorgeGreenwood

https://t.co/9595HAkSxa