Category: Finance

Here’s how sharply mortgage refinancing has dropped

To say home refinancing activity is a sliver of what it was two years ago is no exaggeration.

In the first quarter of 2021, there were 1.84 million refinances where homeowners secured a lower mortgage rate, according to figures for mortgage technology and data provider Black Knight Inc. provided Yahoo Finance. In the final month of 2022, that number was just 9,701.

Here’s what that drop-off looks like.

On Wednesday, figures from the Mortgage Bankers Association reflected this rapid descent. Refinance activity was 76% lower the week ending March 3 versus a year ago as mortgage rates climbed more than

…
Read More

China plans to revamp finance, tech oversight

Delegates and officials gather at The Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 5, 2023, for the opening of the annual National People’s Congress.

Lintao Zhang | Getty Images News | Getty Images

BEIJING — China plans to overhaul its financial regulatory system by consolidating aspects of the central bank and securities regulator under a new entity, while doing away with the existing banking regulator.

That’s according to a draft released late Tuesday as part of China’s ongoing annual parliamentary meeting, known as the “Two Sessions.” Delegates are set to approve a final version on Friday.

The changes

…
Read More

Euler Finance blocks vulnerable module, working on recovering funds

Euler Finance’s decentralized finance (DeFi) lending protocol became a victim of a flash loan attack on March 13, resulting in the biggest hack of crypto in 2023 so far. The lending protocol lost nearly $197 million in the attack and impacted more than 11 other DeFi protocols as well.

On March 14, Euler came out with an update on the situation and notified its users that they had disabled the vulnerable e-token module to block deposits and the vulnerable donation function.

The firm said that they worked with various security groups to perform audits of its protocol, and the vulnerable

…
Read More

Ontario finance minister teases vision for growth in 2023 budget

Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy will release the Ontario government’s 2023 budget on March 23

Two-and-a-half weeks before he plans to introduce the Ford government’s 2023 budget, Peter Bethlenfalvy explained in broad strokes what to expect in it to a downtown Toronto audience.

The budget will signal that Ontario “wants to be the economic engine of Canada and frankly, North America,” the finance minister told attendees at the Toronto Region Board of Trade’s Gateway to Growth Summit on Thursday.

The budget is also meant to prepare Ontario for “all the people who come to Ontario,” the finance minister said. The federal

…
Read More

China’s Communist Party takes aim at hedonistic bankers

Ssenior staff at China’s largest investment banks have been flying economy, not first class, in recent months. They are cutting back on entertaining clients and drinking less, if at all, at banquets. A banker says he has been warning junior colleagues to avoid ostentatious displays of wealth. It is, he reports, for their own good.

Listen to this story.
Enjoy more audio and podcasts on iOS or Androids.

Your browser does not support the

“Common prosperity”, a campaign for a more equal China, which was launched in 2021 by Xi Jinping, is coming to investment banking. A recent

…
Read More

BBC chief refuses to quit despite the chaos sparked by Lineker’s removal

Britain’s finance minister on Sunday said “people’s confidence” in the BBC needed to be restored as the broadcaster’s boss vowed not to quit amid the chaos surrounding Gary Lineker’s removal as Match of the Day host.

Lineker was forced to “step back” from his duties presenting the flagship Premier League highlights show after accusing the UK government of using Nazi-era rhetoric in announcing its policy to tackle illegal immigration.

The BBC said on Friday that Lineker, England’s fourth highest goalscorer of all-time, had breached guidelines on impartiality and the corporation would seek “an agreed and clear position on its use

…
Read More

Why the recession odds just spiked after Powell addressed Congress

This article first appeared in the Morning Brief. Get the Morning Brief sent directly to your inbox every Monday to Friday by 6:30 am ET. Subscribe

Thursday, March 9, 2023

Today’s newsletter is by Jared Blikre, a reporter focused on the markets on Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @SPYJared. Read this and more market news on the go with the Yahoo Finance App.

Fed chair Jay Powell just poured cold water on the “no landing” crowd hoping to avert a US recession and rally stocks to fresh record highs this year.

After two days of grilling

…
Read More

Lessons from finance’s experience with artificial intelligence

Who are the earliest adopters of new technologies? Cutting-edge stuff tends to be expensive, meaning the answer is often extremely rich. Early adopters also tend to be incentivized by cut-throat competition to look beyond the status quo. As such, there may be no group more likely to pick up new tools than the uber-rich and hyper-competitive hedge-fund industry.

Listen to this story.
Enjoy more audio and podcasts on iOS or Androids.

Your browser does not support the

This rule appears to hold for artificial intelligence (ai) and machine learning, which were first employed by hedge funds

…
Read More