1.GOLDMAN SACHS: -Goldman Sachs has launched its transaction bank in Britain, the firm said Monday, expanding the business after launching in the United States last year as it looks for steadier sources of revenue beyond its investment bank.
The bank is to offer companies in Britain cash management services such as payment processing and payroll as it continues to grow in the country having launched its retail brand Marcus there in 2018.
Goldman Sachs said its transaction banking business in the United States has attracted more than 250 clients since June last year, taking in more than $35 billion in deposits and processing trillions of dollars through its systems
“The growth of this business has exceeded our estimates and we are very excited to bring transaction banking to the UK to expand our client reach and streamline banking for multinational corporations with a presence in the US and the UK,” said Hari Moorthy, Goldman’s transaction banking global head.
Goldman is trying to compete with rivals such as Citigroup (NYSE:C) and JPMorgan which offer a wider set of services to corporate clients. The bank is hoping its digital cash management platform will attract clients currently using older systems at competing banks.
Britain is proving a popular place for U.S. banks to expand, with JPMorgan gearing up to launch a digital bank in the country. Last week it bought British roboadvisor Nutmeg which will form the basis of its retail digital wealth management offering internationally.
2.BOEING:- Boeing said on Sunday it will integrate an anti-jamming system developed by Israel’s Elbit Systems into a fleet of F-15 fighter jets to be sold to an unnamed customer.
Elbit’s Immune Satellite Navigation System ensures uninterrupted GPS operation, providing full jamming immunity for multiple satellite channels and can handle multiple interfering signals, the company said in a statement issued in Tel Aviv.
Financial details were not disclosed.
Lauren Gramlich, director for international F-15 programs at Boeing, said Elbit’s system, “will meet the demanding operational requirements of this valued customer, and demonstrates Boeing’s commitment to partner with Israeli industry to advance the capabilities of the F-15 platform.”
Defense electronics specialist Elbit already has technologies in use on the F-15 and F-15EX, including a digital helmet mounted cueing system, low-profile head up display and large area cockpit display.
3.EXXON MOBIL:- Exxon Mobil Corp and the United Steelworkers union (USW) hope to break an increasingly bitter dispute over a Texas refinery contract next week by taking a different approach of sending one negotiator each to contract talks instead of a whole team, company and union officials said on Friday.
Exxon seven weeks ago locked out 650 union workers at its Beaumont, Texas, refinery and lubricants plant after failing to reach agreement on a new contract. On Thursday, negotiators met for only the second time since the lockout but failed to make any headway and stopped talks after about two hours.
Talks have turned fractious. The union has accused Exxon of trying to dissolve seniority provisions, colluding to break the union and falsely claiming the union’s seniority terms are unique.
After Exxon tweeted the job-seniority terms it wanted were no different than those at the company’s Baytown, Texas, refinery, local 13-2001 union President Ricky Brooks called the tweet “factually untrue.”
Exxon said the USW has failed to negotiate seriously on its proposal. “We expect the union to come prepared to bargain in good faith,” the company said ahead of Thursday’s talks.
The USW has filed a complaint with the U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) claiming Exxon violated labor laws by improperly monitoring employees and used company resources to launch an effort to dissolve the union.
4.PAYPAL:-PayPal Holdings Inc will lift merchant costs for its branded payment products while cutting those for behind-the-scenes processing of some Visa and Mastercard transactions, a bold move in an increasingly competitive digital payments sector.
The strategic shift reflects PayPal’s growing power in online transactions, which surged during the COVID-19 pandemic. As consumers and businesses flocked to the company, a market leader, during lockdown, its active accounts mounted to 377 million, more than twice as many as in 2015.
The company said the move reflected the value of its proprietary services, with consumers nearly three times as likely to complete a purchase when PayPal products are available at checkout, while users of the new buy-now-pay-later option spend an average of 15% more.
5.GOOGLE – Alphabet unit Google could face its biggest regulatory threat, with EU antitrust regulators set to open a formal investigation into its lucrative digital advertising business before the end of the year, said people familiar with the matter.
It would mark a new front by the EU competition enforcer against Google. It has in the last decade fined the company more than 8 billion euros ($9.8 billion) for blocking rivals in online shopping, Android smartphones and online advertising.
An EU probe would focus on Google’s position vis-a-vis advertisers, publishers, intermediaries and rivals, one of the people said, indicating deeper scrutiny than the French antitrust agency’s case concluded last week.
Google made $147 billion in revenue from online ads last year, more than any other company in the world. Ads on its properties, including search, YouTube and Gmail, accounted for the bulk of sales and profits.
About 16% of revenue came from its display or network business, in which other media companies use Google technology to sell ads on their website and apps.
Both units are under fire. The U.S. Justice Department, joined by some states, sued Google last year for abusing its dominance in search ads. A group of states led by Texas in a later lawsuit focused on anti-competitive behaviour on the network side of the house.
