Aurelia Butler

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LONDON (Reuters) – A consortium of NATO allies has confirmed the first tranche of companies awarded funding as part of the group’s one billion euro ($1.1 billion) innovation fund. The alliance unveiled the fund in the summer of 2022, months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, promising to invest in technologies that would enhance its defences. The fund is backed by 24 of NATO’s 32 member states, including Finland and Sweden, which joined the alliance earlier this year. On Tuesday, the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF) confirmed it had directly invested in four European tech companies, which it said would help address challenges in defence, security, and resilience. The body has allocated funding to Fractile, a London-based computer chipmaker aiming to make large language models (LLMs) like those that power ChatGPT run faster, as well as Germany’s ARX Robotics, which designs unmanned robots with functions ranging from heavy-lifting to surveillance.The other two startups were British manufacturer iCOMAT, which makes lighter materials for vehicles, and Space Forge, a Welsh company that harnesses the conditions of space – such as microgravity and vacuum conditions – to build semiconductors in-orbit. “Enabling access to strategic technologies is key to securing a safe and prosperous future for the alliance’s one billion citizens,” said Andrea Traversone, the fund’s managing partner. The fund has also partnered with venture capital firms Alpine Space Ventures, OTB Ventures, Join Capital and Vsquared Ventures to support further investment in deep tech on the continent. (This story has been refiled to say ‘Fractile,’ not ‘Fractile AI,’ in paragraph 4) More

LONDON (Reuters) -The European Union will delay a core element of global reforms to bank capital rules by one year to January 2026, the bloc’s financial services chief said on Tuesday, to ensure a level playing field between EU banks and their U.S. rivals.Countries are introducing the last batch of a global bank capital accord known as Basel III, rolled out after taxpayers were forced to bail out lenders in the global financial crisis of 2007-09.EU financial services commissioner Mairead McGuinness, said it was becoming clear the United States would not be able to meet its self-imposed deadline of July 2025 for introducing the rules.”In practice, the entry of application of the Basel standards in the U.S. is now highly unlikely to take place before January 1st, 2026, at the earliest,” McGuinness told a conference.”This one-year delay ensures a global level playing field, for those big European banks competing with other global players. It gives us time to see what others are doing,” McGuinness said.EU banks compete with lenders from the United States and elsewhere in offering market activities and related financial services for international companies.The EU had planned to introduce all of the reforms in January 2025, but will now delay the section on how banks cover markets risks in their trading books, known as the fundamental review of the trading book, or FRTB.The remaining changes are set for implementation as scheduled, McGuinness said.”In the EU, we are firmly adhering to our date of January 1st, 2025 for entry into application of the bulk of the Basel standards,” she added.A senior European banking official said delaying the FRTB is “not any big relief” given that the bulk of Basel III is being introduced next January across the bloc.The Bank of England has said it would roll out the final leg of Basel III from July 2025, but it has yet to issue the final version of its rules as the regulatory calendar has been put on ice pending the July 4 general election.The STOXX Europe 600 banks index was little changed after the news, up 0.9% on the day at 0945 GMT, in line with broader market gains. More

TOKYO (Reuters) -Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said the central bank could raise interest rates next month depending on economic data available at the time, underscoring its resolve to steadily push up borrowing costs from current near-zero levels.While rising import costs from a weak yen may weigh on household spending, increasing wages will underpin consumption and keep the economy on track for a moderate recovery, Ueda told parliament on Tuesday.”Our decision on bond-buying taper and interest rate hikes are two different things,” Ueda said. “There’s a chance we could raise interest rates at our next policy meeting, depending on economic, price and financial data and information available at the time.”At its policy meeting on Friday, the BOJ decided to start trimming its huge bond purchases and announce a detailed plan in July on reducing its nearly $5 trillion balance sheet, taking another step toward unwinding its massive monetary stimulus.The decision has heightened uncertainty on whether the BOJ could also hike short-term rates at its July 30-31 meeting or hold off until later in the year to avoid upending markets.Ueda said the BOJ was not yet fully convinced that inflation will sustainably hit its 2% target, stressing the need to spend “a bit more time” to scrutinise data before raising rates again.But he said corporate price- and wage-setting behaviour has clearly changed amid record profits and a tightening job market.”The economy will likely see more clear signs of a positive wage-inflation cycle” as nominal wages rise, he said.Ueda offered no clues on the pace and size of the BOJ’s bond taper plan to be announced next month. He said the central bank will avoid using its bond-buying operation as a monetary policy tool, or a means to communicate its policy intention.The BOJ exited negative rates and bond yield control in March in a landmark shift away from a decade-long, radical stimulus programme.With inflation exceeding its 2% target for two years, it has also dropped hints that it will raise short-term rates to levels that neither cool nor overheat the economy – seen by analysts as somewhere between 1-2%.In a sign of broadening inflationary pressure, the price Japanese firms charge each other for services with high labour costs rose 2.8% in April from a year earlier, BOJ data showed on Tuesday, marking the fastest increase in nearly four years.A weak yen complicates the BOJ’s policy path. While it accelerates inflation by pushing up imported goods prices, the subsequent rise in living costs has weighed on consumption and cast doubt on the strength of Japan’s economy.Many economists expect the BOJ to hike interest rates to 0.25% this year, though they are divided on whether it will come in July or later in the year. More

BEIJING (Reuters) -China has opened an anti-dumping investigation into imported pork and its by-products from the European Union, a step that appears mainly aimed at Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark, in response to curbs on its electric vehicle exports.Below are details on the probe into EU pork imports and other industries that may be subjected to similar investigations.PORKThe investigation announced by China’s commerce ministry on Monday will focus on pork intended for human consumption, such as fresh, cold and frozen whole cuts, as well as pig intestines, bladders and stomachs. The probe will begin on June 17.It was prompted by a complaint submitted by the China Animal Husbandry Association on June 6 on behalf of the domestic pork industry, the ministry said.Pork suppliers from South America, the U.S. and Russia could be among those gaining market share if Beijing restricts imports from the European Union.The EU accounts for more than half the roughly $6 billion worth of pork China imported in 2023, according to customs data, around a quarter of which was from Spain alone.Second- and third-ranking, the Netherlands and Denmark last year exported to China pork products worth $620 million and $550 million respectively.DAIRYChinese firms plan to ask authorities to open an anti-subsidy investigation into imports of some dairy products from the EU, the Global Times said on June 8.It remains unclear which products China could target. Whey powder, cream and fresh milk were the top items in the EU’s 1.7 billion euros ($1.8 billion) worth of dairy exports to China last year, according to data from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development, which cited Eurostat. CARS China should hike its import tariffs on large gasoline-powered cars to 25%, a government-affiliated auto research body expert told the Global Times in May. China’s current import tariff for cars is 15%.A higher duty for cars with larger engines would hit principally German carmakers that export SUVs and sedans to China. BRANDYBeijing in January opened an anti-dumping investigation on brandy imported from the EU, a step that appears to be mainly targeted at France. Almost all European brandy exported to China is made in France.The investigation will focus on brandy in containers of less than 200 litres (44 British gallons). PLASTIC In May, Beijing launched an anti-dumping probe into POM copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, imported from the EU, U.S., Japan and Taiwan. More

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