Aurelia Butler

(Reuters) – Silicon Valley Bank’s new Chief Executive Tim Mayopoulos on Tuesday urged the failed bank’s top venture capital clients to move their deposits to its newly created bridge entity, people who attended a virtual meeting with him said.The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) appointed the former Fannie Mae CEO to head Silicon Valley Bridge Bank N.A. after the regulator took control of SVB. Its collapse last week crippled stocks and triggered concerns of a contagion throughout global markets.SVB was a major lender for startups, serving as banking partner for nearly half of U.S. venture-backed technology and healthcare companies that listed on stock markets in 2022. Last week, more than 650 funds signed a letter vowing to keep working with the bank if it found a new buyer.Mayopoulos told clients deposits at the bank were now among the safest of any U.S. banks or institutions, attendees at the meeting said. The new bank will honor existing loan facilities and lines of credit for its customers, easing widespread concern among many startups which have loan agreements with the bank, they added.”You have the ability to cast your vote in favor of this system,” they quoted Mayopoulos as saying. In a message posted on the bank’s website on Tuesday, he said the bank was “open for business.”He also laid out potential outcomes for the bank, including getting recapitalized as a new independent chartered bank, finding a buyer, or winding down, which he said was “not very likely,” the clients said.Hemant Taneja, CEO of venture capital firm General Catalyst, recommended on Tuesday that its clients who had banked with SVB keep or return at least 50% of their capital to the bank.Numerous VC funds last week advised companies in their portfolios to move funds out of SVB to avoid the risk of being caught up in its potential failure.”We believe SVB is now one of the safest and most secured banks in the country,” Taneja wrote in a note he shared on Twitter.Mayopoulos was president and CEO of Fannie Mae, a government-sponsored enterprise that provides access to home mortgage credit, from 2012 to 2018. He has also served as general counsel of Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), and held senior roles at Deutsche Bank (ETR:DBKGn), Credit Suisse First Boston, and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. More

LONDON (Reuters) – British finance minister Jeremy Hunt will announce on Wednesday how he will try to speed up the world’s sixth-biggest economy after the shocks of Brexit, a heavy COVID-19 hit and double-digit inflation have left it lagging behind its peers.Hunt – who is due to make a budget speech to parliament at around 1230 GMT – has dismissed calls from other lawmakers in the ruling Conservative Party for big tax cuts now to boost their fortunes before an election expected in 2024.Rushed into the Treasury late last year to undo former Prime Minister Liz Truss’s unfunded tax cut plans, he says the leap in borrowing costs after her “mini-budget” made clear the limits of relying on the bond market to fund future growth.Instead, hemmed in by his promise to lower the burden of Britain’s 2.5 trillion pounds ($3.0 trillion) of debt, Hunt will seek to tackle some of the causes of Britain’s long-term economic funk.”In the autumn we took difficult decisions to deliver stability and sound money,” Hunt is due to say, according to excerpts of his budget speech. “Today, we deliver the next part of our plan: a budget for growth,” he adds.Britain is the only Group of Seven country where output remains below its pre-pandemic size, putting pressure on Hunt and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak with the opposition Labour Party far ahead in opinion polls.Labour’s would-be finance minister, Rachel Reeves, sought to keep the heat on Hunt by calling for urgent action now.”With 13 years of economic mismanagement and sticking-plaster politics leaving us lagging behind, what we need to see is some real ambition from the government,” Reeves said. Having ruled out a major spending spree or big tax cuts, Hunt will address the acute shortage of candidates for jobs by changing childcare and welfare rules, something he says will help get hundreds of thousands of people back into work.The Guardian newspaper said Hunt would announce a 4 billion-pound childcare expansion for one and two year-olds in England.He is also expected to announce measures to improve skills training and give a green light to 12 investment zones.Last week, Labour attacked the government’s “chaotic” approach to business taxation with the corporation tax rate due to jump from 19% to 25% next month.In an attempt to soften that tax hit, Hunt has hinted at new incentives for business investment.He is also under pressure from nurses, teachers and other public sector employees who striking for higher pay, while the armed forces say they need more money to support Ukraine in its war with Russia.MORE HELP ON ENERGY In the short term, households struggling with high inflation and tax hikes that Hunt announced in November can expect a three-month extension of energy bill subsidies. Hunt is also expected to extend a decade-long fuel duty freeze.The Treasury said the budget would offer more cost of living help to businesses too.But many economists think Hunt will use only about half of a recent 30 billion-pound windfall in the public finances, reserving some firepower for closer to the next election.At just under 100% of gross domestic product, British government debt is slightly above the euro zone average but well below that of the G7 which includes Japan where the ratio stands at more than 200%. Hunt’s future options could be further constrained if Britain’s fiscal watchdog turns gloomier about the economic outlook.Britain is expected to suffer a recession less severe than the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) forecast of a 1.4% slump in 2023 made in its November forecasts. But projections for growth after that could be lowered, reducing tax revenues. Bond dealers polled by Reuters expect government borrowing to fall to 125 billion pounds in the 2023/24 financial year – down from the 140 billion pounds or 5.5% of GDP which the OBR forecast in November.($1 = 0.8222 pounds) More

Philippine call centres and other outsourcing companies beat revenue and hiring targets last year and expect more growth in 2023, as global businesses continue to seek ways to cut costs.In the economically vital business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, which provides support services to companies from Amazon to Zoom, revenues increased 10.3 per cent to $32.5bn and staff count rose 8.4 per cent to 1.57mn, according to the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP).The financial services, healthcare, retail, technology and telecommunications industries had driven growth, it added. The trade association had forecast 8 to 10 per cent revenue expansion and headcount growth of 7 to 8 per cent.This year, IBPAP said, the industry’s workforce could reach 1.7mn and revenue could hit $35.9bn, growth of 8.3 per cent and 10.5 per cent, respectively.The group said its industry survey found that 83 per cent of outsourcing companies expected to post growth in 2023 “despite a potential global recession”, while 17 per cent were “neutral with their forecasts”.The survey also showed that organisations would continue to outsource and use global business services to cut costs, IBPAP said.The better than expected performance in 2022 is the latest good news for the sector. In September, the government allowed BPO companies with work-from-home arrangements to retain tax incentives. Many outsourcing companies previously operated under an investment regime that required staff to work on-site to enjoy tax perks, and the hybrid work set-up was initially a temporary measure taken in response to the coronavirus pandemic.Amid intense lobbying for hybrid work to be made permanent, IBPAP has pledged to generate 2.5mn jobs and $59bn in annual revenues by 2028, the end of Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s six-year term.The lofty targets come as the country’s call centre industry faces a number of challenges, such as automation, difficulty in hiring qualified workers and rising competition from other outsourcing destinations such as India, Poland and South America.“We still have a long way to go, but [the] Philippine [industry’s] stellar performance in 2022 brings us closer to generating 1.1mn new jobs for Filipinos,” said IBPAP president and chief executive Jack Madrid.“It’s also a testament to the collective efforts that the private sector, government and academe have exerted to retain the industry as an indispensable pillar of the economy,” he said.A version of this article was first published by Nikkei Asia. ©2023 Nikkei Inc. All rights reserved.Related storiesPhilippines, Malaysia emerge as start-up hotspots, says investorThailand, US resume Cobra Gold military exercise at full scalePhilippines ratifies RCEP trade deal after shift by Marcos More

BNDES did not specify the exact figure. According to Brazil’s government statistics agency, the country’s 2022 GDP amounted to 9.9 trillion reais ($1.88 trillion).Speaking at a news conference, BNDES planning executive Nelson Barbosa also said there is more credit supply to the bank coming from abroad and that this could unlock more credit for South America’s largest nation.Barbosa added that this credit could be used to financing sustainable projects. The comments follow the bank’s 2022 earnings, in which it said it reported 46% jump year-on-year in its annual recurring net profit, reaching 12.5 billion reais.    The bank posted a net profit of 41.7 billion reais, boosted by factors such as dividend income from state-run oil company Petrobras’, among others.($1 = 5.2534 reais) More