Finance

American Airlines is in talks to make Citigroup its exclusive credit card partner, dropping rival issuer Barclays from a partnership that dates back to the airline’s 2013 takeover of US Airways, according to people with knowledge of the negotiations.
American has been working with banks and card networks on a new long-term deal for months, hoping to consolidate its business with a single player to boost the revenue haul from its cards, said the people.
Airlines make billions from their loyalty programs and co-brand credit card deals.

An American Airlines’ Embraer E175LR (front), an American Airlines’ Boeing 737 (C) and an American Airlines’ Boeing 737 are seen parked at LaGuardia Airport in Queens, New York on May 24, 2024. 
Charly Triballeau | AFP | Getty Images

American Airlines is in talks to make Citigroup its exclusive credit card partner, dropping rival issuer Barclays from a partnership that dates back to the airline’s 2013 takeover of US Airways, said people with knowledge of the negotiations.
American has been working with banks and card networks on a new long-term deal for months with the aim of consolidating its business with a single issuer to boost the revenue haul from its loyalty program, according to the people.

Talks are ongoing, and the timing of an agreement, which would be subject to regulatory approval, is unknown, said the people, who declined to be identified speaking about a confidential process.
Banks’ co-brand deals with airlines, retailers and hotel chains are some of the most hotly contested negotiations in the industry. While they give the issuing bank a captive audience of millions of loyal customers who spend billions of dollars a year, the details of the arrangements can make a huge difference in how profitable it is for either party.
Big brands have been driving harder bargains in recent years, demanding a bigger slice of revenue from interest and fees, for example. Meanwhile, banks have been pushing back or exiting the space entirely, saying that rising card losses, scrutiny from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and higher capital costs make for tight margins.
Airlines rely on card programs to help them stay afloat, earning billions of dollars a year from banks in exchange for miles that customers earn when they use their cards. Those partnerships were crucial during the pandemic, when travel demand dried up but consumers kept spending and earning miles on their cards. Carriers have said growth in card spending has far exceeded that of passenger revenue in recent years.
While it says it has the largest loyalty program, American was out-earned by Delta there, which made nearly $7 billion in payments from its American Express card partnership last year, compared with $5.2 billion for American.

“We continue to work with all of our partners, including our co-branded credit card partners, to explore opportunities to improve the products and services we provide our mutual customers and bring even more value to the AAdvantage program,” American said in a statement.

Delays, regulatory risk

It’s still possible that objections from U.S. regulators, including the Department of Transportation, could further delay or even scuttle a contract between American Airlines and Citigroup, leaving the current arrangement that includes Barclays intact, according to one of the people familiar with the process.
If the deal between American and Citigroup is consummated, it would end an unusual partnership in the credit card world.
Most brands settle with a single issuer, but when American merged with US Airways in 2013, it kept longtime issuer Citigroup on board and added US Airways’ card partner Barclays.
American renewed both relationships in 2016, giving each bank specific channels to market their cards. Citi was allowed to pitch its cards online, via direct mail and airport lounges, while Barclays was relegated to on-flight solicitations.

‘Actively working’

When the relationship came up for renewal again in the past year, Citigroup had good footing to prevail over the smaller Barclays.
Run by CEO Jane Fraser since 2021, Citigroup has the more profitable side of the AA business; their customers tend to spend far more and have lower default rates than Barclays customers, one of the people said.
Any renewal contract is likely to be seven to 10 years in length, which would give Citigroup time to recoup the costs of porting over Barclays customers and other investments it would need to make, this person said. Banks tend to earn most of the money from these arrangements in the back half of the deals.
With this and other large partnerships, Fraser has been pushing Citigroup to aim bigger in a bid to improve the profitability of the card business, said the people familiar.  
“We are always actively working with our partners, including American Airlines, to look for ways to jointly enhance customer products and drive shared value and growth,” a Citigroup spokesperson told CNBC.
Meanwhile, Barclays executives told investors earlier this year that they aimed to diversify their co-branded card portfolio away from airlines, for instance, through added partnerships with retailers and tech companies.
Barclays declined to comment for this article. More

Many Apple iPhone users in China are just as interested in Huawei’s pricier trifold phone, CNBC found during spot checks at stores Friday, the day the iPhone 16 and Mate XT launched in the country.
Out of 10 people CNBC talked to, eight said they are interested in both the new Huawei and Apple phones.
People in Beijing lined up as early as 5:30 a.m. to get the new iPhone when doors opened at 8 a.m.
But there were no lines outside Huawei’s store, which started delivering the new phones at 10:08 a.m. to people who had reserved the trifold device.

Pictured here is an Apple flagship store in Beijing, China, on the day of the iPhone 16 launch on Sept. 20, 2024.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

BEIJING — Many of Apple’s affluent iPhone users in China are just as interested in Huawei’s pricier trifold phone, CNBC found during spot checks at stores Friday, the day the iPhone 16 and Mate XT launched in the country.
Out of 10 people CNBC talked to on Friday, eight said they are interested in both the new Huawei and Apple phones. CNBC talked to five individuals at each company’s store during a workday morning.

Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei has sought to rebuild its smartphone business after U.S. sanctions in 2019. Huawei ranked fourth by China smartphone market share in the second quarter, according to Canalys.
U.S.-based Apple dropped out of the top five, giving domestic players the top five spots for the first time, the data showed.
The iPhone 16 Pro Max starts at $1,199, and the iPhone 16 at $799. Huawei’s trifold Mate XT starts at the equivalent of more than $2,800.

The price gap was even more apparent on online platforms selling secondhand goods.
The Huawei Mate XT was selling for 50,000 yuan to 60,000 yuan ($7,100 to $8,520) on second-hand shopping platform Xianyu as of 1 p.m. Friday afternoon. The Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max was selling for 10,500 yuan to 16,300 yuan, the site showed.

Earlier in the day, the listed resale Mate XT price was 19,000 yuan, while the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max was selling for 9,999 yuan, the site showed.

No lines outside Huawei stores

People in Beijing lined up as early as 5:30 a.m. to get the new iPhone when doors opened at 8 a.m.
But there were no lines outside Huawei stores in Beijing and Hefei, a smaller city west of Shanghai. The Chinese company started delivering the new phones at 10:08 a.m. to people who had reserved the trifold device.
During the 1 hour and 20 minutes that CNBC was at the Huawei store, a couple dozen people went to the second floor to an area reserved for Mate XT buyers.
It was not clear if all of them purchased the device. Many were people buying for resale purposes.
Huawei’s website on Friday showed it had halted sales, and planned to resume them at 10:08 a.m. on Saturday. The page said the company planned to complete deliveries by Sept. 30.
The first person CNBC talked to at the Huawei store arrived at 10 a.m. just to try out the trifold phone. The individual, surnamed Yang, declined to share his first name due to concerns about speaking with foreign media.
He said if he buys the trifold Mate XT, he plans to try it out for a few days before deciding whether to keep it, give it to a friend, or sell it. Yang expected the device could sell for 2,000 yuan more than the list price.
Yang also said he uses an iPhone, and was interested in trying Huawei’s new trifold features because Apple wasn’t offering much that he felt was new.
Even the first person in line at the Apple store, Wang, said he also wanted to get the Huawei trifold phone, but hadn’t gotten a text message yet saying his device was ready to pick up.
He said he bought the iPhone 16 because he heard its battery lasted longer, but was willing to wait for the iPhone 17 for any artificial intelligence features.
— CNBC’s Sonia Heng contributed to this report. More

Onvo, the lower-priced brand launched by premium electric car company Nio, announced its first car, the L60 SUV, would start as low as 149,900 Chinese yuan ($21,210) when buying battery services.
A model with the battery and the car starts at 206,900 yuan.
Deliveries are set to begin Sept. 28.

Chinese electric car company Nio launched its lower-cost brand Onvo on Wednesday, May 15, 2024, in Shanghai, China.
CNBC | Evelyn Cheng

HEFEI, China — There’s yet another Chinese electric car aiming to undercut Tesla, with a steeper discount.
Onvo, the lower-priced brand launched by premium electric car company Nio, announced its first car, the L60 SUV, would start as low as 149,900 Chinese yuan ($21,210) when buying battery services via a monthly subscription, starting at 599 yuan. That’s the equivalent to just over $1,000 a year for “renting” the battery.

A model with the battery and the car starts at 206,900 yuan. Deliveries are set to begin Sept. 28.
Nio shares briefly rose by more than 3.5% in U.S. trading Thursday after the Onvo L60 launch.
The L60’s new price is even less than what the company announced previously. When Nio launched the Onvo brand in May, the company said the L60 would start selling at 219,900 yuan versus Tesla’s Model Y at 249,900 yuan.
Nio CEO William Li told CNBC in an exclusive interview Thursday that he hoped to launch Onvo in Europe as soon as next year, but he did not have a specific timeframe to share.
He said the lower-priced brand would help the company better reach a global market, due to growing tariffs and other challenges for the premium Nio brand to reach its target overseas markets of Europe and the U.S.

As for whether Onvo would cannibalize the Nio-branded sales, Li said the two brands are aimed at very different price segments. He noted how Nio’s deliveries have improved since the company announced its plans for Onvo.
China’s electric car industry has become fiercely competitive over the last few years, with Nio and other companies vying for part of Tesla’s market share.
Geely-backed Zeekr is set to launch its first midsize electric SUV, the Zeekr 7X, in China on Sept. 20, starting at 239,900 yuan.
Xpeng in late August announced its mass market brand Mona would begin sales of its M03 electric coupe in China. The basic version starts at 119,800 yuan, with a driving range of 515 kilometers (320 miles) and some parking assist features.
A version of the Mona M03 with the more advanced “Max” driver assist features and a driving range of 580 kilometers will sell for 155,800 yuan.

In comparison, Tesla’s cheapest car — the Model 3 — costs 231,900 yuan in China, after a price cut in April.
Chinese electric car companies have gradually expanded overseas, often starting with Europe. However, the European Union is nearing the end of a process that would increase tariffs on imported Chinese-made battery electric cars starting in early November. The bloc began an investigation into the Chinese EV makers’ use of subsidies last year.
Nio cooperated with the EU’s probe but was not sampled, meaning its cars would be subject to a 20.8% duty, as of a July announcement from the European Commission. That’s higher than the 19.9% tariffs slated for Geely cars, and 17.4% for BYD’s.
In the fourth quarter, Nio plans to start deliveries in the United Arab Emirates, Li told investors on an earnings call on Sept. 5.
“Because of the tariff in Europe now, selling or exporting cars from China to Europe becomes more expensive,” Li said, according to a FactSet transcript.
“So we will focus on the existing five European markets that we have already started. We also know that to establish NIO such a premium brand in the European market will also take a longer time, and we are very patient with that.”

“But in the meantime, it doesn’t mean that we have stopped our activities there,” Li said. “Earlier this year, we have just opened our NIO house in Amsterdam, and we are still installing and deploying our power swap stations in Europe.”
He expects the L60 to reach 10,000 monthly deliveries in December, and 20,000 vehicle deliveries a month next year. He anticipates 15% vehicle margin on the new Onvo-branded cars.
The brand aims to have more than 200 stores in China by the end of this year, and already opened more than 100 as of early September.
Li said on the earnings call that Onvo and Firefly, an even lower-priced brand set to begin deliveries next year, would look to release vehicles for the international market.
— CNBC’s Sonia Heng contributed to this report. More

There are now a billion fewer people subsisting on less than $2.15 a day than in 2000. Each year since the turn of the millennium, a cast of aid workers, bureaucrats and philanthropists, who often claim credit for this extraordinary plunge in extreme poverty, has met on the sidelines of the UN’s General Assembly to celebrate progress in their catchphrase-cum-targets of “sustainable development goals”. When on September 22nd the latest gathering begins in New York, many will once again be feeling pleased with themselves. More

Europe’s tough competition policy is something of a historical accident. After the second world war Germany wanted to contain cartels, which it viewed as a threat to its young democracy and market economy. France, meanwhile, saw cracking down on big firms as a way to promote its economic interests. Messy negotiations ended up handing lots of power to the European Commission, where it resides to this day—much to the dismay of many in Silicon Valley. In recent years Brussels has launched a series of regulatory investigations into America’s tech giants, including Apple, Google and Meta. More

This month China’s central bank revealed that its digital currency, the e-CNY, had been used for 7trn-yuan-worth of transactions in its short life—an amount equivalent to almost $1trn. China is not alone. Over 130 countries are exploring digital currencies, according to the Atlantic Council, a think-tank. Proponents of official digital currencies believe that a combination of ubiquitous smartphones, innovative cryptography and vast computing power means it is possible to remake the financial system. More

Last week, UniCredit announced it had taken a 9% stake in Commerzbank, confirming that half of this shareholding was acquired from the government.
UniCredit continues to surprise markets with some stellar quarterly profit beats.
It earned 8.6 billion euros last year (up 54% year-on-year), also pleasing investors via share buybacks and dividends.
Analysts are hoping that a move by UniCredit will encourage more cross-border consolidation.

The Commerzbank building (second from right) in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany, on Sept. 25, 2023.
Kirill Kudryavtsev | Afp | Getty Images

UniCredit’s move to take a stake in German lender Commerzbank is raising questions on whether a long awaited cross-border merger could spur more acquisitions and shake up the European banking sector.
Last week, UniCredit announced it had taken a 9% stake in Commerzbank, confirming that half of this shareholding was acquired from the government. Berlin has been a major shareholder of Commerzbank since it injected 18.2 billion euros ($20.2 billion) to rescue the lender during the 2008 financial crisis.

UniCredit also expressed an interest in a merger of the two, with the Italian bank’s CEO Andrea Orcel telling Bloomberg TV that “all options are on the table,” citing the possibility that it either takes no further action or buys in the open market. Commerzbank has given a more lukewarm response to the merger proposals.
Orcel said the Italian bank was able to buy 4.5% of the state’s stake in Commerzbank because the government trusts UniCredit, Reuters reported Thursday citing local media. When asked if UniCredit would launch an unsolicited tender offer to buy out other investors in Commerzbank, the CEO told the Italian paper: “No, it would be an aggressive move.”

But analysts have welcomed the move by UniCredit, particularly because a tie-up might spur similar activity in Europe’s banking sector — which is often seen as more fragmented than in the U.S., with regulatory hurdles and legacy issues providing obstacles to mega deals.

Right fit for UniCredit?

So far, the market has responded positively to UniCredit’s move. Commerzbank shares jumped 20% on the day UniCredit’s stake was announced. Shares of the German lender are up around 48% so far this year and added another 3% on Wednesday.
Investors appreciate the geographical overlap between the two banks, the consistency in financials and an assumption that the transaction is “collaborative” in nature, UBS analysts, led by Ignacio Cerezo, said in a research note last week. According to UBS, the ball is now in Commerzbank’s court.

Analysts at Berenberg said in a note last week that a potential merger deal, “should, in theory, have a limited effect on UniCredit’s capital distribution plans.” They said that while there is “strategic merit” in a deal, the immediate financial benefits might be modest for UniCredit, with potential risks from the cross-border deal diminishing some of the benefit.

David Benamou, chief investment officer at Axiom Alternative Investments, hailed Orcel’s decision to take a stake in Commerzbank as a “fantastic move” that makes sense because of the increase in German market share it would grant UniCredit.
As Commerzbank “missed on costs in Q2 [the second quarter], currently it’s at a very low valuation, so the moment [Orcel] stepped in, is probably one of the best moments he could have,” Benamou told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” last week.
When asked how imminent a takeover was in the short term, Benamou suggested it was possible, saying, “they will probably come to it.”
According to Arnaud Journois, senior vice president of European Financial Institution Ratings at Morningstar DBRS, UniCredit is already on its way to becoming a leading bank in Europe.
He told CNBC’s “Street Signs Europe” Wednesday that there was a “double logic” behind UniCredit’s move as it enables the Italian lender to access both the German and Polish markets where Commerzbank currently operates.
“UniCredit has been very active in the past two years, doing a few targeted acquisitions … So this is the next logical step,” Journois said.
UniCredit continues to surprise markets with some stellar quarterly profit beats. It earned 8.6 billion euros last year (up 54% year-on-year), also pleasing investors via share buybacks and dividends.

What does it mean for the sector?

Analysts are hoping that a move by UniCredit will encourage more cross-border consolidation. European officials have been making more and more comments about the need for bigger banks. French President Emmanuel Macron, for example, said in May in an interview with Bloomberg that Europe’s banking sector needs greater consolidation.
“European countries might be partners, but they are still competing sometimes. So, I know that from an EU standpoint — policymaker standpoint — there is appetite for more consolidation to happen. However, we think that there are a few hurdles that make that difficult, especially on the regulatory side,” Journois told CNBC.
A cross-border styled merger between UniCredit and Commerzbank would be more preferential than a domestic merger between Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, according to Reint Gropp, president of the Hall Institute for Economic Research.
“The German banking structure is long overdue for a consolidation process. Essentially, Germany still has almost half of all banks in the euro zone, that’s significantly more than its share in GDP. So any consolidation process would be welcome now,” Gropp told CNBC’s “Street Signs Europe” on Wednesday.
He noted that Commerzbank has always been a “big candidate for a takeover” in the German banking sector because most of the other banks in the country are savings banks which cannot be taken over by private institutions, or cooperative banks which are also difficult takeover targets.

Will Deutsche Bank swoop?

Deutsche Bank, which was still seen as the prime contender to take over Commerzbank following an abrupt collapse of initial talks in 2019, is said to be mounting its own defense strategy in the wake of UniCredit’s stake.
Filippo Alloatti, head of financials at Federated Hermes, said Deutsche Bank is unlikely to present a strong rival offer for Commerzbank.
With a CET1 ratio of 13.5% compared to its target of 13%, Deutsche Bank is rather “limited.” CET ratios are used to gauge the financial strength of a lender. The German bank also has less excess capital than UniCredit and therefore “cannot really afford” a takeover, Alloatti said.

However, Deutsche Bank could put on a “brave face,” Alloatti suggested, and consider another target such as ABN Amro. The Dutch bank, which was also bailed out during the 2008 financial crisis by the state, has been the subject of acquisition speculation.
“We’ve been waiting for this,” Alloatti said, speaking about the potential for further consolidation in the sector. “If they [UniCredit] are successful, then of course, other management teams will study this case,” he said, noting that there was also scope in Italy for domestic consolidation.
Gropp acknowledged that UniCredit’s CEO had made a “very bold move” that caught both the German government and Commerzbank by surprise.
“But maybe we need a bold move to effect any changes at all in the European banking system, which is long overdue,” he said.

What’s next?

In comments reported by Reuters, Commerzbank’s Chief Executive Manfred Knof told reporters on Monday that he would look at any proposals from UniCredit in line with the bank’s obligations to its stakeholders.
Knof informed the bank’s supervisory board last week that he would not seek an extension of his contract which runs until the end of 2025. German newspaper Handelsblatt reported that the board might be considering an earlier change of leadership.
The supervisory board at Commerzbank will meet next week to discuss UniCredit’s stake, people familiar with the matter who preferred to remain anonymous told CNBC. There are no plans to replace Knof as soon as that meeting, the sources added.
– CNBC’s Annette Weisbach, Silvia Amaro and Ruxandra Iordache contributed to this report. More

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has seen a 40% increase this year in institutional and corporate investors joining the platform, CEO Richard Teng told CNBC’s Lin Lin.
The stated growth reflects how so-called big money is warming up to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and willing to work with an exchange that was hit with a U.S. probe and $4.3 billion settlement.
Teng noted how Binance has pivoted from a founder-led company to one led by a board with seven directors — a structure he said that regulators are more used to.

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has seen a 40% increase this year in institutional and corporate investors joining the platform, CEO Richard Teng told CNBC’s Lin Lin in an interview Wednesday.
“Allocation into crypto by institutions is just at the tip of the iceberg. It’s just beginning, because a lot of them are still doing their due diligence,” Teng said on the sidelines of the Token2049 conference in Singapore. He became CEO in November 2023.

“So we on our own, we are seeing a huge uptick in terms of institutional and corporate investors. We have seen a 40% increase in onboarding in that category throughout the course of this year alone,” he said. Teng did not name specific firms or share how large they were.
The stated growth reflects how so-called big money is warming up to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and now willing to work with an exchange that was hit with a U.S. probe and $4.3 billion settlement.
Changpeng Zhao, the billionaire co-founder and former CEO of Binance, stepped down last year as part of the settlement. Zhao remains a major shareholder, Teng said.
Teng noted how Binance has pivoted from a founder-led company to one led by a board with seven directors — a structure he said that regulators are more used to.

Teng joined Binance in 2021 as CEO of the company’s Singapore operations. He was previously CEO of the Financial Services Regulatory Authority at Abu Dhabi Global Market and chief regulatory officer of the Singapore Exchange, among other roles.

Bitcoin launched in 2009, paving the way for many other cryptocurrencies based on similar blockchain technology. The tech eliminates the need for a third-party intermediary by quickly creating a permanent and secure record of transactions between two parties.

More institutions coming in

After years of regulatory uncertainty, the U.S. in January approved the the first exchange-traded funds for spot prices of bitcoin. In July, the U.S. allowed trading of similar funds for ether, another cryptocurrency.
Such regulatory clarity “will give certainty to mainstream users,” Teng said. He attributed bitcoin’s record high earlier this year — above $70,000 in March — to “the effect of institutions coming through.”
He noted how BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has turned from bitcoin skeptic to calling it “digital gold.”
The company and other traditional Wall Street investment firms such as Franklin Templeton have also issued ETFs for bitcoin and ether.
Franklin Templeton CEO Jenny Johnson told CNBC in May that bitcoin gains at the time were due to “the first wave of the early adopters.” She said she expects another wave of “much bigger institutions” to buy crypto funds.
Bitcoin was trading near $60,440 as of Wednesday afternoon Singapore time.
Teng declined to share a specific price forecast, but noted how cryptocurrency prices tend to “warm up” 160 days after bitcoin goes through a technical event known as “halving.” The last such event was in April.
As of Wednesday, Teng pointed out the market was “nine days away from that 160 days.”
— CNBC’s Ryan Browne, MacKenzie Sigalos and Jesse Pound contributed to this report. More