Russia’s National Settlement Depository (NSD) said on Friday that Clearstream clearing house, which processes payments for many of the country’s corporate and sovereign bonds, has blocked its account. This means that Russian holders of European stocks and bonds cannot receive dividends on their investments through Clearstream. According to Interfax, the …
Read More »Russia’s ruble payment plan leaves European gas buyers confused
German gas industry group Zukunft Gas said on Wednesday it was confused by the statement of Russian President Vladimir Putin about the switch of payments for Russian natural gas supplies to rubles. “We took the message that Russia wants [us] to pay for gas supplies only in rubles with great …
Read More »Apple to turn iPhones into payment terminals – media
Apple is working on a new feature that will allow businesses to accept payments on their iPhones without extra hardware, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing sources. Small businesses, like cafes or flower shops, that don’t use traditional payment terminals but use their Apple smartphones as such, currently require external hardware …
Read More »Apple loses appeal in Epic battle against payment monopoly
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals shut down the company’s petition for a stay on an earlier order on Tuesday, saying Apple’s rules for payments on its App Store amounted to “incipient antitrust conduct,” also accusing it of “supercompetitive commission rates resulting in extraordinarily high …
Read More »China’s Evergrande averts default with last-minute bond payment, resumes work on 10 projects
According to Chinese state media, Evergrande sent a $83.5 million bond payment to a Citibank trustee account on Thursday, a day before the deadline to pay interest on its US dollar bond. The heavily indebted company will have to make payments on a range of other bonds, currently amounting to …
Read More »Russia may be cut off from SWIFT banking payment system as part of West’s ‘spiral of sanctions,’ warns country’s foreign ministry
“It’s no secret that there are threats, primarily from the United States, to disconnect Russia from the SWIFT system,” said Dmitry Birichevsky, director of the Economic Cooperation Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry. Speaking on RIA Novosti on Monday, the diplomat noted that Russia has concerns that SWIFT could get …
Read More »Most Russian exports have now kicked reliance on US dollar as payment currency
A significant portion of the unprecedented drop in the use of US currency was recorded in trade with China, according to the data revealed by Russia’s central bank on Monday. More than three-quarters of the trade turnover between the countries are now transacted in the euro. The euro’s share in …
Read More »Act of war? Ukraine asks EU to consider cutting off Russia from SWIFT payment system as Kiev seeks more sanctions against Moscow
Moscow has previously warned it would consider the move “a declaration of war.” Former Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who now serves as the deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, has also dubbed it a “punch in the gut.” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba told Reuters on Wednesday that …
Read More »Bitcoin jumps after Musk says crypto will be accepted as payment for Tesla cars
“Tesla is using only internal & open source software & operates Bitcoin nodes directly,” Musk wrote late Tuesday on Twitter, adding that “Bitcoin paid to Tesla will be retained as Bitcoin, not converted to fiat currency.” In a follow-up tweet, the businessman announced: “You can now buy a Tesla with …
Read More »US Federal Reserve investigating disruptions to Fedwire payment system and other services
According to updates from the Federal Reserve, the massive disruption to services was caused by an “operational error”. “We acknowledge that payment deadlines are impacted and will communicate remediation efforts to our customers when available. Thank you for your patience while we work to resolve the issue,” the institution said …
Read More »