ALRiM: Luxembourg Association
of Risk Management

The Business Research Company's Retail Banking Market Competition Analysis 2025: How Players Are Shaping Growth LONDON, GREATER LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, January 5, 2026 /⁨EINPresswire.com⁩/ -- "The Retail Banking market is dominated by a …

India’s financial services sector is moving into a decisive new phase of AI adoption. As Rinesh Patel, Global Head of Financial Services at Snowflake, outlines, the industry is rapidly shifting from fragmented AI experimentation to a more accountable, resilient, and revenue-driven AI model. With the Reserve Bank of India estimating that GenAI could enhance banking operations by up to 46%, the focus is no longer on deploying AI tools in isolation, but on delivering measurable business outcomes while managing risk at scale The post In 2026, AI will unlock new revenue streams for the financial services industry appeared first on Express Computer.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) was downgraded by equities researchers at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report issued on Monday. A number of other equities analysts also recently weighed in on BAC. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Bank of America from […]

Baltic Dry Index. 1882 +05 Brent Crude 60.46 Spot Gold 4426 Spot Silver 75.20 US 2 Year Yield 3.47 +0.02 US Federal Debt. 38.555 trillion US GDP 31.027 trillion. It is the aim of good government to stimulate production, of bad government to encourage consumption. Jean-Baptiste Say Like it or not, the world has entered a new era. Might makes right. Not King Donald the first but Caesar Donald the first. One can only hope that ultimately it all works out for the people of Venezuela. What next? The USA seizure of Canada and Greenland? China seizing Taiwan? North Korea seizing South Korea? Russia seizing Estonia? Britain seizing Ireland? Germany seizing Poland? Argentina seizing Chile? Look away from rising gold and silver prices now. The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists. Ernest Hemingway Defense stocks drive Asia markets to record highs after U.S. captures Venezuela’s Maduro Published Sun, Jan 4 2026 7:07 PM EST Asia-Pacific markets began the first full trading week of 2026 on a stronger note after the U.S. said it had attacked Venezuela and captured President Nicolas Maduro over the weekend. Oil prices edged lower as markets weighed the potential impact of geopolitical tensions. U.S. authorities said Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were flown to New York following the operation and charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy and other crimes. An indictment said drug trafficking had “enriched and entrenched Venezuela’s political and military elite.” Oil prices fell after the escalation involving the oil-rich nation. Brent crude futures slipped more than 1% earlier before paring losses, and were last trading 0.3% lower at $60.57, while the West Texas Intermediate crude prices fell 0.4% to $57.09 per barrel. Venezuela, a founding member of OPEC, holds the largest proven crude oil reserves in the world, at 303 billion barrels, or about 17% of the global total, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Spot gold prices advanced more than 1.8% to $4,409.29. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index jumped 3.13% in its first trading session of the year, while the Topix index added 2.12% to hit a record high. Defense stocks were among the top gainers on the index, with IHI Corp surging nearly 10%, while Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Kawasaki Heavy Industries added 9.17% and 6.89%, respectively. South Korea’s Kospi index extended gains, climbing 3.15% to a new all-time high of 4,448.52, after hitting a fresh record earlier. The small-cap Kosdaq added 1.11%. Index heavyweight Samsung Electronics surged more than 7%, after co-CEO TM Roh told Reuters Monday that the company planned to double the number of its mobile devices with AI features powered by Google’s Gemini this year. Shares of South Korean defense giant Hanwha Aerospace jumped more than 6%, while Poongsan, a manufacturer of defense-related products, traded 2% higher. Australia’s ASX/S&P 200 was flat. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index ticked slightly below the flatline, dragged by energy stocks, while the mainland CSI 300 rose 1.29%. Shares of China’s biggest energy firm, PetroChina, were the biggest losers on the Hong Kong index, tumbling 4.81%. CNOOC, the largest producer of offshore crude oil and natural gas in China, fell 3.93%. India’s Nifty 50 was up 0.13% and the BSE Sensex index was flat. U.S. equity futures were steady in early Asian hours. On Friday stateside, the first trading day of 2026, the S&P 500 closed slightly higher as gains in semiconductor names kept the index afloat. The benchmark closed up 0.19% at 6,858.47, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.03% to finish at 23,235.63. The two had been solidly positive earlier in the day, with the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq trading higher by 0.7% and 1.5% at their peaks, respectively. The Dow Jones Industrial Average moved up 319.10 points, or 0.66%, to settle at 48,382.39. Asia-Pacific markets: Brent crude, WTI, Nikkei 225, Hang Seng index, oil Denmark tells Trump to stop threatening to seize Greenland Published Sun, Jan 4 2026 5:33 PM EST Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned President Donald Trump to stop threatening to acquire Greenland just a day after the U.S. carried out a military operation that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. “The Kingdom of Denmark — and thus Greenland — is part of NATO and is therefore covered by the alliance’s security guarantee. We already have a defense agreement between the Kingdom and the United States today, which gives the United States wide access to Greenland,” Frederiksen said Sunday, in a statement. “I would therefore strongly urge the United States to stop the threats against a historically close ally and against another country and another people who have said very clearly that they are not for sale,” she said. The warning from Frederiksen comes after Trump was quoted by The Atlantic magazine, saying, “We do need Greenland, absolutely.” Trump ordered a military operation over the weekend that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife. The pair has been brought to the U.S. on drug-related charges. The operation came after months of U.S. military buildup and threats against Venezuela, which the Trump administration claims is complicit in trafficking drugs to the U.S. The move to topple Maduro led to speculation that Trump’s other territorial ambitions could be obtained by force. Katie Miller, the wife of top White House aide Stephen Miller, posted to X a map of Greenland covered with an American flag with the caption “SOON,” shortly after Maduro was captured. Trump has long mused about acquiring Greenland, the mineral-rich and self-governing territory of Denmark. Last month, he appointed Louisiana’s GOP Gov. Jeff Landry special envoy to Greenland. Trump has also openly spoken about making Canada, an independent nation, the 51st state of the U.S. Greenland and Canada have both repeatedly rebuked Trump’s advances. Trump warned by Denmark to stop threatening Greenland In other news, crude oil quiet for now. Could any US jury or judge, Supremes included, dare find the Maduro’s not guilty? Maduro overthrow in oil-rich Venezuela unlikely to shake energy markets in the near term Published Sat, Jan 3 2026 4:20 PM EST Updated Sat, Jan 3 2026 4:36 PM EST President Donald Trump’s overthrow of President Nicolas Maduro in oil-rich Venezuela is unlikely to shock energy markets in the near term, analysts told CNBC on Saturday. While the scale of the U.S. attack was unexpected, markets had already priced in a conflict with Venezuela that would disrupt oil exports, said Arne Lohmann Rasmussen, chief analyst and head of research at A/S Global Risk Management. Venezuela, a founding member of OPEC, has the largest proven oil reserves in the world. But the South American nation currently produces less than a million oil barrels a day, which is less than 1% of global oil production, according to Rasmussen. It exports just about half its production, or some 500,000 barrels, Rasmussen said. The conflict also comes as the global oil market is oversupplied and demand is relatively weak, a pattern that is customary in the first quarter of the year, he said. Rasmussen estimated that Brent crude prices will only rise by about $1 to $2, or even less, when futures trading opens on Sunday night. He projected that Brent will edge lower next week than where it closed on Friday, which was $60.75. “Despite this being a huge geopolitical event that you would normally expect to be positive or push up oil prices,” he said, “the bottom line is there’s still too much oil in the market, and that’s why oil prices will not go ballistic.” Analyst Bob McNally of Rapidan Energy said he was advising clients before the weekend that about a third of Venezuela’s oil production was at risk. While he does not predict that all of Venezuela’s output would be cut off, he told CNBC that it would not pose a meaningful risk to oil markets in the short term. The oil market in 2025 posted its biggest annual decline in five years. The global benchmark Brent fell about 19% last year, while U.S. crude oil lost nearly 20%.The market has been under pressure as OPEC+ ramped up production after years of output cuts. The U.S. also produced at a record level of just over 13.8 million barrels per day. Oil prices may decline further as the regime overthrow raises the possibility of eventually boosting oil production in Venezuela, analysts told CNBC. Saul Kavonic, head of energy research at MST Financial, estimated that exports could approach 3 million barrels in the medium term if a new Venezuelan government led to the lifting of sanctions and the return of foreign investors. “If anything, the future of Venezuela will have a bearish impact on the market, because there’s really nowhere to go but up,” said energy industry consultant David Goldwyn, a former top State Department energy official in the Obama administration. Currently, the embargo on Venezuelan oil is still in effect, Trump said during a press conference Saturday. He also said that U.S. oil companies will invest billions of dollars to rebuild Venezuela’s energy sector. Trump did not provide details on which companies would invest or how, nor did he clarify how the U.S. would temporarily run Venezuela “with a group.” Goldwyn said it is hard to predict whether U.S. oil companies will invest, given the uncertainty about the interim and future governments in Venezuela. “Everything we have learned about government transitions from Iraq, from Afghanistan, from other countries, is that transitions are hard,” he said. “No company is going to want to commit to invest billions of dollars for a long-term operation until they know what the terms are. And they can’t know what the terms are until you know what the government is going to be.” Goldwyn added that companies, including Exxon Mobil, are still waiting to collect on debt owed by Venezuela’s national oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA). Rapidan Energy’s McNally said it is a complicated proposition for U.S. oil companies. Oil producers have not forgotten being kicked out of Venezuela in the early 2000s, when the country expropriated the assets of foreign oil companies, he said. That said, accessing the world’s largest oil reserves would be “tantalizing” to U.S. oil companies if sanctions were lifted, he added. But it would take decades of investment and billions of dollars, McNally said. Whether it’s worth it comes down to one central question, he said: Does the world need that much oil? “Until late last year, the market consensus had been that demand for oil is going to stop growing in four years. It’s over because of EVs and fuel efficiency policies and climate change policies,” McNally said. But as the U.S. and other nations, including China and Canada, weaken their climate policies and sales of electric vehicles fall, the prospect of investing in Venezuela has become much more attractive. “All of a sudden you’re starting to say: “Whoa, we’re going to need more oil,” he said. Venezuela attack unlikely to shake oil markets in near term But… Venezuela's oil exports paralyzed amid political turmoil, sources say January 3, 2026 9:35 PM GMT Jan 3 (Reuters) - Venezuela's oil exports, which had fallen to a minimum amid U.S. President Donald Trump's announced blockade of all sanctioned tankers going in and out of the country's waters, are now paralyzed as port captains have not received requests to authorize loaded ships to set sail, four sources close to operations said on Saturday. The paralysis emerges as the U.S. extracted President Nicolas Maduro and his wife from capital Caracas and announced it will oversee a political transition in the South American country President Trump said on Saturday that an "oil embargo" on the country was in full effect. Several vessels that have recently loaded crude and fuel bound for destinations including the U.S. and Asia have not set sail, while others that had waited to load have left empty, according to monitoring data. No tankers were loading on Saturday at the country's main oil port of Jose, TankerTrackers.com said. A total suspension of oil exports, including tankers chartered by state-run PDVSA's main partner Chevron (CVX.N), opens new tab, could accelerate the country's need to cut back output at oilfields, since storage tanks and even ships used for floating storage have filled rapidly in recent weeks, according to sources and PDVSA's documents. PDVSA and Chevron did not immediately reply to requests for comment. Venezuela's oil exports paralyzed amid political turmoil, sources say | Reuters Global Inflation/Stagflation/Recession Watch. Given our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians, inflation now needs an entire section of its own. Approx. 7 minutes. Moody’s Analytics’ Mark Zandi says 'no jobs' could be focus of Fed in 2026 Moody’s Analytics’ Mark Zandi says 'no jobs' could be focus of Fed in 2026 | Watch After a bruising 2025, the Fed faces another slew of challenges in the year ahead Published Sat, Jan 3 2026 9:37 AM EST The Federal Reserve heads into 2026 facing a slew of political and policy challenges, headlined by a new chair and an economy fed by both tailwinds and headwinds that will make policymakers' choices all the more important. Coming off three consecutive interest rate cuts, the central bank is expected to follow a more tepid path for the year ahead in which additional cuts could be hard to come by considering expectations for solid growth and ongoing inflation pressures. One thing does seem certain: After a year of extraordinary upheaval surrounding the Fed, 2026 looks to offer more of the same. "I do think there'll be a big spotlight. There'll be lots of intrigue," said Kathy Bostjancic, chief economist at Nationwide. "There's still a lot of uncertainty that keeps the Fed in the spotlight, and probably in the hot seat too." The previous year saw the Fed come under that spotlight in ways that it never had before. As he started his second term at the White House, President Donald Trump repeatedly threatened to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not being quicker to push for interest rate cuts. Around mid-year, the Fed came under fire again, this time for cost overruns at a renovation project it had undertaken at its Washington headquarters. In between, Trump tried to remove Governor Lisa Cook over allegations — as yet unproven and not even brought as formal charges — that she committed mortgage fraud. That all came against a backdrop of who would succeed Powell as chair when his term expires in May, with as many as 11 candidates considered during an interview process led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. If all that sounds exhausting, consider that 2026 begins with a Supreme Court hearing scheduled for Jan. 21 to decide whether Trump has the authority to remove Cook. A week later, the Federal Open Market Committee holds its interest rate vote. At some point during the month, Trump is expected to unveil his choice for Fed chair. And Powell, cagey on the issue so far, also will have to disclose whether he plans on serving out his term on the Board of Governors that runs until January 2028. There also have been multiple dissents at recent rate votes, and new regional presidents set to come on board at the FOMC have a hawkish bent, meaning they're likely to resist additional cuts. "It's still a tough spot for the Fed," Bostjancic said. Focus on policy Still, when it comes to policy, most on Wall Street expect the Fed to put the noise in the background and continue down the road of lowering its benchmark interest rate just a bit more until it gets closer to a neutral level around 3%. Neutral is considered a spot that neither boosts nor holds back economic activity, and the funds rate is just half a percentage point above where most on the FOMC see the rate landing over the long term. "Chair Powell helped orchestrate three 25-basis-point rate cuts in a row. It's not as if he was standing in the way of the FOMC cutting rates," Bostjancic said. As far as further cuts go, "For us, it's [about] the economic data." Bostjancic sees the data pointing to two cuts this year, one around mid-year and another toward the end. The Fed's "dot plot" grid of expectations indicates just one cut, while outliers such as Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi and Citigroup seeing labor market weakness pointing to three. More Federal Reserve, Powell face challenges in 2026 Technology Update. With events happening fast in the development of solar power and graphene, among other things, I’ve added this section. Updates as they get reported. This tiny chemistry change makes flow batteries last far longer Date: January 1, 2026 Source: Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy Sciences Summary: A new advance in bromine-based flow batteries could remove one of the biggest obstacles to long-lasting, affordable energy storage. Scientists developed a way to chemically capture corrosive bromine during battery operation, keeping its concentration extremely low while boosting energy density through a two-electron reaction. This approach sharply reduces damage to battery components and allows the use of cheaper materials Bromine-based flow batteries store energy using a chemical reaction between bromide ions and elemental bromine. This chemistry is attractive because bromine is widely available, has a high electrochemical potential, and dissolves well in liquid electrolytes. The downside appears during charging, when large amounts of bromine are produced. This reactive material can attack battery components, reduce how many charge cycles the battery can handle, and raise overall system costs. Additives known as bromine complexing agents can help limit corrosion, but they often cause the electrolyte to separate into different phases, which disrupts uniformity and makes the system harder to manage. In a study published in Nature Energy, researchers led by Prof. Xianfeng Li from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) reported a new approach to bromine-based battery chemistry. The team designed a bromine-related reaction that transfers two electrons instead of one and successfully applied it to a zinc-bromine flow battery. Their results show both a working proof of concept and successful scale-up toward a long-life battery system. Capturing Bromine to Boost Performance The researchers achieved this by adding amine compounds to the electrolyte, where they act as bromine scavengers. During battery operation, the bromine (Br2) formed through electrochemical reactions is converted into brominated amine compounds. This process lowers the amount of free Br2 in the electrolyte to an ultra-low level of about 7 mM. Traditional bromine chemistry relies on a single-electron transfer from bromide ions to Br2. In contrast, the new process enables a two-electron transfer from bromide ions to the brominated amine compounds, which increases energy density. At the same time, keeping Br2 levels extremely low greatly reduces corrosive effects, helping extend battery lifespan. Long-Term Stability and Lower Costs at Scale The team then tested this chemistry in zinc-bromine flow batteries under practical conditions. Because the electrolyte contains very little free Br22, the battery can operate reliably using a standard non-fluorinated ion exchange membrane (SPEEK), which helps bring down costs. In a 5 kW scale-up test, the battery ran stably for more than 700 cycles at a current density of 40 mA cm-2 and reached an energy efficiency above 78%. With the Br2 concentration kept so low, no corrosion was detected in critical components -- including current collectors, electrodes, and membranes -- either before or after cycling. Implications for Future Energy Storage "Our study provides a novel approach to the design of long-life bromine-based flow batteries and lays the foundation for the further application and promotion of zinc-bromine flow batteries," said Prof. Li. This tiny chemistry change makes flow batteries last far longer | ScienceDaily Next, the world global debt clock. Nations debts to GDP compared. World Debt Clocks (usdebtclock.org) The difficulty lies, not in finding a producer, but in finding a consumer. Jean-Baptiste Say