Tausi Insider

The U.S. House Financial Services Committee said Wednesday it plans to hold a hearing in December to investigate the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX. The committee said it expects to hear from the companies and individuals involved, including FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, Alameda Research, Binance, FTX and related entities, among others. “The fall of FTX has posed tremendous harm to over one million users, many of whom were everyday people who invested their hard-earned savings into the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, only to watch it all disappear within a matter of seconds,” Financial Services Committee chair Maxine Waters said. FTX filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, leaving an estimated 1 million customers and other investors facing total losses in the billions of dollars. The collapse reverberated across the crypto world and sent bitcoin and other digital assets plummeting. House Financial Services committee top Republican Patrick McHenry said “we must get to the bottom of th...

The produce area at a Loblaws store in Toronto on May 3, 2018. Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press Industry players say there has been “remarkable” headway toward a self-regulatory code of conduct for Canada’s grocery sector, but a key aspect is still a work in progress: a mechanism for enforcing the rules and arbitrating disputes. The steering committee of industry groups developing the code has drafted “provisions” for the behaviour of both retailers and their suppliers – a breakthrough in discussions that had dragged on for months, with warnings about a failure to reach a consensus as recently as this past summer. However, a recent draft discussion document obtained by The Globe notes that dispute-resolution mechanisms “are still under development.” The document states that these will include a range of options, “from informal discussion through to some type of formal arbitration,” but does not lay out who would act as arbitrator or how such a system would function. The committee is...

A Sobeys store in Toronto on April 3, 2020. J.P. MOCZULSKI/Tausi Insider A parliamentary committee wants the CEOs of major grocery companies to appear for questioning on record-level food price inflation after representatives for Loblaw L-T and Sobeys EMP-A-T said there’s little they can do to prevent passing on costs to consumers. Senior officials with the companies appeared in front of MPs on the agriculture committee on Monday as part of its examination into grocery business practices. The review – which saw MPs repeatedly questioning the officials on the issues of transparency and public trust – takes place against a backdrop of record-level rates of food inflation in Canada. Policy makers are scrambling to address a growing chorus of concerns over food prices. Last month, the committee had sent invitations to the grocery retailers, asking for representatives to attend the Ottawa meeting. Present on Monday were Jodat Hussain, a senior vice-president of retail finance for Loblaw (...

Senators have removed controversial wording from the federal government’s online streaming bill that digital video creators feared could have led to the regulation of user-generated content on platforms such as YouTube and TikTok. The move, designed to reassure people who post videos on digital platforms that they are beyond the bill’s scope, follows failed attempts by Conservatives in the House of Commons to amend the clause. Bill C-11 would update Canada’s broadcast laws so that they cover streaming platforms, including Netflix, Amazon Prime and YouTube. Under the new rules, those platforms would have to promote and support Canadian creative work, including songs, TV programs and films. Many people who make their living posting videos on YouTube have raised concerns about C-11 in evidence to parliamentary committees studying the bill, as has YouTube itself. Some TikTok creators have warned they would be prepared to leave the country if the legislation saddles them with bureaucracy...

A promotion for an appearance via video stream by Sam Bankman-Fried at the New York Times Dealbook Conference in New York on Nov. 30. WINNIE AU /The New York Times News Service FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried is willing to testify before the U.S. House Committee on Dec. 13, the cryptocurrency exchange’s founder said in a tweet on Friday, as regulators investigate his role in the wake of its collapse. A day earlier House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters told Reuters that she is prepared to subpoena Bankman-Fried if he does not agree to appear before the panel next week. “I still do not have access to much of my data – professional or personal. So there is a limit to what I will be able to say, and I won’t be as helpful as I’d like,” Bankman-Fried said on Friday. “But as the committee still thinks it would be useful, I am willing to testify on the 13th,” he added. It was not clear if he plans to be at the hearing in person or through a video feed. FTX...

FTX CEO John Ray speaks during a U.S. Hose committee hearing in Washington, on Dec. 13. ELIZABETH FRANTZ/Reuters Poor management practices and inexperienced leaders led to FTX’s implosion, the crypto exchange’s new chief executive told lawmakers on Tuesday, shortly after U.S. regulators charged founder Sam Bankman-Fried with defrauding investors. “The FTX group’s collapse appears to stem from absolute concentration of control in the hands of a small group of grossly inexperienced, non-sophisticated individuals,” said John Ray, who was named CEO of FTX after Bankman-Fried stepped down and the company filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11. Ray also said there was virtually no distinction between the operations of FTX and Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried’s crypto trading firm, which maintained close ties with his exchange. “I’ve just never seen an utter lack of record keeping – absolutely no internal controls whatsoever,” Ray told the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee....

The European Central Bank has banned its top officials from picking stocks and bonds or making short-term trades after a string of scandals at the Federal Reserve and backlash at home. Rate setters and bank supervisors at the ECB will no longer be allowed to invest in individual stocks or bonds but only in “broadly diversified” funds and will have to hold those investments for at least one year, from one month previously. Reuters was first to report last year that 13 out of 25 members of the ECB’s Governing Council had picked their own funds, stocks and bonds – in some cases including government debt the ECB is hoovering up under its stimulus programs or shares in companies whose debt it buys. As the ECB has the power to sway financial markets – as it did just this Thursday by signalling its intention to raise rates more than expected – this triggered a backlash from lawmakers, academics and transparency activists. Some of their suggestions were taken on board by the ECB in its new C...

Rogers and Shaw applications are pictured on a cellphone in Ottawa on May 9, 2022. Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press A House of Commons industry and technology committee is preparing to call a second public hearing into Rogers Communications Inc.’s proposed $20-billion takeover of Shaw Communications Inc. before the end of the month, according to sources. The committee, which recommended against the deal in a report published in March of 2022, plans to take another look at the takeover, as it now involves the divestiture of Shaw’s Freedom Mobile to Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron Ltd., according to four people familiar with the matter. The sources declined to be identified as they are not authorized to discuss the committee’s plans publicly. The committee comprises MPs from the Liberal, Conservative and New Democratic parties and the Bloc Québécois. Its recommendations are non-binding but could put pressure on Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, whose approval is required for t...

Alan Horn, a Rogers Communications Inc. director who has served a number of key roles at the telecom and media giant, has died, according to sources. Tausi Insider is not identifying the three sources aware of Mr. Horn’s death because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. Mr. Horn, an accountant with a mathematics degree from Scotland’s University of Aberdeen, became the telecom’s chief financial officer in 1996 after working for the Rogers family holding company, Rogers Telecommunications Ltd. Over the years, he became a trusted adviser and confidant to Ted Rogers, who founded the telecom and served as its chief executive officer until his death in 2008. Mr. Horn served as interim Rogers CEO on two occasions – once after Ted Rogers’s passing, then again in 2016, following the departure of former chief executive Guy Laurence. He also chaired the telecom’s board from 2006 until 2017, when Edward Rogers, Ted’s only son, took over the role. The passing of Mr. Horn...

FTX CEO John Ray speaks during a U.S. Hose committee hearing in Washington, on Dec. 13. ELIZABETH FRANTZ/Reuters Poor management practices and inexperienced leaders led to FTX’s implosion, the crypto exchange’s new chief executive told lawmakers on Tuesday, shortly after U.S. regulators charged founder Sam Bankman-Fried with defrauding investors. “The FTX group’s collapse appears to stem from absolute concentration of control in the hands of a small group of grossly inexperienced, non-sophisticated individuals,” said John Ray, who was named CEO of FTX after Bankman-Fried stepped down and the company filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11. Ray also said there was virtually no distinction between the operations of FTX and Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried’s crypto trading firm, which maintained close ties with his exchange. “I’ve just never seen an utter lack of record keeping – absolutely no internal controls whatsoever,” Ray told the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee....