Перші результати торгів на міжбанківському валютному ринку 19 грудня свідчать про стабілізацію курсу гривні щодо долара США.

Як повідомляє профільний сайт «Мінфін», який відстежує перебіг торгів, станом на 12:00 було зафіксовано 190 угод на суму понад 95 мільйонів доларів за середньозваженим курсом 27,8773 гривні за долар.

Майже такі ж показники були зафіксовані наприкінці торговельної сесії 18 грудня. Національний банк України встановив на 19 грудня курс на рівні 27,8736 гривні за долар.

У Національному банку України заявляють, що фундаментальних причин для девальвації української гривні на сьогодні немає, коливання курсу обумовлене сезонними і психологічними факторами.

«Говорити про те, що гривня слабшає, і це якась фундаментальне послаблення, наразі не можна. З іншого боку, є психологічні чинники, відсутність співпраці з МВФ – в тому числі це такий фактор», – сказав заступник голови НБУ Дмитро Сологуб.

За його словами, НБУ не відходить від стратегії валютних інтервенцій.

«Це коливання будемо згладжувати. Резерви НБУ це дозволяють», – додав він.

Ще на початку грудня курс був на рівні 27,15 гривні за долар США.
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Nepali migrant workers are trapped in a vicious cycle of debt and exploitation due to a failure by authorities to crack down on recruitment firms that charge illegally high fees for jobs abroad, human rights group Amnesty International said on Monday.

Wages sent back by an estimated four million Nepalis – mainly employed working in construction or as domestic workers in the Middle East, Malaysia and South Korea – make up more than a quarter of the poor Himalayan nation’s gross domestic product.

Nepal permits recruitment agencies to charge 10,000 rupees ($100) from each migrant as a service charge for finding them work with foreign firms, who pay for workers’ travel and visa.

But a survey of over 400 Nepali migrants by Amnesty found workers are not only forced up to 12 times more the permitted amount to agencies, but also that most are forced to borrow the money from unscrupulous money lenders at high interest rates.

“Migrant workers all too often end up trapped in the soul-destroying situation of working abroad for years simply to pay off the huge, often illegal fees they were charged to take the job,” said Amnesty International’s James Lynch.

“The Nepali government’s weak enforcement of the law is playing straight into the hands of extortionists and loan sharks. Tackling this exploitative industry is a matter of urgency,” Lynch added in a statement.

The London-based human rights group said almost two-thirds of the migrant workers, who responded to a telephone survey conducted in Nepal and Malaysia, had paid excessive, illegal recruitment fees to hiring firms.

Workers’ calculations about how to repay these loans were often derailed by unpaid wages or other forms of labor exploitation overseas. More than half of respondents said they received lower monthly salaries than promised by the agencies.

Bhuban K.C., a senior official in Nepal’s labor ministry, said authorities had launched awareness programs for potential migrants to ensure they are not cheated by agencies, adding that compensation was being provided to victims.

Nepal was working with India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka which also send migrant workers to the Middle East and Malaysia to ensure that the workers’ interests are protected, he added.

“We are raising our voice internationally to ensure that migrants are not cheated. What we are doing may not be adequate, but we are concerned about our workers welfare,” K.C. told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Amnesty said the Nepali government must do more to enforce laws penalizing exploitative recruitment agencies and urged overseas companies – who use the agencies to source workers – to check abuse within their supply chains.

“Companies who employ migrant workers in the Gulf and Malaysia directly or through their suppliers or subcontractors also have a responsibility,” said Lynch. “Until they take action, they are reinforcing the debt trap that is destroying so many lives in Nepal.”
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How do you explain the abstract concepts of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies?

With adorable, digital kittens of course.

CryptoKitties, an online game and marketplace featuring virtual kittens, has become an entry point for curious outsiders looking to dabble in cryptocurrencies – decentralized digital monies that rely on blockchain technology to enable peer-to-peer transactions.

Company reps say their main goal is to teach people how to use blockchains; open, distributed ledgers of cryptocurrency transactions. Bitcoin is the most famous cryptocurrency and blockchain protocol, but there are others.

“As part of launching this project, we were really trying to educate people who haven’t perhaps bought Ethereum before, people who aren’t in the crypto space.” said Elsa Wilk, marketing director at Axiom Zen, the Canadian tech consultancy that created CryptoKitties.

That may have been the initial idea. But marry cute kittens and a buzzy, emerging tech phenomenon and kitten chaos ensued.

CryptoKitties’ cheerful, user-friendly interface has caused its popularity to surge among blockchain products and services. To date, there have been over $16 million USD in transactions resulting from the purchase, breeding and sale of digital kittens.

“Using something like cats is a very unintimidating, friendly, cuddly way to be introduced to a very hard, technical subject like the blockchain,” said Wilk. “We really took the approach of making the blockchain more approachable.”

How it works

CryptoKitties is built on the Ethereum blockchain. Purchases are made using the Ether cryptocurrency, which can be purchased with real money through a digital currency exchange like Coinbase. To begin buying and selling CryptoKitties, users first set up a digital wallet with MetaMask, an Ether wallet and browser for applications built on the Ethereum blockchain.

Kittens cost anywhere from .004 ether (about $3 USD) to upwards of 100,000 ether (a whopping $79.3 million USD). Wilk said the objective of the game is to make more kitties, but one of the company’s ultimate goals was to test whether a blockchain platform could support the buying and trading of unique, digital cats – what Wilk calls “crypto collectibles.”

At launch, the company released about 250 “Gen Zero” kittens, that is, those with no “parents.” Thereafter, a new kitten is released every 15 minutes. According to Wilk, the number of original kittens that will ever be released is approximately 50,000.

Critics of CryptoKitties contend that because the game is only partially decentralized, it is not a true representation of an Ethereum “DApp” or decentralized application. Despite being built on the open-source Ethereum platform, CryptoKitties’ interactions exist within a centralized database and are beholden to policies established by Axiom Zen.

“We really wanted to test the technology, to be able to put cats on the blockchain. We had to develop a new protocol in the process of doing this,” said Wilk.

The game’s popularity has also stalled traffic on the Ethereum network and created delays in the rate of Ethereum transactions processed. All blockchain transactions must first be “mined” or processed by a computer within a blockchain’s decentralized network.

“Because we’re building something that has never really been done before, just the sheer volume of traffic that we received initially caused some scaling problems,” said Wilk.

Still, for Wilk and Axiom Zen, CryptoKitties so far has been a success.

“It is one of the first, I would say, tangible use cases for a cryptocurrency project,” said Wilk, “Being able to actually take an action and have something real and tangible, I think is driving a lot of the interest that we’re seeing.”
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A Supreme Court justice on Monday approved an agreement to compensate bank depositors for losses caused by government policies several decades ago, settling more than a million legal disputes that have hung over Brazil’s banking system since the 1980s.

Depositors who lost their savings due to economic programs applied in the 1980s and 1990s to tackle hyperinflation will have two years to sign up for the compensation deal, Justice Dias Toffoli ruled.

Those who are owed up to 5,000 reais ($1,520) will be fully reimbursed, while those with larger liabilities will get between 8 percent and 19 percent less.

Around 60 percent of the depositors covered by the agreement are owed up to 5,000 reais, according to the Brazilian Federation of Banks (Febraban). The total value of reimbursements will depend on how many depositors opt in to the scheme.

Reuters had reported in November that banks were likely to agree on reimbursing a total of around 10 billion reais, far below initial central bank estimates of up to 342 billion reais.

Fitch Ratings said earlier this month that such an agreement would be beneficial to the nation’s banks, which have made enough provisions to cover the reimbursements.

Lenders Itaú Unibanco Holding SA, Banco Bradesco SA, Santander Brasil SA, Banco do Brasil SA and Caixa Econômica Federal have signed off on the deal. Other banks can still join.

Under former Presidents  José Sarney and Fernando Collor, Brazil pursued several unorthodox policies to fight galloping inflation, such as confiscating investments in savings accounts.

Reimbursements will be paid in up to three years in as many as five installments, adjusted for the official inflation index.

($1 = 3.2922 reais)
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У Національному банку України заявляють, що фундаментальних причин для девальвації української гривні на сьогодні немає, коливання курсу обумовлене сезонними і психологічними факторами.

«Фундаментальних причин для девальвації на сьогодні дійсно немає», – сказав заступник голови НБУ Дмитро Сологуб. 

За його словами, поточна волатильність валютного ринку є сезонною, повторюючись щороку.

«Говорити про те, що гривня слабшає, і це якась фундаментальне послаблення, наразі не можна. З іншого боку, є психологічні чинники, відсутність співпраці з МВФ – в тому числі це такий фактор», – сказав Сологуб.

За його словами, НБУ не відходить від стратегії валютних інтервенцій.

«Це коливання буде згладжувати. Резерви НБУ це дозволяють», – додав він. 

Курс долара на міжбанку 18 грудня підвищився до 27,88 гривні за долар.

На 18 грудня НБУ встановив офіційний курс гривні щодо долара США на рівні 27,63 гривні,  водночас на початку грудня курс був на рівні  27,15 гривні.
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У Національному банку заявляють, що затримка чергового траншу від Міжнародного валютного фонду несе в собі ризик фінансової стабільності. 

«Ключові ризики для банківської системи протягом останніх трьох років не змінилися. Юридичний ризик залишається дуже високим, це в першу чергу заважає повноцінного відновлення кредитування повноцінної роботі з проблемними активами. Звіт ми вже оприлюднили… Затримка траншу від МВФ несе в собі ризик фінансової стабільності і стабільності банківської системи», – сказала заступник глави НБУ Катерина Рожкова. 

Водночас директор департаменту фінансової стабільності НБУ Віталій Ваврищук зауважує, що є критично важливим продовжувати співпрацю з МВФ.

«Наступного року буде доцільно почати переговори щодо запуску нової програми, оскільки нинішня програма закінчується на початку 2019 року, і для нас є критично важливим продовжувати співпрацю з МВФ і надалі», – сказав Ваврищук.

Раніше у Нацбанку заявили, що очікують прибуття місії МВФ у січні й надання чергового траншу кредиту – у другому кварталі 2018 року. У фонді повідомили, що поки що не планують відправляти до України місію для перегляду програми співпраці, а говорити про нові транші кредиту для України рано.

У березні 2015 року між МВФ і Україною була затверджена чотирирічна програма розширеного фінансування на суму близько 17,5 мільярдів доларів США. Наразі МВФ надав Україні за цією програмою близько 8 мільярдів 380 мільйонів доларів.

У Міністерстві фінансів України раніше заявляли, що очікують надходження нового траншу кредиту МВФ на початку 2018 року.
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Another security based on the price of bitcoin, the digital currency that has soared in value and volatility this year, began trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Sunday.

The CME Group, which owns the exchange, opened up bitcoin futures for trading at 6 p.m. EST on Sunday. The futures contract that expires in January opened higher at $20,650, then declined steadily. The futures were trading at $18,775 at 9:00 p.m. EST, down $725.

The CME futures, like the ones that CME competitor the Cboe started trading last week, do not involve actual bitcoin. The CME’s futures will track an index of bitcoin prices pulled from several private exchanges. The Cboe’s futures track the price of bitcoin prices on the particular private exchange known as Gemini.

Each contract sold on the CME will be for five bitcoin.

As bitcoin’s price has skyrocketed on private exchanges this year, largely under its own momentum, interest on Wall Street has grown. The virtual currency was trading below $1,000 at the beginning of the year, and rose to more than $19,000 on some exchanges in the days leading up to its debut on the Cboe and CME. Bitcoin was trading at $18,417 Sunday evening on Coinbase.

But the growing interest in bitcoin has raised questions on whether its value has gotten too frothy. The Securities and Exchange Commission put out a statement last week warning investors to be careful with any investment in bitcoin or other digital currencies. Further, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission has proposed regulating bitcoin like a commodity, not unlike gold, silver, platinum or oil.

Futures are a type of contract where a buyer and seller agree on a price on a particular item to be delivered on a certain date in the future, hence the name. Futures are available for nearly every type of security out there, but are most familiarly used in commodities, like oil wheat, soy and gold.

Bitcoin is the world’s most popular virtual currency. Such currencies are not tied to a bank or government and allow users to spend money anonymously. They are basically lines of computer code that are digitally signed each time they are traded.

A debate is raging on the merits of such currencies. Some say they serve merely to facilitate money laundering and illicit, anonymous payments. Others say they can be helpful methods of payment, such as in crisis situations where national currencies have collapsed.
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Vietnam is set to auction up to a $5 billion stake in top brewer Sabeco on Monday, with Thai Beverage the only potential bidder to have expressed interest in a majority stake.

The keenly anticipated sale of the state-owned maker of Bia Saigon gained momentum in recent months after being hampered for years by political resistance, fickle policy-making and complications over valuations.

The government has set a minimum sale price of 320,000 dong or $14.10 a share for Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp (Sabeco), whose shares have nearly trebled to 309,200 dong since its listing a year ago.

Thai Beverage, through a partly owned Vietnam unit, is the only company that has expressed interest in owning more than 25 percent of the company, which has roughly 40 percent of the beer-loving Vietnamese market.

So far no formal bid had been made.

Vietnam’s young population and booming economy should make Sabeco an attractive asset for global brewers hoping to expand in Southeast Asia, but a high minimum bid price and foreign ownership limits appear to have turned off potential buyers.

Sabeco’s foreign ownership is capped at 49 percent. With 10 percent already in foreign hands, that leaves only 39 percent on the table for overseas buyers at Monday’s auction. Local bidders can bid for a majority stake of up to 54 percent. Heinken holds a 5 percent stake.

“There’s a disconnect between what the government wants to achieve and how international brewers view this auction,” said one person familiar with the matter. “In a normal auction, bidders are fully aware of what stake they’ll end up owning and bid for it accordingly,” said the person, who was not authorized to speak to the media.

Unlike similar sales in developed markets, where investors are whittled down over several rounds and offers can be adjusted, Sabeco bidders need to submit a single offer for a specific number of shares in a sealed envelope in one round.

Thai Bev, controlled by tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, was keen to acquire Sabeco as part of a strategy to expand outside its home market, sources told Reuters. The company had lined up bank guarantees to support the bid by its Vietnam unit, sources said.

There was no immediate response from Thai Bev to a query from Reuters.

Reuters previously reported that the auction was drawing the interest of brewing groups such as Anheuser-Busch InBev, Kirin Holdings, Asahi Group Holdings and San Miguel, but there is no clear sign of whether they have participated in the auction so far.

The government’s minimum price for the 54 percent stake on offer valued Sabeco at about 36 times core earnings, more than double the trading multiples of around 15 for some global peers, according to Reuters data.

Vietnam’s trade ministry is expected to announce the bidding result Monday afternoon.
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