Briefing
i ivil war in boardroom at NissanC
Nissan’s struggle to fill the leadership vacuum left
by the arrest of Carlos Ghosn has led to a
boardroom civil war. —PAGE 6i econd whistleblower in Ukraine affairS
Donald Trump faces an escalating political crisis
after a second whistleblower has come forward with
information about the US president’s dealings with
Ukraine.— PAGE 2i rance derides Macron pension reformF
There has been a chorus of
disapproval from millions of
French people who fear a
pension reform plan
championed by Emmanuel
Macron, president, will leave
them worse off.— PAGE 4i redit Suisse scandal rocks Zurich eliteC
The scandal over corporate espionage at Credit
Suisse, Switzerland’s second-largest and arguably
most revered bank, has sent shockwaves through
the insular world of Swiss banking.— PAGE 3i lmost 100 dead in Iraq protestsA
Clashes between protesters and security forces
across Iraq have left almost 100 people dead after
five days ofdemonstrations against corruption in
government and high unemployment.— PAGE 4i aris to review radicalisation protocolP
France is to review how its intelligence services
identify signs of radicalisation among officers after
a knife attacker killed four of his colleagues at Paris
police headquarters.— PAGE 3i S-North Korea nuclear talks stallU
Nuclear negotiations between theUS and North
Korea broke down at the weekend, with each side
delivering conflicting verdicts on the long-awaited
resumption of talks.— PAGE 4Datawatch
Beijing’s revenge
Hong Kong is set for a ruthless
punishment— JAMIL ANDERLINI, PAGE 17
Beyond petroleum
Incoming BP chief must decide
where its future lies— PAGE 7
Game theory
Can a hedge fund run a winning
football team?— BIG READ, PAGE 15
MONDAY7 OCTOBER 2019 WORLD BUSINESS NEWSPAPER EUROPE
World Markets
STOCK MARKETS
Oct 4 Sep 27 %Week
S&P 500 2952.01 2961.79 -0.
Nasdaq Composite 7982.47 7939.63 0.
Dow Jones Ind 26573.72 26820.25 -0.
FTSEurofirst 300 1495.42 1541.20 -2.
Euro Stoxx 50 3446.71 3545.88 -2.
FTSE 100 7155.38 7426.21 -3.
FTSE All-Share 3933.15 4071.29 -3.
CAC 40 5488.32 5640.58 -2.
Xetra Dax 12012.81 12380.94 -2.
Nikkei 21410.20 22048.24 -2.
Hang Seng 25821.03 26041.93 -0.
MSCI World $ 2131.36 -
MSCI EM $ 992.28 -
MSCI ACWI $ 509.84 -CURRENCIES
Oct 4 Sep 27
$ per € 1.098 1.
$ per £ 1.230 1.
£ per € 0.893 0.
¥ per $ 106.885 108.
¥ per £ 131.420 133.
SFr per € 1.093 1.
€ per $ 0.911 0.Oct 4 Sep 27
£ per $ 0.813 0.
€ per £ 1.120 1.
¥ per € 117.354 118.
£ index 77.089 76.
SFr per £ 1.224 1.COMMODITIESOct 4 Sep 27 %Week
Oil WTI $ 52.95 56.01 -5.
Oil Brent $ 58.47 61.89 -5.
Gold $ 1517.10 1506.40 0.INTEREST RATES
price yield chg
US Gov 10 yr 131.64 1.52 -0.
UK Gov 10 yr 150.78 0.36 -0.
Ger Gov 10 yr -0.59 0.
Jpn Gov 10 yr 120.07 -0.22 -0.
US Gov 30 yr 115.21 2.02 -0.
Ger Gov 2 yr 101.02 -0.79 0.price prev chg
Fed Funds Eff 2.04 2.13 -0.
US 3m Bills 1.70 1.79 -0.
Euro Libor 3m -0.45 -0.45 0.
UK 3m 0.76 0.77 -0.
Prices are latest for edition Data provided by MorningstarSA M F L E M I N G A N D M E H R E E N K H A N
BRUSSELSBrussels is questioning Facebook over
potential financial risks posed by its
Libra coin project as the EU prepares
to overhaul the regulation of digital
currencies.
The European Commission has asked
Facebook and the Libra Association to
respond to a series of questions on
financial stability,money laundering
anddataprivacyrisks.
The commission’s questionnaire, sent
last week, is part of a drive by Valdis
Dombrovskis, the EU’s financial serv-
ices commissioner, to determine how
projects such as Libra should be regu-
lated in the EU,and even whether Face-
book’s coin proposal should be allowed
tooperateinthebloc.
It comesas pressure rises on Libra toexplain to regulatorshow it plans to set
up a digital currency that could be used
by2.4bnFacebookusers.
Last month, Libra’sfounders were
grilled y 26 central bank officials in theb
first big encounter between Facebook
and regulators. In August, Brussels’
antitrust authority asked the company
for answers over concernsthat Libra
willharmconsumerchoice.
In the biggest blow yet to the project,
PayPal, one of Libra’s founding mem-
bers, said on Friday that it waspulling
out of Libra. One person close to PayPal
told the Financial Times that the com-
pany was concerned Facebook had not
done enough to address the regulatory
backlashagainsttheproject.
Brussels wants Facebook to explain
howtheLibraprojectwillhandlemoney
laundering and counter-terrorist
financing rules, andensure it minimisesthe risksof customers using the digital
currencyfortaxevasion.
The EU is also seeking to understand
how Libra would manage its reserves,
protect its customers’ data and
address the potentialthreats to finan-
cialstability.
The commission has been anxious to
agree an EU-wide approach to Libra,
given the possibility that regulatory
approval in a particular jurisdiction
could give the project a “passport” to
operateacrossthebloc.
France has said Libra cannot be
allowed to operate in the EU while the
bloc’s finance ministers have expressed
“strong concerns” that Libra and other
digital currencies could destabilise
the financial system and undermine
governmentsandcentralbanks.
Additional reporting by Hannah Murphy in
San FranciscoEU questions Facebook over financial
risks posed by Libra coin project
AnalysisiPAGE 2Biden on the attack over
Trump’s ‘flat-out lies’© THE FINANCIAL TIMES LTD 2019
No: 40,214★
Printed in London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Dublin,
Frankfurt, Milan, Madrid, New York, Chicago, San
Francisco, Orlando, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore,
Seoul, Dubai, Doha
Subscribe n print and onlineI
http://www.ft.com/subscribetoday
email: [email protected]
Tel: +44 20 7775 6000
Fax: +44 20 7873 3428
Austria €3.80 North Macedonia Den
Bahrain Din1.8 Malta €3.
Belgium €3.80 Morocco Dh
Bulgaria Lev7.50 Netherlands €3.
Croatia Kn29 Norway NKr
Cyprus €3.60 Oman OR1.
Czech Rep Kc105 Pakistan Rupee
Denmark DKr37 Poland Zl 20
Egypt E£42 Portugal €3.
Finland €4.50 Qatar QR
France €3.80 Romania Ron
Germany €3.80 Russia €5.
Gibraltar £2.70 Serbia NewD
Greece €3.60 Slovak Rep €3.
Hungary Ft1200 Slovenia €3.
India Rup220 Spain €3.
Italy €3.60 Sweden SKr
Latvia €6.99 Switzerland SFr6.
Lebanon LBP7500 Tunisia Din7.
Lithuania €4.30 Turkey TL
Luxembourg €3.80 UAE Dh17.
Four of the five
economies most
dependent on
natural resources
have reduced their
reliance on such
productsin the
past decade. This
highlights a global
trend — in 2007,
3.8% of global GDP
came from natural
resources. In 2017,
it was just 2.2%Resource dependence
Natural resource rents as a % of GDPSource: World Bank
Republic
of Congo
Mongolia
Libya
Iraq
Kuwait
DAV I D C R OW— LONDON
HSBC as embarked on a cost-cuttingh
drivethatthreatensupto10,000jobs,as
its new interim chief executiveNoel
Quinnmakeshismarkonthebank.
The plan represents the lender’s most
ambitious attempt to rein in costs in
years, according to two people briefed
on it, who said it would result in a sub-
stantial reduction in HSBC’s headcount
ofroughly238,000.
“We’ve known for years that we need
to do something about our cost base, the
largest component of which is people —
now we are finally grasping the nettle,”
saidoneofthepeople.
“There’s some very hard modelling
going on. We are asking why we have so
many people in Europe when we’ve got
double-digit returns in parts of Asia.
Any job cuts implemented as part of
the latest plan would come on top
of 4,700 redundancies hat HSBCt
recently announced amid what it
described as “an increasingly complex
and challenging global environment”
characterised by low interest rates,
tradeconflictsandBrexituncertainty.
A large chunk of those job cuts were
implemented under“Project Oak”, a
scheme which encouraged executives
and managers to shrink their teams by
offering funding from a central pot of
moneytocoverredundancypayouts.
A spokesperson for HSBC declined to
comment.
HSBC’s latest cost-cutting drive,
which will focus mainly on high-paid
roles, comes as global banks makethousands f staff redundant as theo
industry also contends withweak
investmentbankingrevenues.
In August,Deutsche Bank aid its
wouldeliminate18,000rolesaspartofa
radical overhaul. Barclays, Société
Générale and Citigroup have also
announcedjobcutsthisyear.
Mr Quinn started work on the new
cost-cutting plan days after he was
appointed as interim chief executive
after theexit f predecessor John Flint,o
who was dismissed in part because he
avoided “difficult decisions” on job cuts,
accordingtooneofthepeople.
Mr Quinn as been told he is a leadingh
internal candidate for the role and that
he has the authority to take big strategic
decisions,thepersonadded.
He is working on the plan with EwenStevenson, chief financial officer, who
substantially cut costs when he held the
sameroleatRoyalBankofScotland.
HSBC could announce that it has
begun the cost-cutting exercise when it
reports third-quarter results later this
month, one of the people said, although
the bank has not yet made a final deci-
siononwhentomaketheplanpublic.
Mr Quinn and Mr Stevenson are try-
ing to find savings in each of the bank’s
four divisions, which service multina-
tional corporations, smaller businesses,
retail customers and wealthy individu-
als,oneofthepeoplesaid.
The job cuts would not prevent the
bank from continuing to hire “revenue-
generating” staff in high-growth regions
in Asia, where it generates nearly 80 per
centofitsprofits,oneofthepeoplesaid.HSBC to axe up to 10,000 jobs
in worldwide cost-cutting drive
3 Interim chief seeks savings across banking group 3 High-paid roles in Europe targeted
Mask protest
Fresh clashes
on HK streets
A TV news crew is hit with a Molotov
cocktail during clashes between police
and anti-government protesters in the
Wan Chai district of central Hong Kong
yesterday.
Thousands of people took to the
streets again over the weekend, defying
an emergency ban on face masks
brought in on Friday night as the gov-
ernment seeks to quell demonstrations
nowintotheirfourthmonth.
Police fired tear gas and beanbag
roundsin locations across the territory,
as demonstrators chanted “Hong
Kongers, resist”. Some protesters threw
petrol bombs, started fires and vandal-
ised businesses and metro stations,
causingthecity’srailnetworktoclose.
ReportiPAGE 4
Anthony Kwan/Getty
Making his
mark: Noel
Quinn was
appointed
interim chief
executive in
AugustOCTOBER 7 2019 Section:FrontBack Time: 10/20196/ - 18:58 User:andy.puttnam Page Name:1FRONT USA, Part,Page,Edition:EUR, 1, 1