HSBC’s making good on its plans to shift to a focus on Asia by naming John Flint—who spent his first 14 years at the bank in Asia—as its new CEO. Flint will take over from Stuart Gulliver in February – NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg
Tech startup Outcome Health—which “installs video screens in doctors’ offices and charges pharmaceutical companies to run ads at them aimed at patients—has attracted plenty of buzz and the backing of heavyweights like Goldman Sachs and Alphabet. Unfortunately, it’s also allegedly misled its users about the reach and effectiveness of their ads – WSJ
Japan’s ongoing steel scandal deepens with news that Kobe Steel’s fake product-quality data has impacted components in a massive range of end-products, including Japan’s iconic bullet trains – Bloomberg
Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, and HSBC have agreed to pay a combined $132 million to resolve claims by plaintiffs (futures traders and others who lost money) over the banks’ alleged manipulation of Libor – WSJ
Activist group CtW is pushing 21st Century Fox to overhaul its Board of Directors in response to a series of “ethics cris[e]s” in some of its divisions – NYTimes
In potentially consequential trust news, Deutsche Bank has moved to dismiss a proposed class action alleging that it’s “improperly dipping into 10 residential mortgage-backed securities trusts it oversees to pay for its defense in a separate suit brought over its handling of those same trusts.” The bank pointed to the “broad indemnification” language in the applicable PSAs in their dismissal papers – Law360
Goldman’s going the HGTV route for its latest diversification efforts, acquiring Genesis Capital—a lender that “backs investors seeking to buy, renovate, and quickly sell single-family homes” – WSJ
BASF is buying parts of Bayer’s crop science business for roughly $7 billion as Bayer streamlines to make itself more acceptable to regulators in its merger with Monsanto – NYTimes and WSJ
Plenty of buzz out there these days about the demise of the bull market, and Streetwise doesn’t disagree, calling the market’s series of new records a matter of “hope, not profits” – WSJ
Denmark’s Danske Bank is facing a French probe into $17.8 million in suspicious transactions that French authorities claim were the product of Russian money laundering – WSJ
Astronomers who for years have struggled with a not-so-small issue of missing roughly half of the suspected atoms in the universe are celebrating this week. They’ve found their missing matter (and discovered more about how the universe evolved over time in the process). Scientific double whammy – Science
Have a great weekend.