Weekly Global News Wrap: Goldman Sachs boosts capital measures; Charges filed against Wirecard ex-bosses

And the UK allows TransferWise to offer retail investment services.

From Reuters:

Goldman Sachs has already boosted capital measures and is working to meet the Federal Reserve’s benchmark for October, the Wall Street bank said in a statement.

Investors and analysts were eager to hear Goldman’s announcement because the bank fared worse than rivals on the Fed’s stress test last week, sending its share price tumbling. The Fed examined big banks’ balance sheets to see if they had enough funds on hand to handle losses during two years of severe economic and market stress.

Goldman’s loan portfolio suffered much higher hypothetical loss rates than peers. Its key measure of common equity capital as a portion of assets dropped to 12.5% in March compared with the Fed’s requirement that it have 13.7% by the start of October.

From Reuters:

An Austrian lawyer has filed a criminal complaint against Wirecard’s former CEO Markus Braun and COO Jan Marsalek at a court in Vienna, accusing them of market manipulation and serious fraud.

Lawyer Joerg Zarbl said that Braun took out a $135m (EUR120m) loan to buy at least 2.5 million Wirecard shares via a holding company in May after a critical audit by KPMG sent its shares crashing in late April.

Braun’s stock buys helped Wirecard’s shares recover, Zarbl said. He wants prosecutors to investigate whether Braun’s intention was to send positive signals to the market.

From Reuters:

Money transfer startup TransferWise has been granted permission by the UK’s financial watchdog to offer retail investment services in Britain.

The company expects to offer its first investment product over the next year, one that will enable customers to invest money stored in their multi-currency accounts into affordable funds by established providers. Money held as investments of a value up to $105,264 (£85,000) will be protected under the Financial Services Compensation scheme, TransferWise said.

The move makes TransferWise the latest fintech startup to branch out into offering a wider range of financial products. Online investment managers Betterment and Wealthfront recently started offering cash or checking accounts, whilst student lender SoFi expanded into offering stock trading.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.