नाम न छापने की शर्त पर एक बुजुर्ग ने कैंटीन की आड़ में सेक्स रैकेट संचालन से जुड़ी कई अहम जानकारी दी। आरोप के मुताबिक पशुपति नाथ तिवारी उर्फ़ बब्लू कुड़ियाघाट परिसर में बनी कैंटीन को करीब पिछले डेढ़ दशक से संचालित कर रहा है। आरोप है कि पशुपति नाथ तिवारी उर्फ़ बब्लू कैंटीन की आड़ लेकर एक बड़े सेक्स रैकेट का संचालन कर रहा है। बुजुर्ग ने बताया कि सैकड़ो की संख्या में युवती की फ़ोटो बकायदा ग्राहक के सामने रखी जाती है। मनमुताबिक पसंद आने पर ग्राहक के सामने युवती को कुछ मिनट बाद उपलब्ध करवा दिया जाता है। रुपयों का तय तोड़ फाइनल होने के बाद कैंटीन के अंदर स्टोर रूम में जिस्म फ़रोशी के धंधे को बल मिल जाता है। हालांकि यह सब दसवां घर के ठीक बगल में घटित होता है।

दबोचा गया संचालक लेकिन रसूख़ काम आया

बुजुर्ग ने दबी ज़ुबान क्षेत्रीय पुलिस के संरक्षण की परतें उधेड़ना शुरू कर दिया। आरोप के मुताबिक कई बार कैंटीन में पुलिस की छापेमारी हुई औऱ बकायदा संचालक हिरासत में लिया गया। रसूख के चलते कार्रवाई तो दूर की बात वह आसानी से बाहर आ गया। कैंटीन की आड़ में सेक्स रैकेट का संचालन बिना रोक टोक बेखौफ ढंग से संचालित किया जा रहा है।

पीएसी का अस्थायी कैंप और कोई सख़्ती नही

कुड़ियाघाट परिसर में दसवां घर के ठीक बगल में कैंटीन की आड़ में सेक्स रैकेट का संचालन किया जा रहा है। कैंटीन के ठीक बगल में पीएसी का अस्थायी कैंप क़रीब पिछले दो दशक से है। सेक्स रैकेट का लाभ उठाने यहां कई अपराधी भी रोज़ाना आते है। बावजूद यहां क्षेत्रीय पुलिस की सख़्ती देखने को नही मिलती है।

लखनऊ। उत्तर प्रदेश में योगी सरकार मान्यता प्राप्त पत्रकारों को हेल्थ इंश्योरेंस देने जा रही है। सरकार ने मान्यता प्राप्त पत्रकारों के लिए 5 लाख रुपये स्वास्थ्य बीमा देने की घोषणा की है। इसके अलावा कोरोना से मौत होने पर मान्यता प्राप्त पत्रकारों के परिवार को 10 लाख रुपये आर्थिक मदद दी जाएगी।

उत्तर प्रदेश के मुख्यमंत्री योगी आदित्यनाथ ने घोषणा की है कि यूपी में मान्यता प्राप्त पत्रकारों का 5 लाख रुपये तक स्वास्थ्य बीमा किया जाएगा। इस बीमा की रकम यूपी सरकार देगी। इसके अलावा अगर किसी भी मान्यता प्राप्त पत्रकार का कोरोना से निधन होगा तो उसके परिवार को दस लाख रुपये आर्थिक सहायता सरकार की तरफ से दी जाएगी।

पंडित दीन दयाल उपाध्याय सूचना परिसर का किया उदघाटन

मुख्यमंत्री ने यह घोषणा राजधानी में नवनिर्मित पंडित दीन दयाल उपाध्याय सूचना परिसर भवन के उद्घाटन के दौरान कीं। उन्होंने कहा कि सूचना विभाग शासन और प्रशासन के कार्यों को मीडिया तक पहुंचाने के लिए एक सेतु का काम करता है। किसी भी सरकार के कार्यों का आम जनमानस तक पहुंचाने का एक सशक्त माध्यम सूचना एवं जनसंपर्क कार्यालय होता है।

‘मीडिया की भूमिका को नकारा नहीं जा सकता’

शासन का काम योजनाएं बनाना होता है प्रशासन उसे विभिन्न माध्यमों से आम जन तक पहुंचाता है, लेकिन जनता, शासन और प्रशासन के बीच में एक महत्तवपूर्ण सेतु के रूप में मीडिया की भूमिका को नकारा नहीं जा सकता। उन्होंने कहा कि प्रदेश के मान्यता प्राप्त पत्रकारों को राज्य सरकार प्रतिवर्ष पांच लाख रुपये का स्वास्थ्य बीमा कवर देगी, इसके अलावा कोरोना वायरस संक्रमण से किसी पत्रकार की मृत्यु होने पर उसके परिजन को दस लाख रुपये की आर्थिक सहायता दे जाएगी।

यूपी सीएम ने कहा कि कोरोना काल में मीडियाकर्मी काम कर रहे है और पत्रकारों को पूरी सुरक्षा और जागरुकता के साथ काम करते हुए संक्रमण से बचना चाहिए।

रोज आ रहे 6 से 7 हजार कोरोना केस

कोरोना वायरस जैसी महामारी से जूझ रहे उत्तर प्रदेश के लिए राहत भरी खबर है। जहां बीते कई दिनों से रोजाना औसतन 6-7 हजार के बीच नए मामले सामने आ रहे थे, वहीं बुधवार को 24 घंटों के दौरान 4674 नए मरीज ही मिले हैं। मृतकों का आंकड़ा भी कम रहा है और 67 मरीजों की मौत हुई है। पिछले 24 घंटों के दौरान 4922 मरीज पूरी तरह संक्रमण से उबर चुके हैं।

विज्ञापन

Yemeni armed forces have launched a fresh retaliatory drone attack on Saudi Arabia’s Jizan airport, the fourth such raid on the kingdom’s airports in the past hours.

The al-Masirah TV channel reported that Yemeni army soldiers and allied fighters from Popular Committees had targeted the Jizan airport on Wednesday using Qasif-K2 combat drones.

It quoted Yemen’s armed forces spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Sare’e as saying that the drone strikes had accurately hit the targets and led to the disruption of air traffic at the airport.

He also noted that the attack came in response to the crimes committed by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen and the military alliance’s continued siege of the impoverished country.

On Tuesday, the coalition carried out a similar drone attack on the Jizan airport and another two raids on King Khalid air base in Saudi Arabia’s southwestern Asir Province.

Yemeni fighters regularly target positions inside Saudi Arabia in retaliation for the Saudi offensive, which began in March 2015 in an attempt to reinstall the country’s Riyadh-allied former regime and crush the Houthi Ansarullah movement.

The Western-backed military aggression, coupled with a naval blockade, has killed tens of thousands of Yemenis, destroyed the country’s infrastructure and led to a massive humanitarian crisis.

The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the Saudi-led war has claimed the lives of over 60,000 Yemenis since January 2016.

The US Stock Market closing on Wednesday estimated Facebook worth USD 630 billion. One day later, it tumbled to USD 510 billion. Roughly USD 120 billion loss in market cap tops the list of biggest one-day routs in recent stock market history — and by a very wide, USD 30-billion margin.

Facebook on Thursday posted the largest one-day loss in market value by any company in US stock market history after releasing its quarterly report.

According to Reuters, at least 16 brokerages cut their price targets on Facebook after Chief Financial Officer David Wehner startled an otherwise routine call with analysts by saying the company faced a multi-year squeeze on its business margins.

That “bombshell,” as one analyst termed it, played into concerns on Wall Street that Facebook’s model could be under threat after a year dominated by efforts to head off concerns over privacy and its role in global news flow.

No company in the history of the US stock market has ever lost USD 100 billion in market value in just one day, but two came close.

On 22 September, 2000, Intel lost USD 90.74 billion in market value as the dot-com bubble burst. Earlier that year, Microsoft shed USD 80 billion from its market cap in one day.

Other companies that have experienced similar one-day losses in dollar amount include Apple in 2013, when it was trimmed by USD 59.6 billion, and Exxon Mobil in 2008, when it lost USD 52.5 billion.

Facebook’s margin fell to 44 percent in the second quarter from 47 percent a year ago as it spent heavily on security and initiatives to convince users the company was protecting their privacy.

The company also said revenue growth from emerging markets and the company’s Instagram app, which has been less affected by privacy concerns, would not be enough to repair the damage.

The impact on the rest of the FAANG group of high-flying tech stocks was marginal.

The second quarter of 2018 has not been the best ever for Facebook. But that was perhaps expected, in the aftermath of the data privacy scandal and the constant debate about the company’s moderation policies for content posted on the social network. The data released by Facebook in the Q2 2018 earnings call indicates that even though revenue increased 42 percent to $13.2 billion, it was still lesser than the Wall Street estimates of $13.3 billion. This is the first time in 3 years that Facebook did not match or exceed the market expectations in a quarter.

Make no doubt, a 42 percent growth figure is still extremely robust, and that is coupled with an 11 percent year-over-year growth in monthly and daily active users. At present, Facebook has 1.47 billion daily active users and 2.23 billion monthly active users. Mobile advertising revenue is also up, and now represents 91% of advertising revenue for the second quarter of 2018, which is up from approximately 87% of advertising revenue in the second quarter of 2017.

However, even these impressive numbers are not enough for Facebook. In the aftermath of the earnings call, the company’s shared slid by more than 20 percent, and that means CEO Mark Zuckerberg lost as much as $16.8 billion after the late trading.

Prior to the Q2 2018 earnings call, Facebook seemed to have been largely unaffected in its ability to make money and retain subscribers, even after the data privacy scandal involving Cambridge Analytica, the subsequent changes to the News Feed after user backlash and also the controversy surrounding the social network’s ability to moderate content such as fake news and hate speech. Facebook also confirmed that Facebook lost as many as 1 million accounts in Europe, due to compliance with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regulations.

MUMBAI – More than 20 Indian lenders on Monday signed a pact aimed at faster resolution of bad loans, officials said, while more could join by the end of the week in what is the latest bid to cut record levels of soured assets in Asia’s third-biggest economy.

A government-appointed panel this month proposed the so-called inter-creditor agreement among other measures after criticism that at times smaller lenders in a lending consortium were creating roadblocks for speedier resolution.

The agreement gives a bigger say to the lead lender in a consortium and allows a resolution plan to be approved if 66 percent of the banks in the group agree to it. Dissenting lenders have the option to sell their stressed loans to a company at a discount, or buy out loans to that entity from all other lenders at a premium.

“One of the major issues was consensus among lending banks on what should have been a common resolution plan.”

Top lender State Bank of India was among banks which signed the agreement.

India’s banks had 12.5 percent of their total loans categorised as non-performing or restructured at the end of March, according to central bank data.

As the competition gets fierce in the Indian smartphone market, Chinese player Vivo is geared up to launch devices across price points in the next six months, a top company executive said on Tuesday. According to Nipun Marya, Head of Marketing Strategy, Vivo India, the company is focusing on multi-dimensional strategies to fend off growing competition, especially in the offline segment. “We will offer products in multiple price points… whether it is the Rs 10,000 price bracket, the Rs 20,000-Rs 30,000 segment or the premium segment (Rs 30,000 and above),” Marya told IANS in an interview.

Vivo India had an overall share of 60.7 percent (by volume) in the Rs 20,000-Rs 25,000 segment (for the month of April) and 53 percent share in the Rs 20,000-Rs 30,000 price segment, according to German research firm GfK, which tracks sales to end consumers. The company, which is set to launch a nearly bezel-less smartphone “NEX S” in India on July 19, said it is also making rapid strides in innovation and the under-display fingerprint scanner was one such step. “Vivo X21” is the first smartphone with an in-display fingerprint scanner that recently arrived in India.

The upcoming “NEX S” smartphone features an all-glass design with 90 per cent of screen-to-body ratio and unlike a majority of smartphone makers, Vivo has ditched the “notch” in the device. Another USP of the device, according to Vivo, is the placement of the earpiece speaker — also under the display. “The phone uses a new technology called ‘screen soundcasting’, that turns a screen into audio output,” Marya told reporters.

“We have more India-focused R&D innovations in the pipeline and want to become a full-range player in the country,” he added. The company last month launched Vivo Y83 under its Y series of product portfolio. Priced at Rs 14,990, the device sports “FullView” Display 2.0 and houses 4GB RAM and 32GB ROM (expandable up to 256GB), 13MP rear camera and 3260mAh battery. Focused on strengthening its offline presence, Vivo said handing over the right product to end users is what matters the most.

The smartphone player already has brand ambassadors stationed at its retail and exclusive stores across the country, who are well equipped to handle queries related to both the software and the product as well as users’ complaints. “India is a vast country and you have to have proper reach. We made that by increasing the number of our retail outlets. We expanded our distribution network with over 70,000 Vivo retail stores and more than 250 Vivo exclusive stores,” Marya informed.

The company is planning to do away with “online” only devices and said all its upcoming smartphones would be available both online and at brick-and-mortar stores. “We have a manufacturing facility in Greater Noida where all smartphones being sold in India are made,” Marya noted.

New Delhi: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is now the world’s third-richest person, overtaking Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffet, as shares of his social media giant climbed 2.4% despite a data breach scandal.

According to calculations by Bloomberg, Zuckerberg now trails only Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates.

The current standings mark the first time the world’s three richest people all made their fortunes in the tech world. Zuckerberg, 34, is now worth $81.6 billion, about $373 million more than Buffett, Bloomberg reported.

According to a Fortune report, investors are loving Facebook more than ever. Investors are also happy at the news that Facebook has grabbed its biggest sports streaming deal yet with the Premier League.

The Times reported that Facebook has won exclusive rights to show all 380 live matches in parts of Asia — Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos — from 2019 until 2022, in a deal worth about $264 million.

Since going public in 2012, Facebook has seen its stock rise more than 400 per cent.

In the latest privacy goof-up, Facebook admitted that over 800,000 users were affected by a bug on its platform and Messenger that unblocked some people the users had blocked.

The bug was active between May 29 and June 5 — and while someone who was unblocked could not see content shared with friends, they could have seen things posted to a wider audience, said Facebook.

Facebook has already been grappling with privacy issues like the Cambridge Analytica data scandal involving 87 million users and another bug that changed 14 million users’ privacy setting defaults to public.

Lucknow 6th July – Maulana Kalbe Jawad Naqvi expressed his displeasure and condemned in the Friday prayers on the inflammatory statements of the so-called leaders of the BJP. Maulana said that it is heard that RSS has created a front called the Rashtriya Muslim Manch, whose responsible people have included some dishonest ones, who are distancing Muslims rather than getting them closer. Because of this, the responsibility of the Rashtriya Muslim Manch and the included dishonest people are achieving their personal intersted benefit but the BJP is in loss, on the basis of this politics, Muslims are getting far from the BJP. Same like because of Azam Khan, Shia were away from the Samajwadi Party, but due to the Rashtriya Muslim Manch, both Shia and Sunni’s are getting away from the BJP.

Maulana said that some religious traders are giving such provocative statements just to get the world and the post, Maulana said that the BJP should warn people who are harming them instead of benefiting them, so that they should include those in the party who have respect in community and society and it proves beneficial for them.

Maulana said that my statement has always been tampered with. Earlier, when I said that Narendra Modi is a ‘nar’ (male), it was said in the backdrop of his statement that at that time it was being said that Muslims are afraid of BJP, then Narendra Modi’s statement came that if Muslims are close to us then they will start loving us in the backdrop of this statement, Maulana said that there is a ‘nar’ (male) in his name, so he will stand and will remain on his statement.

New Delhi: RBI Governor Urjit Patel on Tuesday faced tough questions from a parliamentary panel on bad loans, bank frauds, cash crunch and other issues even as he assured the members that steps were being taken to strengthen the system.

Sources present at the meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance said the RBI Governor expressed confidence of tiding over the crisis regarding non-performing assets (NPAs).

Some members of the committee, headed by senior Congress leader Veerappa Moily, sought to know about the reasons for recent instances of ATMs running out of cash and why enough steps were not taken to tackle banking frauds.

Patel told the panel that steps were being taken to strengthen the banking system. “We are confident that we will be able to tide over the crisis,” a source quoted the Governor as saying with respect to the NPA situation.

Striking an optimistic note, Patel informed the committee that after implementation of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), the situation on the NPA front has been improving.

There have been rising concerns about bad loans, health of various public sector banks and the fallout of the nearly Rs 13,000 crore fraud at the Punjab National Bank.

TMC leader and member of the panel Dinesh Trivedi had said on Monday: “It’s been a long time and the RBI has still to come out with an amount of the cash returned into system post demonetisation. And the Governor must share these details with the panel and I hope he will do it tomorrow.”

The panel, he had said, would also ask questions about the mounting NPAs in the banking system and the Rs 13,000 crore PNB fraud, which raises doubts about the monitoring system of the RBI.

In his last appearance before the panel, Patel was also questioned on loan restructuring programmes, which lead to evergreening of loans, and resolution of defaults under the IBC, sources had said.

New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised the repo rate to 25 basis points to 6.25 percent from the earlier 6 percent in the June bi-monthly policy meet on Wednesday. The reverese repo rate has been raised to 6 percent from the earlier 5.75 percent, raising the key rate by 25 basis points.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its first bi-monthly monetary policy meeting in April had kept the interest rates unchanged at six percent, however, according to experts the central bank’s outlook towards the economy seems to have changed.

“The decision of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is consistent with the neutral stance of monetary policy in consonance with the objective of achieving the medium-term target for consumer price index (CPI) inflation of 4% within a band of +/- 2%, while supporting growth,” the RBI had said in its April statement.

A hike in the rates will increase the lending rates by the banks to maintain their profit margins, adding pressure on the common man to pay up more money on loans, pinching the politically important middle class and weakening the already lagging investment climate in the country.

This may further go up, depending on the decision taken by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) on Wednesday.

The hike, if any on June 6, will be coming after a gaps of four-and-a-half years.

It will certainly have some impact on the quality of some of the more aggressive loans lent by non-bank finance companies in the past year.

A senior Israeli military official has disclosed that the Tel Aviv regime is engaged in talks with the United States over delivery of F-35 single-engine stealth fighter jets to Turkey without performance-enhancing software.

The unnamed official told Haaretz newspaper that Israel wants to be the only entity in the Middle East with F-35 warplanes in its inventory in order to keep its military qualitative edge.

While the Israel Air Force is scheduled to receive the software that will improve the plane’s capabilities in July, Israeli military authorities are pressing their American counterparts not to provide Turkey with the software.

“Our concern is that Turkey is going through a very dramatic transition as a country. Turkey has gone a long way from being a NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) ally and an important partner in working against terrorism, to the situation today, where it is holding an American citizen as a bargaining chip. This is not the behavior of an ally,” US Republican Senator James Lankford told Haaretz.

“My concern is — they’re a NATO ally, they have been a good partner for years, but if we don’t know what the country is going to be like in a few years, we should withhold this resource from them,” he commented.

The Turkish-language Yeni Şafak daily newspaper reported on Sunday that Turkey would likely opt to purchase Russian Sukhoi Su-57 twin-engine warplanes in place of US F-35 stealth fighter jets if Washington suspends the delivery of the latter in response to Ankara’s purchase of S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems from Russia.

The report added that the unit cost of the Sukhoi Su-57, which is being developed for air superiority and attack operations, is almost half the cost of the F-35.

The Russian fifth-generation fighter jet can also respond to Turkey’s national needs much more than F-35 as the latter has to be fully equipped with Turkish software, munitions, radar and avionics before being operated in the Turkish Air Force.

Earlier this week, a US Senate committee passed a defense policy bill, which would effectively bar the delivery of F-35 fighter jets to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) partner Turkey.

The amendment to the $716 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), had been proposed by Democratic Senator from Michigan Jeanne Shaheen and Republican Senator for North Carolina Thom Tillis.

It removed Turkey from the F-35 program over its purchase of S-400 systems as well as imprisonment of Andrew Brunson, a Christian pastor from North Carolina, on spying and terrorism charges.

On April 3, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin said in the Turkish capital Ankara that they had agreed to expedite the delivery of S-400 missile systems. The delivery is expected to start between late 2019 and early 2020.

Turkey’s English-language Hurriyet Daily News newspaper reported on December 29 last year that the loan deal for four S-400 surface-to-air missile batteries had been signed in Ankara.

The developments came only two days after Sergey Viktorovich Chemezov, the Chief Executive Officer of Russian state corporation Rostec, told the Kommersant daily newspaper that Russia would supply Turkey with four batteries of S-400, worth $2.5 billion each, and Moscow was expected to begin the first deliveries in March 2020.

Chemezov added that Turkey would pay 45 percent of the cost of the agreement up front, while Russia would provide loans to cover the remaining 55 percent.

The United States has reportedly warned Turkey against the consequences of its decision to buy S-400 surface-to-air missile batteries from Russia, saying Washington could slap Ankara with sanctions over such a purchase.

The S-400 system, whose full name is the Triumf Mobile Multiple Anti-Aircraft Missile System (AAMS), is an advanced Russian missile system designed to detect, track, and destroy planes, drones, or missiles as far as 402 kilometers away. It has previously been sold only to China and India.

Turkey is striving to boost its air defense, particularly after Washington decided in 2015 to withdraw its Patriot surface-to-air missile system from Turkey’s border with Syria, a move that weakened Turkey’s air defense.

Before gravitating towards Russia, the Turkish military reportedly walked out of a $3.4 billion contract for a similar Chinese system. The withdrawal took place under purported pressure from Washington.

Ankara’s ties with its Western allies in NATO have been strained over a range of issues.

Erdogan has been critical of Washington for supporting Kurdish groups in Syria that he says are responsible for terror attacks inside Turkey.

The Turkish leader has also slammed American officials for rejecting his requests to hand over Fethullah Gulen, a powerful opposition figure living in the US.

Washington: US retail giant Walmart will buy a majority stake in India’s largest e-commerce company Flipkart, according to the head of SoftBank, a major stakeholder in the Indian firm.

“Last night, (they) reached a final agreement and it was decided that Flipkart will be sold to America’s Walmart,” said SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, whose firm owns a 20 percent stake in Flipkart.

He said SoftBank’s $2.5 billion stake in the company would be worth $4 billion with the acquisition.

The deal, reportedly worth around $15 billion, is expected to be announced officially later Wednesday, with Walmart CEO Doug McMillon in Bangalore, where Flipkart is headquartered.

Walmart is expected to acquire around 70 percent of the Indian e-tailer in a deal analysts said would be the world’s biggest e-commerce acquisition and pit Walmart against rival Amazon in one of the world’s fastest growing markets.

Amazon has been expanding aggressively since it entered the Indian market in 2013.

There has been months of speculation that Walmart was preparing to buy Flipkart but both have repeatedly declined to comment on the talks.

Last week, Flipkart’s board agreed to sell up to 75 percent of the company to a Walmart-led group, according to multiple media reports.

The deal is expected to value Flipkart at around $20 billion.

Google’s parent company Alphabet is also expected to purchase a small stake, possibly around 10 percent, reports said, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

Flipkart is India’s largest e-commerce group on the basis of sales but has been fighting off a huge challenge from Amazon.

Amazon boss Jeff Bezos has committed more than $5 billion to grabbing a big slice of India’s e-commerce pie after failing to make inroads in China.

E-commerce sales in India hit $21 billion last year according to market research company Forrester, and are expected to soar as its population of 1.25 billion people make greater use of internet access.

Flipkart was founded in 2007 by former Amazon employees Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, who are not related.

Like Amazon, it started as an online bookstore. Flipkart now sells everything from mobile phones, televisions and juicers to running shoes, sofas and beauty products.

SoftBank acquired its stake in the company last year through its Vision Fund investment arm.

Mumbai: Indian e-commerce firm Flipkart’s board has approved a deal to sell an equity stake of about 75 percent in the company to a group led by Walmart Inc for about $15 billion, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing unnamed sources.

SoftBank will sell its 20-plus percent stake as part of the deal, Bloomberg said, adding Google’s parent Alphabet Inc was likely to participate in the investment with Walmart.

A final close of the deal is expected within 10 days, although deal terms could still change and a deal isn’t certain, Bloomberg reported.
Flipkart and Alphabet did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Walmart and SoftBank declined to comment.

Having trapped itself in a deadly war against the people of Yemen over the past years, Saudi Arabia has surpassed Russia to become the world’s third largest military spender.

The oil-rich kingdom increased its spending to $69.2 billion in 2017, up 9.2 percent from the previous year, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in a new report Wednesday. This is 10 percent of the country’s GDP.

This puts the Riyadh regime higher on the list than Russia ($66.3bn), France ($57.7bn), India ($63.9bn) and the UK ($47.1bn), according to the report.

As expected, the United States topped the list with $609.7 billion, followed by China at $228.2 billion.

SIPRI analysts warned that the increase in military expenditure by countries like Saudi Arabia was not a good sign.

“Despite low oil prices, armed conflict and rivalries throughout the Middle East are driving the rise in military spending in the region,” said Pieter Wezeman, a senior SIPRI researcher.

Yemen war: The story of Saudi failure

Despite spending billions of dollars on the ruinous war and possessing cutting-edge military hardware, Saudis’ failure in overpowering Yemen’s Houthi fighters is mind-boggling.

In March 2015, Saudi Arabia and a coalition of its regional allies — mainly the United Arab Emirates and Jordan — started a war against Yemen with the declared aim of crushing the Houthi Ansarullah movement, which had taken over from the staunch Riyadh ally and fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.

Three years on and over 600,000 dead and injured Yemeni people later, the war has yielded little to that effect.

The rulers in Riyadh have been keeping the costs of war a secret, but various estimates have been put forth by different sources and news organizations in recent years.

‘Saudi military ineffective despite splurge’

A report says Saudi Arabia’s military proves to be an ineffective force despite the kingdom’s colossal military spending.

A Harvard study has concluded that the war costs the Saudi-led coalition some $200 million a day.

Monthly, according to estimates by the Brookings Institute, Riyadh is pouring $5-6 billion into the military aggression. The regime’s extravagant monarchs perhaps felt proudest last year, when, during US President Donald Trump’s debut foreign trip to Riyadh, they agreed to buy $110 billion in weapons from Washington over the next decade.

While the exact numbers remain unknown, it is no secret that it has been an expensive battle for the cash-strapped Saudis, probably one of the reasons why the kingdom sold off $1.2 billion of its $9.2 billion holdings in European equities by the end of 2015.

France, Germany and a host of other European countries have also continued to take advantage of the Yemen war, selling advanced military equipment to Saudis despite international outcry.

New Delhi: The government on Tuesday came out with a set of clarifications on the proposed strategic disinvestment in Air India and said individuals other than the airline’s employees would not be allowed to bid.

It had issued preliminary information memorandum on March 28 for the proposed sale of up to 76 per cent stake in Air India along with management control to private entities.

The government has put out clarifications for 160 questions from interested bidders on the disinvestment of Air India and its two subsidiaries — Air India Express and AISATS.

According to the 19-page document released today, the government has clarified that “individuals (other than employees) are not allowed to bid”.

Clarifications have been provided on various other aspects, including those related to slots, bilateral rights and employee rights.

“Details of existing slots and code share agreements will be provided at RFP (Request for Proposal) stage. It is expected that there will not be any impact of disinvestment on existing slots and bilateral rights.

“Bidders are advised to undertake their own assessment for the impact of disinvestment process on the existing code share agreement,” the government said.

This was in response to queries on whether privatisation would impact renewal of existing slots and bilateral flying rights.

For more than 50 queries, the government has said details would be provided at the time of RFP stage.

To a query related to staff, the government said, “employee concerns are being suitably addressed”.

“Grounded aircraft are assets of Air India. Successful bidder/ Air India post strategic disinvestment can deal with them/ dispose as deemed fit subject to the terms and conditions of the Shareholders’ Agreement,” it said.

As per the information memorandum, issued in March, the government would retain 24 per cent stake in the national carrier, the winning bidder would be required to stay invested in the airline for at least three years.

In the set of clarifications, it has been emphasised that “it is a considered decision by Government of India to retain 24 per cent stake”.

New Delhi: The country’s banks received an all-time high amount of fake currency and also detected an over 480 per cent jump in suspicious transactions post demonetisation, a first-ever report on dubious deposits made in the wake of the 2016 notes ban has revealed.

The banks, including those in the private, public and cooperative sectors, and other financial institutions collectively generated 400 per cent more suspicious transaction reports (STRs) at over 4.73 lakh such dossiers during 2016-17, the report said.

The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), that analyses suspicious financial transactions pertaining to money laundering and terror financing as part of the Union Finance Ministry establishment, reported that counterfeit currency transactions in the banking and other economic channels witnessed an increase by over 3.22 lakh instances during 2016-17 as compared to the last year.

This, the report accessed by PTI said, had a link to demonetisaton of two high value currencies of Rs 1000 and Rs 500 which was declared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the night of November 8, 2016.

The latest figure is the highest ever since the CCRs were first generated in the year 2008-09.

CCRs are “transaction based reports” and they are generated only when a fake Indian currency note (FICN) is detected.

As per FIU’s anti-money laundering rules, the banks and other financial bodies are required to report all cash transactions where forged or counterfeit currency notes or bank notes have been used as genuine or where any forgery of a valuable security or a document has taken place.

The report did not specify the value of such fake currencies detected.

The STRs, that are generated when a transaction either indicates that it has been made in circumstances of unusual or unjustified complexity or appears to have no economic rationale or bona fide purpose, also saw a record high rate of detection during the same period and an over 400 per cent jump from the comparative period just before demonetisaton.

“The number of STRs received in 2016-17 is 4,73,006 which is more than four times as compared to 2015-16 and this increase is attributed to demonetisaton exercise…,” the report said.

It added that some volume of the increase in the number of STRs can also be credited to the outreach steps taken by the agency in sensitising banks and others to comply with the rule of mandatorily filing these reports under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

“The most notable increase (in generating STRs) was in the category of banks, which recorded almost a 489 per cent increase over 2015-16. The increase was 270 per cent in the category of financial intermediaries,” it said.

During 2015-16, while a total of 1.05 lakh STRs were generated out of which 61,361 were sent by banks it jumped to 3,61,215 post DeMo and 40,033 such reports were sent was by financial intermediaries that shot up to 94,837 post DeMo, the report said.

All banks and financial institutions are required to generate STRs and subsequently send it to the FIU under the anti-money laundering law (PMLA).

STRs are also generated by the banks for those transactions that give rise to a reasonable ground of suspicion that it may involve financing of the activities relating to terrorism.

Some of those generated post demonetisation, the report said, had “possible links” to terror funding.

In the wake of these high numbers of reports CCRs and STRs coming in, the FIU ramped up its efforts in 2016-17 and disseminated 56,000 STRs to various investigative agencies like the Income Tax Department, the Enforcement Directorate, the CBI and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence among others as compared to 53,000 sent in the previous year.

“The results of the STRs pertaining to demonetisation period will be seen in the subsequent years,” the report said in an indication towards the quantum of black money that would be unearthed after acting on these classified reports.

It added that as it was apprehended that “unscrupulous persons possessing large amounts of demonetised notes may misuse” the window period given by the government to deposit the Rs 1000 and Rs 500 currencies in their bank accounts, over 30 new kinds of reports were “designed” to obtain information from the banks on the basis of identified parameters to detect suspicious cash deposits.

As part of FIU’s detection mechanism to check black money generation post demonetisation, the report said that the liberalised scheme of opening bank accounts with minimum KYC requirements, so as to reach banking services to every strata of society was “monitored very closely.”

“Abnormal patterns of deposits made by individuals as well as high risk geographical areas were identified and information disseminated to concerned law enforcement agencies for action,” it said.

The Iraqi air force says has launched deadly strikes against Daesh positions in Syria as both neighboring countries step up efforts to get rid of the Takfiri terror group’s remnants.

The office of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced in a statement on Thursday that Daesh positions in Syria came under attack from the Iraqi side of the border.

The raids were ordered by the premier “because of the danger they [terrorists] pose to Iraqi territory,” the statement said.

The Iraqi military’s spokesman, Brigadier General Yahya Rasool, also said F-16 fighter jets were used in the operation, which was carried out in coordination with the Damascus government.

Daesh first emerged in Syria and Iraq back in 2014, capturing swathes of land in both neighboring states.

It took over three years for the national Iraqi and Syrian armies to liberate those areas from the grip of the world’s most notorious terror outfit.

Damascus and Baghdad declared Syria and Iraq fully free of Daesh late last year and have since been involved in clear-up operations against the extremist group’s remnants.

Despite the collapse of Daesh, Iraq’s border regions with Syria are still suffering from sporadic attacks by the remaining terrorists.

Abadi had vowed on Wednesday that his country would continue to chase Daesh terrorists not only inside Iraq but also elsewhere in the region.

“The mission is not easy, but we shall make another miracle after that of the grand victory,” the premier said.

Iraq’s announcement coincides with a new Syrian government push against Daesh terrorists and other Takfiri militants holed up in districts south of the capital, Damascus, including Yarmouk, which is home to a Palestinian refugee camp.

Earlier in the day, the Syrian army gave the terrorists with Daesh and the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, better known as al-Nusra Front, 48 hours to agree to withdrawal from the areas south of Damascus or face of a large-scale military operation.

“If they refuse, the army and supporting forces are ready to launch a military operation to end the presence of the organization in the area,” Syrian newspaper al-Watan reported on Thursday.

New Delhi: An Indian push to connect more cities via airports as an expanding middle class increasingly takes to the skies is set to help propel the country’s demand for jet fuel to record highs this year.

That rapid growth in appetite for aviation fuel means the country’s refiners are far less likely to send cargoes abroad, tightening markets from Asia to Europe.

That has been underpinned by ambitious government plans to overhaul the nation’s infrastructure, including a push to build airports and offer airlines incentives to fly to smaller cities. “The country’s air transport sector has huge potential to grow in the long-term given its large geographical expanse and growing consumer affluence,” said Sri Paravaikkarasu, a Singapore-based analyst at energy consultancy FGE.

Average monthly demand for jet fuel could break through 700,000 tonnes this year, up from 2017’s record 623,000 tonnes and from 566,000 tonnes in 2016, several industry analysts estimated.

That would be an annual growth rate of around 12 percent, comparable to what China achieved during its main boom years in the early 2000s.

India used 2.02 million tonnes of aviation fuel from January-March this year, up 9.4 percent from a year earlier, the latest government data showed.

FGE forecasts a 10.5-percent year-on-year increase in Indian demand for jet fuel in 2018, while energy consultancy Trifecta expects growth of 12-15 percent.

REACH FOR THE SKIES

Under a flagship government scheme, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) is set to invest 175 billion rupees ($2.7 billion) in upgrading airport infrastructure over 2019-20. “Both passenger and freight miles should benefit from the state-led build out in related infrastructure and improving domestic interconnectivity,” said Emma Richards, a senior oil and gas analyst in London at BMI Research.

In a round of bidding for air routes concluded earlier this year, the AAI awarded over 400,000 kilometres per week to connect smaller cities, known as ‘Tier 2’ destinations.

Top Indian carrier Interglobe Aviation, which operates as IndiGo and won most of the tenders, said new routes would include flying from Bhopal in central India to Nashik in the west.

India’s domestic air traffic for the first two months of 2018 jumped nearly 22 percent from the year before to 22.2 million passengers, according to data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

The country’s top five busiest airports — Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Kolkata – handled 31.9 million passengers this January and February, up 15.3 percent from the same period last year.

LESS FOR THE REST

Indian oil refineries such as Reliance Industries and Essar Oil are significant exporters of petroleum products including jet fuel. Thomson Reuters data shows India is one of the top three Asian suppliers of jet fuel.

But exports are set to slow as local demand surges. “Domestic demand growth will certainly limit its ability to service other markets in the region,” said Richards at BMI.

Already, India’s monthly exports dropped by more than 7 percent year-on-year in 2017. To deal with rising consumption, India’s refineries are expanding.

India’s Ratnagiri Refinery & Petrochemicals — a joint venture between Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum – in April signed an initial deal with Saudi Aramco to build a huge refinery in the western state of Maharashtra. Reliance Industries, operator of the world’s largest refinery, plans to expand its oil processing capacity by over 40 percent by 2030.

Mahindra is all set to launch the facelifted XUV500 SUV in India today and the SUV has already been spotted on Indian roads completely undisguised. The XUV500 is the flagship product from the house of Mahindra in the Indian passenger vehicles market. It is also Mahindra’s first global-standard SUV.

The outgoing Mahindra XUV500 has been in the market for about three years now and is priced in the range of Rs 12.78 lakh to Rs 17.86 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi). The company hasn’t officially revealed anything about the car yet but the looks and the engine specs of the facelift XUV500 have been leaked before the launch.

The segment in which the XUV500 stands is now getting more and more competitive with the growing market of Tata Hexa and Jeep Compass, so there are a lot of eyeballs waiting to see what Mahindra has to offer in the XUV500 facelift.

On Wednesday, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg testified before the senators and a House panel amid a firestorm over the alleged hijacking of data of millions of Facebook users by British firm Cambridge Analytica.

During nearly five hours of questioning by 44 US senators, Zuckerberg repeatedly apologised for a range of problems that have beset Facebook.

MUMBAI – More Indian companies are likely to default on their borrowings in the fiscal year that started in April compared with the previous year on higher interest costs and a deterioration in business conditions, according to rating agency ICRA.

The default rate for Indian companies rose to 3.4 percent in the fiscal year ended March from 2.6 percent in the previous year, ICRA, the subsidiary of global rating agency Moody’s Investors Service, said in a report published on Monday.

“The default rate could go up in fiscal year 2019 on higher interest cost, deteriorating business conditions, likely difficulty in getting bank funding given the challenges in the banking system,” said Jitin Makkar, head of credit policy at ICRA, in a webinar.

Besides huge stressed assets, banks are also likely to go slow on lending following the detection of more than $2 billion fraud at the country’s second largest state lender, Punjab National Bank, which could eventually hit the economy that grew at 7.2 percent in October-December but still below 8 percent needed to hit full employment.

While the report showed that 646 companies were upgraded and 418 were downgraded, the trend did not mean that there was an improvement in the credit quality of the corporates given that the volume of debt downgraded at 3 trillion rupees ($46.08 billion) in the fiscal year ended March was sharply higher than 1.7 trillion rupees upgraded, ICRA said in the report.

Looking ahead, credit quality pressures will “take longer to dissipate” as hardening interest rates and banking sector woes will create hindrances for businesses, ICRA said.

-(Reuters)

Indian state-run Punjab National Bank has agreed to pay 65 billion rupees ($997.4 million) to counterparty banks, honouring an initial tranche of claims over a massive fraud case and ending uncertainty around repayments in the banking sector.

In what has been dubbed as the biggest fraud in India’s banking history, two jeweller groups have been accused of defrauding banks by raising loans from overseas branches of Indian lenders using nearly $2 billion of fraudulent guarantees issued by rogue PNB staff at a Mumbai branch.

PNB’s board on Wednesday approved payment over the fraudulent guarantees due by end-March to seven banks. It will also honour any subsequent maturing guarantees when they are due, the bank said.

“This measure will ensure that India’s banking system at large has the least possible disruption owing to the unfortunate fraud and banking operations will continue to function smoothly,” PNB said in a statement.

At least four other state-run banks – State Bank of India, Union Bank of India, UCO Bank and Allahabad Bank – have disclosed exposures that range between $212 million and $412 million to fraudulent PNB guarantees.

The counterparty banks had said PNB was liable to make good any losses on those loans. PNB has previously said it was ready to honour “bona fide” commitments, but it has also said counterparty banks were partly at fault for not making adequate checks when sanctioning the loans.

The banks were in talks over the claims and had also involved the government and the central bank as they sought to settle the dispute before the end of their fourth quarter and financial year on March 31.

A source with direct knowledge of the talks had told Reuters on Tuesday that PNB was moving to quickly resolve the dispute by the end of the month.

Even if it had to make full payment to counterparty banks, PNB was adequately capitalised to take the load, the source had said.

The fraudulent guarantees, valid for one year and issued on behalf of companies owned by jewellers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, are due between January and April this year, according to police and court documents.

Both Modi and Choksi are out of India and have denied any wrongdoing. Authorities have so far arrested 20 people including PNB executives in the case.

($1 = 65.1700 Indian rupees)

Toyota Motor Corp and Suzuki Motor Corp on Thursday agreed to produce cars for each other in India as Toyota aims to increase its market share in the fast-growing country dominated by its smaller rival.

The agreement, which follows an R&D partnership announced by the two Japanese automakers a year ago, will see Toyota secure production from Suzuki. The latter dominates India with its line-up of affordable compact cars, while Toyota has struggled to expand its presence in the market due to lean demand for its models.

Suzuki will supply gasoline and mild-gasoline hybrid versions of its Baleno hatchback, along with Vitara Brezza compact SUV to Toyota, while the latter will produce gasoline and gasoline-hybrid Corolla sedans for Suzuki, the automakers said.

Under the deal, the vehicles manufactured by Suzuki will be rebranded and renamed as Toyota cars, while the Toyota vehicles will sport the Suzuki badge.

The manufacturing will start mid-2019, a Toyota spokeswoman said, while declining to give details on production figures.

Earlier in the day, the Nikkei business daily reported that Toyota would supply around 10,000 vehicles to Suzuki, while Suzuki would produce up to 50,000 units annually for the Japanese automaker.

Suzuki has dominated the Indian automobile market through a majority stake in Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, the country’s largest automaker, which makes one in every two cars sold in the country.

Toyota lags far behind with a roughly 5 percent market share in India. Last year, it sold roughly 140,000 cars, leaving its two India plants to operate at about half their capacity of manufacturing more than 300,000 vehicles a year.

The penalty is for non-compliance with directions issued by the Reserve Bank of India on direct sale of securities from its HTM portfolio and specified disclosure in this regard, the RBI said in a statement here on Thursday.

The central bank did not elaborate on how ICICI Bank failed to comply with its norms.

Banks need to disclose the amount of securities they keep under the HTM segment under which the papers are held until maturity and cannot be used for intraday trading.

The RBI allows banks to sell securities from HTM subject to certain limits and disclosure rules.

($1 = 65.1500 Indian rupees)

Chennai: The Income Tax Department has frozen bank several accounts of software services company Cognizant in Mumbai and Chennai for alleged evasion of Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT). However, the firm has said that its operations were not affected by the action.

The I-T department’s action comes after a tax evasion notice was sent to the India unit of Cognizant alleging tax evasion of around Rs 2,500 crore.

I-T department has declared that while the company distributed dividends to its parent company from 2013 to 2016, it did not pay taxes on this distributed income. Dividend distribution tax is levied at 20%, which adds up to Rs 2,500 crore in Cognizant’s case.

A company official also said that the Madras High Court had instructed the tax department not to take further action pending further hearings. According to Cognizant, it has paid all applicable taxes.

“The I-T department took action to recover the unpaid DDT and has attached its bank accounts and deposits in excess of Rs 2,500 crore in Chennai and Mumbai. It is learnt that Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTS) has moved High Court against the attachment proceedings. Apart from this, the Income Tax department found that CTS has made illegal payments through an Indian company for setting up its offices and claimed as expenses in returns of income for financial years 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16,” said the department’s report.

One of India’s biggest IT firm, CTS has also been alleged of purchasing its own shares from shareholders in May 2016 under the scheme of “arrangement and compromise”.
The shareholders are a Mauritius-based company and a US-based firm holding 54 percent and 46 percent of shares in the Indian entity respectively.
While Cognizant did not deduct tax on remittance made to the Mauritius company it deducted 10 percent TDS on remittances to the US company. Both these transactions attract a tax of 20%.

Furthermore, official sources told News18 that CTS’s parent company in the USA had been notified of alleged illegal payments in the US Justice Department and that the Indian subsidiary acted in a way that violated US law. The case pertains to illegal payments by CTS to an Indian company during the financial years 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16. The I-T department will be filing complaints regarding the same with Economic Offenses Court in Egmore.

“Cognizant’s business operations, our associates and our work with clients are not impacted by actions recently attempted by the I-T Department. The High Court this morning heard the matter and instructed the department to not take further action pending further hearings before the court. The company believes that the positions taken by the department are contrary to law and without merit. Cognizant has paid all applicable taxes due on the transaction at issue. The company will continue to vigorously defend itself and will pursue all available legal remedies. Cognizant is committed to complying with the law in all jurisdictions where it operates,” an official spokesperson of CTS told News18.

CTS is estimated to be worth $15 billion and has more than 2 lakh employees in India.

Kolkata: Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy on Wednesday said urban intellectuals did not buy the idea of demonetisation that the government implemented in 2016, but it did go down well with a majority of rural Indians.

Murthy was speaking on the government’s demonetisation of high value banknotes in November 2016 at a session with students of Presidency University here.

“I am not an expert in economics but I saw that urban intellectuals did not buy the idea of demonestisation, but a vast majority of rural Indians seemed to have welcomed it,” he said.

Murthy said he himself could not understand the logic behind the demonetisation move since he is not an expert on the subject.

“Though I am not expert, but as a lay person I saw that when, for some reason, old 500 notes were demonetised, the government introduced new notes pretty quickly of the same denomination and even of higher Rs 2000 denomination. Only an expert can answer why this happened. I cannot understand… you should talk to experts,” Murthy said.

To another question, the Czar of the country’s IT industry said India had not focused on low-tech manufacturing unlike countries like Japan or China, since the 1950s.

He said it is unfortunate that 75 per cent children in the country go to school but drop out before they reach class 8.

“Hence, when they reach the age of 22, they need job, but they are only fit for a job which is in low-tech manufacture. The economists should have thought of them right from 1950s,” Murthy said.

Stressing on the need to strike a balance between automation and human beings, he said, “We can take a decision…we will not follow automation up to certain level of our manufacture or services”.

“We have to strike a balance, we have to be internationally competitive in products, services….we may slow down automation for domestic purposes,” he said.

New Delhi, Mar 15 (UNI) State Bank of India (SBI) Deputy Managing Director M S Shastry on Thursday said no other public sector bank issued unauthorised credit letters except the Punjab National Bank (PNB).
“Except for the one-off incident involving PNB, no unauthorised Letters of Undertakings (LoUs) were issued by public sector banks (PSBs),’ Mr Shastry said in a press briefing here.
The SBI official reiterated the fact that the major incident that took place recently in one of the branches of a PSB is one of its kind in about 5000 branches dealing in foreign exchange in the entire banking system in India.
Meanwhile, Public Sector Banks organised a three day workshop of executive directors, chief risk officers and chief technical officers of PSBs at the State Bank academy, Gurugram with a view to ascertaining the prevailing risk management practices amongst them and arrive at a common understanding with regard to the best practices.
During the workshop, banks deliberated upon the best practices.
Action plans were drawn to further strengthen the controls in the areas of trade finance, Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), credit risk, operational risk besides cyber and IT risk.
The banks will now place these action plans with timelines for mplementation and improvement before the respective boards.
“Each bank has already scanned their LOU/LOC related transactions and have confirmed during the workshop that all of them are properly assessed, genuine and accounted for except those already reported,” the apex bank said in a notification.
Further controls have also now been put in place that includes additional layer of approval for all outward SWIFT messages, integration of SWIFT with the Core Banking Solution (CBS) latest by April 30, 2018 besides time restrictions for such transactions, between 9 am to 8 pm only.
During the workshop, participants also debated on the common areas for strengthening credit process.
Besides, it was also agreed that all banks will henceforth follow the uniform approach for certain common covenants.
In addition, banks will further strengthen their mechanism with regard to the Early Warning Signals.
Improving risk awareness and ethical awareness amongst staff, preventive monitoring and surveillance of transactions, strengthening Know Your Employee (KYE) through technological intervention are some of the action points identified to further strengthen operational risk management.
Banks are in the process of establishing Onsite Cyber Security Operation Centre (C-SOC) wherever not in place to monitor all IT assets.
During the press conference, officials on behalf of all PSBs assured that they are committed to provide Enhanced Access and Service Excellence (EASE) to all customers in a safe and secured environment.
Read more at http://www.uniindia.com/except-pnb-no-psb-issued-fake-lous-sbi-official/business-economy/news/1169325.html#i6pH1ylXX17Q5x8h.99

At least nine people have been killed and 18 others injured in a bomb attack near a Shia mosque in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

The casualties were caused after an attacker, who had been stopped at a nearby security checkpoint, set off an explosive device he was carrying, said Nasrat Rahimi, a deputy Interior Ministry spokesman.

Rahimi said the assailant apparently sought to target crowds comprising members of Afghanistan’s Shia Hazara community. They had gathered to commemorate Abdul Ali Mazari, a Hazara political leader killed by the Taliban militant group in 1995.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the deadly assault.

The Hazara community, the poorest of the country’s ethnic groups, accounts for about 22 percent of Afghanistan’s population.

Its members have been targeted in several large-scale kidnappings and killings across Afghanistan in the past, prompting demonstrations and sit-ins in Kabul and elsewhere.

Last December, dozens were killed in an attack on a Shia cultural center claimed by the Daesh Takfiri terror group, which has been growing in size and expanding its operations in the country over the past two years.

Daesh terrorists and Taliban militants also massacred dozens of civilians, mostly Shia Hazaras, during an attack on a village in Afghanistan’s northern province of Sar-e Pul last August.

In other developments, the Taliban launched a deadly assault overnight on an army outpost in a remote region of northern Takhar province, killing six soldiers and wounding five, Defense Ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri said.

Members of the local police who were sent to assist the soldiers were ambushed by the Taliban while on their way to the outpost in the remote district of Khwaja Ghar.

Ten local policemen were killed and nine were wounded in the ambush, provincial police spokesman Khali Aseir said.

Three days before Cboe Global Markets Inc., one of the world’s biggest regulated exchanges, debuts futures on the cryptocurrency, it had one of its wildest sessions ever. On Coinbase Inc.’s GDAX exchange, prices zoomed up to almost $20,000 from $16,000 in only about 90 minutes — then crashed back down. The largest digital currency is still up more than 16-fold this year.

Coinbase, one of the largest U.S. online exchanges used by investors, temporarily crashed and continued to suffer from service delays. Trezor, a wallet service, tweeted that it’s having “minor issues” with its servers, while Bitfinex, the largest bitcoin exchange in the world, said on Twitter that it has been under a denial of service attack for several days and that it recently got worse.

The entrance of Cboe and CME is a watershed for bitcoin because many professional investors have been unwilling to do business on the unregulated platforms where bitcoin currently trades. Cboe and CME are regulated, potentially assuaging those concerns.

Some big traders had just warned about the impending introduction. On Wednesday, the Futures Industry Association — a group of major banks, brokers, and traders — said the contracts were rushed without enough consideration of the risks.

The group outlined their concerns in an open letter, questioning whether the exchanges would be able to adequately police market manipulation for bitcoin futures. FIA added that the exchanges didn’t get enough industry feedback on margin levels, trading limits, stress tests, and clearing for the products before bringing them to market.

Cboe worked with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to design and improve its contracts and “committed to continuing to work closely with the CFTC to monitor trading and foster the growth of a transparent, liquid and fair bitcoin futures market,” according to a statement from the company.

Other trading experts have sounded alarmed bells on the possibility of manipulation. The thinking goes that because cryptocurrency markets aren’t policed by a central regulator, cheaters could fly under the radar if they try to move the price of bitcoin on exchanges with scant volume.

Great things in business are never done by one person.

Steve Jobs Apple co-founder

The CFTC “has strong anti-manipulation rules for futures, but those won’t necessarily protect investors if the bitcoin cash markets are manipulated,” said Ty Gellasch, executive director of the Healthy Markets Association, an investor advocacy group.

Cloe’s contracts will be based on the price of bitcoin on the Gemini Exchange. CME is using four exchanges, including the Coinbase GDAX market where prices proved so volatile Thursday.

Both Cboe and CME have curbs in place to calm price swings. Cboe halts trading for two minutes if prices rise or fall 10 percent.

The futures appear to be getting a high-profile endorsement. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. plans to clear bitcoin futures contracts for certain clients when the derivatives go live in coming days, according to a person with knowledge of the firm’s plans.

Goldman Sachs, one of the largest firms helping clients buy and sell futures contracts, will act in an agency capacity and won’t serve as a market-maker or build inventory in the derivatives, said the person, who asked not to be identified talking about the plans. The decision to clear client trades will be made on a case-by-case basis, the person said.

“Given that this is a new product, as expected we are evaluating the specifications and risk attributes for the bitcoin futures contracts as part of our standard due diligence process,” Tiffany Galvin, a spokeswoman for the bank, said in an emailed statement.

At Coinbase on Thursday, bitcoin was almost $3,000 pricier than the levels seen on other markets, a record high, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Three days before Cboe Global Markets Inc., one of the world’s biggest regulated exchanges, debuts futures on the cryptocurrency, it had one of its wildest sessions ever. On Coinbase Inc.’s GDAX exchange, prices zoomed up to almost $20,000 from $16,000 in only about 90 minutes — then crashed back down. The largest digital currency is still up more than 16-fold this year.

Coinbase, one of the largest U.S. online exchanges used by investors, temporarily crashed and continued to suffer from service delays. Trezor, a wallet service, tweeted that it’s having “minor issues” with its servers, while Bitfinex, the largest bitcoin exchange in the world, said on Twitter that it has been under a denial of service attack for several days and that it recently got worse.

The entrance of Cboe and CME is a watershed for bitcoin because many professional investors have been unwilling to do business on the unregulated platforms where bitcoin currently trades. Cboe and CME are regulated, potentially assuaging those concerns.

Some big traders had just warned about the impending introduction. On Wednesday, the Futures Industry Association — a group of major banks, brokers, and traders — said the contracts were rushed without enough consideration of the risks.

The group outlined their concerns in an open letter, questioning whether the exchanges would be able to adequately police market manipulation for bitcoin futures. FIA added that the exchanges didn’t get enough industry feedback on margin levels, trading limits, stress tests, and clearing for the products before bringing them to market.

Cboe worked with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to design and improve its contracts and “committed to continuing to work closely with the CFTC to monitor trading and foster the growth of a transparent, liquid and fair bitcoin futures market,” according to a statement from the company.

Other trading experts have sounded alarmed bells on the possibility of manipulation. The thinking goes that because cryptocurrency markets aren’t policed by a central regulator, cheaters could fly under the radar if they try to move the price of bitcoin on exchanges with scant volume.

Great things in business are never done by one person.

Steve Jobs Apple co-founder

The CFTC “has strong anti-manipulation rules for futures, but those won’t necessarily protect investors if the bitcoin cash markets are manipulated,” said Ty Gellasch, executive director of the Healthy Markets Association, an investor advocacy group.

Cloe’s contracts will be based on the price of bitcoin on the Gemini Exchange. CME is using four exchanges, including the Coinbase GDAX market where prices proved so volatile Thursday.

Both Cboe and CME have curbs in place to calm price swings. Cboe halts trading for two minutes if prices rise or fall 10 percent.

The futures appear to be getting a high-profile endorsement. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. plans to clear bitcoin futures contracts for certain clients when the derivatives go live in coming days, according to a person with knowledge of the firm’s plans.

Goldman Sachs, one of the largest firms helping clients buy and sell futures contracts, will act in an agency capacity and won’t serve as a market-maker or build inventory in the derivatives, said the person, who asked not to be identified talking about the plans. The decision to clear client trades will be made on a case-by-case basis, the person said.

“Given that this is a new product, as expected we are evaluating the specifications and risk attributes for the bitcoin futures contracts as part of our standard due diligence process,” Tiffany Galvin, a spokeswoman for the bank, said in an emailed statement.

At Coinbase on Thursday, bitcoin was almost $3,000 pricier than the levels seen on other markets, a record high, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Three days before Cboe Global Markets Inc., one of the world’s biggest regulated exchanges, debuts futures on the cryptocurrency, it had one of its wildest sessions ever. On Coinbase Inc.’s GDAX exchange, prices zoomed up to almost $20,000 from $16,000 in only about 90 minutes — then crashed back down. The largest digital currency is still up more than 16-fold this year.

Coinbase, one of the largest U.S. online exchanges used by investors, temporarily crashed and continued to suffer from service delays. Trezor, a wallet service, tweeted that it’s having “minor issues” with its servers, while Bitfinex, the largest bitcoin exchange in the world, said on Twitter that it has been under a denial of service attack for several days and that it recently got worse.

The entrance of Cboe and CME is a watershed for bitcoin because many professional investors have been unwilling to do business on the unregulated platforms where bitcoin currently trades. Cboe and CME are regulated, potentially assuaging those concerns.

Some big traders had just warned about the impending introduction. On Wednesday, the Futures Industry Association — a group of major banks, brokers, and traders — said the contracts were rushed without enough consideration of the risks.

The group outlined their concerns in an open letter, questioning whether the exchanges would be able to adequately police market manipulation for bitcoin futures. FIA added that the exchanges didn’t get enough industry feedback on margin levels, trading limits, stress tests, and clearing for the products before bringing them to market.

Cboe worked with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to design and improve its contracts and “committed to continuing to work closely with the CFTC to monitor trading and foster the growth of a transparent, liquid and fair bitcoin futures market,” according to a statement from the company.

Other trading experts have sounded alarmed bells on the possibility of manipulation. The thinking goes that because cryptocurrency markets aren’t policed by a central regulator, cheaters could fly under the radar if they try to move the price of bitcoin on exchanges with scant volume.

Great things in business are never done by one person.

Steve Jobs Apple co-founder

The CFTC “has strong anti-manipulation rules for futures, but those won’t necessarily protect investors if the bitcoin cash markets are manipulated,” said Ty Gellasch, executive director of the Healthy Markets Association, an investor advocacy group.

Cloe’s contracts will be based on the price of bitcoin on the Gemini Exchange. CME is using four exchanges, including the Coinbase GDAX market where prices proved so volatile Thursday.

Both Cboe and CME have curbs in place to calm price swings. Cboe halts trading for two minutes if prices rise or fall 10 percent.

The futures appear to be getting a high-profile endorsement. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. plans to clear bitcoin futures contracts for certain clients when the derivatives go live in coming days, according to a person with knowledge of the firm’s plans.

Goldman Sachs, one of the largest firms helping clients buy and sell futures contracts, will act in an agency capacity and won’t serve as a market-maker or build inventory in the derivatives, said the person, who asked not to be identified talking about the plans. The decision to clear client trades will be made on a case-by-case basis, the person said.

“Given that this is a new product, as expected we are evaluating the specifications and risk attributes for the bitcoin futures contracts as part of our standard due diligence process,” Tiffany Galvin, a spokeswoman for the bank, said in an emailed statement.

At Coinbase on Thursday, bitcoin was almost $3,000 pricier than the levels seen on other markets, a record high, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Three days before Cboe Global Markets Inc., one of the world’s biggest regulated exchanges, debuts futures on the cryptocurrency, it had one of its wildest sessions ever. On Coinbase Inc.’s GDAX exchange, prices zoomed up to almost $20,000 from $16,000 in only about 90 minutes — then crashed back down. The largest digital currency is still up more than 16-fold this year.

Coinbase, one of the largest U.S. online exchanges used by investors, temporarily crashed and continued to suffer from service delays. Trezor, a wallet service, tweeted that it’s having “minor issues” with its servers, while Bitfinex, the largest bitcoin exchange in the world, said on Twitter that it has been under a denial of service attack for several days and that it recently got worse.

The entrance of Cboe and CME is a watershed for bitcoin because many professional investors have been unwilling to do business on the unregulated platforms where bitcoin currently trades. Cboe and CME are regulated, potentially assuaging those concerns.

Some big traders had just warned about the impending introduction. On Wednesday, the Futures Industry Association — a group of major banks, brokers, and traders — said the contracts were rushed without enough consideration of the risks.

The group outlined their concerns in an open letter, questioning whether the exchanges would be able to adequately police market manipulation for bitcoin futures. FIA added that the exchanges didn’t get enough industry feedback on margin levels, trading limits, stress tests, and clearing for the products before bringing them to market.

Cboe worked with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to design and improve its contracts and “committed to continuing to work closely with the CFTC to monitor trading and foster the growth of a transparent, liquid and fair bitcoin futures market,” according to a statement from the company.

Other trading experts have sounded alarmed bells on the possibility of manipulation. The thinking goes that because cryptocurrency markets aren’t policed by a central regulator, cheaters could fly under the radar if they try to move the price of bitcoin on exchanges with scant volume.

Great things in business are never done by one person.

Steve Jobs Apple co-founder

The CFTC “has strong anti-manipulation rules for futures, but those won’t necessarily protect investors if the bitcoin cash markets are manipulated,” said Ty Gellasch, executive director of the Healthy Markets Association, an investor advocacy group.

Cloe’s contracts will be based on the price of bitcoin on the Gemini Exchange. CME is using four exchanges, including the Coinbase GDAX market where prices proved so volatile Thursday.

Both Cboe and CME have curbs in place to calm price swings. Cboe halts trading for two minutes if prices rise or fall 10 percent.

The futures appear to be getting a high-profile endorsement. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. plans to clear bitcoin futures contracts for certain clients when the derivatives go live in coming days, according to a person with knowledge of the firm’s plans.

Goldman Sachs, one of the largest firms helping clients buy and sell futures contracts, will act in an agency capacity and won’t serve as a market-maker or build inventory in the derivatives, said the person, who asked not to be identified talking about the plans. The decision to clear client trades will be made on a case-by-case basis, the person said.

“Given that this is a new product, as expected we are evaluating the specifications and risk attributes for the bitcoin futures contracts as part of our standard due diligence process,” Tiffany Galvin, a spokeswoman for the bank, said in an emailed statement.

At Coinbase on Thursday, bitcoin was almost $3,000 pricier than the levels seen on other markets, a record high, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Three days before Cboe Global Markets Inc., one of the world’s biggest regulated exchanges, debuts futures on the cryptocurrency, it had one of its wildest sessions ever. On Coinbase Inc.’s GDAX exchange, prices zoomed up to almost $20,000 from $16,000 in only about 90 minutes — then crashed back down. The largest digital currency is still up more than 16-fold this year.

Coinbase, one of the largest U.S. online exchanges used by investors, temporarily crashed and continued to suffer from service delays. Trezor, a wallet service, tweeted that it’s having “minor issues” with its servers, while Bitfinex, the largest bitcoin exchange in the world, said on Twitter that it has been under a denial of service attack for several days and that it recently got worse.

The entrance of Cboe and CME is a watershed for bitcoin because many professional investors have been unwilling to do business on the unregulated platforms where bitcoin currently trades. Cboe and CME are regulated, potentially assuaging those concerns.

Some big traders had just warned about the impending introduction. On Wednesday, the Futures Industry Association — a group of major banks, brokers, and traders — said the contracts were rushed without enough consideration of the risks.

The group outlined their concerns in an open letter, questioning whether the exchanges would be able to adequately police market manipulation for bitcoin futures. FIA added that the exchanges didn’t get enough industry feedback on margin levels, trading limits, stress tests, and clearing for the products before bringing them to market.

Cboe worked with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to design and improve its contracts and “committed to continuing to work closely with the CFTC to monitor trading and foster the growth of a transparent, liquid and fair bitcoin futures market,” according to a statement from the company.

Other trading experts have sounded alarmed bells on the possibility of manipulation. The thinking goes that because cryptocurrency markets aren’t policed by a central regulator, cheaters could fly under the radar if they try to move the price of bitcoin on exchanges with scant volume.

Great things in business are never done by one person.

Steve Jobs Apple co-founder

The CFTC “has strong anti-manipulation rules for futures, but those won’t necessarily protect investors if the bitcoin cash markets are manipulated,” said Ty Gellasch, executive director of the Healthy Markets Association, an investor advocacy group.

Cloe’s contracts will be based on the price of bitcoin on the Gemini Exchange. CME is using four exchanges, including the Coinbase GDAX market where prices proved so volatile Thursday.

Both Cboe and CME have curbs in place to calm price swings. Cboe halts trading for two minutes if prices rise or fall 10 percent.

The futures appear to be getting a high-profile endorsement. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. plans to clear bitcoin futures contracts for certain clients when the derivatives go live in coming days, according to a person with knowledge of the firm’s plans.

Goldman Sachs, one of the largest firms helping clients buy and sell futures contracts, will act in an agency capacity and won’t serve as a market-maker or build inventory in the derivatives, said the person, who asked not to be identified talking about the plans. The decision to clear client trades will be made on a case-by-case basis, the person said.

“Given that this is a new product, as expected we are evaluating the specifications and risk attributes for the bitcoin futures contracts as part of our standard due diligence process,” Tiffany Galvin, a spokeswoman for the bank, said in an emailed statement.

At Coinbase on Thursday, bitcoin was almost $3,000 pricier than the levels seen on other markets, a record high, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Three days before Cboe Global Markets Inc., one of the world’s biggest regulated exchanges, debuts futures on the cryptocurrency, it had one of its wildest sessions ever. On Coinbase Inc.’s GDAX exchange, prices zoomed up to almost $20,000 from $16,000 in only about 90 minutes — then crashed back down. The largest digital currency is still up more than 16-fold this year.

Coinbase, one of the largest U.S. online exchanges used by investors, temporarily crashed and continued to suffer from service delays. Trezor, a wallet service, tweeted that it’s having “minor issues” with its servers, while Bitfinex, the largest bitcoin exchange in the world, said on Twitter that it has been under a denial of service attack for several days and that it recently got worse.

The entrance of Cboe and CME is a watershed for bitcoin because many professional investors have been unwilling to do business on the unregulated platforms where bitcoin currently trades. Cboe and CME are regulated, potentially assuaging those concerns.

Some big traders had just warned about the impending introduction. On Wednesday, the Futures Industry Association — a group of major banks, brokers, and traders — said the contracts were rushed without enough consideration of the risks.

The group outlined their concerns in an open letter, questioning whether the exchanges would be able to adequately police market manipulation for bitcoin futures. FIA added that the exchanges didn’t get enough industry feedback on margin levels, trading limits, stress tests, and clearing for the products before bringing them to market.

Cboe worked with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to design and improve its contracts and “committed to continuing to work closely with the CFTC to monitor trading and foster the growth of a transparent, liquid and fair bitcoin futures market,” according to a statement from the company.

Other trading experts have sounded alarmed bells on the possibility of manipulation. The thinking goes that because cryptocurrency markets aren’t policed by a central regulator, cheaters could fly under the radar if they try to move the price of bitcoin on exchanges with scant volume.

Great things in business are never done by one person.

Steve Jobs Apple co-founder

The CFTC “has strong anti-manipulation rules for futures, but those won’t necessarily protect investors if the bitcoin cash markets are manipulated,” said Ty Gellasch, executive director of the Healthy Markets Association, an investor advocacy group.

Cloe’s contracts will be based on the price of bitcoin on the Gemini Exchange. CME is using four exchanges, including the Coinbase GDAX market where prices proved so volatile Thursday.

Both Cboe and CME have curbs in place to calm price swings. Cboe halts trading for two minutes if prices rise or fall 10 percent.

The futures appear to be getting a high-profile endorsement. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. plans to clear bitcoin futures contracts for certain clients when the derivatives go live in coming days, according to a person with knowledge of the firm’s plans.

Goldman Sachs, one of the largest firms helping clients buy and sell futures contracts, will act in an agency capacity and won’t serve as a market-maker or build inventory in the derivatives, said the person, who asked not to be identified talking about the plans. The decision to clear client trades will be made on a case-by-case basis, the person said.

“Given that this is a new product, as expected we are evaluating the specifications and risk attributes for the bitcoin futures contracts as part of our standard due diligence process,” Tiffany Galvin, a spokeswoman for the bank, said in an emailed statement.

At Coinbase on Thursday, bitcoin was almost $3,000 pricier than the levels seen on other markets, a record high, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Three days before Cboe Global Markets Inc., one of the world’s biggest regulated exchanges, debuts futures on the cryptocurrency, it had one of its wildest sessions ever. On Coinbase Inc.’s GDAX exchange, prices zoomed up to almost $20,000 from $16,000 in only about 90 minutes — then crashed back down. The largest digital currency is still up more than 16-fold this year.

Coinbase, one of the largest U.S. online exchanges used by investors, temporarily crashed and continued to suffer from service delays. Trezor, a wallet service, tweeted that it’s having “minor issues” with its servers, while Bitfinex, the largest bitcoin exchange in the world, said on Twitter that it has been under a denial of service attack for several days and that it recently got worse.

The entrance of Cboe and CME is a watershed for bitcoin because many professional investors have been unwilling to do business on the unregulated platforms where bitcoin currently trades. Cboe and CME are regulated, potentially assuaging those concerns.

Some big traders had just warned about the impending introduction. On Wednesday, the Futures Industry Association — a group of major banks, brokers, and traders — said the contracts were rushed without enough consideration of the risks.

The group outlined their concerns in an open letter, questioning whether the exchanges would be able to adequately police market manipulation for bitcoin futures. FIA added that the exchanges didn’t get enough industry feedback on margin levels, trading limits, stress tests, and clearing for the products before bringing them to market.

Cboe worked with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to design and improve its contracts and “committed to continuing to work closely with the CFTC to monitor trading and foster the growth of a transparent, liquid and fair bitcoin futures market,” according to a statement from the company.

Other trading experts have sounded alarmed bells on the possibility of manipulation. The thinking goes that because cryptocurrency markets aren’t policed by a central regulator, cheaters could fly under the radar if they try to move the price of bitcoin on exchanges with scant volume.

Great things in business are never done by one person.

Steve Jobs Apple co-founder

The CFTC “has strong anti-manipulation rules for futures, but those won’t necessarily protect investors if the bitcoin cash markets are manipulated,” said Ty Gellasch, executive director of the Healthy Markets Association, an investor advocacy group.

Cloe’s contracts will be based on the price of bitcoin on the Gemini Exchange. CME is using four exchanges, including the Coinbase GDAX market where prices proved so volatile Thursday.

Both Cboe and CME have curbs in place to calm price swings. Cboe halts trading for two minutes if prices rise or fall 10 percent.

The futures appear to be getting a high-profile endorsement. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. plans to clear bitcoin futures contracts for certain clients when the derivatives go live in coming days, according to a person with knowledge of the firm’s plans.

Goldman Sachs, one of the largest firms helping clients buy and sell futures contracts, will act in an agency capacity and won’t serve as a market-maker or build inventory in the derivatives, said the person, who asked not to be identified talking about the plans. The decision to clear client trades will be made on a case-by-case basis, the person said.

“Given that this is a new product, as expected we are evaluating the specifications and risk attributes for the bitcoin futures contracts as part of our standard due diligence process,” Tiffany Galvin, a spokeswoman for the bank, said in an emailed statement.

At Coinbase on Thursday, bitcoin was almost $3,000 pricier than the levels seen on other markets, a record high, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Three days before Cboe Global Markets Inc., one of the world’s biggest regulated exchanges, debuts futures on the cryptocurrency, it had one of its wildest sessions ever. On Coinbase Inc.’s GDAX exchange, prices zoomed up to almost $20,000 from $16,000 in only about 90 minutes — then crashed back down. The largest digital currency is still up more than 16-fold this year.

Coinbase, one of the largest U.S. online exchanges used by investors, temporarily crashed and continued to suffer from service delays. Trezor, a wallet service, tweeted that it’s having “minor issues” with its servers, while Bitfinex, the largest bitcoin exchange in the world, said on Twitter that it has been under a denial of service attack for several days and that it recently got worse.

The entrance of Cboe and CME is a watershed for bitcoin because many professional investors have been unwilling to do business on the unregulated platforms where bitcoin currently trades. Cboe and CME are regulated, potentially assuaging those concerns.

Some big traders had just warned about the impending introduction. On Wednesday, the Futures Industry Association — a group of major banks, brokers, and traders — said the contracts were rushed without enough consideration of the risks.

The group outlined their concerns in an open letter, questioning whether the exchanges would be able to adequately police market manipulation for bitcoin futures. FIA added that the exchanges didn’t get enough industry feedback on margin levels, trading limits, stress tests, and clearing for the products before bringing them to market.

Cboe worked with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to design and improve its contracts and “committed to continuing to work closely with the CFTC to monitor trading and foster the growth of a transparent, liquid and fair bitcoin futures market,” according to a statement from the company.

Other trading experts have sounded alarmed bells on the possibility of manipulation. The thinking goes that because cryptocurrency markets aren’t policed by a central regulator, cheaters could fly under the radar if they try to move the price of bitcoin on exchanges with scant volume.

Great things in business are never done by one person.

Steve Jobs Apple co-founder

The CFTC “has strong anti-manipulation rules for futures, but those won’t necessarily protect investors if the bitcoin cash markets are manipulated,” said Ty Gellasch, executive director of the Healthy Markets Association, an investor advocacy group.

Cloe’s contracts will be based on the price of bitcoin on the Gemini Exchange. CME is using four exchanges, including the Coinbase GDAX market where prices proved so volatile Thursday.

Both Cboe and CME have curbs in place to calm price swings. Cboe halts trading for two minutes if prices rise or fall 10 percent.

The futures appear to be getting a high-profile endorsement. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. plans to clear bitcoin futures contracts for certain clients when the derivatives go live in coming days, according to a person with knowledge of the firm’s plans.

Goldman Sachs, one of the largest firms helping clients buy and sell futures contracts, will act in an agency capacity and won’t serve as a market-maker or build inventory in the derivatives, said the person, who asked not to be identified talking about the plans. The decision to clear client trades will be made on a case-by-case basis, the person said.

“Given that this is a new product, as expected we are evaluating the specifications and risk attributes for the bitcoin futures contracts as part of our standard due diligence process,” Tiffany Galvin, a spokeswoman for the bank, said in an emailed statement.

At Coinbase on Thursday, bitcoin was almost $3,000 pricier than the levels seen on other markets, a record high, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Three days before Cboe Global Markets Inc., one of the world’s biggest regulated exchanges, debuts futures on the cryptocurrency, it had one of its wildest sessions ever. On Coinbase Inc.’s GDAX exchange, prices zoomed up to almost $20,000 from $16,000 in only about 90 minutes — then crashed back down. The largest digital currency is still up more than 16-fold this year.

Coinbase, one of the largest U.S. online exchanges used by investors, temporarily crashed and continued to suffer from service delays. Trezor, a wallet service, tweeted that it’s having “minor issues” with its servers, while Bitfinex, the largest bitcoin exchange in the world, said on Twitter that it has been under a denial of service attack for several days and that it recently got worse.

The entrance of Cboe and CME is a watershed for bitcoin because many professional investors have been unwilling to do business on the unregulated platforms where bitcoin currently trades. Cboe and CME are regulated, potentially assuaging those concerns.

Some big traders had just warned about the impending introduction. On Wednesday, the Futures Industry Association — a group of major banks, brokers, and traders — said the contracts were rushed without enough consideration of the risks.

The group outlined their concerns in an open letter, questioning whether the exchanges would be able to adequately police market manipulation for bitcoin futures. FIA added that the exchanges didn’t get enough industry feedback on margin levels, trading limits, stress tests, and clearing for the products before bringing them to market.

Cboe worked with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to design and improve its contracts and “committed to continuing to work closely with the CFTC to monitor trading and foster the growth of a transparent, liquid and fair bitcoin futures market,” according to a statement from the company.

Other trading experts have sounded alarmed bells on the possibility of manipulation. The thinking goes that because cryptocurrency markets aren’t policed by a central regulator, cheaters could fly under the radar if they try to move the price of bitcoin on exchanges with scant volume.

Great things in business are never done by one person.

Steve Jobs Apple co-founder

The CFTC “has strong anti-manipulation rules for futures, but those won’t necessarily protect investors if the bitcoin cash markets are manipulated,” said Ty Gellasch, executive director of the Healthy Markets Association, an investor advocacy group.

Cloe’s contracts will be based on the price of bitcoin on the Gemini Exchange. CME is using four exchanges, including the Coinbase GDAX market where prices proved so volatile Thursday.

Both Cboe and CME have curbs in place to calm price swings. Cboe halts trading for two minutes if prices rise or fall 10 percent.

The futures appear to be getting a high-profile endorsement. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. plans to clear bitcoin futures contracts for certain clients when the derivatives go live in coming days, according to a person with knowledge of the firm’s plans.

Goldman Sachs, one of the largest firms helping clients buy and sell futures contracts, will act in an agency capacity and won’t serve as a market-maker or build inventory in the derivatives, said the person, who asked not to be identified talking about the plans. The decision to clear client trades will be made on a case-by-case basis, the person said.

“Given that this is a new product, as expected we are evaluating the specifications and risk attributes for the bitcoin futures contracts as part of our standard due diligence process,” Tiffany Galvin, a spokeswoman for the bank, said in an emailed statement.

At Coinbase on Thursday, bitcoin was almost $3,000 pricier than the levels seen on other markets, a record high, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Three days before Cboe Global Markets Inc., one of the world’s biggest regulated exchanges, debuts futures on the cryptocurrency, it had one of its wildest sessions ever. On Coinbase Inc.’s GDAX exchange, prices zoomed up to almost $20,000 from $16,000 in only about 90 minutes — then crashed back down. The largest digital currency is still up more than 16-fold this year.

Coinbase, one of the largest U.S. online exchanges used by investors, temporarily crashed and continued to suffer from service delays. Trezor, a wallet service, tweeted that it’s having “minor issues” with its servers, while Bitfinex, the largest bitcoin exchange in the world, said on Twitter that it has been under a denial of service attack for several days and that it recently got worse.

The entrance of Cboe and CME is a watershed for bitcoin because many professional investors have been unwilling to do business on the unregulated platforms where bitcoin currently trades. Cboe and CME are regulated, potentially assuaging those concerns.

Some big traders had just warned about the impending introduction. On Wednesday, the Futures Industry Association — a group of major banks, brokers, and traders — said the contracts were rushed without enough consideration of the risks.

The group outlined their concerns in an open letter, questioning whether the exchanges would be able to adequately police market manipulation for bitcoin futures. FIA added that the exchanges didn’t get enough industry feedback on margin levels, trading limits, stress tests, and clearing for the products before bringing them to market.

Cboe worked with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to design and improve its contracts and “committed to continuing to work closely with the CFTC to monitor trading and foster the growth of a transparent, liquid and fair bitcoin futures market,” according to a statement from the company.

Other trading experts have sounded alarmed bells on the possibility of manipulation. The thinking goes that because cryptocurrency markets aren’t policed by a central regulator, cheaters could fly under the radar if they try to move the price of bitcoin on exchanges with scant volume.

Great things in business are never done by one person.

Steve Jobs Apple co-founder

The CFTC “has strong anti-manipulation rules for futures, but those won’t necessarily protect investors if the bitcoin cash markets are manipulated,” said Ty Gellasch, executive director of the Healthy Markets Association, an investor advocacy group.

Cloe’s contracts will be based on the price of bitcoin on the Gemini Exchange. CME is using four exchanges, including the Coinbase GDAX market where prices proved so volatile Thursday.

Both Cboe and CME have curbs in place to calm price swings. Cboe halts trading for two minutes if prices rise or fall 10 percent.

The futures appear to be getting a high-profile endorsement. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. plans to clear bitcoin futures contracts for certain clients when the derivatives go live in coming days, according to a person with knowledge of the firm’s plans.

Goldman Sachs, one of the largest firms helping clients buy and sell futures contracts, will act in an agency capacity and won’t serve as a market-maker or build inventory in the derivatives, said the person, who asked not to be identified talking about the plans. The decision to clear client trades will be made on a case-by-case basis, the person said.

“Given that this is a new product, as expected we are evaluating the specifications and risk attributes for the bitcoin futures contracts as part of our standard due diligence process,” Tiffany Galvin, a spokeswoman for the bank, said in an emailed statement.

At Coinbase on Thursday, bitcoin was almost $3,000 pricier than the levels seen on other markets, a record high, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Three days before Cboe Global Markets Inc., one of the world’s biggest regulated exchanges, debuts futures on the cryptocurrency, it had one of its wildest sessions ever. On Coinbase Inc.’s GDAX exchange, prices zoomed up to almost $20,000 from $16,000 in only about 90 minutes — then crashed back down. The largest digital currency is still up more than 16-fold this year.

Coinbase, one of the largest U.S. online exchanges used by investors, temporarily crashed and continued to suffer from service delays. Trezor, a wallet service, tweeted that it’s having “minor issues” with its servers, while Bitfinex, the largest bitcoin exchange in the world, said on Twitter that it has been under a denial of service attack for several days and that it recently got worse.

The entrance of Cboe and CME is a watershed for bitcoin because many professional investors have been unwilling to do business on the unregulated platforms where bitcoin currently trades. Cboe and CME are regulated, potentially assuaging those concerns.

Some big traders had just warned about the impending introduction. On Wednesday, the Futures Industry Association — a group of major banks, brokers, and traders — said the contracts were rushed without enough consideration of the risks.

The group outlined their concerns in an open letter, questioning whether the exchanges would be able to adequately police market manipulation for bitcoin futures. FIA added that the exchanges didn’t get enough industry feedback on margin levels, trading limits, stress tests, and clearing for the products before bringing them to market.

Cboe worked with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to design and improve its contracts and “committed to continuing to work closely with the CFTC to monitor trading and foster the growth of a transparent, liquid and fair bitcoin futures market,” according to a statement from the company.

Other trading experts have sounded alarmed bells on the possibility of manipulation. The thinking goes that because cryptocurrency markets aren’t policed by a central regulator, cheaters could fly under the radar if they try to move the price of bitcoin on exchanges with scant volume.

Great things in business are never done by one person.

Steve Jobs Apple co-founder

The CFTC “has strong anti-manipulation rules for futures, but those won’t necessarily protect investors if the bitcoin cash markets are manipulated,” said Ty Gellasch, executive director of the Healthy Markets Association, an investor advocacy group.

Cloe’s contracts will be based on the price of bitcoin on the Gemini Exchange. CME is using four exchanges, including the Coinbase GDAX market where prices proved so volatile Thursday.

Both Cboe and CME have curbs in place to calm price swings. Cboe halts trading for two minutes if prices rise or fall 10 percent.

The futures appear to be getting a high-profile endorsement. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. plans to clear bitcoin futures contracts for certain clients when the derivatives go live in coming days, according to a person with knowledge of the firm’s plans.

Goldman Sachs, one of the largest firms helping clients buy and sell futures contracts, will act in an agency capacity and won’t serve as a market-maker or build inventory in the derivatives, said the person, who asked not to be identified talking about the plans. The decision to clear client trades will be made on a case-by-case basis, the person said.

“Given that this is a new product, as expected we are evaluating the specifications and risk attributes for the bitcoin futures contracts as part of our standard due diligence process,” Tiffany Galvin, a spokeswoman for the bank, said in an emailed statement.

At Coinbase on Thursday, bitcoin was almost $3,000 pricier than the levels seen on other markets, a record high, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Three days before Cboe Global Markets Inc., one of the world’s biggest regulated exchanges, debuts futures on the cryptocurrency, it had one of its wildest sessions ever. On Coinbase Inc.’s GDAX exchange, prices zoomed up to almost $20,000 from $16,000 in only about 90 minutes — then crashed back down. The largest digital currency is still up more than 16-fold this year.

Coinbase, one of the largest U.S. online exchanges used by investors, temporarily crashed and continued to suffer from service delays. Trezor, a wallet service, tweeted that it’s having “minor issues” with its servers, while Bitfinex, the largest bitcoin exchange in the world, said on Twitter that it has been under a denial of service attack for several days and that it recently got worse.

The entrance of Cboe and CME is a watershed for bitcoin because many professional investors have been unwilling to do business on the unregulated platforms where bitcoin currently trades. Cboe and CME are regulated, potentially assuaging those concerns.

Some big traders had just warned about the impending introduction. On Wednesday, the Futures Industry Association — a group of major banks, brokers, and traders — said the contracts were rushed without enough consideration of the risks.

The group outlined their concerns in an open letter, questioning whether the exchanges would be able to adequately police market manipulation for bitcoin futures. FIA added that the exchanges didn’t get enough industry feedback on margin levels, trading limits, stress tests, and clearing for the products before bringing them to market.

Cboe worked with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to design and improve its contracts and “committed to continuing to work closely with the CFTC to monitor trading and foster the growth of a transparent, liquid and fair bitcoin futures market,” according to a statement from the company.

Other trading experts have sounded alarmed bells on the possibility of manipulation. The thinking goes that because cryptocurrency markets aren’t policed by a central regulator, cheaters could fly under the radar if they try to move the price of bitcoin on exchanges with scant volume.

Great things in business are never done by one person.

Steve Jobs Apple co-founder

The CFTC “has strong anti-manipulation rules for futures, but those won’t necessarily protect investors if the bitcoin cash markets are manipulated,” said Ty Gellasch, executive director of the Healthy Markets Association, an investor advocacy group.

Cloe’s contracts will be based on the price of bitcoin on the Gemini Exchange. CME is using four exchanges, including the Coinbase GDAX market where prices proved so volatile Thursday.

Both Cboe and CME have curbs in place to calm price swings. Cboe halts trading for two minutes if prices rise or fall 10 percent.

The futures appear to be getting a high-profile endorsement. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. plans to clear bitcoin futures contracts for certain clients when the derivatives go live in coming days, according to a person with knowledge of the firm’s plans.

Goldman Sachs, one of the largest firms helping clients buy and sell futures contracts, will act in an agency capacity and won’t serve as a market-maker or build inventory in the derivatives, said the person, who asked not to be identified talking about the plans. The decision to clear client trades will be made on a case-by-case basis, the person said.

“Given that this is a new product, as expected we are evaluating the specifications and risk attributes for the bitcoin futures contracts as part of our standard due diligence process,” Tiffany Galvin, a spokeswoman for the bank, said in an emailed statement.

At Coinbase on Thursday, bitcoin was almost $3,000 pricier than the levels seen on other markets, a record high, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Three days before Cboe Global Markets Inc., one of the world’s biggest regulated exchanges, debuts futures on the cryptocurrency, it had one of its wildest sessions ever. On Coinbase Inc.’s GDAX exchange, prices zoomed up to almost $20,000 from $16,000 in only about 90 minutes — then crashed back down. The largest digital currency is still up more than 16-fold this year.

Coinbase, one of the largest U.S. online exchanges used by investors, temporarily crashed and continued to suffer from service delays. Trezor, a wallet service, tweeted that it’s having “minor issues” with its servers, while Bitfinex, the largest bitcoin exchange in the world, said on Twitter that it has been under a denial of service attack for several days and that it recently got worse.

The entrance of Cboe and CME is a watershed for bitcoin because many professional investors have been unwilling to do business on the unregulated platforms where bitcoin currently trades. Cboe and CME are regulated, potentially assuaging those concerns.

Some big traders had just warned about the impending introduction. On Wednesday, the Futures Industry Association — a group of major banks, brokers, and traders — said the contracts were rushed without enough consideration of the risks.

The group outlined their concerns in an open letter, questioning whether the exchanges would be able to adequately police market manipulation for bitcoin futures. FIA added that the exchanges didn’t get enough industry feedback on margin levels, trading limits, stress tests, and clearing for the products before bringing them to market.

Cboe worked with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to design and improve its contracts and “committed to continuing to work closely with the CFTC to monitor trading and foster the growth of a transparent, liquid and fair bitcoin futures market,” according to a statement from the company.

Other trading experts have sounded alarmed bells on the possibility of manipulation. The thinking goes that because cryptocurrency markets aren’t policed by a central regulator, cheaters could fly under the radar if they try to move the price of bitcoin on exchanges with scant volume.

Great things in business are never done by one person.

Steve Jobs Apple co-founder

The CFTC “has strong anti-manipulation rules for futures, but those won’t necessarily protect investors if the bitcoin cash markets are manipulated,” said Ty Gellasch, executive director of the Healthy Markets Association, an investor advocacy group.

Cloe’s contracts will be based on the price of bitcoin on the Gemini Exchange. CME is using four exchanges, including the Coinbase GDAX market where prices proved so volatile Thursday.

Both Cboe and CME have curbs in place to calm price swings. Cboe halts trading for two minutes if prices rise or fall 10 percent.

The futures appear to be getting a high-profile endorsement. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. plans to clear bitcoin futures contracts for certain clients when the derivatives go live in coming days, according to a person with knowledge of the firm’s plans.

Goldman Sachs, one of the largest firms helping clients buy and sell futures contracts, will act in an agency capacity and won’t serve as a market-maker or build inventory in the derivatives, said the person, who asked not to be identified talking about the plans. The decision to clear client trades will be made on a case-by-case basis, the person said.

“Given that this is a new product, as expected we are evaluating the specifications and risk attributes for the bitcoin futures contracts as part of our standard due diligence process,” Tiffany Galvin, a spokeswoman for the bank, said in an emailed statement.

At Coinbase on Thursday, bitcoin was almost $3,000 pricier than the levels seen on other markets, a record high, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Three days before Cboe Global Markets Inc., one of the world’s biggest regulated exchanges, debuts futures on the cryptocurrency, it had one of its wildest sessions ever. On Coinbase Inc.’s GDAX exchange, prices zoomed up to almost $20,000 from $16,000 in only about 90 minutes — then crashed back down. The largest digital currency is still up more than 16-fold this year.

Coinbase, one of the largest U.S. online exchanges used by investors, temporarily crashed and continued to suffer from service delays. Trezor, a wallet service, tweeted that it’s having “minor issues” with its servers, while Bitfinex, the largest bitcoin exchange in the world, said on Twitter that it has been under a denial of service attack for several days and that it recently got worse.

The entrance of Cboe and CME is a watershed for bitcoin because many professional investors have been unwilling to do business on the unregulated platforms where bitcoin currently trades. Cboe and CME are regulated, potentially assuaging those concerns.

Some big traders had just warned about the impending introduction. On Wednesday, the Futures Industry Association — a group of major banks, brokers, and traders — said the contracts were rushed without enough consideration of the risks.

The group outlined their concerns in an open letter, questioning whether the exchanges would be able to adequately police market manipulation for bitcoin futures. FIA added that the exchanges didn’t get enough industry feedback on margin levels, trading limits, stress tests, and clearing for the products before bringing them to market.

Cboe worked with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to design and improve its contracts and “committed to continuing to work closely with the CFTC to monitor trading and foster the growth of a transparent, liquid and fair bitcoin futures market,” according to a statement from the company.

Other trading experts have sounded alarmed bells on the possibility of manipulation. The thinking goes that because cryptocurrency markets aren’t policed by a central regulator, cheaters could fly under the radar if they try to move the price of bitcoin on exchanges with scant volume.

Great things in business are never done by one person.

Steve Jobs Apple co-founder

The CFTC “has strong anti-manipulation rules for futures, but those won’t necessarily protect investors if the bitcoin cash markets are manipulated,” said Ty Gellasch, executive director of the Healthy Markets Association, an investor advocacy group.

Cloe’s contracts will be based on the price of bitcoin on the Gemini Exchange. CME is using four exchanges, including the Coinbase GDAX market where prices proved so volatile Thursday.

Both Cboe and CME have curbs in place to calm price swings. Cboe halts trading for two minutes if prices rise or fall 10 percent.

The futures appear to be getting a high-profile endorsement. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. plans to clear bitcoin futures contracts for certain clients when the derivatives go live in coming days, according to a person with knowledge of the firm’s plans.

Goldman Sachs, one of the largest firms helping clients buy and sell futures contracts, will act in an agency capacity and won’t serve as a market-maker or build inventory in the derivatives, said the person, who asked not to be identified talking about the plans. The decision to clear client trades will be made on a case-by-case basis, the person said.

“Given that this is a new product, as expected we are evaluating the specifications and risk attributes for the bitcoin futures contracts as part of our standard due diligence process,” Tiffany Galvin, a spokeswoman for the bank, said in an emailed statement.

At Coinbase on Thursday, bitcoin was almost $3,000 pricier than the levels seen on other markets, a record high, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Three days before Cboe Global Markets Inc., one of the world’s biggest regulated exchanges, debuts futures on the cryptocurrency, it had one of its wildest sessions ever. On Coinbase Inc.’s GDAX exchange, prices zoomed up to almost $20,000 from $16,000 in only about 90 minutes — then crashed back down. The largest digital currency is still up more than 16-fold this year.

Coinbase, one of the largest U.S. online exchanges used by investors, temporarily crashed and continued to suffer from service delays. Trezor, a wallet service, tweeted that it’s having “minor issues” with its servers, while Bitfinex, the largest bitcoin exchange in the world, said on Twitter that it has been under a denial of service attack for several days and that it recently got worse.

The entrance of Cboe and CME is a watershed for bitcoin because many professional investors have been unwilling to do business on the unregulated platforms where bitcoin currently trades. Cboe and CME are regulated, potentially assuaging those concerns.

Some big traders had just warned about the impending introduction. On Wednesday, the Futures Industry Association — a group of major banks, brokers, and traders — said the contracts were rushed without enough consideration of the risks.

The group outlined their concerns in an open letter, questioning whether the exchanges would be able to adequately police market manipulation for bitcoin futures. FIA added that the exchanges didn’t get enough industry feedback on margin levels, trading limits, stress tests, and clearing for the products before bringing them to market.

Cboe worked with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to design and improve its contracts and “committed to continuing to work closely with the CFTC to monitor trading and foster the growth of a transparent, liquid and fair bitcoin futures market,” according to a statement from the company.

Other trading experts have sounded alarmed bells on the possibility of manipulation. The thinking goes that because cryptocurrency markets aren’t policed by a central regulator, cheaters could fly under the radar if they try to move the price of bitcoin on exchanges with scant volume.

Great things in business are never done by one person.

Steve Jobs Apple co-founder

The CFTC “has strong anti-manipulation rules for futures, but those won’t necessarily protect investors if the bitcoin cash markets are manipulated,” said Ty Gellasch, executive director of the Healthy Markets Association, an investor advocacy group.

Cloe’s contracts will be based on the price of bitcoin on the Gemini Exchange. CME is using four exchanges, including the Coinbase GDAX market where prices proved so volatile Thursday.

Both Cboe and CME have curbs in place to calm price swings. Cboe halts trading for two minutes if prices rise or fall 10 percent.

The futures appear to be getting a high-profile endorsement. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. plans to clear bitcoin futures contracts for certain clients when the derivatives go live in coming days, according to a person with knowledge of the firm’s plans.

Goldman Sachs, one of the largest firms helping clients buy and sell futures contracts, will act in an agency capacity and won’t serve as a market-maker or build inventory in the derivatives, said the person, who asked not to be identified talking about the plans. The decision to clear client trades will be made on a case-by-case basis, the person said.

“Given that this is a new product, as expected we are evaluating the specifications and risk attributes for the bitcoin futures contracts as part of our standard due diligence process,” Tiffany Galvin, a spokeswoman for the bank, said in an emailed statement.

At Coinbase on Thursday, bitcoin was almost $3,000 pricier than the levels seen on other markets, a record high, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Three days before Cboe Global Markets Inc., one of the world’s biggest regulated exchanges, debuts futures on the cryptocurrency, it had one of its wildest sessions ever. On Coinbase Inc.’s GDAX exchange, prices zoomed up to almost $20,000 from $16,000 in only about 90 minutes — then crashed back down. The largest digital currency is still up more than 16-fold this year.

Coinbase, one of the largest U.S. online exchanges used by investors, temporarily crashed and continued to suffer from service delays. Trezor, a wallet service, tweeted that it’s having “minor issues” with its servers, while Bitfinex, the largest bitcoin exchange in the world, said on Twitter that it has been under a denial of service attack for several days and that it recently got worse.

The entrance of Cboe and CME is a watershed for bitcoin because many professional investors have been unwilling to do business on the unregulated platforms where bitcoin currently trades. Cboe and CME are regulated, potentially assuaging those concerns.

Some big traders had just warned about the impending introduction. On Wednesday, the Futures Industry Association — a group of major banks, brokers, and traders — said the contracts were rushed without enough consideration of the risks.

The group outlined their concerns in an open letter, questioning whether the exchanges would be able to adequately police market manipulation for bitcoin futures. FIA added that the exchanges didn’t get enough industry feedback on margin levels, trading limits, stress tests, and clearing for the products before bringing them to market.

Cboe worked with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to design and improve its contracts and “committed to continuing to work closely with the CFTC to monitor trading and foster the growth of a transparent, liquid and fair bitcoin futures market,” according to a statement from the company.

Other trading experts have sounded alarmed bells on the possibility of manipulation. The thinking goes that because cryptocurrency markets aren’t policed by a central regulator, cheaters could fly under the radar if they try to move the price of bitcoin on exchanges with scant volume.

Great things in business are never done by one person.

Steve Jobs Apple co-founder

The CFTC “has strong anti-manipulation rules for futures, but those won’t necessarily protect investors if the bitcoin cash markets are manipulated,” said Ty Gellasch, executive director of the Healthy Markets Association, an investor advocacy group.

Cloe’s contracts will be based on the price of bitcoin on the Gemini Exchange. CME is using four exchanges, including the Coinbase GDAX market where prices proved so volatile Thursday.

Both Cboe and CME have curbs in place to calm price swings. Cboe halts trading for two minutes if prices rise or fall 10 percent.

The futures appear to be getting a high-profile endorsement. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. plans to clear bitcoin futures contracts for certain clients when the derivatives go live in coming days, according to a person with knowledge of the firm’s plans.

Goldman Sachs, one of the largest firms helping clients buy and sell futures contracts, will act in an agency capacity and won’t serve as a market-maker or build inventory in the derivatives, said the person, who asked not to be identified talking about the plans. The decision to clear client trades will be made on a case-by-case basis, the person said.

“Given that this is a new product, as expected we are evaluating the specifications and risk attributes for the bitcoin futures contracts as part of our standard due diligence process,” Tiffany Galvin, a spokeswoman for the bank, said in an emailed statement.

At Coinbase on Thursday, bitcoin was almost $3,000 pricier than the levels seen on other markets, a record high, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Three days before Cboe Global Markets Inc., one of the world’s biggest regulated exchanges, debuts futures on the cryptocurrency, it had one of its wildest sessions ever. On Coinbase Inc.’s GDAX exchange, prices zoomed up to almost $20,000 from $16,000 in only about 90 minutes — then crashed back down. The largest digital currency is still up more than 16-fold this year.

Coinbase, one of the largest U.S. online exchanges used by investors, temporarily crashed and continued to suffer from service delays. Trezor, a wallet service, tweeted that it’s having “minor issues” with its servers, while Bitfinex, the largest bitcoin exchange in the world, said on Twitter that it has been under a denial of service attack for several days and that it recently got worse.

The entrance of Cboe and CME is a watershed for bitcoin because many professional investors have been unwilling to do business on the unregulated platforms where bitcoin currently trades. Cboe and CME are regulated, potentially assuaging those concerns.

Some big traders had just warned about the impending introduction. On Wednesday, the Futures Industry Association — a group of major banks, brokers, and traders — said the contracts were rushed without enough consideration of the risks.

The group outlined their concerns in an open letter, questioning whether the exchanges would be able to adequately police market manipulation for bitcoin futures. FIA added that the exchanges didn’t get enough industry feedback on margin levels, trading limits, stress tests, and clearing for the products before bringing them to market.

Cboe worked with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to design and improve its contracts and “committed to continuing to work closely with the CFTC to monitor trading and foster the growth of a transparent, liquid and fair bitcoin futures market,” according to a statement from the company.

Other trading experts have sounded alarmed bells on the possibility of manipulation. The thinking goes that because cryptocurrency markets aren’t policed by a central regulator, cheaters could fly under the radar if they try to move the price of bitcoin on exchanges with scant volume.

Great things in business are never done by one person.

Steve Jobs Apple co-founder

The CFTC “has strong anti-manipulation rules for futures, but those won’t necessarily protect investors if the bitcoin cash markets are manipulated,” said Ty Gellasch, executive director of the Healthy Markets Association, an investor advocacy group.

Cloe’s contracts will be based on the price of bitcoin on the Gemini Exchange. CME is using four exchanges, including the Coinbase GDAX market where prices proved so volatile Thursday.

Both Cboe and CME have curbs in place to calm price swings. Cboe halts trading for two minutes if prices rise or fall 10 percent.

The futures appear to be getting a high-profile endorsement. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. plans to clear bitcoin futures contracts for certain clients when the derivatives go live in coming days, according to a person with knowledge of the firm’s plans.

Goldman Sachs, one of the largest firms helping clients buy and sell futures contracts, will act in an agency capacity and won’t serve as a market-maker or build inventory in the derivatives, said the person, who asked not to be identified talking about the plans. The decision to clear client trades will be made on a case-by-case basis, the person said.

“Given that this is a new product, as expected we are evaluating the specifications and risk attributes for the bitcoin futures contracts as part of our standard due diligence process,” Tiffany Galvin, a spokeswoman for the bank, said in an emailed statement.

At Coinbase on Thursday, bitcoin was almost $3,000 pricier than the levels seen on other markets, a record high, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.