Weekly Global News Wrap: China floats $1.3m asset minimum for hedge fund industry; US levels banks with $549m in penalties

And the Netherlands’ Rabobank sees profits double in H1.

From Bloomberg:
Thousands of China’s hedge fund managers may shut as authorities propose a 10-million-yuan asset minimum.

The move can come into effect as early as September and is expected to cause possibly up to thousands of smaller managers in the $832b hedge fund industry to shut.

This may also force the liquidation of more than a third of existing products tracked by the Shanghai Suntime Information Technology.

The rules will also cap leverage levels and the size of investments hedge funds can make in single securities.

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From CNBC:
US regulators have imposed $549m in penalties against Wells Fargo and 10 other firms' non-US for their failure to maintain electronic records of employee communications.

The Securities and Exchange Commission disclosed charges and $289m in fines against 11 firms for “widespread and longstanding failures” in record-keeping.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission also said it fined four banks a total of $260m for failing to maintain records required by the agency.

Fines related to the issue total more than $2b, according to the SEC and CFTC.

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From Reuters:
Dutch cooperative bank Rabobank said that its first-half profit nearly doubled thanks to higher interest rates, which helped interest income.

Net profit was 2.53 billion euros ($2.78b), up from 1.28 billion euros in the first half of 2022.