Flash News

TREE NEWS update: New York City Council Speaker Menin has called on the CEOs of Meta, X (formerly Twitter) and Google to appear before an AI hearing. The request was announced as the city council moves to scrutinize the companies’ artificial-intelligence practices. No date for the hearing or confirmation of attendance was given.

TREE NEWS update: China’s Ministry of Commerce said it is responding to media reports that the European Union wants China to voluntarily restrict exports of hybrid vehicles to Europe or face higher tariffs. A ministry spokesperson took a reporter’s question on the matter. No further details on China’s position were given in the statement.

TREE NEWS update: The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has filed its crypto asset rulemaking with the White House for review, moving ahead without Congress. The agency sent the proposal to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, the final step before a rule can be formally published. The filing signals the CFTC is pursuing its own crypto oversight path rather than waiting on legislation.

TREE NEWS update: Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman said the Fed’s supervisors should have known about Silicon Valley Bank’s vulnerabilities as early as March 2022, more than a year before the bank failed. She said the supervisory delay was not the result of the Fed’s earlier deregulatory measures. The Fed will consider final revisions to its stress tests in the coming weeks.

TREE NEWS update: China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism released its 15th Five-Year Plan for the cultural industry, calling for qualified cultural enterprises to raise funds through listings, equity and bonds. The plan urges banks to step up credit support for cultural firms and asks financial institutions to design products suited to the sector, part of a push to better match financial services with cultural-industry demand.

TREE NEWS reports: EU trading partners are calling on Brussels to abandon its planned restrictions on pesticides. The pushback targets the European Union’s proposed curbs on agricultural chemical use, which the bloc’s trading counterparts say would hit their farm exports. No decision or timeline was given in the report.

TREE NEWS update: The Shanghai Stock Exchange said it took self-regulatory measures, including suspending account trading, against investors behind abnormal trading in newly listed Shengu Group, whose shares have swung sharply since its September 17 debut. Between September 14 and 18 the exchange applied measures to 50 cases of abnormal trading such as ramping and spoofing orders, put Longban Media and other volatile stocks under close monitoring, and referred two suspected violations to the CSRC.

TREE NEWS update: The Shenzhen Stock Exchange said it took self-regulatory measures against 102 cases of abnormal securities trading during the week of Sept. 14 to Sept. 18, 2026, covering practices such as intraday price ramping and suppression, and false order submissions. The exchange also conducted checks on major matters at eight listed companies during the same period.

TREE NEWS update: China’s Ministry of Public Security Cybersecurity Bureau published five typical cases of online violence targeting athletes. The announcement was made via the official cybersecurity authority, which handles cyber-related law enforcement and public security matters. No further details on the specific cases or athletes involved were provided in the material.

TREE NEWS update: The Shanghai Stock Exchange released a 2026 revision of its board secretary compliance guide to all companies listed on its main board, clarifying the role’s duties, qualification requirements and concurrent-post restrictions. Under the new rules, the transition period for adjusting appointments and concurrent posts runs until December 31, 2027, and many listed companies have already completed the changes. The SSE said it will keep guiding orderly adjustments during the transition.

TREE NEWS update: China’s securities regulator, the CSRC, is proposing to grant whistleblower awards under the Securities Law and related rules to individuals who provided leads in 17 enforcement cases. The list includes information-disclosure violations by Shenyang Yuanda Intelligent Industry Group (Liaoning order [2025] No. 8), Xinjiang Guannong (Xinjiang order [2023] No. 4), Hainan Dadonghai Tourism Centre (Hainan order [2023] No. 1) and Jilin Liyuan Precision Manufacturing (Jilin order [2022] No. 2).

TREE NEWS update: The US Treasury has sanctioned the Iranian crypto exchange BitBank, saying it moved hundreds of millions of dollars in bitcoin to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Treasury also said the Tehran-based exchange handled fees collected from tankers buying passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

TREE NEWS update: European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said Friday she will step down in 2027, but declined to say whether she will serve until her term ends next October. “I will leave in 2027,” Lagarde said, adding that the matter would be handled “in the most professional manner” whenever it happens. She said filling vacancies on the ECB’s key decision-making bodies is critical, with Chief Economist Philip Lane and Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel also due to end their terms next year.

TREE NEWS update: The People’s Bank of China and the Bank of the Lao PDR jointly launched a China-Laos cross-border digital payment interconnection at a kickoff meeting in Nanning, Guangxi. PBOC Deputy Governor Lu Lei and Bank of the Lao PDR Deputy Governor Sulisak Samnouvong attended and delivered remarks. The launch marks a formal start to the bilateral digital payment link.

TREE NEWS update: Authorities in the UAE and Sweden arrested seven people over a crypto money-laundering network that moved $7.1 million, investigators said. Tracing the network’s crypto transactions exposed links to organized crime and murder-for-hire, they added.

TREE NEWS update: BlackRock Fund has been granted Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (QDII) status in China, the firm said. General Manager Yu Peihua called the approval another important milestone for BlackRock’s business in the country, adding that the firm will combine its global platform with local teams to offer Chinese investors more diversified investment choices and asset-allocation solutions.

TREE NEWS update: Market regulators in seven Chinese provinces and municipalities — Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Guangdong, Chongqing and Sichuan — signed a cooperation framework agreement on sole proprietor development with eight platform companies including Alibaba’s 1688, Douyin Life Services, Kuaishou, Meituan, Taobao Shangou, Taotian, Xiaohongshu and Alipay, under the guidance of the State Administration for Market Regulation.

TREE NEWS update: The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned crypto exchange BitBank, which OFAC says funneled hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards over two months. The exchange processed payments tied to tolls levied on ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The designation targets the platform’s role in moving funds for the IRGC.

TREE NEWS update: *ST Jiuding announced it received a case-filing notice from the China Securities Regulatory Commission on September 18, 2026. The regulator is investigating the company over suspected disclosure violations tied to inaccurate accounting of inventory and investment property for 2023-2024. The company said all business operations are running normally and it will actively cooperate with the investigation.