Flash News

TREE NEWS update: US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the World Bank should lift its ban so that upstream oil and natural gas projects can receive financing. The call, made by the top US economic official, targets a restriction on lending for fossil-fuel exploration and production. No timeline or mechanism for changing the policy was given.

TREE NEWS reports: Richard Heart, founder of Hex and PulseChain, has been detained in Istanbul. Police reportedly seized $4 million and 64 watches in connection with the detention. Turkish police have not yet confirmed Heart’s detention. Heart is the founder of the Hex token and the PulseChain network.

TREE NEWS update: The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office said law enforcement dismantled a transnational cryptocurrency fraud network centered in Eastern Europe during an operation last week. Authorities shut down 241 crypto fraud-related websites and seized 112 servers controlled by the group. The network defrauded US victims of tens of millions of dollars over several years.

TREE NEWS update: Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she will sign a presidential decree on Wednesday requiring digital platforms, including social networks and streaming sites, to protect children and adolescents from violent, pornographic and other harmful content. Platforms that fail to comply will face government backing for legislation to punish them. The decree tightens oversight of big tech in Latin America’s second-largest economy.

TREE NEWS update: The European Banking Authority has named USDC the EU’s first ‘significant’ e-money token, shifting financial supervision to the EBA on Nov. 12. France’s ACPR retains responsibility for governance and other corporate matters under the new arrangement. The designation marks the first time an e-money token has been classified as significant under the EU’s crypto framework.

TREE NEWS update: Bank of America disclosed a $1.2 billion regulatory penalty one day before its earnings release, saying it has completed substantial remediation work through staff reassignments and technology investment. CFO Alastair Borthwick said the penalty will not affect the bank’s profit targets. Bond trading revenue fell 17% year over year while equity trading rose 10%, and investment banking fees dropped more than 11% from a year earlier. Shares fell sharply at the open.

TREE NEWS update: Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission suspended trading in tea chain ChaPanda’s H-shares from 9am on October 13, citing concerns that its IPO may have been artificially manipulated to create a false appearance of demand for the stock. ChaPanda said it is urgently seeking legal advice, will cooperate fully with the SFC, and confirmed its business operations remain normal with no material changes as of the announcement date.

TREE NEWS update: The SEC’s Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee will meet on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, at 10 a.m. to continue discussions on IPO modernization and explore potential policy changes. The committee also plans to examine Regulation Crowdfunding. The meeting is part of the panel’s ongoing review of capital-raising rules for smaller companies.

TREE NEWS update: The Chongqing-Hong Kong cross-border data verification platform began operating on the 14th. The platform is designed to verify data across the two jurisdictions. No further details on its scope or participating institutions were disclosed.

TREE NEWS update: Apple has asked a federal judge in San Diego to overturn a $5.7 billion patent infringement verdict won by Taction Technology in September over haptic feedback technology in iPhones and Apple Watches. In an October 13 filing, Apple told the court the verdict “lacks any evidentiary support whatsoever.”

TREE NEWS reports: Richard Heart, the founder of HEX and PulseChain, has been detained in Istanbul on an Interpol notice, Turkish media reported. Interpol’s public record identifies Finland as the requesting jurisdiction and lists the charge as aggravated tax fraud. Heart’s separate SEC case was dismissed in 2025.

TREE NEWS reports: Hex founder Richard Heart was detained in Istanbul on an Interpol red notice, with Turkish police and intelligence officers reportedly seizing cash, phones, jewelry and firearms at his address in Beşiktaş. The detention follows international law-enforcement action against the crypto promoter.

TREE NEWS update: The European Commission announced on October 14 that it proposes delaying by one year parts of the EU Methane Emissions Regulation covering fossil fuel importers, to ease administrative burdens on companies and member states and reduce pressure on energy supply. The postponed provisions mainly cover methane monitoring, reporting and verification obligations for natural gas, oil and coal importers, plus methane intensity reporting for importers and EU-based producers.

TREE NEWS update: The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency found debanking policies at nine major US banks that restricted digital-asset issuers and exchanges. The regulator is considering further rules but did not announce bank-specific penalties.

TREE NEWS update: China’s financial authorities have not issued any nationwide unified arrangement on the pace of financial investment growth or the duration of newly added bonds at small and mid-sized banks, an informed person said. Market chatter had claimed some provincial regulators told such banks that financial investment growth must not exceed loan growth and that new bond duration must not exceed existing duration. Under market principles, small banks’ bond investment decisions based on their own balance sheets fall within their operational autonomy, the person said.

TREE NEWS update: Polygon Labs has completed its acquisition of Coinme, adding 37 state money transmitter licenses to its stablecoin payments infrastructure and extending regulated payments coverage across 48 US states. The deal folds Coinme’s licensing footprint into Polygon’s payments stack. Terms were not disclosed.

TREE NEWS update: Qivalis has secured an Electronic Money Institution authorization in the Netherlands, clearing the way to issue a euro-denominated stablecoin. The company said issuance is planned for the coming months, subject to additional MiCA requirements. The license makes Qivalis one of a growing group of firms building regulated euro stablecoins under the EU’s crypto framework.

TREE NEWS reports: Bank of America shares fell nearly 8% in pre-market trading after its third-quarter revenue, net of interest expense, came in at $29.96 billion, below expectations. The bank’s equities and fixed-income trading businesses also underperformed, and results were further weighed down by a charge tied to regulatory penalties over anti-money-laundering and sanctions violations.

TREE NEWS update: Fuxiang Pharmaceutical said it received notice from a supervisory authority on October 14, 2026 that Bao Jianhua, its controlling shareholder, actual controller and chairman, has been placed under detention by the authority. The company disclosed the notice in a filing. No further details were provided.

TREE NEWS update: The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said nine major banks applied policies that denied, debanked and discriminated against certain customers and businesses, including digital asset firms, in a final report covering 2020 through September 2025. JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bancorp, Capital One, PNC, TD Bank and BMO were named. Comptroller Jonathan V. Gould said the agency will assess further adjustments to its supervisory framework; no penalties were disclosed.