Brief: The pandemic’s slowdown in real estate deals has cost New York City $1.2 billion in lost revenue so far this year. Sales of commercial and residential properties -- everything from office buildings to hotels and condo units -- are down 49% this year through November, according to a report Thursday by the Real Estate Board of New York. That’s led to a 42% decline in city tax revenue, compared with the same 11-month period in 2019, the trade group said. The money comes from a long list of levies that each transaction generates. A dearth of deals means fewer collections of transfer and mansion taxes, and less income from newly recorded mortgages. Real estate investors are taking a pause amid a pandemic that’s reordered how and where New Yorkers live and work -- and, in turn, undermined property values. The pullback has dealt a crippling blow to the city’s economy, which relied on the real estate industry for 53% of its annual tax revenue in the last fiscal year, the real estate group said. While vaccines offer some optimism, “New York’s economic crisis grows,” James Whelan, the group’s president, said in a statement. “From rental assistance and unemployment benefits to state and local aid, New York needs federal relief.”
Brief : The Swiss National Bank paid no heed to being branded a currency manipulator by the United States, promising on Thursday to continue an expansive monetary policy and forex interventions it said were vital to cushion the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The central bank kept its policy interest rate locked at minus 0.75%, the world’s lowest, and said it remained willing to buy foreign currencies “more strongly”, as unanimously forecast by economists in a Reuters poll. SNB Chairman Thomas Jordan said the central bank had made “considerable foreign exchange purchases this year,” but declined to give details on the level of interventions during the second half of the year. The SNB said the interventions were necessary to relieve pressure on the franc, which has attracted safe-haven inflows during the crisis. During the first half of 2020, it bought 90 billion Swiss francs ($101.94 billion) worth of foreign currencies, dwarfing the level of interventions in previous years. Those interventions have brought the SNB into the cross-hairs of the U.S. Treasury, which labelled Switzerland a currency manipulator on Wednesday.
Brief: The vast majority of pension schemes say that Covid-19 is not having a detrimental effect on them running their schemes and helping savers achieve a better income in retirement, but have warned against the ending of regulatory easements too soon, a PLSA survey can reveal. In the survey, the PLSA heard that over four fifths of pension schemes (81 per cent) believe Covid-19 is having only little or no impact on the day-to-day running of their scheme; a figure that is up from 67 per cent in April and 42 per cent in March. Furthermore, nine out of ten schemes (91 per cent) say they are currently operating all business processes smoothly to suit the current environment. Impressively, all (100 per cent) Master Trusts and LGPS members surveyed said that their contingency plans are dealing with Covid-19 either very well or fairly well. Since the start of restrictions in the UK due to Covid-19 back in March, most schemes (85 per cent) have reported that they have not seen an increase in member queries. In fact, under one in ten (8 per cent) have said that they have seen a substantial increase since the start of the crisis, while the same proportion have seen a slight decrease. Amongst those who have seen an increase in queries, most say that this has been driven by new retirements while a smaller number report queries around changes in employment or transfers out.
Brief: “Now months into the pandemic, with a dark winter ahead of us, we are seeing the evidence of an increase in depression, anxiety, and worker burnout everywhere, both among those of us who have the luxury of being able to work from home and the frontline workers,” Huffington told Yahoo Finance Live. Huffington founded Thrive Global four years ago as a behavior change platform that combines data, storytelling, and an action plan to improve work culture and support staff. It serves mostly Fortune 500 companies, including Walmart and Accenture. “For the first time, we are seeing an unprecedented interest from the C-suite on this issue of mental health,” said Huffington. “So, it's not just a matter for HR professionals. The recognition is now clear, that the well-being and mental resilience of your employees is going to be crucial to productivity and the bottom line.”
Brief: Wells Fargo & Co has extended the ability to work from home for employees until at least March 1 amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, a spokeswoman for the bank said on Wednesday. “Through at least March 1, we will continue with our current operating model, which includes about 200,000 employees working from home and maintaining safety measures in locations that remain open”, the spokeswoman said in an emailed statement. The statement added that it was not known when the bank would return to a more “traditional operating model” and that it would give employees “sufficient notice” before any changes.
Brief: The $20 trillion U.S. Treasury market is set to come under intense scrutiny by President-elect Joe Biden’s regulators, after seizing-up amid rising pandemic fears in March and threatening the stability of the broader financial system. A review of what went wrong and measures to boost the market’s resilience could be among the first regulatory challenges for incoming Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, according to half a dozen regulatory and industry sources. After March’s massive sell-off prompted the Federal Reserve to buy $1.6 trillion of Treasuries to stabilize the market, consensus is growing in Washington that a review is urgently needed. But potential changes on the table, including loosening trading rules, allowing new players into the market, or introducing central clearing, could prove risky to implement and unleash industry infighting over the benefits and costs. “This is the most important financial market in the world. That fact demands policymakers exhibit both urgency and extreme care,” said Gregg Gelzinis, senior policy analyst at think tank the Center for American Progress.