BRUSSELS—German airline Lufthansa and British peer EasyJet on Wednesday gained backing from Europe’s second top court for their acquisitions of insolvent German carrier Air Berlin’s assets four years ago. Lufthansa received the EU green light from the European Commission in 2017 to buy Air Berlin’s subsidiary LGW in return for giving up some slots at…

BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest money manager beat third-quarter profit estimates as an improving economy helped boost its assets under management, driving up fee income. Asset managers have benefited from rising global financial markets in recent quarters as investors put money to work, making the most of the post-pandemic economic reopening, driven by progress on…

Bank of America Corp. published its first research coverage focused on cryptocurrencies and other digital assets on Monday, joining other mainstream financial institutions as they strengthen their involvement with the asset class. The move, earlier reported by Bloomberg News, was confirmed later by a BofA spokesperson. The “digital asset universe is too large to ignore,”…

BERLIN—Germany would reject any Iranian demands for the United States to release frozen Iranian assets as a condition for nuclear talks to resume, Germany’s foreign ministry said on Monday. “If here new conditions are being set by Iran for talks to be resumed, then we reject that,” a German foreign ministry spokesman said after Iranian…

ZURICH—Switzerland’s financial markets supervisor said on Wednesday it had approved the country’s first fund that invests primarily in crypto assets. The Crypto Market Index Fund is restricted to qualified investors and categorised under “other funds for alternative investments” with particular risks, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) said in a statement. Crypto assets are…

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Friday that it would delay enforcement of certain assets from a new disclosure rule for off-exchange securities until Jan. 3, 2022. The new compliance date was due to come into effect on Tuesday. The agency’s no action letter, which affects quotes published by broker dealers for…

A New Jersey state treasury official said on Wednesday it is set to divest $182 million in Unilever Plc. stock and bonds held by its pension funds over the restriction of sales by the consumer giant’s Ben & Jerry’s ice cream brand in Israeli-occupied territories. It is the latest action by a U.S. state challenging…

WASHINGTON—The Biden administration has no plans to release billions in Afghan gold, investments, and foreign currency reserves parked in the United States that it froze after the Taliban’s takeover, despite pressure from humanitarian groups and others who say the cost may be the collapse of Afghanistan’s economy. Much of the Afghan central bank’s $10 billion…

Commentary Of the 27 school districts in Orange County, just one has restricted net assets. The remaining districts have unrestricted net assets, meaning their liabilities exceed their assets. To help understand the solvency of school districts, I provided a chart. It provides the unrestricted net position from the June 30, 2019 audited financial statements from…