Latest Developments

North America
CNBC Finance

How big is the great wealth transfer? It could be over $100 trillion or $36 trillion

A new estimate for the great wealth transfer has sparked a debate over how many trillions of dollars will pass from baby boomers to their heirs, and how it will be spent and invested. Last week, Visa Business and Economic Insights released a new projection for the great wealth transfer, estimating that $36 trillion in baby boomer wealth will be passed down to Gen X and millennials over the next 20 years. The figure is a fraction of the widely cited estimate from Cerulli Associates, which says $105 trillion will pass from older generations to heirs by 2048. The more than $60 trillion gap between the two studies has raised new questions about the size and impact of the great wealth transfer. Some say it will be the largest in history, dramatically reshaping wealth management, charity and the global wealth landscape. Others say its impact will be far more limited and simply marks a continuation of long-term inheritance trends. The dueling Visa and Cerulli numbers highlight just how important the estimates have become for wealth managers and other companies overhauling their businesses to prepare for the next generation of wealth. Visa, as a credit card payments company, focuses its study on the amount of inherited wealth that will be spent by everyday American consumers. Cerulli, being a financial research firm, focuses its study on the total wealth being transferred, including the outsized share of fortunes being passed down by the ultra wealthy. While Cerulli focuses on all wealth transfers in coming decades, Visa looked only at transfers from baby boomers. "We wanted to go through and inspect how much money will actually be spent," said Wayne Best, chief economist at Visa. "A lot of people think about the $93 trillion or $124 trillion and think 'All that money's going to be available for spending; this is going to be incredible.' That's why we went through the kind of the step-by-step process." Visa's process started with the total amount of wealth held by today's baby boomers, which it put at about $93 trillion. The report then stripped out liabilities, which includes mortgage debt, of $5 trillion and subtracted the wealth of the top 1%, estimated at $28 trillion. Best said the top 1%, or those with wealth of at least $12 million, approach money very differently from the rest of consumers. They spend a much smaller share of their wealth and they tend to buy different things. "They don't spend like the rest of us," Best said. "They're buying yachts and airplanes. It's all great for the economy, but that's not what the average person really thinks of. So we removed that top 1%, to put this more on a normal or level playing field." Visa then stripped out the retirement spending of baby boomers, which could be larger than expected. Because boomers are living longer and spending their wealth more than past generations, Visa estimates their retirement spending at $16 trillion. It also subtracted $8 trillion for charity and taxes. In addition, Visa focused its analysis exclusively on the wealth being transferred from baby boomers over the next 20 years. Cerulli looked at transfers from all generations by 2048, which includes members of the older Silent Generation, as well as the younger Generation Xers, who are now between 46 and 61 years old. After taking out the debt, the fortunes of the top 1%, retirement spending, taxes and charity, Visa estimates that boomers will pass on only $36 trillion of their $93 trillion in wealth.

How big is the great wealth transfer? It could be over $100 trillion or $36 trillion
North America
CNBC Finance

Inside the Chinese fraud rings stealing billions from banks and retailers

When a man in a black Air Jordan T-shirt walked up to a self-checkout kiosk at a Louisiana Lowe's last spring, he looked like any other customer. Over the course of about seven minutes, he methodically rang up different gift cards for $95 each, using his phone to tap-to-pay for each card as a red-vested associate circled nearby, surveillance video showed. Unknown to the employee, the man was part of a sprawling Chinese crime ring, using stolen credit cards to buy the gift cards while a Southeast Asian scam compound coached him through each transaction through the wireless headphones in his ears, police say. "We know that there are hundreds of individuals at any one time doing this across the country," said Adam Parks, an assistant special agent in charge with U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, who investigated the case. "Even though you think that's $95 every transaction, that adds up to a lot of money." After the man left the hardware store, he purchased more gift cards with stolen credit card information at other retailers only to return to the original Lowe's the same day to repeat the act, Parks said. He was not arrested and is still a suspect, he added. Lowe's didn't respond to repeated requests for comment from CNBC. While credit card theft and fraud isn't new, with the proliferation of tap-to-pay and growing use of retail apps, these digital thefts are shaping the next wave of organized retail crime and earning Chinese gangs as much as $1 billion annually, police said. Unlike typical retail theft operations — where criminals clear out shelves in big box stores and resell merchandise piece by piece on online marketplaces — the crimes can be carried out right under a store employee's nose or from a computer anywhere in the world. "It's very low risk for the bad actors," said Scott Glenn, vice president of asset protection at The Home Depot. "It's not the same thing as walking into a Home Depot, filling up a cart full of power tools, and then walking out. It's just not as visible, it's not as obvious to what's happening out there and so it's become a more preferred method over the last several years." Fraudsters have selected retailers as their targets because their platforms carry sensitive information such as stored credit cards and personal data but they do not have the same level of security as banks, according to industry experts and law enforcement. There's no firm data on how much retailers are losing from digital forms of retail crime, but CNBC found around a dozen criminal cases across the country affecting a wide variety of retailers that police said involve a combination of organized groups and low-level fraudsters. The cases are complex and often hard for local authorities to handle, said Capt. Matt Lawson of the Knox County Sheriff's Office in Tennessee, who said he's been investigating a fraud ring with ties to Chinese organized crime. Unless the theft hits a certain dollar threshold or rises to the level of a federal crime, "it's kind of like they get away with it almost," he said. Tap-to-pay fraud, which involves a fraudster adding a stolen credit card to their digital wallet and using it to buy gift cards or merchandise, often starts with a familiar text message and can end with an unwitting consumer's identity up for sale on platforms such as Telegram.

Inside the Chinese fraud rings stealing billions from banks and retailers
Europe
BBC Business

'My buyers dropped their offer by £15,000 the day before exchange': Gazundering and how to avoid it

Image source, Getty ImagesByDan WhitworthRadio 4 Money Box reporterPublished18 July 2026, 02:14 BSTSarah was excitedly packing up to move out of the terraced house her family had outgrown to a four-bedroom home in the countryside. But the day before exchanging contracts the buyers of her house dropped their agreed offer by £15,000. "It was awful, your heart just drops to your stomach," says Sarah, not her real name. She had fallen victim to gazundering, a rare but growing problem in the property market in England and Wales, according to the Conveyancing Association, external. It is calling for government reforms aimed at tackling this and other house buying and selling issues to be brought in "without delay" instead of 2029 as planned. They were selling the three-bedroom terrace they'd renovated and buying her parents' four-bedroom detached house in the countryside. But the day before contracts were exchanged Sarah received a phone call from her "befuddled" estate agent saying he had some bad news. Their buyers said they'd done some more research about the area and would now offer £15,000 less than the price they'd agreed. "I can't even begin to go through the financial consequences [if we lost the sale]," she says. If they accepted the lower offer they would be out of pocket but if they refused there would be costs too. "We had already paid one set of legal fees but would have had to pay again if we needed a new buyer. We'd also paid the removal fees already and would have to pay again if we cancelled the moving date," says Sarah. Gazundering is when a buyer lowers their agreed offer just before contracts are exchanged. It puts a seller under pressure to accept the lower price or risk losing their sale and collapsing their property chain - potentially losing the house they want to buy.

'My buyers dropped their offer by £15,000 the day before exchange': Gazundering and how to avoid it
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

HCL working at fast pace to double Malanjkhand Copper Project capacity in MP by 2030: CMD

Newly appointed Hindustan Copper Ltd (HCL) Chairman and Managing Director Anupam Mishra on Saturday said the company was working at a fast pace to double the annual production capacity of its Malanjkhand Copper Project (MCP) in Madhya Pradesh's Balaghat district from 2.5 million tonnes to 5 million tonnes by 2030. In his first visit to the project after taking charge as HCL's CMD earlier this month, Mishra told PTI that the Miniratna Category-I public sector undertaking had also planned phased capital expenditure to raise its overall production capacity to 12.2 million tonnes by 2030. "Our focus will be on completing the capital expenditure (capex) plan to achieve the production target of 12.2 million tonnes by 2030. Engineering in-charges and corporate teams will closely monitor every project and its key milestones so that any bottlenecks can be removed in time," he said. HCL's current mine ore production capacity stands at around four million tonnes per annum. Referring to global demand for copper outstripping supply, Mishra said HCL was working in mission mode on industrial development and technological advancement to ensure that mineral shortages did not hamper India's goal of becoming a developed nation. He said the Malanjkhand Copper Project, with an annual production capacity of 2.5 million tonnes, contributed nearly 70 per cent of HCL's total output. "The company is implementing a plan to increase the project's capacity from 2.5 million tonnes to 5 million tonnes by 2030. Work on different expansion projects is progressing satisfactorily. These include new production and service shafts, winders, a concentrator plant and a paste-fill plant," he said. Mishra said the company was also expediting plans to enhance production capacities at its other projects, including the Khetri Copper Complex in Rajasthan's Khetrinagar and the Indian Copper Complex at Ghatsila in Jharkhand, to achieve the overall production target. During his three-day visit, Mishra inspected the underground mine, concentrator plant, paste-fill plant, tailings dam and expansion work at the Malanjkhand project. Mishra succeeded Sanjiv Kumar Singh, who retired on June 30. Before joining HCL, he served as Director (Marketing) at Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore Ltd. Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.

HCL working at fast pace to double Malanjkhand Copper Project capacity in MP by 2030: CMD
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

Q1 Results Today Live: Kotak Mahindra, YES Bank drive Q1 with 23%, 34% profit jump; ICICI up 16%, HDFC and IDBI post 5% growth

HDFC Bank on Saturday reported a 5 per cent increase in standalone net profit to ₹19,060 crore for the June quarter. HDFC Bank's Q1 profit rises 5% to ₹19,060 crore, despite a decline in total income and improved asset quality. YES Bank reported that its standalone net profit rose 34 per cent year-on-year to ₹1,071 crore in the June quarter, compared to ₹801 crore in the corresponding period last year, driven by strong deposit growth and pick up in lending. YES Bank's net profit rises 34% with improved asset quality and strong loan growth, reflecting robust financial health. IDBI Bank reported a net profit of ₹2,115 crore for the first quarter of FY 2026-27, a 5 per cent increase year-on-year and 9 per cent sequentially, as the Mumbai-based lender continued to improve asset quality and grow its loan book. Net Interest Income rose 10 per cent year-on-year to ₹3,486 crore, though it declined 9 per cent from the previous quarter. Net Interest Margin stood at 3.61 per cent. Operating profit for the quarter was ₹2,168 crore. Loan growth was the standout metric. Net advances grew 22 per cent year-on-year to ₹2,58,968 crore as of June 30, 2026, while total deposits rose 10 per cent to ₹3,25,757 crore. Total business crossed ₹5.84 lakh crore, up 15 per cent over the same period last year. The bank’s retail-to-corporate loan mix stood at 70:30. Asset quality continued to improve. Gross NPA ratio fell to 2.30 per cent from 2.93 per cent a year ago, and Net NPA declined to 0.16 per cent from 0.21 per cent. Provision Coverage Ratio remained strong at 99.31 per cent, a level the bank has maintained since September 2023. Capital adequacy strengthened to 26.92 per cent, up 153 basis points year-on-year, with Tier 1 Capital at 26.38 per cent. Return on Assets stood at 1.89 per cent, up 14 basis points quarter-on-quarter. On the cost side, Cost of Deposits eased to 4.59 per cent from 4.84 per cent a year earlier, and Cost of Funds declined 30 basis points year-on-year to 4.68 per cent. During the quarter, IDBI Bank received the APY Annual Award of Ultimate Achiever from the Ministry of Finance for Atal Pension Yojana enrolment, launched a nationwide hackathon called IDBI Innovate 2026, and was recognised at the Internal Audit Excellence Awards 2026 for its AI-enabled audit system. HDFC Bank on Saturday reported a standalone profit after tax of ₹190.6 billion for the first quarter of FY27, up 5 per cent year-on-year, as strong loan and deposit growth offset a sharp decline in non-interest income.

Q1 Results Today Live: Kotak Mahindra, YES Bank drive Q1 with 23%, 34% profit jump; ICICI up 16%, HDFC and IDBI post 5% growth
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

HDFC Bank profit rises 5% to ₹19,060 crore in Q1

HDFC Bank on Saturday reported a 5 per cent increase in standalone net profit to ₹19,060 crore for the June quarter. The country's biggest private sector lender had earned a net profit of ₹18,155 crore in the year-ago period. However, the total income of the bank in the quarter under review dropped to ₹92,184 crore from ₹99,200 crore in the same period a year ago, HDFC Bank said in a regulatory filing. The lender's interest income increased to ₹79,363 crore from ₹77,470 crore in the same quarter a year ago. During the period, operating profit of the bank declined to ₹28,169 crore, as compared to ₹35,734 crore in the same quarter a year ago. Net interest income grew 7 per cent to ₹33,530 crore from ₹31,440 crore for the June quarter, it said. Net interest margin was at 3.26 per cent on total assets, and 3 per cent based on interest earning assets. The bank's asset quality exhibited improvement with gross non-performing assets (NPAs) declined to 1.17 per cent of gross advances at the end of the June quarter, from 1.4 per cent a year ago. Similarly, net NPAs, or bad loans, declined to 0.41 per cent, as against 0.47 per cent in the year-ago period. As a result, provisions and contingencies for bad loans declined massively to ₹3,060 crore during the first quarter, as compared to ₹14,442 crore in the same period a year ago. Capital adequacy ratio of the bank moderated to 19.57 per cent from 19.88 per cent at the end of first quarter of the previous financial year. The consolidated profit after tax of the HDFC Bank Group for the June quarter was ₹19,245 crore as against ₹16,258 crore in the same period a year ago, registering an 18 per cent growth.

HDFC Bank profit rises 5% to ₹19,060 crore in Q1
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

Nifty and Nifty Bank Prediction for the week 20 Jul '26 to 24 Jul '26 by BL GURU

Nifty has managed to sustain itself very well above 24,000 all through last week. The strong rise on Friday indicates that the Nifty 50 is gaining momentum. Overall, our bullish view remains intact. We expect the Nifty to break its immediate resistance and go higher in the coming weeks. The Nifty Bank index, on the other hand, continues to remain in a range. It can make a bullish breakout of its range and rise going forward. Nifty is likely to break its 24,400-24,500 resistance and rise to 24,800 or 24,950. The nifty bank index is likely to make a bullish breakout above 58,900 and rise to 60,500-61,500. Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.

Nifty and Nifty Bank Prediction for the week 20 Jul '26 to 24 Jul '26 by BL GURU
North America
CNBC Economy

Consumer prices rose 3.5% annually in June, less than expected as energy prices eased

Consumer prices posted their biggest decline in more than six years during June as a sharp swoon in energy prices provided at least temporary relief from this year's inflation surge, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday. The consumer price index, a broad measure of costs for goods and services across the U.S. economy, was lower than expected across the board. The CPI fell a seasonally adjusted 0.4% for the month, bringing the annual inflation rate down to 3.5%. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for a drop of 0.2% and an inflation rate of 3.8%, following the 4.2% reading in May. The monthly decline in headline inflation was the biggest since April 2020. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, was flat on the month, putting the 12-month rate at 2.6%. The consensus forecast was for respective increases of 0.2% and 2.9%, following a 2.9% May level. The energy index slumped 5.7% in June, its biggest monthly drop since April 2020, though it still surged 15.7% on an annual basis, pushed by a 26.7% gain for gasoline. However, gasoline and fuel oil both saw decreases of more than 9% in June. In addition, services costs, which are closely watched by Federal Reserve policymakers for longer-run inflation trends, moderated significantly. Services excluding energy costs were flat, with shelter rising just 0.1% and transportation services posting a 0.3% decline. Food prices rose 0.2%, while new vehicles were flat and used cars and trucks saw a 0.2% decline. Apparel prices, which are sensitive to both energy and tariff inputs, fell 0.6%. Stock market futures were mostly positive following the report while Treasury yields were sharply lower. Traders continued to expect the Fed to hike in September, though they lowered the odds to 63% from better than 75% a day ago, according to the CME's FedWatch measure of futures prices. The Fed currently targets its key overnight borrowing rate in a range between 3.5%-3.75%. "June finally brought some relief on inflation," said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. "This takes the pressure off the Federal Reserve and allows the central bank to wait and see what happens. The concern is that this relief will be short-lived as the war in Iran re-starts. It's too uncertain to know how the inflation story ends." Though the inflation readings provided some hope, they are unlikely to motivate Federal Reserve officials to lower interest rates anytime soon, with the central bank broadly expected to raise its benchmark rate in September. Fed Governor Christopher Waller said Monday that it would take several months of positive readings to convince him that inflation is moving back to the central bank's 2% target. The report follows tough talk from Fed officials about inflation. Following their June meeting, policymakers released a statement flatly saying the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee "will deliver price stability."

Consumer prices rose 3.5% annually in June, less than expected as energy prices eased
Europe
BBC Business

Brewdog founder faces data complaints over efforts to buy back firm

Brewdog co-founder James Watt is facing complaints to the UK data watchdog after he reportedly contacted former shareholders as part of efforts to take back control of the craft brewer. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said it was "assessing" information following complaints related to Watt. Earlier this year, US drinks firm Tilray took over Brewdog in a deal worth about £33m after the company collapsed with debts of more than £500m, leading to hundreds of job losses. The administration process saw Brewdog shut 36 bars while the takeover deal rendered the shares of about 200,000 crowdfunding investors worthless. Watt stepped down as chief executive of the brand in 2024 to become its "captain and co-founder". On Wednesday, Watt made a bid to buy back the Scottish craft beer firm just months after it was acquired. He tabled an offer to buy Brewdog through his new beer firm, Second Best, claiming that 43,000 so-called equity punk investors had joined forces for the bid. The Guardian has reported, external that a number of shareholders contacted by Watt said they did not understand how he had their contact details, raising concerns about a potential breach of the general data protection regulation (GDPR). "We are aware of an incident involving Brewdog and we are assessing the information provided," an ICO spokeswoman said. At its peak, the company had four breweries, about 100 pubs worldwide and was said to be worth more than $1bn. Image source, Getty ImagesEarlier this week, bosses at Tilray stressed that the brand was not for sale and planned to reject Watt's takeover efforts. A spokesman added: "Tilray Brands did not acquire Equity for Punk shareholder data as part of its acquisition of the BrewDog brand and assets; that records system remains under the control of BrewDog plc (in administration).

Brewdog founder faces data complaints over efforts to buy back firm