insurance

Paola Andrea Vargas Rubio – pvargas@larepublica.com.co

After the end of last month, the Financial Superintendence of Colombia reported that JP Morgan Corporación Financiera had filed a request for conversion approval to obtain the banking license in Colombia. The financial superintendent, Jorge Castaño, assured that the license requested by JP Morgan is to operate as a commercial bank.

In turn, Castaño said that this is not the only entity that is in process, since BTG Pactual has already filed its request and four financing companies are coming, which are Mercado Pago, Scotiabank-Colpatria, Ualá and Banco Santander.

According to Castaño, it is expected that these requests will be answered by December of this year.

This shows that the country’s financial system is betting on dynamism and is opening up to consumers the possibility of finding more options that allow them to choose the services and products that best suit their needs in the midst of a secure scheme, said Castaño.

News in development …

Financial Newspaper – Santiago

The bank, the largest in the United Kingdom, moved the money through its business in the United States to HSBC accounts in Hong Kong in 2013 and 2014, according to the confidential file.

The documents were leaked to the Buzzfeed portal and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists while the British investigative program Panorama led the investigation for the public channel BBC.

That chain indicated that the uncovered files detail what the role of that bank was in an investment fraud valued at US $ 80 million.

HSBC has always maintained that it complied with its legal obligations when reporting such activity.

The documents also show that the investment scam – known as the Ponzi scheme – began shortly after the British bank was sanctioned with a fine worth US $ 1.9 billion in the United States for money laundering operations and has since committed to eradicate such practices.

According to the BBC, lawyers for some of the investors who were duped in these operations considered that the entity should have taken steps earlier to close the accounts of the fraudsters.

The FinCEN files are 2,657 documents, including 2,100 Suspicious Activity Reports (or SARs), which include information on transactions that raise suspicions in the banks themselves.

They send these reports to the relevant authorities if they suspect that their clients are engaging in illicit activities and if they have evidence of criminal activity practices they should stop moving their money.

The leak shows how money was laundered by some of the world’s largest banks and how criminals used anonymous British companies to hide the money.

Fergus Shiel, part of that consortium, indicated that the files provide knowledge about “what the banks know about the vast flows of dirty money circulating around the globe.”

Kevin Steven Bohórquez Guevara – kbohoquez@larepublica.com.co

In approximately two weeks the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) will open the qualification phase for companies interested in fracking pilots. It will be a new process in which the entity will analyze several proposals, with the aim of defining who will be the contractors that will develop the entire research process in two key basins of these deposits: Cesar – Ranchería and Valle Medio del Magdalena.

The new call, which is expected to be defined no later than November 23 – the day on which the contracts will be awarded – will be the starting point for interested oil companies to formally begin work with the communities, their relationship in the territories and the Application for the environmental license before Anla.

Although not all those interested in the process are known yet, industry sources pointed out that there are already several market players who have shown interest in the development of pilot projects for comprehensive research (ppii). It is, in fact, Ecopetrol, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, which have already been preparing in recent months to carry out all the research in these two basins.

Ecopetrol, for example, has already shown interest in the Middle Magdalena Valley. “We are attentive to participate in the competitive process that the ANH has announced for the allocation of Special Contracts for Research Projects (Cepi) for the development of Pilot Projects for Integral Research (ppii), for which we are waiting for the definitive terms of reference that establish the contractual conditions, ”said Ricardo Gómez, vice president of unconventional deposits at Ecopetrol.

The manager stressed that they have estimated to make investments of up to US $ 127 million for the Ppii. “The times will depend on what is established in the regulation, but, as we have said before, the important thing is not to do it quickly, but to do it well,” he added.

ExxonMobil, for its part, is finalizing the details to finalize its alliance with Ecopetrol. At press time, the company did not answer a series of questions from LR. However, Gómez stressed that they are “working on the consolidation of that alliance that, if achieved, would allow us to have the experience of one of the largest companies in the world and with the greatest experience in the operation of unconventional deposits.”

Another of the companies is ConocoPhillips Colombia, which, under the command of Álex Martínez, country manager, has carried out important work with the communities where it operates for a long time. In fact, Martínez confirmed to LR a few months ago (before the pandemic) that they were analyzing investing US $ 100 million in two pilots.

“Although preliminary calculations by the ACP indicate that for the comprehensive pilot research projects an initial investment will be required for the exploratory phase of around US $ 650 million in the first years of the projects, the value of the investment would be determined by the regulations definitive, the requirements regarding projects and wells for the evaluation of the technique, and the complexity of the fulfillment of the requirements that they stipulate ”, highlighted Francisco Lloreda, president of the ACP.

Carlos Leal, president of the board of directors of Acipet, highlighted that, for now “if the award is given in November, it would be expected that from the second half of 2021 drilling of the wells would begin.”

This is the schedule of the call

Specifically, the ANH explained that there will be three phases in the schedule before the day of awarding the pilot contracts. Between October 5 and 9 will be the presentation of the documents to obtain the authorization of the participants, while the 29 of the same month will be the presentation of proposals. Thus, from November 23, contracts will be signed, which, according to the entity, will be under the framework of a Special Research Project Contract (Cepi), which will be signed under a consortium or only the company that remains with the assignment.

Lina Vargas Vega – lvargas@larepublica.com.co

Auteco, the motorcycle assembly brand that sells a third of the motorcycles registered in the country, will expand its portfolio thanks to its alliance with TVS Motor Company, the manufacturer of two- and three-wheeled vehicles.

With the union, it is expected to increase the supply of semi-automatic, automatic, motorcycle and electric motorcycles and to further expand the portfolio of street motorcycles in the 600 Auteco points of sale.

The alliance includes the assembly service at the Cartagena and Itagüí plants of the Colombian company, and the use of a specialized training center.

R Dilip, TVS Executive Vice President of International Business, stated “We are delighted to expand our presence in Colombia with a company with extensive experience in the region and that shares our customer-focused corporate value.”

For his part, Carlos Durán, president of Auteco, said about the alliance “with TVS we have a greater capacity to produce mobility solutions that Colombians need.”

Pfizer Inc. CEO Albert Bourla said the US is “likely” to roll out a COVID-19 vaccine to the public before the end of the year and that the company is prepared for that scenario, rejecting shared lukewarm expectations. by health authorities.

Bourla said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday that he is “quite comfortable” that the vaccine the company is developing in partnership with BioNTech SE is safe and that it could be available to Americans before 2021, depending on approval. from US regulators at the US Food and Drug Administration.

“I can’t say what the FDA will do,” Bourla said. “But I think it is a likely scenario and we are preparing for it.”

New York-based Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech are considered pioneers in the race to develop a coronavirus vaccine, along with Moderna Inc. and AstraZeneca Plc. Bourla said that Pfizer and its partner have a 60% chance of knowing the efficacy of their still experimental vaccine by the end of October.

“Of course that doesn’t mean it works; that means we’ll know if it works, ”Bourla said. Timing of clinical trial results depends on enough people in the study getting Covid-19 to make a calculation. But the positive results could clear the way for approval, he said.

Bourla’s guarantees come just as Pfizer and BioNTech have expanded the number of clinical trial participants they are looking to include more people with diverse backgrounds.

Extended enrollment
The companies said in a statement Saturday that they hope to enroll the 30,000 patients they originally sought for their final phase clinical trial this week. They are also expanding that target to 44,000 participants to include people as young as 16, and to allow people with HIV and hepatitis B and hepatitis C.

Bourla told CBS that they will also focus on recruiting more people of color, including African Americans and Latinos, for the final stage of the trial in the coming weeks. She said the study participants are currently 60% white and 40% people of color, with older volunteers making up 44% of the cohort.

The companies joined other vaccine developers last week in an unusual commitment to submit applications to the FDA for vaccine approval only when the drugs have been shown to be safe and effective in large clinical trials. That followed concerns that President Donald Trump is pressuring the agency to make cuts to bring a vaccine to market before the Nov.3 election.

Bourla said part of the reason Pfizer didn’t accept taxpayer money to fund research and development for the Covid-19 vaccine was to avoid red tape and government influence. “I wanted to keep Pfizer out of politics,” he said.

Political pressure
Trump has said publicly that a vaccine could be licensed for the November election even though other top US health officials, including National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, have said they believe closer to the end of the year is more realistic. Even then, there won’t be enough vaccines available to cover most Americans until well into 2021.

Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, who also spoke on CBS, said it is “atypical” that the approval process for any drug or vaccine is debated in a political context.

“I don’t think we’ll see an authorization before the election,” said Gottlieb, who sits on the Pfizer board of directors. He added that American’s distrust of a covid-19 vaccine will likely dissipate after the election.

The former FDA chief said he hopes most Americans will not get vaccinated until 2021 or later.

“This is likely to be a very tiered entry to the market,” Gottlieb said. He outlined a process in which regulators will first issue an emergency use approval that will provide a limited supply of injections to people at high risk of infection, including front-line workers. Then the FDA will “slowly reduce that approval” to make it more available, Gottlieb said.