Brief: U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Thursday that the American economy could start to reopen for business in May, despite many medical experts saying that closures and social distancing measures will need to stay in place for longer to defeat the coronavirus. Asked on CNBC whether he thought President Donald Trump could reopen the U.S. economy in May, Mnuchin said, “I do.” “As soon as the president feels comfortable with the medical issues, we are making everything necessary that American companies and American workers can be open for business and that they have the liquidity they need to operate the business in the interim.” U.S. economists have cautioned against bringing large numbers of people back to their workplaces too quickly.
Brief: Morgan Stanley’s (MS.N) Chief Executive Officer James Gorman said he has fully recovered from the illness caused by the novel coronavirus, according to a video that was sent to the bank’s employees on Thursday. Gorman released the 10-minute video to staff by email in which he said he had tested positive for coronavirus and had been fully cleared by doctors more than a week ago. Gorman is currently undergoing self-isolation at home and working remotely, according to the video. A Morgan Stanley spokesman confirmed the contents of the video, adding the development was not considered to be material because Gorman was not incapacitated at any time.
Brief: The UK’s accountancy watchdog has paused its plans to separate the Big Four accountancy firms, as the profession tackles the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 downturn. In astatementfrom the Financial Reporting Council on April 9, the watchdog said it would stop all “demands on, requests from and meetings with audit firms on operational separation”. The pause will be reviewed in one month’s time. The decision to put the break-up on hold comes shortly after the FRC wrote to the leaders ofDeloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC outlining its separation plans. In a statement at the end of February, Claire Lindridge, the FRC’s director of audit firm monitoring and supervision had said the firms would be expected to ensure their “audit practice is properly ring fenced”, so that “financial results are clear and transparent”.
Brief: BlackRock Inc. won’t layoff any employees this year as a result of the coronavirus, according to chief executive officer Larry Fink. The world’s largest asset manager will also pay full-time wages to the people staffing its facilities, including cafeteria and maintenance workers, even if they can’t come to work, Fink said Wednesday in a post on LinkedIn. More than 90% of BlackRock employees are working remotely. The firm employs more than 16,000 people worldwide. The announcement comes as global companies grapple with major changes to their businesses, with the pandemic spurring an unprecedented shift to working from home. Fink said last month he had “never experienced anything like this” in more than four decades working in finance, but expected the economy to recover eventually.
Brief: Paul Singer, billionaire founder of the $40 billion Elliot Management hedge fund, apparently warned his staff of the coronavirus' ramifications well before many other leaders appeared concerned. On February 1, according to a memo seen by Bloomberg News' Katia Porzecanski, Singer told employees to prepare for at least a month of self-isolation at home. That meant making sure they had "access to sufficient food, water, and medicines." His memo came well before many US officials warned of such drastic effects. New York State, for example, did not close bars and restaurants until March 16, the same week the Centers for Disease Control warned against gatherings of more than 10 people.
Brief: San Francisco-based Colchis Capital Management LP, a pioneer backer of online direct lending platforms, is winding down its main funds as disruptions caused by the novel coronavirus have started to hit its consumer and real estate loans, according to materials reviewed by Reuters. “The largest risk to the Colchis Income Funds is unemployment for our consumer loans and weakness in the housing market for our bridge real estate loans,” Colchis Chief Investment Officer Robert Conrads wrote in a letter to investors on March 31. “Moreover, there is no consensus as to the timing or strength of the recovery in employment and economic conditions.”