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FRANKFURT (Reuters) -European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde renewed her call on Tuesday for a beefed-up global role for the euro currency, arguing that the bloc is now an innocent bystander, suffering shocks created in Washington and elsewhere. The euro, the world's second most-used currency behind the dollar, has appreciated sharply this year as investors fled the U.S. currency on policy uncertainty, picking up safe assets, like gold and top-tier European bonds, among others.  But the 20-nation currency bloc's market for investment grade sovereign debt and stocks is relatively small compared to the U.S., putting it at risk of volatility in case of such flows. "We are innocent bystanders of policy decisions made in Washington and of portfolio allocation decisions made worldwide, which we don’t have much influence over," Lagarde said in Paris. "It is not a sustainable position." "We cannot remain a passive safe haven, absorbing the shocks created elsewhere," Lagarde said in a speech. "We need to be a currency that shapes its own destiny." Critics argue that a larger market share would mean appreciation for the currency, an unwelcome trend putting exporters at a disadvantage.  The argument is that foreign demand for reserve assets would mean a steady inflow into the bloc and that would strengthen the currency and not just lower borrowing costs. But Lagarde argued that there is no such mechanical relationship and the bloc could mitigate such risks by shifting more of its foreign trade to euros and expanding domestic trade.  In any case, many of Europe's economic difficulties were self-inflicted that could be resolved by bolder policy initiatives, she argued. "Our weaker performance compared with the United States largely reflects internal barriers of our own making: including fragmented regulations, tax regimes, bankruptcy rules and incomplete capital markets," she said.  "Structural challenges such as high energy costs, low productivity and reluctance to finance common projects are also, to a large extent, within our own control." (Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Sharon Singleton)

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BOGOTA (Reuters) -Colombia closed its best coffee year in more than three decades, boosted by favorable weather conditions and the impact of crop renewal, although production is expected to decline in the upcoming cycle, the National Federation of Coffee Growers said on Tuesday. Coffee production in the world's third-largest producer after Brazil and Vietnam, rose 17% year-on-year to 14.87 million 60-kg bags between October 2024 and September 2025, exceeding the country's estimated annual output of 14 million bags. "We are now beginning the 2025/2026 coffee cycle, which, due to the natural physiological response of the coffee tree and significant rainfall in the first half of the year, is projected to be a year of lower production," federation manager German Bahamon said on X. Colombia has about 840,000 hectares under coffee cultivation, with approximately 540,000 families relying on the crop for their livelihoods. Output of washed arabica coffee rose 7% year-on-year in September to 1.14 million bags, the Federation said, though that figure was down from the 1.24 million bags produced in August. Coffee exports rose 6% in September to 1.06 million bags. Colombia's statistics agency DANE reported on Monday that the value of coffee exports jumped 79.7% year-on-year between January and August to $3.67 billion, driven by high international coffee prices. The following table shows Colombia's monthly coffee output and exports (in thousands of bags), starting with last month:   Output Exports 2025 September 1,142 1,063 August 1,243 1,128 July 1,373 1,150 June 909 1,086 May 819 910 April 703 796 March 1,064 1,268 February 1,361 1,187 January 1,356 1,151 2024     December 1,798 1,282 November 1,761 1,189 October 1,339 1,047 September 1,071 987 (Reporting by Nelson Bocanegra; Editing by Alistair Bell)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A leading U.S. bank regulator proposed rules Tuesday that would limit how bank examiners can police and address shortcomings within lenders, as the Trump administration continued efforts to rein in supervision the banking industry has long complained is overly punitive. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation approved a pair of proposals that would direct its examiners to focus on core financial issues, and restrict their ability to police nonfinancial matters. The first proposal, approved by the Republican-led panel, would define "safety and soundness" for banks as any issues that pose a material financial risk to the institution. Specifically, the proposal would limit the use of so-called "matters requiring attention," where a regulator orders a bank to address problems, and other enforcement actions to issues that have caused or could cause significant financial harm to the bank or make it more likely to fail. Travis Hill, the acting head of the regulator, said examiners would still be able to proactively identify potential problems, but their focus needed to be refined to core financial matters instead of "a litany of process-related items." The second proposed rule would codify a practice already adopted by the Trump administration, which has scrapped the use of so-called "reputation risk." All three major U.S. regulators announced earlier this year they would no longer apply that standard, which is when firms engage in activities that have the potential for negative publicity to hurt a bank's business or lead to costly litigation. Hill said in a prepared statement that this standard is "ripe for abuse" and "adds no value" to supervising banks. The proposal also would bar examiners from steering banks to avoid providing any services on political, social, cultural or religious views. The industry had pointed to that standard as a common culprit in cases of "debanking," when businesses or individuals claimed they were denied banking services on political or similar grounds. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in August explicitly barring the supervisory practice. (Reporting by Pete Schroeder; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Franklin Paul)

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By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) -Chobani urged a U.S. judge to dismiss a lawsuit by Danone, the parent of rival U.S. yogurt brand Dannon, claiming it copied the packaging and "Bright & Mellow" slogan for a competing line of ready-to-drink cold brew coffee. Danone accused Chobani in July of "knowing, calculated, and systematic" trademark infringement for selling La Colombe coffee, whose yellow-and-black packaging looked similar to its own SToK coffee and would confuse consumers. In a late Monday filing in Manhattan federal court, Chobani said it made fair use of "bright" and "mellow." It called the words generic terms that describe flavors that coffee drinkers might expect and cannot be trademarked. Chobani also said consumers could use "Bright & Mellow" to distinguish that variety of SToK coffee from "Bold & Smooth" and "Extra Bold" varieties. It said there was no evidence that consumers associated the phrase with Danone. "The term 'Bright & Mellow' simply tells consumers that the La Colombe product is a bright and mellow coffee," Chobani said. "Danone's lawsuit is an opportunistic attempt to weaponize trademark law against a superior competitor." Neither Danone nor its lawyers immediately responded on Tuesday to requests for comment. The lawsuit is at least the third between Danone and Chobani in the last decade. Chobani, based in Norwich, New York, bought La Colombe for $900 million in December 2023. Danone is based in Paris, and its U.S. unit is based in White Plains, New York. The case is Danone US LLC et al v Chobani LLC, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 25-06217.     (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New YorkEditing by Tomasz Janowski)

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By Diana Novak Jones (Reuters) -A Los Angeles jury late on Monday ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $966 million to the family of a woman who died from mesothelioma, finding the company liable in the latest lawsuit alleging its baby powder products cause cancer. (Reporting by Diana Novak Jones; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )

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By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Boeing is set to gain EU antitrust approval for its $4.7 billion acquisition of Spirit AeroSystems, with remedies to address EU concerns expected to include sales of some of the latter's businesses, people with direct knowledge of the matter said. Boeing announced the deal in July last year, aiming to streamline its operations and improve quality control, years after spinning off the key airline supplier. Boeing's remedies to address EU competition worries are expected to be those the companies announced at the time of the acquisition agreement, the people said. These are the sale of Spirit's loss-making Europe-focused activities to Airbus and the divestment of Spirit's operations in Prestwick, Scotland, and in Subang, Malaysia, that support Airbus programmes, as well as those in Belfast that do not support Airbus programmes. The European Commission, which acts as the EU's competition enforcer, is scheduled to make a decision by October 14. Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems declined to comment. Britain's competition agency cleared the deal without conditions in August. Boeing has long considered buying back its former subsidiary, which analysts say has struggled to thrive independently despite diversifying into work for Europe's Airbus and others. The decision to go ahead comes as Boeing tries to resolve a sprawling corporate and industrial crisis that has engulfed one of the industry's key suppliers. (Reporting by Foo Yun CheeEditing by Mark Potter)

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By Marc Jones LONDON (Reuters) -The boom in U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins, helped by Donald Trump's crypto policies, could suck $1 trillion worth of deposits out of emerging economy banks in the next few years, a report from Standard Chartered estimates. About 99% of all stablecoins are pegged to the dollar, which economists say effectively makes them dollar-based bank accounts and increasingly attractive in parts of the world prone to currency crises. Standard Chartered, a bank renowned for operating in developing economies, said the desire to avoid savings being wiped out will drive individuals and companies to put their money into stablecoin wallets instead of banks. "We see the potential for $1 trillion to leave emerging market banks and move into stablecoins in the next three years or so," the bank's report published on Monday said.     While new U.S. crypto laws aim to mitigate deposit flight by prohibiting U.S.-compliant stablecoin issuers from paying direct yields – the equivalent of an interest rate on a bank account – Standard Chartered said that emerging market populations will still want them.  "Return of capital matters more than return on capital," the bank said, estimating that current trends point to the use of stablecoins as savings across developing economies jumping to $1.22 trillion by the end of 2028, from around $173 billion now. While a large number in absolute terms, its analysts stressed that would still represent just 2% of bank deposits in the 16 countries they deem at "high-risk" of this kind of deposit flight.  They include Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka which have all suffered currency crashes in recent years, Kenya and Morocco and heavyweight emerging economies such as Turkey, India, China, Brazil, South Africa. "Many of them, with the key exception of China, have twin deficits that leave them relatively vulnerable to global risk aversion and sudden sharp currency depreciation," the report said. (Reporting by Marc Jones; Editing by Sharon Singleton)

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By Libby George and Rodrigo Campos LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) -An intricate series of pipes off Angola's Atlantic coast snakes toward a new fuel refinery that signals the country's push for energy independence — and its use of private creditors, instead of banks, to fund a big-ticket project. "We're not the lender of last resort," said Felipe Berliner, co-founder of emerging markets asset manager Gemcorp, which provided the bulk of funding for the refinery, using private capital. "Sometimes we are the only lender." Private credit for emerging markets — driven by investors' hunt for yields and saturation in developed Western markets — could grow exponentially, veteran investors told Reuters, providing tens of billions in funding as bilateral lending and foreign aid shrink. "This is a paradigm shift," said Pramol Dhawan, head of emerging markets portfolio management at PIMCO. "The need to globally reallocate is not a hedge — it's a secular thesis." PIMCO has committed around $30 billion across 140 emerging market deals in five years, and expects to boost annual lending by 30% this year to $10 billion. Other investors are targeting similar increases. RAPID GROWTH, BUT YIELDS SQUEEZED  Private credit skyrocketed over the past 20 years, with global assets under management rising to over $1.2 trillion from $200 million in the early 2000s, according to the Bank for International Settlements. The funding filled a gap for companies, mainly in the U.S., as banks limited lending due to regulations and capital requirements. Today, emerging markets get less than 10% of that cash. But the U.S. and Europe are saturated; competition has driven down margins, and bets are riskier. Experts from JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon to the IMF warn private credit looks shaky; the collapse of U.S. firms Tricolor and First Brands underscored the risks. Emerging markets, investors say, have bankable projects so keen for cash that you can pick and choose. "Emerging market companies have been forced to be more fundamentally conservative," said Matt Christ, portfolio manager at London-based global investment manager Ninety One. Developed markets are "priced for perfection", while emerging markets offer more upside. He said EM yields are 150 to 300 basis points higher than their developed market peers — and risk is often lower than ratings suggest. Christ, whose private credit portfolio is around $8 billion globally, sees scope to expand to $15 billion. EM firms, he said, are used to volatility and political instability — unlike most Western firms. "Developed market companies are going into an era they've never experienced before, but emerging market companies have been doing this for a long time," he said. Gustavo Ferraro, head of capital solutions at emerging markets-focused fund manager Gramercy, also said EM risk profiles and returns have surpassed those in developed markets. "The U.S. market isn't the benchmark anymore," he said. "Our (investors) want yield and uncorrelated exposure." Gramercy has doubled its private credit investment in five years to $4.8 billion, focusing on Latin America, Turkey and parts of Africa. Ninety One said that in Turkey, where authorities are limiting bank lending to cool inflation, private credit is filling a gap. FROM SOVEREIGNS TO SAUDI COMPANIES Most EM private credit is asset-backed — giving investors anything from company shares to control over the project itself. The structure favours infrastructure, but funding has gone to sovereign budgets and Turkish cities' transport networks. Angola's new refinery, mostly funded by Gemcorp with state oil company Sonangol also providing funds, will ultimately run at 60,000 barrels per day and make sub-Saharan Africa's No. 2 oil producer less reliant on costly fuel imports. The plant's first phase, which cost $475 million, is due to start operation by the end of the year. Gemcorp has also funded a wind farm in Lake Turkana in Kenya, a water sanitation project in Angola and power transmission between Angola and Namibia. A Gemcorp survey showed 67% of EM private credit went to large or medium corporates, and 22% to sovereign or quasi-sovereign projects. Gemcorp is launching a $1 billion fund targeting mid-market Saudi companies. "They are underfunded, they don't have access to the flexible capital they need to maintain growth from the government's fiscal push," Berliner said. The firm also funds Central American commodity exports to the U.S., West African fuel prepayment deals and gold producers. Berliner and others say private credit is flexible, fast and offers customised repayment terms — from upfront fees to extended maturities or EBITDA warrants (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) — making it ideal for upstarts and lower-rated sovereigns. "We're not replacing banks anymore. We're building something that didn't exist," Ferraro said. "This is bespoke financing for bespoke problems. That's what EM has in abundance." Privately, some bond investors worry private credit — nimbler and less onerous than bonded debt — could eat into their business. Others fear bigger problems if borrowers hit trouble. "If something goes wrong, like a big restructure, how does private credit deal with that? We don't really know," said Daniel Cash, associate professor of law at the UK's Aston University, adding that the "much more opaque" lending could also create issues. (Reporting by Libby George in London and Rodrigo Campos in New York. Additional reporting by Nell Mackenzie; Editing by Susan Fenton)

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By Manya Saini (Reuters) -Companies looking to sidestep disruptions caused by the U.S. government shutdown to their initial public offerings can tap a provision that allows them to press ahead with their listing plans without the need for regulatory approvals. Biotech startup MapLight became the first company to file for a listing under the provision late on Monday. The U.S. market regulator has halted IPO reviews as the shutdown enters its second week. WHAT HAPPENS TO THE SEC DURING A GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN? According to its contingency plan, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has furloughed over 90% of its staff, retaining around 390 employees to handle critical enforcement actions and market monitoring. The agency, which oversees the public markets, will not process IPO filings during the shutdown, a move analysts say could stall momentum in a market recovering from a years-long slump. WHAT IS THE 20-DAY REGISTRATION RULE FOR IPOS? While companies typically wait for the SEC's approval before launching their IPOs, the rules provide a mechanism that allows issuers to declare their own registrations "effective." Issuers are required to set their IPO price 20 days before the listing, instead of finalizing it the night before, as is customary. During the 2018 U.S. government shutdown, which lasted 35 days and was during Donald Trump's first presidential term, several issuers attempted this option, including biotechnology firm Gossamer Bio and energy company New Fortress Energy. It was also a popular option among so-called special purpose acquisition companies. SPACs raise money through an IPO to fund future acquisitions. At the time of listing, they are blank-check companies with no existing operations or assets. Their valuation is tied entirely to the cash raised, which allows them to set an IPO price in advance without deterring investors. WHAT ARE THE RISKS FOR ISSUERS AND INVESTORS? While the 20-day rule provides a way for companies to go public during a shutdown, bypassing the SEC review carries risks for both issuers and investors. Without the agency's oversight, registration statements are more prone to errors or missing disclosures, which could expose companies to legal action or investor complaints after listing. Companies may face greater scrutiny from investors, who often rely on the SEC's review to verify the accuracy and completeness of disclosures. To reduce that risk, many issuers work closely with legal and financial advisers to carry out detailed internal reviews of their filings. Skipping regulatory reviews can also alienate investors, who may view the lack of regulatory vetting as a sign of higher risk or insufficient transparency. "Bypassing regulatory review heightens the risk of overlooked disclosures or filing errors, leaving both issuers and investors more vulnerable to legal trouble and unpleasant surprises after launch," said Troy Hooper, co-head of equity capital markets, Americas, at Mergermarket. "Many investors view SEC scrutiny as essential to maintaining trust. Without it, issuers may face skepticism and weaker valuations." WILL MORE COMPANIES TAKE THIS ROUTE? Analysts say companies could rely on the 20-day registration rule if the shutdown looks set to drag on amid the ongoing deadlock in Congress. "Biotech companies are prime candidates for this unconventional but valid way to go public during a shutdown as their high cash-burn rates often create an urgent need for funding," said Lukas Muehlbauer, research analyst at IPO research firm IPOX. Some firms may also withdraw IPO filings and seek capital in private markets while waiting for the SEC to resume reviews. (Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)

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