The chair of the negotiations Ecuador’s Luis Vayas Valdivieso adjourned the session with a pledge to resume talks at an undetermined later date

International News via Reuters:

Delegates discussing the world’s first legally binding treaty to tackle plastic pollution failed to reach consensus, diplomats said on Friday, voicing disappointment and even rage that the 10-day talks produced no deal.

Delegates had been seeking a breakthrough in the deadlocked United Nations’ talks in Geneva, but states pushing for an ambitious treaty said that the latest text released overnight failed to meet their expectations.

The chair of the negotiations Ecuador’s Luis Vayas Valdivieso adjourned the session with a pledge to resume talks at an undetermined later date, drawing weak applause from exhausted delegates who had worked into the early hours.

French ecology minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher told the meeting’s closing session that she was “enraged because despite genuine efforts by many, and real progress in discussions, no tangible results have been obtained.” 

In an apparent reference to oil-producing nations, Colombia’s delegate Haendel Rodriguez said a deal had been “blocked by a small number of states who simply did not want an agreement.”

Diplomats and climate advocates had warned earlier this month that efforts by the European Union and small island states to cap virgin plastic production – fuelled by petroleum, coal and gas – faced opposition from petrochemical-producing countries and the U.S. under President Donald Trump.

U.S. delegate John Thompson from the State Department declined to comment as he left the talks.

The path forward for the negotiations is uncertain. 

U.N. officials and some countries, including Britain, said that negotiations should resume but others described a broken process. 

“It is very clear that the current process will not work,” South Africa’s delegate said.

More than 1,000 delegates have gathered in Geneva for the sixth round of talks, after a meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) in South Korea late last year ended without a deal.

Negotiations had gone into overtime on Thursday as countries scrambled to bridge deep divisions over the extent of future curbs. Many, including Danish environment minister Magnus Heunicke, who negotiated on behalf of the EU, were disappointed that the final push did not yield any results.

“Of course we cannot hide that it is tragic and deeply disappointing to see some countries trying to block an agreement,” he told reporters while vowing to keep working on the treaty necessary to tackle “one of the biggest pollution problems we have on earth.”

Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, also pledged to continue work. “We did not get where we want but people want a deal,” she said.

The most divisive issues include capping production, managing plastic products and chemicals of concern, and financing to help developing countries implement the treaty.

Anti-plastics campaigners voiced disappointment at the outcome but welcomed states’ rejection of a weak deal that failed to place limits on plastics production. “No treaty is better than a bad treaty,” said Ana Rocha, Global Plastics Policy Director from environmental group GAIA.

Reporting by Emma Farge, Writing by Miranda Murray; Editing by Jacqueline Wong, Christian Schmollinger and Tomasz Janowski

The owners are in the early stages of exploring a potential sale of Moneris

International News via Reuters:

Royal Bank of Canada and Bank of Montreal have placed their Canadian payments joint venture up for sale, in a deal that may value the business as highly as $2 billion, four people familiar with the matter said.

Moneris is one of the largest payment processors in Canada, handling one in every three business transactions in the country. It was founded in 2000 by the two banks, and offers digital, mobile, and in-store payment systems for about 325,000 merchant locations, according to its website.

The owners are in the early stages of exploring a potential sale of Moneris, according to the people, who asked not to be named because the talks are private. Boutique investment bank PJT Partners, as well as investment bankers from RBC Capital Markets and BMO Capital Markets, are advising on the sale effort.

Moneris generates nearly $700 million in annual revenue, so the sources estimated this could equate to a $2-billion valuation, or slightly below that amount.

A sale is not guaranteed, and the owners could ultimately retain some or all of the business, the people added.

BMO, Moneris, and PJT declined to comment. RBC did not respond to a request for comment. 

As the pace of digitization has increased in the North American payments industry in recent years, with the need to regularly spend capital to remain competitive, many banks have shed their payments businesses.

They have found willing buyers in payments companies, which have been growing through mergers and acquisitions to boost geographic scale and product offerings, as well as private equity firms, which value the recurring fee revenue that payments businesses generate.

Last month, Canada’s TD Bank said it was forming a strategic partnership with Fiserv in relation to its Canadian merchant payments business.

Reporting by Milana Vinn and David French in New York; Additional Reporting by Nivedita Balu in TorontoEditing by Rod Nickel

The company said tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump would cost it about $160 million for its fiscal 2026

International News via Reuters:

Coach parent Tapestry forecast annual profit below expectations due to rising tariffs, sending its shares plunging 14%, and said it planned to cut the number of handbag styles offered as retailers try to offset the impact of import duties.

The company said tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump would cost it about $160 million for its fiscal 2026, following warnings from other upmarket retailers such as Gucci-owner Kering and French luxury group LVMH on the hit from the levies. 

The retail industry relies heavily on production from Southeast Asian countries, and now must bear the cost of roughly 20% tariffs on goods brought in from those nations. Tapestry makes its Coach and Kate Spade handbags primarily in countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, and India.

The tariffs will disproportionately affect Kate Spade as the vast majority of its business is in the United States, chief financial officer Scott Roe said.

Tapestry said it would cut the number of Kate Spade handbags it offers by 30% across all regions. Several retailers have reduced the range of inventory they are importing as weaker-selling brands become less attractive to ship with added tariffs.

“Tariffs are now forcing brands across the consumer spectrum to take a closer look at their assortments and focus on their most profitable SKUs, which can also help preserve margins by reducing the need to markdown,” eMarketer’s Sky Canaves said.

The company’s quarterly sales came in at $1.72 billion, ahead of the LSEG analyst consensus for $1.68 billion. Tapestry also said it expects annual revenue of $7.2 billion, ahead of expectations. 

Adjusted profit for the quarter ended June 28 was $1.04 per share, topping estimates of $1.02 per share.

Tapestry expects fiscal 2026 earnings-per-share in the range of $5.30 to $5.45, compared with estimates of $5.49 per share, according to LSEG data. The company expects a 60-cent tariff hit to its annual profit, with the end of the “de minimis” exemption on small shipments accounting for about a third of the impact.

“Even within Tapestry, the sought-after Coach brand should be able to pass down more of the tariff costs to customers via higher prices than Kate Spade, which is less in demand,” Canaves added.

 Companies this year aggressively increased imports ahead of Trump’s imposition of tariffs. So far, U.S. businesses have mostly absorbed the rising import costs, but Goldman Sachs economists believe that will change in the coming months. While consumer-level inflation has remained relatively steady, inflation at the producer level spiked in July.

Tapestry sales declined 11% in Japan and revenue decreased 1% in other Asian countries.

Shares of the company have risen about 74% this year, largely due to the appeal of Coach bags that have won over younger consumers.

Reporting by Anuja Bharat Mistry in Bengaluru; Samantha Marshak in New York, Editing by Leroy Leo

As part of its “global security strategy”, the bank plans a four-fold increase in the number of cameras at its new building in the City of London

International News via Reuters:

HSBC plans to step up surveillance of staff and buildings by adding more cameras and biometric access to its premises globally, internal documents seen by Reuters show, a move that comes amid growing concerns about companies’ extensive monitoring of workers.

As part of its “global security strategy”, the bank plans a four-fold increase in the number of cameras at its new building in the City of London, a site about half the size of its existing office in Canary Wharf, an internal presentation by the bank’s protective security team dated May 2025, seen by Reuters, shows. According to the presentation, the new London building is expected to have an estimated 1,754 cameras, up from about 444 devices installed in its current global headquarters in Canary Wharf in London.

It also plans to double its biometric readers to access the new building to 779 from 350.

Under the plan, reported here for the first time, access to HSBC’s top-tier buildings, including in Britain and the U.S., should be based on biometric verification, including full-hand recognition.

Access can also be “digital”, with employees expected to use their own mobile phones to badge in, the presentation document shows.

HSBC, Europe’s biggest bank by assets, employs more than 210,000 people globally, including more than 31,000 across the UK.

Most employees are expected to use personal mobile phones with a firm-installed software on them to gain access. This has met with some resistance from staff, a person with knowledge of the policies said.

As of the end of last year, most of the UK staff had yet to adhere to the biometric and digital access policy which the bank started to implement in 2022, in part because of opposition, according to the person.

“The safety and security of our people is at the forefront of everything HSBC does,” an HSBC representative told Reuters.

“We regularly risk assess every building and dependant on the identified risk and vulnerabilities, we continue to invest in the latest cutting-edge technology to safeguard our colleagues, customers and visitors in line with industry standards,” the bank added.

Companies have increased surveillance of staff amid a shift to hybrid working, while advances in technology allow for more sophisticated controls.

Banks in particular have stepped up monitoring to ensure the parts of their businesses that are heavily regulated comply with conduct rules. National privacy laws determine what companies can monitor.

The extensive surveillance enabled by new technologies is raising concerns about risks to workers’ rights and wellbeing, according to a May report by the Institute for Public Policy Research, a London-based think tank.

In July, HSBC requested that senior staff globally report to the office at least four days a week, starting from October, a bank spokesperson said. Previously, the bank had no global policy on the matter, with approaches varying depending on the country, they said.

As demands for office space grow again, the bank has decided to add to its planned City of London HQ, with a new smaller presence in Canary Wharf, Reuters reported.

The documents seen by Reuters do not include references to the new Canary Wharf office space.

The bank’s security project is overseen by Diane Marchena, global head of protective security, who reports to Chief Operating Officer Suzy White, the person with knowledge of the matter said.

Marchena and White declined to comment for this article.

ISRAELI SURVEILLANCE TOOLS

HSBC has been working with Israeli firm Octopus since at least 2024, adopting some of its tools for surveillance in the UK and Hong Kong and is planning more rollouts for monitoring, other documents outlining HSBC’s global strategy seen by Reuters show.

HSBC plans the deployment of Octopus tools in other countries such as India and Mexico this year, the documents, which are undated, show.

Israel is one of the world’s leading exporters of surveillance. Octopus says it sells its tools to buyers in 28 countries. Its technology has been reportedly used by entities, including the Israeli government to monitor some Israeli cities and a European Union-funded refugee camp on the Greek island of Samos.

A representative for Octopus did not take Reuters calls seeking comment and the company did not respond to a Reuters email seeking comment.

An HSBC spokesperson said the bank does not comment on vendors or suppliers.

TRADING FLOORS

In HSBC’s new London building, the increased video surveillance will include cameras at entry and exit points of trading floors, the May 2025 presentation shows, and the use of artificial intelligence analytics.

HSBC’s budget for the initial rollout of the new London building surveillance was recently tripled to about $15 million, the person familiar with the matter said.

According to the presentation, “theft incidents” in its Canary Wharf building “point to the need for increased CCTV capabilities on working floors,” and that recent “crime data” showed an increase of incidents, including burglary, within a one-mile radius of the new office.

The person familiar with the matter said that theft events on HSBC premises were mostly minor.

Reporting by Stefania Spezzati and Iain Withers; editing by Elisa Martinuzzi and Jane Merriman