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Aug 1 (Reuters) - Rating agency Fitch on Tuesday downgraded the U.S. government's top credit rating, a move that drew an angry response from the White House and surprised investors, coming despite the resolution of the debt ceiling crisis two months ago.Fitch downgraded the United States to AA+ from AAA, citing fiscal deterioration over the next three years and repeated down-the-wire debt ceiling negotiations that threaten the government’s ability to pay its bills.Fitch had first flagged the possibility of a downgrade in May, then maintained that position in June after...

LONDON, July 31 (Reuters) - A German data watchdog has been investigating OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's Worldcoin project since late last year due to concerns over its large-scale processing of sensitive biometric data, the regulator's president told Reuters.Worldcoin, which launched last week, requires users to give their iris scans in exchange for a digital ID and, in some countries, free cryptocurrency as part of plans to create a new "identity and financial network".The Bavarian State Office for Data Protection Supervision started investigating Worldcoin in November 2022 because of concerns that...

LONDON/SYDNEY, July 31 (Reuters) - Commercial real estate investors and lenders are slowly confronting an ugly question - if people never again shop in malls or work in offices the way they did before the pandemic, how safe are the fortunes they piled into bricks and mortar?Rising interest rates, stubborn inflation and squally economic conditions are familiar foes to seasoned commercial property buyers, who typically ride out storms waiting for rental demand to rally and the cost of borrowing to fall.Cyclical downturns rarely prompt fire sales, so long as lenders...

July 27 (Reuters) - British asset manager Schroders (SDR.L) reported a drop in first-half assets under management on Thursday, due to weaker investor sentiment amid market volatility.UK investors are playing it safe pulling $842 million from equity funds in June in favour of money market and fixed-income funds, fund network Calastone said earlier this month."Like the rest of our peers we see this to be a challenging environment, markets are volatile," Jupiter CEO Matthew Beesley told Reuters."We know that client confidence in markets is not high. With this uncertain environment...

WASHINGTON, July 27 (Reuters) - U.S. regulators are set to propose a rule that could significantly raise capital requirements for larger banks, forcing them to cut costs and retain earnings in an effort to cushion against potential losses that could harm customers and investors.The proposal, to be unveiled later on Thursday and voted on by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Federal Reserve, marks the first in an extensive effort to tighten bank oversight, particularly in the wake of spring turmoil that saw three large financial firms fail.The rule,...