Good morning. Attorneys general from seven states are launching an inquiry into buy now, pay later lenders including Affirm, Klarna and PayPal.

• Six targeted: The attorneys general sent a letter Monday to the six largest buy now, pay later providers seeking information about their pricing and repayment structures, as well as consumer contracts, agreements and disclosures. Block’s company Afterpay, Sezzle and Zip also received the letter.
   
• Consumer focus: The inquiry aims to determine whether the companies are complying with consumer protection laws and if their products may be placing consumers at financial risk. Attorneys general have previously raised concerns that buy now, pay later companies may not provide the same consumer protections as other credit products.
   
• Information sought: They are asking companies to describe each of their loan products, including pricing and repayment, and their process for addressing consumers’ disputes. They are also seeking information about customer service, procedures to determine consumers’ ability to take on a loan and procedures around credit reporting.
   
• Repayment capacity: “We are also concerned that BNPL providers may not adequately assess borrowers’ capacity to repay their loans,” the letter said. The letter was from officials in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Minnesota, North Carolina and Wisconsin.

UBS charged in Switzerland over Credit Suisse ‘Tuna Bonds’ scandal.

Switzerland’s attorney general filed criminal charges against UBS and a former Credit Suisse compliance officer, saying they failed to take steps to prevent money laundering in what later became known as the Mozambique “tuna bonds” scandal.

The charges are the latest in a saga that started around 2013, when Credit Suisse arranged $2 billion in debt deals for state-owned companies in Mozambique to buy tuna-fishing vessels and other equipment. When the debt couldn’t be repaid on time, it emerged that the money from the bonds was part of an epic fraud centered on cash bribes and secret fees.

UBS, which took over Credit Suisse in a state-engineered rescue in 2023, said: “We firmly reject the Office of the Attorney General’s conclusions and will vigorously defend our position.” UBS was charged as criminally liable for the alleged money laundering as Credit Suisse’s successor, though the alleged conduct took place in 2016.

Starbucks reaches $38.9 million settlement with NYC on worker protection violations. 

Starbucks will pay $38.9 million in restitution to employees and civil penalties following a settlement with New York City.

The global coffee chain will pay $35.5 million to more than 15,000 workers, along with $3.4 million in civil penalties and costs, the city said Monday.

The agreement comes after the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection found Starbucks had committed half a million violations of New York City’s Fair Workweek Law since 2021.

• The U.S. has warned cross-border money transmitters that funds potentially linked to illegal work stateside should be treated as suspicious, Risk Journal reports.
   
• British banks will no longer need to hold so much capital, as the U.K. joins the U.S. in unwinding some measures put in place after the global financial crisis.

Founder of oil-trading firm that the U.S. called ‘Kremlin’s Puppet’ quits.

Gunvor said billionaire founder Torbjörn Törnqvist would leave the commodities-trading company and sell his stake to employees, less than a month after the Trump administration pilloried the firm over its alleged ties to Moscow.

The Geneva-based company said Monday that the 72-year-old Swede would sell his 86.1% stake to approximately 60 employees, and that neither Törnqvist nor any of his family or representatives would have any continued involvement with the firm.

Gunvor also named Gary Pedersen, a U.S. citizen who currently runs the company’s Americas business, as its new chief executive.

• Shopify experienced an outage on Cyber Monday that interrupted transactions for some merchants on its e-commerce platform during one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
   
• Airbus has identified a quality issue with metal panels on hundreds of its bestselling A320 family of aircraft, a fresh setback days after the company warned that thousands of the jets required an urgent software fix.
   
• Sudan’s military government has offered Russia what would be its first naval base in Africa and an unprecedented perch overlooking critical Red Sea trade routes, according to Sudanese officials.
   
• Risk Journal reports China’s Ministry of Commerce has pledged to expand market access for foreign investment in telecommunications and healthcare as part of efforts to improve the business environment for foreign enterprises, a ministry spokesperson said Thursday.
   
• Britain will spend more on new medicines in exchange for avoiding tariffs on U.K. pharmaceutical exports to the U.S., the first major success in President Trump’s drive to get other countries to pay more for medicines that he says are unfairly subsidized by American consumers.

• The White House attempted to defuse a growing controversy over an attack on an alleged drug boat in September, saying an admiral who ordered a second strike that is reported to have killed two survivors had acted legally under authority granted him by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
   
• An appeals court ruled Monday that Alina Habba can’t serve as the acting U.S. attorney in New Jersey, in the latest setback for the Trump administration’s efforts to keep preferred candidates in top prosecutorial posts without Senate approval.
   
• Air travelers without a REAL ID-compliant form of identification will be required to pay a $45 fee to pass through airport security starting on Feb. 1.
   
• The White House said President Trump underwent advanced imaging in October to assess his “cardiovascular and abdominal health,” offering some new details about the procedure amid increasing pressure to explain why it was necessary.

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