Good morning. Volkswagen AG is betting that a reformed compliance culture and an expanded whistleblower program that helped the German car maker clear a critical U.S. regulatory milestone this month will also help prevent another scandal and go a long way in restoring its reputation.

The car maker has spent the past few years trying to resolve issues related to its 2015 admission that it rigged about 11 million of its diesel vehicles world-wide with software to dodge government emissions tests, a revelation that came after U.S. regulators alleged that Volkswagen installed software to make cars appear to run cleaner.

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The company says its yearslong, multipronged transformation and ongoing surveillance are essential to its survival. Getting that point across to employees is easier when you can put a price tag on noncompliance: €32 billion ($37.56 billion) in fines, penalties and compensation to customers, said Hiltrud D. Werner, the member of Volkswagen’s board of management in charge of compliance, risk management and legal affairs. “Then you can explain, ‘Look, we don’t want another scandal. We cannot survive another scandal,’ ” she said in an interview.

Still, some investors and analysts say they remain cautious about whether the kind of cultural transformation described by the company can be fully realized in a global enterprise with more than 600,000 people.

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JPMorgan Chase & Co. agreed to pay $920 million and admit misconduct tied to manipulation of precious-metals and Treasury markets, regulators said. The settlement resolves investigations by the Justice Department, Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fine is the largest the CFTC has ever imposed for spoofing, a type of market manipulation, the agency said.

The settlement is just the latest move from prosecutors and regulators that began cracking down on spoofing in 2014. Since then, the Justice Department has charged 20 people with spoofing-related crimes, and banks and other financial institutions have collectively paid more than $1 billion in fines tied to civil and criminal spoofing probes.

• Kroll Bond Rating Agency Inc. agreed to pay $2 million in a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for violating rules designed to make credit ratings accurate. The deal comes amid rising concerns over rosy grades given out by ratings firms on tens of billions of bond deals backed by malls, hotels and other now-struggling commercial properties.
   
• The Treasury Department said it would begin forgiving loans granted to small-business owners under the Paycheck Protection Program, following banks’ and borrowers’ complaints that the process had been bogged down.
   
• The United Arab Emirates ramped up deliveries of military supplies to Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar this year, according to a confidential United Nations report, flouting an arms embargo as the Gulf state tried to salvage the leader’s military campaign and check the influence of regional rival Turkey.

• A federal court dismissed a New Mexico lawsuit alleging that Alphabet Inc.’s Google knowingly spied on students and their families through its suite of cloud-based products for schools. U.S. District Judge Nancy D. Freudenthal ruled that the internet company didn’t violate the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act in relying on schools to review or limit what data its education platform collects and uses on behalf of students’ parents.
   
• Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey pledged that Twitter’s data won’t be used for government surveillance, a commitment the company affirmed four years ago in responding to allegations of widespread police monitoring of Black Lives Matter protesters.

Retail store closings in the U.S. reached a record in the first half of 2020 and the year is on pace for record bankruptcies and liquidations as the Covid-19 pandemic accelerates industry changes, particularly the shift to online shopping, according to a report on the downturn’s severity.

The news comes even as consumers grow more optimistic about the state of the U.S. economy, according to September surveys, as the labor market continued to gradually improve and a summer coronavirus surge receded in parts of the country.

• Federal and state health authorities warned about the threat posed when younger people are infected with the new coronavirus, and recommended universities and colleges strengthen measures to limit transmission.

BP PLC unveiled the most aggressive plans yet by a major oil company to pivot toward cleaner energy. But the revamp has so far failed to ignite enthusiasm among investors despite growing interest in renewables.

The British energy giant’s strategy—the biggest overhaul in its 111-year history—calls for a 40% reduction in oil-and-gas production over the coming decade, greater investment in low-carbon energy and a ramp-up in wind and solar power. No other major oil company has targeted such a steep decline in their main source of profit.

• Blackstone Sets Goal to Reduce Carbon Emissions

• Manhattan office employees are returning to work at a much slower pace than those in most other major U.S. cities.
   
• Half a year into the coronavirus pandemic lockdown, information-technology leaders are tackling a new set of communication problems, as companies extend their remote-work infrastructure beyond business continuity and into employee well-being.
   
• The U.S. Treasury said it has closed loans to seven passenger airlines and joined with the industry to call on Congress to extend more aid to prevent massive job cuts later this week.
   
• Walt Disney Co. said it would lay off about 28,000 employees at its domestic theme parks, making the announcement shortly after the state of California signaled that Disneyland Resort would likely have to remain closed for the foreseeable future due to Covid-19 concerns.

• Harold Schaitberger, the longtime president of the nation’s largest firefighters union, has decided not to seek re-election amid a federal probe into pension payments to himself and a former union official.
   
• Goldman Sachs Group Inc. shook up its executive ranks Tuesday as Chief Executive David Solomon continues to put his mark on the firm.