Good morning. Regulators proposed banning a Wall Street practice that lawmakers said was partly to blame for the 2008 financial meltdown. The Securities and Exchange Commission voted 5-0 Wednesday to re-propose a long-delayed rule that would prohibit conflicts of interest by entities that create asset-backed securities, such as mortgage bonds. The proposal will now be open for public comment until the commission considers whether to finalize the rule.

In the run-up to the financial crisis, Wall Street banks created securities from bundles of risky mortgages and sold them to investors. At the same time, some traders at the banks bet against the instruments.

In the case of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., such wagers fueled handsome profits. The bank later settled what was then the SEC’s largest penalty against a Wall Street firm. The SEC had accused Goldman of misleading clients by selling mortgage securities that were secretly designed by a hedge fund to cash in on the housing market’s collapse.

“This re-proposed rule seeks to address this unfinished step in Congress’s vision for financial reform,” SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in a statement, adding that it would benefit investors and the broader market. Mr. Gensler, a former Goldman banker who also led the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, provided significant input to lawmakers as they were drafting Dodd-Frank.

As more companies introduce or expand sustainability programs they are often unclear on which initiatives deliver the best results. Join us on Feb. 2 for a two-part webinar featuring discussions with executives about programs that have improved the sustainability standing of their companies. Register here.

U.K. gambling company fined $7.6 million over alleged money-laundering control issues. U.K. online gambling company Intouch Games Ltd. has been fined the equivalent of $7.6 million after a regulator cited a series of failures in its program to prevent money-laundering.

The U.K.’s Gambling Commission on Wednesday announced the £6.1 million penalty for Intouch, the third action the regulator has taken against the company since 2019.

Wealthy Russians with ties to the Kremlin are likely attempting to evade the economic sanctions placed on them in the U.S. by moving money into the commercial-real-estate sector, where complex financing methods and opaque ownership structures can help bad actors hide funds, the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, better known as FinCEN, said Wednesday.

Blockchain.com names new compliance chief. The provider of cryptocurrency services to individual investors and institutional clients has promoted Sven Niederheide to the compliance chief post, following the departure of his predecessor for rival Kraken.

Mr. Niederheide joined London-based Blockchain.com in April as its head of legal and compliance, where he helped the company acquire licenses in Europe and elsewhere. He has experience working in compliance at banking and financial technology companies in Germany and elsewhere in Europe, the company said in its announcement of the appointment in December.

The appointment came after Blockchain.com’s former compliance chief, CJ Rinaldi, left for Kraken after about a year in the post.

• The Justice Department is investigating Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. for its handling of a recalled tire that has been linked to eight deaths and dozens of injuries, according to people with knowledge of the matter and documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
   
• A bipartisan group of lawmakers is renewing a push to intensify oversight of foreign purchases of U.S. farmland, citing concerns over recent acquisitions by Chinese buyers.
   
• A federal judge said on Wednesday the Justice Department must honor an agreement it made with the real-estate industry’s largest trade association to close an antitrust investigation into rules governing how agents market properties and set commissions for home sales.
   
• New York Attorney General Letitia James is asking Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. for information related to its alleged use of facial recognition technology to prevent certain ticket holders from entering its venues.
   
• A Swiss court has found a prominent antiquities dealer guilty of illegally bringing some artifacts into the country and using forged documents of origin in some cases.
   
• Elon Musk, over three days of testimony during the past week, gave his reasoning behind the 2018 tweet in which the Tesla Inc. chief executive said he had secured funding to take the electric-car maker private.
   
• The U.S. Transportation Department is probing Southwest Airlines Co.’s scheduling in the wake of its holiday meltdown, examining whether executives sold more flights than the airline could realistically operate.

U.S. intelligence wants to use psychology to avert cyberattacks. The main research organization of the U.S. intelligence community is hunting for ways to use psychological theories to thwart cyberattacks. 

Scientists at IARPA are studying how to understand and predict hackers’ behavior to be more effective in stopping cyber incidents.

Ukraine repels Russian forces in the east as sirens warn of missile attacks. Ukrainian forces repelled Russian attempts to advance in the east of the country, its military said, while air-raid sirens across Ukraine raised fears of possible Russian missile attacks.

Sirens wailed across Ukraine just after 9 a.m. Wednesday, including in the capital, Kyiv. In some regions, officials issued air-raid alerts again in the afternoon. The Ukrainian military warned of a high threat of Russian air and missile attacks.

• White House Approves Sending Abrams Tanks to Ukraine
• Germany Sees Its Economy Growing This Year Despite the Ukraine War

Weather woes. Natural disasters and weather caused global economic losses of about $313 billion in 2022, a new report said. The year is expected to be the fifth costliest on record for insurers, which covered $132 billion of the losses, according to the report from professional services firm Aon PLC.

Hurricane Ian, which hit the U.S. in September, caused nearly $96 billion in losses, making it by far the single-largest weather event. Drought in the U.S. last year, meanwhile, led to a $16 billion hit.

Amazon workers in U.K. go on strike for first time. The strike is dragging the e-commerce giant into the wave of labor unrest that has been sweeping the U.K. and other European economies.

While Amazon said the industrial action at a warehouse in Coventry in central England would have little impact on its overall operations, the strikes could portend further disruption for the company in one of its most important overseas markets. Union leaders have already vowed to extend the strike to other Amazon facilities in the U.K. in a dispute over pay.

• A surge in hiring by American small businesses could run afoul of the Federal Reserve’s efforts to cool inflation.
   
• Gambling companies competing to build a casino in Manhattan, one of the industry’s most coveted untapped markets, face skepticism from officials who would need to approve projects in the heart of the city.

Disney World closes Splash Mountain ride this week to remove references from a 1940s movie with racist themes. The last Disney fans took a turn through the ride on Sunday, Walt Disney Co. said on its website. Splash Mountain, one of the theme park’s most famous rides, features music and characters from the controversial 1946 film, “Song of the South.”

• Streaming platform Hulu and cable channel Adult Swim have ended their relationships with “Rick and Morty” co-creator Justin Roiland, who is facing felony domestic violence and false imprisonment charges in California.