Good morning. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has hired an independent firm to conduct a “top-to-bottom assessment” of alleged harassment and discrimination at the banking regulator, its chairman told staff Monday, hours after The Wall Street Journal published an investigation that found a longtime toxic atmosphere prompted women to quit the agency.

• Agency reacts: In a three-minute video to staff reviewed by the Journal, Chairman Martin Gruenberg said the article “raises some serious allegations about the FDIC workplace” and said the firm would contact employees to solicit their confidential input. 
   
• What Chairman Gruenberg said: “I encourage you to participate in this process,” he said. “To the extent the assessment identifies further actions we can take to strengthen our agency, we won’t hesitate to implement them." He said harassment and discrimination are “completely unacceptable” and said the agency doesn’t tolerate or “turn a blind eye” to it.
   
• The allegations: The Journal’s investigation, based on interviews with more than 100 current and former FDIC employees, found that the agency has been hesitant to impose harsh discipline on managers accused of misconduct. Female employees described a sexualized, boys’ club environment that they say led them to leave the agency over the years, feeling they were consistently given fewer opportunities than their male counterparts.

Also see:

• Strip Clubs, Lewd Photos and a Boozy Hotel: The Toxic Atmosphere at Bank Regulator FDIC

Supreme Court issues code of conduct after scandals.

The Supreme Court issued its first-ever code of conduct on Monday following reports of undisclosed trips and other favors that sparked criticism and put pressure on the justices to adopt a set of ethical rules.

The 15-page document said it largely compiled practices the justices informally followed. But the lack of a formal document “has led in recent years to the misunderstanding that the Justices of this Court, unlike all other jurists in this country, regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules,” it says.

U.S. shift on global tech rules jeopardizes effort to counter China.

The Biden administration’s abrupt shift on global technology rules has weakened a critical Asia trade agreement that was intended to help counter China’s growing clout in the region.

What was the move? Rules facilitating digital trade, including the cross-border transfer of data on customers and supply chains, were expected to be a centerpiece of what is called the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, or IPEF, a U.S.-led group of 14 nations. But the U.S. recently withdrew its support for those provisions, a decision that cut against the desires of some Asian allies who see common rules governing business data as a cornerstone building block for economic cooperation.

• Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX has filed a lawsuit against Bybit Fintech and two affiliates to try to claw back assets valued at $953 million that were withdrawn shortly before FTX’s November 2022 collapse.
   
• Texas law firm Jackson Walker said in court documents Monday that its former partner Elizabeth Freeman lied about her romantic relationship with David R. Jones, a bankruptcy judge who was presiding over cases in which Freeman was billing hours.
   
• Nepal is banning TikTok over concerns that the video platform is “disturbing social harmony,” joining a growing list of countries that have partially or completely banned the popular Chinese-owned app.

Electricity use booms in Texas, a harbinger for the country.

Everything is bigger in Texas, including its electricity use, which is increasing at historic rates in a sign of what is to come for much of the U.S.

What's happening there? The country’s largest electricity producer and user saw sales grow at five times the national rate for the past decade, roughly like adding Louisiana. 

Texas is an extreme example with a big population that needs a lot of air conditioning, but it is also at the center of trends pushing electricity use higher in pockets of the country: the reshoring of manufacturing, the growth of power-hungry data centers and a push to electrification.

ICBC hackers used methods previously flagged by U.S. authorities.

The hackers who infiltrated the New York arm of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and disrupted trading in the U.S. Treasury market appeared to exploit three vulnerabilities that had been flagged by U.S. officials earlier this year.

In an email sent to financial-services executives and trade groups Monday that was viewed by The Wall Street Journal, Treasury officials said that the ICBC attack stemmed from Lockbit 3.0 ransomware and two tactics that target users of services managed by Citrix, a cloud-computing company.

• BAE Systems has been a top beneficiary alongside other European arms manufacturers from the West’s drive to arm Ukraine in the face of Russia’s invasion, and looks set to continue doing so as governments spend more on military equipment.
   
• Businesses need fewer extra workers for holiday jobs this fall after fighting in recent years to find enough staff to stock shelves, fill boxes and deliver packages during the year-end rush.
   
• With borrowing costs double their levels from just two years ago, many small businesses are pulling back, another sign of how higher interest rates are cooling the economy.
   
• The U.S. now experiences an extreme weather event in which damages and costs top $1 billion every three weeks. That compares with every four months in the 1980s, when adjusted for inflation, according to the latest installment of the U.S. National Climate Assessment released Tuesday.
   
• Europe’s labor markets are starting to crack. After a year of near-zero economic growth, job creation is slowing and surveys suggest that more businesses in the region are preparing to lay off workers, threatening to further damp growth and drain public coffers.
   
• Tremors continued to rock an Icelandic peninsula jutting out into the North Atlantic, reviving memories of the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano and the disruption it caused the global aviation industry.
   
• Shares in Shiseido tumbled to a six-year low, after the Japanese company said Chinese shoppers were steering clear of its cosmetics following a controversy about nuclear wastewater.
   
• Why have oil prices dropped more than 10% since mid-September? Shipping markets offer a clue.

• Some of Australia’s biggest ports restarted operations on Monday following a cyberattack that disrupted container traffic ahead of Christmas and highlighted vulnerabilities in the nation’s critical infrastructure.
   
• New York regulators Monday announced plans to issue cybersecurity regulations for hospitals, after a series of attacks crippled operations at medical facilities.

• Israeli troops reached at least one of the gates of Gaza’s largest hospital where Israel says Hamas conceals a major center of operations, while medical staff reported deteriorating conditions inside because of a lack of supplies and electricity.
   
• Jeep-maker Stellantis is preparing to offer buyouts to roughly half of its U.S. white-collar employees, as the company cuts expenses amid an expensive transition to electric vehicles and potentially higher labor costs.
   
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned citizens to brace for a winter onslaught of Russian missiles aimed at knocking out power and heat.
   
• All isn’t merry and bright this holiday season at Target, the retailer known for its trendy home décor and partnerships with high-end designers. The company has in recent quarters reported falling sales as shoppers spend less on the splurge items that generate much of its revenue.
   
• Realtors across the country are rethinking their jobs, and some are backpedaling from the profession, fearing that the heyday of their business is over.

Follow us on X at @WSJRisk. Follow Risk & Compliance editor David Smagalla @DSmagalla_DJ and reporters Mengqi Sun @_MengqiSun, Dylan Tokar @dgtokar and Richard Vanderford @VanderfordRich.

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