Good morning. SAP has agreed to pay more than $220 million to settle foreign bribery probes brought against the German software maker by U.S. and South African authorities.

SAP and its co-conspirators paid bribes to foreign officials in South Africa and Indonesia, delivering money in the form of cash, wire transfers, political contributions and sometimes luxury goods, U.S. prosecutors said Wednesday.

• The settlement: The company has agreed to enter into a three-year deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Justice Department. Under the agreement, two conspiracy charges under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act will be dismissed if SAP satisfies certain conditions.
   
• SEC's allegations: SAP has also agreed to settle cases brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission and South African authorities. The SEC said in addition to touching on South Africa and Indonesia, the alleged bribery scheme also involved officials in Malawi, Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana and Azerbaijan. SAP employed third-party intermediaries and consultants to pay the bribes starting in at least 2014, according to the SEC. The agency said that the company improperly booked the payments as legitimate business expenses.
   
• SAP's cooperation: Prosecutors said SAP received credit for its cooperation. The company made employees available, collected complex financial information and quickly imaged phones to capture text messages that could serve as evidence, they said.

SEC approves bitcoin ETFs for everyday investors.

A ruling Wednesday clears the way for the first U.S. exchange-traded funds that hold bitcoin to be sold to the public.

The decision by the Securities and Exchange Commission will allow mainstream investors to buy and sell bitcoin as easily as stocks and mutual funds. Expectations of U.S. regulatory approval for such funds drove the price of bitcoin to the highest level in about two years. The digital currency approached $47,800 late Tuesday, up from $17,000 in January 2023.

Previously, everyday investors who wanted to buy and sell digital currencies have had to either trade on crypto exchanges and incur hefty transaction fees or purchase products that track bitcoin in less direct ways. At least half a dozen bitcoin-futures ETFs are already on the market. Those funds use futures contracts to provide exposure to bitcoin price moves, though they have been criticized for often straying from bitcoin’s price. Here’s how the new bitcoin ETFs will work.

The Fed launched a bank rescue program last year. Now, banks are gaming it.

An emergency lending program the Federal Reserve created during the 2023 banking crisis has turned into easy money.

Borrowing from the Fed’s bank term funding program has increased to new highs in recent weeks, a strange consequence of the market’s flip to forecasting multiple Fed rate cuts over the coming 12 months.

The rate banks pay to use the program, BTFP for short, is tied to future interest-rate expectations. Now that investors have priced in a series of rate cuts later this year, banks are able to pocket the difference between what they pay to borrow the funds and what they can earn from parking the funds at the central bank as overnight deposits.

Misinformation seen as top global risk in year of pivotal elections.

In a world increasingly fraught with risks, leading near-term concerns are shifting to the dangers of technology and related problems like the spread of disinformation, and away from economic worries, according to an annual survey of policymakers, industry leaders and experts on risk conducted by the World Economic Forum.

The survey of more than 1,400 experts and leaders, released on Wednesday ahead of the WEF annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, next week, points to a moderately risky global environment through 2026 that deteriorates significantly over the coming decade.

Half of the 10 top global risks foreseen through 2034—including the top four—are related to climate change and environmental degradation.

• A new buzzword is emerging in Beijing’s messaging to Washington: the “San Francisco vision”—a veiled warning to the U.S. not to rock the boat after a reset in ties at a November summit in California between President Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
   
• U.S. and British warships shot down one of the largest barrages of missiles and drones fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels into the crucial Red Sea shipping lane, while Secretary of State Antony Blinken continued his efforts to prevent the conflict in Gaza from escalating into a regional war.
   
• Ukraine’s war effort is stuck. A rout of elite Ukraine forces in the country's counteroffensive is a lesson in why the war effort is stalled. 
   
• The elderly man who stabbed South Korea’s opposition leader last week did so wanting to prevent the progressive politician from winning the country’s next presidential election in three years, police said.
   
• Far-right Israeli ministers are increasingly calling for Palestinians to leave Gaza and for Jews to rebuild settlements there, complicating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s efforts to maintain diplomatic support for the war against Hamas while also ensuring his own political survival.

Benhart, who previously served as the bank’s deputy chief risk officer, succeeds Mark Midkiff, who announced his retirement in November. Benhart will report directly to KeyCorp Chairman and Chief Executive Chris Gorman.

Before joining Cleveland-based KeyCorp in 2022, Benhart spent 30 years at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, including as deputy comptroller of the currency.

• Donald Trump built his reputation on firing people. Joe Biden has given his team extraordinary job security.
   
• Move over GMOs and high-fructose corn syrup. There is a new phrase making the food industry pucker: ultra-processed foods. A battle is brewing over the latest term for many packaged food products that manufacturers fear could infiltrate U.S. food policy and scare off consumers.
   
• Western importers are reporting a steep rise in ocean-shipping rates and weekslong delays as carriers divert ships from the Red Sea to avoid Houthi rebel attacks.

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