Emergency loan for Greece and extreme central banking

The daily briefing “FirstFT” from the Financial Times.

The European Central Bank extended another EUR 5bn in emergency loans to banks in Greece after fears that a spate of bank withdrawals could dry up funding. (FT)

Meanwhile at an EU summit in Brussels, Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras argued for a new bailout agreement with fewer austerity demands but the impervious – and sleepless – Angela Merkel stuck to her guns.

Greece will start technical negotiations with the European Commission, the ECB and the IMF today, to determine which parts of the current bailout the Tsipras government will agree to continue. (FT)

In the news

Minsk 2 After 16 hours of talks the leaders of Germany, France, Ukraine and Russia agreed to a ceasefire starting on Saturday but European leaders and analysts are sceptical. Some warned that Vladimir Putin appears to have come out on top. (FT)

Extreme central banking The Swedish Riksbank became the first central bank to set a negative main policy interest rate – evidence of ever more radical means to prevent deflation strengthening its grip over European economies. (FT)

JPMorgan executives “pushed out” Two senior executives connected to an investigationinto the bank’s hiring practices in Asia will leave the firm. US prosecutors and regulators are investigating whether the bank gave jobs to Chinese government officials’ children in return for lucrative investment banking mandates. (WSJ$)

China taxi app merger Uber could face even stiffer competition in its efforts to expand in China if the country’s two largest taxi hailing apps merge to create a dominant player. Alibaba-backed Kuaidi Dache and Tencent-backed Didi Dache are in talks to end their escalating battle by joining forces. (WSJ$)

Oceans drowning in plastic A staggering 8m tonnes of plastic waste are entering the world’s oceans every year – the equivalent to five grocery bags of plastic for every foot of coastline in the world. This amount of plastic is increasing and the worst offenders are China and Indonesia. (FT)

At the opening of South Africa’s parliament, armed security officials ejected opposition MPs after they tried to question President Jacob Zuma over a financial scandal. (FT)

It’s a big day for

Eurozone growth GDP figures are expected to show growth of 0.2 per cent quarter on quarter at the end of 2014. The ECB’s chief economist yesterday said that the bloc’s economy is on the mend and its recovery will get a boost from the central bank’s bond buying programme. (FT)

Rolls-Royce, which announces annual results today. The British engineering group’sdifficulties last year ranged from profit warnings to an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office for alleged corruption relating to deals in China and Indonesia. It is expected to report a 9 per cent drop in pre-tax profits to £1.6bn. (FT)

Cyber security The White House is preparing a new executive order directing the government and companies to share more information about threats of cyber attacks. (FT)

Food for thought

The elixir of life Bloomberg looks at efforts to create anti-ageing medicine. Even if researchers’ efforts to create an anti-ageing pill were successful, the US food and drug regulator is unlikely to approve it because ageing is not considered a disease.

Crime, punishment and a Russian social network Vice looks at the fate of Russian social network Vkontakte. It was used to organise protests and share media but was gradually “lobotomised” and political content was replaced with homophobic material, a fate that could befall Facebook and Twitter. (Vice)

Dying trades Japan is home to some of the oldest continuously operating businesses in the world – their trades don’t go out of style and they were able to adopt their sons-in-law and bequeath the company to them. But bankruptcy laws are making banks less helpful in times of trouble and new cultural norms make it harder to recruit men with the promise of marriage to the president’s daughter. (The Atlantic)

Nigeria’s presidential election has been postponed by six weeks and the campaign has played out against the backdrop of an Islamist insurgency, financial turmoil from the falling oil price and now fears of a constitutional crisis. Many Nigerians are looking to a former general to deliver the improved security and economy the country needs. (FT)

Video of the day

Shifting sea After the suspension of Brian Williams from NBC and the departure of Jon Stewart from ‘The Daily Show’, the FT’s Matthew Garrahan and Shannon Bond discuss what it means for the US media landscape to lose these big name anchors. In his column, Robert Shrimsley wonders if he would have been more successful if he had “misremembered” his seminal role in historic events in the same way that Brian Williams did. (FT)

This article is published in collaboration with The Financial Times. Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

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Author: FirstFT is the Financial Times’ editors curated free daily email of the top global stories from the FT and the best of the rest of the web.

Image: A man walks by the headquarters of the Bank of Greece in central Athens. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis.