Apart from the fact that Christmas is in December, there are also a lot of dividends coming in! Apart from HSBC, there's also Coke and Waste Management! You can afford a nice sweater from that! At this point, greetings to @Simpson

$SOFI (+3,98%) stated that the cryptocurrency will enable the company to act as an infrastructure provider for stablecoins for banks, FinTechs and corporate platforms. As SoFiUSD is based on a public, permissionless blockchain, partners can transfer funds around the clock and realize near real-time settlement "at fraction-of-a-cent prices", the statement said.

This allows them to better manage liquidity and offer faster and more transparent services to their clients, the company added, noting that SoFiUSD will soon be available to all SoFi members.

"Blockchain is a technological supercycle that will fundamentally change finance, not just in payments, but in all areas of money," said Anthony Noto , CEO of SoFi.

"With SoFiUSD, we're leveraging the infrastructure we've built over the last decade to address real-world challenges in the financial services sector. Companies today struggle with slow settlement times, fragmented providers and unsecured reserve models. SoFi is helping to close these gaps by combining our regulatory strength as a national bank with transparent, fully reserved on-chain technology to provide our partners with a more secure and efficient way to transfer funds."

"And for businesses operating in countries with volatile currencies, SoFi plans to deploy SoFiUSD as a collateralized dollar-denominated asset in a consumer debit or collateralized loan account," the release continues.

SoFi reached another milestone in the digital asset space last month when it announced it was the first nationally licensed bank to offer retail cryptocurrency trading .

SoFi added " crypto-based features " to its digital financial services in June, stating that this is just one of many new offerings in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space.

This week, it was announced that JPMorgan Chase is ramping up its blockchain activities with the first tokenized money market fund, while $HSBA (+1,91%) $swiftSwift and Ant International last week tested a new cross-border payment solution based on Ant's proprietary and permission-based private blockchain and HSBC's internal tokenization platform.

"This is not a rejection of the technical model of blockchain, but an implicit stance that existing open blockchain networks are not necessarily compatible with the operational realities of regulated finance," PYMNTS wrote.

Source: https://www.pymnts.com/

Hang Seng Bank announced that both its independent financial adviser and its independent board committee have recommended that shareholders vote in favor of the privatization of the bank proposed by HSBC Holdings Plc $HSBA (+1,91%) 's proposed privatization of the bank. The proposal was deemed fair and reasonable.

Following the joint announcement on 9 October 2025, the mock document for the proposed privatization was published and dispatched. The consideration of HK$155 per share represents a premium of approximately 33.1% over the average closing price of HK$116.49 for the 30 trading days up to and including October 8, 2025 and a premium of 30.3% over the closing price of HK$119.00 on that date.

The Program Document contains notices of the Court Meeting and the General Meeting of Shareholders. These meetings will be held consecutively on January 8, 2026 at 10:30 a.m. in Hong Kong. The results of the shareholder votes will be announced on the same day.

Subject to shareholder approval and approval by the High Court of Hong Kong, the proposal is expected to become effective on January 26, 2026. Upon completion of the transaction, Hang Seng Bank's shares will be delisted from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on January 27, 2026.

HSBC $HSBA (+1,91%) is the first foreign bank to receive a full investment banking license for Saudi Arabia.

The license entitles HSBC and its subsidiary, Saudi British Bank, to establish HSBC Saudi Arabia, which will offer wealth management and investment banking services.

HSBC said in a statement that it will offer corporate finance and wealth management advisory services to institutional clients, investment advisory and stock broking services to retail investors.

Credit Suisse was granted a limited brokerage license in a joint venture with Saudi investors.

Last month, HSBC acquired a 70 percent stake in Iraq's Dar es Salaam Investment Bank and plans to enter the country's fledgling financial sector.

At the same time, it became the second international bank to establish a branch in Kuwait.

The French BNP Paribas $BNP (+0,09%) was the first European bank to establish a branch in Saudi Arabia, but does not have an investment banking license.

Global bank HSBC $HSBA (+1,91%) and Mistral AI have announced an agreement that they say will spread the use of generative AI across the financial institution, saving staff time and improving processes.

In a statement announcing the multi-year agreement, the financial details of which were not disclosed, both companies said the bank will have access to Mistral AI's commercial models, including future developments.

The $65.9 billion bank said it would combine its "strong in-house technology capabilities" with the French LLM developer's expertise "to enhance current AI initiatives through self-hosted AI models running on HSBC's internal technology systems".

The use of AI platforms could "help client-facing teams to quickly deliver tailored communications" and "enable marketing teams to run hyper-personalized campaigns". The bank is also considering the use of AI to improve the financial analysis of complex and document-intensive customer lending or financing processes.

In a prepared statement, HSBC Group CEO Georges Elhedery said: "The partnership will provide our colleagues with tools to help them innovate, simplify their daily tasks and free up time for our clients." The collaboration is the latest in a series of plans announced by global banks to signal their intention to adopt generative AI.

Bank of America $BAC (+1,86%) for example, has announced plans to invest billions of dollars in technologies such as AI to boost employee productivity and generate more revenue. It has told investors that it has earmarked $4 billion in its $13 billion technology budget for new technologies such as AI.

Hari Gopalkrishnan, Bank of America's chief technology and information officer, said relationship managers could serve more customers by using AI for tasks such as preparing client briefings before meetings. "One banker can now serve 50 clients instead of 15. And that's what we're seeing in practice right now."

In October, the British Lloyds Banking Group promised $LLOY (+1,59%)promised to continue using "digitalization" to drive forward a branch closure program. It had invested £3 billion over three years and £4 billion over five years in transformation, much of which had gone into technology and cyber security, it told investors.

It said it had already made savings of £1.5 billion and promised to look for further ways to reduce manual back-office processes.

In July, the NatWest Group announced $NWG (+1,5%) announced a five-year collaboration with AWS and Accenture to improve its analytics performance for customer data and make better use of AI and the cloud.

The bank said it was preparing to "consolidate disparate data streams into a single, bank-wide data platform enabled by AI".

A shock report from HSBC $HSBA (+1,91%) questions the financial viability of OpenAI and its gigantic cloud obligations into question.

Despite optimistic growth scenarios, the revenues are nowhere near sufficient to cover the massive data center costs.

》Free cash flow not in sight《

OpenAI, the pioneer behind ChatGPT and the catalyst of the current AI boom, is facing a potentially huge financial problem. A recent analysis by investment bank HSBC comes to an alarming conclusion: the contractually agreed obligations for computing power far exceed the forecast revenue - even if extremely optimistic assumptions are made.

》The bill《

36 gigawatts and $620 billion in rent!

In order to operate the enormous AI models and secure future growth, OpenAI has concluded massive contracts and cooperations with cloud providers and companies from the AI environment.

From chip manufacturer Nvidia$NVDA (+4,07%), Amazon $AMZN (+0,55%)Oracle$ORCL (+7,54%) or Meta$META (-0,45%) - OpenAI is associated with virtually every big name in the industry.

Some refer to this as a Ponzi scheme. In recent months, reports of contracts and numerous declarations of intent have boosted the shares of many players.

Anyone who announced a contract or cooperation with OpenAI often saw their shares rise by double-digit percentages in a single day. Investors were in a frenzy.

However, HSBC sees the financing of these deals as virtually impossible. An overview:

》Contractual obligations《

According to estimates, OpenAI has committed up to 250 billion US dollars in cloud compute with Microsoft and 38 billion US dollars with Amazon.

》The hunger for power《

The total contractually agreed computing power amounts to an astronomical 36 gigawatts. Some data centers in the USA are already at a standstill because they cannot get the required connection to the power grid, see here:.

》The cost explosion《

Based on a total value deal of up to USD 1.8 trillion, HSBC estimates that OpenAI is heading for annual rental payments for data centers of around USD 620 billion.

》The gigantic financing gap《

HSBC has set OpenAI's revenues up to 2030 (and beyond) against these exploding costs. The result is sobering:

》Item:Cumulative total to 2030《

● Cumulative rental costs (data centers) $792 billion

● Cumulative free cash flow (HSBC estimate) $282 billion

● Additional financing (capital injections, loans, etc.) $67 billion

● Total funds available $349 billion

● Shortfall (financing gap) -$443 billion

The HSBC calculation results in a cumulative funding gap of $207 billion by 2030, plus a recommended safety buffer of $10 billion.

》The optimistic assumptions that are still not enough《

The remarkable thing about the HSBC analysis is that this massive gap arises despite the assumption of best-case scenarios:

1. massive user base: OpenAI reaches 3 billion users by 2030 (44% of the global adult population outside China). Our take: impossible, as the competition from Google $GOOGL (+1,98%) (Gemini) or Anthropic has been catching up since 2024, as the following graph (estimate) shows:

2. high paying ratio: 10 percent of these users will become paying subscribers, but currently it is only around 5 percent.

3. advertising market share: OpenAI captures two percent of the total digital advertising market.

4. enterprise AI: The enterprise AI sector generates 386 billion US dollars annually.

Even if all these very ambitious assumptions are true, the company will not be able to fulfill its commitments.

There has long been speculation about an IPO of OpenAI, with a valuation of between 500 billion and 1 trillion US dollars being floated.

》Conclusion《

The HSBC study suggests that OpenAI may have to "back away from data center commitments" and hope that the major partners will show "flexibility".

This is a polite way of saying that the current business model is not sustainable in this form and the contracts may need to be ignored to avert a liquidity crisis.

We would even say: this is impossible. It all smells like a bubble that will burst at some point.

And it is practically impossible to finance such amounts.

The question remains whether these data centers on this scale are even necessary.

Mistral AI, the only European player, for example, and the four Chinese providers, expect far less demand.

Of course, there are also those who claim that MICROSOFT, which has close ties to OpenAI and is a major shareholder, is snapping up the fillet pieces of the company and leaving the rest to die a miserable death.

HSBC Bank Malaysia has opened a new wealth center in Johor Bahru. This is part of its strategy to expand its business with high net worth and ultra-high net worth clients and strengthen its presence in key cross-border growth corridors.

The center is located at the bank's branch in Jalan Bukit Timbalan and is available by appointment only. It serves Premier Elite clients and offers customized personal wealth management solutions with a focus on wealth accumulation, protection and estate planning.

Premier Elite is available to selected Premier account holders who maintain a minimum balance of RM3 million with HSBC $HSBA (+1,91%) with HSBC.

Clients also gain access to senior relationship managers, wealth specialists and customized portfolio solutions.

The launch was officiated by Mr. Lee Ting Han, Chairman of the Investment, Trade, Consumer Affairs and Human Resources Committee of the State of Johor and attended by Datuk Omar Siddiq, CEO of HSBC Malaysia and Linda Yip, Country Head of International Wealth and Premier Banking.

HSBC said Johor is an ideal location due to its proximity to Singapore and the increasing investment inflows from the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone, as well as the state's diversification into data centers, digital infrastructure and advanced manufacturing.

Lee said the pursuit of higher growth coupled with a stronger ringgit is raising living standards and bringing the state closer to high-income status. He added that the financial sector and international connectivity play a crucial role in supporting this development.

Yip described the opening as an important milestone for HSBC's wealth management business. "This investment reflects our confidence in the growth potential of the state of Johor and the increasing need for sophisticated wealth solutions for our growing number of Premier Elite clients," she said in a statement.

The new center is also adorned with HSBC's two famous lions, Stephen and Stitt, which stand overlooking the Straits of Johor and symbolize the international flow of wealth. It houses "Tides", an art installation by Malaysian artist Red Hong Yi, made up of 12,960 gold 50 sen coins, depicting the rising movements of ocean waves and the flow of wealth across generations.

The opening in Johor Bahru follows the opening of HSBC's flagship wealth center in the Tun Razak Exchange financial district earlier this year and is part of its ambition to become a leading international wealth manager in Malaysia.

I'm currently in Singapore and what can I say... I'm really excited about this city!

From the financial district with all the famous banks like: $D05 (+0,89%)
, $U11 (-0,13%) , $O39 (+0,19%)
,$HSBA (+1,91%) , to the mix of modern architecture 🏛️ green oases 🌴 and incredible efficiency🚊

The exciting thing for me as an investor is that these banks are not just impressive buildings, they are also part of my portfolio.

In 2025 alone, they have saved me a total of around 815 € in net dividends so far. At the end of November, I will receive a further €90 from DBS and €17 from HSBC in December.

It's nice to think that my investments have literally helped finance my trip to Singapore. 🏝️📈

(Dividends from my ETFs are not included here, by the way 😉)

#Dividenden
#FinanzielleFreiheit
#Singapore
#DBS
#OCBC
#UOB
#HSBC
#Maybank
#GetquinCommunity

October was the month of big decisions and consistent adherence to the plan! While the crypto market was still euphorically looking upwards, I think I recognized the signals: The bull market came to an end around October 21, For me it was time for an exit from this asset class. With the exception of a small holding of a few euros in $BTC (+0,01%) as a souvenir, I am completely out of crypto. Everything was shifted to my crypto successor portfolio. Sure, there was a brief tingling sensation and I wondered whether I was getting out too early.

But there are plans precisely for scenarios like this. To conquer emotions that jeopardize profits and let discipline prevail. And how am I feeling now after the exit? Pure relief! Finally no longer sitting there hoping that things will rise to my desired level or stay there. I'll reveal in detail what happens next for me in the coming year.

At the same time, the half-year bonus was added to the portfolio, the dividend base was broadened and I was able to relax and let it all sink in while hiking in the autumn air. My portfolios continued to do their job. The cash flow is flowing. Time for a review of a month that shows that a strategy beats FOMO.

Overall performance

October brought another boost for me in some assets, while others consolidated somewhat. Perhaps this is already a sign that stocks are positioning themselves for the year-end rally? I am firmly convinced that the current shutdown in the US administration will not act as a brake here. My key performance indicators for my overall portfolio at a glance:

• TTWROR (month under review): +1,39% (previous month: +1.76%)
• TTWROR (since inception): +77,04%
• IZF (month under review): +17,65% (previous month: +9.64%)
• IZF (since inception): +10,94%
• Delta: +1,160.94€
• Absolute change: +€2,224.10

Performance & volume

$AVGO (+3,4%) is still my largest single position, but is losing momentum this month. However, its distance to the other positions is large enough, no one in the portfolio can hold a candle to my +337% share. But $NFLX (+0,6%) and $GOOGL (+1,98%) and others are trying hard to get there. Alphabet is now in the top 5 by volume and performance. I like the company. With YouTube and Cloud Services, they have good cash cows that enhance traditional search. And this is now also being upgraded with Gemini integrated into search. And Nano Banana ... wow.

Google is not always the leader, but it is always catching up. The competition between the tech giants is a spectacle that I love to watch.

And yet I prefer to rely on the more stable industries. Even the $BAC (+1,86%) and $WMT (-0,43%) continue to cut a good figure. Boring, but still good businesses that generate income. That's what I want! These are really two sectors that I have become very fond of. Nevertheless, the red lantern once again goes to $TGT (-1,26%) which continue to have a hard time. But I'm sticking with it and buying more. Because $TGT (-1,26%) is systemically relevant and will not go to the dogs. They just have problems with theft and competition.

Size of individual share positions by volume in the overall portfolio:

Share (%) of the total portfolio and associated securities account:

$AVGO (+3,4%) 3.14% (main share portfolio)

$NFLX (+0,6%) 1.72% (main share portfolio)

$WMT (-0,43%) 1.65% (main share portfolio)

$BAC (+1,86%) 1.48% (main share portfolio)

$GOOGL (+1,98%) 1.41% (main share portfolio)

Smallest individual share positions by volume in the overall portfolio:

Share (%) of the total portfolio and associated securities account:

$NOVO B (+1,14%) 0.45% (main share portfolio)

$BATS (-0,62%) : 0.50% (crypto follow-on portfolio)

$GIS (-1,54%) 0.55% (main share portfolio)

$TGT (-1,26%) 0.58% (main share portfolio)

$MDLZ (+0,13%) 0.60% (main share portfolio)

Top-performing individual stocks

Shares with performance since initial purchase (%) and the respective portfolio:

$AVGO (+3,4%) : +337% (main share portfolio)

$NFLX (+0,6%) +151% (main share portfolio)

$GOOGL (+1,98%) +99% (main share portfolio)

$WMT (-0,43%) +77% (main share portfolio)

$BAC (+1,86%) + 74% (main share portfolio)

Flop performer individual stocks

Shares with performance since initial purchase (%) and the respective portfolio:

$TGT (-1,26%) : -35% (main share portfolio)

$GIS (-1,54%) -34% (main share portfolio)

$NKE (-5,41%) : -32% (main share portfolio)

$NOVO B (+1,14%) -28% (main share portfolio)

$CPB (-0,2%) : -27% (main share portfolio)

Asset allocation

Due to my crypto reallocation, the ETF share is increasing. My asset allocation is as follows:

ETFs: 41.5%

Equities: 58.4%

Crypto: less than 0.01%

P2P: less than 0.01%

Investments and subsequent purchases

I have invested the following amounts in savings plans:

Planned savings plan amount from the fixed net salary: €1,030

Planned savings plan amount from the fixed net salary, incl. reinvested dividends according to plan size: €1,140

Savings ratio of the savings plans to the fixed net salary: 49.75%

In addition, there were the following additional investments from returns, refunds, cashback, etc. as one-off savings plans/repurchases:

Subsequent purchases/one-off savings plans as cashback annuities from refunds: € 73.00

Subsequent purchases/one-off savings plans as a cashback annuity from bonuses: € 894.97

Subsequent purchases from other surpluses: €31.00

Automatically reinvested dividends by the broker: €2.76 (function is only activated for an old custody account, as I otherwise prefer to control the reinvestment myself)

Additional purchases from crypto sales: €1,604.86

Additional purchases were made in various custody accounts outside the regular savings plans:

Number of additional purchases: 9

124.97€ for $SPYD (-0,39%)

770,00 $JEPQ (+0,8%)

28.00€ for $JEGP (+0,19%)

45,00€ for $GGRP (+0,44%)

477,77€ for $DXSA (+0,96%)

252,51€ for $EXX5 (+0,01%)

270,99€ for $SHEL (+1,06%)

102,97€ for $HSBA (+1,91%)

445.58€ for $BATS (-0,62%)

Passive income from dividends

My income from dividends amounted to € 148.90 (€ 81.32 in the same month last year). This corresponds to a change of +82.43% compared to the same month last year. The strong increase is due to the fact that my large Vanguard ETFs postponed the distribution to the reporting month. Further key data on the distributions follows:

Number of dividend payments: 26

Number of payment days: 10 days

Average dividend per payment: €5.73

average dividend per payment day: €14.89

The top three payers are:

$ISPA (+0,67%)

$VHYL (+0,68%)

$VWRL (+0,98%)

My passive income from dividends (and some interest) mathematically covered 16.05% of my expenses in the month under review.

Crypto performance

My crypto portfolio is distorted by the sell-off and will not be calculated again until I get back in. That will now take quite a while. I got out later than I wanted to, but still made a good profit. Only the Oracle of Delphi knows whether I am right with my approach. My key figures:

Performance in the reporting period: -

Performance since inception: -

Proportion of holdings for which the tax holding period has expired: 100%.

Crypto share of the total portfolio: less than 0.001%

Now it's time for the same thing as last crypto winter. Learning and understanding. And the current crypto winter hasn't even started yet. However, I think that prices will fall less sharply than in previous cycles and that the decline will be more orderly due to institutional adaptation. That's a good thing right now, as it makes it easier to get back in.

Performance comparison: portfolio vs. benchmarks

A comparison of my portfolio with two important ETFs shows:

TTWROR (current month): +1,39%

$VWRL (+0,98%) : +4,66%

$VUSA (+1,05%) : +2,76%

I am lagging behind the ETFs. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Risk ratios

Here are my risk figures for the month under review:

Maximum drawdown: 1.94% (YTD: 17.17%)

Maximum drawdown duration: 13 days (YTD: 702 days)

Volatility: 2.51% (YTD: 28.02%)

Sharpe ratio: 7.03 (YTD: 0.39)

Semi-volatility: 1.69% (YTD: 20.82%)

A drawdown of only 1.94% in October? That's exactly how it should be. While the markets trended sideways to slightly upwards, my portfolio remained frighteningly boring. And in the best sense of the word. The volatility of 2.51 % and the semi-volatility of 1.69 % confirm that my crypto exit has increased the stability of my portfolio. No more wild swings, just solid growth. The Sharpe ratio of 7.03? Brutally good. Maybe Trump's China deal helped the markets, maybe it was just my perfect timing. No matter! The figures speak for themselves: strategy beats chaos.

Outlook

Thanks for reading, this time I want to keep the outlook deliberately short. I'm glad that you're honoring the several days of work in front of the computer in the evenings when others are chilling with Netflix with your lifetime. I don't have anything else for the miscellaneous category this time. If you want to know what else is on my mind, please refer to the August review. I'll have something to say about that next December, I think. Stay safe and sound!

👉 Would you like to see my review as an Instagram Carousel post?

Then follow me on Instagram:

📲 In addition to the portfolio and budget review, there are currently three posts a week: @frugalfreisein

Please pay close attention to the spelling, unfortunately there are too many fake and phishing accounts on social media. I have also been "copied" several times now.

👉 How was your month in the portfolio? Do you have any tops and flops to report?

Leave your thoughts in the comments!

The British bank HSBC $HSBA (+1,91%) has booked a provision of 1.1 billion US dollars for legal proceedings in Luxembourg in connection with Bernard Madoff's multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme, one of the largest financial fraud cases in US history.

The London-based bank announced that one of its subsidiaries has been sued by Herald Fund SPC for the return of securities and cash in connection with the fraud perpetrated by the investment firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. On Friday, the Luxembourg Court of Cassation dismissed the subsidiary's appeal against the Herald claim with regard to the return of securities, but accepted it with regard to the return of cash.

Bernard Madoff, former chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Exchange and a fixture on Wall Street for decades, shocked the world in 2008 by admitting that his investment business was a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme. He pleaded guilty in 2009 and was sentenced to the longest permissible sentence. Madoff died in 2021.

He had not invested his clients' money, but instead pushed billions of dollars into his company's bank accounts and falsified profit statements year after year. A court-appointed trustee estimated that Madoff misappropriated 17 billion dollars in client funds as part of his fraud.

Various HSBC companies provided custody and administration services to a number of funds whose assets were invested with Madoff's firm. Many HSBC companies have been named as defendants in lawsuits arising from the Madoff fraud.

HSBC announced on Monday that the subsidiary will now file a second appeal with the Luxembourg Court of Appeal. If this second appeal is unsuccessful, HSBC would contest the amounts it is required to pay in subsequent proceedings.

The bank stated that the final financial impact could be significantly different given the pending second appeal and the complexity of determining the amount of restitution.