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Forget M&A league tables. Wall Street banks took to the chessboard over the past few days to decide who is the brightest.Turns out, none of them.Bankers and traders from companies including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., BlackRock Inc. and Deutsche Bank AG were beaten by players from online chess platforms Chessify and Chessmood in the final rounds of the World Corporate Chess Championship in New York.UBS Group AG and Susquehanna International Group were the only two financial firms that made it through to the semifinals. In an intense final on Monday afternoon, Chessify clinched the title in three rounds. The competition, run by FIDE, the International Chess Federation, crowns the "smartest company in the world" through the sport of chess. Twelve four-person teams - eight of which fought through qualifying rounds in March and April and four wild cards that were invited to play - tested their intellectual prowess through rapid-round chess games held in the Financial District's historic Cunard Building. It was the first time the tournament was held in person, after debuting virtually during the pandemic. The event featured at least one notable side match. World-ranked chess player Boaz Weinstein, a hedge fund manager and founder of Saba Capital Management, played to a draw and then lost against Woman Grandmaster Keti Tsatsalashvili of Georgia, he wrote in a post on X. During the tournament, players were penned in by velvet ropes on three sides as spectators circled the perimeter commenting on the game play in whispers. The onlookers ranged from retirees interested in the sport to college-age chess enthusiasts who have been playing since childhood. Some were recent newcomers to the game after being inspired by the hit Netflix TV show Queen's Gambit. The rapid-fire format meant the rounds weren't "long enough for you to have that much training" and being well-rested was a priority, said Alice Dong, a product manager at BlackRock. Most teams included high-ranking players with impressive records, such as BlackRock's chess club founder and FX trader Rusa Goletiani. Chessify, ChessMood and Susquehanna each had at least one grandmaster on their teams. "We knew coming into this we were a bit outgunned," said Alexander Krol, managing director and head of derivatives alpha at BlackRock. "We came for the experience."To prepare, William Graif, an associate engineer at Deutsche Bank, studied his opponents' past games. He played his first rated tournament when he was about 5 years old and from then on, he said, chess has always been a "part of my life." "When I was little and mostly throughout my childhood, I wanted to compete," Graif said. "I wanted to be the best."Chess competitions have taken him to Turkey, Vietnam, Hungary and Portugal. While he still has a competitive spirit for chess, he now focuses more on "enriching other people's lives through the game of chess" and has taught at summer chess camps for kids. Over the 10 rounds played across the weekend, teams typically won or lost all four of their matches. In the two rounds Susquehanna faced off against Goldman, the investment bank lost each time except when Len Ioffe, a managing director, played to a draw against Nan Zhao, a quantitative researcher at Susquehanna. The winning team from Chessify included two grandmasters, Zaven Andriasian and Gevorg Harutjunyan, along with Tigran R. Sargsyan and Ani Harutyunyan.The tournament experience helped draw players in the companies closer. Igor Shneider, vice president of the Financial Institutions Group at Deutsche Bank, said his team had "really good camaraderie." He started playing chess around age 9 and was ranked as high as 80th in the US in his youth. Shneider has played in Spain, Greece and China, and earned a chess scholarship to the University of Texas, Dallas. Shneider was locked in a "time scramble" in a match against a ChessMood team member. "I was attacking throughout the game; my opponent conducted a counterattack" that ultimately left them with less than 30 seconds on the clock each. The time pressure, Shneider said, meant he "missed some good chances to win the game."

NEW DELHI: The law committee under the goods and services tax (GST) council has recommended an amendment to GST act to raise tax notices where the low tax was paid due to interpretation of law or lack of clarity, ET has learnt.The recommendation, if approved by the council may give relief to a large number of industries including online gaming industry, which was seeking relief from retrospective tax notice.The recommendation may be placed before the GST council and once approved this would pace way for quashing a large number of notices sent to online gaming industry. The law committee has suggested amendment to the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Act, 2017 via the introduction of a new Section 11A in the legislation.According to the new proposed amendment, which is part of the GST council agenda, the section will empowers the central government to “not recover the GST not levied or short-levied as a result of general practice”.Officials say this will allow the them to quash the tax demand raised with the retrospective effect. However, the amendment offers no relief for overpaid taxes, as companies cannot claim refunds for any excess GST paid due to these practices.The GST Council chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, will meet after a gap of eight months on June 22, and is also likely to decide on reviewing the implementation of 28% GST on the online gaming sector.The Directorate General of Goods and Services Tax Intelligence (DGGI) detected 6,323 cases in financial year 2023-24 involving a tax evasion of Rs 1.98 lakh crore in 2023, out of which online gaming companies have the maximum number of tax evasion notices, over Rs one lakh crore.

Amid wide ranging concerns about digital lending, an industry body on Tuesday said its 37 member entities witnessed a 49 per cent surge in disbursements at Rs 1.46 lakh crore in financial year 2023-24. According to Fintech Association for Consumer Empowerment (FACE), the number of loans disbursed grew by 35 per cent to over 10 crore borrowings in FY24. It can be noted that the Reserve Bank has been public with its concerns on some of the practices adopted by such lenders, and has also formulated draft guidelines for their operations. "The digital lending sector is responsibly driving ahead with a sharp focus on customer-centricity, compliance, risk management and sustainable business models," FACE's chief executive Sugandh Saxena said in a statement In the March quarter, companies disbursed 2.69 crore loans worth Rs 40,322 crore at an average ticket size of Rs 13,418. The average ticket size for loans disbursed in FY24 stood at Rs 12,648, as compared to Rs 11,094 in FY23, the data shared by the industry body said. The body said that 70 per cent of the disbursements were by 28 companies, which are registered as non-banking finance companies or have an in-house NBFC and added that the growth rate of such companies is much higher. Companies raised Rs 1,913 crore in equity and Rs 16,259 crore in debt during the fiscal, it said, adding that there was a drop in equity compared to FY23 for the companies who reported data. Nine companies who reported data for FLDG (first loss default guarantee) reported 51 portfolios worth Rs 9,118 crore, with 94 per cent of portfolio value having FLDG arrangements with coverage between 4-5 per cent. The data also said that 83 per cent of the companies reported that they were profitable, as compared to 76 per cent in FY22.

Goldman Sachs Singapore Pte sold 44.20 lakh shares of One 97 Communications on Tuesday via block deal at a price of Rs 183.44 crore. The private equity firm sold Paytm shares at Rs 415.04 apiece, which was at a discount of 2.3% over Friday’s closing price of Rs 424.90.On Tuesday, Paytm shares ended at Rs 417.10 on the BSE, down by Rs 7.80 or 1.84%. The details of the buyers were not available on the BSE at the time of filing the story.As per the shareholding data of One 97 Communications available on the BSE, Goldman Sachs Singapore held 84,01,067 shares or 1.32% stake in the fintech payment platform.Paytm shares on Tuesday settled in the red, breaking their two-sessions winning streak.The stock was in news amidst reports of discussions to divest its movie ticketing business to Zomato. Initially surging by over 4% in early BSE trading, the shares retreated to Rs 411.65 during afternoon trading. Meanwhile, Zomato's shares saw a modest 1% increase, reaching Rs 189.In an exchange filing, Zomato acknowledged, "We are in discussions with Paytm for the aforementioned transaction, but no binding decision has been taken at this stage that would warrant a board approval and subsequent disclosure in accordance with applicable law."Zomato added, "This discussion is intended to further strengthen our 'Going-out' business and aligns with our focus on our four key businesses currently."ET reported on June 16 that Zomato is looking to acquire Paytm’s movie booking and events unit, in a deal that may value Paytm’s vertical at around Rs 1,600-1,750 crore. Post the addition of receivables from cinema exhibitors, the valuation could go up to Rs 2,000 crore, according to sources.Paytm also confirmed discussions regarding the potential transfer of its entertainment business in an exchange filing, stating that all the discussions are preliminary and non-binding at this stage.If the transaction goes through, it will be among the largest buyouts for Zomato after it acquired Uber Eats in 2020 and took over quick commerce platform Blinkit (formerly Grofers) in 2021 in an all-stock deal valued at Rs 4,447 crore.Also Read: Vodafone PLC to sell 9.9% stake in Indus Towers on Wednesday through block deals(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)

Zee Entertainment Enterprises on Tuesday announced that Chief Financial Officer Rohit Kumar Gupta has decided to step down due to personal reasons. Mukund Galgali, who has been with the Group for more than 17 years, has been appointed as an acting CFO, a key managerial personnel of the company."I am writing to you to let you know that I am resigning as the chief financial officer of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited due to personal reasons. I request the board of directors to kindly accept my resignation. I want to thank you and the board for all the support during my tenure at the company. I wish you and the company all the best in the future," said Gupta in his resignation letter.On promoting Galgali as acting CFO, the media company said "The Board of Directors of the Company, pursuant to the recommendation of the Nomination & Remuneration Committee and approval of the Audit Committee, have considered and approved to promote Mr. Mukund Galgali, who has been with the Group for more than 17 years and currently spearheading the Commercial & Strategic Initiatives of the Company, as an acting Chief Financial Officer - Key Managerial Personnel of the Company."Recently in a bid to strengthen its balance sheet which faced a hit after a failed merger with Sony, the media conglomerate approved a proposal to raise up to Rs 2,000 crore by issuing equity shares and/or convertible or non-convertible securities. The development comes as Punit Goenka proposed the implementation of a lean and streamlined management structure to the Board of Zee Entertainment Enterprises, to arrive at a cost-effective operational model with speed and agility as the core areas of focus. Additionally, the company has initiated the process of rationalization of the workforce across the company by 15 per cent in order to prune the staff strength.In the recent quarter ending March 2024, the media giant reported a net profit of Rs 13.35 crore, compared with a loss of Rs 196 crore in the same quarter of last year. Total income in the reporting quarter increased 3% year-on-year to Rs 2,185 core. The same stood at Rs 2,126 crore in the corresponding quarter of previous year.