Good morning. The biggest harbinger that things were about to fall apart in Iran didn’t come from the thwarted anger of the country’s opposition or the frustrated hopes of young people hungry for more personal freedom. It came from the collapse of a bank.

Late last year, Ayandeh Bank, run by regime cronies and saddled with nearly $5 billion in losses on a pile of bad loans, went bust. The government folded the carcass into a state bank and printed a massive amount of money to try to paper over all the red ink. That buried the problem but didn’t solve it.

• The impact: The failure became both a symbol and an accelerant of an economic unraveling that ultimately triggered the protests that now pose the most significant threat to the regime since the founding of the Islamic Republic half a century ago. The bank’s collapse made clear that the Iranian financial system, under strain from years of sanctions, bad lending and reliance on inflationary printed money, had become increasingly insolvent and illiquid. Five other banks are thought to be similarly weak.
   
• The bank and banker in spotlight: Ayandeh Bank was founded in 2013 by Ali Ansari, an Iranian businessman who merged two state-owned banks with another he founded previously to form the new lender. He hails from one of the country’s richest families and owns a multimillion-dollar mansion in north London. The U.K. sanctioned Ansari last year just days after the collapse of Ayandeh, calling him a “corrupt Iranian banker and businessman” who helped finance the sprawling Iranian elite paramilitary and business organization, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
   
• The context: The crisis hit at the worst possible time. The Iranian government’s credibility had already been battered by a 12-day war with Israel and the U.S. in June that showed it couldn’t defend its population from attack. Its leaders had refused to budge in negotiations over the country’s nuclear program, putting sanctions relief out of reach. In November, Israel and the U.S. threatened to strike again if Iran tried to reconstitute its ballistic missile arsenal or nuclear efforts.

Also:

• Trump Says Iran Has Stopped Killing Protesters, Leans Away From Military Action
• U.K., EU Plan Further Iran Sanctions for Deadly Crackdown on Protesters
• Iran Signals Plans for Swift Trials and Executions of Protesters

Fed’s Miran scolds central bankers who defended Powell.

A Federal Reserve governor appointed by President Trump criticized top global central bankers who defended Fed Chair Jerome Powell amid the Justice Department’s criminal probe.

In a Q&A session with a moderator at an economics conference in Athens, Greece, on Wednesday, Fed governor Stephen Miran said that a letter in Powell’s support signed by prominent central-bank officials from around the world was an overstep.

Meanwhile, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said in a virtual conversation that the U.S. economy is best served by having an independent Federal Reserve that executes monetary-policy decisions based only on data and analysis. 

• China’s top market regulator said an investigation is underway over Trip.com Group’s alleged antitrust conduct.
   
• The Federal Trade Commission finalized an order with General Motors and OnStar to settle allegations that the companies collected and sold consumers’ data without adequate notification.
   
• Ford Motor has suspended a worker who heckled President Trump during a tour of a Michigan truck factory on Tuesday.
   
• Dyson must face a trial against workers at Malaysian suppliers who claim they were trafficked and subjected to forced labor, a U.K. court said Wednesday.
   
• California’s financial regulator has fined cryptocurrency lender Nexo Capital $500,000 over allegations the company violated the Golden State’s consumer finance laws.
   
• Swedbank shares rose to a new high after the U.S. Justice Department closed a money-laundering probe into the bank without sanctions.
   
• Affiliates of Kaiser Permanente agreed to pay $556 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act.

Geoeconomic confrontation, armed conflict and climate change dominate risk worries, WEF says.

Global leaders and risk experts warned competition for resources raises the risk of geoeconomic confrontation and armed conflict between states, the World Economic Forum said Wednesday.

Ahead of its conference in the Swiss ski resort of Davos next week, the WEF released its annual Global Risks Report, including the results of its survey of roughly 1,300 global leaders and risk experts. The report said “uncertainty will remain the defining theme for the near future,” with 2026 expected to be turbulent and stormy.

• Market Underprices Geopolitical Uncertainties, ECB’s Vice President Says

Banks say U.S. consumers remain resilient despite economic pressures.

American consumers continued to spend and borrow at a healthy clip at the end of 2025, despite a year marked by uncertainty around job security, tariffs and stubborn inflation.

JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo this week collectively reported $28.5 billion in profits for the fourth quarter. That amounted to $123.2 billion for the full year, up nearly 5% from 2024.

• President Trump insisted that the U.S. needed to annex Greenland for U.S. national-security interests, saying anything less than American control would be “unacceptable.”
   
• The Trump administration will announce Wednesday the U.S. is moving to the next step of its Gaza plan and name a committee of Palestinians to temporarily run the bombed-out enclave, U.S. officials said.
   
• Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi plans to call a general election as soon as next month, a gamble aimed at cementing her grip on power as she battles Chinese anger over remarks she made about Taiwan.
   
• When President Trump was asked why his administration swooped into Venezuela to oust its leader, one thing was clear: The country’s resources were front and center.

• Meta Platforms has laid off roughly 10% of staff, about 1,500 people, from its Reality Labs division, the unit that houses its virtual and augmented reality efforts, according to a person familiar with the matter.
   
• Jeffrey Epstein lured some of his victims in the 2000s by promising to help them get into New York University and Columbia University, then sometimes footing the tuition bills.
   
• The parent of Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus filed for bankruptcy protection, barely a year after an ambitious bet on luxury department stores brought the two storied retailers together in what was supposed to be a powerhouse deal.
   
• The State Department will indefinitely pause immigrant visa processing for 75 countries as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing effort to block low-income foreigners from immigrating to the U.S.

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