welcome to "street signs." >> these are your headlines. >> oil majors gain as prices hover around $20.50 in highs despite a pullback and the u.s. tax overhaul will help its results european chip makers follow apple lower after demands for the iphone x could come in below expectations 'tis the season. u.s. retailers pop after upbeats holiday numbers. but uk bargain hunters stay at

home and iwg shares surge after the provider confirms a bid approach all right. so this is the first day back from the christmas holiday let's see how the picture is trading in europe this morning we did have a bit of a mixed session in asian equities overnight. of course a lot of the rebound was led by the kmcommodities an mining sector in europe. things opened up a little weak but things more positive now as we delve into some of the stories. but let's take a look at the european individual indices and see what the picture is like there. and as we mentioned, you know, the past couple of days in the

u.s., u.s. markets have been struggling the last four trading sessions, actually, dow, s&p, and nasdaq did have negative days in europe it looks as though the picture is a lot more positive this morning all three majors slightly positive ftse is the underperformer on the day. let's take a quick look at sectors. basic resources up 1%. commodities and mining sector did have a very good session overnight. oil and gas, wti briefly broke through $60. that has driven that sector higher up 0.7% technology is struggling the downside, down 0.8%. one of the stories there the main stories is the sharp decline we saw in apple prices yesterday in u.s. trading session. apple stock was down 2.5%. and this morning as well to the downside we're seeing travel and leisure has suffered a bit down 3.5% as well as household goods.

now, goldman sachs is forecasting another year of 4% global growth in 2018 which is above consensus. emerging market strength is to offset the slight slowdown in markets. goldman says the risk of recession is low but the risk of market drawdowns remains high. the co-chief market economist at goldman sachs spoke to cnbc about the outlook for global 2018 >> this pillar of our strategy and rates this year was around a flattening of the curve. we get the level wrong because the curve is lower, but that rotation has occurred. going into next year, the fed has the ability to hike from two sides. pushing up the policy rate but also trying to steer the long end back up through the quantitative tightening. i think we're a bit more uncertain around the slope of the curve.

and that's why we perform going from one point >> the disconnect here is rates are going up, we've got tax reform coming in the states. why are you calling a soggy dollar and suggesting that participants view the euro and japanese yen with more appetite? >> yeah, i know. it's a question we get a lot i think, you know, there is a precedence for this. in a previous cycle where the fed hiked and growth was occurring overseas so the deltas in growth were more in favor for emerging markets and people left the dollar block to go into these places and we think that some of this may repeat itself. if we look at the acceleration, you mentioned 4% growth. that's all coming from the emerging market world. india, brazil obviously big contributors there but it tapers off. >> do you worry 2017 was the year for emerging markets. plenty of stimulus has found its way in china was pushing on the accelerator getting the country

ready for major party congress now we've got slower conditions coming out of china. you've got political risk coming up in a number of emerging market companies doesn't 2018 look just a little bit more challenging for emerging markets >> i take all those points, but i would say it's not an advanced economies are looking from that risk perspective as, you know, an easy play valuations are super high. it cannot be said for emerging markets. there's still some room for evaluation pickup. you have the carry which is positive then you have a mix of accelerating growth with inflation still by and large falling. whereas in the advanced economies, growth is tapering off and acceleration at least in the u.s. should be picking up. and policy is becoming less friendly at least on the monetary policy side >> let's switch to talk a little bit about europe clearly again political considerations in europe and surprising out of germany, not out of italy for once.

but again, one of your top traits for next year is to be long 5-year inflation in europe which is surprising given while the political backdrop but also the fact ecb are beginning to pull away. starting the tapering process, less accommodation in the system, at a time when inflation isn't necessarily high so why are you getting long inflation markets here >> let me pack the trade for you. i agree with you inflation is low if you look at the forecast that we have inflation roughly on the line for the next three years. i look at the market, though, that's what is priced in the option market gives a 50% chance-plus of staying below 1% over the next five years okay so there's a skew. the payouts look interesting at the long end of the curve, you have a very flat term

structure. so little premium. as the ecb goes about buying less bonds, we think that will steepen the curve and should also inflate the forward inflation term structure >> i just want to take an overarching perspective on your outlook. because the market is stewing about very high multiples, very high valuations on some stocks and everybody's asking the question when is the party going to end you're saying we're not going to be facing recession. but we could be ripe for correction but the arguments you put forward around wages rising into 2018 we've seen no real evidence of that despite a little bit of pressure coming into wages at some point it's hard to see how that has an impact then you've also mentioned psychology around the withdrawal of qe. central banks know what they're doing. that they're so well versed these days on exit it's barely going to cause a ripple.

test out those theories for me >> so look i think the two main points about the future are that we are fairly confident we won't have recession next year and that central banks are not going to murder the cycle because they want -- >> strangle the cycle. >> exactly so that's there. but we also recognize valuations are very high. to your point about margins, they're very narrow particularly in the u.s., the tech sector the rest is kind of flattish so we wanted basically to be short the premium, the multiples, and long growth that's where we go to emerge -- that's why we go to emerging markets. that is where we see growth accelerating for the u.s., it's a mixed picture. we have positive returns, but the risk of drawdowns here and there i think are higher than what we've seen in '17 >> that was francesco garzarelli economist at goldman sachs last

month. now, apple's european suppliers are following the cupertino giant lower following a report it's cutting its forecast for the iphone x logged their worst day since august closing down 2.5% that's after taiwan's economic daily newspaper reported the tech giant is cutting its sales forecast for the iphone x. citing unidentified sources, the newspaper said apple will slash its handset in the first quarter from 50 million units to 30 million. apple declined to comment. separately, iwg soars are surging after the office provider confirmed it received a takeover approach from onex and brookfield asset management. iwg did not disclose any further details about the possible cash offer. now we've discussed a lot of things already, but you can e-mail the show. we're at "street signs" and not

"squawk box. and of course you are tweet us and follow us on twitter tweet me directly. now, strong data in japan is bolstering hopes and economic --

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welcome back to "street signs. britain's ties with the european union could be a model for other non-member states. that's according to gabrielle. gabrielle told the newspaper the uk's future relationship with the eu could be emulated by countries not ready to join the bloc >> speaking to cnbc before the elections, general stefan compter said he was optimistic about the future of european and germany. >> seem not to be valid in these days anymore the positive development not only in germany but in the eurozone is getting even speed

up now and the german positive development lasts more than eight years. so we regain after the financial crisis and there's no signs of weakening. if the circumstances are okay and the political surrounding, let's say the national government, european affairs, i don't see any change in direction which is up. >> yeah. what do you say that the next government in case they potentially form a coalition with the liberals could be even more business friendly and could even give the german economy a boost? >> the voter decides the composition of the government, not the national association but our clear perception is that for the next four years, we need a more growth friendly, more business oriented policy we have challenges by the demographics and the social security system. and we feel the disruption of

the new competitors from asia and other places of the world. and therefore we aren't champions league at the moment yes, quite clear but therefore we need a political surrounding that we stay in the champions league that would be the task for the new government >> from germany to japan where strong data is increasing hopes of an economic recovery that would drive up to the bank of japan's 2% target. we're joined this morning with more >> morning yes, according to government data released tuesday, unemployment fell to 2.7% in november which is the lowest level in 24 years. strong hiring will likely prompt a recovery in consumption which could lead to higher prices. and november's consumer price index excluding fresh -- the sharpest rise in more than three years. many economists are hopeful that the trend will continue in the new year

a survey by a think tank asking 41 economists shows an optimistic inflation forecast of 0.9% in fiscal 2018. this beats the actual rate for the april to november period this year which averaged just 0.6% the price hike is being driven by electricity, gas, and petroleum products as prices have rebounded from significant drops last year. but the bank of japan's 2% inflation target is still not in sight. still the central bank's october minutes released tuesday are proof they are hesitant to loosen policy to achieve that goal so the key will be higher wages. and wage growth has been sluggish this year and prime minister abe has called on businesses to increase wages next year by at least 3% he hopes higher wages will lead to more spending and drive demand and fuel inflation towards the elusive goal of 2% and that's all for the nikkei. back to you.

>> thank you so much now, in july, brussels came under fire after it let the government bail out with public funds. speaking to cnbc shortly afterwards, cbubs ceo. >> it was almost inevitable considering the fact that highly risk bonds, subordinated bonds were placed with retail investors. i think that was a wrong decision to allow this to happen it was almost inevitable socially speaking it was not acceptable in my point of view to have a retail bondholders to be bailed in >> so you don't think those bail in rules will hold in the future >> i do think, you know, there are banks like if i can say ubs or under the suisse regime is

very clear the sub board nation. and also very clear who you sell those instruments to so it's important to be very careful to be sure that people understand the risk we are taking and in my point of view, those kind of instruments should never be placed with retail investors. >> if we go back exactly one year, confidence in the european banking space, that was at a record low we saw many of the share prices at a record low in part because of still concerns about mpls coming from italian banks but also capitalization issues those two issues have now been addressed. we saw hikes from the likes of credit suisse, deutsche bank and again the italian banks have been dealt with. how much of a relief is that to you as the ceo of one of the biggest european banks >> it's good big systemic and global banks have been taken care or they took care of themselves in addressing those issues.

i think that what we see right now is probably what we could call second tier banks and third tier banks coming to difficult times. so the drop has been done. it is clear that europe is not one part in which all banks are behaving the same way. there are winners and there are very strong players in europe. and there are still weak players that should be allowed to restructure or to be consolidated >> but do you think that confidence in the european banking sector has been fully restored or is there anything that worries you in that you think that could come back to the depressed ratings or valuations further? >> in general european banks i think you ask compared to a year ago, definitely much better place. but still a little bit tight more to go in respect of restoring confidence in order to restore confidence, you need a prolonged period in which those kind of issues are not making the headlines

and unfortunately, it's not the case so i do think that italy is one case we saw in spain some questions around the german banking system could be posed so in general like say maybe another year to go in order to really assess how solid this recovery is. >> speaking of european banks, europe's banks are crunching the numbers on the impact of the u.s. tax overhaul. barclays anticipates a charge of 1 billion pounds to its group profits after tax. and credit suisse expecting a 2.3 billion swiss franc writedown because of the tax bill and ubs says it will have to write down 2.86 billion swiss francs both seen as potential buyers of germany's commerce bank but the folks at reuters breaking views point out, it's not bank executives leading the way. it's the regulators.

now, the editor from reuters breaking news joins us on the show peter, that's an interesting point you raise there. i understand there is a need for consolidation in the european banking sector, but you're saying it's being driven by the regulators this time >> this is one of the big puzzles. before the financial crisis ten years ago, there was a lot of talk about consolidation in europe and then what happened was taken over that was university agreed to have been a total disaster i mean, basically two of the banks that were involved in the takeover got nationalized. the british government is still 70% shareholder as a result. so after that for a long period of time, regulators, politicians, nobody wanted to hear about cross-border consolidati consolidation. but this talk is back. and the interesting thing about it is the people who are really leading it are on the regulators at the ecb the new single supervisory move. which is actively encouraging

banks to thinkabout cross border consolidation, to think about buying each other. and basically wants to have fewer european banks >> of course if you buy in from all members of the eurozone and there are three pillars. one of the them hasn't really made much progress is there ever going to be progress on that front >> i think that's one of the interesting things when you talk to bank executives in europe, they're wary about this idea of cross-border consolidati consolidation. there are a couple of reasons for that partly is you don't get as many cost savings if you buy a bank in another country and they also -- they're worried about sort of social issues and the political impact of closing branches and things like that. the other thing they talk about is the single deposit mechanism which is really a prerequisite for having a proper banking union, that doesn't exist yet. as long as that doesn't exist, a lot are worried about sort of buying banks in other countries. >> one thing i was reading in

your notes is that the eurozone banking sector is still substantially larger than in the u.s. as a percentage of gdp is that going to change? does the european bank have to shrink by definition >> i don't think anybody -- i think we've got beyond the point where people want the banking sector to shrink it has shrunk since the crisis partly because a lot of european banks had assets outside the eu anddivested to a certain extent most mortgages do not sit on the balance sheets of major banks and they have a much larger capital market if they can develop a capital market to take care of the more of the financing of large and sort of medium sized companies, then that would make the economy less dependent on the banks. but i don't think anybody actually wants the banking sector to shrink in absolute terms at the moment. >> my first job out of high

school was the emirate of course you see the retail bank's logo everywhere but that is a warning sign of what can go wrong. looking at deals involving france and the french government, that's my question for you. if you look at what happened, you saw the french government whether the executives admit it or not having a heavy hand in how that deal came together. if it goes the other way, if another european giant wants to try and swallow up one of the french banks that stand for french role in the world when it comes to finance, is that something the french government is going to allow? do you think >> this has always been the big stumbling talk before 2007, not much actually happened right? because basically the problem you run into is the minute you start talking about a takeover of a big bank, then national governments start saying hang on this is our national champion. we depend on them to finance our

other major multinationals and so forth and the headquarters are going to move. it'll be run by someone -- >> so systemic significance. >> but also sort of national pride and stuff. so even if the, you know, the regulators, even if the ecb is keen to arrange some of these unions, you will still run into those problems if some people were to say, you can imagine the french would be difficult by that. things have moved on a bit i think there's a recognition that actually if you want to be -- if you want to have a national champion, then that national champion needs to get bigger >> at the expense potentially of other national champions >> exactly that's the problem but you end up with situations like commerce bank which is clearly smaller than some of the other banks that are being talked about as potential buyers including deutsche bank. and the german government has a stake. the german government has the potential to sort of steer commerce bank one way or the other. clearly what's happened, there

have been fairly major sort of deals struck as you said with political influence between france and germany, between france and italy so you can imagine that coming into play as well. perhaps against the wishes or over the wish. >> i want to talk about the rise of fin tech. there are a couple of new directors that have come out allowing for non-banking firms essentially to compete with banks when it comes to things like payments, opening up accounts, et cetera. how is that going to disrupt the banking system in the foreseeable future >> well, the immediate directive coming up is the payment services director which forces to open up their data to anybody who wants it as long as the customer gives approval that has potentially a big impact on banks. it enables upstart banks and aggregator of data to insert themselves into that relationship

which is a relationship the banks watch closely. i think also more broadly what's happening with fin tech is it's forcing the banks to think more carefully about the shape of their businesses so do we need as many branches as we have you know, do we -- can we cut costs? ways of delivering things more efficiently. but also can we go and operate in other countries without building branches and buying other entities there's a weird push/pull there. regulators seem to be keen to get together but some banks you talk to say actually we can compete quite happily in places like germany and spain without building our own branches and make a profit that way >> peter, we'll leave it there thank you so much. peter larsen from reuters. coming up on the show, festive cheer after a miserable year we'll fill you in on the news that delivered a substantial boost to u.s. retail stocks in yesterday's trade. stay with us

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welcome to "street signs." >> these are your headlines.

oil majors gain as prices hover around 2015 highs despite a slight pullback. and shell says the tax overhaul will help its results. european chip makers follow apple lower after a report suggests demand for the iphone x could come in below expectations 'tis the season. u.s. retailers pop after upbeat holiday shopping numbers but uk bargain hunters stay home in a blow to the high streets. and iwg shares surge to the top of the stock 600 after the uk service office provider announces a bid approach from onex so this is not the first day for trading for u.s. futures since christmas, but the second day in europe. we were just looking a little bit earlier. the picture was slightly more

positive it looks as though s&p, dow, and nasdaq looking to open firmer today. of course the main story that was dragging down dow jones in yesterday's trading was apple which traded down 2.5% at one point. but let's take a look at the european picture and see how the indices are fairing there. ftse up 1.4% and has been trading very well and the highest it has been trading for the last couple of months or so. cac a little firmer. dax flat as a pancake not much there. let's switch to foreign exchange and see how things are fairing up there again, not much in the way of move euro/dollar about the 118 mark up 0.2%. dollaryen around the 113.20.

and cable has been trading in that range far couple of weeks now. now, shares in a number of big retailers surged in yesterday's session in response to a survey indicating american consumers spent a record amount over the holiday period. data from mastercard showed that retail sales jumped 4.9% this holiday season the largest year on year gain since 2011 however, in the uk, fewer shoppers hit the high streets on boxing day and they said that foot fall was down 5.2% yesterday compared to the year before. now joining us on the show is michael ward the managing director from harrids. that number being lower for boxing day, you said in harrids you saw higher >> we saw slightly higher foot fall but customers going into new season a new season for us is amazing

for every one garment you sell of new season, you need to sell three sale items so we were quite pleased >> how have sales been going at harrods? >> we did a record last year so we were really in the point of can we consolidate that and we're pleased that we'll show year an year growth over 2016 and '17 we've had a festive season >> can i ask you if the digital market is a big part of your business here? we had a ceo on last weekend that said 50% are done on the app. what are those numbers like when it comes to harrods? >> we've got a small but growing dotcom business. but for us it's still a relatively small piece >> do you not get the sense luxury shoppers would appreciate or start to look to using technology on e-commerce sites

>> totally agree that's why we've invested cig a cantly last year and we're seeing strong growth in that. >> refere >> one thing else i've noticed is you're breaking trend with a lot of the uk retailers. why did you make that decision >> because we're not a discounter we're about premium product, exclusive product. to be in the middle of a black friday is wrong for us it was interesting on the day of hour of black friday, we had massive web sales, but we didn't lose any margin. >> you talk about year on year growth for sales there are obviously parts of the world where people are not traveling as much, not spending as much. i wonder whether you're seeing that in your numbers >> we see a mix every year of customers. so it's never -- you never get all of the balls bouncing at the same time. >> which balls have not been

bouncing this year >> the little problems was the middle east wasn't as strong as the previous year. but that was countered by china. we've had a good growth in america and again strong growth in indonesia and thailand. so it's a good kblans. >> i see that you mention you're investing in digital that's not a big part of your business now a lot of efforts i go through, i seem to see the harrods brand. >> we're fortunate it helps the bottom line, but it's also a great way for people to see harrods. >> one final question, michael where do you see the growth and demand coming for the future you mentioned chinese consumers have actually overtaken uk consumers when it comes to shopping at harrods. do you expect that to continue >> i do. we got 350,000 visitors from china every year japan gets 11 million. so in terms of we're scratching a very small barrel at the moment >> brilliant michael, thank you very joining

us on the show today that was michael ward, managing director at harrods. now, u.s. airlines will generate over half of the industry's global profits next year that's according to the latest report from the international air transport association. i spoke not long ago with the ther ceo and asked him about the expectations for 2018. >> in 2018 we expect again a good year after good years in 2015, 2016, and 2017 we forecast net profit for the industry above $38 billion $824 billion of revenues so it should be a good year for the industry but we are still a fragile industry in terms of percentage we make a profit which is below 5% of our revenues so a good year but we are still

an industry which is depending on many economic conditions. >> one of those aspects that will place your margins under pressure next year >> we are facing some uncertainties. the first one is an increase in some cost. labor cost, infrastructure cost. putting pressure on our margins. and they are the traditional uncertainties that are hovering above this industry. security, geopolitical issues, any weather conditions that are classical. but there are still some uncertainties that we have to face we see also some to be developed in areas of the world that are threat for the industry as they are threat for the global

economy. >> let's talk about though, specifically, i don't want to be too general there. where are those areas you see that threat coming from then >> we see some protectionist ideas spreading over europe. you have seen that in the recent dl elections. the brexit in a way is a kind of protectionist decision or vote that has been made we see some similar ids in north america in some countries all over the world we see that as a threat because anything that closes borders to people or to goods is not good for the global economy. >> let's talk about one final thing. the issue of the middle east situation where we've had obviously this dispute between qatar and four of its neighbors. what impact has that had on the

airline industry not just to qatar airways itself but more broadly? and do you see that's going to maintain as a problem over the next 12 months >> we have said two things about that middle east issue first we want connectivity between qatar and the rest of the world to be re-established rapidly. and we have worked with iko to ensure that they can be properly connected. and thirdly what we have stated is that the industry shouldn't suffer any blking measu ining - measures in this region. up to now and we haven't seen significant consequences on the industry in the region resulting

from these decisions after 2017 year that has been difficult first half so we hope that it will continue and no difficult consequences will be drawn from the situation there. >> let's talk just finally about the united states. we've seen that global airline profits have been largely driven by the united states i think they've made up more than half the profits globally have come from the sector. it seems all that talk of chapter 11 bankruptcy is well behind us at this point. we've obviously seen slightly lower energy costs for the airlines i wonder whether you think the u.s. will be the major driver of profits across your sector >> as you mention, i know the u.s. and north american airlines

have done very well in the past years. they were counting for half of the profits. but we see some areas of concern in terms of rising costs, especially labor costs that could reduce north american airline margins. anyway, the north america should continue to be the most profitable area in the -- in 2018 but perhaps with an edge which would -- could be slightly smaller than it has been in 2017 >> that was the ceo of iata i spoke to earlier this month. ge is upping its stake in the manufacturing company arcam. ge plans to initiate a request to delist arcam from the stockholm exchange

coming up on the show, is apple losing its bite? shares in the tech giant suffered their worst daily fall since august in yesterday's daily trade. we'll bring you the details after the break. happy anniversary dinnedarlin' i'm messing up every dish, pot, and plate... ...to show my love. ta-da! all this devotion only calls for a little bit of dawn ultra.

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welcome back to "street signs. apple's european suppliers are following the tech giant lower after a report that it's cutting its sales forecast for the iphone x apple shares logged their worst day since august closing down 2.5% after taiwan's economic daily, a newspaper, published a report about potentially disappointing sales for the iphone x citing unidentified sources saying apple will slash its estimates for the handsets in the first quarter from 50 million units down to 30 million. apple declined to comment. joining us on the set, arjun thanks for being with us this is bad news for apple in some ways. what could be the silver lining? >> i think if you look at some of the stories around the iphone x, a lot of world publicized issues with the production of some of the sensors in this

complex handset. there is an expectation that the demand and meeting that demand will be pushed out and recognized in some of the quarters beyond q1 i think that seems to be the hopes. there's still a lot of bullishness around the apple story, around the iphone kp rx. that there are still many that are using iphone models that are two years or older that will give hope to many investors here that many people in the older iphones will begin to upgrade to the new models >> didn't apple admit recently they were purposely slowing down older iphone models to upgrade that's not going to inspire a lot of confidence, is it >> exactly apple's justifications is we have to do this to stop these phones from not working completely and that was what apple said at the same time it confirmed what people believed at the same time apple has come

out with a radically new device with the iphone x. they've continued to upgrade a lot of the things that are under the hood the software especially and the services around that that's something that does propel people to upgrade i know a few people saying i should get the iphone x. it looks so good so that's something that will give apple a lot of help it's so expensive. >> with all those services however successful they may be, however many users, the margins are much smaller >> you have to remember, also, if you bought a really top spec iphone 7 plus, for example, even that was an expensive device people might say it's not that much expensive to buy a top spec phone in the last rounds so i don't mind spending that couple extra hundred pounds on the iphone x that's something with apple changing the design in such a big way from previous models this is actually very different from other things on the market. that's something that apple's hoping especially will gain

traction in china where it has struggled over the past couple of years >> but when you see them slashing that national forecast for sales, that's a challenge for them in that when the iron's hot, they strike, they get a lot of people buying in at that top price range with that top margin built in as time goes on, less and less people are going to want to buy it first hand. you see that growth as we've seen before. that's why this matters to them. even if you have that longer tail for sale, it's a big problem. >> it is a big problem also does hype around this device then begin to die going into the first quarter and then people say apple are going to launch another device surely on the yearly schedule around september time. maybe we'll hold out for that. there is that danger that that effect also happens which would be terrible news for apple of course we know still the apple story is all around the iphones and many analysts have said this year is going to be the super cycle year for apple if that doesn't materialize, you will see material out on the

product. >> you said my christmas present is still in the post -- >> it's coming >> people like -- exactly. kahn way west, he didn't delay he bought his wife hundreds of thousands of dollars in stocks for christmas. how romantic revealing the gift on instagram, she showed a mickey mouse doll, an amazon gift card, netflix girt card. and a box for shares in each of the companies. which of those companies would you be buying and why? >> i know you said how romantic, but imagine you thought you were getting socks and then you get -- >> if you want to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on me, i'm happy for you to do that, yeah >> let's just take on some of the stocks there they're all actually -- if you look into next year, pretty solid companies when you look on a fundamental basis. they're launching loads of new services that people continue to

buy. that's pretty key. if you look at the fox deal, that's something that's going to propel them very big into the streaming space with all their strong content and brand offerings. that's something that could help them do well and apple again, this is a story if the iphone x does well, that's something that could keep them going strongly. as well as other offerings around music and apple pay if they start jumping into video streaming a lot more there is a lot of positivity around the technology stocks >> arjun, still positive on fangs into 2018. now onto another technology sector, bitcoin is looking to recover some of its losses since they had their worst week since 2013 it fell nearly 30% on friday $11,000. >> we're joined by the ceo and founder of block exchange. ben, which cryptocurrencies is your company currently allowing

people to trade? >> we're trading a combination of bitcoin, litecoin, ethereum, and ripple and we'll be launching many more in 2018. >> is bitcoin the most attractive you've come across in your professional life >> i think it really is, yes i first found out about bitcoin three or four years ago. it took me quite a long time to understand actually what the cryptocurrency was doing but certainly i feel it's an incredibly strong proposition for the future. >> you're not an investment adviser. do you have skin in the game what proportion of your net worth is in bitcoin right now? >> that's a very good question i guess it would be about 5% of my -- >> so part of a balanced portfolio. >> absolutely. >> given that, what's your percentage margin on each transaction on your platform how much money are you making out of the people investing through your platform? >> we've intended to open the lon bonn bloc exchanges as a secure, tradebly fair, and -- >> you're trying to make money

out of it as well. >> of course so we'll be opening exchange with about 0.5% fees for retail. >> who regulates you right now >> currently it's an unregulated activity cryptocurrency has been looked at by the authority loosely. they don't see at the moment a reason to regulate it differently from other asset classes. but we have in place a regulation to hold client funds through an e-money license so -- >> final question. no guarantees on any of the deposits put into your exchange right now? >> in sterling yes. funds that are held on the exchange in sterling are covered by the e-money license >> okay. >> can i just ask how you foolproof your sites from hacks? we read about a couple of stories in particular south korea where hackers have managed to infiltrate some of these and extract money that was due to the customers who were involved

on the exchange. how do you foolproof your own website? >> the answer really is that you use incredibly powerful partners to work with a lot of the uk bank experience, a high number of tax every day that go unreported and hacking is a major concern particularly for cryptocurrency because it is a bare instrument. it's impossible to say we'll never be hacked, but we're working with the best people in the industry to protect ourselves against that >> ben, you're launching a debit card, as well, that allows you to use these cryptocurrencies to spend, you know, in pounds and convert them into pounds to spend. how does that process work we've heard of these record high transaction fees and record high transaction times on the bitcoin network, for example, is that a problem for many of these cryptocurrencies being used in real world scenarios we -- our intention is for our prepaid card which is different from a debit card is that it provides a way for people to

convert their cryptocurrency on the exchange back into sterling or euros and that then allows people to avoid transaction fees when they're using the card in the everyday environment. >> do you see cryptocurrencies like bitcoin able to be used in the real world in the future or is this more akin to digital gold as many have said >> i think bitcoin suffers from an interesting issues right now in that the transaction fees are very high. i think currently it's about $30 to transfer bitcoin from one wallet to another. i think, you know, bitcoin is seen as value much like gold whereas if you look at things like litecoin which do have a quicker settlement time, you know, you'll begin to see those being used in a more merchant environment. >> and quickly, what is your views on icos? >> whin what sense? >> do you believe it should be encouraged do you believe people should participate in icos and use it

as a means of obtaining cryptocurrencies or would you stay wary of them? >> i think you have to apply a great deal of intelligence to when investing in icos i think there are a number of high quality teams that are out there behind icos. there are also some which need to be avoided. part of what we're doing on the london bloc exchange is providing a safe pair of hands to help guide people through the cryptocurrency environment what's interesting is regulators have now started to pay attention. and what to understand, is this security or an asset class >> thank you very much that was ben dives ben arjun, thank you as ever for joining us on the show that's it for today'shs ow >> "worldwide exchange" is up next

markets now wall street pointing to a higher open as investors try to kick the center rally into a higher gear crude realities. oil sitting near a two and a half year high after a pipeline blast in libya we're drawing down on energy's big move elon musk says a tesla pickup is coming "worldwide exchange" begins right now. ♪ good morning and a warm welcome to "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. i'm wilfred frost. i hope you had a lovely christmas. let's check in o