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Kremlin Linked Fintech A7 Reportedly Moved Billions Via Global Banks Using Forged Invoices

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A recent investigation has revealed how a Kremlin-linked payments company allegedly moved more than $6.9 billion through major international banks by exploiting gaps in compliance controls and using a large-scale document-forgery operation.

The reporting from the FT is said to be based on hundreds of thousands of internal files obtained from A7, a fintech group launched in late 2024 as a workaround after Russian lenders were cut off from the SWIFT messaging network following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

A7 was established with backing from Promsvyazbank, a state-owned bank closely tied to Russia’s defense sector, and Moldovan businessman Ilan Shor.

The company marketed itself as an alternative channel for Russian firms seeking to conduct cross-border trade.

According to the leaked records, A7 did not rely solely on novel payment technology.

Instead it used a network of front companies in jurisdictions including Kyrgyzstan, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong and Hungary.

These intermediaries opened accounts at banks still connected to SWIFT.

When compliance teams questioned transfers, A7 staff allegedly generated counterfeit invoices and supporting paperwork on an industrial scale.

Transaction descriptions and customs codes were routinely altered so that restricted goods appeared to be ordinary commercial items.The structure of SWIFT itself helped the scheme operate.

The system generally depends on the originating bank to verify its own customers rather than independently checking every beneficiary.

Once A7-linked entities cleared those initial controls, funds could move onward through correspondent banks.

The documents show substantial volumes reaching well-known institutions. Accounts at Standard Chartered in Hong Kong received about $1.1 billion from A7-connected entities between late 2024 and August 2025.

Seventeen entities holding accounts at First Abu Dhabi Bank sent more than $1.8 billion outbound.

Smaller but still significant sums reached clients of DBS in Hong Kong, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank.

A7-linked vehicles also used accounts at JPMorgan.

Some of the payments appear connected to purchases by Russian security services and military-related entities.

The files indicate that A7 maintained a roster of roughly 100 front companies whose purpose was to create a plausible paper trail and obscure the Russian origin of the funds.

Several banks named in the investigation said they take anti-money-laundering and sanctions obligations seriously.

First Abu Dhabi Bank stated it had already identified and closed the relevant accounts.

Other institutions declined to discuss individual cases but emphasized existing controls.

A7 and its principals have been designated by the United States, United Kingdom and European Union.

Despite those measures, the leaked material suggests the network continued to route large sums through the conventional banking system for many months by substituting forged documentation for genuine commercial activity.

The episode highlights persistent weaknesses in how global banks monitor correspondent relationships and trade-based transfers.

It also illustrates the difficulty of fully isolating a large economy from the international financial system when determined actors combine shell companies, document fabrication and access to SWIFT-connected institutions.



Why 80% of Startups Waste Their First Marketing Retainer

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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Key Takeaways

  • The most expensive mistake happens before the agency does a single hour of work: The agency and client rarely discuss what the business actually needs to look different in six months for the engagement to have been worth it.
  • Your first marketing retainer is a significant bet. The agencies that will serve you best are the ones willing to be held accountable to a number that actually matters to your business.

A founder I work with hired a marketing agency eight months into his startup. Solid agency, good reputation, reasonable contract. Six months later, he had a beautiful brand deck, a content calendar running like clockwork and a social presence that had grown by a few thousand followers. He also had no new customers he could trace back to any of it.

When I asked what success had looked like in the original scope of work, he went quiet. “I guess we never actually defined it,” he said.

That conversation comes up more often than I’d like. Not because agencies are dishonest or founders are naive, but because the agency-client relationship for an early-stage startup is structurally set up to produce the wrong outcomes if you don’t actively design it otherwise. Agencies are very good at delivering what they can measure, and what’s easy to measure and what actually moves your business forward are often two different things.

What founders get wrong before the contract is signed

The most expensive mistake happens before the agency does a single hour of work. Most founders go into a retainer conversation thinking about outputs: how many posts per week, how many emails per month, what the deliverables look like. Agencies are happy to have that conversation because deliverables are easy to define and easy to demonstrate at the end of the month.

What almost never gets discussed is what the business actually needs to look different in six months for this engagement to have been worth it. Revenue from a specific channel, a pipeline that didn’t exist before, customer acquisition cost coming down measurably. These are harder to commit to, so most agencies won’t volunteer them as success criteria unless you make them.

Before you sign anything, you should be able to answer two questions clearly. First, what does this agency believe is true about your market or your customer that your current strategy isn’t acting on? If they can’t answer that with specificity, you’re buying execution without a point of view, which is rarely what an early-stage startup needs.

Second, how will we both know in 90 days whether this is working? If the answer involves impressions, follower counts or share of voice, that’s a signal worth paying attention to.

Why vanity metrics survive so long in agency relationships

Founders often sense something is off well before they act on it. The reports look active, the team seems engaged, there’s always something to show on a call. The problem is that activity and progress are easy to conflate when you don’t have clear baseline data and a specific number you’re trying to move.

Agencies don’t push vanity metrics because they’re trying to obscure poor performance. Most of the time they push them because those are the metrics they can reliably influence within a retainer. Follower growth, engagement rate and content volume are things an agency can control. Whether any of that converts to pipeline depends on your product, your sales motion and your pricing, all of which extend well beyond their scope. So they report what they can defend, and founders accept it because the alternative is an uncomfortable conversation.

The way to break this cycle is to agree on a shared “signal metric” before work begins. Something that sits between a vanity metric and a revenue outcome, specific enough to be meaningful but close enough to the agency’s work to be fair. For a B2B startup, it might be demo requests from organic channels. For a consumer brand, it might be repeat purchase rate among customers acquired through content. Whatever it is, get it in writing before month one.

The red flags founders ignore because they’re excited

Most founders can spot a bad agency in retrospect. The harder skill is spotting the signs during the pitch, when everything feels promising and the deck looks polished.

An agency that can’t point to a client whose business measurably grew because of their work is a red flag, not a gap they’ll fill with your company. Ask for two or three examples where a client saw a specific business outcome they can trace back to the agency’s work, something with a number attached and a clear line of causation, not just “we grew their social presence.”

Watch for agencies that build strategy entirely from your brief without pressure-testing your assumptions. Good agencies push back. They ask whether your positioning actually resonates with the buyer you think you’re targeting, whether your conversion path makes sense given your price point and whether the channel you want to invest in is where your customer actually makes decisions. If the strategy process feels like they’re mostly agreeing with you and adding production value, be skeptical.

And pay attention to who is in the room during the pitch versus who will actually be doing the work. The senior team that closes the deal and the junior team that runs the account are often very different groups of people.

What a productive retainer actually looks like

The founders I’ve seen get real value from agency relationships share a few habits. They treat the first 30 days as a diagnostic, not an execution sprint. They push the agency to pressure-test assumptions about the audience, the message and the channel before any significant production begins. This slows things down initially and sometimes creates friction, but it almost always produces better outcomes than moving fast on a strategy nobody has genuinely stress-tested.

They also maintain a clear internal owner of the agency relationship with enough context to evaluate the work critically, not just approve deliverables. When the person managing the agency doesn’t understand the commercial goals deeply enough to push back on a content calendar, the relationship drifts toward activity for its own sake very quickly.

Your first marketing retainer is a significant bet. The agencies that will serve you best are the ones willing to be held accountable to a number that actually matters to your business. If they’re reluctant to have that conversation, that tells you something important before you’ve spent a dollar.

Key Takeaways

  • The most expensive mistake happens before the agency does a single hour of work: The agency and client rarely discuss what the business actually needs to look different in six months for the engagement to have been worth it.
  • Your first marketing retainer is a significant bet. The agencies that will serve you best are the ones willing to be held accountable to a number that actually matters to your business.

A founder I work with hired a marketing agency eight months into his startup. Solid agency, good reputation, reasonable contract. Six months later, he had a beautiful brand deck, a content calendar running like clockwork and a social presence that had grown by a few thousand followers. He also had no new customers he could trace back to any of it.

When I asked what success had looked like in the original scope of work, he went quiet. “I guess we never actually defined it,” he said.

That conversation comes up more often than I’d like. Not because agencies are dishonest or founders are naive, but because the agency-client relationship for an early-stage startup is structurally set up to produce the wrong outcomes if you don’t actively design it otherwise. Agencies are very good at delivering what they can measure, and what’s easy to measure and what actually moves your business forward are often two different things.

Harvard’s Judgment Professor: Numbers Don’t Make Decisions; People Do

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In this episode of Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing, Motley Fool contributor Rachel Warren sits down with Reza Satchu, Harvard Business School senior lecturer and six-time company founder, for Part 1 of a conversation. He:

  • Unpacks why judgment — not intellect or data — is the scarcest asset in the age of AI.
  • Whether it can actually be taught.
  • The real story behind walking away from a billion-dollar buyout offer on his student housing company, only to sell it a year later for $1.7 billion.

To catch full episodes of all The Motley Fool’s free podcasts, check out our podcast center. When you’re ready to invest, check out this top 10 list of stocks to buy.

A full transcript is below.

This podcast was recorded on Sept. 13, 2026.

Reza Satchu: Judgment is not something that you can observe or that you can learn through osmosis. It has to be done by actually exercising it and making decisions, stepping into risk, and thinking about what the consequences are of those.

Rachel Warren: That was Reza Satchu, serial entrepreneur, investor, and senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, on why judgment, not numbers, is the thing that most investors overlook. I’m Motley Fool analyst Rachel Warren. Reza has built six companies across multiple market cycles, achieving billions in exits, and teaches two of Harvard Business School’s most popular courses, the founder mindset and founder launch. I sat down with Reza to talk through why judgment is becoming the scarcest asset in the age of AI, whether it can be taught, and how he personally walked away from a billion-dollar buyout offer and made it pay off. We hope you enjoy Part 1.

Welcome back to Motley Fool Conversations. I’m Rachel Warren. When we evaluate businesses to buy and hold for the long term, we often spend hours poring over income statements, balance sheets, cash flow trends, and that’s important, but numbers don’t make decisions. People do. Our guest today argues that investors often spend more time studying a company’s numbers than evaluating the judgment of the people deciding what happens to those numbers next. Reza Satchu is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, where he teaches two of the university’s most popular courses, The Founder Mindset and The Founder Launch. Over Reza’s career, he has built six companies across multiple market cycles, achieving billions in exits. He is the founder and managing partner of an investment management corporation and the host of Harvard’s The Founder Mindset podcast. Reza, welcome to the show.

Reza Satchu: Thank you, Rachel. Thanks for having me.

Rachel Warren: I want to lean a bit into this core idea that investors often spend so much time studying a company’s numbers, but maybe not so much evaluating the judgment of the people deciding what happens next. I’d love to hear your thoughts on why do you think that the investing community or the markets in general tend to be so hyper-focused on the math, but often ignore that human judgment as driving it.

Reza Satchu: I think it’s a great question, Rachel, and I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this. In fact, if you think about the courses I teach, some would say, Well, Rachel, why are you so focused on the mindset and not on the venture? Because, ultimately, what I’m trying to help is students launch their ventures. What I would tell you is, having done this, this is my 24th year teaching, there is far more traction and learning and improvement and probability of success that I can have by evaluating and improving one’s mindset. As opposed to spending a whole bunch of time evaluating their business. What that means is, what is that characteristic in the mindset that we’re looking for, and it all comes down to judgment.

I’d say it’s even more important in the age of AI, where so much can be replicated other than judgment. There’s no question that judgment is something that investors, employees, customers are desperately trying to evaluate. The question is, how do you evaluate it? How do you build it? What I would say is that judgment is not something that you can observe or that you can learn through osmosis. It has to be done by actually exercising it and making decisions, stepping into risk, and thinking about what the consequences are of those. I think, first of all, everyone agrees I think people would agree that judgment’s very important. I think the reason the market shies away from it is because it’s so hard to evaluate it. It’s very hard. It’s this nefarious thing that you can’t actually put math around. But if I had to say, what is the single most important thing that I’m looking for when I make an investment in a business or whether to spend time with a founder or not, it is my evaluation of their judgment. Invariably, what that is is evaluating previous decisions that they’ve made and understanding how they calibrated risk and trusted their judgment in that decision.

Rachel Warren: That leads me into this idea. How do you define the anatomy of good judgment? What are the differentiating factors you look for?

Reza Satchu: The first thing is, let’s just say, you can live a life where you never make a decision. You let things happen to you, and the status quo stays the same. Most people, frankly, see an idea and just assume that there’s no way that they could possibly think that could be a real idea because they don’t have the resources, and I’d say, every business, if a founder felt that way, that business wouldn’t exist today. Meaning I often say to people that you want to be opportunity-driven and not resource-constrained.

But to your question around, what does it look like in terms of how do you know how do you actually build or exercise judgment, at the end of the day, it’s around, are you putting yourself in situations where you’re making real decisions. Are you actually feeling the risk calibration? I also would say to you that there’s, there’s so much of human psychology here where human beings massively overestimate their downsides, typically, in terms of what they’re capable of when they actually commit to things and underestimate the upside notes. What ends up happening is I have a phrase which says, if in doubt act. Now, some people would say that’s very reckless. I’d say it’s not reckless at all. I just I may decide to stay with the status quo, but I’d much rather say I’m making an active decision, trusting my judge to go with the status quo, as opposed to what most people do, which is a deer and headlight approach, where you just freeze or get paralyzed and just stay the course. I think this active learning by doing where you’ve got someone who’s actually, frankly, living a life where they’re constantly stepping into rest, seeking risk, and calibrating it, and making decisions is what I look for.

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Rachel Warren: That’s interesting, as well. I’m curious, as you meet with founders and in your experience, you think leadership judgment is something that can be taught? Do you think it’s an innate trait?

Reza Satchu: Yeah, this is a great question. Rachel, what I’d say is, I would have wasted 24 years of my life if I thought you were born with it. It would have just this whole 24-year teaching adventure of mine would be an exercise in futility. What I would say is I have now taught thousands of students I can look at my own life, and I believe much of this is learnable. Meaning I don’t believe that people are born with this certain trait that allows them to lead or to found. Meaning I’ve seen too many stories of people have come from backgrounds and situations where you just think, wow, they are not going to be able to rise up and lead. Frankly, sometimes it’s precisely because of that adversity that they’ve been able to lead, but my point is I do think that it’s teachable. I do think people can choose to learn it.

I will give you an example. You could imagine in today’s day and age, you could almost think about what is learning today? It used to be memorization. It used to be listening to a professor lecture. Would actually say all of those skills are replicated far better by AI. Learning today is making consequential decisions that you are accountable for. Because it’s in those moments where you’re calibrating risk and trusting your judgment. I believe judgment is much more like a bicep than it is this thing you get at birth, meaning I believe the more you exercise it, the bigger it gets. What it means is you must seek risk. You must seek discomfort. You must push yourself into situations of uncertainty where you are being forced to test and trust your judgment.

Rachel Warren: One thing that’s interesting that you mentioned briefly earlier this idea that executive judgment becomes drastically more important in the age of AI. There’s so much data is commoditized. I’d like it if you could lean a bit more into your thoughts on that.

Reza Satchu: I think, actually, how you’ve articulated is dead on, which is that data is becoming more and more commoditized. There is no differentiation when it comes to math and numbers and raw intellectual horsepower. The differentiation is in taking that data and figuring out what are you going to do with it. What are the judgments you’re going to make around that? I often say that when I look at the lens from a founder, which is no different from a CEO of a public company. If I had to say, what are the differences in terms of when I evaluate founders versus a CEO of a public company in this day and age, it’s around if I had a crystal ball, if there was one trait I could measure in order to give someone a dollar it would be judgment. It would literally be judgment.

What I’m constantly asking founders is tell me how you’re exercising your judgment. Tell me about time, what you learned from flawed judgment. Tell me how you benefited from actually stepping into the arena and making these decisions. I think the first thing about judgment is you have to actually want to exercise it. The thing about judgment is there’s a downside to judgment. There’s a downside in that you may get it wrong. That’s why it’s a judgment. It’s not costless. But I’d also say that it is incredibly arrogant, to think that you could have any outperformance or impact without calibrating and seeking and operating with risk. The world is too efficient to do that. It’s become a world where it’s judgment that becomes the marginal differentiation.

The fascinating part here, Rachel, is how do you evaluate it? Like, how do you know when someone? Because there’s no Excel spreadsheet, that’s going to give you the answer to this. It’s your own judgment on someone else’s judgment. But here’s what I will say, and you see it with people like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos or Michelle Zatlyn at Cloudflare, which is, I also believe, judgment isn’t linear. I think it’s exponential, meaning, I think the reason you can see Mark Zuckerberg’s never managed anyone and suddenly builds Facebook and at the age of 30 is managing 10,000 people or whoever it may be, it’s because of the cumulative decisions that he or she is making in that arena. That’s leading to better and better judgment, precisely because you’re effectively going to the gym more often. You’re effectively exercising that judgment more often. But I do think the impact of AI is just massive efficiency. Massive commoditization, to use your word, which therefore will only leave in terms of outperformance, will lie in people’s interpretation and judgment of data that otherwise looks available to everyone.

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Rachel Warren: Going back to this idea of operating on calibrated risk rather than fear of regret, I was reading about the sale of Alignvest student housing, the 1.7 billion dollar deal, and I was reading the story behind this that initially there was a buyout offer that exceeded 1 billion. Almost everyone around you told you to take it, you walked away, and then closed the sale for 1.7 billion dollars. How do you tell the difference between holding out for true upside, again, this idea of calibrated risk versus potentially succumbing to tons in judgment.

Reza Satchu: It’s interesting. I actually taught this I teach this case to my class at Harvard Business School, and literally 100% of my students say you should sell at 1.1 billion dollars. Meaning meaning they were like, “You make a lot of money”. We had both Blackstone and TPG as bidders in that business at the time. But here’s what I’d say is from my perspective I’m the founder of the business, the controlling shareholder of that business. I have a lot of information. This phrase, which is, like, tension is your friend. Meaning it’s like love. You’ve got to walk away, and it’ll only close if someone chases. In this case, I think I’m a big fan of orchestrating tension in any deal. I think here, I felt like there was a lot left on the table, and my partner and I felt like that we could build more. There was risk. You could imagine that the market could turn or the buyers could go away.

But it was calibrated, meaning we were like, the upside here feels like the downside was we couldn’t imagine the business trading it south of at anything worse than a five cap, which meant that our downside was that it was a billion business. Maybe we would lose 100 million dollars of equity value. But the upside was if we could actually execute on the things we could do, there could be several hundred million dollars. It felt like a very good trade. Ultimately, I think the other interesting thing I would say to you, Rachel, four of the five businesses I founded, I did not use a banker, OK, to invest in so this a billion and a half dollar deal with no investment banker.

I’m a big believer in what Paul Graham calls founder mode. I’m a big believer in founder mode, meaning, like, why would I outsource one of the most important decisions of my founder journey to a 30-year-old associate at Goldman Sachs who is completely conflicted and who just wants to get a deal done to get paid, and, frankly, will do much more business with the strategic that’s going to acquire me than with me. I think the more interested so, I think, from our perspective, it made sense, and I think we sold it at the right time. But I’d also say we were getting information directly from the sellers or from the buyers, such that I could process it and make a decision. As opposed to getting it filtered through intermediaries, that may have a very conflicted situation. Meaning, I’m entirely sure that if I had a banker, at that point in time, I would have sold the business because they would have convinced me to sell it.

Rachel Warren: It’s an interesting story, and I wanted to ask you about that. I think a lot of times, as investors investing in public companies or otherwise, we often only see leadership through earnings calls. I want to talk more about maybe a framework for distinguishing genuine judgment, which we’ve talked about a bit, of course, today, from polished storytelling. You have a personal framework for that?

Reza Satchu: I do, yes. It’s a great question, and I think a lot about this because you can imagine that, especially in the public scenario, you can polish it up in a way that it’s very hard to discern. The times when judgment matters most is in times of crisis. Which inevitably happens to every founder and every CEO. If I have one shot to evaluate someone’s judgment, what I want to do is understand how they behaved in moments of crisis. When it felt incredibly uncertain, when the world wasn’t the way it was supposed to be, when they lost that major customer or their CTO went to another competitor or there was a scandal that happened, something that was unexpected, that wasn’t scripted, that they can’t polish. In that moment of crisis, how did they behave. That’s where I’m going very deep with someone. Same thing with the founder, where that’s the moment.

The inevitable because you know leadership only shows up in moments of crisis. When there’s no crisis, leadership isn’t warranted. The point is you want to know how people behave in moments of crisis. The thing about leadership is you and I both know that leadership is full of crises. We’re full of crises. What I’d be evaluating is, how did they behave in those crises? What I’d say I’d say the thing about a crisis is it’s not just downside. There’s also tremendous opportunities that crises have. I’d say you’re looking not just for how they were defensive in that moment and how they protected the franchise, but also what did they do in the culture or the organization to reposition it and take advantage of whatever that crisis was such that their probability of success is better and they’ve emerged stronger. I think how people behave in times of crisis, how leaders behave in times of crisis is critically important to evaluating judgment.

Rachel Warren: That was part one of the discussion, tune in next week for Part 2. As always, people on the program may have interests in the stocks they talk about, and The Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against, so don’t buy or sell stocks based solely on what you hear. All personal finance content follows Motley Fool Editorial standards and is not approved by advertisers. Advertisements are sponsored content and provided for informational purposes only. To see our full advertising disclosure, please check out our show notes. For the Motley Fool Conversations team, I’m Rachel Warren. Thanks for listening. We’ll see you next time.

Bachelor of Business Management (BBM) Eligibility, Salary , Admission, Syllabus, Jobs, Scope {Tamil}

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Bachelor of Business Management (BBM) Eligibility, Salary , Admission, Syllabus, Jobs, Scope {Tamil}



Bachelor of Business Management (BBM) Eligibility, Salary , Admission, Syllabus, Jobs, Scope {Tamil}

Bachelor of Business Management, popularly known as BBM, is a 3 years undergraduate course offered by many colleges and universities in India. The BBM curriculum includes the study of theoretical and practical aspects of business through courses like finance principles and introduction to business.

To be eligible to get admission in the BBM course in India the aspirants need to complete their higher education 10+2 from any recognized board of education.

The admission process for the BBM course in India is carried out either from the college/university premises directly or can be done online. The admission process for this course is undertaken strictly based on the scores of 10+2. Some of the entrance exams like SET, IPU CET, NPAT etc may also be considered for admission.

The job opportunities after the BBM course are also vast in numbers in both the private and public sectors. Some of the top recruiting companies for the graduates of the BBM degree program are Google, Goldman, Infosys, Cognizant Technology Solutions, TCS, Accenture, etc. The salary of BBM course graduates is around INR 3,00,000 to 7,00,000 per annum.

About the BBM Course
BBM is an Industry based management course that prepares the candidates to develop critical and logical analyzing skills.
This course provides in-depth knowledge pertaining subjects like finance, strategic management, marketing, operations management, etc.
The curriculum of the BBM degree program helps the enrolled students to focus on the extra relevant subjects which are requisite to make them a perfect all-rounder and have a holistic knowledge of the business.
This program prepares graduates to work in the various fields, such as advertising, marketing, human resources, and finance and acquire strategies and concepts to choose the best way to make judgments in business.
The BBM degree program is quite similar in respect of the syllabus and area of expertise to the undergraduate courses of BBA, BBS, BMS and B.Com.
Why Study BBM Course?
A BBM degree is recognized worldwide. Some of the main reasons to pursue BBM course are:

The BBM course trains the students to play a better role, it will help them prepare for a career as an economist.
The BBM course provides immense knowledge about entrepreneurship, financial risk analysis, trading, and commerce and it helps the students to nurture their interpersonal skills.
BBM careers are available in private and in public sector companies as well.
A BBM degree focuses on developing an individual’s personality, and a degree in the field can lead to a wide range of job opportunities.
Some of the top companies like Goldman Sachs, Deloitte, and Citi Group provide lucrative opportunities for the graduates of the BBM course.

BBM Course Admission Process
The BBM course selection process is based on the entrance exam scores and performance in the 10+2 from recognised board.
After the completion of 10+2 board examination, the college/university conducts an entrance exam, written test, personal interview, counselling, and group discussion round.
The aspirants are allocated seats based on the various criteria of BBM course fulfilled by the aspirants proposed by the college/university officials.
Eligibility
The following are all the eligibility criteria to get admission in BBM course:

Admission for the BBM course in India requires the candidates to complete their higher education 10+2 from any recognized board of education.
All the BBM colleges and universities require students to have scored a minimum of 50 % aggregate marks in their Secondary and Higher Secondary Education to be eligible for a BBM degree course.
The selection is based on one’s performance in the entrance examination, group discussion, and interviews conducted by the private universities and colleges.

To get admitted to the BBM course, candidates need to clear a common entrance examination. Different universities and colleges conduct different examinations. There are three steps depending upon the university or college in which a student gets admitted:

Entrance examination: Those who are looking forward to getting admission to the BBM course have to clear a common entrance examination. Different colleges/universities conduct different entrance exams. The students need to clear the exam. After the cut-off is announced, if the candidate has acquired the required marks, he/she can move forward in the admission process.
Personal Interview: The candidates also have to clear a Personal interview round for admission. If you have scored the marks to get admission to a BBM college or university, the next step is to crack the personal interview round.
Counselling/Admission: The final step in the admission process of the BBM course is the counselling round. After the student has cleared both the entrance exam and the personal interview rounds, the final step is counselling.

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Best 12-Month CD Rates for September 23, 2026: Up to 4.35%

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Best 12-Month CD Rates for September 23, 2026: Up to 4.35%


Certificates of deposit (CDs) have seen rates rising even more, despite major banks lowering the rates on theri savings accounts. 

As of September 23, 2026, the best 12-month CD rates reach up to 4.35% APY (annual percentage yield), with many banks and credit unions still offering yields far above the national average of 1.73%, according to the FDIC. 

Over the last several weeks, rates have been rising slightly.

Now might be the best time to lock in a guaranteed rate. If you’re looking to earn a predictable return over the next year, these are the best CD rates available today.

💰 Today’s Best 12-Month CD Rates At a Glance

Here are the best bank and credit union savings accounts rates today:

Bank or Credit Union

Top APY

Minimum Deposit

Quorum Federal Credit Union

4.35%

$100

E*TRADE

4.35%

$500

Credit One Bank

4.30%

$100,000

American First Credit Union

4.25%

$1

Barclays Bank

4.25%

$0

1. Quorum Federal Credit Union – Quorum Federal Credit Union is currently offering a 12-month CD at 4.35% APY with a $2,500 minimum to open. Read more about Quorum Federal Credit Union here.

2. E*TRADE – E*TRADE is currently offering a 12-month CD at 4.35% with just a $500 minimum deposit and no upper limit. Read our full E*TRADE review.

3. Credit One Bank – Credit One Bank is offering a jumbo CD at 4.30% APY, but it does require a $100,000 minimum deposit to open.

4. American First Credit Union – American First Credit Union is currently offering a 12-month CD in partnership with Raisin at 4.25%, with just a $1 minimum deposit. Read our full American First Credit Union Review.

5. Barclays Bank – Barclays is currently offering a 12-month CD at 4.25% APY with a $0 minimum deposit. Read our full Barclays Bank Review.

You can find a full list of the best 12-month CDs here >>

How 12-Month CDs Work

A 12-month certificate of deposit pays a fixed interest rate for one year in exchange for keeping your money on deposit until maturity. If you withdraw early, the bank charges a penalty – typically 90 days of interest.

CDs appeal to savers who prefer guaranteed, short-term returns. While high-yield savings accounts offer flexibility, CDs can secure a higher fixed return for a set period, which can be helpful if rates are expected to decline.

For example, a $25,000 CD at 4.00% APY would earn roughly $1,000 in one year, compared with about $420 based on today’s national average 12-month CD rate.

What To Know Before Opening A CD

Certificates of deposit operate differently than savings accounts. Make sure you understand what you’re getting:

  • Short-Term Goals: Ideal for saving toward tuition, a wedding, or a home down payment within a year.
  • Rate Protection: A CD locks your APY, so you’re insulated from rate cuts.
  • Ladder Strategy: Pair a 12-month CD with longer terms (24- or 36-month) to capture higher rates while maintaining liquidity.
  • Safety:
    FDIC or NCUA insurance protects up to $250,000 per depositor, per institution.

Before opening an account, make sure you understand all the terms:

  • Minimum Deposit: Some banks require $1,000 or more to open.
  • Withdrawal Terms: Review penalties before committing funds.
  • Renewal Policy: Many CDs automatically renew at maturity unless you opt out.
  • Rate Guarantees: Confirm whether your rate is locked at the time of application or funding.
  • Online Access: Ensure the bank allows easy transfers and e-statements.

How We Track And Verify Rates

At The College Investor, our editorial team reviews CD rates daily from more than 30 banks and credit unions nationwide. We confirm every APY directly from official rate disclosures and regulatory filings.

Only FDIC- or NCUA-insured institutions available to U.S. consumers are included.

Our rankings are editorially independent – compensation does not influence placement. While we may earn a referral fee when you open an account through some links, our reviews and recommendations are based solely on yield, accessibility, and overall customer experience.

FAQs

Are 12-month CDs safe?

Yes. CDs are federally insured up to $250,000 per depositor, per institution.

Can I withdraw my money early?

Yes, but you’ll forfeit some interest, typically three months’ worth.

Are CD earnings taxable?

Yes. Interest earned is subject to federal income tax, and in some states, state tax.

What happens when a CD matures?

You’ll usually have a 7- to 10-day grace period to withdraw or renew your funds.

Is now a good time to open a CD?

Rates remain near their cycle highs, so locking in a short-term CD can make sense before potential cuts.

Editor: Colin Graves

Reviewed by: Richelle Hawley

The post Best 12-Month CD Rates for September 23, 2026: Up to 4.35% appeared first on The College Investor.

No-Income Commercial Loans – MortgageDepot

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No-Income Commercial Loans – MortgageDepot


We offer no-income commercial loans to help investors purchase or refinance commercial real estate without documenting personal income or employment.

Commercial Properties We Finance

Our no-income commercial loan programs are available for many property types.

  • Multifamily properties
  • Mixed-use properties
  • Industrial and warehouse buildings
  • Office properties
  • Retail stores and shopping properties
  • Automotive properties
  • Self-storage facilities
  • Mobile home parks
  • Restaurants and bars
  • Day care facilities
  • Religious properties

Financing Without Income Documentation

A no-income commercial loan can eliminate one of the largest obstacles by removing the requirement to document personal income or employment. These programs may be appropriate for experienced investors, self-employed borrowers, business owners and clients expanding their commercial real estate portfolios. Each transaction is reviewed according to the property type, loan purpose, credit, equity and other applicable program requirements.

Purchase and Refinance Opportunities

No-income commercial financing may be used to acquire a new property, refinance an existing commercial mortgage, or access equity from a qualifying property. With financing available across a broad range of commercial property types, we evaluate transactions that may not fit the guidelines of banks and conventional lenders.

If you are purchasing or refinancing a multifamily, mixed-use, retail, industrial, or other commercial property, contact us to discuss our no-income commercial loan options.

 

HSBC Premier Checking, Earn Up to $3,000 Bonus

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HSBC Premier Checking, Earn Up to $3,000 Bonus


HSBC Premier Checking $3,000 Bonus

🔃 Update: This offer is back again and available through December 31, 2026, but maximum bonus is down to $3,000. Here are the bonus tiers:

  • Get $1,000: Deposit or invest $50,000 to $99,999
  • Get $1,500: Deposit or invest $100,000 to $249,999
  • Get $2,000: Deposit or invest $250,000 to $499,999
  • Get $3,000: Deposit or invest $500,000+

Original article below has not been fully updated.

HSBC has a checking account bonus that can earn you up to $7,000. This offer is available nationwide and online so almost anyone can take advantage of this opportunity. However, it requires large deposits of $150K to $1M. Let’s see how this HSBC checking account bonus works.

Offer Details

Open a new HSBC Premier checking account by March 31, 2026. Add New Assets to your Premier checking account, Premier Savings account, Premier Relationship Savings account, Managed Portfolio Account and/or Spectrum account (Eligible Accounts) by March 31, 2026, and maintain the New Assets through June 30, 2026.

  • Get a $1,500 Cash Bonus: Add and maintain New Assets of $150,000 to $249,999 (if you apply through a referral, you only need $100K for this bonus)
  • Get a $2,500 Cash Bonus: Add and maintain New Assets of $250,000 to $499,999
  • Get a $3,500 Cash Bonus: Add and maintain New Assets of $500,000 to $999,999
  • Get a $7,000 Cash Bonus: Add and maintain New Assets of $1,000,000+

If all offer requirements are met, the bonus will be paid by August 31, 2026.

Eligibility

  • The bonus is available nationwide and accounts can be opened online.
  • Customers who have a current or past HSBC account in the U.S. on file are not eligible for this offer.
  • Limit one Welcome Deposit per customer, including all individual and joint accounts, the first line name on the joint account is considered the customer for gift purposes.
  • You must be 18 years of age and have a Social Security Number
  • Must have a U.S. mobile number
  • Must have a current U.S. residential address and a U.S. residential address for the past one year

HSCB Premier Checking Fees

Premier Checking – A monthly maintenance fee of $50 will be incurred, unless you fulfill one of the following requirements:

  • $75,000 in combined personal deposit and investment balances OR
  • Recurring direct deposits totaling at least $5,000, OR
  • HSBC U.S. residential mortgage loan with an original loan amount of at least $500,000, not an aggregate of multiple mortgages. Home Equity products are not included.

Guru’s Wrap-Up

This is a huge bonus, but it also requires a large deposit. To get the maximum bonus of $7,000 you need to deposit $1 million and keep that balance in the account for three months. You get a better return with the $1,500 bonus actually, if you deposit $100K, but you need top apply through a referral link. 

While the Premier Checking account is required for the bonus, you can put your money in a savings account which which get you a decent 3.30% APY.

If this bonus is not for you, then you can check our full list of available bank bonuses. And, if you’re new to bank account bonuses, you can learn more about churning bank accounts here. Bank bonuses are a great way to generate some extra income, so it is worth looking into them. You can can definitely bring a few thousands of dollars annually, and most requirements can be easily completed from home.

💡 Link & Full Details

  • OFFER PAGE
  • Max Bonus: $3,000
  • Account Type: Premier Checking
  • Availability: Nationwide
  • Inquiry Type: Soft pull
  • Credit Card Funding: No
  • Direct Deposit Requirement: None
  • Other Requirements: Deposit and maintain $50K-$500K
  • Monthly Fees: $50, waived with $5K direct deposit
  • Early Closing Account Fee: $25 if closed within 180 days
  • Expiration Date: 3/31/26 6/30/26 8/31/26 12/31/26


Found a great Bank Offer? Share it with us, so we can share it with our readers!

Older Brains Remember Fewer Details. Researchers Say That Might Be a Good Thing

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Older Brains Remember Fewer Details. Researchers Say That Might Be a Good Thing



University of Arizona researchers argue that the aging brain does not cognitively decline but rather shifts its priorities.

Why Trump banning diesel exports would upset the U.S. oil sector and upend global fuel markets

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Why Trump banning diesel exports would upset the U.S. oil sector and upend global fuel markets



With U.S. diesel prices rising to an all-time high this week, President Donald Trump added support to the calls from farm-state Republicans to implement a temporary ban on diesel exports.

“I’ve said let’s not send out the diesel. We make a lot of diesel. I’ve called for it,” Trump said late Tuesday at the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

On the surface, it makes sense. Keep the diesel at home and prices will fall, sparing farmers, truckers, and inflationary pressures on all Americans. But that’s not quite right. Prices may go down some for about a month—timed with the midterm elections—but then the unintended consequences would quickly kick in.

What it would instead do is unwind much of the U.S. oil and refining industry, cause sky-high gasoline prices to soar further, and deplete the rest of the world of the U.S. diesel supplies they depend upon—a dependence that has only increased since the U.S. initiated the war in Iran and triggered the global energy crisis. Banning exports might force diesel costs to go down a bit, but only in geographic pockets, such as the U.S. Gulf Coast where most of the fuel is produced, analysts said.

Here’s how analysts say it would play out: If the U.S. energy sector is forced to keep its diesel at home, a domestic glut would quickly build, and storage would fill to the brim. Refineries would then reduce their operations, not only cutting diesel output, but gasoline and jet fuel supplies as well because there aren’t individual switches for each fuel type. Then, oil producers would limit their activity as well to prevent a domestic crude glut if refineries aren’t taking their products.

All these ripple effects would push oil prices and gasoline and jet fuel costs even higher, while further exacerbating diesel costs globally—keeping in mind that fuel costs are even higher in the rest of the world than in the U.S.

“If diesel exports get banned, [gasoline] prices could rise toward record levels,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “The U.S. is not short of diesel. The world is. A potential export ban treats the global price problem as if it was a U.S.-only problem, and the cure would be far worse than the disease.”

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright risked bucking Trump on Wednesday, agreeing that a ban would hurt U.S. refining and push up most fuel prices. He offered potential support for voluntary restrictions or some kind of export cap instead. Just a week prior at a G20 meeting in Houston, U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum quickly pooh-poohed the idea of a diesel export ban, arguing it wouldn’t help lower prices.

The average U.S. diesel price of $6.52 per gallon as of Sept. 23 is an all-time high, still spiking after recently hitting the $6 threshold for the first time. The California average is up all the way to $8.43 per gallon with some stations reportedly maxing out the retail displays at $9.999. For gasoline, the U.S. average of $4.47 per gallon is a post-July record high.

What’s happening

So, why are fuel costs so high while the global oil benchmark remains relatively muted (though still high by historical standards) at just over $100 per barrel? The Iran war is disrupting Middle Eastern refineries from shipping out their products, while Ukrainian drone strikes have knocked out roughly 40% of Russia’s refining capacity. Altogether, at least 10% of the world’s global refining capacity is offline, making the energy crisis more of a fuel problem than an oil one—and making the world even more dependent on U.S. fuel supplies than ever.

And there’s that bigger global picture that must be considered, De Haan said. “The U.S. spent years becoming the world’s backstop for diesel supply. Telling every buyer from South America to Europe that American supply is politically conditional pushes them to diversify away from U.S. refineries and U.S. supplies, softening long-term demand for U.S. product and foregoing political leverage.”

Indeed, the U.S. currently supplies about 20% of the world’s global diesel exports, according to the American Petroleum Institute (API) lobbying and research group, which is sharply against an export ban.

“Restricting U.S. exports would hit an already-tight market with another supply shock,” said API CEO Mike Sommers. “The priority should be keeping fuel moving and refineries running, not adding new barriers.”

Sommers pointed to a further API statement that the “consequences would be catastrophic”: “Removing that much fuel from the global market would exacerbate the very global refining crisis that is increasing prices here in the U.S. And the impacts could extend far beyond pain at the pump, to dire consequences for international supply chains, agriculture, shipping, manufacturing and the entire global economy.”

Donald Trump is very focused on so-called U.S. energy dominance, and an export ban flies in the face of that, said oil forecaster Dan Pickering, founder of the Pickering Energy Partners consulting and research firm.

“Why would you want to undermine that?” Pickering said. “What’s bad for the world isn’t good for the U.S.”

Politics at play

Talks of banning fuel exports have floated in the air for months amid the Iran war, but they’ve never picked up any momentum until now despite sharp opposition from the U.S. energy sector.

The last time the U.S. did briefly ban exports was during the 1970s Arab oil embargo when the U.S. was much less of an energy exporter.

But now, farming harvest season has picked up in full swing in September and the agricultural sector is suffering from the weight of record diesel costs. And the midterm elections are rapidly approaching.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and other farm-state Republicans are pushing for export bans. “High diesel prices are killing farmers’ incomes,” Grassley said. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., also expressed his openness to the idea. Oil-state Republicans have pushed back, causing a party split, and leaving the matter up to the White House.

“It’s maybe another thing that Trump talks about and doesn’t do,” Pickering said. “It’s a growing probability, but still less than 50%.”

If a ban did go into effect though, Pickering suggested Trump would even consider taking it further and ban gasoline exports as well, causing even more issues globally.

Throughout the Iran war, the U.S. has depleted its Strategic Petroleum Reserve of crude oil down to 44-year lows and still falling. But the U.S. doesn’t have strategic reserves of gasoline and diesel.

In Europe, however, most of the strategic reserves are kept in refined fuel form—and not crude oil—although their reserves are not nearly as large. Still, French President Emmanuel Macron is pressing EU nations to coordinate inventory levels and consider the release of more reserves. Trump’s threats to withhold diesel could further pressure them into action.

Another lever to pull domestically is to continue extending the Jones Act waiver. The 106-year-old Jones Act, which requires cargo ships moving between U.S. ports to be U.S. built, flagged, and manned, reduces the number of vessels available to move crude oil and refined products between domestic ports. Waiving the Jones Act during the Iran war has allowed more ships, for instance, to move fuel from the U.S. Gulf Coast through the Panama Canal and up to California, which has dealt with newly shuttered refineries in recent months, to help alleviate shortfalls.

De Haan encouraged the White House to instead just extend the Jones Act waiver beyond its Nov. 15 expiration. “The Jones Act waiver is already doing a lot of work here, moving the surplus to where it’s needed,” he said. An export ban creates far too many problems, he said.

“Export bans are usually quick to go into place and slow to unwind, bringing lasting damage,” De Haan added.

SIP Investment: Mutual Funds vs. ETFs – What’s Better? | Dr Vivek Bindra

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SIP Investment: Mutual Funds vs. ETFs – What’s Better? | Dr Vivek Bindra



In this power-packed episode of the Financial Freedom Podcast, Dr Vivek Bindra sits down with Anant Ladha, founder of Invest Aaj for Kal, to decode the best way to start your SIP investment journey.

Should you invest in Mutual Funds or ETFs? Dr Bindra asks this burning question!

Anant Ladha’s expert advice: Don’t overthink—just start! He recommends Nifty investments as an excellent starting point, allowing you to gradually develop a deep understanding of investment strategies over time.

Stop delaying your financial growth! Watch the full episode now on Dr Vivek Bindra’s YouTube channel and take charge of your wealth-building journey!

#AnantLadha #FinancialFreedom #SIP #MutualFund #DrVivekBindra

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