Fidelity International CEO leaving

FINANCE

Fidelity International chief executive Anne Richards is unexpectedly stepping down after five years, leaving the asset manager without an immediate replacement. Richards, 59, will remain at the firm as a vice chair to help Fidelity with its key external relationships and strategic partnerships, according to a statement Monday. Succession plans “will be communicated at a later date,” the company said. A spokesperson for Fidelity declined to comment on the reasons for Richards’s decision to retire. Assets at the firm have almost doubled during Richards’s tenure, jumping from $414 billion when she took over in 2018 to $714.3 billion at the end of September. She has overseen a big push into private markets, hiring dozens of people and debuting the firm’s first private lending fund this year. Fidelity International, previously the international arm of Fidelity Investments, was spun off in 1980 to better meet clients’ needs in regions outside the United States. It’s owned mainly by management and members of the founding family. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

MEDIA

After trying to buck a national trend of media closures and downsizing, a small Connecticut newspaper founded earlier this year with Ralph Nader’s help has succumbed to financial problems and will be shutting down. An oversight board voted Monday to close the Winsted Citizen, a broadsheet that served Nader’s hometown and surrounding area in the northwestern hills of the state since February. Andy Thibault, a veteran journalist who led the paper as editor and publisher, announced the closure in a memo to staff. The Citizen’s fate is similar to those of other newspapers that have been dying at an alarming rate because of declining ad and circulation revenue. The United States has lost nearly 2,900 newspapers since 2005, including more than 130 confirmed closings or mergers over the past year, according to a report released this month by the Northwestern/Medill Local News Initiative. — ASSOCIATED PRESS

AUTOMOTIVE

The lending arm of Toyota will pay $60 million to settle allegations by a US regulator that it misled customers into buying extra products that boosted their payments and then gave them a runaround when they tried to cancel. Toyota Motor Credit Corp. allegedly lied about whether the extras were mandatory or rushed through paperwork to hide them, according to a Monday statement by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Toyota unreasonably hindered customers who tried to cancel, and if they succeeded, it withheld refunds by applying the sum to the loan’s principal, the CFPB said. The lender sometimes also falsely reported payment information to credit agencies, the agency said. The unit will pay $48 million to consumers and $12 million to a victims’ relief fund. In a separate statement, Toyota Motor Credit said it didn’t admit any wrongdoing but agreed to the CFPB consent order “to fulfill our commitment to continually provide ever-better service to our customers. In most instances, TMCC has already addressed the areas of concern cited by the Bureau.” — BLOOMBERG NEWS

SOCIAL MEDIA

Elon Musk railed against ‘’bogus’' media reports accusing him of antisemitism, issuing his strongest response yet after endorsing antisemitic content in a post on X that provoked outrage and alienated advertisers like Apple. The backlash erupted last week after the billionaire Tesla Inc. chief and X-owner agreed with a post that said Jewish people hold a ‘’dialectical hatred’' of white people. That message has since drawn criticism from the White House as well as several Tesla investors. Walt Disney Co. was among the big corporate names that have distanced themselves from the platform formerly known as Twitter. On Sunday, the entrepreneur tweeted that he wished ‘’only the best for humanity.’’ Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman was among those who’ve leapt to Musk’s defense. Several advertising executives privately urged X chief executive Linda Yaccarino over the weekend to resign in order to save her reputation, the Financial Times reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter. But she’s refused to quit, saying she believes in the company’s mission, the FT reported. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

BANKING

Citigroup is eliminating more than 300 senior manager roles as part of chief executive Jane Fraser’s efforts to simplify the Wall Street giant. The company started announcing the cuts — which affect staffers two levels below Fraser’s executive management team — on Monday, according to a person familiar with the matter. They amount to roughly 10 percent of the workers at that level, according to the person, who asked not to be identified discussing personnel information. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

DELIVERIES

Carriers including the US Postal Service, FedEx, and United Parcel Service have the capacity to meet projected demand this holiday season, which is cheery news for shippers and shoppers alike. Like last year, there’s expected to be little drama compared with struggles during the pandemic when people hunkered down at home and turned to online shopping while major carriers including USPS simultaneously struggled with absences and a flood of parcel shipments. All told, the parcel industry has a capacity of delivering more than 110 million parcels compared with a projected holiday peak of 82 million per day, slightly less than last year, said Satish Jindel, from ShipMatrix. — BLOOMBERG NEWS