Bloomberg What’s worse for a bank, the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression or the biggest money laundering scandal in European history? According to Danske Bank, which has lived through both, it’s the latter. The bank’s acting chief executive, Jesper Nielsen, says that during the global meltdown of 2008, concerns centered on things like “greed,” which was obviously bad. …

Bloomberg Mark Carney is headed into his last full year at the helm of the Bank of England, and it could be his most turbulent yet. In a tenure that has seen the Scottish referendum, two general elections and the Brexit vote, the BOE governor is now in charge of keeping the ship steady as the divorce from the European …

Bloomberg A rout in the once-hot market for risky corporate loans has some of Wall Street’s largest banks stuck with at least $1.6 billion of unwanted leveraged buyout debt. Banks including Barclays Plc, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bank of America Corp. — among the top providers of loans for LBOs — have struggled in recent weeks to sell loans …

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG, Credit Suisse Group AG and Credit Agricole SA were targeted by a European Union probe into a suspected cartel for sovereign-bond trading. The European Commission sent the banks antitrust complaints, saying they may have exchanged “commercially sensitive information and coordinated on prices” on trading of US dollar supra-sovereign, sovereign and agency bonds via online chatrooms between …

ABU DHABI / WAM Digital economy can contribute more than $3 trillion to Arab GDP growth, according to key recommendations and insights from the First Arab Digital Economy Conference, which concluded in the UAE capital on Wednesday. The importance of adopting the vision of the Arab digital economy for the growth opportunities of the Arab countries’ GDP is in direct …

Bloomberg Donald Trump declared victory over IS, as officials said he’s ordered a full withdrawal of US forces from Syria in a sharp reversal of American policy that appeared to take the Pentagon by surprise. The US military is working to quickly carry out Trump’s order, according to the officials, but it wasn’t clear how soon the approximately 2,000 troops …

DUBAI / WAM The number of Chinese tourists travelling to the GCC is expected to increase 81 percent from 1.6 million in 2018 to 2.9 million in 2022, according to data published ahead of Arabian Travel Market (ATM) 2019, which takes place at Dubai World Trade Centre from April 28 to May 1, 2019. The latest research from Colliers International, …

Bloomberg Recent pledges of $2 billion in investment for South Sudan’s oil may be just the start, with the war-torn nation expecting further agreements in early 2019, its petroleum minister said. Ezekiel Lul Gatkuoth’s prediction comes as the African nation’s warring sides prepare to form a power-sharing government in the latest bid to end five years of conflict. The country, …

Bloomberg China bought huge amounts of Middle East and West African crude as oil prices were collapsing in November. Oil tankers loaded 6.5 million barrels a day from ports in the two regions for Chinese buyers in November, a 26 percent increase compared with the average over prior 10 months, ship tracking compiled by Bloomberg shows. With deliveries taking between …

Bloomberg Jagged Peak Energy Inc is considering expanding its footprint in the oil-rich Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The oil and gas company, with a market value of $2.2 billion, is working with an adviser to pursue bolt-on acquisitions, said the people, who asked not to be identified because …