Bloomberg Julian Assange soon will leave the Ecuadorian embassy in London—his refuge from criminal charges for the last six years—and enter a changed world. The Australian walked into the building in the capital’s Knightsbridge neighbourhood just before the 2012 Olympics, with Barack Obama in his first term and elections untainted by alleged interference by Russian agents. When he walks out, ...

Bloomberg China’s central bank has started actively encouraging banks to extend more credit by taking a softer stance on loan quotas, people familiar with the matter said, as authorities ratchet up efforts to bolster a cooling economy. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has delivered the message via so-called window guidance, said the people, who asked not to be named ...

Bloomberg India’s central bank raised its benchmark interest rate to the highest in two years as it stepped up efforts to curb inflation and stem capital outflows. Five of the six members of the monetary policy committee voted to raise the repurchase rate by 25 basis points to 6.5 percent, with Ravindra Dholakia the only one opposing it, the Reserve ...

Bloomberg UBS Group AG doesn’t have to hand over client details to French tax authorities after a Swiss court handed the country’s largest bank a clear victory in a long-running saga over banking secrecy. The Swiss Federal Administrative Court said that French officials didn’t provide evidence that “the taxpayers involved have failed to comply with their tax obligations.” “Simply having ...

Bloomberg BNP Paribas SA’s resilience in equities helped offset declines at a key debt-trading business that under-performed Wall Street rivals. The Paris-based bank benefited from “good volumes” in derivatives and providing brokerage services to hedge funds, driving equities revenue to a three-year high. That contrasted with the FICC unit buying and selling bonds, currencies and commodities — its biggest trading ...

Bloomberg The ruble could plunge by as much as 15 percent and borrowing costs would spike to a three-year high if the US goes ahead with proposals to impose sanctions on Russian government bonds, according to a new model developed by Citigroup Inc. Moscow-based analysts at the bank said that such extreme moves would come from a “worst-case scenario” of ...

Bloomberg Lloyds Banking Group Plc is quickly gaining earnings momentum, but is still looking over its shoulder to clean up its troubled past. Britain’s largest mortgage lender posted a 23 percent jump in pretax profit for the second quarter, beating analyst estimates, and also upgraded its financial guidance for the full year. It’s also taking a 460 million-pound charge ($602 ...

Bloomberg Treasuries slid and the dollar pared gains as investors counted down to the latest Federal Reserve rate decision. Apple Inc’s rally buoyed the tech sector as an escalation in trade-war rhetoric weighed on equities and battered commodities. A bond sell-off that started in Japan before spreading into Europe picked up steam in the US after the Treasury Department said ...

Bloomberg Chinese equities and the yuan extended losses on Wednesday afternoon, gaining downward momentum as concern over possible higher US tariffs overwhelmed optimism about Beijing’s pledge to support economic growth. The CSI 300 Index of large mainland-listed companies slid 2 percent, its biggest loss in a month. The offshore-traded yuan fell 0.17 percent to 6.8170 per dollar, while the yuan ...

Bloomberg Tesla Inc. plans to invest $5 billion building a factory in China as the trade war with the US makes establishing production in the world’s fastest-growing auto market more imperative for the electric-car pioneer, a person familiar with the matter said. The company is considering raising funds in China to finance at least a portion of the investment for ...