I’ve been doing some reporting in the Caribbean and elsewhere abroad recently, which led me to begin using WhatsApp for the first time. In large swaths of the world, people use WhatsApp as their primary texting tool: It’s free, it’s fast, and you can send photos, videos and audio as well as text. And you can set up a chat ...

Bloomberg International politics are looming large over the race among global investment banks to secure coveted permits for taking majority stakes in Chinese securities joint ventures. Switzerland’s UBS Group AG and Nomura Holdings Inc. of Japan in the past week became the first to apply for permission to buy 51 percent stakes in local securities JVs. Both banks acted after ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG is considering a sweeping restructuring in the US that could result in the firm cutting about 20 percent of staff in the region, according to people briefed on the matter. The bank is nearing a decision and the final reductions may end up lower, one of the people said, asking not to be identified because the ...

Bloomberg The Irish state received a payment outstripping last year’s 1.8 billion euros ($2.1 billion) from the country’s Central Bank, according to a person familiar with the matter. The payment flowed from the Central Bank’s earnings for 2017, said the person who asked not to be named as the information is private. Details of the latest payment will be published ...

Bloomberg India’s banks are getting syndicated loans at razor-thin interest rates from international lenders amid signs the country is moving towards cleaning up $210 billion of non-performing assets. Axis Bank Ltd, IndusInd Bank Ltd, State Bank of India and Yes Bank Ltd are among those reaping the benefits of cheaper funds as confidence in the world’s fastest-growing major economy increases. ...

Bloomberg Rarely has a New Zealand interest-rate decision been more keenly awaited when there’s no change of rates in sight. Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr delivers his first Monetary Policy Statement on Thursday and is expected to keep borrowing costs at a record low. Yet there’s considerable interest in how Orr will present the policy outlook. Since taking the RBNZ’s ...

Bloomberg The US withdrawal from a nuclear accord with Iran slams shut what had been a brief opening for historic aircraft sales by Boeing Co. and Airbus SE to the Islamic Republic. President Donald Trump’s announcement that the US would seek to reimpose sanctions left little hope that the planemaking duopolists will be able to consummate $40 billion in aircraft ...

Bloomberg Fast Retailing Co., owner of the Uniqlo casual-wear brand, will open its first store in India next year as Asia’s largest retailer looks to tap consumers in a country with more than 1.2 billion people. The Japanese company’s opening of a New Delhi store in the autumn of 2019 has been long in the making. Tadashi Yanai, Fast Retailing’s ...

Bloomberg Walmart Inc. agreed to buy a controlling stake in India’s biggest online retailer, striking a blow against rival Amazon.com Inc. as the battle for e-commerce supremacy goes global. The world’s largest retailer will acquire a 77 percent holding in Flipkart Group for $16 billion, the companies said in a statement. Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal and other shareholders will hold ...

Bloomberg WestJet Airlines Ltd. dropped the most in more than two and a half years after it said increased spending to create a new low-cost unit and expand overseas will vastly exceed revenue growth. Costs for each seat flown a mile, excluding fuel and employee profit sharing, will climb as much as 8.5 percent this quarter, Canada’s second-biggest carrier said. ...