If you are looking for examples of companies that do well at public relations, start with what determines personal trust. We often trust people we have met, interacted with and maybe done business with. I think of community banks as enjoying relatively high levels of trust. Millions of Americans have walked through the doors of their local banks and dealt ...

Bloomberg The European Central Bank’s top officials lined up to express cautious confidence in the euro-area economy after a series of reports pointing to a surprisingly weak start to the year, while reiterating that they’ll move only slowly towards ending stimulus. President Mario Draghi and three of his most-senior colleagues signalled that while inflation remains too low and a global ...

VIENNA / Reuters BNP Paribas is increasing its presence in Poland with the 775 million euro ($954 million) purchase of Raiffeisen Bank International’s (RBI) main business in the European Union’s largest eastern economy. The French bank said it will merge Raiffeisen Bank Polska, Poland’s tenth largest lender by assets, with BGZ BNP Paribas, which it bought in 2014, bolstering its ...

Bloomberg Axis Bank Ltd.’s Chief Executive Officer Shikha Sharma will step down at the end of 2018, more than two years before the proposed end of her term, amid reports the regulator is questioning the lender’s performance. The board of India’s third-largest private bank had proposed she stay through 2021 but accepted Sharma’s request for an exit on December 31, ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG’s management upheaval may be the final blow to the embattled lender’s ambitions to go head-to-head with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in international investment banking, and that’s just fine for many in Germany. With veteran Christian Sewing appointed chief executive officer as the emergency replacement for out-of-favour John Cryan, businesses serving international clients and trading an array ...

Bloomberg Standard Bank Group Ltd. is seeking a banking license in Senegal after opening in Ivory Coast as the lender expands in West Africa’s French-speaking countries. Africa’s largest lender, which opened in the world’s biggest cocoa producer, will focus on corporate and investment-banking clients after obtaining the license in 2016, Sola David-Borha, the Johannesburg-based company’s chief executive officer for Africa, ...

LONDON / Reuters The Bank of England should not delay raising interest rates again, one of its top policymakers said, pointing to the possibility of faster pay rises and the recent strong pick-up in the world economy. Ian McCafferty told Reuters that after lagging behind inflation for much of the past decade, wage growth might prove stronger than most of ...

Bloomberg Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA has shelved flights between Europe and Canada until next year after delivery delays afflicting Boeing Co. 737 Max narrow-body jets left too little time to market the planned routes. Services won’t now begin until spring 2019 following a slippage of about four weeks in the handover of two 737s, Norwegian Air Chief Executive Officer Bjorn ...

Bloomberg China’s push to bolster its military firepower has turned a state-run aviation stock into one of Asia’s best performers this year. AviChina Industry & Technology Co., a maker of training jets, transport helicopters and airplane electronics systems, jumped 40 percent in Hong Kong since the start of February through April 9 as Beijing pledged to boost defense spending. That ...

Bloomberg Walmart Inc.’s online marketplace is getting more choosy. The retailer’s website — where third-party vendors sell their own wares — is adding far fewer sellers a month compared with a year ago, according to data tracker Marketplace Pulse. The site, which Walmart created in 2009 to compete with a similar offering from Amazon.com Inc., now includes about 18,000 sellers. ...