Bloomberg Bank of America Corp. expects to take a roughly $3 billion hit to fourth-quarter net income after the US tax bill slashed corporate rates. The reduction is “primarily” from a lower value of net deferred tax assets, according to a filing by the Charlotte, North Carolina-based firm. So-called DTAs pile up in cases where a company loses money and ...

Bloomberg The Swiss National Bank bought a 90 percent stake in Landqart AG, bailing out the sole producer of the material on which its paper money is printed. The acquisition is aimed at saving Landqart, which the SNB said was facing a liquidity shortage and a “direct and existential threat.” The central bank also said the move ensures “continued supply ...

Emirates Business The International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), member of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group, and the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), a multilateral financial institution established by African governments and institutional investors, have signed a $100-million agreement and a EUR 50-million Murabaha agreement with the aim of facilitating and financing exports amongst African countries and between Africa and ...

Bloomberg A Chinese central bank official said China should allow local governments to go bankrupt to help rein in regional authorities’ excessive borrowing. A case like the bankruptcy of Detroit would convince investors that the central government is really determined to dispel beliefs of an implicit guarantee for regional authorities, Xu Zhong, head of research bureau at the People’s Bank ...

Bloomberg Almost nine years since the birth of bitcoin, central banks around the world are increasingly recognising the potential upsides and downsides of digital currencies. The guardians of the global economy have two sets of issues to address. First is what to do, if anything, about the emergence and growth of the private cryptocurrencies that are grabbing more and more ...

Every society runs on trust. This is even more true of complex, scientific modern societies than it is of tiny hunter-gatherer bands. Whenever you drive over a bridge, you trust that the engineers who designed based it on sound principles. When you take an antibiotic, you trust that the doctor who prescribed it did so for sound medical reasons. There ...

While the sharp drop in bitcoin — 25 percent, or nearly $4,000, overnight (and 33 percent from the beginning of the week) — has some predicting the bubble is starting to burst, it may also provide evidence of the cryptocurrency’s longevity. The critical issue is transactions. And if you are looking for where the bottom could be to bitcoin’s plunge, ...

Xiaomi Corp. is set to pull in revenue of $17 billion to $18 billion this year, ahead of its own target, Reuters reported, citing the company’s comments to bankers. That’s impressive, but believable. Xiaomi has had a great year. Stretching the credibility scale, though, are estimates that net income could hit $1 billion. They’re banker projections, Reuters notes, not necessarily ...

Over the past few weeks, people here in Beijing have been riveted by the so-called migrant ‘clean-out’ — the government’s attempt to evict tens of thousands of migrant workers from their homes in the poorer parts of the city. What’s not being discussed, however, is how the crackdown could threaten one of the government’s other main priorities: managing debt. In ...

Large bank failures in recent years have led to reforms that strengthen crisis prevention and give regulators and banks the tools for dealing with crises that do occur. Similar policy measures can be helpful in dealing with sovereign crises — when governments run out of money and credit. Unfortunately, the European Commission misses the mark in its recent proposals to ...