Banking

Bloomberg Russia is considering a plan to buy as much as $70 billion in yuan and other “friendly” currencies this year to slow the ruble’s surge, before shifting to a longer-term strategy of selling its holdings of the Chinese currency to fund investment. The offshore yuan briefly extended gains against the dollar after the news, rallying to a session high. ...

  Bloomberg The yen declined to its lowest since 1998, prompting warnings from Japanese government officials, as the yield gap between the US and Japan widened to heap more pressure on the currency. It falls as much as 0.5% to 139.68 per dollar in Thursday trading — a hair’s breadth from the key psychological level of 140, before paring the ...

  Bloomberg China’s biggest banks, including Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., reported slowing earnings growth and eroding margins after being enlisted by Beijing to help stave off a deeper slump in the world’s second-biggest economy. ICBC, the world’s biggest bank by assets, reported net income grew 4.9%, the slowest in two years, in the first half of the ...

Bloomberg China took the most aggressive step yet in its latest battle to bolster the yuan, setting its reference rate for the currency with the second-strongest bias on record. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) fixed the yuan against the dollar at 249 pips stronger than the average estimate in a survey of market participants — which Bloomberg started compiling ...

  Bloomberg The rupiah looks poised to test a key support level in the coming months as falling commodity prices, a potential tax on nickel exports and the slow pace of interest rate hikes in Indonesia weigh down the currency. An earlier-than-expected hike from Bank Indonesia last week did little to support rupiah, with the 25-basis-points increase easily overshadowed by ...

Bloomberg UK credit card borrowing rose at its strongest pace since 2005, and mortgage interest costs jumped to the highest in six years, indicating growing strain on household budgets. The Bank of England (BOE) said annual growth in credit card debt rise 13%, which was the most in 17 years. The average interest rate on new mortgages rose 18 basis ...

  Bloomberg Kenya’s Nairobi Securities Exchange expects its first main-market segment listing in more than three years to happen before end of December and boost activity on the bourse. The All-Share index of the market valued at 2.15 trillion shillings has dropped 17% since January, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. “We have one application right now that’s being processed,” ...

  Bloomberg Bank of Montreal (BMO) became another victim of the slowdown in capital markets last quarter, as a slump in equity and debt issuances reduced investment-banking fees. Capital-markets revenue fell 20% to $974 million in the fiscal third quarter, the Toronto-based company said in a statement on Tuesday. Overall profit missed analysts’ estimates. Bank of Montreal, which generates a ...

  Bloomberg Mexico’s central bank (Banxico) board is debating how closely to follow US interest rate rises, as members grapple with slowing growth and the fastest inflation in two decades. One of the five board members argued that Mexico’s interest rate increase had to match that of the US Federal Reserve to preserve the spread between rates in the two ...

  Bloomberg The European Central Bank (ECB) is prepared to at least repeat the half-point increase in interest rates it delivered last month, with an even bigger move not to be excluded as inflation nears yet another record. That’s the message from ECB officials who joined the Federal Reserve’s annual Jackson Hole symposium, which wrapped up Saturday. Fed Chair Jerome ...