Banking

Bloomberg Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. is in advanced talks to acquire consumer lender Home Credit’s assets in Indonesia and the Philippines, according to people familiar with the matter. MUFG, as Japan’s biggest lender is known, has emerged as the likeliest buyer for the businesses after outbidding other rivals, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter ...

  Bloomberg Six months after switching to a four-day working week, the UK’s Atom Bank said it has seen benefits from talent retention to improved productivity. There was a 49% increase in job applications at the bank in January 2022 compared to a year ago, while staff retention rates have also risen, according to a press release on Wednesday. Days ...

  Bloomberg In 2017, after Citigroup Inc had paid billions of dollars in fines for rigging interest rates, manipulating currency markets and selling shoddy mortgage bonds, the Wall Street giant was still struggling to keep tabs on traders in London. Managers overseeing Citigroup’s European trading hub had hundreds of blind spots, allowing for potentially abusive transactions to go unnoticed in ...

  Bloomberg Rushing to sell Indian state-run lenders to private investors may hinder the government’s financial inclusion efforts and monetary policy transmission, staff at the country’s central bank warned. “A big bang approach of privatization of these banks may do more harm than good,” wrote staff including, Snehal Herwadkar, in a research paper. The report recommended a gradual approach to ...

  Bloomberg The European Central Bank (ECB) will stop hiking interest rates after the end of 2022, when a euro-area recession and easing price pressures will restrain monetary-policy tightening, according to HSBC. Cuts to Russian natural gas supplies and resulting surges in energy costs will drive inflation higher than previously expected, to a peak of 10% in October, HSBC economists ...

  Bloomberg Pakistan appointed a former central banker to head the monetary authority as the nation contends with one of Asia’s fastest inflation rates and faltering foreign currency reserves. Jameel Ahmad, a former deputy governor will now head the State Bank of Pakistan for a term of five years, according to a statement of the finance ministry. He will replace ...

  Bloomberg Shares of KakaoBank Corp., a South Korean online-only lender, tumbled 8.2% to a record low after one of its key shareholders raised $320 million in a block trade. Kookmin Bank offered about 14.8 million shares in a club deal, according to terms of the deal obtained by Bloomberg News. The lender sold shares at 28,704 won each, a ...

  Bloomberg Stanbic Bank Kenya Ltd., a unit of Africa’s biggest lender by assets, forecasts its mortgage business in the nation to surge as the economy recovers from the pandemic and the end of presidential elections brings political stability. The unit of South Africa’s Standard Bank group Ltd says it’s Kenya’s second-largest mortgage lender and demand for the product is ...

  Bloomberg ING Groep NV reported second-quarter profit that beat analyst estimates after freeing up provisions for its shrinking business in Russia. Net income of 1.18 billion euros ($1.2 billion) in the three months through June compared with expectations for profit of 1.07 billion euros. , according to a statement by the Dutch lender on Thursday. Loan loss provisions of ...

  Bloomberg Bank of America Corp (BofA) said overdraft-service fees plummeted 90% after it took steps to ease off on the charges, which have been under fire from lawmakers. The decline from a year earlier came in June and July, the first two months after the second-largest US bank implemented sweeping changes related to overdraft services for its more than ...