Banking

  Bloomberg Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda emphasised his determination to stick with rock-bottom interest rates even if it means a weaker yen after the bank’s latest price forecasts left the door open to continued speculation over policy change. Recent concern that the global economy risks a hard landing as central banks rush to tackle inflation has helped …

Bloomberg Ukraine devalued the official hryvnia exchange rate to protect its foreign-currency reserves as Russia’s invasion ravages the economy. The National Bank of Ukraine (NB) also held its main interest rate unchanged at 25% on Thursday and said that its monetary and exchange-rate policies are aimed at easing pressure on the local currency. It set the hryvnia rate at 36.5686 …

  Bloomberg CDH Investments, an alternative investment fund manager focused on China, has hired top Asian dealmaker Alex To as its new chief executive officer, according to people familiar with the matter. To, until recently the co-head of Bank of America Corp’s (BofA) Asia Pacific investment banking, will also become a partner of the fund, one of the people said. …

  Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group Inc plans to slow hiring and reinstate annual performance reviews as the Wall Street bank looks to rein in expenses. “Given the challenging operating environment, we are closely re-examining all of our forward spending and investment plans to ensure the best use of our resources,” Chief Financial Officer Denis Coleman said on a conference call …

Bloomberg Europe’s banks waited more than a decade for higher interest rates to make lending more profitable again. Now some governments are threatening to spoil the party. As the European Central Bank (ECB) prepares to raise rates on Thursday, politicians from Madrid to Warsaw are calling for mortgage holidays and bank taxes to shield consumers from higher borrowing costs and …

  Bloomberg Santander UK became the latest bank to help staff with the cost of living squeeze, saying it would give more than 11,000 employees a 4% pay rise. All staff earning less than £35,000 ($42,039), representing 60% of the workforce, will be eligible for the raise from August, the company said in a statement. Santander UK will also increase …

  Bloomberg Nigerian lenders are impeding the use of the nation’s digital currency because they are concerned about losing revenue from traditional banking services, according to central bank Governor Godwin Emefiele. Only about 700,000 customers have created an e-naira wallets since its introduction in October last year, the central bank said early this year. There are about 55 million bank …

  Bloomberg The International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved the disbursement of a $235.6 million loan to Kenya as the East African nation met the lender’s targets and made progress in addressing debt vulnerabilities. The approval brings the IMF’s total disbursements to Kenya to $1.21 billion, out of a total of about $2.34 billion available under a 38-month program approved in …

Bloomberg The UK’s accounting watchdog blasted Mazars and BDO for the “unacceptable” quality of their audits after carrying out an annual review of the industry’s seven largest firms. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said that four of the eight audits reviewed at Mazars and five of the 12 audits reviewed at BDO required more than limited improvements. The regulator added …

  Bloomberg A sweeping piece of legislation that would overhaul how the cryptocurrency industry is regulated by Washington is unlikely to be voted on this year by the US Senate, according to one of the lawmakers driving the effort. Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis said that the full bill she released last month with Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand would probably not be …