Bloomberg A break up of HSBC Holdings Plc’s Asian unit could unlock $26.5 billion, or about a fifth of its current market value, according to research that could support a push from its largest shareholder to overhaul the bank. Two other scenarios that could benefit shareholders are for HSBC to spin off the Asian business or just its Hong ...
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Japanese yen tumbles to lowest since 1998
Bloomberg The yen falls to a 24-year low and Japanese bonds tumbled, prompting a warning from the Bank of Japan (BOJ) as its easy monetary policy increasingly feels strain of rising interest rates globally. The currency falls more than 0.5% to 135.19 per dollar, the lowest since October 1998, as Treasury yields extended inflation-shock driven gains and the Bank ...
Read More »Goldman backs biotech firm in volatile year for China deals
Bloomberg Six-year-old biotech startup MegaRobo Technologies has raised about $300 million from investors including an arm of Goldman Sachs Group Inc, securing one of the year’s largest Chinese venture capital investments despite a global tech sector rout. Goldman’s private investing arm, venture capital firm GGV Capital and Asia Investment Capital led the Series C round, joined by existing backers ...
Read More »BOE expected to raise key rates faster, further
Bloomberg The Bank of England (BOE) is expected to raise interest rates faster and further than anticipated a month ago as it battles highest inflation in decades. The central bank, which had been expected to pause after hiking to 1.5%, is now predicted to lift the benchmark cost of borrowing to 2% by this time next year, according to ...
Read More »CIBC lifts minimum wage for its workers
Bloomberg Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) is boosting its minimum wage and pledging to push it even higher in the next few years as tight labour markets force banks into fierce competition for workers. The lender’s minimum wage will rise to C$20 per hour in Canada and $20 in the US in July, and the bank is committing ...
Read More »China puts monetary easing on hold with Fed set to hike
Bloomberg China’s central bank abstained from cutting a key policy interest rate, avoiding further policy divergence from the US that could add pressure on the yuan. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) kept the rate on its one-year medium-term lending facility at 2.85% on Wednesday, in line with most forecasts in a Bloomberg survey of economists. The PBOC also rolled ...
Read More »Credit Suisse taps brakes on China growth, delays local bank
Bloomberg Credit Suisse Group AG is tapping the brakes on its China expansion, postponing its biggest mainland project, in a sign that weakness in Asia’s largest economy is prompting global banks to temper ambitious growth plans. The Zurich-based lender has delayed the targeted launch of its locally incorporated bank by a year to 2024, the second postponement since the ...
Read More »Wells Fargo declines on report of probe into fake interviews
Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co shares declined after a report that the bank is the target of a criminal investigation into whether it violated federal law by conducting fake job interviews of minority candidates to satisfy in-house diversity guidelines. The San Francisco-based firm is being investigated by the civil-rights unit of the Manhattan US attorney’s office, the New York ...
Read More »UK’s biggest lenders are no longer too big to fail, says BOE
Bloomberg The Bank of England (BOE) has concluded that emergency planning at the UK’s biggest banks means none should require a public bailout in event of a crisis. The central bank’s long-awaited response to the self-assessments of eight lenders, including HSBC Holdings Plc and Barclays Plc, found that their internal systems should avert the kind of state intervention needed ...
Read More »BOJ to stand pat unless yen breaches 140: Economists
Bloomberg The Bank of Japan (BOJ) is expected to hold firm next week with expectations of policy adjustments this year weakening among economists unless the yen breaches the 140 mark against the dollar. All but one of 45 analysts said the bank will leave its yield curve control program and asset purchases untouched at the conclusion of a two-day meeting ...
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