Banking

Bloomberg Standard Bank Group Ltd has named a female Black person to chair Africa’s biggest lender by assets for the first time. Nonkululeko Nyembezi has been appointed as chairman-designate effective June 1, according to a statement. She replaces Thulani Gcabashe, who will retire after the annual general meeting on May 31. “It is hugely significant to us that the Standard ...

Bloomberg China’s central bank repeated a pledge to proactively address mounting economic pressure and also highlighted a drop in deposit rates, a decline that could spur banks to lower the cost of borrowing for the first time in months. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) reaffirmed it will focus on supporting small businesses, sectors and groups hit by Covid-19 outbreaks, ...

  Bloomberg The dollar’s relentless advance to a two-year high is roiling Asian currencies and pushing policymakers into action to curb losses. From direct dollar selling to verbal intervention, authorities are deploying every tool from their armouries to ward off currency threats. India and Taiwan have intervened in the market, while Japan has tried to talk up the yen. China ...

  Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group Inc. appointed E.G. Morse to co-lead the China business and will relocate him to Shanghai as the US bank continues to ramp up in the world’s second-largest economy. Morse, currently head of Singapore, will become co-head of Goldman Sachs China alongside Wei Cai and Sean Fan, who are based in Hong Kong and Beijing, respectively, ...

  Bloomberg Zimbabwe has adopted its harshest solution yet to halt a currency crisis — ordering banks to immediately stop all lending. The southern African nation’s President, Emmerson Mnangagwa, blames banks for flooding the financial system with excess funds, fueling a currency slide and inflation. The weekend directive to freeze loans is the latest in a series of orders since ...

  Bloomberg Citigroup Inc is ramping up efforts to add 700 private bankers in coming years with the opening this week of two new private-banking offices in Paris and Frankfurt. The New York-based bank has begun relocating staff from its Luxembourg bureau to the new locations, which will be housed at existing offices in the two cities. Citigroup will increase ...

Bloomberg Kenya plans to go ahead with a Eurobond sale at possibly the worst time in years. The government still intends to raise $1 billion before the end of June, Treasury Secretary Ukur Yatani told reporters in Nairobi. His remarks came days after his department expressed concern in a document that rising global yields meant borrowing might be too expensive ...

  Bloomberg Ireland’s banking sector needs to be allowed to move on from the financial crisis in order to retain staff, the IMF said, as the debate over caps on bankers’ pay intensifies. “It is important to resolve lingering issues” from global financial crisis which include “recognising banks’ need to retain talent, and noting importance of divesting government ownership,” the ...

  Bloomberg Argentina’s central bank dealt cryptocurrencies a blow, prohibiting financial institutions in the South American country from offering clients any operations involving unregulated digital assets. The monetary authority banned operations that allow bank clients to purchase crypto, just days after two large institutions announced they would let clients buy Bitcoin and other digital currencies. The ban also includes assets ...

  Bloomberg China’s foreign exchange reserves fall for the fourth straight month in April, as capital outflow pressures grew and the yuan weakened. Reserves fall to $3.1197 trillion in April from March’s $3.188 trillion, the People’s Bank of China said in a statement. That compares with the median estimate of $3.13 trillion in a Bloomberg survey of economists. China in ...