Banking

  Bloomberg Citigroup created a new team inside its trading division that will focus on working more closely with minority depository institutions and diverse broker dealers and asset managers. The firm’s new diverse financial institutions group team will be led by Harold Butler, a senior banker who spent 16 years covering the US Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve System ...

  Bloomberg Thailand is preparing rules for the setting up of virtual banks, set to join peers including Singapore and Malaysia in promoting financial technology to spur competition and wider access to banking services. The Bank of Thailand (BOT) plans to issue guidelines for digital banks by June and may allow existing lender and new applicants to seek licenses, Assistant Governor ...

  Bloomberg The Bank of Japan (BOJ) shouldn’t view the issuing of a digital currency as a monetary policy option as doing so could severely damage the economy, according to a former BOJ official who led research into digital money. “Some say that negative interest rates could work more effectively with a digital currency, but I don’t think so,” said ...

  Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG is betting the diverging policy paths between the Federal Reserve and the People’s Bank of China will result in US equities correcting further and China’s getting a boost, joining several other Wall Street banks in making the call. The German lender’s international private banking unit downgraded US equities to neutral from overweight last week, scrapping ...

  Bloomberg A stronger zloty would amplify the impact of Polish interest-rate increases, central bank Governor Adam Glapinski said, pledging to do whatever it takes to drive down spiraling inflation. “Today, the appreciation of the exchange rate would support monetary tightening and would be consistent with the direction of the central bank’s actions,” he said in response to questions from ...

  Bloomberg Australia’s central bank chief Philip Lowe signalled for the first time that interest rates could rise this year if faster wages growth returns inflation sustainably to the 2-3% target. That is “a plausible scenario” depending on how events unfold, but there are plenty of other scenarios as well, Lowe said in comments that increased his room for maneuver ...

  Bloomberg UBS Group AG Chief Financial Officer Kirt Gardner said the 1.1 billion euros ($1.24 billion) set aside to cover the cost of a French tax-evasion case are the bank’s “best estimate” of the final cost. The Swiss lender is counting on a further reduction of the French penalties after they were cut in December to 1.8 billion euros ...

  Bloomberg Toronto-Dominion Bank’s US retail-banking unit is eliminating charges for overdrafts of $50 or less, joining a parade of lenders revamping their fees amid criticism from politicians, regulators and consumer advocates. TD Bank also is giving customers who overdraw their accounts by more than that amount 24 hours to fix the issue before incurring a fee, the unit of ...

  Bloomberg Banco Santander SA pledged to increase profitability and shareholder payouts as rising interest rates in key markets from the Americas to Europe are set to boost income from lending at the Spanish retail banking behemoth. The bank also signalled it has done strengthening capital buffers after rebounding from steep losses two years ago at the onset of the ...

  Bloomberg The Bank of England (BOE), one of the first movers in what looks set to be a rapid global tightening of monetary policy, this week will give a big clue about how far and fast it will move in combating inflation. Policy makers led by Governor Andrew Bailey are expected to hike interest rates to 0.5% on Thursday, ...