Banking

  Bloomberg NatWest Group Plc is bringing together its commercial, securities and international units into a single franchise, hoping to improve relations with customers. NatWest Markets and RBS International, whose assets are kept separate from the bank’s retail operations under British ring-fencing rules, will become a single unit along with the ring-fenced Commercial arm by July, the London-listed lender said ...

  Bloomberg Europe is imposing new requirements on how banks report environmental risks and carbon targets, to give investors a better picture of the threats that climate change poses to the industry. The European Banking Authority (EDBA) has unveiled a new set of mandatory templates, tables and instructions that banks will have to follow, after a review of environmental, social ...

  Bloomberg UK consumers spent significantly more on debit cards in the first two weeks of January but a mounting cost-of-living crisis is expected to take a heavy toll in 2022. That’s according to Lloyds Bank, which found that spending rises 27% from the same period of 2020, before the pandemic hit, with 42% more splashed out at restaurants. The ...

  Bloomberg Credit Suisse Group AG will take a large legal charge in the fourth quarter and warned of outflows at its key wealth business, capping a tough year for the bank after a series of scandals and management turmoil. The lender will set aside 500 million francs ($546 million) for litigation stemming primarily from its investment banking business, according ...

  Bloomberg Pakistan held its benchmark interest rate steady for the first time in four meetings, opting to watch the effects of previous increases on the Asia’s fastest inflation. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) kept the target rate unchanged at 9.75%, Governor Reza Baqir told reporters in Karachi. Thirty-nine of the 43 economists surveyed by Bloomberg predicted the decision, ...

  Bloomberg The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will probably scrap its bond-buying program at the first meeting of 2022, as a strengthening economic recovery suggests the additional stimulus measure is no longer needed. All but one of 17 analysts polled by Bloomberg expects the RBA will end quantitative easing at its February 1 meeting. The outlier, HSBC Holdings Plc’s ...

  Bloomberg The US will likely move forward with its own digital currency, with issuance occurring between 2025 and 2030, according to Bank of America Corp (BofA) US government-backed coins, also known as central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, “are an inevitable evolution of today’s electronic currencies,” strategists Alkesh Shah and Andrew Moss, wrote in a report. In the meantime, ...

  Bloomberg Global banks are raising concerns to Chinese authorities about a plan to tighten rules on overseas stock listings, saying the draft rules are ambiguous and will expand Beijing’s regulatory reach outside the nation’s borders. The proposals will also drive up costs and stymie dealmaking, the top lobby group for financial firms in Hong Kong said in a letter ...

  Bloomberg Standard Bank Group Ltd said 99% of its transaction volumes in South Africa are now cashless, a trend that has helped the continent’s largest lender by assets to cut costs. “It’s extraordinary,” Standard Bank’s Chief Executive Sim Tshabalala said in an interview with Bloomberg News editor-in-chief Emeritus Matthew Winkler at the Africa Business Media Innovators Conversation. “What we’ve ...

  Bloomberg ICICI Bank Ltd’s profit in the third quarter rises 25% from a year earlier, helped by interest earnings from lending as the impact from the coronavirus pandemic eased. Net income was 61.9 billion rupees ($832 million) in the quarter ended December compared with 49.4 billion rupees a year ago, the company said in a statement to the stock ...