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 ...
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UBS says $1.2 billion charges best estimate of French tax fine
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 ...
Read More »TD Bank to eliminate its overdraft fees
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 ...
Read More »Santander pledges profitability growth after earnings beat
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 ...
Read More »BOE’s first back-to-back hikes in 17 years may just be the start
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, ...
Read More »OCBC completes goodwill payouts to phishing victims
Bloomberg Overseas-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC) said it made $10.1 million in goodwill payouts to 790 customers who fell prey to an text message phishing scam impersonating the lender. About 80% of the amount lost occurred during December 23-30 festive period, at which time calls to the bank’s contact center surged by over 40%, OCBC said. A previous figure that ...
Read More »UBS boosts buyback, targets after beat at investment bank
Bloomberg UBS Group AG increased its share buyback program and upgraded key profit and efficiency targets after rising capital market and trading revenues drove better-than-expected results at the investment bank. Switzerland’s largest lender, which also beat analyst forecasts for profit and revenue, will buy back as much as $5 billion of shares this year, almost doubling its total buyback ...
Read More »Payments firm SumUp seeks new funds at $22 billion value
Bloomberg SumUp is considering raising new money in a funding round that could value the UK payments company at about 20 billion euros ($22.6 billion), according to people familiar with the matter. London-based SumUp could seek more than 500 million euros from investors, the people said, asking not to be identified as the matter is private. A fundraising of ...
Read More »Australia central bank scraps bond buying
Bloomberg Australia’s central bank has signalled it’ll remain at the dovish end of the global policy spectrum even as it ended one of its crisis-era tools. The Aussie dollar and bond yields whipsawed as markets that had bet on accelerated interest-rate tightening digested Governor Philip Lowe’s pledge to remain patient in assessing inflation. Lowe, who announced a scrapping of ...
Read More »Some African central banks to hold rates
Bloomberg Central banks in some of Africa’s biggest economies will likely look past high inflation and US policy tightening and hold interest rates over the coming weeks to shore up their recoveries from the Covid-19 stasis. Since monetary policy makers on the continent last met, US consumer prices soared to a near four-decade high, setting the stage for the ...
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