Banking

  Bloomberg The Swiss National Bank (SNB) and partner organisations said they successfully conducted the second stage of their experiment to process digital currencies within the country’s financial system. During a three-day test in December, five commercial banks — Citigroup Inc, Credit Suisse Group AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Hypothekarbank Lenzburg AG and UBS Group AG — were able to ...

  Bloomberg Brazil’s central bank signalled inflation will end 2022 above target while saying a “significantly restrictive” cycle of interest rate hikes will help pull cost of living increases be low 5%. Inflation is converging to target over the relevant time horizon, which includes 2022 and 2023, bank chief Roberto Campos Neto wrote in a letter published on Tuesday. “In ...

  Bloomberg Coinbase Global Inc is acquiring futures exchange FairX in its biggest step yet towards expanding into crypto derivatives. Already registered with US regulators, the firm could give Coinbase the edge it needs in getting a derivatives marketplace up and running. Terms of the deal were not provided. “This is the most important stepping stone for us to help ...

  Bloomberg The Bank of Japan (BOJ) is expected to stand pat on policy, but adjust its view of inflation risks for the first time since 2014 to account for the global price spikes pushing other central banks to rein in stimulus. All 48 economists surveyed by Bloomberg see the BOJ keeping its negative interest rate and asset purchases unchanged ...

  Bloomberg It was once hailed as the future of Chinese banking, a privately run lender that would mint money by outmaneuvering its state-owned rivals. An ill-fated push into property lending has instead turned China Minsheng Banking Corp into one of the biggest casualties of the real estate debt crisis that’s roiling Asia’s largest economy. Battered by mounting losses on ...

  Bloomberg Standard Chartered Plc is closing about half its Nigerian branches in a pivot to digital banking, according to people familiar with the matter, as the finance industry comes under pressure from mobile money providers. The London-listed lender’s local unit has already started to shut some offices and will eventually operate only 13 branches in the West African nation, ...

  Bloomberg The Philippines’ central bank is unlikely to increase policy rates in the first half of this year as it waits for the economic recovery to become entrenched and unemployment to fall, according to central bank Governor Benjamin Diokno. “After the performance in the first two quarters of the year, that’s when we seriously look at whether we will ...

  Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc has hired Omar Siddiq from CIMB Group Holdings Bhd. to head its Malaysian unit, the bank said in a statement on Wednesday The announcement confirmed an earlier report by Bloomberg News, which cited people with knowledge of the matter, that the head of CIMB Group’s wholesale banking division and deputy chief executive officer of CIMB’s ...

  Bloomberg The Indian rupee is likely to weaken after foreign inflows that have helped it appreciate at the start of the year begin to ebb in coming months, a senior official at the nation’s second-largest private sector lender said. “INR will appreciate short term but have no choice but to depreciate long term,” B. Prasanna, group head for global ...

  Bloomberg Romania raised interest rates less than expected, surprising some investors who have expected the central bank to lift borrowing costs faster to tackle decade-high inflation and catch up with more aggressive rate hikes by its regional peers. The central bank raised borrowing costs by 25 basis points to 2%, a move predicted by five out of 11 economists ...