Bloomberg Executives at banking giants including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bank of America Corp. are struggling to return to Hong Kong after the city banned flights from eight countries, part of an outlier Covid Zero strategy that’s threatening its appeal as financial hub. At least a dozen Hong Kong-based managing directors at banks, also including Morgan Stanley and ...
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Bank of Canada to begin hiking rates next week
Bloomberg Canadian banks are bringing forward their forecasts for interest rate hikes to as early as next week, amid growing evidence the economy is hitting limits and inflation pressures are rising. Economists at TD Securities and Laurentian Bank said the Bank of Canada will start a hiking cycle at its policy decision on January 26. Bank of Montreal brought ...
Read More »Citigroup plans to exit Mexico retail banking
Bloomberg Citigroup Inc is planning to exit retail-banking operations in Mexico — where it has its largest branch network in the world — as part of CEO Jane Fraser’s continued push to overhaul the firm’s strategy. The lender will keep its institutional businesses in the country, according to a filing. The exit could ultimately take the form of a ...
Read More »Green push ending 150-year tradition of bank passbooks in Japan
Bloomberg Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc will start charging new customers for a bank passbook, joining other Japanese lenders that are pushing clients to kick the 150-year-old habit for the sake of the environment. The country’s largest bank will require new clients to pay 550 yen ($4.83) a year for a passbook, encouraging them to embrace digital services, people ...
Read More »JPMorgan falls most since 2020 on plan for big spending hike
Bloomberg JPMorgan Chase & Co falls the most since 2020 after the company said compensation and other costs jumped in the fourth quarter ahead of an expected surge this year. Expenses in the last three months of 2021 rise 11% from a year earlier, and the firm said to expect them to rise to about $77 billion this year ...
Read More »HDFC Bank’s Q3 profit up 18% on loan growth
Bloomberg HDFC Bank Ltd.’s profit rises in the third quarter, beating estimates, helped by loan growth and improved asset quality as consumer demand picked up. Net income stood at INR 103.4 billion rupees ($1.4 billion) rupees for the quarter ending December compared with 87.6 billion rupees a year ago. That beat the average estimate of 101.4 billion rupees by ...
Read More »BOK flags more rate hikes to come over inflation fears
Bloomberg Bank of Korea Governor Lee Ju-yeol signalled the likelihood of more interest rate increases to come following the hike, as the central bank clearly put inflation concerns ahead of uncertainties over Covid-19. Even though the key policy rate, now at 1.25%, is back at pre-pandemic levels, Lee said it was at an accommodative level, adding that another hike ...
Read More »Citi to sell Southeast Asian assets in $3.6 billion deal
Bloomberg Citigroup Inc. agreed to sell consumer-banking businesses in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam to United Overseas Bank Ltd. (UOB) for about S$4.9 billion ($3.6 billion) as Chief Executive Officer Jane Fraser continues her push to simplify the New York-based bank. UOB will pay Citigroup a cash consideration for the net assets of the acquired businesses plus a premium ...
Read More »UK sells about $580 million of NatWest shares
Bloomberg The UK government has sold 170.4 million shares in NatWest Group Plc — worth about $580 million at current prices — since November, continuing to cut the majority stake it acquired during the financial crisis. The Treasury now owns a 51.98% stake in the lender formerly known as Royal Bank of Scotland, according to a filing. Its stake ...
Read More »Goldman’s most elite rank to get millions in special payouts
Bloomberg The top 1% at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is set to receive a special one-time reward in addition to annual bonuses, recognizing the Wall Street titan’s roaring success through the pandemic. The unusual payments to partners — the roughly 400 executives who fill out the investment bank’s highest rung — will add millions of dollars to many compensation ...
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