Banking

  Bloomberg Peru raised interest rates for a sixth straight month as inflationary pressure mounts amid the economy’s strong rebound from the pandemic. The central bank increased its policy rate by half a percentage point to 3% in line with the forecasts of five of seven analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Two economists had expected a bigger increase, to 3.25%. “With ...

  Bloomberg Bank of Korea (BOK) Governor Lee Ju-yeol said omicron is the biggest threat to the economy’s recovery, sounding a cautious note ahead of a policy meeting later this month. The threat posed by the virus variant comes on top of other external risks including rising global inflationary pressure, policy normalisation by major economies and a possible economic slowdown ...

  Bloomberg Bitcoin will continue to take market share from gold as part of broader adoption of digital assets, making the often touted price prediction of a $100,000 by advocates a possibility, according to Goldman Sachs Group. Goldman estimates that Bitcoin’s float-adjusted market capitalisation is just under $700 billion. That accounts for 20% share of the “store of value” market ...

  Bloomberg Standard Chartered Plc will start working in split teams again in Hong Kong as the spread of the omicron variant threatens a fifth wave of infections in the Asian financial hub. In a memo to staff, the bank said it will resume a “hard-split A/B team arrangement” for “critical functions” to ensure business continuity. It urged employees to ...

  Bloomberg The Bank of Japan (BOJ) is taking a stealthier approach than its peers to winding back pandemic stimulus without rattling the markets. As the BOJ, Federal Reserve and others convene meetings this week, the Japanese are, on some fronts, already ahead of the pack after sharply cutting back purchases of exchange traded funds and trimming buying of corporate ...

  Bloomberg Danske Bank lowered forecasts for next year’s economic growth across the Nordics, as supply chain constraints and labour shortages could impede the region’s rebound. “The lack of supply of materials and equipment is a limitation for many Nordic businesses,” Danske said in its Nordic Outlook report. “We expect these constraints to ease as global demand swings back towards ...

  Bloomberg JPMorgan Chase & Co, one of Wall Street’s staunchest advocates of returning to Manhattan skyscrapers, is offering employees the option of working from home in the opening weeks of 2022, and Citigroup Inc (Citi) and Bank of America Corp (BofA) are encouraging staff to log on remotely, as more financial firms grapple with the latest surge in Covid-19 ...

  Bloomberg Banco Santander SA is racing to retrieve 130 million pounds ($175 million) paid out to thousands of British customers in a Christmas Day slip-up. Spain’s biggest lender accidentally made a second payment on December 25 to about 75,000 people and firms who had been due for one-off or programed payments from 2,000 businesses with accounts at its UK ...

  Bloomberg The Swiss National Bank (SNB) bought foreign exchange worth 2.8 billion francs ($3.1 billion) in the third quarter just before the franc began a sharper appreciation against the euro. The franc broke through a key level of 1.04 per euro and continued to strengthen towards 1.03 during final days of 2021. That might challenge the central bank’s description ...

  Bloomberg UBS Group AG was sued by a couple who said the Swiss bank should not have disclosed the wife’s account information to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) because she was not a US. citizen. Jonathan and Esther Zuhovitsky said in a suit filed in Manhattan federal court that they endured an intense audit as result of the disclosure ...