Banking

Morgan Stanley tells staff to wear masks, limit big meetings

  Bloomberg Morgan Stanley told employees who have to be in the office through the first two weeks of January to wear face coverings when not at their desks and limit large in-person meetings. “This guidance applies to all locations (even those where everyone is fully vaccinated),” the New York-based bank said in a memo to staffers this week. “Masking ...

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HSBC to buy L&T Investment Management for $425 million

  Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc has said it will buy the investment management unit of India’s L&T Finance Holdings Ltd, the latest push to build up the Asian wealth and investment business that is at the forefront of the bank’s turnaround plans. The London-headquartered lender said it had agreed terms to acquire L&T Investment Management, which had looked destined to ...

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UBS appeals $2 billion tax penalty at French court

  Bloomberg UBS Group AG appealed a court verdict that it helped wealthy French clients stash undeclared funds in Swiss accounts, prolonging a period of legal uncertainty in seven-year old case. The Zurich-based bank filed an appeal with the French Supreme Court regarding the ruling, according to a statement. It had five days from the judgement last week to make ...

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Kenya’s shilling weakens for a second year

  Bloomberg Kenya’s shilling has depreciated 3.5% to dollar this year after a seven-month losing streak, adding to a 7.8% loss last year. The currency of East Africa’s largest economy reached its weakest closing level of 113.09 per dollar and was trading little changed in Nairobi. The biggest monthly decline was in August when it weakened 1.3%, while July-September was ...

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Mitsubishi UFJ targets Asia unicorns with debt-finance fund

  Bloomberg Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc is preparing to launch a fund that provides debt financing to Asian start-ups in an effort to win investment-banking business through subsequent initial public offerings. Japan’s largest lender will start a $300 million fund early next year after upsizing its first joint-venture fund earlier this year, Chief Executive Officer Hironori Kamezawa said in ...

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Thai central bank holds rate, trims 2022 growth forecast

  Bloomberg Thailand’s central bank held its benchmark interest rate unchanged for a 13th straight meeting to assess how much risk the omicron variant poses to a fragile economic recovery. The Bank of Thailand’s (BOT) rate setting committee voted unanimously to hold the one-day bond repurchase rate at a record-low 0.5%, as predicted by all 20 economists in a Bloomberg ...

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ING to book charge in Q4 as it exits from French retail banking

  Bloomberg ING Groep NV will take an unspecified fourth-quarter charge to exit French retail banking, its latest move to pull out of non-core European markets. The Amsterdam-based lender has reached a deal with local unions on a social plan for 460 employees, according to a statement. The bank, which is waiting for approval of its plan by the French ...

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Citi to sell Philippines consumer assets to Union Bank for $904m

  Bloomberg Union Bank of the Philippines will buy Citigroup Inc’s consumer banking assets in the Southeast Asian country for a cash consideration plus a premium of 45.3 billion pesos ($904 million). The deal covers the US firm’s local credit card, unsecured lending, deposit and investment businesses as well as Citicorp Financial Services and Insurance Brokerage Philippines Inc, Citigroup and ...

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Bank of Spain doubles its inflation forecast for 2022

  Bloomberg The Bank of Spain more than doubled its forecast for inflation next year but still sees it easing sharply after that to well below the 2% goal for the euro zone. The central bank raised its outlook for annual price increases to 3.7% in 2022 and then slightly reduced the projection for the following year to 1.2%. Inflation ...

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Traders ramp up BOE bets to see key rate at 1.25% next year

  Bloomberg Traders are betting the Bank of England will look through risks from the omicron strain to hike its key interest rate above 1% next year for the first time since 2009. Money markets are now pricing 100 basis points of policy tightening from the UK central bank in Dec. 2022, according to sterling overnight index swaps. That would ...

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