Banking

  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 ...

  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 ...

  Bloomberg The Hungarian central bank raised effective interest rates for the sixth time in as many weeks to stem accelerating inflation. A day after Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced a freeze on mortgage rates — which will act as a break on monetary tightening from the central bank — policy makers raised the one-week deposit rate by 20 basis ...

  Bloomberg It led the world with inflation targeting, but New Zealand’s central bank (RBNZ) is no pioneer for women. The Reserve Bank has released its gender pay gap for the first time, revealing a gulf that’s more than twice the size of the shortfall in the nation’s public service as a whole. As at June 30, the average gender pay ...

  Bloomberg The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) could bolster liquidity in the banking system by selling yuan, which will help lower borrowing costs while stemming the currency’s gains, Nomura Inc. said. The central bank needs more aggressive steps to tackle China’s slowing economy, and swapping the yuan for foreign exchange is its best option, according to Nomura’s chief China ...

  Bloomberg The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) said tapering its bond buying program at the first meeting of 2022 and ending it in May is consistent with existing forecasts, as policy makers presented an upbeat view of the economy. The RBA’s board discussed two other options for quantitative easing: it could cease purchases in February if better-than-expected progress was ...

  Bloomberg The UK’s top banking supervisor has handed out a record fine to Standard Chartered Plc for failures in its regulatory reporting and controls. The Bank of England’s Prudential Regulatory Authority imposed a 46.6 million pound ($61 million) penalty on the lender for five reporting errors between March 2018 and May 2019, according to a statement. That was compounded ...

  Bloomberg The Bank of Canada (BOC) will maintain its 2% inflation target for the next five years, but has formally been given license to moderately overshoot it to “support maximum sustainable employment.” In a mandate renewal released jointly with the Canadian government, the government directed the central bank to use monetary policy to boost employment levels as long as ...

  Bloomberg Citigroup Inc, which typically advises the world’s biggest companies, is hunting for smaller clients in Australia, targeting businesses with revenue of as little as $53 million to get a competitive advantage in major deals down the track. The US lender, which set up a commercial-banking business in Australia in 2019, is planning to expand its team to 35 ...

  Bloomberg Bank of Montreal (BMO) agreed to buy BNP Paribas SA’s Bank of the West unit for $16.3 billion, extending its presence in key US growth markets and giving the French lender a windfall before its new strategic plan. BMO will fund the transaction, which should add 1.8 million customers upon closing next year, in cash and mainly with ...