Banking

BLOOMBERG Morgan Stanley said it’s in talks with US prosecutors and regulators to resolve a probe into its block trading practices. “The firm is currently engaged in discussions regarding potential resolution of the investigations by the enforcement division of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York into various ...

BLOOMBERG  UniCredit SpA raised its full-year profit target and said it will boost shareholder payouts, after a surge in lending revenue helped the bank post its best-ever first-quarter. The Milan-based bank expects adjusted profit this year above €6.5 billion ($7.2 billion) and investor returns about €500 million higher, according to a statement. Key performance metrics for the period — including ...

BLOOMBERG  The Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced a new programme for financing efforts to counter climate change, stepping up its attempt to back one of its main focusses in the region. The Innovative Finance Facility for Climate Change in Asia and the Pacific (IF-CAP) could create up to $15 billion in new loans, through a goal of $3 billion in ...

BLOOMBERG Australia’s central bank signalled further policy tightening ahead after unexpectedly raising interest rates by a quarter-percentage point on Tuesday, sending the currency and bond yields surging. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) increased its cash rate to 3.85%, the highest level since April 2012, in a decision predicted by only nine of 30 economists. Money markets rapidly revised up ...

BLOOMBERG Morgan Stanley is preparing a fresh round of job cuts amid a renewed focus on expenses as recession fears delay a rebound in dealmaking. Senior managers are discussing plans to eliminate about 3,000 jobs from the global workforce by the end of this quarter. That would amount to roughly 5% of staff excluding financial advisers and personnel supporting them ...

BLOOMBERG Banks in the euro zone curbed lending more than anticipated after borrowing costs jumped and turmoil gripped the financial sector, reinforcing calls for the European Central Bank (ECB) to slow the pace of its interest-rate hikes. Credit standards “tightened further substantially” in the first quarter, according to the ECB’s Bank Lending Survey. “The tightening for loans to firms and ...

BLOOMBERG  UBS Group AG Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sergio Ermotti selected one of the lender’s former executives, Tom Naratil, to be a key member of the new management team, according to a report by NZZ. Naratil will become the group’s chief financial officer (CFO) and lead the integration division that will oversee Credit Suisse merger, the newspaper said. Bloomberg had ...

BLOOMBERG  Goldman Sachs and Bank of America (BofA) pushed back their call for when the next policy change from the Bank of Japan (BOJ) is likely to come, after Governor Kazuo Ueda continued with a largely dovish message at his first policy meeting. Economists at Goldman and BofA now have a base-case forecast for the central bank to adjust its ...

BLOOMBERG  JPMorgan Chase & Co won the bidding to acquire First Republic Bank in an emergency government-led intervention after private rescue efforts failed to fill a hole on the troubled lender’s balance sheet and customers yanked their deposits. JPMorgan will take over First Republic’s assets, including about $173 billion of loans and $30 billion of securities, as well as $92 ...

BLOOMBERG Colombia raised interest rates to the highest level since 1999 after political turmoil triggered a plunge in the nation’s bonds and currency. The central bank lifted its benchmark rate by a quarter percentage point to 13.25% on, Governor Leonardo Villar told reporters in Bogota. Four of the seven-member board voted for the move, two voted to hold, and one ...