Banking

Bloomberg Hong Kong banks have to renegotiate HK$1.6 trillion ($205 billion) in contracts linked to the London interbank offered rate (Libor) before the benchmark ceases as corporate customers have been slow in transitioning to alternatives, the city’s de-facto central bank said. At the end of September, Hong Kong lenders had HK$4.3 trillion of assets, HK$1.2 trillion of liabilities and HK$34.9 ...

Bloomberg Bank of England (BOE) Governor Andrew Bailey told UK lawmakers he is “very uneasy about the inflation situation” amid mounting evidence that a shortage of workers will drive up wages. Bailey told the House of Commons Treasury Committee that the labour market is looking “tight” but that he wanted to see what happened after the furlough program ended before voting ...

Bloomberg Australia’s central bank chief Philip Lowe opened the door to an interest-rate increase before 2024 as policy makers acknowledged quicker consumer-price gains last quarter had altered the inflation picture. Lowe said in a speech Tuesday that a rate hike in 2024 was “still plausible,” while adding that a quicker return to the bank’s inflation target could make the case ...

Bloomberg Bank of England (BOE) policy maker Jonathan Haskel injected a note of caution into the debate about whether to raise interest rates in the UK. Speaking at a Resolution Foundation event, Haskel said the economy was “firing on two cylinders” and that it’s “too early to declare success” in getting those on furlough back into work. While Haskel said he ...

Bloomberg Da Afghanistan Bank, the country’s central bank, is selling $10 million dollars to support the currency which has been tumbling to record lows, the first such auction under the new Taliban regime. The central bank, in a statement, said qualified banks and currency exchangers can participate in the bidding, without providing any details on when the results of the ...

Bloomberg A Black loan underwriter who said he was fired due to racism alleges that US Bancorp engaged in redlining — discriminating against people of colour when lending. John Span also claims in a lawsuit that he endured a “toxic and racially hostile work environment” during his time in the firm’s indirect auto-lending group. In the complaint, filed in Illinois ...

Bloomberg A reduction in China’s reserve requirement ratio looks increasingly unlikely after the authorities rolled over all policy loans coming due and data surprised on the upside, suggesting that bonds will have little room to gain. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) injected 1 trillion yuan ($157 billion) through its medium-term lending facility on Monday, matching the record amount maturing ...

Bloomberg An offshore unit of Credit Suisse Group AG goes to court in a case that could lift the lid on how a rogue Geneva employee got away with defrauding some of the firm’s richest clients for nearly a decade. Georgian billionaire and former prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili accuses Credit Suisse Life (Bermuda) Ltd of failing to stop the late ...

Bloomberg Two UBS Group AG portfolio managers are leaving after a $3 billion fund got caught up in China’s high-yield bond meltdown. Singapore-based Jiayi Yew and China-based Brian Lou will depart the bank in January, a UBS spokesperson confirmed. Both report to Ross Dilkes, the lead manager of the Asian High Yield fund who is also leaving the firm after ...

Bloomberg The European Central Bank (ECB) would risk exacerbating inequality if it were to raise interest rates before ceasing asset purchases, according to Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel. Such a scenario is one example of how considerations of the broader impact of monetary policy should feature in decision-making, Schnabel told a conference organised by the US Federal Reserve. She highlighted ...