Banking

Bloomberg Citigroup Inc’s retail operations in Australia are drawing interest from a host of local lenders, according to people familiar with the matter. National Australia Bank and Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., the country’s third- and fourth-largest lenders by value, are in talks with Citigroup over the assets, the people said, asking not to be identified as the ...

Bloomberg Italy is mulling extending the fiscal benefits for banking mergers and acquisitions it introduced at the end of last year, according to a draft decree seen by Bloomberg. The move could further entice potential buyers of state-owned Banca Monte Paschi di Siena SpA, which Italy must sell before the end of 2021 as part of an agreement with the ...

Bloomberg Australia’s securities regulator is probing Westpac Banking Corp on allegations of insider trading, just months after the country’s second-biggest lender paid a record fine to settle breaches of anti-money laundering laws. The allegations relate to Westpac’s role in executing a A$12 billion ($9.3 billion) interest-rate swap transaction with a consortium of AustralianSuper Pty Ltd and a group of IFM ...

Bloomberg Bank of America Corp (BofA) named new leaders for its global mergers and acquisitions business as investment-banking fees surge to a record. Patrick Ramsey, head of global M&A, was promoted to chairman of global M&A alongside Steve Baronoff, according to a memo from Matthew Koder, who runs the corporate and investment bank. A company spokesman confirmed the contents of ...

Bloomberg Thailand’s central bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged for an eighth straight meeting, warning its forecast for an economic recovery was threatened by the country’s biggest virus wave since the pandemic began. The Bank of Thailand held the policy rate on Wednesday at 0.5% in a unanimous decision, as expected by all 22 economists in a Bloomberg survey. ...

Bloomberg Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd’s (ANZ) first-half profit climbed as the lender wound back bad debt provisions made during the pandemic and the country’s economic recovery builds. Cash earnings from continuous operations rose to A$3 billion ($2.3 billion) in the six months through March 31, compared with A$1.4 billion in the same period a year earlier, according ...

Bloomberg New Zealand’s central bank (RBNZ) said it’s prepared to further tighten mortgage lending restrictions if needed to rein in the country’s red-hot housing market. The Reserve Bank would use loan-to-value ratios or new tools currently under consideration to restrict the amount of money banks can lend for house purchases, the RBNZ said in its semi-annual Financial Stability Report on ...

Bloomberg Australia’s central bank will maintain its highly supportive policy settings despite surging growth and falling unemployment, as it faces up to the even bigger challenge of lifting wages and inflation from record lows. Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe is set to keep interest rates and three-year yield target unchanged at 0.10%, while maintaining the current pace of ...

Bloomberg Bank of America Corp (BofA) is devoting more resources to fighting cyber attacks after seeing a jump in threats amid the pandemic. The company’s centralised global information-security unit has boosted spending in recent years to about $1 billion annually, according to chief operations and technology officer Cathy Bessant. That’s mostly allocated to staff and technology to bolster cyber defenses. ...

Bloomberg Credit Suisse Group AG Chairman Antonio-Horta Osorio bought 1.1 million francs ($1.2 million) of shares in a sign of confidence he can turn the bank around from one of the most turbulent periods in its history. An undisclosed board member bought the stock, according to a Swiss stock exchange filing dated May 3. A spokesperson for the bank confirmed ...