Banking

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 ...

Bloomberg Yes Bank Ltd, once at the center of India’s biggest financial bailout, will turn its focus on boosting lending to businesses this year after succeeding in winning back depositors, Chief Executive Officer Prashant Kumar said. Regaining depositors and raising capital were first order of business for Kumar, who took over the reins of Yes Bank in March 2020 after ...

Bloomberg Westpac Banking Corp’s half-year profit climbed as a continued recovery in the nation’s economy drove a further reduction in pandemic loan-loss provisions at Australia’s second-largest lender. Cash earnings rise to A$3.5 billion ($2.7 billion) in the six months through March 31, compared with A$993 million in the same period a year earlier, the Sydney-based bank said in a statement. ...

Bloomberg Bank of Nova Scotia agreed to acquire an additional 7% stake in its Chile operations from the Said family for about C$500 million ($400 million), putting to work some of the excess capital it has built up during the Covid pandemic. The purchase, which is subject to regulatory approvals and other conditions, would boost its ownership of the operation ...

Bloomberg India’s sharp surge in Covid-19 cases will not prevent the country’s markets from setting a record for initial public offerings (IPOs) in 2021, as a cohort of technology companies make their much-anticipated debuts later in the year, according to UBS Group AG. Last year companies amassed $4.6 billion from IPOs, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, and Anuj Kapoor, ...

Bloomberg China’s biggest banks fell after posting profit gains of below 3% in the first quarter with policy makers leaning on the lenders to contain debt growth as the economy powers out of the pandemic. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., (ICBC) the world’s biggest bank by assets reported a 1.46% gain in profit in period. Its smaller rivals ...

Bloomberg UBS Group AG will relocate its Tokyo-based rates trading business to Sydney by the end of this year as the Swiss bank reorganises its Asia-Pacific operations. The firm has initiated the process to relinquish its Japan Government Bond primary dealership, though the change won’t impact UBS’s other fixed-income trading businesses conducted with Japanese clients, it said in a statement. ...