Banking

Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co. cut Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Charlie Scharf’s compensation about 12% for 2020, a year in which shares tumbled and the company slashed its dividend and reported its first quarterly loss since 2008. The board paid Scharf $20.3 million for 2020, his first full year atop Wells Fargo, down from $23 million for 2019. The San Francisco-based ...

Bloomberg Ghana banks are extending relief measures to cushion clients from fallout of pandemic as a resurgence in the number of infections threatens an economic recovery. Lenders are retaining measures such as reduced borrowing costs, restructured credit facilities and repayment holidays to customers into 2021 to “ensure that the wheels of the economy continue grinding,” John Awuah, chief executive officer ...

Bloomberg UBS Group AG plans to buy back as much as 4 billion francs ($4.5 billion) of shares over the next three years, bolstering shareholder returns after income from managing client assets and investment banking propelled gains at the world’s largest wealth manager. The lender is doubling the size of a previous repurchase program and said it expects to buy ...

Bloomberg African Bank Holdings Ltd. reported a full-year loss a day after announcing the unexpected resignation of Basani Maluleke, the only Black women to lead one of South Africa’s top banks. The unsecured lender swung to a 560 million-rand ($37 million) loss in the 12 months through September, compared with a year-earlier profit of 267 million rand, Johannesburg-based African Bank ...

Bloomberg The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) will seek to balance supporting economic growth and curbing emerging risks, Governor Yi Gang said, signalling a continuation of the central bank’s existing policy stance. “Going forward, China’s monetary policy will, on one hand, adjust to new economic developments in a timely manner, and on the other hand maintain policy stability to avoid ...

Bloomberg The race to succeed UniCredit SpA Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jean Pierre Mustier is accelerating, with the Italian bank trimming its list of preferred candidates to just three or four after high-profile names such as Tidjane Thiam dropped out of contention. The bank is now seeking to name a successor earlier than its initial target of February 10, according ...

Bloomberg Australia’s central bank is worried an extended period of very low interest rates could spur borrowers to take on more debt than they can handle — particularly if lending standards slip and risk appetite increases. Documents under a Freedom of Information request show the Reserve Bank of Australia saw risks in its decisions to cut the key interest rate ...

Bloomberg Europe’s central banks are ramping up their efforts to support green finance as authorities contemplate how to fight climate change while rebuilding their economies after the pandemic. The latest initiative includes a fund launched by the Bank for International Settlements for green-bond investments by central banks. The European Central Bank (ECB) committed to buy into the initiative, and announced ...

Bloomberg European banks probably failed to live up to US peers’ record fourth-quarter profits as they set aside more money for troubled loans and missed out on the rally in equities trading. Ten of Europe’s biggest lenders probably set aside $15 billion for doubtful credit in the fourth quarter, taking the year’s total to $61.5 billion, the highest since 2012, ...

Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Noel Quinn is set to appear before the UK Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee to answer questions over the lender’s moves to freeze accounts of activists in Hong Kong, according to an exiled lawmaker. Quinn is listed as a participant, along with Colin Bell, the bank’s chief compliance officer, at private and public ...