Banking

Bloomberg ABN Amro Bank NV scrapped its dividend for 2020 and posted its first annual loss in a decade as pandemic weighed on lending income and lender restructured its investment bank. An unexpected profit of about 54 million euros ($65 million) in the fourth quarter wasn’t enough to save the Dutch lender from its first negative result since 2010. The …

Bloomberg Citigroup Inc. will refund an additional $4.2 million to some credit-card customers who were overcharged years ago. The bank reached an agreement with attorneys general from Pennsylvania, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Jersey and North Carolina to refund the money to customers in those states. The refunds follow a 2018 settlement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in which Citigroup agreed …

Bloomberg The entire wealth and asset management business of Nordea Bank Abp — which currently oversees about $425 billion — may exclude all investments that aren’t deemed sustainable in as little as half a decade. The unit is already “very close” to that goal, and will probably be “100% ESG” in “5 to 10 years,” Frank Vang-Jensen, Nordea’s chief executive, …

Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co. made equity investments in six black-owned banks as part of a broader $50 million pledge to support minority-focused lenders. The San Francisco-based bank will assign dedicated teams to provide the lenders with financial, technology or product expertise, it said in a statement. Wells Fargo didn’t disclose the amounts of each investment. The lenders are: Broadway …

Bloomberg Taiwan penalised Deutsche Bank AG and three other foreign lenders after a probe into speculation on the surging local currency last year involving grain companies. Deutsche Bank’s trading approvals for Taiwan dollar deliverable forwards and non-deliverable forwards will be revoked, and it will be banned from engaging in transactions of foreign exchange derivatives for two years, the island’s central …

Bloomberg Discussions among UK banks to establish a shared debt collector for unpaid payments on Covid loans have stalled, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the discussions. Lobbying group UK Finance was leading talks on a shared entity but several of the UK’s biggest banks such as HSBC Holdings Plc and Lloyds Banking Group Plc have soured on …

Bloomberg Standard Chartered Plc is giving up several floors in its main offices in Hong Kong, as global banks accelerate efforts to cut costs and pandemic upends work styles. The UK lender is relinquishing the lease on eight floors it occupies in its Standard Chartered Bank Building in Central, and will rent out three levels in its Kwun Tong office …

Bloomberg The Bank of England (BOE) told banks to start getting ready for negative interest rates, while saying that message shouldn’t be taken as a signal that the policy is imminent. The central bank’s Prudential Regulation Authority said most financial institutions aren’t sufficiently prepared, especially as regards to retail products like rate-tracking mortgages, so they should take at least six …

Bloomberg Nigeria’s central bank ordered deposit-taking banks and other financial institutions to immediately close accounts transacting in or operating cryptocurrency exchanges, saying such deals are “prohibited.” Failure to comply with the directive will result in “severe regulatory sanctions,” according to a circular sent to financial institutions and published on the central bank’s website. The country’s Securities and Exchange Commission said …

Bloomberg Bank of America Corp. (BofA) pledged to add $10 billion to an affordable-homeownership program through 2025, tripling its initial commitment. The plan is aimed at low- and moderate-income communities, and may enable 60,000 individuals and families to purchase homes, the bank said in a statement. The program includes as much as $10,000 of assistance for down payments, as well as …