Banking

Bloomberg As HSBC Holdings pins its future on China, Europe’s largest bank is grooming a set of well-connected bankers to navigate its fraught relationship with Beijing in the long run. David Liao and Mark Yunfeng Wang, heads of Asia Pacific global banking and its China operations, respectively, are among a handful of contenders in the running to steer HSBC’s expansion ...

Bloomberg Brazil’s central bank said inflation pressures could persist in the beginning of the year, eventually leading to an interest rate hike, after a report showed consumer prices surged in December by the most since 2003. While reaffirming that a record-low rate of 2% is adequate for now, Monetary Policy Director Bruno Serra said Brazil shouldn’t have such a level ...

Bloomberg There are growing signs that Beijing is keen to slow the ascent in China’s currency after it surged to the highest level since mid-2018 against the dollar. The People’s Bank of China set its fixing at 6.4604 per dollar, 0.06% weaker than the average estimate in a Bloomberg survey. The move came after policy makers sent a string of ...

Bloomberg India’s central bank expects banks’ bad-loan ratios to almost double this year and warned that soaring markets and a weakened economy threaten financial stability. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) forecasts non-performing assets will rise to 13.5% of total advances by the end of September from 7.5% a year ago, according to its semiannual Financial Stability Report. If the ...

Bloomberg India will seek to narrow its budget deficit next financial year, amid expectations of improved revenue collections and economic rebound, according to Standard Chartered Bank Plc. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will likely target fiscal deficit — the gap between income and expenditure — at 5.3% of gross domestic product in the budget for the year starting April 1, the ...

Bloomberg UBS Group AG plans to lower the threshold for customer deposits that will be subject to a charge as the bank deals with the prospect of low and negative interest rates for the foreseeable future. Starting in July, the fee will apply to clients with deposits of more than 250,000 francs ($280,000) or the same amount in euros, according ...

Bloomberg Sandeep Uberoi, the former head of technology, media and telecom for Southeast Asia at Bank of America (BofA) Merrill Lynch, has joined Jungle Ventures as a strategic adviser. He will lead strategy and corporate development at the Singapore-based venture capital firm and overseee its portfolio companies across Southeast Asia and India, Uberoi said. His focus will include fundraising, partnerships ...

Bloomberg A group of HSBC Holdings Plc shareholders filed a resolution urging the bank to cut its support to the fossil-fuel industry. Amundi SA, Europe’s largest listed asset manager, and Man Group Plc, the world’s biggest publicly traded hedge fund firm, were among 15 institutional investors overseeing a combined $2.4 trillion that are backing the move, according to a statement ...

Bloomberg China plans to allow some commercial banks to start selling soured personal loans to distressed asset managers as soon as this month, according to people familiar with the matter. At a meeting by the official credit assets transfer center, banks and state-run bad-loan managers were asked to accelerate preparations to ensure a smooth start of the trial program in ...

Bloomberg Rising corporate debt and the prospect of further Covid-19 lockdowns pose a systemic risk to France’s financial system that may rise in the coming months, according to the country’s central bank. Debts of non-financial companies are now the greatest vulnerability in the system, the Bank of France said in its semi-annual review of financial risks. While the second lockdown ...