Banking

BLOOMBERG  Thailand’s central bank governor said the nation’s main political parties are trying to woo voters with policies that could undermine the country’s longer-term economic health. “Any policies that hurt fiscal discipline — creating moral hazard, destroying credit culture — need to be monitored as they can be risky,” Bank of Thailand Governor Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput told reporters when asked to ...

BLOOMBERG US bank deposits fell, indicating the financial system remains fragile after a string of bank failures. Deposits decreased by $76.2 billion in the week ended on April 12, according to seasonally adjusted data from the Federal Reserve. The drop was mostly at large and foreign institutions, but they also fell at small banks. Meantime, commercial bank lending rose $13.8 ...

BLOOMBERG ICICI Bank Ltd reported a 30% rise in profit, helped by robust demand for retail loans in the world’s most populous country. Net income climbed to 91.2 billion rupees ($1.1 billion) in the quarter that ended March 31, compared with 70.18 billion rupees a year ago, according to a statement. That beat the average estimate of 90.4 billion rupees ...

BLOOMBERG The Philippine central bank is closely monitoring the peso “for possible spillover impact on inflation amid the global banking stresses” after the currency slid to more than four-month lows this week. Still, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) believes that “a freely moving exchange rate is an essential price signal” that allows the economy to respond to global developments, Deputy ...

BLOOMBERG Dutch bank ING is suing China’s largest bank for losses sustained in a batch of copper deals and seeking $170 million in damages, the Financial Times (FT) reported. ING alleged Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) breached contract terms because it released export documents for copper transactions without collecting payment, the paper said, citing a Hong Kong court filing. ...

BLOOMBERG Norway and Sweden are no longer the place to go for currency investors hunting richer returns in Europe. The Nordic nations’ comparatively high interest rates and slow inflation made them a carry-trade favourite in quiet times when demand for riskier wagers was strong. Investors borrowed in low-rate currencies like the euro and Swiss franc and used the money to ...

BLOOMBERG  Morgan Stanley’s investment bank and its giant wealth unit surpassed analysts’ expectations in the first quarter even as profits fell from a year earlier, dragged down by a dropoff in deal-making and a jump in loan-loss provisions. Net income slid 20% from a year earlier to $2.84 billion amid a slowdown in the trading and banking businesses. The firm’s ...

BLOOMBERG  Goldman Sachs Group Inc has been hit by additional departures in its Asia equities team, with key exits in Tokyo and Hong Kong to rival banks and hedge funds. Among those that left recently are managing directors Fredrik Grunberger in Hong Kong and Tomiyuki Oji and David Williams in Tokyo, according to people familiar with the matter. Oji is ...

BLOOMBERG  Hungary’s central bank unexpectedly signalled its first potential step towards cutting the European Union’s highest key interest rate, with policymakers pointing to an outlook of rapidly slowing inflation. The forint dropped against the euro. Deputy Governor Barnabas Virag caught investors by surprise after months of pushing back against government pressure to lower the 18% key interest rate to aid ...

BLOOMBERG Christine Lagarde warned that changes in the world economy induced by geopolitics pose a challenge to the European Central Bank (ECB) and its peers. “We are witnessing a fragmentation of the global economy into competing blocs, with each bloc trying to pull as much of the rest of the world closer to its respective strategic interests and shared values,” ...