Banking

Bloomberg Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd., India’s third-largest lender by market value, posted December-quarter profit that topped analyst expectations as bad debt fall. Net income totaled 18.5 billion rupees ($254 million) for the three months ended December 31, compared with 16 billion rupees a year earlier, the Mumbai-based bank said in a filing on Monday. Analysts had expected a profit of ...

Bloomberg India’s central bank proposes tighter regulations for large shadow lenders to prevent events such as the collapse of a major financier in 2018, the effects of which still linger in the nation’s financial system. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) suggests classifying so-called non-bank financial companies (NBFCs) into four categories based on parameters including the size of assets, according ...

Bloomberg Malaysia kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged Wednesday, saving its policy ammunition as the country grapples with a surge in Covid-19 infections that could take months to subside. Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) maintained the overnight policy rate at a record-low 1.75% at its first meeting of the year, as expected by 12 of 23 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The rest ...

Bloomberg JPMorgan Chase & Co. has appointed veteran dealmaker Houston Huang to lead its Chinese securities venture as the Wall Street firm steps up expansion in the country. Huang will become chief executive officer and head of investment banking for JPMorgan Securities (China) Co., according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg News. He will be responsible for implementing the ...

Bloomberg Wall Street’s worst fears about the fallout from Covid-19 are receding. Three of the biggest US lenders — JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. — cut their combined reserves for losses on loans by more than $5 billion, helping fourth-quarter profit top estimates even as they faced headwinds from low interest rates. While posting ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong police have arrested seven current and former bank staff in the city in an alleged money laundering case involving HK$6.3 billion ($810 million) in dirty money flows over the past four years. Five men and two women, between the ages of 30 and 37, were arrested, the police said in a statement on Wednesday after making raids ...

Bloomberg Bank of America Corp. (BofA) said it plans to repurchase $2.9 billion worth of stock this quarter, the most it can under new Federal Reserve guidelines. The buybacks come on top of its 18-cent dividend and $300 million in repurchases that offset stock awards, the bank said in a statement that came ahead of its fourth-quarter results. Bank of ...

Bloomberg Zimbabwean banks have closed about 17% of their branches as an escalation in the number of coronavirus infections spurs lenders to shut their doors for the time being and accelerate a digitisation drive. Of the 300 branches in the country, 10% were permanently closed last year due to the digitisation push. An additional 23 branches are now temporarily under ...

Bloomberg India’s troubled shadow banks face mounting challenges to a nascent recovery from pandemic, with their asset quality set to deteriorate further as flagged by the financial regulator. Non-performing assets already swelled in the most recent data to the highest in at least five years, at 6.3% as of March 2020 even before the worst of the pandemic impact, the ...

Bloomberg Philippine banks will recover faster from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic than they did from the Asian financial crisis due to record-low interest rates, higher capital and a stable economy, the head of the nation’s bankers group said. Lenders in the Southeast Asian nation may bounce back in three to four years — about half the time it ...