Banking

Bloomberg Finland’s financial watchdog is trying to figure out how to respond after a lender it oversees explicitly disregarded European Central Bank’s (ECB) guidelines on shareholder rewards. The decision by Alandsbanken Abp, announced on January 1, to pay almost four times the dividend cap set by the ECB is “unfortunate,” Jyri Helenius, head of banking supervision at the Finnish Financial …

Bloomberg Poland’s central bank moved to weaken the zloty for the first time in a decade, delivering on a warning that it won’t tolerate a stronger currency as the economy tries to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. Sales by the bank helped push the zloty down by as much as 1.7% against the euro in low-volume trading. The step comes …

Bloomberg Egypt’s central bank has extended two debt relief initiatives for another 6 months which were launched earlier to help companies and tourism firms struggling as a result of the coronavirus’ impact on the economy. In a statement, the regulator said the move affects companies with bank debt of less than 10 million Egyptian pounds and tourism firms with debts …

Bloomberg The Indonesian rupiah may be on the cusp of a rally. Its rebound from the worst-performing Asian currency to second best in the final three months of 2020 signals potential for further gains. The removal of US election risk and supportive coronavirus vaccine developments aided the rupiah’s rise to near resistance at 13,873, its June 8 high, before it …

Bloomberg China’s central bank has pumped enough cash into the banking system to convince government bond investors that the worst is finally over. Over the past month, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has had to work especially hard to rein in borrowing costs after a surge in credit defaults damped commercial lenders’ enthusiasm to make loans. The central bank …

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Christian Sewing wants Germany’s largest lender to play an active role in a possible consolidation of Europe’s financial services industry, he told Welt am Sonntag in an interview. The performance of the Frankfurt-based bank has been steadily improving, and that’s why the company isn’t willing to be a junior partner if mergers …

Bloomberg The European Central Bank (ECB) is closely monitoring the euro’s strengthening against the US dollar, Governing Council member Olli Rehn told Germany’s Boersen-Zeitung. While the ECB doesn’t target the exchange rate, “that does not mean that the appreciation is not important,” as it leads to a loss of competitiveness and affects the outlook for growth and inflation, Rehn, the …

Bloomberg Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, topped $34,000, just weeks after passing another major milestone. The currency gained as much as 7.8% to $34,182.75, before slipping to about $33,970 in Singapore. It advanced almost 50% in December, when it breached $20,000 for the first time. The latest gains top an eye-popping rally for the controversial digital asset in 2020, which …

Bloomberg Sweden’s government will start exploring the feasibility of having the country move to a digital currency, marking another step into the unknown for the world’s most cashless society. Per Bolund, financial markets minister, said a review is expected to be completed by the end of November in 2022. Anna Kinberg Batra, a former chairwoman of the parliament’s finance committee, …

Bloomberg Hungary left its monetary policy unchanged despite a slowdown in inflation and a rally in the forint, warning of continued risks to global investor sentiment amid a resurgence in coronavirus. The central bank kept the rate offered on required reserves at 0.6% and the overnight deposit rate at minus 0.05%, as forecast by all economists in a Bloomberg survey. …