Banking

Bloomberg Australia’s remaining deferred mortgages tend to have higher loan-to-valuation ratios or are held by people in industries struggling from the pandemic, a Reserve Bank official said. “Non-performing loans to households, which had already risen over past couple of years, are therefore expected to continue to rise over the coming months,” RBA Assistant Governor Michele Bullock, who oversees financial stability, ...

Bloomberg Bank of China Ltd. (BOC) plans to expand its headcount in offshore bond business by 40% as it fights with global banks for a greater slice of a market that’s seen a surge in Chinese borrowers. The lender is seeking to add 20 more staff to its offshore bond team over the next five years, Hu Kun, its general ...

Bloomberg Access Bank Plc, Nigeria’s biggest lender, started a 50 billion naira ($130 million) fund to help companies recover from violent protests that shuttered businesses across Africa’s largest crude producer. The fund, the first of its kind following the demonstrations, will provide interest-free loans with a two-year tenure, Deputy Managing Director Roosevelt Ogbonna said by phone from Lagos, the nation’s ...

Bloomberg The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is making longer-tenor sovereign bonds attractive again. Quantum Mutual Fund has moved to the 10-14 year segment after staying in duration of up to three years in August in its 691 million rupees ($9.4 million) Dynamic Bond Fund. UTI Asset Management Co has turned overweight on bonds maturing in up to 15 years, ...

Bloomberg The coronavirus pandemic has led to a slowdown in developing physical infrastructure as countries’ economic health deteriorates, posing a challenge for the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), its president said. “What worries me, what worries the bank is the deterioration of the economic situation of some of our members,” Jin Liqun said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on ...

Bloomberg Nomura Holdings Inc is hiring bankers for its mergers and acquisitions business in Japan as a sharp rebound in domestic deal-making vaults the nation’s biggest securities firm to the top ranks of global advisers. “We’re recruiting people more eagerly than usual,” global M&A head Shunichi Tsunoda said in an interview. Consultations on local deals are up about 30% to ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG is in advanced talks to sell a technology services unit to Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, Asia’s biggest software exporter by market value, people with knowledge of the matter said. The discussions about Bonn-based Postbank Systems AG are expected to result in a deal with the Indian company by the end of the year, the people said, ...

Bloomberg Kotak Mahindra Bank, backed by Asia’s richest banker, is exploring a takeover of smaller Indian rival IndusInd Bank, people with knowledge of the matter said, a move that would create the nation’s eighth-largest financial firm by assets. Uday Kotak, founder and chief executive officer of Kotak Mahindra, is looking at the possibility of an all-stock acquisition, one of the ...

Bloomberg UBS Group AG plans to raise the fixed salaries for some of its more senior employees by as much as 20% to prevent poaching by competitors. A review at Switzerland’s largest bank found differences in base pay among employees in the same roles, and when compared with competitors, people familiar with the plans said. As a result, UBS plans ...

Bloomberg The Swiss National Bank (SNB) could be forced to sell a chunk of its more than $100 billion US stock portfolio as part of a campaign to ban it from investing in defense companies. A poll by gfs.bern for public broadcaster SRG showed 54% of voters in favour of the proposal, which goes to a national vote on November ...