Banking

Bloomberg Barclays Plc’s leadership reshuffle puts two of the likely internal contenders to replace Jes Staley in the spotlight. The pair, who will together lead the investment bank, inherit a daunting task. Chief Risk Officer C.S. Venkatakrishnan, known as Venkat, will head markets while Paul Compton will oversee banking operations. They are charged with executing Staley’s vision of sustaining a ...

Bloomberg Bank of France Governor and European Central Bank (ECB) policy maker Francois Villeroy de Galhau said the French government must be more careful about spending and debt that’s not linked to the novel coronavirus health-care crisis. The government must become more efficient as the pace of spending, stripping off Covid-19 measures, is accelerating “even more quickly” than before the ...

Bloomberg Unicaja Banco SA is moving closer to a long-mooted takeover of Spanish rival Liberbank as consolidation gathers pace among the nation’s financial institutions. The two banks have restarted informal talks with the help of advisers, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. Liberbank is working with Deutsche ...

Bloomberg The Swiss National Bank (SNB) is facing intensifying national scrutiny for its work culture as lawmakers focus on emerging allegations of discrimination against women. Twelve female members of parliament have tabled a motion asking how the SNB aims to boost the number of female managers, what it’s doing to prevent ill treatment and whether it has an ombudsman to ...

Bloomberg Consumer prices in the 19-nation euro area fall more than economists forecast in September, keeping up pressure on the European Central Bank (ECB) as it debates whether to add stimulus to support the recovery from the coronavirus recession. The inflation rate came in at -0.3%, slightly below the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Prices for services were a ...

Bloomberg Australia’s central bank does little deliberation, ignores opposing views and its decision-makers “seem hostile to a consideration of evidence or research,” according to Peter Tulip, a former senior member of its economic research department. “We have a board that does not understand monetary policy or statistical research,” Tulip said in a farewell email to colleagues when he resigned from ...

Bloomberg The European Central Bank (ECB) will start experimenting with a digital version of the euro while holding a public consultation in a major step towards introducing the technology. “Our role is to secure trust in money,” President Christine Lagarde said as the ECB published a study into the benefits and drawbacks of a digital currency. “This means making sure ...

Bloomberg Argentina’s central bank will allow a faster depreciation of its tightly-controlled peso, in the government’s latest attempt to contain a hemorrhage of foreign reserves. The central bank is ending a policy of “uniform devaluation” and allowing greater volatility, according to a central bank statement. It also announced that it was raising repo rates to 24% up from 19% and ...

Bloomberg The Swiss National Bank (SNB) spent 90 billion francs ($98 billion) on interventions in the first half of 2020, the most in years, amid a market rout in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. The SNB was forced to step up its battle against the strong franc as investors drove the haven currency to the strongest level in ...

Bloomberg Taiwanese banks’ contributions to offshore loans for mainland Chinese firms fell to their lowest levels in at least 10 years as lenders turn increasingly anxious to limit their credit exposure to the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic and rising political tensions. The share of Taiwanese financial institutions in China’s offshore syndicated and club loans tumbled to the lowest ...