Banking

Bloomberg The Philippine peso advanced closer towards the psychologically significant level of 48 per dollar after central bank Governor Benjamin Diokno said the market was free to determine its level. Asia’s best-performing currency this year advanced to as strong as 48.62 on Monday after Diokno told Bloomberg Television: “If that’s where the market is going, we can’t do anything about ...

Bloomberg Indonesia’s bond and currency markets, risk benchmarks that tend to move in tandem, are diverging in signs that the nation’s pandemic response is deterring global funds. The rupiah is the worst-performing Asian currency this quarter while the nation’s benchmark sovereign bond is outperforming peers. The two markets are usually aligned due to heavy foreign debt holdings. That dynamic started ...

Bloomberg Credit Suisse Group AG faces a criminal probe for helping more than 2,600 Belgian clients to hide untaxed earnings in Swiss accounts, L’Echo reported. The inquiry into Swiss lender concerns money laundering and acting as an illegal financial intermediary, the newspaper said, citing a spokesman for Belgium’s Federal Prosecutor’s office. Prosecutors obtained the bank details of unidentified Belgian clients ...

Bloomberg People’s Bank of China (PBOC) Governor Yi Gang urged banks to support smaller companies through innovations in financial services and products. The current economic situation is “complex and severe,” Yi told a seminar in the eastern city of Hefei, according to a statement posted on the central bank’s website. The governor said banks should adapt financial services and products, ...

Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is considering raising a venture and growth fund of around $2 billion, a move that would make it a bigger player in the competitive world of technology investing, according to people familiar with the matter. A $2 billion fund for investing in growth- and venture-stage companies would be one of larger ones in the industry ...

Bloomberg Thailand’s commercial banks are financially sound and are able to withstand any economic impact from the pandemic, Bank of Thailand Deputy Governor Ronadol Numnonda said in a statement on Sunday. The banking system’s capital fund is strong with an adequacy ratio, or BIS ratio, at the “high level” of 19.2% by the end of June. Lenders are profitable and ...

Bloomberg The Federal Reserve has used only a fraction of the $600 billion in an emergency lending program for small and medium businesses struggling with the Covid pandemic, according to a congressional watchdog report. Eligible lenders participating in the Main Street program have issued $496.8 million in loans, of which $472 million is Federal Reserve money, or about 0.07% of ...

Bloomberg Rabobank Group is reviewing its commodity trade finance business, joining other major lenders in reconsidering their roles in an industry upended by recent trading scandals and the novel coronavirus. The Dutch bank, best known for financing food and agricultural traders, is analysing clients in its current portfolio. While it has no plans to exit the sector, it may choose ...

Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co. has started its long-awaited job cuts, breaking with some of its top US competitors that have resisted workforce reductions amid the coronavirus pandemic. The San Francisco-based lender, under growing pressure to lower costs, quietly ended a moratorium on terminations in recent weeks as it prepares to make deeper cuts in the months and years ahead. ...

Bloomberg Days after Citigroup Inc. made headlines for accidentally sending $900 million to a group of lenders, a Bank of America Corp. (BofA) customer in Massachusetts opened his account to find an even bigger cash infusion: $2.45 billion. But the money was never really there. “This was a display error and nothing more than that,” Bank of America spokesman Bill ...