Banking

Bloomberg Canada’s biggest banks are expected to see profits plunge for a second straight quarter due to economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic — though there are signs of improvement. The nation’s six-largest lenders will post an average profit decline of about 30% in the fiscal third quarter from a year earlier when they kick off the reporting season next ...

Bloomberg Indonesia’s central bank left its key interest rate unchanged on Wednesday to shore up support for the sagging currency, and called for close coordination with government to revive Southeast Asia’s largest economy. After 100 basis points of easing so far this year, Bank Indonesia kept the seven-day reverse repurchase rate at 4% Wednesday, as expected by 20 of 25 ...

Bloomberg It took unprecedented stimulus and a rally that’s pushed equities near record highs, but fund managers overseeing $489 billion finally believe that this stock market recovery has legs. Among investors surveyed by Bank of America Corp. (BofA) in the week through August 13, 46% described equities as being in a bull market, up from 40% in July. The share ...

Bloomberg Singapore’s financial regulator will step up efforts to urge banks to hire more citizens and develop a strong local leadership pipeline, according to its chief. “Protecting and growing Singaporean jobs, especially in current economic conditions, is a top priority,” the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) Managing Director Ravi Menon wrote in a letter in the Straits Times. The MAS ...

Bloomberg One of the world’s biggest banks has staged a mass return to the office in a country where the number of Covid-19 infections surged by 1 million just in the past month. About 60% of administrative staff at Banco Santander SA’s Brazilian unit — including some investment bankers and those in asset management — are now back at their ...

Bloomberg The pile of the murkiest trades at global banks, long the bane of regulators, got much bigger during Covid-19. Lenders including Barclays Plc, Citigroup Inc., BNP Paribas SA and Societe Generale SA reported a surge of more than 20% in their most opaque assets during the chaotic first half of 2020, Bloomberg calculations show. The banks are now sitting ...

Bloomberg Citigroup Inc. scored a temporary court order freezing $175 million that Brigade Capital Management LP declined to return after the bank accidentally transferred more than $900 million to Revlon Inc. lenders. The order followed a hearing in which the bank and the hedge fund faced off over Citigroup’s expensive blunder. The two will be back in court as the ...

Bloomberg China’s central bank supplied liquidity to commercial lenders to help them manage upcoming government bond sales, while leaving the price of the money unchanged as the economy recovers. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) added 700 billion yuan ($101 billion) of one-year funding via the medium-term lending facility. The central bank said that the operation is meant to offset ...

Bloomberg The new normal of remote work has yet to reach the traders who deal with the Bank of Japan (BOJ). Japan’s central bank doesn’t allow home computers to connect to its network for conducting asset purchases and other market transactions, raising concerns at financial firms as coronavirus cases in Tokyo surge. At least three have asked the BOJ whether ...

Bloomberg Westpac Banking Corp. has scrapped its first-half dividend, citing the desire to maintain a strong balance sheet in an uncertain operating environment. The lender had previously deferred any decision on a payout during the height of the first coronavirus outbreak. It will next consider dividends as part of finalising its full-year results. Westpac is the first of the nation’s ...