Banking

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 ...

Bloomberg Intesa Sanpaolo SpA is likely to play a part in the possible purchase of Borsa Italiana SpA being considered by Italian state-owned lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti SpA and Euronext, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The government and Euronext have been weighing a joint bid for the stock exchange operator, owned by London Stock Exchange Group ...

Bloomberg Citigroup Inc. asked a federal court to order Brigade Capital Management LP to return its share of more than $900 million that the bank mistakenly wired to Revlon Inc. lenders, some of which are locked in a bitter fight with the struggling cosmetics giant. The bank has recouped less than half of the money, which it blamed on a ...

Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is the latest firm to boost its year-end price target for the S&P 500, as a relentless rally off the March lows leaves strategist predictions in the dust. David Kostin raised his forecast for the benchmark US gauge to 3,600 from 3,000, joining the likes of Yardeni Research founder Ed Yardeni and RBC Capital Markets’ ...

Bloomberg The Federal Reserve could allow inflation to accelerate above its 2% goal if has underperformed it in the past, said Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan. “I would be willing to see inflation run moderately above 2% in the aftermath of periods where we’ve been running persistently below,” Kaplan said in a virtual event with the Dallas Friday Group, a ...

Bloomberg Two US banking giants are rolling out more benefits to parents juggling childcare and home schooling while keeping the companies running through the pandemic. Citigroup Inc. will offer employees discounts on test preparation and tutoring services as many continue to work from home while their kids start the new school year. Bank of America Corp. (BofA) is extending backup ...

Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and several foreign lenders operating in the US will face the stiffest capital demands under the Federal Reserve’s first set of big-bank requirements to incorporate the regulator’s new stress buffer. The capital levels, determined by the Fed’s most recent stress-test process, give Goldman Sachs the highest target among domestic banks, with an overall ...

Bloomberg Monetary policy makers of the Democratic Republic of Congo more than doubled the central bank’s benchmark interest rate amid a depreciating currency and the mounting inflationary pressures. The rate was increased to 18.5% from 7.5%, central bank Governor Deogratias Mutombo said in a statement shared by a spokesman from the institution. It’s at the highest level since April 2018. ...

Bloomberg Even for Citigroup Inc., it was big money. The loan operations staff at the New York bank wired $900 million, seemingly on behalf of Revlon Inc., to lenders of the troubled cosmetics giant controlled by billionaire Ron Perelman. It was a mistake for the ages — a “clerical error,” as Citigroup told lenders — that’s now plunged the bank ...