Banking

Bloomberg Australia’s central bank staff will be working around the clock to factor in the latest data from Victoria state’s spiralling Covid crisis into economic projections ahead of Tuesday’s policy meeting and Friday’s forecasts publication. Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe is set to keep interest rates and the three-year yield target unchanged at 0.25%, most economists say, and reiterate a ...

Bloomberg Bandhan Bank Ltd.’s main shareholder sold $1.4 billion of its stake in India’s most profitable bank to meet the regulator’s ownership rules. Bandhan Financial Holdings Ltd. sold 337.4 million shares in the Indian lender at 313.1 rupees in a block trade on Monday, according to deal teams seen by Bloomberg News. The company’s shares plunged 11% to 307 rupees ...

Bloomberg Caught in the crossfire between Washington and Beijing, HSBC Holdings Plc is fighting forces that threaten to upend a business built on connecting China to the West. Chairman Mark Tucker is overseeing a sweeping review of HSBC’s US and European operations with an eye towards unloading businesses beyond repair, as doubts grow that 35,000 job cuts announced in February ...

Bloomberg An independent panel backed an African Development Bank (AfDB) probe that found no evidence of wrongdoing by its president, Akinwumi Adesina. The finding enables Adesina, 60, to seek re-election next month as head of the continent’s biggest multilateral lender for another five years. It’s also a rebuff to US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, whose rejection of the AfDB ethics ...

Bloomberg Credit Suisse Group AG invested nearly $100 million in Ant Group during its last funding round, according to people familiar with the matter, setting the Swiss bank up for a potential windfall as the Chinese internet giant prepares to go public. The Zurich-based lender, a frequent adviser on deals across Jack Ma’s empire, made the equity investment during Ant’s ...

Bloomberg Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) will buy solar power from BluEarth Renewables Inc. under a renewable-energy contract that’s a first of its kind for a Canadian financial firm. Canada’s largest bank and partner Bullfrog Power, a unit of Spark Power Group Inc., will each purchase 31,500 megawatt-hours a year — enough electricity for almost 2,600 homes — in an ...

Bloomberg Bank Indonesia’s unprecedented move to buy about $27 billion in bonds directly from the government may prove to be an exception rather than the norm in emerging markets. With the world economy in crisis and Modern Monetary Theory gaining attention, governments are being pressured to spend more and turn to their central banks to print money to foot the ...

Bloomberg Coutts & Co., the private UK bank that counts Queen Elizabeth II among its clients, has warned customers within the European Economic Area (EEA) that it can no longer offer them mortgages due to Brexit. The lender, owned by Natwest Group Plc, will lose so-called passporting rights that allow it to operate freely within the EEA if the current ...

Bloomberg The biggest Nordic banks are taking a long hard look at their compliance units after a recent hiring spree. Mikael Bjertrup, the head of financial crime prevention at Nordea Bank Abp, says banks initially ramped up compliance so fast they weren’t able to focus on efficiency in those departments. Nordea has been working on the issue for a while, ...

Bloomberg The bad loan ratio in India’s banking sector is forecast to swell to the highest level in more than two decades after a prolonged lockdown hurt businesses and left millions jobless. Soured assets will rise to 12.5% of total advances by March 2021 — highest since the financial year started 1999 — from 8.5% a year earlier, the Reserve ...