Banking

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 ...

Bloomberg South Africa is in talks with non-banking lenders to join its 200 billion rand ($12 billion) loan-guarantee measures as it seeks to improve access to finance for businesses hit by the coronavirus pandemic. The government-backed program will have less stringent approval processes and extend repayment periods, the National Treasury, the South African Reserve Bank and the Banking Association of ...

Bloomberg The Bank of Japan (BOJ) may have adopted a new standard in deciding when to support stocks, according to Seiichi Suzuki, a market analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Institute Co. While market consensus has it that the BOJ purchases ETFs when the Topix index falls at least 0.5%, recent buying patterns have changed, Suzuki said. “The bar for ETF ...

Bloomberg The Treasury is in talks with the UK’s largest banks about a plan to tackle billions of pounds of bad debts expected under government’s Coronavirus loans program for small businesses, the Financial Times reported. Part of the discussions centers on a common code of conduct to deal with bounce-back borrowers, which could include guidance on when and how to ...

Bloomberg A few years ago, the biggest banks in one of the richest corners of the globe were adding thousands of jobs to a department that suddenly seemed more important than most others: compliance. But with headcount growing more than 10-fold in some cases, those same jobs are now at risk. This month, Danske Bank A/S warned of “significant” cuts, ...