Banking

BLOOMBERG  Credit Suisse Group AG Chairman Axel Lehmann apologised to shareholders for failing to stem a loss of trust in the bank that he said had built up well before he took over. “We failed to stem the impact of legacy scandals, and counter negative headlines with positive facts,” Lehmann said in remarks prepared for the bank’s annual shareholder meeting ...

BLOOMBERG  Yibin City Commercial Bank Co is considering a Hong Kong initial public offering that could raise about $200 million to $300 million, according to people familiar with the matter. The Chinese lender is working with CCB International Holdings Ltd and ICBC International Holdings Ltd to prepare for the first-time share sale, which could take place as soon as this ...

BLOOMBERG  Toss Bank is considering raising funds from private investors in a fresh round that might boost the South Korean digital lender’s valuation to as much as $3 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The Seoul-based company is working with a financial adviser to raise $300 million to $500 million, the people said. Both new and existing investors ...

BLOOMBERG  Sri Lanka held its benchmark rate at a two-decade high to keep Asia’s fastest inflation in check while supporting economic recovery after the nation secured a $3 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka kept the standing lending facility rate unchanged at 16.5%, according to a statement on its website. Seven of eight economists ...

BLOOMBERG  China’s yuan has replaced the US dollar as the most traded currency in Russia, a year after the invasion of Ukraine led to a slew of Western sanctions against Moscow. The yuan surpassed the dollar in monthly trading volume in February for the first time, and the difference became more pronounced in March, according to data compiled by Bloomberg ...

BLOOMBERG The South Korean won, Asia’s worst-performing currency this quarter, will soon have a new item added to its long list of troubles — the dividend payment season in April. This month normally sees overseas investors take dividends out of the country. Expected handouts to foreign investors at the top 10 Korean companies with the largest dividends allotted to global ...

BLOOMBERG Chinese authorities warned the nation’s top banking executives that the crackdown on the $60 trillion industry is far from over in a private meeting, just as they were about to announce the probe of the most senior state banker in nearly two decades. Officials from the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) and the Central Commission for Discipline ...

BLOOMBERG Funds investing in commercial property pose a threat to financial stability after growing significantly over the last decade, according to the European Central Bank (ECB). The net asset value of the real estate investment funds more than tripled to more than €1 trillion ($1.1 trillion) in the past 10 years, boosting their interdependence with property markets, the ECB said ...

BLOOMBERG ICICI Securities Ltd aims to double its wealth managers and boost the assets from rich clients to $60 billion in the next two years, as competition ramps up in India’s rapidly growing wealth industry. The current crisis at Credit Suisse Group AG and the uncertainty around its wealth business in India could provide some hiring opportunities, said Anupam Guha, ...

BLOOMBERG UBS Group AG will cut its workforce by between 20% and 30% after completing its takeover of Credit Suisse Group AG, slashing as many as 36,000 jobs worldwide,  SonntagsZeitung reported, citing a senior manager at UBS. As many as 11,000 employees will be laid off in Switzerland, the Swiss newspaper said. The two lenders together employed almost 125,000 people ...