Banking

Bloomberg The robots advising investors at the biggest Nordic banks just had their best quarter since being switched on. Much of their sudden popularity has coincided with the crisis triggered by Covid-19. But the banks behind the bots say the development has also laid bare where human financial advisers add no value, and robots do. At the biggest Nordic bank, ...

Bloomberg Singapore’s currency looks set to remain under pressure as global headwinds outweigh the benefits of an easing in the nationwide lockdown. The US dollar-Singapore dollar pair has failed to break below technical support at its one-month low, suggesting its next move could well be higher. Data this week is expected to show the nation’s economy contracted 1.8% y/y in ...

Bloomberg Investec Chief Executive Officer Fani Titi saw a sign of things to come when he dropped by the bank’s headquarters last week. The usually buzzing escalators that criss-cross the four-story building in Sandton, South Africa’s business capital, were eerily silent. He was one of only 440 employees in an office block normally occupied by 10 times that number. Two ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG asked its top managers to join executive committee in foregoing a month’s pay after the lender resumed a sweeping job cuts program to reduce expenses. “As our restructuring plans progress, the management board and the group management committee have decided to lead by example and give a broader group of senior managers the opportunity to be ...

Bloomberg Banks in Asia’s financial hubs such as HSBC Holdings Plc and Citigroup Inc. are finding that the disruption from the coronavirus outbreak is helping them push back on a threat from a new breed of virtual upstarts. With branches shut, customers social distancing and fearful of tainted cash, the brick-and-mortar giants are seeing a surge in demand for digital ...

Bloomberg Don’t let anyone tell you regulators haven’t punished Wells Fargo & Co. — or at least its shareholders. The scandal-ridden bank has lost $220 billion in stock-market value since the Federal Reserve imposed an unprecedented cap on the firm’s assets in early 2018, crimping its ability to add customers and loans. The constraints are biting harder this year as ...

Bloomberg Japan’s top banks forecast the biggest bad-loan costs since the aftermath of the global financial crisis, joining other global lenders in bracing for the fallout from coronavirus pandemic. Total credit costs at Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. and Mizuho Financial Group Inc. will almost double to $10.3 billion in the year ending March 2021, ...

Bloomberg The Bank of England (BOE) is examining unconventional monetary policy measures more urgently amid the economic slump caused by the coronavirus pandemic, according to its Chief Economist Andrew Haldane. The central bank is reviewing a number of policies — including negative interest rates and expanding the scope of the bank’s asset-purchase plan to include riskier securities — as it ...

Bloomberg A crisis was supposed to be Bitcoin’s time to shine, when the need for an international currency outside the reach of central banks would prove invaluable. That hasn’t been the case. No matter to crypto die-hards. The future is brighter than ever, especially as central banks around the world pump cash into listing economies, threatening a wave of inflation ...

Bloomberg Kenyan banks are expected to hoard cash as they report a jump in first-quarter loan-loss provisions to cope with the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic. Kenyan institutions got a cash boost when the central bank lowered reserve requirements to free up funds for lending, while interest rates have been cut to a nine-year low. Banks have now started restructuring ...