Banking

Bloomberg Australia shouldn’t be concerned about its escalating government debt in response to the coronavirus crisis because of the long record of responsible fiscal policy, Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe said. “If ever there’s a time to borrow, now is it,” the RBA chief told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.’s Four Corners program in a report on the scramble to combat ...

Bloomberg Sovereign bonds in India rallied after data showed the central bank bought debt earlier in the month, fuelling speculation that it will do more to support a market worried about record government borrowings. The yield on the benchmark 10-year debt fell 14 basis points to 6.21%, its biggest drop in a month. The 6.18% 2024 debt fell 21 basis ...

Bloomberg Foreign buyers are likely to steer clear of Indonesian bonds until the rupiah’s gyrations start to die down. That’s despite the value in the long end of the curve. International funds fled in the first quarter, with a record $8.7 billion in net foreign outflows, according to exchange data compiled by Bloomberg. Although Indonesian bond performance has improved, global ...

Bloomberg The mood at Deutsche Bank AG’s headquarters in Frankfurt was tense. It was late March, and clients were drawing down credit lines at such a rapid pace that the bank’s treasury department was on alert. Liquidity never was an issue, according to a person familiar with the matter. But the episode, which also attracted the attention of the European ...

Bloomberg European banks are seeking to avoid setting aside billions of euros to cover bad loans after the coronavirus outbreak, in a departure from US competitors collectively taking a $25 billion hit. European lenders are set to report comparatively small increases in loan loss reserves in the first quarter and plan a similar approach during the rest of the year, ...

Bloomberg The European Central Bank (ECB) could take further action if needed to support the euro area through the economic crisis sparked by the coronavirus outbreak, policy makers at the institution said. The central bank has already unleashed a barrage of support over the past few weeks to cushion countries across the bloc, including committing to spend more than 1 ...

Bloomberg The Philippines central bank stepped in to encourage banks to lend to small businesses reeling from the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. A new rule allowing banks to count new loans to micro-, small- and medium-scale enterprises as compliance with the reserve requirement is effectively a cut in the reserve ratio, central bank Governor Benjamin Diokno said. Banks ...

Bloomberg Most Asian economies will suffer their biggest blow from coronavirus containment measures in the second quarter of the year, even as the worst seems to have passed already for China, according to Morgan Stanley. Asia excluding Japan will see two consecutive quarters of contraction — the technical definition of a recession — as lockdowns and social-distancing norms are still ...

Bloomberg Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina hinted at a bigger-than-normal interest-rate cut when the central bank meets next week, stressing that monetary easing is now the “main option.” “We are looking at different economic scenarios and weighing how much room we have to ease monetary policy and what size of steps we should take,” Nabiullina said in her final ...

Bloomberg Brazilian banks are snapping up a renewed wave of local corporate bonds after a sell-off sent yields soaring and left funds reeling from record withdrawals. As local bond spreads rise more than four-fold in secondary market, investors say companies in need of cash are opting to sell new debt directly to banks, which often charge lower yields than institutional ...