Banking

Bloomberg The US Small Business Administration (SBA) is capping the value of loans individual banks can arrange under a federal economic relief program for small businesses after a fresh infusion of funding. The move reflects concerns among advocates for small businesses that the biggest US banks, which are ready to flood the SBA with applications, could dominate the lending and ...

Bloomberg China should maintain liquidity at a reasonably ample level and offer targeted support to companies hit by the coronavirus epidemic, China’s central bank Governor Yi Gang said. The impact from the virus on China’s economy will be short-lived, and the fundamentals won’t change, according to the article by Yi published by the Economic Research Journal in its March issue. ...

Bloomberg Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina said another percentage point of interest rate cuts is possible as the economy heads into its worst economic slump in more than a decade. “Given the extraordinary development of events, adjusting monetary policy in small steps as we are used to may not be enough,” Nabiullina said after the central bank cut by ...

Bloomberg UBS Group AG appeal of a record 4.5 billion-euro ($4.9 billion) French fine for helping clients stash undeclared funds in offshore accounts was postponed over concerns related to coronavirus pandemic, according to people familiar with the case. Judges at the Paris Court of Appeals postponed the case, originally scheduled for June, due to the lockdown caused by the coronavirus, ...

Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc may need to revise its restructuring plans after the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic settles. Chief Executive Officer Noel Quinn told investors that HSBC faced a “very different” context compared to February, when he announced a plan to cut about 30,000 jobs over the next three years. “We will need to consider what additional actions we ...

Bloomberg American Express Co. (AmEx) said it’s seeking to cut $3 billion in costs after the coronavirus pandemic caused a plunge in spending on the firm’s cards. The slowdown the credit-card issuer began to see in March as a result of nationwide shelter-in-place orders has “dramatically” impacted spending on its cards in April as well, American Express warned. Provisions for ...

Bloomberg Bank of Baroda, India’s third-largest state-run lender by market value, plans to raise as much as 135 billion rupees ($1.8 billion) over the next 12 months to improve risk buffers and boost lending. The lender, which combined with two smaller rivals last year, plans to raise 90 billion rupees selling shares and the balance through debt including tier-I capital, ...

Bloomberg The European Central Bank (ECB) will increase emergency bond-buying in the coming months to ramp up support for an economy that President Christine Lagarde sees shrinking as much as 15% this year, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists. One in four respondents expect the ECB could boost the size of its pandemic purchase program, when the Governing Council ...

Bloomberg Credit Suisse Group AG is setting aside more than $1 billion to cover writedowns and provisions for bad loans, the biggest such hit in more than a decade as the coronavirus pummels economic activity across the globe. The bank is holding back 568 million Swiss francs ($585 million) for credit losses, almost triple what analysts had been expecting, and ...

Bloomberg Standard Bank Group Ltd. said first-quarter net income declined 27% after Africa’s largest lender prepared for a surge in loan defaults as measures to contain the coronavirus batter business and personal incomes alike. Credit-impairment charges for the three months through March were “significantly higher” than in the prior year, the Johannesburg-based company said in a statement. “The increase was ...