Banking

Bloomberg The European Central Bank (ECB) will accept some junk-rated debt as collateral for its loans to banks in a move that aims to shield the euro area’s most vulnerable economies as they face the risk of credit downgrades in the coronavirus. The ECB will accept bonds as long as they had at least the lowest investment grade on April ...

Bloomberg A South Korean bank is offering bonds to fund the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, joining issuers worldwide issuing such debt. Kookmin Bank is marketing five-year dollar notes whose proceeds will be used to support small and medium-sized firms and mom-and-pop businesses affected by the virus. Investor demand for debt to battle the coronavirus outbreak is expected to grow ...

Bloomberg Bad debt at Chinese banks climbed in the first quarter even as lenders deferred payments on and rolled over a combined 1.5 trillion yuan ($212 billion) in loans after the coronavirus outbreak brought the world’s second-largest economy to a standstill. After allowing banks to take a more lenient approach on how they classify bad debt, regulators in Beijing on ...

Bloomberg Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. plans to issue as many as 65 million shares in a move that will strengthen its capital buffers and reduce the stake held by its wealthy founder. The Mumbai-based lender didn’t provide details of the pricing of the new shares in its filing on Wednesday. However, under a regulatory formula, they should be priced around ...

Bloomberg The Land and Agricultural Development Bank of South Africa is in talks with lenders after missing a loan payment and triggering an event of default, leaving its government owner liable for about $302 million of guaranteed debt. The state-owned provider of finance to the farming sector is seeking a waiver after failing to pay what it owed under the ...

Bloomberg India’s central bank may be reducing its intervention in the currency markets as volumes improve and volatility eases. The Reserve Bank of India likely sold a net $1.8 billion in the two weeks ended April 10, according to estimates by Bloomberg Economics. That follows likely sales of $7.7 billion in the spot forex market last month, which made the ...

Bloomberg UniCredit SpA became the first big European bank to try to quantify the impact of the coronavirus, setting aside 900 million euros ($977 million) to cover potential loan losses stemming from the outbreak. Italy’s biggest bank said it will book the provisions for possible soured loans after estimating that the pandemic will cause a 13% contraction in the eurozone’s ...

Bloomberg European bank stocks are trading close their steepest-ever discount to US rivals and early signals show that first-quarter earnings may only reinforce the gap. The continent’s lenders, already in a tough spot before the coronavirus outbreak hit, are likely to detail more worrying news for their embattled investors. In Germany, Deutsche Bank AG may have seen credit trading weigh ...

Bloomberg Japanese lenders must brace for rising bad-loan costs and investment losses even as the financial system shows resilience to the coronavirus-fuelled economic slump, according to the central bank. If the downturn is prolonged, more companies at home at abroad could face solvency problems, raising credit costs, the Bank of Japan said on Tuesday in its semiannual Financial System Report. ...

Bloomberg Data on about 3,000 UniCredit SpA employees was put up for sale on cybercrime forums after a hacking attack. The data went on sale on April 19 and contained what the hacker said was information on UniCredit workers, including emails, phone numbers, encrypted passwords and names, Telsy, a unit of Telecom Italia SpA, wrote on its website. “The database ...