Banking

Bloomberg The credit ratings of South Africa’s five largest banks were downgraded deeper into junk by Fitch Ratings, which cited a deteriorating operating environment following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. The ratings were reduced by one notch to BB, two steps below investment grade and one notch lower than that of South Africa, Fitch said in a statement late ...

Bloomberg A group of sixteen banks will have to provide $23 billion of loans to T-Mobile US Inc. in order to allow the mobile carrier to close its planned acquisition of Sprint Corp., after the Covid-19 outbreak disrupted plans to sell the debt to third-party investors. The banks were formally notified that they will need to make the funds available ...

Bloomberg Pakistan’s central bank is said to have intervened to stop a plunge in the rupee, the worst performer in Asia this week. The South Asian nation’s currency fell to a record low 168 to a dollar in intraday trading as per traders before closing at 165.54, data posted on the website of the State Bank of Pakistan showed. The ...

Bloomberg As central banks around the world reignite quantitative easing programs or adopt them for the first time, Japan’s key focus of controlling bond yields rather than a quota of purchases is being explored. When the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) broke the emergency glass on March 19, it set a target for the yield on three-year Australian government bonds ...

Bloomberg UniCredit SpA suspended a dividend payment and a share buyback in a setback to Chief Executive Officer Jean Pierre Mustier’s plan to improve shareholder rewards. The decision comes after the European Central Bank recommended that lenders restrict payouts until at least October as the coronavirus pandemic wreaks havoc on markets. Its previous call for banks to be prudent on ...

Bloomberg The Reserve Bank of India (EBI) delivered an emergency rate cut and pledged $50 billion of liquidity infusion. Now traders want it to join other central banks in unleashing a massive-bond buying program. Deutsche Bank AG and Barclays Plc are among those who see the RBI taking the next step of buying debt from the market, or the government, ...

Bloomberg Barclays said it plans to cut its net greenhouse gas emissions to zero over the next 30 years and only provide finance to projects that align with the temperature reduction goals of the Paris climate accord. The London-based bank will put the proposal to go “net zero” by 2050 to shareholders for a vote at its annual general meeting ...

Bloomberg Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. were granted approvals to take control of their securities joint ventures in China as policy makers push ahead with the opening of the nation’s $45 trillion finance industry even as they fight to contain the coronavirus outbreak. Morgan Stanley plans to boost its stake to 51% from 49% with the approval from ...

Bloomberg The Bank of Korea (BOK) will provide $12 billion to banks in its first round of dollar injections using a currency swap line with the Federal Reserve. The auction will be held on Tuesday at 10 am Seoul time, and banks may apply for seven-days debt of up to $300 million, and 84-days debt of up to $1.5 billion, ...

Bloomberg The two-decade run of record profits at China’s biggest banks, which even survived the financial crisis, is facing its biggest test. Banks such as Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., the world’s largest by assets, are caught in a vise as their operations are hammered by the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus. At the same time, they are ...