Banking

Bloomberg South African banks are being criticised by labour unions and small business owners for not doing enough to help struggling customers as the coronavirus lockdown looms. “The response is quite underwhelming,” said Matthew Parks, a parliamentary coordinator for the Congress of South African Trade Unions. “There are too many ifs and buts. It’s hitting too few people. It’s just ...

Bloomberg PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia has revived its plan to sell a stake in its life insurance arm, which is attracting interest from suitors in a deal that could fetch about $500 million, according to people familiar with the matter. FWD Group Ltd., backed by Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li, and BNP Paribas Cardif SA are among potential bidders for ...

Bloomberg Jamal Al Kishi, Deutsche Bank AG’s chief executive officer (CEO) for the Middle East and Africa, has quit to join Bahrain-based Gulf International Bank (GIB). Al Kishi, who had been with the German lender since 2007, will become CEO of GIB’s parent company and deputy group CEO, the bank said in a statement. Headquartered in Bahrain, GIB is almost ...

Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc warned it still expects to book higher credit losses on the back of the coronavirus pandemic, even after regulators gave it more leeway to deal with unpaid loans. Europe’s largest bank also put its job-cutting programme on hold. In an update to investors contained in the prospectus for its latest debt sale, disclosed in a US ...

Bloomberg The African Development Bank (AfDB) said it issued the world’s biggest social bond yet by selling $3 billion of notes to fight the impact of the coronavirus on the continent. Africa’s biggest multilateral lender received $4.6 billion in bids for its Fight Covid-19 social bond, it said in a statement. More than half of bids for the three-year bond, ...

Bloomberg Bank of America Corp. (BofA) said it won’t cut any jobs this year as a result of the coronavirus, and is helping clients affected by the pandemic through increased commercial lending to companies and expanded forbearance for Main Street customers. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender has hired 2,000 people this month and is shifting more than 3,000 employees to ...

Bloomberg Morgan Stanley won US antitrust approval for its $13 billion acquisition of discount brokerage E*Trade Financial Corp., according to a person familiar with the matter. The Justice Department’s antitrust division has signed off on the takeover without requiring any changes, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the decision hasn’t been made public. A Morgan Stanley ...

Bloomberg The Bank of Canada announced a large scale asset purchase program and cut its benchmark interest rate to a record low in a bid to ease financial-market strain and shield the nation’s economy from coronavirus fallout. The central bank lowered its policy rate last week by another half a percentage point to 0.25%, adding in a statement that the ...

Bloomberg Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) cut its prime rate by 50 basis points (bps), matching Bank of Canada’s latest emergency rate cut. Canada’s largest lender by assets reduced the key rate to 2.45% from 2.95%, the Toronto-based bank said in a statement. Canada’s central bank unexpectedly cut its overnight lending rate by another half a percentage point to 0.25% ...

Bloomberg The European Central Bank (ECB) will scrap limits on bond purchases for its 750 billion-euro ($819 billion) emergency program in a landmark decision that gives it almost unlimited firepower to fight the economic fallout from the coronavirus (Covid-19). Government bonds rallied across the euro area after the ECB released a legal document that said the so-called issue limits, which ...