Banking

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 ...

Bloomberg The UK’s coronavirus lockdown should trigger a recovery in the pound, which has fallen to its most undervalued ever against the dollar, according to Standard Chartered Plc. The government’s aggressive actions should enable a quick restoration of economic activity once the health situation improves, wrote strategists including Geoff Kendrick in a note. At the same time, the potential near-term ...

Bloomberg India’s central bank should directly start monetising the government’s fiscal deficit in efforts to fight one of its worst economic crisis, said Ananth Narayan, former South Asia head of financial markets at Standard Chartered Plc. “In a war, we have to borrow from our future,” said Narayan, now a professor at Mumbai-based SP Jain Institute of Management & Research. ...

Bloomberg Policy makers trying to prevent credit markets from freezing up have a huge challenge on their hands with regional banks. Such firms should be best positioned to keep money flowing to community businesses like restaurants, travel agencies and gyms on the brink of failure because of the coronavirus pandemic. But regional banks themselves are increasingly at risk, riven by ...

Bloomberg Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) is using the coronavirus pandemic to seize a large portfolio of assets at rock-bottom prices, a New York real estate investment trust (REIT) claims. In a suit in federal court in Manhattan, a subsidiary of AG Mortgage Investment Trust Inc. said it received March 23 margin calls from Canada’s largest lender. According to the ...

Bloomberg China set its daily reference rate for the yuan at a stronger-than-expected level, with the central bank perhaps signaling efforts to support the currency following recent weakness. The PBOC put the fixing at 7.0692 yuan per dollar, 105 basis points stronger than the average forecast of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The spread is the most since February 3, the ...

Bloomberg IndusInd Bank Ltd., backed by the billionaire Hinduja brothers, surged the most on record, as investors poured into the stock after its founders said they are repaying a loan backed by shares of the lender. The shares jumped as much as 50%, the sharpest since the bank’s stock started trading in 1998, to 451.95 rupees in Mumbai. The rally ...

Bloomberg As the shortage of dollars sweeps the globe, cracks are starting to show up in Asia’s emerging markets, despite the hefty foreign-reserve cushions built up over the years. The squeeze on US currency is putting pressure on emerging Asia debt. Southeast Asian and Indian government and corporate payments are set to jump 67% in 2022 to $41.9 billion, according ...

Bloomberg The amount of cash circulating in the euro area increased last week by the most since October 2008, in the latest sign that the coronavirus pandemic has sparked the biggest economic crunch at least since the global financial crisis. Cash jumped by almost 19 billion euros ($20 billion), according to European Central Bank data. The ECB’s total balance sheet ...