Banking

Bloomberg The Philippine central bank is infusing more funds into the economy, slashing big lenders’ reserve requirement ratio (RRR) by 2 percentage points and flagging more cuts to come. “The reduction is intended to calm the financial markets and encourage banks to continue lending to both the retail and corporate sectors,” Governor Benjamin Diokno said in a mobile phone message ...

Bloomberg Citigroup Inc. will award special bonuses to employees under certain income thresholds as it seeks to stem the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic. In the US, employees who make $60,000 or less a year in base salary will receive a $1,000 payment, Chief Executive Officer Michael Corbat told employees in a memo. For workers based outside the US, ...

Bloomberg The good times for Europe’s bedraggled investment banks came and went in a matter of weeks. Heightened volatility and market turmoil on the back of the coronavirus led to record trading volumes for investment banks in the first quarter, especially in rates, equities and currencies, Citigroup Inc. analysts led by Andrew Coombs wrote in a note to clients. However, ...

Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co. is joining peers in awarding extra payments to employees as the bank deals with the coronavirus pandemic. Payments go to workers who earn base compensation of less than $100,000 and were employed by Wells Fargo for all of 2019, the San Francisco-based lender said in a statement. Eligible full-time employees will get $600 before taxes ...

Bloomberg An investigation paid for by Swedbank AB into allegations of financial crime found that client transactions totaling 36.7 billion euros ($40 billion) represented a “high risk” of money laundering. “It’s obvious that there have been cultures in the bank that are not acceptable,” Swedbank CEO Jens Henriksson said in a statement on Monday. A review has been launched to ...

Bloomberg Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau said Europe’s rescue fund should be activated to lend to states struggling with the coronavirus outbreak, a move that could pave the way for further sovereign bond purchases by the European Central Bank. Villeroy’s call comes as euro-area officials consider a plan that would see the European Stability Mechanism set up ...

Bloomberg The Bank of Thailand is seeking to backstop market stability after a jump in bond yields stoked concerns that stresses are building up. The monetary authority pledged to ensure sufficient liquidity for markets to function well as it unveiled an emergency interest-rate cut to counter the economic shock of the coronavirus outbreak. Governor Veerathai Santiprabhob and other key guardians ...

Bloomberg New Zealand’s central bank has taken the historic leap to quantitative easing to try to limit a looming recession as the negative economic impacts of the coronavirus outbreak intensify. The Reserve Bank will buy up to NZ$30 billion ($17 billion) of government bonds in the secondary market over the next 12 months, it said in a statement on Monday. ...

Bloomberg Central banks started the new week right where they left off on Friday — massively buying government debt to provide liquidity. Bond yields tumbled in Australia and New Zealand. The Reserve Bank of Australia and the Bank of Japan offered to buy the equivalent of almost $10 billion in debt on Monday. While credit markets globally are seeing the ...

Bloomberg The Swiss National Bank (SNB) is stepping up currency interventions to stem the franc’s advance, choosing that measure over an interest-rate cut to combat the economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak. It said the virus poses “exceptionally large challenges” and that the currency is “even more highly valued.” That change to its wording on the franc is a warning ...