Banking

Bloomberg China’s currency is showing strength against peers, despite the country being most affected by the novel coronavirus epidemic. The yuan is approaching its strongest level since August versus a basket of 24 exchange rates, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Most Asian peers have slumped against the currency in the past five trading days, with the Korean won and ...

Bloomberg Metro Bank Plc plans to cut costs and sell assets to help the struggling lender recover from an accounting scandal that led to heavy losses and the resignation of the firm’s previous boss. The bank reported a pretax loss of 130.8 million pounds ($170 million) for the year after it scrapped technology projects and unveiled plans to move back-office ...

Bloomberg Citigroup Inc is shuffling the bankers overseeing two of its largest investment banking units as the firm seeks to boost revenue from advising and providing financing to corporations. The lender promoted Stefan Wintels, the head of its German unit, and Christian Anderson, who helps oversee the global asset manager group, to run its global financial institutions business. The firm ...

Bloomberg Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester said the worsening coronavirus outbreak represents a threat to the US economy, but not one that yet justifies any change in monetary policy. “At this point, it is difficult to assess the magnitude of the economic effects,” Mester said in the text of remarks she was scheduled to deliver in Washington. ...

Bloomberg European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde kicked off a public consultation on her strategy review with the first direct video address by the institution’s chief to euro-area citizens. Adopting a communication technique untested by her predecessors, the Frenchwoman spoke to camera to invite views on monetary policy in a broadcast on Twitter released in tandem with a press ...

Bloomberg Most of the Brexit uncertainty that has been overshadowing the UK economy has lifted, although it’s too early to say business investment is fully returning, according to Bank of England (BOE) Chief Economist Andy Haldane. A “big chunk, if not all” of the uncertainty has dissipated, Haldane said in answer to questions following a speech at Bloomberg’s European headquarters ...

Bloomberg State Bank of Vietnam orders commercial lenders to exempt, reduce or delay interest payments due January 23 to March 31 on loans to businesses facing losses from the novel coronavirus epidemic, according to a statement. The move comes as the nation’s fast-growing economy is at risk of slowing to below 6% for the first time in six years as ...

Bloomberg Mastercard Inc lowered its three-week-old forecast for quarterly revenue growth as the spreading coronavirus curbs international travel and even takes a bite out of e-commerce, a business executives had hoped would be immune. The credit-card network said it’s knocking 2 to 3 percentage points off the prediction it made on an earnings conference on call on January 29. That ...

Bloomberg Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said the monetary policy authority will be “well-prepared” to act when needed to address the impact of the coronovirus on the economy. “We will monitor the impact of the coronavirus on the economy, inflation and financial markets with maximum attention,” Kuroda told reporters in Riyadh, where he was attending a Group of ...

Bloomberg European Central Bank (ECB) policy makers from two of the euro area’s biggest economies said governments must shoulder most of the burden for rebooting economies if the coronavirus has a deeper impact on growth. France’s Francois Villeroy de Galhau and Italy’s Ignazio Visco were speaking at the Group of 20 meeting of central bankers and finance ministers in Riyadh, ...