Banking

Bloomberg The US central bank’s No. 2 official said it’s too early to determine whether the coronavirus outbreak in China will significantly affect the US economy, which remains in a “good place.” “It is a wild card,” said Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “We’re looking into how it translates into the outlook for ...

Bloomberg Bitcoin’s infrastructure is more centralized than ever before —raising alarms about the security and viability of what is championed as a decentralised network. Transactions on the Bitcoin network are processed by so-called miners — mostly companies operating vast arrays of computers. As competition increased, many smaller participants became unprofitable and dropped out, while the larger operations have entered into ...

Bloomberg Multilateral institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) need an urgent revamp in order to remain relevant, European Central Bank (ECB) policymaker Pablo Hernandez de Cos said. European Union officials, he said, are the best placed to undertake that rethink. “One of the biggest challenges confronting the WTO and, in general, the system of international institutions, is how ...

Bloomberg Italy’s crippling public debt is set to keep expanding amid chronically low economically growth, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said. Saddled with Europe’s largest debt burden, the country has benefited from the European Central Bank’s expansionary monetary policy and a period of relative political stability to bring down yields. But its interest costs are still higher than its economic ...

Bloomberg Concern at the Bank of Japan (BOJ) over the effectiveness of prolonged low interest rates appears to be growing, with one board member indicating that a policy review may be needed, a summary of views from the central bank’s January meeting signalled. The member said active discussions over policy are taking place in the US and in Europe given ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG said employee pay raises for 2020 won’t take effect until April 1, postponing increases that typically show up at the start of the year. “We will continue to compensate employees for their qualifications, experience and skills, commensurate with the requirements, size and scope of their role,” the company said. “The only thing that will change is ...

Bloomberg Former European Central Bank (ECB) president Mario Draghi will get Germany’s highest honor this week, though probably not its undying love. German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier will give the country’s Order of Merit to the Italian, whose ultra-loose stimulus, including quantitative easing and negative interest rates, embittered many citizens in the euro region’s biggest economy. Unlike his predecessors, Jean-Claude Trichet ...

Bloomberg The Philippine peso and Indonesia’s rupiah are Asian carry trades most insulated from the coronavirus outbreak, as the pandemic shows no sign of abating. That’s based on comparative performance before and after January 20, when concerns about the disease escalated with reports that human-to-human transmission was occurring. The top performers were the onshore yuan, rupiah and the offshore yuan, ...

Bloomberg The European Central Bank (ECB) said six out of 109 banks it evaluated last year had a level of financial strength below what it wants to see for 2020. “For those banks which have not taken satisfactory measures in the last quarter of 2019, remedial actions have been requested within a precise time line,” the ECB said in a ...

Bloomberg Kenya’s central bank joined its South African counterpart by unexpectedly cutting interest rates, citing well-anchored inflation expectations and an economy that’s operating below its potential. The monetary policy committee reduced its key rate to 8.25% from 8.5%, governor Patrick Njoroge said in an emailed statement. That’s the second consecutive cut and moves the rate to the lowest in more ...