Bloomberg A bond fund manager who correctly predicted that India’s central bank would introduce a US Federal Reserve style Operation Twist, now says that the nation needs more foreign capital to fund its record borrowing. India’s borrowing may rise to 7.6 trillion rupees ($107 billion) for the fiscal year starting from April 1, according to Suyash Choudhary, head of fixed ...
Read More »Banking
ECB’s newest stimulus for Germany is love bombing by chief
Bloomberg Ever since she moved to Frankfurt as European Central Bank (ECB) president three months ago, Christine Lagarde has been working hard to charm the locals. The institution’s new chief has sought to turn a new leaf with Germany after years of cooler relations under her predecessor, Mario Draghi. His stimulus policies, including negative interest rates that erased returns on ...
Read More »Zimbabwe takes action on firm for illicit FX activity
Bloomberg The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has frozen the bank account of a Chinese company that the central bank alleges has been manipulating the foreign exchange market. The bank escalated the matter to the Financial Intelligence Unit for investigation and it has so far identified one company — China Nanchang — “which has used its bank account to inject millions ...
Read More »Lagarde warns markets not to assume policy on autopilot
Bloomberg European Central Bank (ECB) president Christine Lagarde warned investors not to assume that current monetary policy is locked in for the foreseeable future just because officials are focused on reviewing their strategy. “To those who think it’s on autopilot, that’s ridiculous,†she said in a Bloomberg Television interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “Let’s look at ...
Read More »AmEx gets reprieve after JPMorgan hikes Sapphire Reserve fee
Bloomberg American Express Co has high hopes for 2020, predicting earnings that surpassed many analysts’ expectations and prospects for “more rational†competition from its biggest rivals. After sweetening the bonuses on some of its most popular products, including the Green card, AmEx said overall rewards costs climbed 8% to $2.72 billion during the fourth quarter. That was less than the ...
Read More »Nigeria tightens screws on banks
Bloomberg Nigeria turned the screws even tighter on lenders by increasing the amount of money they need to park with the central bank for the first time in almost four years in an effort to tame inflation. The West African nation’s central bank raised the cash-reserve requirement for lenders to 27.5% of total deposits, from 22.5%, to curtail excess liquidity ...
Read More »Deutsche Bank buys more debt of Altico
Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG and a Singapore based hedge fund bought more debt of an embattled Indian shadow lender, highlighting the growing foreign interest in the discounted assets of the financier at the center of a credit crisis. Deutsche Bank has almost doubled the debt it holds of Altico Capital India Ltd to 3 billion rupees ($42.1 million) in the ...
Read More »Davos digital-payments rift pits FB against central banks
Bloomberg A rift among the global elite over the future of digital payments was on display during a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. At stake is the potential overhaul of the global financial system that could see companies like Facebook Inc pitted against the world’s central banks in the race to develop a ...
Read More »Swiss bank ex-CEO sanctioned for insider trading
Bloomberg A Swiss bank’s former chief executive officer has been sanctioned by the country’s financial regulator for insider trading in his wife’s name and what Finma called other “serious breaches of supervisory law.†The man executed the trades using his wife’s account at other lenders for several years, violating his bank’s internal directives, Finma said. The identities of the bank ...
Read More »Central banks unite to study case for digital currencies
Bloomberg Some of the world’s major central banks are teaming up to assess potentially developing their own digital currencies, acknowledging that their role is being challenged by new technologies and private sector initiatives such as Facebook Inc’s Libra. A group has been formed in order to “share experience as they assess the potential cases for central bank digital currency (CBDC) ...
Read More »