Banking

Bloomberg Bank of England (BOE) policy makers considering whether the UK needs further stimulus will get a deluge of data in the coming week. The economy is back under the microscope after outgoing Governor Mark Carney last week said officials are debating the merits of action and have plenty of room to act if necessary. A day later, Silvana Tenreyro ...

Bloomberg China’s fiscal stimulus is shifting back to a focus on infrastructure investment, away from the approach of cutting taxes for businesses the government favored in previous years, according to economists at JPMorgan Chase & Co. “We expect no major further tax cuts in 2020, though the effect of tax cuts will linger into this year,” JPMorgan economists including Zhu ...

Bloomberg Jerome Powell was an early adopter of the view that US unemployment could fall further than thought, but back then didn’t parlay that insight into a more dovish stance on interest rates. Transcripts of Fed meetings in 2014 showed then-governor and now-Chairman Powell was already among the most optimistic Fed officials about how many Americans could be drawn back ...

Bloomberg Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce hired former Conservative Party lawmaker Lisa Raitt as a vice-chair for global investment banking. Raitt joins CIBC on January 27 and will focus on developing and fostering senior-level client relationships and business development globally for CIBC’s capital markets division, the Toronto-based bank said in a statement. She’ll be based in Toronto. “Lisa’s experience leading ...

Bloomberg The World Bank cut its forecast for Ethiopia’s economic growth in the 2020 fiscal year to 6.3%, well below the government’s projection. The National Bank of Ethiopia has forecast that gross domestic product growth would accelerate to 10.8% for the fiscal year ending in July, up from a 9% pace in fiscal 2019 as the government implements a blueprint ...

Bloomberg American Express Co cleared a key hurdle in its bid to accessing China’s $27 trillion payments market after the central bank accepted its application to start a bank card clearing business. The People Bank of China made the announcement on its official Wechat account, without giving more details. The decision to accept the application signals that it’s moving closer ...

Bloomberg The popular Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card is about to get more expensive. JPMorgan Chase & Co is boosting the annual fee for customers to $550 from $450 as it adds new perks with partners such as DoorDash and Lyft Inc, according to bank spokeswoman Ashley Dodd. For new cardholders, the increased annual fee will go into effect on ...

Bloomberg South Africa’s ruling African National Congress reaffirmed the central bank’s role, mandate and independence in an annual policy statement. The assurance may allay fears of renewed attacks by some ANC leaders on the South African Reserve Bank in the run-up to the party’s national general council later this year. The gathering will mark the mid-point of the current ANC ...

Bloomberg Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell likened the potential fallout surrounding the central bank’s interest-rate forecasts to a nuclear meltdown in what even he admitted was a stretched metaphor back in 2014. “The market doesn’t really understand how the SEP works and how it gets put together,” the then-Fed governor said in March 2014, referring to the central bank’s quarterly ...

Bloomberg South Korea’s biggest arranger of offshore bond sales expects another busy year in 2020 due to a big wall of maturing debt and foreign investor demand at a time of rising uncertainties elsewhere. Korean issuers sold $33.3 billion of notes abroad last year, only slightly below the six-year high marked in 2018, Bloomberg-compiled data show. Issuance in 2020 will ...