Banking

Bloomberg Former Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke delivered what he called “a relatively upbeat” assessment of the US central bank’s ability to fight the next recession. While the Fed has limited room to cut short-term interest rates because they’re already so low, Bernanke argued that quantitative easing and forward guidance could provide enough extra punch to combat a future economic ...

Bloomberg Emerging Asia’s top-performing currency in 2019 may find itself dethroned this year by a rival that’s also armed with a strong current-account surplus. Both the Thai baht, which took the regional crown with a 9% gain last year versus the US dollar, and the Taiwanese dollar climbed above the psychologically significant 30-per-dollar level this week. Scotiabank, among the top ...

Bloomberg Argentina’s “strict” foreign-exchange regulations will remain in force as the government seeks to stabilise the economy, the Pagina/12 newspaper reported, citing Production Minister Matias Kulfas. Lawmakers last month handed President Alberto Fernandez extraordinary powers to renegotiate debt terms with creditors and increase taxes, marking a victory on his first legislation since taking office last month. “In the current context, ...

Bloomberg Two more consortiums said they submitted bids for digital banking licenses in Singapore as companies, ranging from a massage chair maker to a property giant and Chinese fintech firms, joined forces to go for the sought-after permits. Beyond Consortium, led by one of Asia’s largest massage chair makers, V3 Group Ltd and stored-value card company EZ-Link Pte, submitted a ...

Bloomberg China’s central bank pledged more financial support for small and micro businesses while saying it plans to stick to a prudent monetary policy stance this year. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) will improve the incentive mechanism for lending to such companies, it said in a statement following a two-day work conference in Beijing. Authorities will make it easier ...

Bloomberg There’s no end of theories on all the ways in which negative interest rates are hurting economies. But in Denmark, where the policy has existed longer than anywhere else, one fear seems to have been put to rest. The central bank in Copenhagen, which uses negative rates to keep the krone pegged to the euro, says its research shows ...

Bloomberg Federal Reserve officials downplayed concerns about the impact of geopolitical uncertainty on the US economy amid flaring tensions with Iran, even as a record of the central bank’s meeting last month showed that downside risks remain on their minds. “That’s one of the great things about the US economy, is it does have this resiliency to it,” Cleveland Fed ...

Bloomberg China should consider letting commercial banks foray into securities business, according to Bank of Communications Co Chief Economist Lian Ping. Lenders should be enabled to establish new securities firms or be allowed to acquire or merge with brokers, the official Shanghai Securities News reported, citing Lian’s speech at a forum in the city on Saturday. The capital of commercial ...

Bloomberg Danske Bank A/S probably will be fined around 13.5 billion kroner ($2 billion) this year by authorities in Denmark, the US and the UK as investigations into Europe’s biggest money laundering scandal draw to a close, according to estimates by Jyske Bank. Danske has admitted that a large part of 200 billion euros ($223 billion) in transactions at an ...

Bloomberg Venezuela’s international reserves fell $832 million between December 30 and January 2, reaching a thirty-year low of $6.63 billion on January 2. The country began the week with reserves of $7.47 billion on December 30, according to central bank data. The level of $6.63 billion is the lowest since July 1989, when reserves were at $6.68 billion. “The fall ...