Banking

Bloomberg Continuing low interest rates could dent US bank profits and push bankers into riskier behaviour that might threaten the nation’s financial stability, the Federal Reserve said in a report. The latest version of the twice-yearly report, meant to flag stability threats on the Fed’s radar, highlighted the rate squeeze facing banks and insurers, noting that it could erode lending ...

Bloomberg Singapore’s regulator fined UBS Group AG S$11.2 million ($8.2 million) for misconduct by its advisers that included overcharging clients for trades. UBS’s advisers engaged in acts that deceived or were likely to deceive clients about the spreads and prices on bond and structured product transactions, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said. “The conduct of UBS through its representatives ...

Bloomberg A headwind for the global equity rally is showing signs of reversing, and that could give a further boost to stocks, according to Citigroup Inc. Investors have sold a net $230 billion in shares this year amid a 20% rise in a gauge of global stocks, strategists including Robert Buckland wrote in a note. That has only happened twice ...

Bloomberg India’s central bank chief Shaktikanta Das called for stronger corporate governance at state-run lenders to make the country’s banking sector more efficient. Describing the lack of strict governance as the “elephant in the room,” Das said this had led to elevated levels of non-performing assets (NPA), capital shortfalls, fraud and inadequate risk management. “The role of independent boards in ...

Bloomberg Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann painted a positive picture of Germany’s economic prospects, arguing that growth momentum will pick up in the medium term while highlighting the need for structural investment. Europe’s largest economy is operating close to full capacity, with some sectors such as construction showing signs of overheating, Weidmann told an audience of young people in Frankfurt. He ...

Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group Inc agreed to pay $20 million to settle an investor lawsuit accusing traders at the bank, along with 15 other financial institutions, of rigging prices for bonds issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. As part of the settlement, disclosed in a court filing, Goldman Sachs will cooperate with investors in their case against the other ...

Bloomberg Ron Sim, founder of one of Asia’s largest massage chair makers, is in talks to partner with a unit of Temasek Holdings Pte and other firms to bid for one of Singapore’s new virtual banking licenses, according to people familiar with the matter. V3 Group Ltd, Sim’s Singapore-based firm, is discussing forming a consortium with Temasek’s Heliconia Capital Management ...

Bloomberg France added to the growing chorus of lawmakers and executives seeing consolidation as an avenue to revive Europe’s ailing banks, ahead of a key meeting that may jumpstart a plan to create a single market for the industry. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, speaking in an interview in Paris, said mergers to create “critical-size, global actors” in European finance would ...

Bloomberg The world’s biggest banks pressed policy makers to pass an urgent Brexit fix to ensure European traders’ access to London derivatives clearinghouses and avoid rupturing 61 trillion pounds ($78 trillion) in contracts. The industry’s top lobbying associations told the European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, that it must act fast or risk turmoil when the stopgap solution elapses ...

Bloomberg New Zealand’s central bank (RBNZ ) left interest rates unchanged — defying widespread expectations of a cut — saying there are signs the domestic economy will stop slowing and that inflation will pick up. The local currency jumped. “Economic developments since the August Statement do not warrant a change to the already stimulatory monetary setting at this time,” the ...