Banking

Bloomberg China lowered the cost it charges on short-term open-market operations for the first time since October 2015, a move aimed at shoring up confidence following a string of poor economic data. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) cut the interest rate on its seven-day reverse repurchase agreements to 2.5% from 2.55%. The authorities also added 180 billion yuan ($26 ...

Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc pointed to routine regulatory requirements to ensure client money is used for stated purposes after a report that the firm is shutting a corporate account that helped fund protest-related activities in Hong Kong — a politically sensitive issue. The bank took action after finding the account was being used inconsistently with its original paperwork, the Hong ...

Bloomberg The Thai baht’s reign as Asia’s best-performing currency is coming under threat from an unlikely source: South Korea’s won. The baht has slumped into the bottom half of the regional rankings this quarter after heading the table for three consecutive three-month periods. The won meanwhile has shrugged off its chronic underperformance and rocketed to the top. The main reason ...

Bloomberg A combination of easing trade tensions and easier monetary policy will lift global growth from the first quarter of 2020, according to economists at Morgan Stanley. Emerging markets will drive the recovery, given the late-cycle stage that US growth is in, they argue. “A 1Q20 recovery is on the cards,” the US bank’s economists led by Chetan Ahya wrote ...

Bloomberg UK lawmaker Peter Hain accused international banks including HSBC Holdings Plc and Standard Chartered Plc of aiding and abetting graft in South Africa during former President Jacob Zuma’s rule and earning considerable fees in the process. The lenders enabled members of the Gupta family, who were Zuma’s allies and in business with his son, to launder stolen funds and ...

Bloomberg Soon after taking over as India’s central bank governor almost a year ago, Shaktikanta Das decorated his 18th floor office overlooking the Arabian Sea with two statues of Lord Jagannath, a form of the Hindu god Vishnu. Revered in Das’s native Odisha state, Jagannath is depicted with round, lidless eyes that are always watching over the welfare of devotees. ...

Bloomberg China’s central bank said it will “increase counter-cyclical adjustment” to ward off downward pressure on the economy, while staying vigilant on the possibility of expectations that inflation may spread. The economy faces greater difficulties as investment growth slows and industrial production remains sluggish, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said in its third-quarter monetary policy report. The central bank ...

Bloomberg The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Democratic Republic of Congo agreed in principle to a new credit injection as the government faces slowing growth and declining foreign reserves. The IMF’s executive board is expected to consider the credit facility in mid-December, along with an IMF staff oversight programme that would last through May, the Washington, DC-based lender said in ...

Bloomberg KBC Group NV’s chief executive apologised for his criticism of an Irish mortgage overcharging investigation, after his comments drew a public rebuke from the country’s prime minister, Leo Varadkar. Lawmakers from across the political spectrum rounded on Johan Thijs after he urged the Irish central bank to “turn the page” on the “annoying” inquiry into how thousands of customers ...

Bloomberg Investigations into money laundering at Danske Bank A/S should be expanded to include the lender’s possible use of gold as a way to help clients in Estonia hide their fortunes, according to Danish lawmakers. “Danske Bank has some explaining to do,” Torsten Schack Pedersen, a Liberal Party member on the parliament committee that oversees financial legislation, said by phone. ...