Banking

Citi to set up wholly-owned securities business in China

Bloomberg Citigroup Inc, which is dissolving its investment-banking joint venture in China, is now planning to set up a wholly- owned securities business in the world’s second-largest capital market, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The New York-based bank may initially focus on brokerage and futures trading while expanding its custodian services in China, the people said, asking ...

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JPMorgan posts surprise increase in banking fees

Bloomberg JPMorgan Chase & Co’s traders and investment bankers emerged from a messy third quarter with a few surprise wins. Fixed-income trading jumped 25% and investment-banking fees posted an unexpected increase, the company said on Tuesday in a statement. That led the corporate and investment bank division to its best third quarter in three years. JPMorgan seized on some late-quarter ...

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Bank of Korea expected to cut rates

Bloomberg South Korea’s first-ever drop in consumer prices and a relentless decline in exports are adding to the case for the central bank to cut interest rates on Wednesday. The Bank of Korea (BOK), which lowered its key rate in July and left it unchanged in August, will reduce the seven-day repurchase rate by 25 basis points to 1.25%, matching ...

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BOE’s Carney defends Facebook’s Libra concept

Bloomberg Bank of England (BOE) Governor Mark Carney has defended the concept behind new crypto currencies like the Facebook Inc-led Libra. Asked by lawmakers in London on Tuesday why firms like the social media company should be getting involved in such projects given the associated risks, Carney pointed to the shortcomings of existing payments systems. He said the high costs ...

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Wirecard drops on ‘accounting misdeeds’ report

Bloomberg Wirecard AG fell the most since February in Frankfurt after a news report said it found repeated questionable accounting practices at the German payments firm. Wirecard fell as much as 23% in early trading after the Financial Times said it’s published internal company documents and correspondence that “appear to indicate a concerted effort to fraudulently inflate sales and profits” ...

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Paytm nears SoftBank, Ant fundraising at $16bn valuation

Bloomberg Paytm is close to scoring $2 billion of new financing from investors including Jack Ma’s Ant Financial and SoftBank Group Corp, a person familiar with the matter said, describing a mega-deal that will raise the temperature in India’s increasingly heated financial payments arena. Rob Citrone’s Discovery Capital Management is also in discussions to join a funding round that values ...

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Singapore central bank hints more easing amid growth risks

Bloomberg Singapore’s central bank signaled it’s ready to adjust monetary policy further after easing on Monday for the first time since 2016 as risks to the economic growth outlook persist. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), which uses the exchange rate as its main policy tool, reduced “slightly the rate of appreciation” of the currency band and said it’s prepared ...

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Low rates may risk more severe downturns:BOE

Bloomberg A prolonged period of low interest rates risks making economic downturns more severe, according to Bank of England (BOE) deputy governor Jon Cunliffe. Speaking in London, Cunliffe said the drop in long-term market rates in developed economies partly reflected an over-pessimism about long-term prospects, and was also part of a structural trend. One “challenge of low for longer for ...

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India’s HDFC surrounded by lending crisis

Bloomberg All around HDFC Bank Ltd, India’s biggest lender by market value, the news seems to be bad and getting worse: economic growth is slowing, loan losses are rising and shadow banks are mired in crisis. And yet investors keep piling into HDFC Bank’s stock, convinced it will emerge a winner from India’s financial woes. The company’s market value has ...

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Kenya plans to borrow $4.1b from external banks

Bloomberg Kenya plans to borrow 422 billion shillings ($4.1 billion) from external lenders after lawmakers approved the government’s proposal to increase its debt limit. The government of the East African nation is negotiating or about to sign 44 loan agreements with 15 lenders including the African Development Bank, China, Japan and the World Bank, parliament documents show. The lawmakers approved ...

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