Banking

Bloomberg Europe’s widening money laundering scandals took a new turn as ABN Amro Bank NV disclosed a criminal probe over alleged failures to check on clients and report suspicious transactions, a further sign of woe in an industry already struggling to grow profitability. Shares of the state-controlled bank slumped the most since its 2015 initial public offering and its bonds ...

Bloomberg The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) started an open-ended fund for central bank investments in green bonds, it said in a statement. The institution, which is often referred to as the central bankers’ central bank, said the fund comes in response to growing demand for climate-friendly investments. It should also help institutions incorporate sustainability objectives into the management of ...

Bloomberg Christine Lagarde didn’t immediately jump at the chance of succeeding Mario Draghi as president of the European Central Bank — but needed some convincing. That’s what the former chief of the International Monetary Fund revealed to Francine Lacqua in New York this week, in a Bloomberg Television interview that also offered insights into her likely management style, and even ...

Bloomberg Banco Santander SA will take a 1.5 billion-euro ($1.7 billion) charge over its UK business, which has struggled to boost profit amid stricter regulations and a competitive mortgage market. The impairment will be included in third-quarter results, the Spanish lender said. It won’t affect the bank’s cash flow or tier 1 capital ratio, a key measure of financial strength. ...

Bloomberg Ghana’s pension funds are safe from the crisis engulfing money managers caught in the aftermath of a banking-industry cleanup. “The only way some may have been affected is if they made fixed-term investments with some of the banks that were shut down,” Hayford Attah Krufi, chief executive officer of the National Pensions Regulatory Authority, said. “But, because the government ...

Bloomberg Central banks in the Philippines and Thailand will grapple with mounting global risks when they decide interest rates this week, keen to bolster their economies against slower growth. Thailand was expected to keep interest rates unchanged on Wednesday after a surprise reduction last month, while a day later the Philippines will probably lower its benchmark rate for a third ...

Bloomberg Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Godwin Emefiele said most of the country’s banks have obeyed a directive to raise loan-to-deposit ratio to 60 percent and those that fail to do so will face penalties by October 1. “Compliance level has been excellent,” Emefiele said in an interview with Bloomberg TV in London. “Not all the banks have complied, naturally. ...

Bloomberg Italy has proposed veteran central banker Fabio Panetta as its candidate to replace Benoit Coeure as one of the European Central Bank’s top policy makers, according to a government official familiar with the matter. The Italian finance ministry sent Panetta’s candidacy to Mario Centeno, who leads the group of euro-area finance chiefs that will decide who joins the ECB’s ...

Bloomberg Banks and other financial firms need to get creative to bring sustainable investments into the mainstream, said David Solomon, Goldman Sachs’s CEO. Conversations with clients about climate exposure have “amped up materially” over the last two years, but sustainable investments like green bonds are still “relatively niche,” Solomon said at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum in New York. Such ...

Bloomberg Indian authorities are scrambling to suppress speculation about bank closures a day after the regulator imposed restrictions on a local lender, the latest indication of how jittery savers are amid a slowing economy and scandals in the financial system. “Reports appearing in some sections of social media about RBI closing down certain commercial banks are false,” the Reserve Bank ...