Banking

Bloomberg When Christine Lagarde conducts a rethink of the European Central Bank’s policies and tools during her impending presidency, her new Austrian colleague will be keen to contribute. “I look forward to the strategic review,” Robert Holzmann, the governor of the Austrian central bank who began his role this month, said in an interview in Helsinki. “I’m a fan of ...

Bloomberg Japan’s long-suffering savers have put up with virtually zero interest for years, but at least their bank accounts have remained free. That may change as speculation for further monetary stimulus mounts. Lenders could begin imposing maintenance fees for retail deposit account holders if the Bank of Japan deepens negative interest rates from minus 0.1 percent, according to JPMorgan Chase ...

Bloomberg Another shadow financier in India has defaulted on a debt repayment, signaling the nation’s yearlong credit crisis is far from abating. Altico Capital India Ltd, a non-banking finance company that focusses on lending to the real-estate sector, didn’t pay 199.7 million rupees ($2.8 million) of interest on borrowings from Dubai-based Mashreqbank PSC, Altico said in an exchange filing. The ...

Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group Inc is throwing everything but the kitchen sink at boosting its share of the $4 trillion US market for exchange-traded funds — even mimicking one of its Wall Street foes. The bank is adopting an approach pioneered by JPMorgan Chase & Co, filing for a line of broad-based index products that could start trading at rock-bottom ...

Bloomberg Vietnam’s central bank cut interest rates for the first time in more than two years to bolster the economy amid rising global risks. The benchmark refinance rate will be lowered to 6 percent from 6.25 percent from September 16, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) said on its website. The discount rate and overnight lending rate in the inter-bank market ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG will benefit the most by far from the European Central Bank’s new tiered deposit rate, JPMorgan Chase & Co analysts led by Kian Abouhossein said. Germany’s largest lender stands to save roughly 200 million euros ($222 million) in annual interest payments thanks to a new rule that exempts a big chunk of the money it holds ...

Bloomberg A further cut to negative Swiss interest rates could have the undesired effect of strengthening the franc as foreign investors pile into the country’s outperforming stock market to reap superior returns over bonds, former Swiss National Bank Chief Economist Kurt Schiltknecht wrote in daily Neue Zuercher Zeitung. “These investment opportunities don’t go unnoticed by foreign investors and often result ...

Bloomberg Singapore’s Hong Leong Finance Ltd sees the country’s plan to issue virtual banking licenses as an opportunity to find new customers and re-invent itself as a tech-savvy lender to the nation’s new businesses. The firm, founded in 1961, has been in talks with financial-technology companies about a joint application for one of the licenses, according to President Ang Tang ...

Bloomberg Nordea Bank Abp’s activist investor Cevian Capital wants management to conduct an in-depth review of its wholesale banking activities after years of underperformance. Christer Gardell, managing partner at Stockholm-based Cevian, said that “it’s obvious that the segment is not performing,” in emailed comments to Bloomberg. That’s why Cevian thinks Nordea needs to do “a thorough review of the size ...

Bloomberg The Indian lender that’s been most hurt by a yearlong shadow banking crisis in the nation is getting a reprieve after a local media report that it’s in early talks to sell a stake to an Alibaba Group Holding Ltd-backed company. Shares of Yes Bank jumped as much as 8.5 percent on Wednesday. While the lender is the worst ...