Banking

Bloomberg South African banks are concerned that some of their customers will get away with not having to repay their debt. President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the National Credit Amendment Bill into law, setting the groundwork for over-indebted consumers to have payments suspended, in part or full, for as many as 24 months, or even scrapped if their financial situation has ...

Bloomberg Bank of America Corp., (BofA) the biggest underwriter of state and local government debt, isn’t worried that municipal-bond yields will turn negative, even if they do in other parts of the US fixed-income markets. Bond yields have been plunging fast, making it seem possible that American investors could actually wind up paying governments to lend them money — as ...

Bloomberg China’s central bank said it’ll start releasing a new reference rate for bank loans, a further step in a long-awaited reform to interest rates that’s set to bring lower borrowing costs to the economy. The People’s Bank of China will announce the new loan prime rate, (LPR), at 9:30 am on the 20th of every month, starting this month, ...

Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group Inc. slashed growth forecasts for the “Asian Tigers” as their exposure to the world economy — once one of their greatest strengths — is now backfiring as global growth slows amid trade tensions. “Besides their own domestic reforms, they all benefited enormously from the broader context of globalisation and the rapid economic development of the Asia-Pacific ...

Bloomberg A 151-year-old Swiss bank is among the first wave of smaller lenders deploying robots for basic tasks to drive down costs and is considering expanding its use of the technology. After a successful test run, St. Galler Kantonalbank AG decided to employ three bots for jobs such as compiling information and using it to fill out forms. The company ...

Bloomberg Banks across the globe have announced more than 48,500 job cuts this year as the outlook for the economy weakens. Nowhere was that more pronounced than in Europe, where lenders are bracing for a continuation of the negative interest rates that have eaten into their profits for the past five years. Germany’s troubled Deutsche Bank AG tops the list ...

Bloomberg Norway’s central bank is growing increasingly uncertain about raising interest rates next month as global risks mount and monetary policy makers around the world unleash more stimulus. Norges Bank left its key rate unchanged at 1.25%, as anticipated, and said its June rate outlook, which indicated a rate increase next month, was “little changed” even as it highlighted global ...

Bloomberg One month into Deutsche Bank AG’s boldest restructuring effort yet, the world has turned against Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing. Or at least, Germany has. Fears of an economic recession and the specter of even lower interest rates have taken a toll on banks across Europe. But for Sewing, who just pinned his bank’s future on closer ties with ...

Bloomberg China’s central bank will likely roll over maturing debt to ease liquidity in the financial system as the economy slows amid the trade dispute with the US. The People’s Bank of China is expected to roll over 383 billion yuan ($55 billion) of medium-term lending facility loans due to mature on Thursday, analysts said, after July industrial output growth ...

Bloomberg The European Central Bank (ECB) blasted banks for slow-walking their Brexit preparations, telling them they must move additional staff and resources to the European Union in case Britain leaves without a deal on October 31. The central bank said that firms have transferred “significantly fewer activities, critical functions and staff” to their EU operations than originally foreseen as part ...