Banking

Bloomberg Complex instruments used by hedge funds to bet on borrowers going bust and linked to “extremely immoral actions” by the Vatican, can actually improve the health of financial markets, according to Bank of England staff. Bonds insured by credit-default swaps are likely to trade more frequently than securities not covered by these derivatives, according to research by Robert Czech ...

Bloomberg JPMorgan Chase & Co. plans to host a conference call on Tuesday to help clients make sense of markets after a week of wild swings for stocks and bonds. “In the wake of a rather violent decline in yields, inversion of the curve, and volatility in equity markets, we consider the role of poor liquidity and systematic flows in ...

Bloomberg Euro-area inflation was weaker than initially reported in July, raising pressure on European Central Bank (ECB) policy makers to consider more stimulus in September. Eurostat revised its July estimate for consumer price growth to 1%, down from a reading of 1.1% reported on July 31. It’s the second consecutive revision to inflation data. The report adds to negative data ...

Bloomberg India’s central bank Governor Shaktikanta Das said reviving economic growth remains his top priority and urged bankers to pass on past interest rate cuts to borrowers at a faster pace. The six-member monetary policy committee is giving growth the “highest priority,” Das said at a banking conference on Monday in Mumbai. Policy makers, financial sector representatives and bankers were ...

Bloomberg State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest lender, expects credit growth to slow in the financial year started April 1 because demand remains subdued, Chairman Rajnish Kumar said. Credit growth in the current financial year will be between 12% and 14%, compared with about 14% in the previous 12 months, he told the media in Kolkata. The financial ...

Bloomberg Swiss National Bank (SNB) data suggest it pumped 3.8 billion francs ($3.9 billion) into markets last week to control the franc, sending its sight deposits to a record high. With the franc at its strongest since 2017 against the euro, sight deposits at the SNB have increased over the past month, suggesting the central bank is making good on ...

Bloomberg China took a major step towards reforming its system of interest rates, in a move aimed at pushing down the cost of borrowing by households and companies as the economic growth slows. From August 20, new loans must be priced “mainly” with reference to a revamped benchmark that tracks the price of credit to banks’ best customers, the so-called ...

Bloomberg Indonesia’s rupiah has braved headwinds both at home and abroad to escape largely unscathed in the recent emerging-market (EM) sell-off, and the nation’s central bank is largely to thank for that. Bank Indonesia’s repeated interventions to maintain currency stability have helped soothe investor nerves, with the rupiah’s 0.8% loss this quarter making for the second-best performance among Asian EM ...

Bloomberg KCB Group Ltd. first-half profit jumped 5% as the East African nation’s largest lender earned more interest income from investing in government securities and providing business loans. Net income in the six months through June was 12.7 billion shilling ($123 million), Chief Finance Officer Lawrence Kimathi told investors. That matched estimates by African Alliance Securities Kenya. Net interest income ...

Bloomberg JPMorgan Chase & Co. has cut its 2020 earnings estimates for US stocks based on the projected impact of incoming tariffs and pinpointed companies that could be particularly affected by the levies. “Tariffs remain the largest source of risk for equities,” strategists led by Dubravko Lakos-Bujas wrote in a note. The bank is reducing its 2020 earnings estimate for ...