Banking

Bloomberg The Federal Reserve’s uni-que structure helps preserve monetary policy independence, according to a new academic study that comes at a time of heightened tensions between the White House and the central bank. Cleveland Fed economist Edward Prescott and Rutgers University economics professor Michael Bordo argue the Fed’s deliberately decentralised design — with 12 regional banks around the country augmenting ...

Bloomberg When Nicko Widjaja was hired to run the venture capital arm of Indonesia’s biggest telecommunication services provider in 2015, corporate venture capital investing had a reputation for being slow, bureaucratic and generating lackluster returns. But in four years, he has made it work. The first venture fund of state-owned PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia, called MDI Ventures, has returned 40 percent ...

Bloomberg While corporate America’s profit engine is about to cool, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. says a Federal Reserve interest-rate cut will continue to boost stock prices this year. The bank cut 2019 earnings estimates for the S&P 500 Index to $167 a share from $173, citing an economic slowdown, lower oil prices and weak margins, according to a note from ...

Bloomberg Bank of America Corp. (BofA) said it will end a payments joint venture with First Data Corp. next June when a contract between the two firms expires. The firms will continue to provide delivery of products and services for existing clients through at least June 2023, but will otherwise pursue in-dependent merchant-services strategies next year, Bank of America said in ...

Bloomberg Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA’s (BBVA) Mexican business shrugged off an economic slowdown in the country, helping the Spanish bank make up for the effect of ultra-low interest rates in Europe. The Mexico unit posted its highest quarterly profit in at least a decade, helping BBVA report group earnings that beat analyst estimates. That bucks a trend among Spanish ...

Bloomberg Citigroup Inc is preparing to cut hundreds of jobs in its trading division — stark new evidence that an industrywide slump in revenue this year may be more permanent than the tweets and policy moves rattling clients. The New York-based bank plans to slash jobs across its fixed-income and stock-trading operations over the course of 2019, according to people ...

Bloomberg Sweden’s economy unexpectedly shrank in the second quarter, casting further doubts on the Riksbank’s plans to continue to raise rates. Gross domestic product contracted 0.1 percent in the second quarter from the first, according to preliminary numbers from Statistics Sweden. Economists had predicted an expansion of 0.3 percent. Annual growth was 1.4 percent while economists and the Riksbank had ...

Bloomberg Whitbread Plc Chief Executive Officer Alison Brittain has been approached as a candidate to succeed Ross McEwan as boss of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Group Plc, adding to signs the lender is broadening its search as it seeks a new leader. Brittain, who has run the British hotel and restaurant operator for nearly four years, is one of ...

Bloomberg The Bank of Japan said it’s “more positive” about adding monetary stimulus as it eyes a global shift in which the Federal Reserve is set to cut interest rates on Wednesday for the first time since 2008. While Governor Haruhiko Kuroda kept policy unchanged despite trimming inflation forecasts, he added a phrase to the policy statement saying the BOJ ...

Bloomberg As the world sinks into an era of ever-lower interest rates and a chasm of negative-yielding bonds, Japan’s experience offers investors an invaluable precedent. It’s two decades since the nation pioneered zero rates and more than six years into central bank chief Haruhiko Kuroda’s record stimulus. The money managers who’ve witnessed it all provide unique insights into strategies to ...