Banking

Bloomberg Berkshire Hathaway’s stake in Bank of America (BofA) crept above 10 percent, crossing a threshold that’s caused the conglomerate headaches in the past, as the bank bought back its own stock. Berkshire said in a regulatory filing that it owned 950 million shares in the lender, a holding that put it above a 10 percent ownership stake. The total ...

Bloomberg A day after the first doubts emerged about Deutsche Bank’s fresh turnaround plan, the European Central Bank (ECB) stepped in to allay at least some of them. The ECB said it will study options to mitigate the punitive effect of negative interest rates on euro area banks, pushing Deutsche Bank’s stock to the highest in almost three months. The ...

Bloomberg Nedbank Group Ltd is in talks with about 1,500 employees over potential job cuts at the South African lender’s retail and business-banking division to cope with a struggling economy and increased competition. The company forecasts that “between 50 and 100 employees are at risk of not being placed in a role,” Johannesburg-based Nedbank said in an emailed response to ...

Bloomberg China plans to start regulating large conglomerates that may pose systemic risks to the nation’s financial sector. Certain non-financial firms or individuals with businesses that straddle at least two financial industries will be classified as “financial holding companies” and will need licenses from the People’s Bank of China to operate, the regulator said in proposals. If adopted, the rules ...

Bloomberg Europe has identified five candidates to succeed Christine Lagarde as chief of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the lender set a September 6 deadline for applicants. The contenders are Spanish Finance Minister Nadia Calvino, Portuguese Finance Minister Mario Centeno, former Dutch finance minister JeroenDijsselbloem, World Bank chief executive KristalinaGeorgieva of Bulgaria and Bank of Finland Governor Olli Rehn, ...

Bloomberg Just a few weeks into Deutsche Bank AG’s biggest restructuring yet, the complications are already starting. Germany’s largest lender posted the worst second-quarter trading result of the big Wall Street banks. The bottom line was below expectations after a $3.8 billion restructuring charge. In an interview with Bloomberg Television, finance chief James von Moltke signaled that some turnaround targets ...

Bloomberg European Union (EU) officials called for a further tightening of the bloc’s anti-money laundering rules after identifying a host of failures that led to scandals across the financial system. Banks at times completely ignored requirements to stop illicit financial flows and supervisors were ill-equipped and often slow to deal with the issues, the European Commission said on Wednesday. Handing ...

Bloomberg Australia’s central bank will lower interest rates twice more and could adopt a package with the second easing to allow lenders to pass on the reduction in full, Westpac Banking Corp Chief Economist Bill Evans said. Evans brought forward his forecast for the next cut to October from November — saying by then the labour market will have deteriorated ...

Bloomberg Lloyds Banking Group Plc and Standard Life Aberdeen Plc have reached a settlement in what was one of the most high-profile disputes in the UK fund management industry’s history. Lloyds, which wanted to pull a 104 billion-pound ($129 billion) mandate, will pay the asset manager 140 million pounds in cash as compensation, according to a statement from Standard Life. ...

Bloomberg As policy makers globally prepare to cut borrowing costs again, banks around the world are feeling the heat. Rock-bottom interest rates can help stoke growth, but they also put the squeeze on lending margins. Big US banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co and Citigroup Inc, which reported second-quarter earnings, are already seeing the revenue impact of declining interest rates ...