Bloomberg Beleaguered Indian shadow lender Dewan Housing Finance Corp (DHFL) posted its first quarterly loss in more than a decade, missed interest payments and cast doubt on its ability to continue as a going concern. DHFL posted a loss of 22.23 billion rupees ($324 million) for the quarter ended in March compared with 1.34 billion rupees in net income a ...
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Wells Fargo in talks with BofA exec for CEO job
Bloomberg More than 100 days into Wells Fargo & Co’s hunt for a chief executive officer, the field of potential candidates has winnowed  — but there’s little sign that an appointment is imminent. After twists and turns in the search, Bank of America Corp’s Cathy Bessant is among executives who remain in talks with Wells Fargo, while JPMorgan Chase & ...
Read More »Citigroup expenses to be in focus as bank’s earnings season starts
Bloomberg Citigroup Inc is the first big US bank to report second-quarter earnings when its latest results come out. Investors will be keeping a close eye on how tightly the bank reined in expenses, and how its international businesses fared, as weak trading revenues are already anticipated. Citigroup CFO Mark Mason said second-quarter fixed-income and equities trading revenue would likely ...
Read More »Latvian premier vows to clean financial system
Bloomberg After a US money-laundering probe rocked Latvia’s economy, sending one of its largest banks belly up, the Baltic nation’s US-born leader is trying to convince Washington and business leaders that he’s cleaning up his country’s financial system for good. In meetings with top investors and US policy makers, including Vice President Mike Pence and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Prime ...
Read More »Rajan flags risks for India’s overseas debt plan
Bloomberg India’s plan to issue foreign currency debt has no real benefit and is fraught with risks, according to former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan. A global bond sale won’t reduce the amount of domestic government bonds the local market has to absorb and the country should worry about short-term “faddish investors buying when India is hot, ...
Read More »Nigeria asks banks to loan more money to spur economy
Bloomberg Nigeria’s central bank first tried to induce lenders into giving more credit through incentives such as discounted capital. That didn’t work. Now, it is reaching for the stick in a push to revive economic growth. Banks in Africa’s most populous country are reluctant lenders in an economy struggling to rebound from a 2016 contraction, double-digit inflation and non-performing loan ...
Read More »Deutsche Bank assures fixed income staff ‘their jobs safe’
Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG fixed-income head Ram Nayak assured staff they will keep their jobs at his business even as the lender cuts 18,000 positions in a sweeping overhaul, according to people familiar with the matter. The bank’s move to “resize†debt trading operations won’t lead to dismissals, Nayak told colleagues on a conference call, the people said, asking not ...
Read More »Australia rate cuts fail to lift economy gloom
Bloomberg Australia’s interest-rate cuts failed to gain traction as households’ worries about the economic outlook sent consumer confidence slumping to a two-year low. The sentiment index fell 4.1 percent to 96.5 in July, the weakest reading since August 2017, Westpac Banking Corp said in a statement. The biggest decline was in the sub-index tracking expectations for the economy in the ...
Read More »State bank VTB grabs Russia’s grain riches
Bloomberg A sprawling Russian banking group run by an ally of President Vladimir Putin is fast becoming one of the most powerful forces in the country’s grains market. Since entering the grain export business last year, Andrey Kostin’s government-backed VTB Group has loaded up on assets including port terminals, a rail-freight operator and a trader. Those investments could be worth ...
Read More »â€˜EU’s bank stress test was easy on lenders’
Bloomberg The European Court of Auditors (ECA) joined regulators in questioning the value of the EU’s bank stress test, saying last year’s exercise should have been tougher and more consistently applied across the bloc. The scenario simulated by the European Banking Authority, the EU’s top banking regulator, was milder than the 2008 financial crisis, according to an ECA report. The ...
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