Banking

Bloomberg BNP Paribas SA will no longer finance private prison companies, joining a wave of banks pulling out of the business amid criticism of the conditions in US detention facilities. “This decision is the result of the bank’s internal and external consultative process that ensures that clients’ practices are aligned with the group’s policies,” BNP Paribas said in an emailed ...

Bloomberg Bank of Italy Governor Ignazio Visco has renewed his call for a review of European rules on banking crises that limit the ability to help ailing lenders. “A legislation initiative of the new European Commission to review the BRRD directive would represent the occasion to tweak current rules, in order to make the regulation framework more flexible and appropriate ...

Bloomberg Siam Commercial Bank Pcl expects digital lending to retail customers to climb almost eight-fold this year as Thailand’s biggest lender accelerates its online drive to win business. Credit card and personal loans via the bank’s mobile phone application will rise to at least 18 billion baht ($582 million) this year from about 2.3 billion baht in 2018, said Co-President ...

Bloomberg Axis Bank Ltd has picked banks including Citigroup Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co to arrange a planned share sale of at least $1.3 billion, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The bank has also selected Credit Suisse Group AG, BNP Paribas SA, HSBC Holdings Plc, UBS Group AG and Axis Capital Ltd for the proposed offering, ...

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 ...

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 & ...

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 ...

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 ...

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, ...

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 ...