Banking

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, ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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‘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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At a grim moment for banking jobs, Citi says it’s hiring

Bloomberg In one of the darker weeks for finance jobs, Citigroup Inc said it’s planning to increase senior banking hires across key sectors and markets as it aims to become a top-three investment bank. The lender is seeking to add to its healthcare and technology teams, and is also looking to increase local deal-making clout in some emerging markets, Tyler ...

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Fed chief heads to Congress with interest-rate cut in play

Bloomberg Jerome Powell is likely to leave Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts firmly on the table when he appears before Congress this week, even though the latest US jobs report dialed down the urgency to ease borrowing costs. The Fed chairman, who has been hectored for months by President Donald Trump for not cutting rates, will probably repeat language from the ...

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Australian banks win regulator concession on capital buffer needs

Bloomberg Australia’s banking regulator has softened its capital buffer requirement on the nation’s largest banks after they argued that there wasn’t sufficient market capacity available to raise the necessary funds. The so-called Big Four banks will need to lift their total capital by three percentage points of risk-weighted assets by January 2024, less than an initial target of four to ...

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Danske cuts profit forecast for 2019

Bloomberg Danske Bank A/S, contending with negative interest rates and a money-laundering scandal, cut its outlook for profit this year after trading income fell short of expectations and compliance costs mount. The Danish lender now expects profit of $1.9 billion to 15 billion kroner, down from a previous range of 14 billion to 16 billion kroner. The company said second-quarter ...

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