Banking

Bloomberg The drumbeat for a Federal Reserve interest rate cut is getting louder, with one policy maker calling for a 50 basis point reduction. Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said that he’d advocated for such a move at the central bank’s June 18-19 meeting, where officials ended leaving rates unchanged. Other policy makers speaking didn’t go as far as Kashkari, ...

Bloomberg The biggest US banks have a chance to get in on the new cryptocurrency spearheaded by Facebook Inc. The association behind the Libra coin is in talks with the banks to participate in its governing body, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing private negotiations. The person didn’t specify which banks ...

Bloomberg As peers in the US and Europe take a dovish turn, Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda signalled he’s unfazed as bond yields in his own country get caught up in the global shift lower. “There is no need to be extremely and strictly mindful about a concrete range for the rate” on Japan’s benchmark 10-year bond yield, ...

Bloomberg Norway’s central bank is on a lonely march towards higher interest rates, torn between an oil industry running at full speed on its home turf and slowing growth abroad. Governor Oystein Olsen’s commitment to tightening has surprised markets with a more hawkish outlook three meetings in a row. He raised the key rate for a third time in less ...

Bloomberg Bank of Montreal (BMO) Chief Executive Officer Darryl White said last September that he’d like a third of his bank’s earnings to come from the US in three to five years. It was a matter of months before the goal was reached. Now he expects things to settle down a bit. “I wouldn’t have put a three-to-five-year target out ...

Bloomberg Paraguayan policymakers kept their benchmark interest rate at 4.75 percent, reiterating that its current level is the “most prudent” strategy amid slowing growth and tame inflation. In an interview a day before the monetary policy meeting, central bank chief Jose Cantero said that the key rate was at “neutral levels” taking into account the economy and consumer prices. The ...

Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley improved on last year’s poor results in the first round of the latest Federal Reserve stress tests, a sign they may have more flexibility to boost payouts to shareholders. In figures posted by the Fed, the pair didn’t come as close to breaching regulatory minimums as they did last year, offering hope ...

Bloomberg While global banks have been pouring money into information technology — to the tune of $1 trillion over three years — only a handful appear to be fully committed to a digital transformation and are therefore reaping the benefits, according to an Accenture Plc study. Just 19 of the 161 largest retail and commercial banks that the consulting firm ...

Bloomberg The Bank of Japan (BOJ) kept monetary policy unchanged, just hours after the Federal Reserve became the latest central bank to signal a willingness to cut interest rates in the face of rising threats to global growth. The BOJ maintained its interest rates and asset purchases, it said in a statement. All 50 economists surveyed by Bloomberg had predicted ...

Bloomberg Brazil held its benchmark interest rate at a record low and signaled it can cut borrowing costs to help a frail economy once a key austerity measure advances further in Congress. The bank’s board, led by its President Roberto Campos Neto, kept the Selic unchanged at 6.50 percent in a decision expected by all but one of the 39 ...