Banking

Bloomberg Retail banks have been slower to embrace blockchain technology and face greater challenges in reaping its potential benefits than their more adventurous co-unterparts in investment-banking world, according to new research from McKinsey & Co. Headwinds for retail lenders to adopt a shared system of distributed computer ledgers to manage day-to-day activities include a tougher regulatory environment for consumer finance ...

Bloomberg The Bank of Japan (BOJ) will lower its short-term interest rate to -0.3 percent from -0.1 percent in September to head off risks posed by an expected Federal Reserve rate cut, JPMorgan Chase & Co. said in a research note. Fed cuts are now expected in September and December after escalating US-China trade tensions have raised the risk that ...

Bloomberg Mario Draghi’s insistence that he’s determined to revive euro-zone inflation with interest-rate cuts and renewed bond purchases if needed isn’t convincing investors. The European Central Bank president talked a tough game after policy makers extended their pledge to keep borrowing costs at record lows and announced more cheap loans to banks. Yet traders pared bets on a rate cut, ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG’s credit rating was cut by Fitch Ratings, which cited the firm’s lack of progress in improving operations. The bank’s long-term issuer default rating was downgraded to BBB from BBB+, Fitch said in a statement. “The downgrade of Deutsche Bank reflects its continued difficulty and limited progress in improving its profitability and stabilising its business model,” Fitch ...

Bloomberg The weak US May jobs report pushes the Federal Reserve closer to cutting interest rates, though maybe not all the way just yet. While a reduction when policy makers meets later this month can’t be ruled out, Fed watchers said their base case is for the central bank to stand pat. But they said the abrupt slowdown in payrolls ...

Bloomberg China’s central bank governor said there’s “tremendous” room to adjust monetary policy if the trade war deepens, joining counterparts in Europe and the US in displaying readiness to act to support the economy. In an exclusive interview with Bloomberg in Beijing, People’s Bank of China (PBOC) Governor Yi Gang also signalled that he’s not wedded to defending the nation’s ...

Bloomberg Canada may have just printed its lowest unemployment rate since at least 1976, but two big North American banks are now forecasting its central bank to cut rates. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced its forecast for Canadian growth in the third and fourth quarters of this year to 1.5 percent from 2.25 percent and expects the Bank of Canada ...

Bloomberg Indonesia’s central bank is discussing the possibility of cutting interest rates but is waiting for the right time to do so, Deputy Governor Dody Waluyo said. Given the uncertainty in financial markets, the central bank needs to be “cautious” and a rate cut “will depend on the timing,” Waluyo said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Kathleen Hays in ...

Bloomberg The European Central Bank’s outlook for euro-zone inflation is “not bad” and investors have underestimated the institution’s willingness to act if needed, according to policy maker Vitas Vasiliauskas. Market-based inflation expectations have dipped to near a record low despite ECB President Mario Draghi saying that interest-rate cuts and asset purchases could be deployed if needed to fight any further ...

Bloomberg India’s economic soft patch has put Asia’s most dovish central bank on notice, yet again. Growth cooled to 5.8 percent in the first three months of the year, the slowest pace in several quarters, according to a government report. That took the expansion in the fiscal year to March 2019 to 6.8 percent, lower than the 6.9 percent median ...