Banking

Bloomberg The race to lead the Bank of England could turn on who heads the government by the time the decision is made in October. Much has been made of Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond’s comments that he seeking a governor with international stature, prompting a flurry of speculation around former Reserve Bank of India chief Raghuram Rajan. Still, ...

Bloomberg The biggest Nordic asset managers are either holding on to, or increasing, stakes in banks dragged down by vast money laundering scandals. In a region where the concept of ethical investing is regularly held up as a goal, none of the big institutional investors contacted by Bloomberg said they would consider divesting shares of banks under investigation for laundering. ...

Bloomberg Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan says trade tensions might have a chilling effect on the US and global economy, and he’s also watching for the potential effects on inflation. Some end-markets may be jeopardised by the US-China trade dispute, but “the bigger thing is logistics and supply chain arrangements,” Kaplan said during a wide-ranging discussion at ...

Bloomberg The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) warned that the escalating trade war could destabilise the global economy, and vowed to continue with its targeted stimulus policy at home. “Trade friction and uncertainties in global policy could impact the global economy negatively” by driving up inflation, damaging household and corporate confidence and causing financial market turbulence, the PBOC said in ...

Bloomberg The biggest banks in the UK are among the worst offenders in paying women less than men and face being summoned to explain themselves, according to Nicky Morgan, the Conservative member of Parliament who will chair hearings this summer into the finance industry’s alarming gender pay gap. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., HSBC Holdings Plc, Barclays Bank Plc and others ...

Bloomberg Citigroup Inc., Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are among five banks that agreed to pay European Union fines totalling 1.07 billion euros ($1.2 billion) for colluding on foreign-exchange trading strategies. Citigroup was hit hardest with a 310.8 million-euro penalty, followed by fines of 249.2 million euros and 228.8 million euros for RBS and ...

Bloomberg Negative interest rates are not the main culprit for European banks’ feeble profitability, European Central Bank Executive Board member Benoit Coeure said, signalling the institution is in no rush to bring relief. Sub-zero rates are costing euro zone banks roughly 8 billion euros ($9 billion) annually, which is “really peanuts” in this landscape, Coeure told lawmakers at a French ...

Bloomberg Sweden’s biggest lender, Svenska Handelsbanken AB, is pulling out of the Baltic region arguing that the cost of staying is simply too big. Handelsbanken’s Baltic operations are far smaller than those of its Swedish peers, Swedbank AB and SEB AB. But the decision comes at a sensitive time. Estonia is at the center of a $230 billion money laundering ...

Bloomberg The Philippine central bank will consider reducing the reserve requirement ratio for lenders further if banks don’t misbehave and speculate against the peso, Governor Benjamin Diokno said. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas will “closely look at how banks will use funds freed up by RRR cut,” Diokno told a forum in Ma-nila, a day after announcing a 2 percentage-point reduction ...

Bloomberg Indonesia’s central bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged as the currency comes under renewed pressure from an escalation in trade tensions between the US and China. The seven-day reverse repurchase rate was left at 6%, as predicted by all but one of 30 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Governor Perry Warjiyo and his board raised the rate by a ...