Banking

Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is in exclusive discussions to buy the B&B Hotels chain from European buyout firm PAI Partners. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of this year, PAI Partners said in a statement on Monday, without providing any financial details. Goldman Sachs is doing the deal through its merchant banking division, according to ...

Bloomberg Czech banks have avoided a threat of special taxes for the industry by agreeing in principle to contribute a portion of their profits to a national development fund proposed by Prime Minister Andrej Babis. Babis said on Monday he wants the units of Societe Generale SA, Erste Group Bank AG, KBC Groep NV, and UniCredit SpA, to pay an ...

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 ...