Banking

Bloomberg Credit Agricole SA posted bigger-than-expected declines in profit and revenue in the first quarter as weakness at its key Italian business overshadowed resilient trading income. Underlying revenue in Italy, Credit Agricole’s second-biggest retail market, declined 3.9% as volatile markets weighed on fees. Chief Executive Officer Philippe Brassac has targeted consumer banking in the country as an area of growth ...

Bloomberg United Overseas Bank (UOB) plans to increase portion of revenue it gets from outside its ho-me market of Singapore to about 50% by 2021, despite forecasting a challenging year ahead. “For 2019, market volatility is expected to remain,” Chief Executive Officer Wee Ee Cheong told analysts and investors in Singapore on Wednesday. “Geopolitics, rising global trade tensions and concern ...

Bloomberg Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Eric Rosengren said it’s too early to tell whether the escalating trade war and the resulting financial market reaction will last long enough to hurt the US economy and alter monetary policy. “It’s a little premature to think about the outlook” for the economy, Rosengren said in an interview in Boston. “This is ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG and UBS Group AG’s talks on combining their asset management businesses to create a European powerhouse have stalled, according to people familiar with the matter. A deal is now seen as increasingly unlikely after disagreements emerged over who would retain majority control of the combined entity, the people said, asking not to be identified as the ...

Bloomberg The Bank of Canada and Monetary Authority of Singapore have sent each other digital currencies using blockchain technology, marking the first such successful trial between two central banks. The pair have been collaborating on the use of distributed ledger technology and central bank digital currencies to make the cross-border payments process cheaper, faster and safer, they said in a ...

Bloomberg Benoit Coeure is possibly the best-qualified candidate to be the next European Central Bank president, but that may not be enough. The Frenchman has played a key role implementing the ECB’s crisis measures in almost eight years as a board member. With a stellar career and education, officials often cite him as the bank’s preferred option and one of ...

Bloomberg Swedish inflation was back at the target in April, bringing comfort to the Riksbank as it struggles to bring interest rates back above zero after years of extreme monetary policy. Consumer prices with a constant interest rate rose an annual 2.0% in April, according to Statistics Sweden. That was in line with the 2.0% predicted in a survey of ...

Bloomberg Federal Reserve officials are speaking out about rising inequality and the harm it does the US economy, but most still hesitate to say monetary policy can do much to help. Neel Kashkari is starting to sound like an exception. Since becoming president of the Minneapolis Fed in 2016, he’s been a consistent dove, arguing for keeping interest rates lower ...

Bloomberg Germany’s latest banking upstart has a message for the millennials it’s trying to lure away from giants like Deutsche Bank AG: We’re one of the good guys. Hamburg-based Tomorrow, which offers free current accounts via mobile phones, promises to use customer deposits to finance only sustainable projects such as renewable energy and organic agriculture. The company claims that its ...

Bloomberg As banks around the world shut branches and lay off tellers, Pakistan’s Faysal Bank is headed in the opposite direction in the hope that a drive into Islamic financial services will boost deposits and shareholder returns. The Karachi-based lender plans to open 200 new branches offering Shariah-compliant deposit accounts in the next two years, and convert 40 regular branches ...