Banking

Bloomberg European lawmakers should play a bigger role in scrutinising the European Central Bank and appointing its key officials, according to a report from the Positive Money Europe advocacy group. The organisation, which wants a fairer banking system and opposes policies such as quantitative easing, recommen-ds giving politicians more time to put questions to President Mario Draghi at his quarterly ...

Bloomberg With his call for lower interest rates, President Donald Trump has weighed into a debate inside the Federal Reserve about what central bankers should do about sub-par inflation. It’s not totally crazy to think he’ll eventually carry the day. In advocating easier credit, Trump and senior economic adviser Larry Kudlow have harped on the paucity of inflation to justify ...

Bloomberg Slowing global growth could threaten central bank independence and bring calls to expand remits beyond inflation targeting, according to Fitch Ratings. “Investors would be wise to consider the potential implications of mounting political pressures for greater contributions from monetary policy to support economic growth, possibly by unconventional means,” said James McCormack, Global Head of Sovereign Ratings at Fitch. Central ...

Bloomberg Japan’s central bank further fueled the growing consensus that the economy has made a turn for the worse with its widest downgrade of the nation’s regional economies in six years. In its equivalent to the Fed’s Beige Book, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) marked down its economic assessment of three out of nine regions in its quarterly report released ...

Bloomberg A UniCredit SpA employee in China allegedly siphoned off about 100 million yuan ($15 million) of clients’ money over three years by taking advantage of shared passwords and other internal security loopholes, according to people familiar with the matter. Local police and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission were informed late last year, and the regulator will levy ...

Bloomberg Some of the world’s largest lenders, law firms and real estate companies are turning to the technology behind Bitcoin to streamline the process of buying and selling property. Barclays Plc, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Clifford Chance LLP were among 40 firms to test new platform developed by Instant Property Network, a company backed by blockchain software ...

Bloomberg Economists gathered at an epicenter of Europe’s slowdown said there’s increasing urgency for political action to foster growth and shift the burden from the region’s monetary officials. At a meeting by Lake Como in Northern Italy, there was an outpouring of sympathy for European Central Bank President Mario Draghi and the onus his institution has faced to deliver incessant ...

Bloomberg Stung by a $1.9 billion fine in 2012 for failure to prevent money laundering, HSBC has been trying to get its house in order. It quintupled the number of employees assigned to spot suspicious activity to 5,000, upgraded its technology and, in 2016, hired Jennifer Calvery, the US Treasury Department’s top anti-money-laundering official, to oversee its efforts — the ...

Bloomberg India’s central bank is on course for its most aggressive monetary policy easing in more than three years, as it seeks to support the world’s fastest-growing major economy in the face of risks both at home and abroad. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) delivered its second successive interest rate cut and said it stands ready to use all ...

Bloomberg Cultural risks are the greatest challenge to a successful merger of BB&T Corp. and SunTrust Banks Inc., according to Wells Fargo & Co. analyst Mike Mayo. “The ability to manage this and other risks can make an estimated $10 billion difference in the new firm’s market value,” Mayo said in a note to investors. The combined company must work ...