Banking

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 ...

Bloomberg Switzerland is proposing bigger capital cushions for the country’s top banks that could force UBS Group AG and Credit Suisse Group AG to set aside an additional 24 billion Swiss francs ($24 billion) in reserves. The Finance Ministry is weighing an amendment to capital adequacy rules to try to ensure that the parent companies of systemically important banks are ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG and Commerzbank AG’s merger talks have prompted rare unity across Germany’s fractious political spectrum: a collective thumbs down. Lawmakers from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic-led bloc to the anti-capitalist Left party and far-right AfD are laying into the plans. With the Social Democratic colleagues of Finance Minister Olaf Scholz also questioning the deal, the project’s main ...