Banking

Bloomberg The European Central Bank (ECB) is approaching the point where it needs to decide whether if negative interest rates are more problem than solution. Since officials pushed back plans to tighten policy, warnings have increased that the potency of a key instrument used to rekindle growth in the 19-nation bloc is diminishing the longer it remains in place. France’s Francois ...

Bloomberg UBS Group AG is adding tech bankers ahead of what promises to be a busy year for initial public offerings and technology banking transactions. The Zurich-based bank hired Bob Casey and Robert Jackman to join its US technology investment banking team, according to a memo sent by Jason Auerbach, UBS’s head of technology banking for the Americas. They are ...

Bloomberg Federal Reserve officials say they’re willing to tolerate an overshoot of their inflation goal. If the opposite happens, the plan is less clear. Core inflation, excluding energy and food prices, is currently just shy of the central bank’s 2 percent target. Most economists and policy makers see that lasting, though there’s no guarantee: Inflation expectations have been stuck on ...

Bloomberg UBS Group AG thought it had seen the worst of its French tax scandal when the lender was slapped with a record $5 billion penalty in Paris last month. A looming Swiss Supreme Court ruling could add to its woes. The court will decide in the coming weeks on whether a lower administrative court was right to rule UBS ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG’s DWS Group soared the most ever in Frankfurt trading on news that Allianz SE is exploring the possibility of combining it with its asset management arm to create a national champion in active money management. The Munich-based insurer is looking at the feasibility of a deal with Germany’s largest lender to create a business with 1.17 ...

Bloomberg The European Central Bank says its bond-buying program was $3 trillion well spent. It said the measure helped to ease financing conditions in the euro area and contributed to achieving its price-stability mandate — even as the point when the institution will meet its inflation goal edges farther into the future. Asset purchases of some 2.6 trillion euros ($3 ...

Bloomberg As one avenue for money launderers is shut, another one may be opening. In Denmark, home to Danske Bank A/S, the authorities are now taking a closer look at companies that provide payment services. The worry is that the chain of processes behind each payment is becoming so complex that criminals might be able to hide their illicit transactions. ...

Bloomberg Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said he’s still seeking to deliver 2 percent inflation after the government voiced support for a more flexible approach to the goal, which hasn’t been hit in a decade. Japan must reach 2 percent to achieve a self-sustaining cycle of economic growth, where higher corporate profits and wages fuel consumption and investment, ...

Bloomberg The Bank of Italy asked ING Groep NV to avoid any business with new clients in the country after it fell short in recent anti-money laundering checks, adding to the Dutch lender’s compliance woes. The central bank identified shortcomings in the Amsterdam-based bank’s processes during a four-month on-site inspection in Italy that ended in January, according to a statement. ...

Bloomberg The European Central Bank’s latest round of stimulus is being accompanied by renewed calls on governments to step up their game in nurturing the economy. It’s an acknowledgment by President Mario Draghi and fellow policy makers that they’ll do what they can — but their options are sorely depleted if the current economic weakness worsens. That puts the focus ...