Banking

Bloomberg Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard said the US central bank must improve its recruitment of women and people from minority backgrounds because greater diversity leads to better policy decisions. Noting that it was more than a century after the Fed’s creation that the one of its 12 regional banks was headed by an African American — Raphael Bostic, who ...

Bloomberg After being stung by the market turmoil at the end of last year, Singapore’s banks are bracing for fresh challenges from China-US trade tensions and a slowing world economy. “We expect ongoing global uncertainties to continue to weigh on business sentiment in the near term,” United Overseas Bank Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Wee Ee Cheong told reporters in Singapore ...

Bloomberg South Africa’s central bank is unlikely to officially pursue a single point-inflation target soon even though it prefers to anchor price growth close to the 4.5 percent mid-point of its goal range, an adviser to Governor Lesetja Kganyago said. The target range of 3 percent to 6 percent allows for flexibility in protecting the economy from price shocks, Fundi ...

Bloomberg Birgitte Bonnesen, the chief executive officer of Swedbank AB, has consistently denied that her bank had any involvement in the Estonian money-laundering scandal engulfing Danske Bank A/S. This week, her words came back to haunt her. Swedbank was forced to backtrack on its previous assertions and has now acknowledged that it also handled suspicious transactions, which it says have ...

Bloomberg Federal Reserve policy makers look to be leaning towards shortening the average maturity of their holdings of Treasury securities once they complete normalization of the balance sheet later this year. Fed Vice Chairman for Supervision Randal Quarles and Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester both said this week they would favor such a move, while also noting that ...

Bloomberg Officials at one of France’s biggest lenders have moved to quell internal concerns about a stock disposal by its chief risk officer just one month before the bank disclosed a large trading loss, people familiar with the matter said. Senior officials at Natixis SA addressed employees’ questions about the trade at a series of meetings this month, according to ...

Bloomberg European Central Bank President Mario Draghi launched into a defense of the European Union project as a way for countries to protect their sovereignty in an increasingly uncertain global environment. Speaking at a time when the EU is grappling with Brexit and rising populism, Draghi said the trading bloc’s institutional framework has allo- wed its members to be free ...

Bloomberg Societe Generale SA is drawing up plans to cut jobs at its investment bank and find a partner for its cash-equity business in a bid to offset increasing cost pressure from regulation, people familiar with the matter said. The bank could cut hundreds or even thousands of jobs at its global banking and investor solutions unit, including roles in ...

Bloomberg After five consecutive days of increases in the monetary policy rate, leaving it close to 50 percent annually, analysts expect Argentina’s central bank will maintain this level until next month to reduce the peso’s volatility and avoid further inflationary pressure. The abrupt capital outflow that took place this week made Argentina’s peso the worst emerging markets performer year to ...

Bloomberg The City of London is getting a last-minute break from politicians across the European Union intent on averting chaos in financial markets in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Countries including Germany, the Netherlands, France, Italy and Sweden are readying national legislation that would help bankers continue to service the 18 trillion pounds ($23.4 trillion) of derivatives contracts that ...