Banking

Commerzbank loses execs as corporate unit struggles

Bloomberg Commerzbank AG is replacing two top executives as progress in Chief Executive Officer Martin Zielke’s turnaround plan remains uneven. Michael Reuther, who heads the corporate clients unit, will leave when his term expires next September, while Chief Operating Officer Frank Annus-cheit is stepping down at end of the year for health reasons. The changes touch on two key pieces ...

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Fed says growth still modest or moderate

Bloomberg Optimism over prospects for growth at US firms has begun to fade even as a majority of Federal Reserve districts continued to report modest to moderate economic expansion in recent weeks. “Most districts reported that firms remained positive,” according to a Federal Reserve report. “However, optimism has waned in some as contacts cited increased uncertainty from impacts of tariffs, ...

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‘Credit Suisse to buy back stock, boost dividend’

Bloomberg Credit Suisse Group AG will announce a share-buyback program worth “billions” and increase its dividend at an investor day this week, newspaper SonntagsZeitung reported, without saying where it got the information. There’s pressure on Chief Executive Officer Tidjane Thiam to follow in the footsteps of Sergio Ermotti, head of rival UBS Group AG, and use his own money to ...

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Gradual rate increases apt in near term, says Fed’s Brainard

Bloomberg Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard said US economic momentum is strong and a gradual approach to interest-rate increases remains appropriate for now. “The gradual path of increases in the federal funds rate has served us well by giving us time to assess the effects of policy as we have proceeded,’’ Brainard said at a conference at the Peterson Institute ...

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Merkel’s party snubs government stake in Deutsche Bank

Bloomberg German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling party wouldn’t back the government taking a stake in Deutsche Bank AG to strengthen the nation’s financial industry, senior members said. “The argument for a ‘big bank’ can be discussed as a matter of economic policy, but it doesn’t justify the use of taxpayers’ money,” Michael Meister, a member of the Christian Democratic Union’s ...

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Danske Bank shareholders look to brighter future after purge of board

Bloomberg Danske Bank A/S shareholders, who’ve lost more than 40 percent on their investment this year, are looking to a brighter future after the lender took another step to purge its leadership. Denmark’s largest bank replaced its chairman, following October’s ouster of its chief executive officer, as it seeks to atone for its role in one of Europe’s biggest money ...

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Citigroup warns volatility could hinder 2018 targets

Bloomberg Citigroup Inc said it probably won’t meet a closely watched profitability target this year because market volatility crimped fourth-quarter trading revenue. Chief Financial Officer John Gerspach said sluggishness in its Group of 10 rates-trading business likely means the bank will post a drop in fixed-income trading revenue for the final three months of the year. The investment-banking franchise also ...

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Political heat is on for global central banks’ independence

Bloomberg South Africa’s top monetary policy maker spoke for his peers around the world last week when he declared that threats to central-bank independence from politicians are no longer just an “emerging market phenomenon.” The US Federal Reserve, Bank of England and European Central Bank are feeling the heat from elected lawmakers, while India is among others under pressure. “There’s ...

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ECB set to give long-term loans to banks next year

Bloomberg The European Central Bank will offer new long-term loans to banks next year while going slow on interest rates to underpin the region’s increasingly fragile upswing, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists. Almost three-quarters of respondents said they expect an announcement of such funding by March, to be handed out three months later. A deposit-rate hike is still ...

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Big deflation sparks talk of no rate hike in Brazil during 2019

Bloomberg Bets that Brazil may hold interest rates at a record low throughout 2019 gained strength after the country posted its biggest monthly deflation in 1-1/2 years. Consumer prices measured by the benchmark IPCA index fell 0.21 percent in November, three times as much as economists expected. Swap rates on futures contracts, a barometer of expected interest-rate decisions, dove following ...

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