Banking

Bloomberg Banks from Greece to Italy that are struggling to get rid of a mountain of bad loans may soon get some help from European Union lawmakers. A bill that’s nearing the finish line in Brussels would soften the capital hit banks usually face when they sell non-performing loans at a loss. That could give a boost to Italian lenders, ...

Bloomberg UniCredit SpA paid a high price to close a $3 billion bond sale in a stressed market and the big winner looks to be Pacific Investment Management Co. Pimco was the sole buyer of the bank’s surprise sale of five-year bonds, two people with knowledge of the transaction said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. ...

Bloomberg Indian lender Yes Bank Ltd tumbled by a record in the dollar bond market and suffered another share price plunge after Moody’s Investors Service cut its credit rating to junk, making the lender a so-called fallen angel. Losing an investment-grade score is rare among Indian private-sector banks. The lender is now the only junk-rated one among four such lenders ...

Bloomberg Puerto Rico is poised to restructure the Government Development Bank’s debt by exchanging its bonds for $2.6 billion of new securities, the first such debt swap for the US territory since it collapsed into bankruptcy in May 2017. The transaction will restructure about $4 billion of Government Development Bank debt. Under a previously arra-nged agreement, investors will exchange their ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG’s management changes have yet to run their course. Germany’s largest lender is replacing senior executives in the US and is considering changing staff who tend its relationships with regulators, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The moves come on the heels of strong cuts to the US operations and after authorities in the ...

Bloomberg The Indian government will push its central bank to ease lending restrictions for some weak banks and review rules governing its functioning at a board meeting next month, people with knowledge of the matter said. The members, including government nominees, will press for some of the weak banks to be removed from the so-called prompt corrective action list, particularly ...

Bloomberg JPMorgan Asset Management is preparing for a rough year ahead in financial markets, and is taking to the higher-quality ground of short-dated Treasuries. Escalating trade tensions will likely be “the single most important issue moving global markets” in 2019, as they were in 2018, analysts wrote in a report on the outlook for the coming year. A deeper trade ...

Bloomberg Standard Chartered Plc is weighing a plan to simplify its structure as the emerging markets lender looks to control costs across its sprawling network from Zambia to Macau, said people familiar with the matter. The London-based bank, which operates in about 60 markets, is exploring how to free up liquidity and reduce funding expenses within its different legal entities, ...

Bloomberg Austria’s designated next central bank governor Robert Holzmann should argue for a tighter monetary policy in the European Central Bank’s policy-making body, according to the country’s new central bank vice president. Barbara Kolm, an economist appointed to the institution’s non-policy oversight body by the nationalist Freedom Party, told Austrian daily newspaper Die Presse in an interview that she’s “hoping ...

Bloomberg European banks are vying for dominance in one of the continent’s most dynamic corners. Governments in parts of eastern Europe, where growth is outpacing the euro area, are loosening their grip on state-held assets. Serbia and Slovenia are the latest to offer stakes in their banks, opening up a potential battlefield as OTP Bank Nyrt of Hungary, Vienna-based Raiffeisen ...