Banking

Bloomberg Sweden’s central bank could next week give a clearer signal that it’s ready to tighten already in December as policy maker are growing eager to end almost four years of negative interest rates. Governor Stefan Ingves and his colleagues are on Wed-nesday expected to keep their benchmark unchanged at minus 0.5 percent, but could signal a greater probability that ...

Bloomberg An increase in Italy’s bond yield spread is a risk for domestic banks and is adding to tensions in the financial system, according to Cabinet Undersecretary Giancarlo Giorgetti. “The spread is a risk for banks, which we can’t ignore,” the top official of coalition partner the League said in an interview with daily Il Messaggero published on Sunday. The ...

Bloomberg The euro could revisit its year-to-date low as persistent political risks may lead Mario Draghi to refrain this week from painting a rosier picture for the bloc’s economy. Market dynamics have shifted only slightly since the European Central Bank’s last meeting, yet not in a supportive way for the common currency. Data may be suggesting the forecasts for growth ...

Bloomberg This year’s selloff in emerging-market assets has created a whole lot of value, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The firm’s asset-management arm says it’s time to buy as months of underperformance for developing-nation securities relative to their US peers won’t last much longer. The divergence was an anomaly, spurred in part by sanctions on Turkey and Russia as ...

Bloomberg Two events this month may have finally brought the curtain down on secrecy rules that were the key to Geneva and Zurich’s private banking heyday, when foreign clients could come armed with suitcases of cash and their bankers would look other way. Swiss tax authorities announced they’d shared details on 2 million accounts with other countries for first time ...

Bloomberg The European Central Bank’s prospects for gradually weaning the economy off monetary support could yet be tested by a big unknown its officials don’t mention much: a disorderly Brexit. Policy makers have given limited prominence to that risk despite divorce talks between the UK and European Union repeatedly stalling before the country’s departure in less than six months. In ...

Bloomberg UK banks are prepared to withstand more than just Brexit, according to Bank of England Governor Mark Carney. Stress tests conducted by the central bank show Britain’s financial system would still have more than adequate capital to maintain lending in the face of multiple headwinds, Carney said in a speech in New York. The bank has been “preparing for ...

Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and a venture founded by one of its former partners, billionaire Mike Novogratz, are investing in cryptocurrency custodian BitGo Holdings Inc., as the bank’s deep-pocketed clients keep asking about secure ways to hold those assets. Combined, Goldman Sachs and Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital Ventures contributed about $15 million to BitGo’s Series B fundraising, which brought in ...

Bloomberg The most stubborn dove in eastern Europe may finally be ready to follow the procession of central bankers lifting interest rates across emerging markets, according to Amundi Asset Management’s Hungarian unit. Rate setters in Budapest may track the European Central Bank’s expected move in the second half of next year, but a drop in global risk appetite or an ...

Bloomberg The Bank of Korea left its key interest rate unchanged as an escalating US-China trade war and meager job growth threaten to sap momentum in Asia’s fourth-largest economy. Eleven of 18 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg forecast the central bank to keep the seven-day repurchase rate at 1.5 percent. The rest predicted a hike to 1.75 percent. When Governor Lee ...