Banking

Bloomberg Mario Draghi defended the independence of central banks hours after Italian populists blamed him for adding to market tensions that threaten the health of the nation’s banks. “Credibility hinges on independence,” the European Central Bank president said in a speech in Brussels. “The central bank should not be subject to fiscal or political dominance and should be free to ...

Bloomberg India’s central bank wants more independence to regulate state-run banks as it seeks to clean up the country’s banking system, which has one of the highest stressed loan ratios among major economies. In a speech in Mumbai, Viral Acharya, deputy governor in charge of monetary policy, said the central bank has limited powers to discipline errant government-owned banks as ...

Bloomberg Russia’s central bank kept borrowing costs unchanged, pausing despite persistent inflation risks after a surprise hike last month. The key interest rate will stay at 7.5 percent, according to a statement. The decision was forecast by 39 of 41 economists surveyed by Bloomberg, with the rest predicting an increase to 7.75 percent. “Holding the rate unchanged is a good ...

Bloomberg Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc set aside 100 million pounds ($128 million) to reflect greater uncertainty aro-und Brexit, the first British bank to do so this quarter, as Chief Executive Ross McEwan said big companies are pausing investment as the talks drag on. While McEwan said his meeting with Prime Minister Theresa May alongside other CEOs last week ...

Bloomberg After multiple turnaround plans and promises to restore growth, Deutsche Bank AG investors are no longer buying the talk. The German lender — already the worst-performing major bank stock in Europe this year — hovered near a record low on Wednesday after Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing conceded that cuts to the investment bank are having a deeper impact ...

Bloomberg Barclays Plc’s Jes Staley has a stronger case to fend off the British lender’s activist shareholder as he delivers on a promise to grow its securities trading business. The unit saw fixed income, currency and commodities income substantially outperform US peers in the third quarter, rising almost 10 percent. Equity trading revenue surged by more than a third, the ...

Bloomberg The European Central Bank is starting to consider whether the financial crisis changed forever the way it controls interest rates. A decade of pumping cash into the financial system put so much downward pressure on market rates that all policy makers can do is set a floor — the minus 0.4 percent they impose for holding banks’ deposits overnight. ...

Bloomberg Sweden’s central bank said it may soon need to raise interest rates for the first time in seven years if the pace of growth in Scandinavia’s biggest economy continues to support inflation. The Riksbank stuck to its earlier guidance, which gave policy makers a window from December until February to deliver a 25 basis-point rate increase. The bank kept ...

Bloomberg The Bank of England is getting dragged deeper into politics. Governor Mark Carney is getting it from all sides. He’s frequently lambasted by pro-Brexit lawmakers for outlining his economic views on the nation’s departure from the European Union, and in the past month another set of lawmakers has lined him up to assess any deal reached by the UK ...

Bloomberg The days of quantitative easing in the euro area are long gone, according to signals from the region’s $3 trillion corporate bond market. Investors are demanding ever-higher premiums for companies lower down the ratings spectrum over high-quality peers — a turning point for a market long distorted by the European Central Bank juggernaut. The gap between triple B and ...