Banking

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 ...

Bloomberg Indonesia’s central bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged on Tuesday, opting to save some of its policy ammunition for possible further market volatility triggered by higher US rates. The seven-day reverse repurchase rate was held at 5.75 percent, in line with the forecasts of 21 of the 30 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Senior Deputy Governor Mirza Adityaswara, who ...

Bloomberg The humdrum business of helping companies pay suppliers and collect funds from customers has turned into a battleground between banks and technology upstarts, with $250 billion of revenue at stake, according to Oliver Wyman. Fintech firms such as TransferWise Ltd. and Revolut Ltd. are capturing market share from the banks that once had a stranglehold over the wholesale payments ...

Bloomberg Euro-area lenders are facing a cliff edge for their funding, and some are hoping the European Central Bank will help them out. Around 722 billion euros ($832 billion) of long-term loans granted to banks by the ECB will start maturing from 2020, and new regulatory standards mean replacement funds could be needed as soon as next year. One concern ...

Bloomberg Investors in Europe’s perennially underperforming banks are no strangers to disappointing earnings, but the third quarter brought an unusually large array of scandals and market turmoil that could test their conviction. The standoff over Italy’s budget, a massive money laundering scandal in Denmark and geopolitical tension chilling trade are only a few of the events that hammered banks. It ...

Bloomberg The Bank of Japan said the financial system remains stable and growth in bank lending continues to support the economy, signalling it’s comfortable that lenders are coping with its record monetary easing program for now. Banks “have maintained their active lending attitudes,” the central bank said in its semiannual financial system report on Monday. “The financial cycle has shown ...

Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has been brawling with regulators over the Volcker Rule for years. And it’s still fighting even though officials appointed by President Donald Trump are now working to soften the landmark constraint on banks. Goldman said a revamp that regulators proposed earlier this year falls far short of what’s needed to ease undue burdens on Wall ...

Bloomberg Sweden’s central bank said it wants all banks, and not just the biggest financial institutions, to be obliged to handle cash, as lawmakers seek ways to limit the nation’s rapid development into a cashless society. Commenting on a proposal by the parliament committee reviewing the central bank laws to force the biggest banks to handle cash, Riksbank Governor Stefan ...

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 ...