Bloomberg When a Credit Suisse Group AG salesman asked investors for their final orders for pieces of a corporate loan this week, his email included an unusual visual goad: a photograph of a few crumbs of cake left on an otherwise empty plate. The bank received so much demand for the $5.05 billion loan, which is helping to finance KKR ...
Read More »Banking
A mega bank joins euro zone; it’s too big to fail
Bloomberg On Monday, the number of banks deemed too big to fail in the euro zone will grow to eight from seven. The new arrival is Nordea Bank Abp, which is moving its headquarters to Helsinki from Stockholm. The bank, whose $670 billion in assets are more than twice Finland’s gross domestic product, has made clear its move was driven ...
Read More »Tesco cyber-attack leads to $21mn settlement in UK
Bloomberg The UK financial regulator fined Tesco Plc’s banking arm $21 million for failures that allowed cyber attackers to steal funds. The 48-hour hack in November 2016 was “largely avoidable†and took place because the thieves took advantage of weaknesses in the design of the bank’s debit card, its financial-crime controls and its so-called Financial Crime Operations Team, netting the ...
Read More »Danske removes CEO with immediate effect
Bloomberg Danske Bank A/S has removed its chief executive officer with immediate effect after his role in one of Europe’s worst money laundering scandals left a number of shareholders indignant at his continued presence. Thomas Borgen was stripped of his CEO title on Monday, after the board appointed insider Jesper Nielsen to take over the job until a permanent replacement ...
Read More »Mizuho seeks Google hopefuls in tech-race
Bloomberg One of Japan’s biggest banks is throwing away the cookie cutter when it comes to hiring fresh graduates. Realising it was recruiting “exactly the same†types of people each year, Mizuho Financial Group Inc. now wants to hire more creative thinkers who can help it meet challenges such as the technological upheaval facing banks, said Shinya Uda, a human ...
Read More »Swiss private banks urged to partner in a ‘complex’ world
Bloomberg Switzerland’s diminishing band of mid-sized private banks should consider teaming up with other firms to expand in Asia and tap into the business of managing the wealth of the region’s millionaires, according to the chairman of the Swiss banking association. Since the global financial crisis and the end of banking secrecy, smaller Swiss wealth managers have faced heightened competition ...
Read More »Money-laundering woes dog Europe’s banks
Bloomberg September was the month when long-running failures to stop money-laundering came back to bite some of Europe’s largest banks. Regulators from Switzerland to the Nordic region and Germany reprimanded institutions for failing to do enough to prevent illicit money flows. While some paid for past misdeeds, others were chastised for continued shortcomings and even had monitors assigned to help ...
Read More »ECB rate-hike momentum could be hampered by fear of euro gains
Bloomberg For all the European Central Bank’s signalling of an interest-rate “lift-off’’ next year, it might not get very far off the ground. Some investors suspect even modestly higher borrowing costs will unleash a rally in the euro that undermines economic growth and curbs inflation. That could leave the currency bloc trapped with near-zero rates for years to come. Spillovers ...
Read More »Venezuela pumps dollars, slows rout in currency
Bloomberg Lost amid the economic chaos in Venezuela, the bolivar has actually stabilised somewhat. In the six weeks since the initial plunge after the government simultaneously carried out a massive devaluation and redenomination of the currency, it has slid just 19 percent in the black market. That may not constitute stabilisation in most foreign-exchange markets, but in Venezuela, where hyperinflation ...
Read More »Williams calls for gradual hikes amid strong growth outlook
Bloomberg Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams called for continued gradual rate increases as a strong US economy pushes unemployment close to a half-century low. In his first full policy speech since moving to New York from the San Francisco Fed, Williams downplayed the guiding power of the neutral rate — the one that divides tight and ...
Read More »