Banking

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Bloomberg The collapse of Skye Bank Plc is darkening the outlook for Nigeria’s other small lenders struggling to recover from the economy’s contraction two years ago, and threatening to derail the regulator’s ambitions of expanding the industry. The Central Bank of Nigeria revoked the lender’s license for failing to meet capital and liquidity thresholds since the authorities first intervened to ...

Bloomberg India’s troubled shadow bank Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd., whose recent debt defaults sparked concern about contagion in the nation’s financial markets, has sought shareholder’s approval for a plan to revive the firm at the company’s annual general meeting on Saturday. The management aims to bring the group back to normalcy by selling shares through a rights issue, ...

Bloomberg China will maintain a neutral and stable monetary policy while also assuring reasonable and ample liquidity, the People’s Bank of China said in a statement on Saturday. China’s overall exchange rate and market expectations are stable, the bank said at its third-quarter meeting. The nation will continue to deepen its financial system reform, the PBOC said in its statement. ...

Bloomberg UK inflation pressures are likely to pick up even if the Bank of England’s forecasts for wage growth and productivity gains aren’t met, according to Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden. In a speech in London, Ramsden said that he’s on board with BOE’s collective view that limited and gradual increases are needed to control inflation. Labour market tightness and rising ...