Banking

Bloomberg The pound’s fortunes are being dictated by Brexit and recent optimism over a deal could lead to a more hawkish-sounding Bank of England driving the currency higher. Market bets on further BOE policy tightening have receded in recent weeks following August’s quarter-point interest-rate increase, with the next hike not fully priced in until the end of 2019. While this ...

Bloomberg Alantra Partners SA, a Spanish investment bank, has hired three bankers in Shanghai as Chinese companies increasingly turn to Europe for overseas mergers and acquisitions. Alantra has hired Richard Zhu to head the firm’s China M&A business as managing partner, according to a spokesman for the bank. Zhu, who has more than 15 years’ experience in finance, was previously ...

Bloomberg Russians with bank accounts in dollars may find they can only make withdrawals in other currencies if new sanctions proposed by US lawmakers take effect. “I am sure that all the clients of all banks should receive their money back; that’s the principal approach,” VTB Group Chief Executive Officer Andrey Kostin said. “How, in which currency, is a different ...

Bloomberg The German government is open to a merger between the country’s two biggest listed banks, a magazine report said. German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz “could envisage” a tie-up between Deutsche Bank AG and Commerzbank AG, Spiegel reported, without saying how it obtained the information. It said that Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing and Commerzbank CEO Martin Zielke are also ...

Bloomberg Bank of Tanzania refuted social-media allegations about printing notes valued at 1.5 trillion shillings ($655.9 million) for the government’s use. “The central bank informs the public that the statement is incorrect and intends to affect the trust of citizens and international stakeholders on Tanzanian financial stability,” the central bank said in an emailed statement. The government’s overdraft at the ...

Bloomberg Bank of Montreal (BOM)’s chief executive officer says he doesn’t need to make another acquisition to meaningfully lift earnings from the US. “If we continue doing the things that we’re doing organically, I could see a third of the bank coming from US earnings,” Chief Executive Officer Darryl White, 47, said. “To get beyond that you’d have to resume ...

Bloomberg Barclays Plc, which houses one of the world’s biggest investment banks, will create about 150 new roles as the firm prepares for Britain’s exit from the European Union, a top executive told UK lawmakers. The new hires in Europe will be in addition to the 150 current UK-based positions that will mostly “ migrate” to Dublin, Kevin Wall, chief ...

Bloomberg ING Groep NV, under fire after paying one of the biggest fines ever given to a Dutch lender, ousted Chief Financial Officer Koos Timmermans, who had once been responsible for the division caught up in a money-laundering probe. The 22-year ING veteran will stay in his position until a successor is found, the Amsterdam-based bank said, adding that it ...

Bloomberg DBS Group Holdings Ltd., Southeast Asia’s biggest bank, unveiled a service that will allow wealthy clients to interact with their relationship managers on WeChat and WhatsApp. The Singapore-based lender will begin registering interested clients for the service known as Wealth Chat, DBS said. It will initially provide content such as investment reports and research insights, with services like trade ...

Bloomberg Time may heal all wounds. But the decade since the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. hasn’t been long enough to restore investors’ faith in banks. While this week marks the 10-year anniversary of the Lehman bankruptcy, an event seen widely as a catalyst for the global financial crisis, data on stock prices and fund positioning suggests the aversion ...