Banking

Bloomberg Russia’s central bank is setting the stage for an increase in interest rates as a weakening ruble fans inflation. Just five months after it stopped easing monetary policy, the Bank of Russia raised the prospect of its first hike in borrowing costs since 2014. The country’s latest bout of currency weakness is combining with a worsening outlook for inflation ...

Bloomberg The European Union won’t rush to enhance market access for financial firms outside the bloc, a senior German official said, pushing back against key UK government demands in the Brexit negotiations. Expanding EU “equivalence” rules, which can open the single market to non-EU firms, to new areas such as banking is unlikely anytime soon, said Levin Holle, director general ...

Bloomberg Indonesia’s central bank is intensifying its fight to protect the nation’s currency and bonds with a slew of measures that includes more hedging tools. Bank Indonesia plans to soon introduce overnight index swaps and interest-rate swaps to widen its pool of hedging tools for investors, exporters and banks. The central bank will also start offering a one-month tenor foreign-exchange ...

Bloomberg Australia kept interest rates at a record low on Tuesday, as it has for the past two years, while a currency sliding towards 70 US cents offers the prospect of additional stimulus for the economy. As expected, Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe left the cash rate at 1.5 percent, a stance he expects will eventually tighten the labour market ...

Bloomberg ING Groep NV agreed to pay 775 million euros ($900 million) to settle an investigation by the Dutch prosecutor into issues including money laundering and corrupt practices in one of the biggest fines ever given to the country’s banks in a criminal case. The lender acknowledged “serious shortcomings” in executing customer due diligence policies to prevent financial crime at ...

Bloomberg Lloyds Banking Group Plc is planning to reorganise its commercial bank and eliminate some senior management positions to cut costs at one of its biggest divisions, people with knowledge of the company’s plans said. David Oldfield, a veteran at the bank and head of the commercial unit since last year, is leading the push to simplify the structure and ...

Bloomberg The chief executive officer of Banco de Sabadell SA’s British unit is leaving as the lender continues to struggle with the meltdown of its IT system earlier this year. Paul Pester will step down after seven years with the UK arm, known as TSB Banking Group. Richard Meddings, the current non-executive chairman of TSB, temporarily takes on an executive ...

Bloomberg South Africa’s Lesetja Kganyago has a fight on his hands to protect the central bank’s $50 billion of reserves. More than eight months after the ruling African National Congress decided that the South African Reserve Bank should be state-owned, like most other central banks, the governor said his main concern remains to protect the regulator’s independence and mandate. But ...

Bloomberg UBS Group AG will introduce a new electronic currency pricing and trading engine in Singapore next year in a bid to boost liquidity in Asia’s largest foreign-exchange center. The facility will go live in the second quarter of 2019, Zurich-based UBS said in an emailed statement. The bank is undertaking the initiative in partnership with the Monetary Authority of ...

Bloomberg Bank of England Governor Mark Carney is still expected to leave the central bank in 2019, according to a UK government spokesman. “The governor has said that he intends to step down in 2019. That is still the plan,” spokesman James Slack told reporters in London. Asked if the government would like him stay, he said “the Prime Minister ...