Banking

Bloomberg Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. is considering buying Prudential Plc’s Asia business, people familiar with the matter said, a deal that would reshape Asia’s booming insurance industry and mark the biggest-ever Chinese acquisition. Ping An has sounded out the Chinese government about whether it would be supportive of a deal, according to one of the people. The Shenzhen-based insurer ...

Bloomberg China’s central bank said it won’t use the yuan as a tool to cope with trade tensions and other external issues, and that it won’t conduct any “strong” economic stimulus. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) won’t implement stimulus in “flood-irrigation” style, according to the quarterly monetary policy report released in Beijing. Prudent monetary policy should maintain neutrality and ...

Bloomberg Greek lenders face higher financing costs after the European Central Bank said it will stop accepting the country’s government debt as collateral from August 21, the day after the nation’s bailout programme ends. The ECB will remove a waiver exempting Greek bonds from a rule that all collateral must be investment grade. The exemption was conditional on Greece being ...

Bloomberg The list of perks at Deutsche Bank AG is shrinking fast. Investment bankers at Germany’s largest lender have been told to travel coach class on trains; fewer are able to attend conferences and some former employees said severance pay was less generous than previous handouts. Even small treats like the daily fruit bowls are disappearing. The frugal ethos described ...

Bloomberg Dutch state-controlled bank ABN Amro Group NV is edging towards raising its payout to shareholders after a strong second quarter and cuts to its underperforming investment bank. “Yes, we feel more confident there after this quarter,” Chief Executive Officer Kees van Dijkhuizen said at a press conference when asked about a dividend increase. The higher payout could take the ...

Bloomberg Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s record-profit run is over after the nation’s biggest lender paid the price for a series of scandals and missteps. Cash profit from continuing operations fell 4.8 percent to A$9.23 billion ($6.85 billion) in the 12 months ended on June 30, the Sydney-based lender said in a statement. That was the first drop in annual profit ...

Bloomberg The Uruguayan subsidiary of HSBC may seek regulatory approval as soon as next year for a second covered bond programme of about $100 million as the bank aims to take 15 percent of the home loan market in two years, according to senior executives. “I wouldn’t rule out pitching a new programme to the central bank if the origination ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG’s Southeast Asia vice chairman Philip Lee is leaving the German lender, capping a string of senior departures in the region. Lee, also the chief country officer for Singapore, is departing to pursue other interests, after building out the bank’s Southeast Asia client franchise over the past five years, according to an internal memo obtained by Bloomberg. ...

Bloomberg Elon Musk’s shock $82 billion offer to buy out the loss-making Tesla Inc. has the market wondering just how he will find the cash. But when it comes to his grand plans to build electric cars in China, he already has the answer: the nation’s state-owned banks. With a factory just outside of Shanghai key to Musk’s vision of ...

Bloomberg Commerzbank AG’s long search for scale is finally starting to pay off, but it’s costing more than expected. Profit and revenue at Germany’s second-largest listed bank beat the highest estimate in the second quarter, as it expanded its business more aggressively. However, its core capital level dropped surprisingly, due to it taking on more risk in its corporate loan ...