Banking

Bloomberg VP Bank AG, the Liechtenstein-based private bank, is expanding its wealth management operations in Asia as it draws a line under four years of losing clients in Europe due to tax compliance issues. VP Bank has been adding headcount in Singapore and Hong Kong, and is eyeing partnerships with a view to gaining more wealthy Chinese clients, according to ...

Bloomberg If a US or global recession is looming, it’s time to own the Swiss franc, Singapore dollar, US dollar and Japanese yen – and ditch emerging market currencies, according to analysts from JPMorgan Chase & Co. “Recessions are when creditors get to ask for their money back,” analysts including Paul Meggyesi said in a note. “Three of the top ...

Bloomberg Global debt is becoming a bigger worry as the global policy tightening cycle takes hold, a top boss at the World Bank warned Monday. “After a decade of low interest rates, the corporate and public debt in many places has ballooned to a staggering $164 trillion,” Kristalina Georgieva, chief executive officer of the World Bank, said in an interview ...

Bloomberg Bank of England (BOE) policy makers are adjusting to an upheaval at the statistics office at the very point when they need as much clarity as possible to help decide whether to raise interest rates next month. The UK is this week shaking up the way it reports growth, publishing monthly updates and delaying its usual quarterly figures. The ...

Bloomberg Makram Azar, chairman for Barclays Plc’s Europe, Middle East and Africa banking operations, retired from his role at the British lender, according to a memo to obtained by Bloomberg News. Azar, who also headed the bank’s Middle East’s operations, will return as a senior adviser in January 2019, according to the memo issued by Joe McGrath, global head of ...

Bloomberg Investment bankers in Hong Kong are catching biotech fever. At least seven senior bankers and analysts from top-tier securities firms have quit to join biotechnology companies in the city since December, responding to the industry’s growing demand for financial expertise after rule changes at Hong Kong’s stock exchange smoothed the path for biotech initial public offerings. Richard Yeh, a ...

Bloomberg Thailand’s finance minister said the nation can refrain from raising its policy interest rate as the currency has weakened at a slower pace than peers and capital outflows are unlikely to pose a major risk. The baht’s recent drop will help boost incomes for the 30 million Thais in the farm sector, Apisak Tantivorawong said in an interview. The ...

Bloomberg South African lender VBS Mutual Bank, which collapsed in March, paid senior officials at the Public Investment Corp. (PIC) to fast-track funding for the lender, the Johannesburg-based Sunday Times said, citing an affidavit by the bank’s former head of treasury Phophi Mukhodobwane. The bank’s former treasurer was instructed to deliver a suitcase filled with 5 million rand to a ...

Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group Inc. tapped former Harvard University president Drew Faust as a director, making her the third woman on an expanded 12-member board. Faust, 70, starts as an independent director this month after an 11-year tenure at Harvard, the New York-based bank said in a statement. She will be a part of the governance, public responsibilities and risk ...

Bloomberg The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is among financial regulators globally seeking to ensure payment systems that handle retail transactions are more resilient and secure as fewer people carry cash, Assistant Governor Michele Bullock says. “The resilience of the electronic retail payment systems is becoming quite critical to the smooth functioning of economies,” Bullock, who overseas the financial system ...