Banking

Bloomberg This isn’t the inflation the European Central Bank is looking for — but it is inflation. Figures this week are forecast to show euro-area consumer-price growth could have reached its fastest since early 2017 on the back of more expensive oil and a rebound in travel costs. The cost of crude and a weaker euro are also set to ...

Bloomberg From trade talks and scrapped deals to elections and government infighting, “uncertainty” has emerged as the biggest obstacle for Canada, according to the head of the nation’s largest lender. “It’s all this uncertainty we’re looking at,” Toronto-Dominion Bank Chief Executive Officer Bharat Masrani said in a BNN Bloomberg interview when asked what’s the biggest risk to his bank’s Canadian ...

Bloomberg Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and other top central bankers defended their use of unconventional policies during and after the financial crisis, but said more work was needed before they could declare the experiments successful. “The test is not over,” Powell said, less than three weeks before the Fed is expected to raise its policy interest rate for a ...

Bloomberg National Australia Bank Ltd. said it will ensure no customers suffer financial losses after a nationwide system outage left Internet banking, ATMs and EFTPOS terminals out of service. The event was “incredibly rare” and no personal data was compromised, Cindy Batchelor, NAB Business executive general manager, told reporters in Melbourne, according to a transcript. She said all customers were ...

Bloomberg Interest rate decisions across Africa in the next two weeks are likely to confirm the continent’s biggest economies have mostly ceased a wave of easing that’s been going since last year. Factors from sticky inflation to rising crude prices may persuade central bankers to freeze borrowing costs. Institutions in Nigeria, South Africa, Angola, Kenya and Mauritius will probably keep ...

Bloomberg For years, Swiss private banks largely resisted the temptation to merge with rivals. Often run by proud families, few wanted to let go of their independence or dilute their legacies. While local giants UBS Group AG and Credit Suisse Group AG went through painful reorganisations, smaller banks had time to continue with business as usual, even winning over disaffected ...

Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co.’s new public finance chief Stratford Shields is shaking up the department by dismissing senior bankers in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles and bringing in colleagues from his former employer, Morgan Stanley. Fifteen employees from its public finance department were removed, retired or quit as the bank shifted its strategy, according to a person familiar ...

Bloomberg The Bank of Korea (BoK) stayed the course amid rising uncertainty, leaving its benchmark interest rate unchanged in a unanim-ous decision. The central bank is balancing concerns including record household debt and recent weak domestic economic data with external risks such as rising US interest rates and global emerging-market instability. Governor Lee Ju-yeol described uncertainties as high, and as ...

Bloomberg Kenya plans to overhaul legislation governing its financial sector by creating new agencies that regulate the cost of credit and protect consumers, according to a draft law on the Treasury’s website. The Financial Markets Conduct Bill seeks to “promote a fair, non-discriminatory marketplace for access to credit, to provide for the establishment of uniform practices and standards in relation ...

Bloomberg Nigerian central bank Governor Godwin Emefiele’s tight monetary-policy stance and system of multiple exchange rates may have paid off through slowing inflation and a stable naira, and he’s not about to change that soon. The MPC has kept its benchmark interest rate at a record 14 percent since July 2016 despite calls to lower rates to support economic growth. ...