Bloomberg After five deals in six months, Bank of Nova Scotia is taking a breather. “We’ve got a lot of work to do in terms of execution and integrations now, so I think we’ll be fairly quiet on the acquisition front from here on in,†Chief Executive Officer Brian Porter told BNN Bloomberg in a TV interview set to air ...
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Botswana urges tax reform before diamonds dwindle
Bloomberg Botswana relies on the gemstones for almost a fifth of its gross domestic product and used the revenue generated from sales to transform the nation from an economic backwater into one of the continent’s wealthiest societies. However, their role is set to diminish over the next 20 years and successive governments have struggled to diversify the economy. Although the ...
Read More »Crisis-weary global central banks brace for turmoil
Bloomberg Just when central bankers thought they were about to get out of the business of emergency economic stimulus, jittery financial markets are threatening to pull some of them back in. For the European Central Bank, the latest threat requiring vigilance is political turmoil in Italy that’s reviving memories of the debt crisis that threatened to fracture the euro area. ...
Read More »Bank Indonesia’s new governor stamps his mark with rate hike
Bloomberg Indonesia’s new central bank chief raised interest rates at an early policy meeting on Wednesday, moving swiftly to counter an emerging-market selloff that’s shaken the nation’s currency and bonds. Less than a week in office, Governor Perry Warjiyo led the board in increasing the seven-day reverse repurchase rate by 25 basis points to 4.75 percent, in line with almost ...
Read More »Hawks take hold in India as RBI’s monetary policy looks set to tighten
Bloomberg The interest-rate cycle in India is turning. The central bank may be set to tighten policy next week to keep inflation in check and stem the declines in the rupee, if the rate-market moves are any indication. The Reserve Bank of India hasn’t tinkered with rates since August, and even cut inflation projections last month, raising expectations that borrowing ...
Read More »Deutsche Bank staff ‘to learn their fates’ by July
Bloomberg If you’re at Deutsche Bank AG and haven’t already been fired, you’re likely to find out next month if you will. The bank will have completed the “vast majority†of front-office job cuts by the end of June, Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing said at a conference in New York, adding that 600 staff have already left the Corporate ...
Read More »The $457bn reason for China to cut its reserve ratio again
Bloomberg The case for the People’s Bank of China to cut the amount of cash lenders are required to hold is getting stronger. Chinese banks racked up 2.93 trillion yuan ($457 billion) in medium-term loans extended by the PBOC scheduled for repayment during the rest of 2018. That has prompted some analysts to raise bets the PBOC may soon repeat ...
Read More »Fed’s Bullard warns against rate hikes amid low inflation bets
Bloomberg The Fed should slow its pace of policy normalisation to help re-align price expectations around 2 percent and maintain the credibility of its inflation target, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said on Tuesday in Tokyo. “Inflation expectations in the US remain somewhat low, suggesting that further normalisation may not be necessary to keep inflation near ...
Read More »Regulator unearths $7bn of bad loans at big Indian banks
Bloomberg Bad loans at India’s five biggest state-run banks were about 456.8 billion rupees ($6.8 billion) more than the lenders had assessed. Audits by the regulator for the year ended March 31, 2017, revealed the discrepancies, triggering large losses as the banks increased provisions. If you add IDBI Bank Ltd., which doesn’t feature among the biggest but got the largest ...
Read More »Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait looks out for acquisitions as Gulf lenders merge
Bloomberg Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait is on the look out for acquisitions in the Gulf region as it seeks to boost revenue from international operations. “We want to manage and absorb the last merger, but we’re always looking for acquisitions,†Chief Executive Officer Michel Accad said in an interview in Kuwait City. “We can consider anything at the right ...
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