Banking

India joins emerging markets in pulling interest rate trigger

Bloomberg India’s central bank raised its benchmark interest rate for the first time since 2014 to curb rising price pressures and calm financial markets as policy tightening in the US rattles emerging markets. All six members of the Monetary Policy Committee voted to increase the repurchase rate to 6.25 percent from 6 percent, the Reserve Bank of India said in ...

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Credit Suisse to pay $47mn to resolve US probe on Asia hiring

Bloomberg Credit Suisse Group AG agreed to pay a $47 million penalty to the US Department of Justice to end a probe into whether it hired employees in Asia in exchange for government contracts and other favors. Credit Suisse’s Hong Kong unit reached a non-prosecution agreement with the DOJ regarding its recruitment practices in Asia between 2007 and 2013, according ...

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Circle seeks to become licensed bank, trading venue

Bloomberg Circle Internet Financial Ltd., one of the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency platforms, is looking to make a big leap into the highly regulated realm of US banks and brokerages. The venture, partly backed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., plans to seek a federal banking license to provide more services to customers. It also intends to pursue registration as a ...

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ECB’s Praet confirms June meeting pivotal for bond-buying program

Bloomberg European Central Bank Chief Economist Peter Praet confirmed that next week’s policy meeting will be pivotal for reaching a decision on when to end the institution’s bond-buying program. His comments reinforce the view that the ECB is close to settling the question of how long it will keep buying debt to support the euro-area economy. Bloomberg reported that policy ...

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Inflation lull keeps Polish rates shackled as region diverges

Bloomberg Polish rate setters kept borrowing costs unchanged, sticking to a wait-and-see policy that may last into the next decade as the central bank diverges from other countries in the region already tightening monetary policy. Below-forecast inflation and higher-than-estimated economic growth have given the Monetary Policy Council all it needs to stick with Governor Adam Glapinski’s stance that rates may ...

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UK sells $3.3bn RBS stake after crisis-era bailout

Bloomberg The British government sold a 2.5 billion pound ($3.3 billion) stake in Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, reducing its majority holding a decade after it bailed out the lender during the financial crisis. The state sold 7.7 percent in the lender at 271 pence per share to institutional investors, it said in a statement on Tuesday. Shares in ...

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Wall Street leads chorus to get back into the emerging-market game

Bloomberg This year won’t see a re-run of nightmare on EM street, according to a trio of top American banks, more than a few money managers and even a former central banker. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. says fundamentals in emerging markets are mostly intact in the wake of the recent stress test from higher US interest rates, a rally in ...

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Central bank covers GCB Bank of Ghana’s $461mn takeover liability

Bloomberg GCB Bank of Ghana Ltd. said it received a 2.2 billion-cedi ($461 million) bond from the central bank for taking over the assets of two failed lenders in 2017. Ghana’s biggest lender by branch network acquired the liabilities and some assets of UT Bank Ltd. and Capital Bank Ltd. in August after the companies collapsed as they failed to ...

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SocGen reaches agreements on benchmark, Libya probe

Bloomberg Societe Generale SA agreed with US authorities to settle probes into interest-rate manipulation and the bribery of Libyan officials, drawing a line under two of the French bank’s biggest legal headaches. SocGen agreed to pay undisclosed penalties to resolve US investigations that it submitted misleading numbers for the London interbank offered rate and, in a separate case, bribed Libyans ...

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Bank Negara Malaysia governor offers to resign

Bloomberg Malaysia’s central bank Governor Muhammad Ibrahim offered to resign from his post two years into his term, according to people familiar with the matter, who declined to be identified because the discussions are confidential. The move comes less than a month after Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad won a surprise election victory and his newly installed finance minister, Lim Guan ...

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