Banking

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. ...

Bloomberg European Union finance ministers gave the green light to an overhaul of the bloc’s banking laws, paving the way for long-planned steps towards closer integration of the euro area’s financial system. The update, first proposed in late 2016, incorporates capital and liquidity standards set by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. It also sets new requirements for loss-absorbing liabilities ...

Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc is continuing a hiring spree for its equities business in the Asia-Pacific region, recruiting executives from firms including Deutsche Bank AG and Citigroup Inc., according to people familiar with the matter. HSBC has hired Deutsche Bank’s Isabella Kwok as a managing director for Asian equity sales with a China focus, the people said, asking not to ...

Bloomberg Global central bankers made a concerted call for their independence from politics to be safeguarded, arguing government interference in mone-tary policy risked propelling inflation. With Turkey engulfed by a currency crisis partly driven by political efforts to influence interest rates, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told a conference in Stockholm that he and counterparts shouldn’t take their independence for ...

Bloomberg The Philippine central bank cut the ratio of funds that lenders must hold as reserves, in line with a strategy outlined by Governor Nestor Espenilla to reform financial markets. The reserve requirement ratio was lowered by 1 percentage point to 18 percent, effective from June 1, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said in a statement. The move, the second reduction ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG will cut a quarter of equities jobs and reduce overall positions by at least 7,000 as Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing seeks to slash costs and boost profitability. The reductions will take the number of jobs at the Frankfurt-based lender to well below 90,000 and lead to a restructuring charge of as much as 800 million ...

Bloomberg The US House has approved a sweeping overhaul of bank regulations, sending to President Donald Trump a bill that will give him a chance to make good on his vow to “do a big number” on the Dodd-Frank Act. Lawmakers voted 258-to-159 to advance a measure that is the product of years of financial-industry lobbying to soften post-crisis rules ...

Bloomberg Barclays Plc has been exploring a potential merger with rival banks including Standard Chartered Plc, as part of wide-ranging contingency plans being weighed by senior board members following pressure from an activist investor, the Financial Times reported. Chairman John McFarlane was at least theoretically keen on the idea of combining with Standard Chartered, and was supported by Deputy Chairman ...

Bloomberg Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce is no longer an outlier on mortgages. CIBC has scaled back its rapid expansion of Canadian home loans, bringing it more in line with the industry and ending a two-year streak of outpacing the nation’s other big banks. Mortgage balances rose 6 percent to C$208.2 billion ($161.6 billion) in the fiscal second quarter from ...