Banking

Bloomberg Argentina investors say the central bank’s extraordinary effort to bolster the peso may be just the beginning, with more such actions to be expected if the currency doesn’t stabilise soon. Policy makers’ decision to raise the key interest rate 3 percentage points to 30.25 percent, a surprise move announced just days after they held borrowing costs, led the peso ...

Bloomberg Economists abandoned predictions that the Bank of England (BoE) will increase interest rates next month after two weeks of disappointing data and the public doubts of Mark Carney. The shock near-stagnation of the economy proved the final straw after the BOE governor raised questions about such a move last week. Firms including NatWest Markets, SEB, Berenberg and ING have ...

Bloomberg Japan’s biggest bank has been accused by New York officials of dodging tough oversight by swapping its state license for a federal one, putting itself under a US agency on the front lines of President Donald Trump’s push to ease financial rules. The November move by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. (MUFG) is now drawing scrutiny from a key ...

Bloomberg Central banks from Frankfurt to Ottawa appear to be taking a lower gear on the road away from easy monetary policy amid signs some key economies are slowing. The European Central Bank avoided any discussion of its next steps toward ending bond buying and Sweden’s Riksbank pushed back a plan to raise interest rates for the first time in ...

Bloomberg Mario Draghi said European Central Bank policy makers refrained from discussing the end of asset purchases or even the stronger euro as they focussed on gauging the health of the region’s economy. The Governing Council spent its two-day meeting assessing a raft of weaker economic data, the ECB president said at a news conference in Frankfurt. While acknowledging that ...

Bloomberg Latvia’s prime minister says his nation is cracking down on shady dealings in the financial sector to help local banks regain access to directly transact in dollars. Doing so is vital for boosting trade and investment, according to Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis, whose government has sought to tighten banking supervision after the demise of the Baltic nation’s No. 3 ...

Bloomberg Europe is struggling to agree on how to tackle money laundering in the wake of high-profile scandals in the Baltic region. Latvia, grappling with the aftermath of its third-biggest bank being closed down, is calling for a pan-European approach to fighting dubious financial flows. While it has the support of other small states, it hasn’t convinced Germany, which argues ...

Bloomberg For the first time since 2008, Standard Chartered Plc (StanChart) is topping the list of bond sales arrangers in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena). The emerging markets-focussed lender climbed four places from 2017 and has already built up a substantial lead on the competition just four months into the year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. JPMorgan ...

Bloomberg Germany wants to help UK banks get access to the European market after Brexit, but would need Britain to make concessions, according to a person familiar with the German government’s position. With Brexit talks bogged down in divorce issues, the outlook for Britain’s financial services sector hasn’t been discussed yet. But the European Commission, which is leading negotiations on ...

Bloomberg Low inflation and solid growth mean there’s no pressing need to devalue the currency in the near term, State Bank of Pakistan Governor Tariq Bajwa said in an interview. Pakistan has allowed the rupee to weaken twice in recent months as it attempts to mend its deteriorating finances before elections due in July. Bajwa said another near-term move to ...