Banking

TOKYO / Reuters The Bank of Japan will likely maintain its view inflation will reach its 2 percent target next fiscal year and project it will stay near that level the following year, in new forecasts due out next week, sources familiar with its thinking said. But the central bank will reassure markets it is nowhere near an exit from ...

Bloomberg The franc is within striking distance of what was once one of the most heavily defended boundaries in global markets. Having touched a three-year low of 1.19 per euro on Tuesday, the franc is now less than a centime away of the 1.20 mark at which the Swiss National Bank had its minimum exchange rate until early 2015 — ...

NEW YORK / Reuters Banks have not reaped the full benefit of US tax cuts, Wall Street executives said after a string of quarterly results, with expected business growth and higher consumer spending yet to materialise. Analysts and investors are still trying to work out the longer-term effects of the tax rewrite signed into law in December, which slashed the ...

Bloomberg The recent game of musical chairs is continuing for bankers selling initial public offerings in Asia, with UBS Group AG the latest to announce changes. UBS appointed Hannah Malter as Asia head of equity capital markets syndicate, effective immediately, it said on Monday in an internal memo obtained by Bloomberg. Malter, who formerly worked as Asia-Pacific chief of staff ...

Reuters Bank of America reported a 34 percent rise in first-quarter profit on Monday, topping Wall Street estimates, as the lender benefited from higher interest rates and growth in loans and deposits. Revenue rose at three of BofA’s four major businesses. In consumer banking, its biggest business, revenue increased 9 percent as higher interest rates helped BofA charge more for ...

ATHENS / Reuters Greek banks will pass the European Central Bank’s (ECB) stress test of their financial health, the chief executive of the country’s second-biggest lender, National Bank (NBG), said on Monday. The ECB will publish the results of a stress test of Greece’s four largest lenders — Piraeus, NBG, Eurobank and Alpha — in May to allow time for ...

Reuters A Swiss investor adviser group said Credit Suisse Group AG share-holders should vote against the bank’s 2017 compensation plan, splitting with overseas advisers that backed changes made following uproar last year. Ethos, which advises Swiss pension funds, also said investors shouldn’t support the re-election of Chairman Urs Rohner because renumeration changes were driven by management rather than the board, ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG has been asked by the European Central Bank to simulate an orderly wind-down of its trading book, Chief Financial Officer James von Moltke told Bloomberg on Monday. “There’s no novelty about the exercise per se; the novelty is that we’re doing this with the ECB,” von Moltke said. The exercise will take several months, being “broader ...

Bloomberg Canadian banks have amassed their biggest war chest in five years — and they’re ready to use it. The country’s six largest lenders are approaching their strongest capital position since 2013, leaving them with enough resources to pursue acquisitions, buy back shares or build from within. That has the chiefs of Canada’s big banks weighing options. “It’s great to ...

TOKYO / Reuters The Bank of Japan mostly held an optimistic view on regional economies, in a sign of its conviction over a broadening recovery but warned that labour shortages and a US-China trade war could cloud the outlook. The central bank’s assessment in a report suggests it will probably maintain its upbeat growth and price forecasts when it conducts ...