Banking

Bloomberg The Hong Kong dollar’s interbank borrowing costs rose to their hig-hest level this year, as the city’s de facto central bank bought more of the currency to defend its peg to the greenback. The three-month interbank rate — known as Hibor — climbed for a fourth day to reach 1.32 percent, the highest since December 27, as the Hong ...

Bloomberg The bad news at Deutsche Bank AG just got worse. Amid a weeks-long leadership tussle that claimed the scalps of the chief executive, two of his top lieutenants and tainted its chairman, the bank inadvertently transferred 28 billion euros ($35 billion) to one of its outside accounts, Bloomberg News has revealed. While the blunder was quickly reversed and caused ...

Bloomberg India’s cash machines are running dry, leaving policy makers and bankers scrambling to assuage the public and prevent perception about the nation’s fraud-hit financial system from worsening. As the banknote shortage spread across several states, the government finally addressed the issue in a statement, where it cited an “unusual spurt in demand” for cash. The Finance Ministry rolled out ...

Bloomberg Germany’s public-sector workers and employers have agreed on a three-step series of wage hikes, providing the European Central Bank with fresh evidence of inflation-boosting pay deals and averting the threat of more disruptive strikes. Wages for 2.3 million workers in federal and local governments will rise by an annual 3.19 percent on average retroactive to March, by another 3.09 ...

Bloomberg Investors are losing faith in the Bank of England delivering two interest-rate increases this year as UK economic data does little to suggest a full-blown tightening cycle is needed. While a hike in May is still almost fully priced in by markets, the chances of a second in 2018 fell further on Wednesday after inflation slowed to the weakest ...

Bloomberg China’s banks stand to make higher profits from the government’s move to fine-tune monetary policy by slashing their reserve requirements. Banking shares jumped. The resulting drop in funding costs will boost the net interest margin of listed Chinese banks by 0.9 basis point and lift their profits by 0.6 percent, according to analysts at China International Capital Corp. Industrial ...

Bloomberg The franc may be close to the Swiss National Bank’s previous currency ceiling, but that doesn’t mean investors should expect an interest rate hike too soon. A monthly survey of economists shows they anticipate the Swiss central bank will keep its deposit rate at minus 0.75 percent the first nine months of 2019, before raising it by 25 basis ...

Bloomberg Inflation is showing signs of taking root in Japan. With price gains halfway to the Bank of Japan’s 2 percent target, domestic demand is picking up after years in which external factors such as energy prices did most of the work. As the economy continues to grow, this could open the door for the central bank to start adjusting ...

Bloomberg European Central Bank officials are starting to consider a topic President Mario Draghi dismissed as a “high-class problem” — whether to let the economy run hot. Even with recent signs of a slowdown, the euro-zone economy is growing faster than its long-term trend. Allowing that boom to continue even at the cost of higher inflation is arguably one way ...

Bloomberg Adopting the euro would offer “numerous and lasting” benefits for Croatia’s economy, central bank governor Boris Vujcic told Reuters, although he declined to indicate when it might enter the single currency’s ERM-2 “waiting room”. Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said in October that he wanted the newest European Union member to start using the euro within seven or eight years. ...