Banking

Bloomberg New Zealand’s banking sector doesn’t share the cultural problems that are coming to the surface at an inquiry into misconduct in Australia’s financial industry, Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr says. “The true problem and challenge going on in Australia is cultural,” Orr said in an interview on Television New Zealand’s Q+A. New Zealand bank culture “is infinitely better than ...

Bloomberg For years, Republican lawmakers and regulators have groused about big corporate fines, arguing that they mostly punish blameless shareholders, not the executives who are responsible for misconduct. Then President Donald Trump tweeted his ire about Wells Fargo & Co. and — at least in the case of the embattled bank — the GOP is singing a different tune. Watchdogs ...

Bloomberg European Central Bank policy makers see scope to wait until their July meeting to announce how they’ll end their bond-buying program, according to euro-area officials familiar with the matter. Governing Council members want sufficient time to judge if the economy is overcoming its first-quarter slowdown, the officials said, asking not to be identified because the internal deliberations are confidential. ...

Bloomberg Even before Bundesbank will publish its annual statistics on the consolidation in the German banking industry in May, there are already indications that the total number of banks and branches has dropped even further. Banks from abroad or those focussing on very specific customer groups are among the few that are expanding. The number of savings and cooperative banks, ...

Bloomberg Barclays Plc Chief Executive Officer Jes Staley survived a year-long regulatory probe into his attempts to unmask a whistle-blower, escaping with a fine instead of losing his job. While the UK Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority will impose a financial penalty on Staley for failing to behave “with due skill, care and diligence” in the scandal, they ...

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 ...