Banking

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. ...

Bloomberg Barclays Plc has been gauging clients’ interest in the British bank starting a cryptocurrency trading desk, potentially joining Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in pioneering a new business on Wall Street, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Barclays has so far only done a preliminary assessment of demand and feasibility, said the people, who asked not to be ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG has called off talks to sell its retail and private wealth businesses in India to IndusInd Bank Ltd., people with knowledge of the matter said. The German lender is considering keeping the operations after former Chief Executive Officer John Cryan stepped down this month, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is ...

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 ...