Banking

Bloomberg Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena is slowly turning a corner after last year’s 8 billion euro ($10 billion) bailout, its chief executive said, flagging an increase in both lending and client funding. Italy’s fourth-largest lender, laid low by mismanagement and a large bad loan pile, has long been Rome’s biggest banking headache and is now 68 percent ...

NEW YORK / Reuters Quirks in the new US tax code are sowing doubts over how much big banks can boost dividends and stock buybacks this year, threatening to take the shine off what are likely to be strong quarterly profits. Changes in how companies can measure and apply past losses to tax bills, coupled with more extreme scenarios in ...

Bloomberg Mario Draghi is finding the euro area’s eastern flank to be an unwelcome distraction. The European Central Bank president is likely to find the Governing Council missing both its Latvian and Slovenian representatives this summer, with the former barred because of a bribery investigation and the latter opting to leave his job. The ECB is questioning Latvia’s restrictions on ...

Bloomberg A new type of bank bond is coming to China, albeit slowly. Chinese regulators in March released preliminary guidelines encouraging mainland banks to consider selling securities that can take in large losses in the event of a crisis. Bond watchers have taken that as a sign that total-loss absorbing capacity (TLAC) issuance may make its debut in China, following ...

Bloomberg Poland’s monetary tightening, already postponed for a second year, is no longer inevitable. Instead of a widely anticipated pickup in inflation, two months of below-forecast readings are a vindication of the central bank’s reluctance to tinker with borrowing costs in what’s already its longest-ever period of stable interest rates. The 10-member Monetary Policy Council will keep its benchmark at ...

LONDON / Reuters Major global central banks are ramping up purchases of euro zone government bonds, banking sources say, enticed by rising yields, a buoyant single currency and an uncertain outlook for US debt and the dollar. Data shows central banks bought significant chunks of debt issued by Belgium, France and state-backed German development bank KfW in bond syndications last ...

Bloomberg The European Central Bank’s top officials lined up to express cautious confidence in the euro-area economy after a series of reports pointing to a surprisingly weak start to the year, while reiterating that they’ll move only slowly towards ending stimulus. President Mario Draghi and three of his most-senior colleagues signalled that while inflation remains too low and a global ...

VIENNA / Reuters BNP Paribas is increasing its presence in Poland with the 775 million euro ($954 million) purchase of Raiffeisen Bank International’s (RBI) main business in the European Union’s largest eastern economy. The French bank said it will merge Raiffeisen Bank Polska, Poland’s tenth largest lender by assets, with BGZ BNP Paribas, which it bought in 2014, bolstering its ...

Bloomberg Axis Bank Ltd.’s Chief Executive Officer Shikha Sharma will step down at the end of 2018, more than two years before the proposed end of her term, amid reports the regulator is questioning the lender’s performance. The board of India’s third-largest private bank had proposed she stay through 2021 but accepted Sharma’s request for an exit on December 31, ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG’s management upheaval may be the final blow to the embattled lender’s ambitions to go head-to-head with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in international investment banking, and that’s just fine for many in Germany. With veteran Christian Sewing appointed chief executive officer as the emergency replacement for out-of-favour John Cryan, businesses serving international clients and trading an array ...