Banking

Bloomberg The silence all day spoke volumes about the disarray at the top of Deutsche Bank AG, say insiders and shareholders. No one at the bank — from spokespeople to the highest-ranking executives — commented publicly on a string of media reports and investor speculation that either Chairman Paul Achleitner or Chief Executive Officer John Cryan, or both, was on ...

Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc froze an account linked to an alleged fraud that siphoned about $500 million from Angolan state coffers, according to a person briefed on the matter. A large transfer raised suspicions at the bank, prompting it to alert UK authorities at least weeks ago, the person said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information. Britain’s National ...

Bloomberg Getting your head around cryptocurrencies was hard enough before governments got involved. But now that policy makers around the world are drawing up fresh regulations on everything from exchanges to initial coin offerings, keeping track of what’s legal has become just as daunting as figuring out which newfangled token might turn into the next Bitcoin. The rules can vary ...

Bloomberg Two of China’s largest banks posted better-than-expected profit growth in 2017 as a strengthening economy curbed soured loans and the government’s campaign to cut debt boosted their lending margins. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd on Tuesday reported a 3 percent increase in net income last year, while Agricultural Bank of China Ltd posted a 5 percent gain. ...

Bloomberg The European Central Bank alerted auditors that lenders could try to take advantage of the transition to new accounting standards to spread the hit on loan losses over years instead of reflecting them in their 2017 financial results, three people familiar with the matter said. The ECB’s Single Supervisory Mechanism, which oversees the region’s largest banks, flagged the risk ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG is considering candidates to potentially replace Chief Executive Officer John Cryan amid heightened tensions between him and Supervisory Board Chairman Paul Achleitner, the Times of London reported without saying where it got the information. The bank approached Richard Gnodde, the head of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s international operations, but he’s thought to have spurned the overture, ...

Bloomberg Indonesia ordered the nation’s biggest lenders to set aside additional capital to bolster their ability to absorb losses and protect against any bank failures. The Financial Services Authority, known as OJK, told the country’s systemically important banks to create a tier-1 capital surcharge of between 1 percent and 3.5 percent of risk-weighted assets, depending on the size and perceived ...

Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co. announced changes to its risk-management leadership as some executives plan to retire, according to a person familiar with the situation. The director of financial crimes risk management Jim Richards; head of operational risk and compliance Kevin Oden; Keb Byers, who runs enterprise risk; and the community banking risk group’s Vic Albrecht are stepping down in ...

Bloomberg Bonds that are supposed to make banks stronger may end up causing another crisis. The 178.6 billion euros ($222 billion) of notes that are meant to absorb losses at European banks — while keeping them a going concern — have gone largely untested. Actually triggering these contingent convertible notes, or CoCos, could spook investors and destabilise other lenders, especially ...

Bloomberg UBS Group AG is considering small acquisitions to complement its focus on organic growth as it reverses a shrinking of assets following the financial crisis. “Our focus is on organic growth. Of course we look at small acquisitions here and there to complement our portfolio,” Chief Executive Officer Sergio Ermotti told Bloomberg TV on the sidelines of the China ...