Banking

Bloomberg European Central Bank officials told investors from around the world that they’re right to bet on a gradual reduction of monetary stimulus in the euro area. On the eve of a Group of 20 meeting of finance chiefs in Buenos Aires, Governing Council members Klaas Knot and Francois Villeroy de Galhau expressed confidence that inflation in the 19-nation region ...

Bloomberg The record-beating rally of European cyclical stocks is heading for a pause. That’s according to Deutsche Bank’s head of European equity strategy Sebastian Raedler, who argues that equities geared to the economy will underperform defensive peers by about 10% through mid-year. Sectors like banks and miners — which last year benefited from investor optimism over growth — will bear ...

Bloomberg Societe Generale SA has applied for an Australian banking license as it prepares to restart its onshore lending business, according to a person familiar with the situation. The French bank wound down much of its Australian business in 2010, when it shifted its foreign exchange and commodities trading from Sydney to Hong Kong, giving up its local deposit-taking license ...

Bloomberg Morgan Stanley and Principal Financial Group Inc. were among banks and insurers that rallied after a US appeals court struck down a sweeping Obama-era rule that aimed to protect millions of Americans from conflicted investment advice. The rule, imposed by the Labor Department (DOL), would have added an extra layer of scrutiny for the industry and increased compliance costs. ...

RIYADH / Reuters Saudi Arabia’s central bank raised its two key interest rates by 0.25 percentage points in an apparent effort to prevent Saudi money rates from falling far below US rates, which could trigger capital outflows from the kingdom. The central bank lifted its repo rate, at which it lends to commercial banks, to 2.25 percentage points and its ...

Bloomberg The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has made a 2.51 percent equity investment in Lebanon’s Bank Audi, the EBRD’s first investment in Lebanon, Audi said. The EBRD, a multilateral development bank, said the investment in Lebanon’s largest bank aims to support Lebanese financial markets, influence the broader economy and strengthen the financial sector. Lebanon has one of the ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG is predicting volatile markets are here to stay, helping the lender arrest two years of declines at its debt-trading business. Its forecast that full-year trading revenue will rise is bolder than that of its peers. While other US And European trading behemoths are also predicting a boost to trading, they’ve restricted themselves to the shorter term. ...

Bloomberg Nordea Bank AB won enough support from its shareholders for its proposed move to Helsinki from Stockholm, paving the way for the Nordic region’s largest bank to join Europe’s banking union. More than 95% of the shareholders present or represented at the bank’s annual general meeting in Stockholm voted in support of the proposed relocation, surpassing the two thirds ...

Bloomberg The UK’s largest lenders face tougher capital demands in this year’s stress test, as the Bank of England steps up efforts to avert a repeat of the financial crisis. Banks will be held to a single capital standard that includes their minimum capital requirements as well as any buffers they must have to account for their importance to the ...

Bloomberg Mario Draghi said the European Central Bank will avoid surprising investors with sudden changes to its stimulus plans, stressing that inflation is still too low and US trade policies and a stronger euro are concerns. “Adjustments to our policy will remain predictable, and they will proceed at a measured pace,” the institution’s president said in his opening speech at ...