Banking

Bloomberg The world’s financial leaders will call on international standard-setting bodies on March 20 for stronger monitoring of crypto-assets and to assess the need for a multilateral response as such assets could at some point threaten financial stability. The call appears in a draft communique prepared for the meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors of the world’s 20 ...

Bloomberg Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) Ltd., the world’s biggest lender, has been ordered by the Federal Reserve to bolster its protections against money laundering. The Fed found “significant deficiencies” in safeguards at the Chinese bank’s New York branch, the US regulator said in an enforcement order. The company agreed to submit plans to fix its compliance programs within ...

Bloomberg With so many central banks failing to hit their inflation targets, some are considering changes to the tool kits they use to steer their economies. Norway’s decision to lower its price target is just the latest example, and follows more or less official adjustments in Sweden, Argentina and the euro area. Even in New Zealand, the birthplace of inflation ...

Bloomberg China is giving its central bank the power to write the rules for the financial sector, as part of a swee-ping overhaul aimed at closing regulatory loopholes and curbing risk in the $43 trillion banking and insurance industries. The China Banking Regulatory Commission and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission will be mer-ged in the biggest industry overhaul since 2003. ...

Bloomberg India’s HDFC Bank Ltd., the world’s most-expensive lender, has appointed arrangers including Bank of America Corp, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse Group AG for a 155 billion rupee ($2.38 billion) planned share sale, people with knowledge of the matter said. The lender has also appointed JPMorgan Chase & Co., Edelweiss Financial Services Ltd., IIFL Holdings Ltd. and JM Financial ...

Bloomberg Ghana’s Energy Commercial Bank Ltd plans to raise about 330 million cedis ($75 million) through an initial public offering as the lender prepares to meet the regulator’s new threshold for capital requirements. The share sale will start next month, with IC Securities Ltd acting as the transaction adviser for the rights issue, Charles Nixon Yeboah, a spokesman for the ...

Bloomberg Digital currencies are a revolutionary tool that central banks should consider, but they remain far too risky to be used as legal tender any time soon, according to the Bank for International Settlements. The BIS — the club of the world’s largest central banks — said in a report that the new form of money could one day be ...

Bloomberg The case is strengthening for Norwegian central bank policy makers to soon raise interest rates for the first time in seven years. Economic growth is accelerating, oil prices are up, unemployment is nearing rock-bottom levels and central banks around the world are starting to withdraw stimulus. At the same time, the government this month decided to lower the inflation ...

Bloomberg Government-imposed caps on commercial interest rates risk destroying Kenya’s banking industry unless they’re addressed soon, the head of the country’s biggest lender said. KCB Group Plc wants the ceiling raised to more than the current 400 basis-point limit above official rates, an easier route than seeking a repeal of the law in parliament, Chief Financial Officer Lawrence Kimathi said ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG plans to raise as much as 1.8 billion euros ($2.2 billion) in an initial public offering of its asset-management unit, a key pillar of the German lender’s turnaround strategy. The offering values the asset manager at as much as 7.2 billion euros, a valuation that would align it with its bigger peer Amundi SA. Nippon Life ...