Banking

Bloomberg Traders in India’s battered bond market want the central bank to play the role of a savior. With the market reeling under the worst selloff in almost two decades, investors say the Reserve Bank of India should consider buying support as well as expand the quota limits for global funds. Absent that, they expect the declines to continue. “To ...

Bloomberg ING Groep NV, the biggest Dutch lender, saw expenses increase as a proportion of income last year as Chief Executive Officer Ralph Hamers said the bank increased spending on measures that will help it cut costs further in the future. ING reported a cost-to-income ratio of 59.9 percent in the fourth quarter, a rise from a year earlier and ...

Bloomberg The Bank of Japan increased the amount of bonds it offered to buy at a regular operation for the first time since July, helping to bring down yields and weaken the yen. The BOJ sought to buy 330 billion yen ($3 billion) of 3-to-5 year debt, more than the 300 billion yen at the last operation, it said a ...

Bloomberg China’s top banks — the biggest in the world — have typically traded below the value of their assets on concern over rising bad debt and falling profitability. That’s starting to change, and quickly. A recent surge in the Hong Kong-traded shares of China’s Big Four state banks lifted their average price-to-book value ratio to 1. That’s the highest ...

Bloomberg Lloyds Banking Group Plc is changing the way it reports some of its key numbers ahead of its annual results next month. The earnings of the consumer finance unit, whose assets increased by 12 percent to 39.2 billion pounds ($54.8 billion) in 2016, will be merged with the retail division, according to a memo sent to investors and seen ...

Bloomberg Inflation expectations in Mauritius are contained for now, leaving room for the central bank to stick to its accommodative stance to support economic growth, Governor Yandraduth Googoolye said as he prepares to chair his first Monetary Policy Committee meeting next month. The pick-up in the average rate of price growth in the 12 months through December was due to ...

Bloomberg Commonwealth Bank of Australia is being sued by the nation’s securities regulator for allegedly rigging the benchmark bank-bill swap rate, adding to legal problems for the nation’s largest lender. The Australian Securities & Investments Commission said it began legal proceedings on Tuesday in the Federal Court in Melbourne, alleging the bank engaged in “unconscionable conduct and market manipulation” between ...

Bloomberg Morocco may need anything from five to 15 years to fully float the dirham, with further currency liberalisation dependent on other reforms including strengthening the country’s export base and reducing the current-account deficit, central bank Governor Abdellatif Jouahri said. Policymakers finally eased their grip on the dirham on January 15, allowing the currency to trade 2.5 percent above or ...

Bloomberg The rationale for merging some of Europe’s biggest lenders is compelling. That’s the view of many financial executives who met at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week. A decade after the financial crisis, some of the region’s biggest lenders are facing declining revenue as interest rates linger near record lows, while legal bills and capital demands ...

DUBAI / Reuters Bahrain-based Ithmaar Bank plans to add more than 100 branches in Pakistan this year through its subsidiary Faysal Bank, to capitalise on the country’s low penetration rate of banking services, a senior executive said. Ithmaar Bank owns 66 percent of Faysal Bank, whose contribution to the Islamic retail bank’s overall balance sheet would likely grow to more ...