Banking

Bloomberg As Nordea Bank AB’s Bitcoin ban for staff has unions questioning the legality of the move, Sweden’s minister in charge of financial legislation says it’s understandable that the industry is resorting to such measures. “If banks have rules on what investments they or their employees are trading in, it is up to them,” Financial Markets Minister Per Bolund told ...

Bloomberg UBS Group AG plans to keep the maximum amount of jobs and business in the UK as the country works towards a solution with European authorities on its exit from the trading block. The bank considers a centralised model more efficient and favors a European financial center that can “balance” New York, investment banking head Andrea Orcel said in ...

Bloomberg ICICI Bank Ltd., India’s second-largest private lender by assets, predicts the nation’s rate-cut cycle has ended and traders should brace for tightening in the coming months. “Reduction in the interest rate cycle has stopped now,” Chief Executive Officer Chanda Kochhar said in an interview with Bloom-berg TV. “We should be prepared for an increase over a period.” Kochhar wades ...

Bloomberg The Bank of Japan said Governor Haruhiko Kuroda wasn’t revising the inflation outlook when he said in Davos that consumer prices are finally moving close to the 2 percent target. “There are some indications that wages are actually rising, and some prices have already started to rise and even medium- to long-term inflation expectations, which have been so weak ...

Bloomberg There’s one question European Central Bank President Mario Draghi won’t be able to ignore at his first policy meeting of the year: whether the euro is too strong for the currency bloc’s health. In the six weeks since the previous decision, the single currency for 19 European nations has surged to the highest level against the dollar in more ...

Bloomberg UBS Group AG Chairman Axel Weber said the Swiss bank won’t trade Bitcoin or offer it to retail clients as increased regulation could lead to a “massive” drop in value. “This is something where the price is really unclear,” Weber said in an interview on Wednesday with Bloomberg TV at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “We fear ...

Bloomberg State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank will be among lenders that receive 881 billion rupees ($14 billion) of fresh capital the government had pledged for state-run banks in the year through March 31. SBI, the nation’s biggest lender by assets, will get 88 billion rupees while Punjab National Bank will take 55 billion rupees, Rajiv Kumar, banking ...

Bloomberg The Bank of Japan will continue with its unprecedented monetary easing policy for a “couple more years” and it will remain tough for lenders to make money from doling out credit, according to the top executive at Mizuho Financial Group Inc. “Just simple lending business is not so profitable, and this situation will last,” Chief Executive Officer Yasuhiro Sato ...

Bloomberg Strains are spreading in China’s $15 trillion shadow banking industry as investors pull back from the debt-like savings products that helped drive leverage to dangerous levels. Most affected are some $3.8 trillion of so-called trust products, until now the fastest-growing shadow banking segment and a popular way for debt-ridden property developers and local governments to raise funds from millions ...

Bloomberg As Nordea Bank AB blazes a trail in Europe by banning its employees from trading Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, the regulator is taking a back seat in a decision-making process it says is better left to the industry. Sweden’s Financial Supervisory Authority thinks “every institution must decide on the details of their internal regulations specifying the rules for their ...