Banking

Bloomberg Economists brought forward their estimate of when the European Central Bank will set an end-date for its bond-buying program, amid signs that more optimistic views on inflation might be gaining sway among policy makers. While no action is expected at the Governing Council meeting on January 25, almost half of respondents in a Bloomberg survey predicted the ECB will ...

Bloomberg Indian bank shares surged the most since November on a report the government is considering allowing foreign investors to own larger stakes in the country’s lenders. The Bankex Index, a gauge for 10 lenders, rose 2 percent to a new record high as of 9:30 a.m. in Mumbai. Gains were led by privately owned Yes Bank Ltd., which is ...

Bloomberg The Bank of Canada indicated it’s in no rush to pursue aggressive interest rate hikes, citing “important unknowns” such as the future of Nafta as it raised borrowing costs for the third time since July. At a rate decision, central bank officials led by Governor Stephen Poloz sought to quell expectations Canada’s economic boom could prompt them to move ...

Bloomberg Barclays Plc is eliminating as many as 100 senior staff at its investment bank as the unit’s chief, Tim Throsby, overhauls the underperforming division, according to people familiar with the decision. The cutbacks will fall mainly at the managing director and director levels and are evenly split between Europe and the US, said the people, who asked not to ...

Bloomberg The Argentine peso has a split personality, with analysts forecasting both big losses in the spot market and the highest total return for emerging-market investors. The reason for the divergence comes down to inflation and interest rates. Consumer-price increases of more than 20 percent will wreak havoc on the peso’s value, but any weakness will be more than offset ...

Bloomberg Bank of America Corp. once excited investors by pledging steep cost cuts by the end of this year. It still has a ways to go. The lender showed promise on revenue growth, as net interest income jumped to the highest in more than five years and revenue from trading and investment banking both topped estimates. Now, analysts question whether ...

Bloomberg A minor tweak in the Bank of Japan’s bond purchases has emboldened investors to bet the central bank is about to wind back monetary stimulus. Going long on the yen is the biggest currency wager for AMP Capital Investors Ltd.’s Nader Naeimi. Singapore-based hedge fund Kit Trading Fund Ltd. started a bet on the yen last week, predicting the ...

Bloomberg Citigroup Inc. envisions years of tax-reform benefits ahead, even as competitors warned that their rewards may soon start fading away. Last month’s Republican-led legislation cut Citigroup’s effective threshold to about 25 percent in 2018 and company executives said it will go even lower from there, leading the bank to boost its forecast for profitability. That contrasts with JPMorgan Chase ...

Bloomberg Philippine central bank Governor Nestor Espenilla said it’s getting harder to cut the reserve requirement ratio for lenders as he’d pledged to do when he took office six months ago, with inflation set to pick up. “We have to be careful that we don’t send the signal that we are lowering the guard in terms of fighting inflation and ...

RIYADH / Reuters Saudi Arabia’s King Salman ordered a deposit of $2 billion to be paid into Yemen’s central bank on Wednesday to shore up the weak Yemeni currency, the Saudi government said. The move was made a day after the Yemeni prime minister issued a public plea for funds to prop up the rial and help stave off hunger ...