Banking

Emirates Business The International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), member of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group, and the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), a multilateral financial institution established by African governments and institutional investors, have signed a $100-million agreement and a EUR 50-million Murabaha agreement with the aim of facilitating and financing exports amongst African countries and between Africa and ...

Bloomberg A Chinese central bank official said China should allow local governments to go bankrupt to help rein in regional authorities’ excessive borrowing. A case like the bankruptcy of Detroit would convince investors that the central government is really determined to dispel beliefs of an implicit guarantee for regional authorities, Xu Zhong, head of research bureau at the People’s Bank ...

Bloomberg Almost nine years since the birth of bitcoin, central banks around the world are increasingly recognising the potential upsides and downsides of digital currencies. The guardians of the global economy have two sets of issues to address. First is what to do, if anything, about the emergence and growth of the private cryptocurrencies that are grabbing more and more ...

Bloomberg The day after the European Union’s chief negotiator warned that there could be no special deal for Britain’s finance sector, the UK sent a message back: You need our banks as much as they need you. “The City of London is actually the banker for Europe,” Prime Minister Theresa May told a parliamentary committee. “It’s a significant provider of ...

Bloomberg The Czech Republic is set to leave further interest-rate increases until next year as a slowdown in inflation sidelines calls from some within the central bank to raise borrowing costs more aggressively. After raising its benchmark rate in August and November to cool price growth in one of Europe’s fastest-growing economies, the central bank will hold it at 0.5 ...

Bloomberg The International Monetary Fund lauded Egypt’s economic reform efforts but urged the central bank to be ready to take action if slowing inflation heats up. The fund sounded its note of caution as its executive board signed off on the latest review of Egypt’s reform program. The seal of approval opened the door to another $2 billion tranche of ...

Bloomberg Sweden’s financial regulator says giving national supervisors additional powers over bank branches — even systemically important ones like Nordea Bank AB — is bad policy. According to Martin Noreus, deputy director general of the Financial Supervisory Authority in Stockholm, national regulators risk missing the big picture. “It is sub-optimal and risky when different supervisors act too much in silos,” ...

Bloomberg A lawyer for UBS Group AG urged a New York jury to reject the tale of a former senior bond strategist who claims he was fired for refusing to let the Swiss bank’s traders influence his research reports. Trevor Murray, a onetime UBS strategist for commercial mortgage-backed securities, alleges he was dismissed in 2012 for blowing the whistle on ...

Bloomberg The Bank of Japan left policy settings unchanged in the final meeting of 2017, retaining its unprecedented monetary sti- mulus as it waits for a pickup in stubbornly low inflation. With Japan’s economy continuing to grow at a healthy pace, and inflation at least moving in the right direction, there is little pressure on the BOJ adjust its interest-rate ...

Bloomberg Denmark’s government is wondering how much longer the economy will be exposed to the distortions wrought by negative interest rates, and is urging European Union leaders to enter a debate on the appropriateness of the current monetary policy environment. The country, which has lived with negative rates longer than any other, has been forced to keep its main monetary ...