Banking

Bloomberg For proof that taking on political risk is a winning formula in Europe this year, look no further than Pimco’s wager on Spanish unity. The California fund manager has amassed the largest position of Catalonia’s $6 billion of junk-rated debt, undeterred by a raucous independence movement and a snap election next month that may produce another victory for separatist ...

Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business Trade Bank of Iraq (TBI) has opened a representative office in Abu Dhabi, making it the only Iraqi Trade Finance bank to have a presence in the UAE. The wholly government owned bank, which holds 80% market share in Iraq, has established its first international office at Abu Dhabi Global Market on Al Maryah Island. ...

Bloomberg Not all bankers need to fear the march of the robots. Nordea Bank AB, which last month said it will need to cut 6,000 jobs as part of a process to become a more digital firm, is now offering some insight into who’s likely to be hardest hit. Ewan MacLeod, Nordea’s chief digital officer, says customers should expect to ...

Bloomberg A $2.2 trillion superbank is feeling the pinch of China’s bond slump. The yield on China Development Bank’s 10-year bonds surged past 5 percent, bringing the rise this quarter to about 70 basis points. More striking has been the jump in its premium over government debt with a similar maturity, given that the state-owned lender is a so-called policy ...

Bloomberg UK banks are bracing themselves for their grades in the toughest round of stress tests yet, with the fate of their dividends and strategies at stake as the Bank of England models how the seven largest British lenders will cope in another crisis. On Tuesday the central bank will reveal how they fared in a scenario that includes sharp ...

Bloomberg Roiled by India’s high-profile corporate defaults, the nation’s lenders are tightening the screws on borrowers with stricter debt covenants and greater enforcement as the battle to curb delinquent loans intensifies. Banks are asking for collateral that may amount to one-and-a-half times the value of the debt on new loans extended and are insisting on contracts that allow loans to ...

Bloomberg Bank of England official Silvana Tenreyro said two more interest-rate increases will probably be needed to get inflation back to target, but Brexit will be the real determinant of where policy goes next. Less than a month after the first rate hike in a decade, Tenreyro’s comments reinforce the view of other Monetary Policy Committee members that the path ...

Bloomberg Colombia’s central bank is following Chile’s example and reducing the frequency of its policy meetings to eight a year, from twelve, to give board members more time to weigh key data. The change follows “best international practices” with the policy meeting months decided in accordance with the publication of important economic statistics, central bank Governor Juan Jose Echavarria told ...

Bloomberg The European Central Bank may be willing to show greater flexibility in how it supports its economy when bond-buying stops. When policy makers extended quantitative easing to at least Septe- mber, they stipulated that money from maturing debt would be reinvested in the same country for as long as the ECB keeps adding to its holdings. In limiting that ...

Bloomberg As Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lends more money to Main Street, one question won’t go away: How many borrowers will pay them back? Goldman’s fledgling online lender Marcus, named after the company’s founder, is targeting consumers at a time when many are bracing for a downturn after eight years of economic expansion. A recent example it gave suggests the ...