Banking

Bloomberg If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. That’s the calculation Australia’s biggest banks and the government have made in deciding to cave in to pressure for a public inquiry into alleged misconduct in the financial industry. After months of denouncing the idea of a Royal Commission as an expensive waste of time, the big four banks staged a backflip ...

Bloomberg A second daily surge in Europe’s overnight benchmark rate, which banks use to provide loans to one another, sparked widespread speculation among traders about the trigger, though there were no signs of wider funding stress. Some traders attributed the jump in the Eonia rate to possible year-end funding squeeze at some lenders, while others pinned it down to demand ...

Bloomberg Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc will close 259 more branches across Britain in its latest round of cuts as customers shift to online banking. Outlets under both the NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland brands will close in the middle of next year, resulting in about 680 job cuts, the company said. RBS said it will use the ...

Bloomberg The Bank of England may increase a key financial safety measure for a third time because it’s worried that a combination of a disorderly Brexit and a global recession could be enough to put the brakes on lending. The central bank is going ahead with a planned increase in the countercyclical capital buffer to 1 percent from 0.5 percent, ...

Bloomberg Paytm Payments Bank is targeting to become the world’s largest digital bank with 500 million bank accounts and aims to turn into an integrated financial services company that offers everything from wealth management to share trading. “We are unveiling our money market fund, launching our debit card and we’ll have the capabilities to allow enterprises to open business accounts,” ...

Bloomberg Bank of Nova Scotia is proving to be no pushover on its home turf. Canada’s third-largest lender had record annual profit of C$4.06 billion ($3.17 billion) from domestic banking, aided by 12 percent growth in the final quarter, according to a statement on Tuesday. It’s the third time this year that the Scotiabank unit, which also includes wealth management, ...

Bloomberg The Bank of Canada is optimistic higher interest rates and regulatory efforts to rein in risky borrowing will make the country’s financial system more resilient, though the process could take time to unfold and the outcome remains uncertain. In its semi-annual financial stability report, Canada’s central bank painted a picture of a housing market where key steps have been ...

Bloomberg Societe Generale SA, seeking to restore growth and profitability, will deepen job cuts at its French consumer bank and take exceptional charges of about 570 million euros ($678 million) against fourth-quarter earnings. As many as 900 reductions may take place as the domestic retail banking business cuts branch numbers, resulting in a charge of about 400 million euros, SocGen ...

Bloomberg The European Central Bank is sticking to the substance of its plan to toughen bad-loan rules for euro-area banks even as it makes some adjustments in response to a barrage of criticism from Rome and Brussels, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The ECB was accused of overreach in its recent proposal to hold banks to firm ...

Bloomberg A group of former Credit Suisse Group AG staff, led by Australian investment banker John Wylie, has started an Asia-Pacific credit investment fund to take advantage of banks reining in lending. Tanarra Credit Partners has raised more than A$285 million ($216 million) for its Asia-Pacific Fund I, which will invest in senior and mezzanine debt, and is targeting as ...