Banking

Bloomberg About a third of the customers queuing at La Maison du Bitcoin’s teller windows in Paris aren’t speculating on the value of the cryptocurrency. They’re sending digital money home to Africa. “In many countries in Africa, there are far more cellphones than bank accounts,” said Manuel Valente, co-founder of La Maison. “For bitcoin, all you need is a phone.” ...

Bloomberg China’s central bank said it will closely monitor liquidity conditions amid its campaign to reduce debt levels, in a quarte-rly report where it reiterated a commitment to “prudent and neutral” monetary policy. The People’s Bank of China seeks an “optimal” environment to help stabilize economic growth, while facilitating dele-veraging, curbing bubbles and preventing risks, according to a quarterly report ...

Bloomberg Canadian inflation eased for the first time in four months in October as gasoline prices fell and the economy showed few signs of price pressure, bolstering the view the central bank can afford to wait before it tightens policy further. Annual inflation decelerated to 1.4 percent, from 1.6 percent in September, Statistics Canada reported in Ottawa. That matched the ...

Bloomberg New rules that were supposed to protect depositors may end up making them vulnerable to fraudsters. Changing the account data of about a million clients at banks including Barclays Plc and HSBC Holdings Plc is a golden opportunity for hackers, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has warned banks. The FCA has briefed lenders about its concerns, as British banks ...

Bloomberg Polish wages grew at the fastest pace in more than five years, casting fresh doubt over the central bank’s ability to keep a lid on inflation. The readout showed a 7.4 percent wage increase in October from a year earlier, exposing a steeper acceleration than forecast by 23 of the 24 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Wage growth was distorted ...

Bloomberg It’s only a matter of time before central banks adopt blockchain to settle high-value, interbank fund transfers, according to the head of Ripple, whose technology has won support from former Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke. As the technology, which is based on encrypted distributed ledgers, catches on, central banks around the world will be afraid to miss out, Ripple ...

Bloomberg Credit Suisse AG will pay $135 million to resolve currency-manipulation allegations by New York’s banking regulator, the latest echo from authorities’ long-running scrutiny of foreign-currency trading at big banks. Traders at the Zurich-based bank, prodded by executives in some cases, shared information about clients’ currency orders, talked to traders from other banks and in some instances front-ran customer orders ...

Bloomberg Sberbank PJSC set a record for profit in the third quarter, strengthening the case for fatter dividends as Russia’s biggest bank weighs changes to shareholder payouts. Net income rose 62 percent from a year earlier to 222 billion rubles ($3.68 billion), compared with a 193 billion-ruble average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Bloo-mberg. The previous record was set ...

Bloomberg New rules to protect taxpayers from bank failures may push investors out of a C$95 billion ($75 billion) corner of Canada’s corporate bond market, reducing liquidity and raising borrowing costs. Under a regime set to take effect in 2018, short-term bank-deposit notes typically sold to institutional investors will gradually be replaced by senior “bail-in” debt that can convert to ...

Bloomberg The Bank of England is on a one-a-year cycle when it comes to interest-rate increases, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The BOE lifted its benchmark to 0.5 percent on November 2 — the first hike in a decade — and the median forecast is for another move in the fourth quarter of 2018, earlier than then 2019 prediction ...