Banking

Bloomberg Economic indicators show ‘stabilized and stronger growth’ and the momentum of a 6.9 percent expansion in the first six months of 2017 ‘may continue in the second half,’ People’s Bank of China (PBOC) Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said. Imports and exports increased rapidly, fiscal income grew, and prices have been steady, Zhou said, according to a statement the central bank ...

Bloomberg Brian Moynihan’s efforts to boost Bank of America Corp. profit through cost cutting finally got some help from interest rates. The lender posted the highest net income in six years as the chief executive officer cut expenses more than forecast and net interest income rose to the highest since 2011. During his seven years as CEO, Moynihan has worked ...

Bloomberg FirstRand Ltd., Africa’s biggest lender by market value, offered to buy UK challenger bank Aldermore Group Plc for about 1.1 billion pounds ($1.4 billion). Shares in the British firm soared. Aldermore received ‘an indicative proposal’ from Johannesburg-based FirstRand of 313 pence per share, 37 percent more than its average share price this year, and directors at the UK lender ...

Bloomberg BNP Paribas SA plans to substantially increase the number of client advisers employed by its Asian wealth-management business, seeing an opportunity in the retreat of some European rivals from the region. BNP has been investing and hiring in Asia for several years and intends to continue its push, said Vincent Lecomte, co-head of the French bank’s wealth-management business. Asked ...

Bloomberg Former HSBC Holdings Plc currency trader Mark Johnson took the witness stand, insisting that he cheated no one in a $3.5 billion foreign-exchange transaction. Johnson is accused of fraud for buying British pounds ahead of a client’s order, forcing the client to pay a higher price. The bank made an $8 million profit as a result of the currency ...

Bloomberg The European Central Bank’s (ECB) loss of one of the four career officials managing its supervisory arm adds to a swelling vacancy list at the top of the bank watchdog just when its workload is set to increase. Jukka Vesala, one of a quartet of director generals at the helm of the Single Supervisory Mechanism, has resigned, the Frankfurt-based ...

Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co. is edging closer to a settlement with regulators over the crisis-era mortgage bonds investigation that took a $1 billion chunk out of third-quarter profit, according to Chief Financial Officer John Shrewsberry. “We are now having a negotiation, so it’s a matter of probably months or quarters, not anything more than that,” Shrewsberry said. The bank ...

Bloomberg Bank of England (BOE) Governor Mark Carney is ready to raise interest rates from a position of economic weakness rather than strength. The fastest inflation in four years has left the UK central bank preparing to hike next month for the first time in more than a decade, yet it’s not an accelerating economy fanning those price pressures. Instead, ...

Bloomberg European Central Bank (ECB) policy makers are poised to preserve their commitment to ultra-low interest rates even as they wrangle over how long to keep their bond-buying program going. Members of President Mario Draghi’s Governing Council will meet this month amid discord over whether a strengthening economy means now is the time to plot an end to more than ...

Bloomberg The Swiss National Bank’s shock policy U-turn in 2015 has gone down in the annals of history for roiling markets. Now two of the institution’s economists have, in effect, backed its approach to communications. Thomas Lustenberger and Enzo Rossi argue that increased central bank communication over the years has “created confusion rather than clarity” and hasn’t helped investors and ...