Banking

Bloomberg Thailand’s central bank held its benchmark interest rate near a record low, spurning the government’s call for policy easing as it painted a brighter outlook for the economy. Thailand’s Finance Ministry has been stepping up pressure on the central bank to cut interest rates as the currency surges and as inflation remains subdued. Economic growth is lagging peers in ...

Bloomberg Barclays Plc’s investment-banking boss, Tim Throsby, says he plans to reignite “commercial zeal” within the firm’s worst-performing unit, ending five years of risk-averse retrenchment that’s left traders trailing U.S. rivals. When he arrived at Barclays from JPMorgan Chase & Co. in January, Throsby found it was “very clear” staff had lost “a suitable focus on opportunities to deploy risk,” ...

Bloomberg SBM Holdings Ltd., Mauritius’s second-largest lender, plans more acquisitions in Kenya as it seeks to become one of the country’s top 10 banks within the next three years before expanding into West Africa. The bank, which obtained a license to begin operating SBM Kenya Ltd. in May, expects to have its systems and staff in place by December, Advisor ...

Emirates Business Banca Generali and Saxo Bank announce they have reached an agreement to establish an exclusive partnership to offer online trading and digital services. The objective is to offer clients, on an exclusive basis for the Italian market, access to an innovative platform for advanced trading, based on Saxo Bank’s technology and managed by a newly established SIM owned ...

Bloomberg Jia Chen was in London again this summer—just one of the many trips she’s recently made across the Atlantic—to peddle a product left for dead in the ruins of the financial crisis. The 35-year-old Citigroup Inc. director has spent the past two years meeting clients, speaking at industry panels and becoming the face of a resurgent market for synthetic ...

Bloomberg After hitting the $1 trillion milestone this month, the Norwegian wealth fund can expect even more scrutiny going forward. The government is currently looking at a proposal from a committee led by a former central bank governor to separate out the fund from Norges Bank. This idea is now being seized on as a means to tighten oversight, with ...

Bloomberg The euro dropped toward $1.1800 as investors continued to unwind long positions, with fresh tactical selling pressure setting in ahead of a speech by the Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen later on Tuesday. What started off as a knee-jerk reaction after the German election now appears to have become a broader hit on euro bulls’ conviction. Concern that European ...

Bloomberg The Bank of Greece plans to start stress tests for the country’s four systemic banks in late February with a view to determine by June if they need fresh capital before the end of the Greek bailout program. ECB President Mario Draghi said Single Supervisory Mechanism may front-load stress tests for Greek banks. Banks have been asked to send ...

DUBAI / Reuters Saudi Arabia’s central bank has scrapped administrative fees for mortgage holders if they switch between fixed and floating rate loans, as part of new measures to boost the housing market. The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority also announced, via its twitter account, other measures to help reduce mortgage costs, including allowing a mortgage holder to move to a ...

Bloomberg Singapore banks have closed accounts of several companies which specialize in providing cryptocurrency and payments services, according to two local bodies which represent financial-technology firms. Noting that cryptocurrency firms have had similar problems with their banks in other countries, the head of Singapore’s Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Industry Association, or Access, asked the government to step in. “From our analysis, ...