Banking

Bloomberg The rally in Indonesian bank stocks may be nearing an end amid sluggish credit growth and tougher regulations for loan quality assessments. Equity analysts are now downgrading banking stocks after the Jakarta Finance Index rallied 21 percent this year—more than double that of the main gauge—as they expect nonperforming loans in the $527 billion industry to creep up again. ...

Bloomberg Nordea Bank AB’s relocation from Stockholm to Helsinki in pursuit of a friendlier regulatory environment is drawing expressions of dismay from some of Sweden’s highest-ranking officials. Stefan Ingves, the governor of Sweden’s Riksbank and the chairman of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, called the decision “dangerous for everyone in the Nordics and Baltics” if Nordea’s intention was to ...

Bloomberg Wall Street’s newbies—investment banking analysts straight out of college who just hit the desk—have barely started one job when another starts beckoning. Junior analysts a few weeks on the job can now expect a flurry of emails from headhunters for some of the most prestigious private equity firms in the world. The jobs they’re being recruited for can pay ...

Bloomberg The pound rose to a five-week high against a weaker dollar as investors covered short positions and UK manufacturing data beat expectations. Sterling headed for its third weekly gain against the dollar and hit $1.32, as the greenback dropped against all its Group-of-10 peers. Data showed UK manufacturing rose in July for the first time this year, while the ...

Bloomberg Two of the world’s largest block- chain developers are battling over more than $1 billion in virtual-currency options, in a dispute that may help establish the leading player in providing new payment technologies to financial companies. R3, a blockchain startup that leads a group of more than 100 firms, sued rival Ripple Labs Inc. in state court in Delaware, ...

Bloomberg The Bank of England won’t budge on policy next week, though it could present a shift in tone. In the six weeks since the Monetary Policy Committee’s last decision, the economy has performed broadly as the bank expected and there have been tentative signs of a long-awaited pickup in wage growth. At the same time, the pound’s renewed decline ...

Reuters Austria’s Oberbank will sign a deal with Iran this month enabling it to finance new ventures there, its chief executive said, among the first European lenders to do so since sanctions were eased. The deal Tehran struck in 2015 with six major powers lifted many sanctions in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear activities and technically paved the way ...

Bloomberg Australia’s banking regulator will probe whether cultural, governance and pay structures contributed to a string of scandals at Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA). The inquiry, commissioned after allegations the country’s biggest lender repeatedly breached anti-money laundering laws, will focus on identifying any internal shortcomings at the bank and make recommendations for change, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority said. A ...

Bloomberg China’s central bank will effectively remove a reserve requirement for trading foreign currency forwards—a move that may slow the pace of yuan appreciation after its biggest two-week surge in at least a decade— according to people familiar with the matter. Effective September 11, the People’s Bank of China will stop requiring financial institutions to set aside cash when buying ...

Bloomberg As Hurricane Irma approaches Florida, lenders including Wells Fargo & Co. and Bank of America Corp. are making plans to move a small number of mobile teller machines into the state to provide some customers with much-needed cash amid expected power failures. Two Wells Fargo trucks equipped with automated teller machines that were destined for Texas have been rerouted ...