Banking

Bloomberg The euro area’s third-largest economy is seeking someone to help oversee its struggling recovery — and review the European Central Bank (ECB) stimulus the country relies upon. Competition for the top job at the Bank of Italy, which comes with a seat on the ECB’s Governing Council, is heating up. The position has a high-profile history — ECB President ...

Bloomberg Aida is the perfect employee: always courteous, always learning and, as she says, “always at work, 24/7, 365 days a year.” Aida, of course, is not a person but a virtual customer-service representative that SEB AB, one of Sweden’s biggest banks, is rolling out. The goal is to give the actual humans more time to engage in more complex ...

Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co., the lender struggling to overcome a fake-accounts scandal in its community bank, said the division’s new leader is cutting about 70 senior executive jobs. The lender will reduce the number of regional and area presidents to 91, Mary Mack, head of the retail bank, said Friday in a memo to staff, a copy of which ...

Bloomberg The Trump administration is considering nominating Fifth Third Bancorp’s top lawyer to lead a key banking regulator, people familiar with the matter said. Jelena McWilliams has had several meetings in recent weeks with administration officials about running the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the people said. Though she hasn’t been formally offered the position, she is a leading candidate, they ...

Bloomberg Jes Staley finally has the Barclays Plc he wants. But it cost him. The lender posted a net loss in the second quarter, driven by the cost of selling down its Africa unit and an unexpected charge for the payment protection insurance scandal. The bank said it now aims to earn a return on tangible equity of more than ...

Bloomberg To feed its clients’ insatiable desire for loans, Morgan Stanley is hoping to gather fresh cash by offering savers the country’s top rate for certificates of deposit. An 11-month CD with a 1.9 percent annual percentage yield is available from Friday through Sept. 18, according to a term sheet whose contents were confirmed by Morgan Stanley spokeswoman Christy Jockle. ...

Bloomberg Halfway through Tidjane Thiam’s three-year restructuring plan, Credit Suisse Group AG is gaining traction. Switzerland’s second-largest lender reported a 78 percent increase in second-quarter profit, to 303 million francs ($312 million), as clients added about 11 billion francs in new money to its main wealth management units. Lower expenses lifted profit at the global markets trading business, still the ...

Bloomberg The Bank of England took aim at a European Union plan to boost supervisors’ powers to stop cash leaving ailing lenders, adding its weight to mounting criticism of a bill intended to make sure big banks can be wound down without wreaking havoc on the economy. The BOE warned of “very serious consequences” if lawmakers adopt an EU bill ...

Bloomberg The China bond carry trade is making a comeback. The offshore yuan’s 12-month forwards’ implied yield — a measure of the cost to protect against currency swings — has fallen below the yield on bonds issued by China Development Bank. This means that a global fund can make money by buying the debt while being insured against any sudden ...

Bloomberg Indonesia moved a step closer to hunting down tens of billions of dollars it believes its citizens have hidden abroad after passing a law that will give tax officials access to financial data held by other countries. The parliament on Wednesday approved a law in lieu of a presidential decree, fulfilling a requirement to participate under the Organisation for ...