Banking

Bloomberg Vietnam’s surprise lowering of interest rates for the first time in three years may help to support economic growth, but raises credit risks in a nation still grappling with a hangover of bad debt. The central bank reduced the refinance rate by 25 basis points to 6.25 percent and also lowered the discount rate to 4.25 percent from 4.5 ...

Dubai / Reuters Saudi Arabia will issue a local currency sukuk, or Islamic bond, this month, Saudi finance minister Mohammed Al Jadaan told Al Arabiya News on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg. The government is expected to tap both the local and international bond markets this year, depending on the level of demand and the pricing it ...

RIYADH / Reuters Morgan Stanley named a new chief executive of its office in Saudi Arabia on Monday, as the firm carries out work on high-profile deals like the initial public offering of state oil giant Aramco. Abdulaziz Alajaji was previously head of corporate banking at JPMorgan & Chase Co in the kingdom. Rival JPMorgan enjoys a strong position in ...

Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc is in talks to resolve a U.S. probe into its sale of toxic mortgage bonds a decade ago, according to people familiar with matter, a negotiation that could offer an early look at how the Trump Justice Department will deal with global banks. The London-based bank has had at least one meeting with the Justice Department ...

Bloomberg Barclays Plc is on a hiring spree to boost its investment banking and market operations in Japan, one year after it shut its cash equity business and cut 120 jobs. The UK firm plans to hire more than 10 bankers and sales staff this fiscal year to advise on mergers and sell investment products, Kentaro Kiso, president of Barclays ...

Bloomberg While the Bank of Japan (BOJ) faced down the market with its offer to buy an unlimited amount of bonds, the battle over yield control may have only just begun. The swift action allowed the BOJ to quickly assert authority over the 10-year yield, bringing it down from a five-month high of 0.105 percent. The question is how far ...

Bloomberg The slower-than-expected increase in worker pay shows that investors should feel safe in Treasuries, even after yields jumped in the past two weeks, according to PGIM’s Robert Tipp. ‘Bonds are winning,’ Tipp, the chief investment strategist at PGIM Fixed Income, said on Bloomberg Television’s ‘Real Yield’ program. “The fact we haven’t had wage growth is really exceptional. I think ...

Bloomberg Singapore’s banking regulator has told lenders it will delay the implementation of global rules designed to rein in trading risks by a year, Reuters reported. The Monetary Authority of Singapore notified local banks of the delay to the so-called ‘fundamental review of the trading book,’ or FRTB, in a letter last month that also flagged a number of other ...

Bloomberg Morale among Deutsche Bank AG employees is showing signs of steadying after declining for three consecutive years, according to a person familiar with the company’s survey. Staff commitment to the Frankfurt-based lender was mostly unchanged from last year, at about 58 percent, the person said, asking not to be identified discussing the results. The survey, conducted in April and ...

Bloomberg Tesco Bank, the lending arm of the UK’s biggest grocer, said Chief Executive Officer Benny Higgins plans to retire next year after almost 10 years in the role. Higgins, who has led the bank since it became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tesco Plc at the height of the financial crisis in 2008, will depart in February. He declined to ...