Banking

Bloomberg The Bank of England (BOE) plans to increase capital requirements for UK lenders by 11.4 billion pounds ($14.5 billion) to tackle risks posed by consumer credit growth and prepare for the uncertain outcome of Brexit talks. The BOE set the countercyclical capital buffer at 0.5 percent of risk-weighted assets for UK loans effective in June 2018. “Absent a material ...

Bloomberg Bankia SA agreed to acquire Banco Mare Nostrum SA (BMN) in an all-stock deal, part of a plan by Spain to recoup the costs of bailing out lenders following the country’s property bust. Bankia, the country’s fourth-biggest bank by market capitalization, will issue new stock amounting to 6.7 percent of its post-merger capital to the shareholders of Banco Mare ...

Bloomberg Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. (ANZ) told a US court that its commodities trading arm suffered ‘substantial losses’ after it discovered that receipts for metal held in Glencore Plc’s Access World warehouses are probably fake. When ANZ looked into selling the nickel, it discovered 83 out of 84 receipts it held were likely forgeries, the Australian lender ...

Bloomberg As Italian taxpayers contemplate the $19 billion bill to clean up two failed Veneto banks, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA shareholders cheered. The nation’s second-largest bank is taking over the good assets of Banca Popolare di Vicenza SpA and Veneto Banca SpA for 1 euro and will also receive 5.2 billion euros ($5.83 billion) from the state to maintain its capital ...

Bloomberg Mozambique’s smaller banks should combine in an effort to overcome the blow dealt by government debt defaults after four lenders failed over nine months. The country’s debt crisis threatens to unravel efforts by the central bank to strengthen the nation’s financial system through the introduction of new capital and liquidity rules. Central bank Governor Rogerio Zandamela said last week ...

Bloomberg Already reeling from a $4.5 billion bill to save its ailing No. 1 lender, Ukraine is now bracing for an even costlier rescue, and says audits by PwC’s local office were instrumental in the bank’s failure. The government may have to stump up 38.5 billion hryvnia ($1.5 billion) more to recapitalize Privatbank after last year’s state takeover, according to ...

Bloomberg Barclays Africa Group Ltd., the South African bank formerly known as Absa, will go to the country’s high court to challenge a decision that it should pay the government 1.125 billion rand ($86 million) over the apartheid-era acquisition of Bankorp Ltd. “This is due to numerous misrepresentations and factual inaccuracies which form the basis of the Public Protector’s findings, ...

Bloomberg Nonperforming loans at Thailand’s banks are set to peak towards the end of 2017, according to Fitch Ratings, an outlook that may salve investor sentiment in one of Asia’s worst-performing stock markets this year. Thai economic growth is subdued but relatively stable at about 3 percent, signaling a slower expansion in bad loans in the months ahead and an ...

Bloomberg People’s Bank of China’s (PBOC) Governor Zhou Xiaochuan, who has likened monetary-policy communication to chess, is telling markets more about his moves as he makes them. That doesn’t mean he’s ready to give the game away. The PBOC’s regular cash injections are now coming complete with comments about their intent, helping to soothe markets just before the cash crunch ...

Bloomberg Barclays Plc and four former executives were charged with conspiracy to commit fraud regarding the bank’s 2008 capital raising from Qatar as it sought to avoid a bailout during one of the most turbulent periods in financial history. The Serious Fraud Office said on Tuesday that former Chief Executive Officer John Varley, former chairman of investment banking for the ...