Banking

Bloomberg Unicaja Banco SA raised about 688 million euros ($783 million) in an initial public offering that turned into a test of confidence in Spanish banks after this month’s demise of a larger lender. Unicaja, based in the southern city of Malaga, priced the sale of 40.3 percent of its equity at 1.10 euros per share, the low end of ...

Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc became the first foreign bank to win permission for a majority-owned securities joint venture in China, a structure some of its competitors have unsuccessfully lobbied to secure for several years. The London-based firm received approval to invest 918 million yuan ($135 million) for 51 percent of a venture with Qianhai Financial Holdings Co., the China Securities ...

Bloomberg Credit Suisse Group AG, which helped arrange the majority of the $2 billion in Mozambique state-backed loans that plunged the country’s economy into crisis, disputed that it received more than $160 million in fees for arranging the financing. The bank was responding to Kroll LLC’s audit report into the loans that said it and Russia’s VTB Bank PJSC were ...

Bloomberg The Dutch state will sell an additional 7 percent of ABN Amro Group NV, a stake worth about $1.7 billion at current prices, taking advantage of steady demand for European bank stocks as it progresses toward full privatization. About 65 million shares will be sold in an accelerated bookbuild, bringing the government’s controlling stake down to 63 percent, NLFI, ...

Bloomberg Another month of inflation data, and Mario Draghi still doesn’t have a definitive sign that the European Central Bank can consider ending its monetary stimulus. Consumer-price growth weakened in June even as the core rate picked up, backing the ECB president’s call for persistence with loose policy and prudence in signaling its withdrawal. At the same time, the figures ...

Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co. surprised investors this week by withholding more than $90 million due to buyers of pre-crisis residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS). The bank said it invoked its right as trustee to hold back funds to cover legal costs. The 20 transactions had a principal balance of $540 million and are among more than 2,000 deals involved in ...

Bloomberg Three of the UK’s biggest banks have stopped trading Qatari riyals as the Gulf state faces sanctions imposed by a Saudi-led coalition of neighboring states. Barclays Plc, Lloyds Banking Group Plc and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS) ceased the sale and buy-back of the Qatari currency for consumers, the banks said. Officials for the banks said the ...

Bloomberg The UK Financial Conduct Authority is setting up interviews with Barclays Plc executives as part of its investigation into Jes Staley’s attempts to unmask a whistle-blower, according to three people with knowledge of the requests. The FCA is planning to interview officials including Mike Ashley, the board member who supervises whistle-blowing complaints and Chief Operating Officer Paul Compton, in ...

Bloomberg Bad debts at Indian lenders, especially state-run banks, have climbed to a 15-year high and may increase further, a central bank study showed. Under the baseline scenario in a ‘macro stress test,’ the industry’s gross bad-loan ratio may increase to 10.2 percent by March 2018 after climbing to 9.6 percent in March 2017, the highest since 2002, according to ...

Bloomberg Venezuela’s “hunger bonds” are now on the market. Goldman Sachs Asset Management, which purchased $2.8 billion of the notes issued by the nation’s state oil company in a controversial transaction in May, began selling some of its holdings over the past few days to create liquidity, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Multiple Wall Street banks are ...