Banking

Bloomberg In the era of negative interest rates, Japan’s second-largest bank finds itself having to run just to stand still. Takeshi Kunibe, who took over as chief executive officer at Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. (SMFG) in April, has set a new net-income target of about 700 billion yen ($6.3 billion) in the year ending March 2020. That’s roughly the ...

Bloomberg Banco Popular Espanol SA is reviewing how to bolster liquidity drained by deposit withdrawals and a deterioration of its credit, according to people familiar with the matter. The Madrid-based bank, racing to sell assets and find a buyer, plans to meet on Tuesday with the European Central Bank to discuss options, the people said, asking not to be identified ...

Bloomberg Bank of Singapore, which recently broke into the ranks of Asia’s top 10 private banks, intends to keep hiring more relationship managers and focus on serving a wealthier bracket of customers to keep expanding its assets under management. The unit of Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. added 20 relationship managers in Hong Kong this year, taking its total to slightly more ...

Bloomberg Kenyan lenders must adjust their business models to adapt to a new era of lower profits as interest-rate caps curb investor returns, Central Bank of Kenya Governor Patrick Njoroge said. Return on equity in the Kenyan banking industry declined to 13.6 percent in March from 18.2 percent in June, Njoroge told reporters in the capital, Nairobi. For the country’s ...

Bloomberg Citigroup Inc. traders are facing the same slowdown in client activity that’s dragging on revenue across U.S. investment banks this quarter, Chief Executive Officer Michael Corbat said. “We’re right in line with what the others have said,” Corbat told the audience at an investor conference in New York. He was referring to earlier remarks from senior JPMorgan Chase & ...

Bloomberg ING Groep NV will move about 43 trading jobs from Amsterdam to London, adding to a push started last year to centralize some financial markets operations in the UK capital. The Dutch bank plans to relocate global equity products, credit trading, e-trading and e-data analytics as well as some supporting activities, according to an internal memo to staff obtained ...

Bloomberg RHB Bank, Malaysia’s fourth-largest lender by assets, and AMMB Holdings are planning to pursue talks to merge, people with knowledge of the matter said. The two Malaysian lenders have submitted an application for central bank approval to start formal negotiations, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. Shares of AMMB have risen 21 ...

Bloomberg European Union and Italian officials agreed on a plan to restructure Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, allowing Italy to inject capital to rescue the world’s oldest bank. Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager and Italian Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan reached “an agreement in principle” on a deal that paves the way for a precautionary recapitalization of the lender, ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG is stepping up hiring for its Asian wealth-management business as part of a “multi-year” expansion to bolster a unit that has lost key executives and assets in recent years. Deutsche Bank Wealth Management plans to add 50 client-facing positions including relationship managers during the second half of the year after hiring 13 employees last month, Lok ...

Bloomberg Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) Plc’s settlement with investors suing the bank, which seemed a certainty earlier in the week, has faltered as a handful of investors continue to hold out. Some of the shareholders who indicated they would end a lawsuit over the lender’s 2008 rights offering, now want a higher settlement offer, and the case could ...