Banking

Bloomberg Four of Australia’s biggest lenders gave estimates of how much Australia’s new bank levy will cost them, as they stepped up criticism of the policy and vowed again to pass on the extra charges. Westpac Banking Corp. said the levy will cost it an annual A$260 million ($194 million) after tax, while Commonwealth Bank of Australia estimated A$220 million ...

Bloomberg Momentum investing may work in commodities, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which said that returns from raw materials may benefit significantly from following the strategy that’s based on backing past winners and eschewing or betting against losers. “Commodities can benefit significantly from momentum investing although the gains are neither uniform across commodities nor constant over time,” analysts including ...

Bloomberg Indian central bank Deputy Governor Viral Acharya said injecting new funds into lenders won’t resolve the nation’s stressed asset plight until companies take steps to reduce debt. The Reserve Bank of India is seeking to strengthen the banking system through measures including merging weaker banks and pushing to privatize some state-run lenders as it ramps up efforts to resolve ...

Bloomberg Angela Merkel and Wolfgang Schaeuble want to install a German at the head of the European Central Bank (ECB) when Mario Draghi’s term expires in 2 1/2 years, according to Spiegel magazine. The chancellor and her finance minister are set to push for Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann to become the fourth guardian of the single currency, arguing it’s finally ...

Bloomberg When Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen wants to change the cost of borrowing, investors have one main rate to watch. Her Chinese counterpart Zhou Xiaochuan, who’s been juggling multiple policy levers, is trying to focus market attention on just two. The People’s Bank of China said late last week that it will now mainly use seven-day reverse-repo operations and ...

Bloomberg Barclays Plc’s former head of global spot foreign exchange trading was fined $1.2 million and banned from the banking industry for his involvement in rigging currency rates, the Federal Reserve said. The Fed said it imposed the penalties after Christopher Ashton failed to respond to the central bank’s June 2016 allegations that he participated in online chat rooms used ...

Bloomberg Australia should extend its new bank levy to foreign financial institutions in a bid to recoup more than the planned A$6.2 billion ($4.6 billion), according to cross-bench lawmaker Nick Xenophon. Applying the tax to foreign banks as well as the nation’s five biggest lenders may recoup as much as A$800 million, which could help fund compensation for victims of ...

Bloomberg JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said he remains optimistic about the global economy and the prospects for regulatory reform under US President Donald Trump. “Japan is growing more than it has grown in 15 years, Europe is doing well all things considered, America is chugging along,” Dimon said in an exclusive interview with Bloomberg TV ...

Bloomberg Italy’s plan for an 8.8 billion-euro ($9.8 billion) bailout of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA faces resistance from the European Central Bank, which is concerned the lender may struggle to maintain capital buffers as it tries to get back on its feet, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The ECB’s oversight arm has signaled that ...

Bloomberg State Bank of India, (SBI) the country’s largest lender by assets, more than doubled fourth-quarter profit as loan growth accelerated and bad-debt provisions fell. The stock climbed to a two-year high. Net income climbed to 28.1 billion rupees ($430 million) in the three months ended March 31 from 12.6 billion rupees a year earlier, the Mumbai-based lender reported. Outstanding ...