Banking

DUBAI / Reuters Oman has appointed banks to arrange a global fixed income investor call ahead of a potential dollar sukuk issuance which would be the first public international sale of Islamic bonds by the Gulf state. The planned sale, expected to raise around $2 billion, would be in addition to a $3.6 billion syndicated loan that Oman is in ...

Bloomberg The European Central Bank (ECB) can’t wait too long to signal the winding down of its stimulus measures, Executive Board member Benoit Coeure warned on Thursday, citing the risk of jolting the markets. “Too much gradualism in monetary policy bears the risk of larger market adjustments when the decision is eventually taken,” Coeure said in an interview with Reuters ...

Bloomberg Both sides of Wells Fargo & Co.’s $142 million settlement over its fake-accounts scandal made last-ditch efforts to salvage the class-action pact after a federal judge voiced misgivings about some of its terms. Lawyers for the bank and customers submitted new information in an attempt to address U.S District Judge Vince Chhabria’s concerns that the deal shortchanges consumers and ...

Bloomberg The UK government sold its last remaining shares in Lloyds Banking Group Plc, bringing Britain’s biggest mortgage lender back into full private ownership almost a decade after it was bailed out in the depths of the financial crisis. The Treasury made a profit of 894 million pounds ($1.2 billion) on its original 20.3 billion-pound investment after disposing of its ...

Bloomberg Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is increasingly turning to the forwards market for currency intervention, as a banking system already flooded with cash limits its ability to act in the spot market. RBI bought $8 billion of foreign currency in the forwards market in March, latest official data released this month showed, as the rupee capped its best first-quarter ...

Bloomberg The European Central Bank (ECB) is trying to work out a key question about the road to policy normalization: what’s the speed limit? Three weeks before their next policy decision, the terms of debate between the ECB’s 25 Governing Council members over announcing and implementing an exit from unconventional stimulus have coalesced around the pace. In one camp are ...

Bloomberg Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) apparent tolerance of rupee gains is burnishing the appeal of Asia’s best carry-trade currency. RBI governor Urjit Patel already surprised analysts by raising a key interest rate last month, and now there’s little indication that officials are intervening heavily to slow currency gains—unlike some Asian counterparts. That’s all spurred Aviva investors to add to ...

Bloomberg Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte ceased being the biggest shareholder in UBS Group AG after cutting its ownership by almost half, saying it was “disappointed” that it lost money during nearly a decade in which it was invested in the Swiss bank. GIC sold a stake of about 2.4 percent at 16.10 francs ($16.20) a share, according to ...

Reuters Islamic banks have continued to expand their balance sheets and capital buffers, but the era of double-digit growth rates could be coming to an end while asset quality concerns creep up, an industry oversight body said on Tuesday. Islamic finance, which has its core markets in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, follows religious principles that forbid interest and ...

Bloomberg Sweden’s central bank wants to track a different consumer-price gauge and introduce a tolerance band in a move that will give policy makers more leeway to unwind stimulus after half a decade of below-target inflation. The world’s oldest central bank wants to start targeting an index called CPIF, which factors out changes to mortgage costs, instead of the headline ...