Banking

Bloomberg BNP Paribas SA shares dropped the most since June after France’s largest bank posted earnings that fell short of estimates and cast doubt over growth in its home market. The bank tumbled as much as 5 percent in Paris trading after reporting fourth-quarter net income of 1.44 billion euros ($1.55 billion), below the 1.63 billion-euro average estimate of seven ...

  Bloomberg China’s drive to reduce financial system risks is squeezing the nation’s banks. Caught between policy makers’ intensifying efforts to raise short-term borrowing costs, and benchmark interest rates that haven’t moved since 2015, Chinese lenders have few options but to absorb much of the higher costs. The gap between the three-month Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate and the one-year lending ...

  Bloomberg Commerzbank AG reported a 5.2 percent decline in fourth-quarter profit as it set more money aside for troubled loans to the shipping industry and low interest rates continued to weigh on income from lending. Net income in the three months through December decreased to 183 million euros ($195.5 million) from 193 million euros a year earlier, according to ...

  Bloomberg Analysts at Deutsche Bank AG, one of the biggest underwriters of bonds tied to US commercial real estate, say now it’s time to short indexes of the securities. The securities are vulnerable because they are supported by leases from retailers, a lagging part of the economy, wrote Ed Reardon and Simon Mui in a note late Tuesday. A ...

  Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc is planning to pursue deals to expand in asset and wealth management as the lender seeks to capitalize on the growing funds of the middle class in Asia and diversify its business away from traditional lending, according to two people with knowledge of the plans. Europe’s largest bank aims to make three or four acquisitions ...

  Bloomberg Nykredit Realkredit A/S, the largest lender operating in the world’s biggest market for mortgage-backed covered bonds, reported a 56 percent jump in profit last quarter after management cut costs and revenue increased. The Copenhagen-based lender said net profit excluding minorities rose to 1.87 billion kroner ($269 million) in the fourth quarter from 1.2 billion kroner a year earlier, ...

  Bloomberg Societe Generale SA reported fourth-quarter profit that exceeded estimates, helped by a surprise jump in earnings from French consumer banking. The lender announced plans for an initial public offering of its car-leasing business. Net income was 390 million euros ($417 million), down 41 percent from a year earlier but above the 315 million-euro average estimate of seven analysts ...

  Bloomberg India’s central bank unexpectedly left borrowing costs unchanged for a second straight meeting and signaled that its interest-rate easing cycle is coming to an end. The benchmark repurchase rate was left at a six-year low of 6.25 percent, the Reserve Bank of India said in a statement in Mumbai on Wednesday. The move was predicted by just five ...

  Bloomberg China’s central bank is holding a closed-door meeting with several domestic bitcoin exchanges, people familiar with the matter said, heightening concerns that regulators will tighten their oversight of trading in digital currencies. Officials from the People’s Bank of China are meeting with representatives from a number of the nation’s trading venues, the people said, asking not to be ...

  Bloomberg Six defendants, including ex-Deutsche Bank AG trader Christian Bittar, pleaded not guilty to accusations of conspiring to manipulate a key interest-rate benchmark while working at the German lender and Barclays Plc in a London court. Bittar, one-time colleague Achim Kraemer, and ex-Barclays employees Philippe Moryoussef, Colin Bermingham, Carlo Palombo and Sisse Bohart all denied the charges on Tuesday. ...