Banking

  Bloomberg The code name chosen for Nomura Holdings Inc.’s latest cost-cutting drive indicates how strongly its chief executive sees the need for savings at Japan’s largest brokerage. After slashing hundreds of overseas jobs since April, CEO Koji Nagai has unveiled his so-called “Waterline Project,” which will attempt to combat waste and improve the cost-effectiveness of the bank’s daily operations ...

  Reuters India’s benchmark sovereign bonds are set to cap their best performance since the global financial crisis amid record debt purchases by banks, the biggest holders of government securities. Lenders gorged on debt this year as the central bank boosted cash availability in the financial system and deposits surged following the government’s recall of high-value currency notes. That, along ...

  DUBAI / Reuters Commercial Bank of Qatar (CBQ) will open subscriptions for a 1.5 billion riyals ($412 million) rights issue on January 8, the Gulf state’s third-largest lender by assets said. The subscription period for shareholders and holders of subscription rights will run until 1 p.m. Doha time (1000 GMT) on Jan. 22, the bank said in a statement. ...

  Bloomberg The board of India’s central bank approved the move to ban high-denomination notes less than three hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the decision in a televised address to the nation. Information on how many members favored or opposed the move isn’t ‘on record,’ the Reserve Bank of India said in response to queries from Bloomberg News ...

  Frankfurt am Main / AFP Lending to households and companies picked up in November in the eurozone, the European Central Bank said on Thursday, signalling that its efforts to encourage spending and investment are gaining traction. Loans to households in the single currency area grew by 1.9 percent year-on-year, compared to 1.8 percent a month earlier, the bank said. ...

  DUBAI / Reuters Saudi Arabian commercial bank deposits rose to their highest level this year in November, a sign that a liquidity crunch due to low oil prices is easing as the government liquidates foreign assets to pay its bills, official data showed on Wednesday. Bank deposits climbed to 1.624 trillion riyals ($433 billion) from 1.610 trillion riyals in ...

  DUBAI / Reuters National Bank of Oman (NBO) said on Thursday it had received a letter from Treasure Fleet International proposing to buy a stake in Oman’s third biggest lender. NBO will review the proposal; no legally binding commitments have been made and any deal would be subject to approval by shareholders and regulators, it said in a bourse ...

  Bloomberg The dollar dropped to a two-week low against the yen as traders pushed it through stops in thin trading amid a slide in Treasury yields. The greenback weakened against all its major peers on Thursday, with leveraged funds shorting the dollar against the yen as the currency pair continued a pull back from a 10-month high. Bloomberg’s dollar ...

  Bloomberg Investors may grow increasingly skeptical of the European Central Bank meeting its inflation target, with a host of factors — some beyond the control of President Mario Draghi — exposing the limitations of policy makers’ toolkit. The monetary authority’s efforts to bring inflation close to 2 percent “without undue delay” are being curbed by judicial hurdles to changing ...

  Bloomberg Singapore’s commodities-related defaults could turn out to be the canary in the mine. Despite a modest rebound in resource prices, restructuring specialists including KPMG and Hogan Lovells Lee & Lee see more Asia-Pacific commodities and shipping companies being pushed into delinquency. Law firm DLA Piper said there could be choppy waters ahead on rising interest rates and President-elect ...