Banking

  Bloomberg Barclays Plc agreed to sublet office space in London’s Canary Wharf financial district to the UK government, saving the cost-pressured British bank about 35 million pounds ($45 million) a year. The Cabinet Office will lease about 540,000 square feet of space in 10 South Colonnade, according to a statement on Barclays’s website Tuesday. IT and human resources staff ...

  Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc plans to step up hiring in China for its retail and wealth business next year as the U.K. lender persists with its expansion there despite the country’s economic slowdown and measures to stem capital outflows. The bank increased the number of retail-bank employees in China’s Pearl River Delta by 57 percent in the 12 months ...

  Sydney / AFP Australia’s central bank held interest rates at a record low of 1.50 percent on Tuesday despite a recent run of soft economic data but weak inflation figures kept the door open for future cuts. The Reserve Bank of Australia has cut rates by 300 basis points since November 2011 to support growth in non-resources industries as ...

  Bloomberg Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA shares seesawed on Monday after Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s decision to resign added to uncertainty about the bank’s plans to raise as much as 5 billion euros ($5.3 billion) in capital by the end of the year. The struggling lender was down 0.8 percent at 11:12 a.m in Milan as investors ...

  Bloomberg Bond investors are weighing rising risks that smaller Chinese banks will fail against growing signs the government will do anything to avoid a financial meltdown. A lender called Guiyang Rural Commercial Bank Co. in the southwestern province of Guizhou sparked concern that risks among smaller lenders are spreading after its rating outlook was cut last month following a ...

  Bloomberg European Union lawmakers plan to soften draft rules on asset-backed securities after concerns that an earlier proposal would hinder a market-revival drive. Negotiators for the main political parties in the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee agreed to give ground on risk-retention levels, the most contentious aspect of their initial plan. The risk-retention requirement is intended to ...

  Brasília / AFP Brazil’s central bank cut its key interest rate for the second month running, as data showed that the recession hitting Latin America’s largest economy continued into the third quarter. The central bank lowered the benchmark Selic rate by a quarter of a percentage point, to 13.75 percent — still one of the world’s highest. “The available ...

Emirates Business Barclays was named Best Overall GCC Private Bank at the WealthBriefing GCC Region Awards 2016, further emphasizing the bank’s continuous commitment to delivering outstanding services in the private banking sector across the region. This recognition from Wealthbriefing comes from a distinguished panel of independent jury members and is considered to be one of the most prestigious awards for ...

  Bloomberg The greatest risks facing European Union banks are high levels of bad loans and lower profitability, the bloc’s financial regulator said in a report. The European Banking Authority said that while EU-wide lenders had strengthened their capital buffers, technology-related risks were increasing amid lingering litigation concerns. Presenting its ninth report on “risks and vulnerabilities in the EU banking ...

  Bloomberg Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc will probably deepen cuts at its investment bank and its Irish business to boost capital after flunking Bank of England stress tests, according to analysts. The Edinburgh-based lender may need to dispose of 44 billion pounds ($56 billion) of risk-weighted assets to improve its capital buffers, analysts at Barclays Plc led by ...