Banking

  Kiev / AFP Ukraine’s central bank keeps trying to shut them down but they keep surviving: ‘zombie banks’ are roiling the impoverished country’s financial system through the help of allegedly crooked courts. The former Soviet republic — labelled the continent’s most corrupt state by the European Court of Auditors on Wednesday — needs financial aid from the International Monetary ...

  ANKARA / Reuters Weakness in the Turkish lira could start to drive up prices and knock the central bank off its targets in the first quarter of next year, but the impact will depend on the pace of economic activity, Governor Murat Cetinkaya said. At a news conference on the central bank’s monetary and exchange rate policy for 2017, ...

  Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co.’s attempt to force aggrieved customers into closed-door arbitration over its fake-accounts scandal is drawing a legislative backlash in its home state of California and risks subjecting the bank to another round as a public punching bag. Following pledges at Capitol Hill hearings and in advertisements that it would rebuild customer trust, the San Francisco-based ...

  Milan / AFP Italy’s Monte dei Paschi di Siena saw its stock tumble more than 12 percent over reports the ECB had denied it more time to raise the cash it needs to avoid being wound down. The world’s oldest bank had asked the European Central Bank for two more weeks to find the funds, saying political instability created ...

  Berlin / AFP Europe’s largest economy Germany is “on a sound upward path” for faster-than-expected growth in 2016 and 2017, its central bank said, but remains at risk from Donald Trump and Brexit. Germany’s “main driver is buoyant domestic demand, which is being bolstered by the favourable situation in the labour market and by rising household income,” Bundesbank president ...

  London / AFP International banks have enquired about switching operations from London to Paris following Britain’s vote in favour of exiting the European Union, according to a senior official at France’s markets regulator. “Large international banks… have already undertaken real due diligences and we have received a lot of practical questions regarding the way they are going to be ...

  Bloomberg Here’s a silver lining for India’s bond bulls stung by losses after the central bank’s surprise decision not to cut benchmark interest rates — better rupee outlook. Analysts say the Reserve Bank of India panel’s move to hold rates, which caused the benchmark 10-year yield to jump the most since 2013, could revive overseas demand for rupee debt ...

  Bloomberg UniCredit SpA advanced its plan to boost capital, agreeing to sell 32.8 percent of Poland’s Bank Pekao SA to Insurer PZU SA and a Polish development fund for 10.6 billion zloty ($2.6 billion). The sale will lift UniCredit’s CET1 capital ratio 55 basis points above its Sept. 30 level, the Italian bank said in a statement on Thursday. ...

  Bloomberg Bank of America Corp. doubled the number of internal referrals that advisers in its Merrill Lynch wealth-management unit must make to avoid having their compensation cut. The brokers must refer at least two clients annually for banking services in other parts of the company starting in 2017, up from one, said Susan McCabe, a spokeswoman for the Charlotte, ...

  Rome / AFP The world’s oldest bank, Italy’s Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS), asked the European Central Bank for more time to raise the cash it needs to avoid being wound down. BMPS said it was asking for the extension from the end of December to mid January because the political instability created by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s ...