Banking

  Bloomberg Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. has axed its traditional A$1,000 ($746) share bonus for staff this year, citing the need to cut expenses. In an intranet post seen by Bloomberg News, management told employees that 2016 had been a “challenging year” and that in an “environment of lower growth and lower returns, ANZ needs to reduce ...

  London / AFP A petition calling for the Bank of England (BoE) to remove a new banknote from circulation had on Tuesday received more than 70,000 signatures, with critics angry it is produced with animal product. The polymer £5 notes ($6.2, 5.9 euros) were unveiled in September, with the Bank of England extolling the new banknotes for being waterproof ...

  London / AFP The Royal Bank of Scotland is the worst prepared among Britain’s lenders for another financial crisis, the Bank of England said on Wednesday, forcing the state-rescued lender to raise more cash. The BoE, revealing its latest stress tests on Britain’s top seven banks, added that two — Barclays and Standard Chartered — also missed key hurdles ...

  Reuters Al Rayan Bank is expanding its product range and adding an office in Scotland, its top executive said, after a year of strong growth for Britain’s only Islamic retail lender despite uncertainty stemming from Brexit. Islamic retail banking is still a rarity in the West, but the experience of Al Rayan could encourage other Islamic banks to explore ...

  Bloomberg Falling commercial real estate prices after the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union pose a threat to bank stability because of the market’s reliance on foreign capital, Bank of England said. Values have declined 2.6 percent since the referendum and may drop further from their current high levels, according to the central bank’s twice-yearly assessment. Continuing declines ...

  Bloomberg Weak global growth and uncertainty over interest rates are among rising ‘headwinds’ that threaten to drag on Singaporean banking profits, according to the city’s central bank. The potential for spillover from vulnerabilities in China’s financial system into Asia and anti-globalization sentiment are also among challenges highlighted in the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s annual assessment of the financial sector ...

  Bloomberg DBS Group Holdings Ltd. and Bank of Singapore, Asia’s largest home-grown private banks, will consider more acquisitions as they grapple for a bigger slice of business from the region’s growing number of millionaires. DBS would look at any deal that fits with its strategy and is at the “right” price, the bank’s consumer and wealth head Tan Su ...

  Bloomberg The yuan climbed to its strongest level in a week, as Chinese authorities work to halt the currency’s recent plunge with stronger fixings and a verbal defense. The currency rose as much as 0.26 percent to 6.8900 per dollar, the strongest level since Nov. 22, before trimming the gains to trade 0.24 percent stronger as of 5:31 p.m. ...

  Bloomberg Standard Chartered Plc is cutting about 10 percent of the staff in its corporate and institutional division as part of a plan announced last year to eliminate 15,000 jobs and improve profitability at the Asia-focused bank, according to a person familiar with the plans. Staff will be notified of the cuts starting this week, and jobs will be ...

  Bloomberg Banco Santander SA is scrapping plans to separate its consumer lending operations from large corporate and institutional banking in the UK in the wake of the country’s vote to leave the European Union, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The Spanish lender is discussing fresh proposals with the Bank of England to meet the regulator’s ...