Banking

  Bloomberg Indonesia’s central bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged after six cuts this year, seeking to calm financial markets in the wake of Donald Trump’s upset victory in the US presidential election. Governor Agus Martowardojo and his board held the seven-day reverse repurchase rate at 4.75 percent on Thursday, in line with the forecasts of all but three ...

  New Delhi / AFP India announced new measures on Thursday to allow farmers and marrying couples to withdraw more money from banks, as frustration mounted over a cash crisis triggered by the withdrawal of all high-value notes. The shock move last week, which saw 85 percent of the cash in circulation suddenly withdrawn, has led to huge queues forming ...

  Bloomberg The European Central Bank’s extraordinary stimulus measures are not intended to be permanent and should be withdrawn as soon as possible, Executive Board member Yves Mersch said. “The size of the purchase program means that will take some time, but a permanent commitment to our bond-buying, for example, would set the wrong incentives for government financing,” Mersch said ...

  Frankfurt am Main / AFP Deutsche Bank intends to claw back millions in bonuses from six former top executives, a German newspaper said on Thursday, as the embattled lender seeks to cut costs and boost its capital cushion. The move would target former CEOs Anshu Jain, Juergen Fitschen and Josef Ackermann as well as three one-time board members, the ...

  Bloomberg The Swiss National Bank (SNB), which has the lowest interest rate among the world’s major central banks, may be done cutting. SNB President Thomas Jordan and his fellow policy makers will keep the deposit rate unchanged at minus 0.75 percent until at least the end of the first quarter of 2019, according to the median forecast in Bloomberg’s ...

Bloomberg The Bank of England (BoE) has been granted the ability to limit borrowing by investors in rental housing, increasing the central bank’s control over the property market. The BoE’s Financial Policy Committee has been given new powers to cap buy-to-let mortgage lending by regulating loan-to-value and interest coverage ratios, the UK Treasury said in a statement. UK benchmark interest ...

  Bloomberg The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is poised to become the latest central bank to test its own digital currency, which it will use in a trial of a blockchain-driven system for interbank payments. The ‘proof-of-concept’ project, which also involves the city’s stock exchange and eight banks, is aimed at simplifying the payments process and reducing transaction costs, ...

  Bloomberg Barclays Bank of Kenya Ltd. became the first of the country’s biggest banks to report a drop in nine-month profit as it tripled loan-loss provisions and bad loans surged. The bank partially owned by Barclays Plc’s Africa unit posted profit of 6.06 billion shillings ($59.5 million) in the nine months through September, compared with 6.4 billion shillings a ...

  Bloomberg ABN Amro Group NV, the state-controlled Dutch lender that returned to the stock market last year, reported a 19 percent jump in third-quarter profit and said it would cut 1,500 jobs as it steps up cost reductions. Underlying net income, which strips out one-time items, rose to 607 million euros ($652 million) from 509 million euros a year ...

  DUBAI / Reuters The Kingdom of Bahrain is in talks with lenders for an Islamic bond, or sukuk, which is expected to be issued in the first quarter of 2017, banking sources said. No banks have been appointed yet to arrange the debt transaction, the bankers said on condition of anonymity because the information has not been made public. ...