Banking

  Bloomberg Russia is looking to sell dozens of stakes in state companies ranging from its oil-pipeline monopoly to its second-largest lender over the next three years as the government struggles to cover its budget gap, according to a draft privatization programme. After years of delays, the government is reviving plans to offer shares in Transneft PJSC and VTB Bank ...

  Bloomberg Bank Hapoalim Ltd., Israel’s largest bank, approved a plan to cut 12 percent of the workforce, answering the call of regulators to slash costs as it seeks to boost its dividend. The lender expects about 1,500 workers to choose voluntary retirement over the next four years in a plan that will cost the bank about 1.2 billion shekels ...

  Bloomberg Apollo Global Management LLC is starting to raise money for a new buyout fund that could reach almost $20 billion in size, as the private equity firm tears ahead on an unprecedented buying spree. “We are currently on pace to deploy more capital in 2016 than in any other year in our history,” Josh Harris, who co-founded Apollo ...

  Bloomberg Bank of England Governor Mark Carney’s self-imposed deadline for declaring whether he will stay in office beyond 2018 is fast approaching, with British newspapers saying he could decide to step down as soon as next week. The 51-year old Canadian may announce his decision “within days,” the Times and Mail Online reported. A decision could come at his ...

  Bloomberg United Overseas Bank Ltd., (UOB) Southeast Asia’s third-largest lender, said third-quarter profit fell 7.8 percent from a year earlier, as the bank set aside higher provisions for soured loans to the struggling oil and gas industry. The shares fell. Net income fell to S$791 million ($567 million) in the three months to September from S$858 million a year earlier, ...

  Bloomberg Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., the world’s biggest lender by assets, let its bad-loan buffer sink further below a regulatory minimum to avoid reporting a bigger decline in third-quarter profit. ICBC’s bad-loan coverage ratio slumped to 136 percent, compared with a minimum of 150 percent, the bank told Hong Kong’s stock exchange. Net income fell 0.2 ...

  Bloomberg Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc reported a surprise jump in pretax earnings on the highest revenue at its investment bank in two years, while pushing out profitability targets on a weaker outlook and looming charges for misconduct. Pretax profit, excluding one-time costs, rose to 1.33 billion pounds ($1.6 billion), beating the 776 million-pound average estimate of seven ...

  Bloomberg A former supervisor working for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) downloaded confidential information on portable computer storage devices that haven’t yet been recovered, the agency said in a statement. Before retirement, the employee downloaded “more than 10,000 records” about the regulator’s activities and some personal information about staff members, the OCC said. The November ...

  Bloomberg Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Japan’s largest bank, is expanding its aviation finance business into the Americas and hired Olivier Trauchessec to lead the push. Trauchessec, who previously worked at BNP Paribas SA, will report to Lance Markowitz, head of leasing and asset finance in the Americas, the bank said in a statement. “The addition of a New ...

  Bloomberg BNP Paribas SA, France’s largest lender, reported third-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates as it benefited from a surge in fixed-income trading that has lifted bank earnings in Europe and the U.S. Net income rose 3.3 percent to 1.89 billion euros ($2.06 billion) from 1.83 billion euros a year earlier, the Paris-based bank said. That compares with the ...