Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG may be forced to shrink its US activities as part of a deal to settle litigation over residential mortgage-backed securities with the Department of Justice, German newspaper Welt am Sonntag reported, citing an unidentified person familiar with the discussions. Radical changes to the business model are typical requirements in settlement arrangements with the U.S. government, ...
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Saudi Arabia to ease rules for foreign bank operations
Bloomberg Saudi Arabia is exploring the possibility of granting more licenses to foreign banks and easing restrictions on their operations to boost growth in the private sector, people with knowledge of the matter said. The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, or SAMA as the central bank is known, is weighing proposals that would allow foreign banks to open more branches ...
Read More »Wells Fargo CEO steps down amid sales scam
NEW YORK / AP Wells Fargo’s embattled CEO John Stumpf is stepping down as the nation’s second-largest bank is roiled by a scandal over its sales practices. The San Francisco bank said Stumpf is retiring effective immediately and also relinquishing his title as chairman. He won’t be receiving severance pay and the bank announced earlier that he will forfeit ...
Read More »UniCredit raises €552mn with asset sale
Milan / AFP UniCredit said on Thursday it had raised over half a billion euros as part of its latest asset sale, part of Italy’s largest bank’s effort to boost its funds without raising capital from shareholders. The 552 million euros ($609 million) from the sale of 20 percent of its online banking subsidiary Fineco will be used to ...
Read More »Bank of Russia sees bigger challenge than rates for lenders
Bloomberg Preoccupied by ultra-low interest rates in much of the industrialized world, the financial industry risks being blindsided by an even bigger challenge, according to Russian central bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina. “Banks could fall into a trap,†Nabiullina said at a conference in Kazan, capital of Russia’s republic of Tatarstan. “What do they mostly complain about now? Low interest ...
Read More »Australia sells $5.8 billion of 30-year debt in record deal
Bloomberg Australia’s government sold its biggest-ever bond, raising A$7.6 billion ($5.8 billion) in a debut offering of 30-year securities. Yields on benchmark 10-year debt jumped to the highest since June. “The eventual size was slightly larger than we expected, but does show good demand,†said Roger Bridges, chief global strategist for rates and currencies at Nikko Asset Management’s Australia ...
Read More »Lloyds to cut 1,340 jobs in UK to boost profits
Bloomberg Lloyds Banking Group Plc, Britain’s largest mortgage lender, will eliminate about 1,340 jobs as part of a cost-cutting program that started in October 2014, according to a labor union. The move is part of a plan to pare about 12,000 roles by 2017, the Accord labor union, which represents the bank’s employees, said in a statement Wednesday. The job ...
Read More »Wells Fargo forms tech-payments group
Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co. combined corporate payments and some consumer-banking operations with the technology-innovations group, creating a unit run by the former leader of consumer lending, Avid Modjtabai. As head of the Payments, Virtual Solutions and Innovation unit, Modjtabai will report to Chief Operating Officer Tim Sloan, according to a statement Monday from the San Francisco-based bank that ...
Read More »Deutsche Bank boosts private dollar bond sale
Bloomberg Less than a week after raising $3 billion in a private debt sale, Deutsche Bank AG returned for another $1.5 billion, offering a yield premium twice what it paid to borrow a year ago. The German lender sold the debt to mostly the same investors who bought last week’s offering at a slightly lower premium of 290 basis ...
Read More »Romanian central banker sees no need to tighten policy
Bloomberg There’s no need at the moment for tighter monetary policy in Romania because the economy is experiencing the “best macroeconomic picture†since the collapse of communism and growth hasn’t become unsustainable, central bank Deputy Governor Liviu Voinea said. The consumer-led expansion in the European Union’s second-poorest member isn’t showing signs of overheating, recording a positive output gap — ...
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