Banking

  Bloomberg American Express Co. can prohibit merchants from steering customers to credit cards with lower transaction fees, a federal appeals court ruled in a blow to businesses trying to reduce annual card fees that run around $50 billion. The decision by the appeals court in Manhattan is the most definitive ruling on AmEx’s relationship with merchants. A federal judge ...

  Bloomberg Saudi Arabia’s central bank stepped up efforts to support lenders in the Arab world’s biggest economy as they grapple with the effects of low oil prices. The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, as the central bank is known, said it decided to give banks about 20 billion riyals ($5.3 billion) in the form of time deposits “on behalf of ...

  Bloomberg Former IMF chief Rodrigo Rato was jeered as he arrived at court on Monday for his trial for alleged of misuse of funds when he was the boss of two of Spain’s top banks. Rato is standing trial with 64 other former executives and board members at Caja Madrid and Bankia, whose near-collapse sparked an EU bailout of ...

  AFP French tax authorities have asked Switzerland to hand over client information for some 45,000 bank accounts as part of a probe into alleged tax fraud, Le Parisien daily said on Monday. Swiss banking giant UBS said in July that the Swiss authorities had asked it to provide client information following a French request for international administrative assistance in ...

  Bloomberg Bank of America Corp. (BofA) plans to eliminate about a dozen senior positions at its corporate and investment banking operations in Asia, the second time the U.S. bank cuts jobs in the region this year, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The reductions by the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank will involve managing directors and directors and will ...

  Bloomberg China’s central bank drained the most funds from the financial system in six months, adding to speculation that it is keeping a tight rein on cash supply as part of efforts to curb excessive leverage. The People’s Bank of China pulled a net 245 billion yuan ($37 billion) from the financial system through reverse-repurchase agreements, the biggest one-day ...

  AFP Former IMF chief Rodrigo Rato stands trial on Monday accused of overseeing a “corrupt system” that helped him and other executives misuse funds on hotels, parties and luxury shopping when he was a Spanish bank boss. Uncovered in 2013 by a journalist who saw a hacked email alluding to “black credit cards,” the case threatens to land the ...

  Bloomberg As far as Citigroup Inc. is concerned, Mexico has little choice but to carry out an unprecedented interest-rate increase to arrest a plunge in the peso triggered by Donald Trump’s recent surge in US presidential polls. Mexico’s exchange rate has tumbled 6 percent in the past month, the biggest slide among the world’s major currencies. Citigroup economist Sergio ...

  Bloomberg As Indian Overseas Bank tackles the highest ratio of soured loans among lenders in Asia’s third-largest economy, it doesn’t help that there hasn’t been a chief executive officer at the helm for about three months. The state-controlled lender based in the southern city of Chennai has had a leadership vacuum since R. Koteeswaran retired on June 30 after ...

  Bloomberg National Bank of Canada (NBC) is set to become the first North American bank to issue panda bonds, joining international lenders including Standard Chartered Plc and HSBC Holdings Plc in issuing yuan-denominated securities in China’s domestic bond market. National Bank, the nation’s sixth-largest lender by assets, was approved to sell up to 5 billion yuan ($750 million) of ...