Bloomberg Africa’s major economies are taking diverging approaches to monetary policy as they struggle to cope with volatile currencies, slumping growth and political meddling. Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa are set to announce interest-rate decisions this week in an environment marked by accelerating price growth and an economic slump in some countries and attempts by politicians to prescribe ...
Read More »Banking
ECB must tighten screws as soon as justified, says Bundesbank chief
Frankfurt / AFP The European Central Bank (ECB) must not allow low interest rates and monetary stimulus to last indefinitely, the head of Germany’s Bundesbank (central bank) said on Monday. “Under no circumstances can interest rates remain so low for longer than is absolutely necessary with regard to price stability,†Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann told a group of European ...
Read More »Potential risks to market stability growing: BIS
Bloomberg Financial markets have coped well with Brexit and other potentially disruptive political developments recently but asset prices may be running too high and the potential risks to market stability are growing, a report warned on Sunday. In its Quarterly Review, the usually guarded Bank for International Settlements didn’t explicitly say that stock and bond markets are bubbles waiting ...
Read More »RBS shares hit after Deutsche Bank fined
Reuters Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) shares fell after U.S. authorities demanded $14 billion from Deutsche Bank to settle mis-selling claims, raising fears about how much RBS might have to pay for similar misconduct. The British state-backed lender has waited many months to hear how U.S. authorities including the Department of Justice (DoJ) and Federal Housing Finance Agency intend ...
Read More »Banking clampdown dims allure of scandal-hit Baltic haven
Bloomberg Many Latvians got a shock this summer when they were informed their bank accounts risked being blocked if they didn’t hand over details of their citizenship, financial plans and any ties to high-level politics. Demands to fill out online questionnaires were dispatched by lenders at the behest of financial regulators, who’ve been battling the Baltic nation’s reputation as ...
Read More »Warning indicator for China banking stress climbs to record
Bloomberg A warning indicator for banking stress rose to a record in China in the first quarter, underscoring risks to the nation and the world from a rapid build-up of Chinese corporate debt. China’s credit-to-gross domestic product “gap†stood at 30.1 percent, the highest for the nation in data stretching back to 1995, according to the Basel-based Bank for ...
Read More »Deutsche Bank investors fret its legal reserves won’t be enough
Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG is moving closer to settling one of its biggest legal cases. How it manages to pay will depend on whether it can persuade the U.S. to lower its initial request of $14 billion, and by how much. The shares of Germany’s biggest bank plunged on news the Department of Justice is seeking an amount that’s ...
Read More »IDBI Bank selects arrangers for $896 million share sale
Bloomberg IDBI Bank Ltd., the state-backed Indian lender, picked arrangers including Citigroup Inc., Credit Suisse Group AG and Deutsche Bank AG to manage a share sale of about 60 billion rupees ($896 million), people with knowledge of the matter said. The Mumbai-based bank also chose HSBC Holdings Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co., SBI Capital Markets Ltd. and IDBI Capital ...
Read More »Canada Bank to generate 10% profit from global business
Bloomberg National Bank of Canada seeks to generate at least 10 percent of profit from its international business by 2020, while looking to expand its stakes in Africa and Asia lenders into controlling positions, Chief Executive Officer Louis Vachon said. “We are looking to complement our Canadian growth — not substitute, but complement our Canadian growth — with a ...
Read More »BBVA to cut 35 banking posts to reduce costs
Bloomberg Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA is reducing its corporate and investment banking staff in the U.S. by about 10 percent as Spain’s second-biggest bank streamlines its business to focus on core clients. About 35 employees will leave the bank’s CIB business at BBVA’s offices in New York, Houston and Dallas, a spokesperson for the Bilbao, Spain-based bank said ...
Read More »