Banking

  Bloomberg Central banks — holders of about 32,900 metric tons of bullion — cut their purchases by 40 percent during the three months through June, compared with the same period a year earlier, to the lowest since 2011, World Gold Council figures compiled by Bloomberg show. It was the third-straight quarterly drop, the longest such streak in at least ...

  Bloomberg Norway’s $890 billion sovereign wealth fund is acknowledging that rising withdrawals by the government could hamper its quest to manage more risk and generate greater returns as it takes on more and more negative yielding securities. The net outflows are “relevant for how we think about the risk-bearing capacity of the fund,” Egil Matsen, the deputy governor at ...

  Bloomberg GIC Pte reached a preliminary agreement to pay less than $400 million for a 7.7 percent stake in Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam JSC, the nation’s second-biggest listed company, people with knowledge of the matter said. The Singapore sovereign fund will buy Vietcombank stock at a discount to the current market price, the people said, asking not ...

  Bloomberg Mondo, a financial startup vying to crack the dominance of Britain’s biggest lenders, said it changed its name by one letter to Monzo after a legal dispute. The smartphone-based lender started by former GoCardless Ltd. founder Tom Blomfield picked the name after considering 12,560 suggestions from customers over six months, the London-based firm said in a statement. The ...

  Bloomberg Maj Invest, a Danish asset manager with $8 billion in assets, is looking to boost acquisitions in the micro finance industry in the Andean region. The Copenhagen-based asset manager is in the process of raising capital to grow the size of its Maj Invest Financial Inclusion Fund II to $100 million by June from $75 million now, according ...

  Bloomberg Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s speech on Friday was hawkish enough for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to boost the odds of a September interest-rate increase, while Pacific Investment Management Co. said there was nothing of note in her remarks. Bond traders agree with Goldman Sachs, with the market-implied probability of action next month rising after Yellen said in ...

  Bloomberg Bahrain Islamic Bank BSC (BISB) is seeking to sell about 82 million dinars ($218 million) of unproductive assets such as land and shares as part of a five-year plan to boost growth. The lender sold 14 million dinars-worth of these assets in the first half and plans the sale of a similar amount in the remainder of the ...

  Bloomberg European Central Bank (ECB) Executive Board member Benoit Coeure said unconventional monetary policy may have to be used differently and more frequently if governments don’t act to boost the growth potential of euro-area economies. “We may see short-term rates being pushed to the effective lower bound more frequently in the event of macroeconomic shocks,” Coeure said Saturday in ...

  Bloomberg Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said he won’t hesitate to boost monetary stimulus if needed, reiterating a pledge during an annual policy retreat in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, at which central bankers stressed their need for backup from fiscal policy. “There is no doubt that there is ample space for additional easing in each of the three dimensions,” ...

  Bloomberg Postal Savings Bank of China Co., moving closer to the world’s biggest share sale this year, won Hong Kong stock exchange approval for an initial public offering that could raise about $8 billion, people with knowledge of the matter said. The Beijing-based bank plans to start gauging investor demand for the offering in the first half of September, ...