Banking

  Bloomberg Societe Generale SA, France’s second-largest bank, shut its energy and commodities research unit in Paris this week, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Thierry Bros, who covered European gas and LNG, and Paolo Coghe a European power, coal and emissions analyst, were among the people who are leaving, said the people who asked not to be …

  Bloomberg Banco Santander SA, Spain’s biggest bank, hired Morgan Stanley as an adviser to help it buy Citigroup Inc.’s retail assets in Brazil for $350 million to $450 million, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. Santander, whose Brazil unit generates about 19 percent of the Madrid-based company’s revenue, also is working with Credit Suisse Group AG, …

  Bloomberg Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., the world’s largest lender by assets, reported the first decline in its bad-loan ratio since 2012 in the second quarter, while eking out 1 percent profit growth. ICBC’s non-performing loans fell 4 percent to 196.3 billion yuan ($29.4 billion) at the end of June from three months earlier, according an earnings …

Bloomberg Former Barclays Plc trader Christopher Ashton, a member of “The Cartel” chat room where bank traders allegedly manipulated foreign-exchange rates, is being fined $1.2 million by the Federal Reserve and permanently banned from U.S. banking. Ashton, previously global head of the FX spot business at Barclays in London, was accused of using electronic chat rooms to manipulate currency pricing …

  Bloomberg Poland is joining the queue of countries aiming to lure financial-services jobs from London as banks look to ensure unfettered access to the European Union’s single market after Britain leaves the bloc. Deputy Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki is traveling to London this week and says he’ll meet “dozens” of banks, hedge funds and investment managers to present Poland …

  Emirates Business Bank of Nova Scotia, Canada’s third-largest lender by assets, said quarterly profit rose 6.1 percent, led by higher earnings in domestic and international operations. The bank raised its dividend 2.8 percent to 74 cents a share. Net income for the fiscal third quarter ended July 31 rose to C$1.96 billion ($1.5 billion), or C$1.54 a share, from …

  Bloomberg Aviva Plc hired Chetan Singh, a managing director at JPMorgan Chase & Co., to head its mergers and acquisitions globally as the British insurer scouts for deals outside its home market. Singh, who led dealmaking for financial institutions in Southeast Asia at JPMorgan, will join Aviva as chief M&A officer on Sept. 26 and report to Chief Financial …

  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 …