Banking

  Berlin / AP Germany’s Bundesbank said raising the legal retirement age to 69 by 2060 could ease some of the pressure on the country’s state pension system as the population ages. Recent reforms won’t protect citizens from a drop in the level of pension payments from 2050, the central bank said in its monthly report published on Monday. Citizens ...

  Bloomberg The European Union is considering adding to protections for banks’ riskiest debt securities by requiring that lenders pay coupons on such bonds before stock dividends and staff bonuses. Coupons on additional Tier 1 securities, such as contingent convertibles, or CoCos, “should be given priority” if capital levels are breached that trigger limits on payouts, according to an undated ...

  London / Bloomberg Bank of England (BOE) Governor Mark Carney isn’t finished yet. Economists in a Bloomberg survey predict another interest-rate cut in November, adding to the stimulus unveiled this month, even as they see UK inflation busting through policy makers’ 2 percent target just months later. The survey also puts the probability of Britain sliding into a recession ...

  Hong Kong / Bloomberg Hong Kong’s High Court ruled against Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp.’s (OCBC) private bank in a mis-selling case, saying the unit and a relationship manager had breached their contractual duty towards an elderly couple who lost money on investments made with ING Asia Private Bank. In a court judgment dated Aug. 8, the court said Bank of ...

  Manila / Bloomberg The Philippine central bank approved a significant increase in the amount of foreign exchange that companies and individuals can buy without documentation in what analysts say is a bid to reduce the number of black market currency trades. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said in a statement that from September 15, the amount of foreign exchange ...

  Bloomberg Crime writers and Hollywood producers take note: Secret Swiss bank accounts aren’t so secret anymore. Switzerland’s reputation for tight-lipped discretion made it a magnet for money from dictators and tax dodgers, along with the fictional assassin Jason Bourne. Now whistleblowers and a crackdown after the 2008 financial crisis are creating a world less tolerant of offshore havens. That’s ...

  New Delhi / Bloomberg State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender by assets, climbed to an eight-month high in Mumbai stock trading as the firm reported a smaller increase in soured debt than expected in the first quarter. Bad loans as a percentage of total lending rose 44 basis points since March to 6.94 percent by June, the ...

  Singapore / Bloomberg The recent drubbing in Singapore bank stocks is turning Southeast Asia’s biggest lenders into bargains for money managers including Aberdeen Asset Management Plc. DBS Group Holdings Ltd. lost S$3.6 billion ($2.7 billion) in market value in seven days from July 28 when its client Swiber Holdings Ltd. signaled it was in financial trouble. DBS’s two smaller ...

  Bloomberg Kenyan lawmakers are threatening to overrule President Uhuru Kenyatta if needed to force the country’s banks to lower their lending rates. The country’s parliament on July 28 approved a bill that will limit the amount of interest banks can charge on loans, with the proposal only needing Kenyatta’s signature to become law. The proposals jolted lenders into signing ...

  La Paz / AFP Banco Bradesco SA, Brazil’s second-biggest bank by market value, named former executives of HSBC Holdings Plc’s local unit to new leadership positions as its acquisition of the business last month expands the investment-banking team 20 percent. Ricardo Lanfranchi, former head of Brazil equity sales for HSBC, is now global head of equities and derivatives for ...