Banking

  Sydney / Bloomberg Australia’s central bank cut interest rates to a fresh record low as it moves to counter disinflation and support a labour market hampered by high levels of part-time work and underemployment. Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens and his board lowered the cash rate by 25 basis points to 1.5 percent on Tuesday, as predicted ...

  MILAN / AP Shares in troubled Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena rose as a capital infusion means the bank won’t be nationalized. But the shares of other Italian banks fell as investors focused on the scale of their mountain of bad loans. Monte dei Paschi was by far the worst performer in stress tests of 51 European ...

  Frankfurt / Bloomberg Germany’s second largest bank Commerzbank warned on Tuesday that its profits in 2016 would be lower than the previous year. “The interest rate environment and persistent customer caution in view of the geopolitical uncertainties will continue to weigh on income despite growth,” the bank said in its second-quarter report. Commerzbank has also been forced to set ...

  New Delhi / Bloomberg India eased rules to allow applicants to seek permits for setting up banks on a continuous basis, replacing a system that created long delays between approvals. According to the rules — posted on the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) website Monday — professionals with senior-level banking experience of at least 10 years can apply for a ...

  Poland / Bloomberg Polish banks jumped on a newspaper report that President Andrzej Duda will tone down his proposal to help the country’s Swiss-franc-denominated mortgage takers and won’t force lenders to convert $36 billion in home loans into zloty. Fixing the issue of foreign-currency loans, mainly in Swiss francs, has hung over Polish lenders for more than a year, ...

  Bloomberg The Bank of England is mere days away from its first interest-rate cut in more than seven years. It wasn’t easy getting here. After shocking traders by leaving the key rate on hold last month, Governor Mark Carney and the Monetary Policy Committee signaled that loosening would probably come this month. But with five sets of public comments ...

  Bloomberg The European Central Bank Executive Board received a complaint from the institution’s staff council last month, alleging that the appointment of its new Brussels representative looks like an act of favoritism. Employee representatives penned their letter after Stephane Rottier was chosen to lead the ECB’s office in the city that hosts most European Union institutions. The position was ...

  Bloomberg Nedbank Group Ltd., the South African lender controlled by Old Mutual Plc, headed for the highest level in eight months after first-half profit rose, beating analyst estimates that had predicted a decline. The shares jumped as much as 7.5 percent on Monday before paring gains, leading returns on the seven-member FTSE/JSE Africa Banks Index. First-half earnings per share ...

  Bloomberg You can now add the rates strategy team at Deutsche Bank AG to the growing list of Wall Street analysts who reckon the U.S. economy is probably ensnared in secular stagnation. In a research note published on Friday, Deutsche Bank strategists, led by Dominic Konstam, say the Federal Reserve risks a “big policy error” if it hikes interest ...

  Bloomberg For Europe’s higher-yielding bonds, a political stalemate in Spain and lingering concerns about Italian banks are proving to be no impediment as investors count on support from an acceleration in buying by the European Central Bank and loose monetary policy globally. Spain’s 10-year bond yields fell to a record low and approached 1 percent even with the country ...