Banking

  BLOOMBERG Bank of East Asia (BEA) Ltd. shares dropped the most in two weeks in Hong Kong after Elliott Management started legal action alleging that the family-run lender acted improperly when issuing stock, which it says diluted minority investors and entrenched management control. The stock sank as much as 2.8 percent on Tuesday, the biggest intraday slide since July ...

  Frankfurt / AFP Europe’s financial sector is showing further signs of mending and banks are increasingly competing for custom by easing credit standards, a key European Central Bank survey showed on Tuesday. The ECB said its quarterly bank lending survey (BLS) showed banks are easing credit standards for loans to companies. However, this is an encouraging sign, since the ...

  Bloomberg Ana Botin, the chairman of Banco Santander SA, is doubling the lender’s bet on fintech. Spain’s biggest bank said that it was boosting its investment in Santander InnoVentures, its London-based financial technology fund, to $200 million from $100 million. The fund takes minority stakes in promising startups, aiming to incorporate innovative technology in its banking operations. “A deeper ...

  Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co. agreed to purchase a new London headquarters in a move that will enable the US bank to increase its presence in the UK capital. The building, known as 33 Central, is due to be completed in the third quarter of 2017, according to a statement on Monday from the developer, HB Reavis Group. The ...

  Bloomberg Just like Mark Carney, Mario Draghi can afford to wait a bit before adding more monetary stimulus. Economists in a survey predict the European Central Bank president will keep policy unchanged on Thursday but announce fresh measures before the end of the year. The meeting comes a week after the Bank of England, headed by Carney, opted not ...

  BLOOMBERG Gertjan Vlieghe, who was alone in voting for an interest-rate cut at the latest Bank of England meeting, said the UK needs a range of stimulus to combat the impact of its decision to quit the European Union. “The precise implications for the economy are uncertain, although the general direction of travel is likely to be lower growth ...

  BLOOMBERG Bank of England policy maker Martin Weale said he needs to see more evidence of the impact of the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union before supporting additional stimulus at the central bank’s August meeting. BOE officials surprised markets and a majority of economists last week when they kept their key interest rate unchanged, and suggested they ...

  Bloomberg A senior official at China’s central bank said companies may be falling into a ‘liquidity trap’ and that the government still has room for to expand the fiscal deficit. Signs of a liquidity trap, economist-speak for when central bank cash injections into the economy fail to spur growth as monetary policy loses potency, are showing in businesses and ...

  MANILA / AP The Asian Development Bank said on Monday it had cut its 2016 growth projection for developing economies in Asia and the Pacific to 5.6 percent, down from its earlier forecast of 5.7 percent, but added that the economies’ performance will remain solid and help offset softness from the US economy and near-term market shocks from Britain’s ...

  AFP The European Central Bank, widely expected to hold fire on monetary policy next week, will likely prepare the ground for more stimulus measures in September as the economic fallout for the eurozone from Brexit becomes clearer, analysts predicted. The ECB’s decision-making governing council is scheduled to hold its regular policy meeting on Thursday, a month after Britain voted ...