Banking

  AP An ex-executive at a New York investment bank has admitted to defrauding investors of more than US$38 million, blaming it on his gambling addiction. Andrew Caspersen pleaded guilty to securities and wire fraud in federal court in Manhattan. Prosecutors say he scammed clients of PJT Partners Inc into investing millions of dollars in sham private equity investments. They ...

  AP The president of Puerto Rico’s Government Development Bank is resigning less than a week after the federal government passed measures to aid the US territory’s dire finances. Melba Acosta said she’ll step down July 31 to focus on her professional career. She directs a bank that issues loans to government agencies and is responsible for overseeing Puerto Rico’s ...

  AFP Bank of Italy Governor Ignazio Visco said that public intervention in the country’s banks was not to be ruled out amid growing fears the sector’s 360 billion euros (US$398 billion) in bad debt would trigger a potentially contagious banking crisis. “Given the risk that, in a context of high uncertainty, limited problems could undermine the trust in the ...

  Bloomberg The 16.9 million people receiving welfare payments from South Africa’s government into bank accounts should have the right to choose between financial services companies, according to the country’s central bank. A contract awarded by the South African Social Security Agency to Johannesburg-based Net 1 UEPS Technologies Inc to pay grants electronically in 2012 has this year been dogged ...

  Bloomberg The Bank of England may cut interest rates for the first time since 2009 next week to stabilise an economy in turmoil after Britons voted to leave the European Union, according to a majority of economists. Governor Mark Carney has said stimulus is likely to be needed soon and many economists expect the Monetary Policy Committee to act ...

  Bloomberg European Central Bank President Mario Draghi warned of potential legal steps after Slovenian police raided the country’s central bank in connection with a probe into a 2013 bank bailout. Nova Ljubljanska Banka dd and other state-owned lenders pushed Slovenia to the brink of an international bailout in 2013 before the government and the central bank spent 3.2 billion ...

  Bloomberg For US banks, Brexit couldn’t have come at a worse time, raising funding costs just as changes to the US$2.7 trillion money-fund industry threaten to sap demand for the lenders’ short-term debt. In the derivatives market, measures of banks’ funding stress are climbing on speculation the fallout from last month’s UK referendum will weaken global economic growth and ...

  BLOOMBERG Caixa Economica Federal, Brazil’s second-largest bank, is returning to the asset-backed security market after two years to take advantage of investors’ rising appetite for risk. Caixa plans to raise as much as 4 billion reais (US$1.2billion) of such securities for the FIDC fund it manages, the Brasilia-based company said in a regulatory filing last month. Proceeds will be ...

  BLOOMBERG China’s central bank drained the most funds from the financial system in four months, mopping up liquidity added over the last three weeks, even as economists predicted monetary easing to limit the fallout from last month’s Brexit vote. The People’s Bank of China withdrew a net 645 billion yuan (US$96 billion) from the financial system in the past ...

  Bloomberg Europe’s banks have been a focal point of investor skittishness since Britons voted to leave the European Union, but reasons to be worried about financial firms pre-date the referendum. Whether it be the mountain of non-performing loans, the challenge from fintech firms and alternative lenders encroaching on what was once their turf, or rock bottom interest rates eroding ...