Banking

  BLOOMBERG Indonesia’s Islamic bond yields have fallen faster than Malaysia’s in the past three months, as the nation’s higher-yielding notes do better at attracting investors fleeing plunging rates in the developed world. Yields on rupiah sukuk due 2019 slid 39 basis points in the period, compared with 26 basis points for equivalent paper in Malaysia. Indonesia’s three-year Islamic bonds ...

  Bloomberg UBS Group AG and Bank of America Merrill Lynch stand atop the private-banking industry, managing more than US$3 trillion for the world’s wealthiest people even as assets slid. The private bank at Zurich-based UBS oversaw US$1.74 trillion at the end of 2015, compared with US$1.75 trillion a year earlier, according to an annual study by London-based consulting firm ...

  Bloomberg Mark Carney looks poised to repeat a strategy that served him well during the global financial crisis. As the Bank of England governor seeks to stave off any turmoil after Britain’s decision to quit the European Union, he has cited his experience at Canada’s central bank in 2008 as a guide. Acting early to prevent a deeper downturn ...

  Bloomberg The biggest banks and insurers in Africa, including Old Mutual Plc and Standard Bank Group Ltd, are temporarily closing operations and evacuating staff after violence between rival political factions in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, left at least 272 people dead. The fighting disrupted operations of Standard’s CfC Stanbic Bank in Juba and action had to be taken to ...

  Cape Town / Bloomberg Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc led a rally in Japanese bank shares after the Sankei newspaper reported that policy makers are considering allowing the central bank to directly finance government stimulus spending. MUFG, Japan’s largest bank, closed 5.3 percent higher in Tokyo trading on Wednesday and was the best performer on the Topix Banks Index, ...

  Bloomberg Just as Israel is close to legislating major reforms to the banking industry, critical voices are starting to mount. A cabinet member echoed concerns of a credit crisis raised by the International Monetary Fund, days after the organisation said certain points of the government’s proposal contradict the lessons of the last financial crisis. “I would not ignore the ...

  Bloomberg Malaysia’s new central bank governor Muhammad Ibrahim unexpectedly cut interest rates for the first time in seven years, joining Asian counterparts from Indonesia to Taiwan in easing policy as global risks mount. In his second rate-setting meeting since taking office two months ago, Muhammad lowered the overnight policy rate by 25 basis points to 3 percent, a decision ...

  Bloomberg Bank of England financial-stability officials discussed the risk that freeing UK banks to lend more may prompt them to reward investors instead. In the record of meetings held in the wake of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, the Financial Policy Committee — lead by Governor Mark Carney — said the stability-risk outlook had “materially changed” and ...

  Bloomberg UniCredit SpA is selling as much as a 10 percent stake in online bank FinecoBank SpA and launching a review of its strategy as incoming Chief Executive Officer Jean Pierre Mustier seeks to boost capital. The bank will take “a more proactive approach” to its non-core loans, and the review will focus on further cost cuts and improving ...

  Bloomberg DNB ASA’s shares slumped after Norway’s largest bank missed profit estimates amid a jump in loan losses. Net income for the three months ended June 30 declined 10 percent to 4.45 billion kroner (US$525 million), missing the 4.85 billion-krone estimate in an analyst survey. Loan losses more than tripled to 2.32 billion kroner. Low interest rates drove net ...