Banking

  Bloomberg Atop a hill in southern Spain sit a cluster of cement apartment blocks surrounded by scruffy gardens. Built during the go-go years of the country’s property bubble, the development was eerily still on a recent June morning. Banco Popular Espanol SA, which took ownership in a foreclosure, is offering flats for as much as 147,000 euros (US$165,100). Fatima ...

  Bloomberg Jefferies Group is making more changes to the investment-banking division that manages relationships with private equity firms, according to people familiar with the matter, following the departure of the group’s global head, Adam Sokoloff, in March. Christopher Ooten, a managing director at Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch unit, will join Jefferies’s financial sponsor group to replace Theodore ...

  Bloomberg From the immediate possibility of Britain leaving the European Union to the longer-term consequences of aging populations, the world’s major central banks this week just aren’t sure what to do next. Officials from the US, Japan, the UK and Switzerland all opted to keep monetary policy unchanged this week as they await the June 23 Brexit vote and ...

  Bloomberg Spanish authorities are investigating some Banco Santander SA and BNP Paribas SA employees amid allegations they may have helped shield customers’ international transfers from tax authorities, according to a person familiar with the probe. Investigators are trying to work out who within the banks may have been responsible for the alleged transactions by analyzing evidence including papers they ...

  Bloomberg A venture between JPMorgan Chase & Co and private-equity firm Lone Star Funds is the leading bidder to buy Propertize BV, the Dutch bad bank that holds 5.5 billion euros (US$6.1 billion) of loans and real estate, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Propertize may reach a deal to sell the firm in the next ...

  Bloomberg Investigators have linked malware used by Russian and eastern European cyber-gangs to a string of bank heists that culminated in the record-breaking theft of US$81 million from Bangladesh’s central bank, according to people familiar with the probe. The tools used in some of the attacks on as many as 12 banks, mostly in Southeast Asia, match those deployed ...

  Bloomberg The Bank of Canada is running experiments on interbank payment systems using blockchain-type technology to better understand how it works. The central bank has no plans to issue any digital currency for public use, Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Wilkins said in an e-mailed statement. Blockchain refers to the technology that underpins distributed ledgers, which are used for verifying ...

  Bloomberg The Swiss National Bank kept interest rates unchanged, conserving ammunition ahead of a British vote on European Union membership that has the potential to complicate monetary policy-making the world over. The SNB, whose currency is sought by investors at times of crisis, held its deposit rate at minus 0.75 percent, as forecast by economists in a survey. Saying ...

  Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG Chairman Paul Achleitner has become the latest global banking leader to warn about the potential fallout if UK voters decide to leave the European Union. A yes vote next week on the so-called Brexit would be an “economic disaster for the UK and a political disaster for the EU,” Achleitner said at a dinner Wednesday ...

  Bloomberg Airbnb Inc secured a US$1 billion debt facility from some of the largest U.S. banks to help the home-sharing company develop new services and fund growth initiatives, people familiar with the matter said. The debt deal was led by JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp Morgan Stanley also participated, according to the people, ...