Banking

Bloomberg Bank of America (BofA) Merrill Lynch says India’s central bank should set a schedule for bond purchases to help bring down lending rates amid a cash crunch in the financial system. The Reserve Bank of India has bought 570 billion rupees ($8.5 billion) of sovereign debt since resuming open-market operations, or OMOs, in early December after almost two years. ...

Beijing / Bloomberg The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) gauged demand for medium-term loans on Wednesday at an interest rate lower than it’s offered in the past, Reuters reported, citing people it didn’t identify. The monetary authority lowered the cost of the three- and six-month, and one-year Medium-term Lending Facility by 25 basis points to 2.5 percent, 2.6 percent and ...

BLOOMBERG Israel is experiencing one of the world’s longest streaks of negative inflation. Yet unlike central banks in Europe or Japan, which have lowered interest rates below zero to combat deflation, the Bank of Israel isn’t as worried about the trend. While these other banks fret about growth, Israeli central bankers say the local economy is healthy and the drop ...

VIENNA / Bloomberg Raiffeisen Bank International AG can afford to keep its Polish unit rather than sell it at a fire-sale price because the Austrian lender is already “within striking distance” of its target to boost capital ratios, according to its chief executive officer. Eastern Europe’s second-biggest lender still wants to dispose of the business but may not succeed in ...

TOKYO / AFP Japan’s central bank chief on Tuesday defended a negative interest rate policy slammed as a desperate bid to keep alive efforts at resuscitating the world’s number three economy. Haruhiko Kuroda’s comments came after the Bank of Japan held off unleashing more stimulus following a two-day meeting, as it gauges the impact of its unprecedented move into sub-zero rates. ...

BLOOMBERG FirstRand Ltd. plans to close branches and cut jobs at its South African retail-lending unit as customers switch to digital banking and the continent’s biggest lender by market value responds to an economy on the brink of a recession. Almost 600 positions will be lost at First National Bank, while more than 500 people at the Johannesburg-based company may ...

BLOOMBERG Emerging-market currencies weakened for a second day and stocks fell from a 2016 high as sliding oil prices weighed on assets of commodity exporters and growing wagers the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates as soon as the next quarter damped demand for risk. The South African rand and Russia’s ruble depreciated at least 1.7 percent, leading declines among ...

BERN / Bloomberg The Swiss National Bank (SNB) will probably stay on hold at its monetary policy meeting on March 17 as banks in the country are already facing pressure from negative interest rates, economists and strategists say in notes to clients. The fact that the euro remained broadly stable against Swiss franc after the European Central Bank (ECB) meeting ...

TOKYO / AFP European stock markets rose on Monday, with Frankfurt hitting levels above 10,000 points, following a strong start to the week across Asia as traders looked ahead to more central bank action. The Bank of Japan started a two-day meeting on Monday, while the Federal Reserve and Bank of England also gather this week to decide over the ...

BERN / Bloomberg For the second time in less than four months, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) president has seen the franc weaken rather than strengthen in the wake of new European Central Bank stimulus. That relief means Jordan and his fellow policy makers won’t cut rates on March 17, according to the majority of economists in a Bloomberg survey. ...