Banking

BEIRUT / AP Hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance money for cash-strapped Lebanon is being held up because of the country’s nearly two-year-old political stalemate, the president of the World Bank group warned, imploring the country’s politicians to vote for a president who can enact laws. In an interview in the Lebanese capital Beirut, Jim Yong Kim also said ...

TOKYO / Reuters Bank of Japan (BOJ) policymakers engaged in heated debate during their policy review in March on the pros and cons of their decision in January to adopt negative interest rates, with one even saying it was preferable to roll it back. A summary of the March 14-15 meeting of the nine-member board that was released on Thursday showed ...

Sydney / AFP ANZ Bank on Thursday warned sour loans will cost it at least A$900 million in the first-half, and analysts warned of more trouble ahead as slumping commodity prices squeeze Australia’s resources companies. The bank said weakness in the mining and energy sectors means it now expects bad debts to cost A$100 million ($75 million) more in the ...

Bloomberg The Swiss National Bank (SNB) spent 86.1 billion francs ($88 billion) on interventions last year, a measure of its efforts to shield the economy from deflation. SNB President Thomas Jordan and his colleagues have repeatedly pledged to step in to prevent the franc from strengthening. They’ve done so even since they gave up a minimum exchange rate of 1.20 ...

Milan / AFP Italian banks Banco Popolare and Banca Popolare di Milano (BPM) have announced that they would merge, in a long-awaited deal that will create the country’s third-largest bank by assets. The deal will create a lender with more than 25,000 staff and four million customers, and could help drive consolidation among Italy’s fragmented bankingsector. The deal has been ...

TORONTO / Reuters Bank of Montreal (BMO), Canada’s fourth largest lender, has announced that it had launched the first biometric corporate card programme in Canada and US in partnership with Mastercard. BMO and Mastercard said the technology will enable cardholders to verify transactions using facial recognition and fingerprint biometrics when making online purchases. In a statement, they said the introduction ...

CANBERRA / Bloomberg Australia’s central bank chief brushed aside US criticism of his comments on the local currency’s level, saying that it was probably too high and pointing to a record of overseeing a floating exchange rate. Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Governor Glenn Stevens said in response to a question after a speech in Sydney that there’s “some risk” ...

Budapest / Bloomberg Hungary’s central bank said it had lowered one of its interest rates into negative territory for the first time, faced with with a drastically weaker inflation outlook. The rate for funds parked by commercial banks with the central bank overnight now stands at -0.05 percent. The bank also cut its main interest rate to 1.20 percent, also ...

Reuters British banks have cut the amount they charge for small international transfers between currencies by more than a fifth in the past three months as competition in the sector continues to grow, an index of market costs showed on Wednesday. Money transfer comparison and intelligence firm FXCompared.com said its quarterly International Money Transfer Index (IMTI) showed banks were starting ...

Zurich / Bloomberg Credit Suisse Group AG is planning to speed up and deepen cuts to the investment bank, five months after it announced an overhaul, said a person with knowledge of the discussions. Switzerland’s second-biggest bank may disclose that it’s accelerating cutbacks to trading businesses, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. ...