Banking

Some of the UK’s biggest high street banks are bracing themselves for trouble. Barclays Plc, Lloyds Banking Group Plc and NatWest Group Plc have together put aside nearly £1.3 billion ($1.5 billion) to cover bad loans, earning reports this week showed. HSBC Holdings Plc, which makes most of its money in Asia, also set aside $200 million “in respect of ...

Colombia’s central bank ignored complaints from President Gustavo Petro and raised interest rates to the highest level in more than two decades, while also deciding against intervention in the currency market. The bank lifted its benchmark rate by one percentage point to 11%, after the peso plunged and foreign investors dumped the nation’s bonds. The unanimous decision, which was in ...

Trading in the global foreign-exchange market jumped to an all-time high amid heightened volatility, according to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). Average daily transactions in April increased to $7.5 trillion, up 14% from the same month in 2019, the BIS said in its triennial survey. That compares with a growth rate of 30% in 2019 and a contraction of ...

Bank of Nova Scotia’s capital-markets unit is cutting some jobs in Asia and offering other staff members retention and relocation packages as the bank narrows its focus on regions closer to home. The move is part of the bank’s push to concentrate on North and South America, and its global banking and markets division in the Asia-Pacific region will focus ...

Nigeria’s central bank will replace high-value currency notes starting December 15 in a bid to mop up excess cash, rein in inflation and target rising insecurity in Africa’s largest economy. The country’s banking regulator plans to issue redesigned 200, 500 and 1,000 naira notes, central bank Governor Godwin Emefiele said at a briefing in Abuja, the capital. The old notes ...

The yuan leaped over the Australian, Canadian and Swiss currencies to become the fifth most traded currency in the world, according to the Bank for International Settlements’ Triennial Central Bank Survey. The Chinese currency was involved in 7% of all trades in 2022, compared with 4% three years ago, Basel-based BIS said in a report. Meanwhile, total daily trades rise ...

Lloyds Banking Group Plc missed estimates in the third quarter after the lender took charges for bad loans as it warned of a darkening outlook for the UK economy. Pretax profit falls more than expected to £1.5 billion ($1.7 billion) after the bank took its biggest charge since the Covid-19 pandemic to cover loans that could default. The £668 million ...

The Bank of Canada signalled it’s nearing the end of its interest-rate hiking campaign, potentially providing a model for counterparts elsewhere as recession risks mount. The central bank unexpectedly slowed its pace of rate increases, amid concern Canada’s economy is already flirting with a recession. Governor Tiff Macklem boosted the benchmark overnight lending rate by 50 basis points, instead of ...

It’s too soon to write off the dollar’s dominance as the US rate-hike cycle may not be near its peak. That’s the firm conviction of money managers at JPMorgan Asset Management and Fivestar Asset Management even after a gauge of the greenback touched a one-month low. Signs that aggressive Federal Reserve tightening is starting to take a toll are fuelling ...

Investors are pouring large sums into equities but the rally has limited room to run as the Federal Reserve remains steadfast on hiking interest rates, according to Bank of America Corp (BofA) strategists. Global equity funds saw about $23 billion of inflows in the week through October 26, the largest amount since March, according to a note from the bank ...