Banking

Bloomberg Lloyds Banking Group Plc surged after the lender increased its dividend payout and indicated it may have reached the end of charges for wrongly sold payment protection insurance that cost it 4 billion pounds ($5.6 billion) last year. The firm’s shares climbed as much as 11 percent, the biggest intraday gain since October 2011. Pretax profit for 2015, excluding ...

Bloomberg China will allow domestic banks to issue up to 50 billion yuan ($7.7 billion) of asset-backed securities based on their non-performing loans, the first quota for such sales since 2008, people familiar with the matter said. The quota, which will initially be allocated mainly to China’s largest banks, will allow lenders to remove non-performing loans from their balance sheets ...

LISBON A Portuguese bank salvaged from the collapse of a major lender has reported losses of 981 million euros ($1 billion) in 2015, casting a cloud over the government’s attempts to sell it. Novo Banco, a so-called good bank that emerged from the surprise 2014 bankruptcy of Banco Espirito Santo, said Wednesday legacy debts soured its performance. The bank last ...

Frankfurt The German economy is “in good shape overall,” the head of the country’s central bank or Bundesbank said on Wednesday, waving away suggestions that clouds could be building over Europe’s biggest economy. Speaking at the Bundesbank’s annual news conference, president Jens Weidmann pointed to record high employment last year and falling unemployment. “While wage growth was marked, inflation remained ...

Bloomberg Euro-area consumer prices rose less than initially estimated in January, increasing the pressure on the European Central Bank to take steps to sustain the region’s recovery. The inflation rate was 0.3 percent, less than the 0.4 percent reported on Jan. 29, data from the European Union’s statistics office showed on Thursday. ECB policy makers will review their stimulus package ...

BLOOMBERG Barclays Plc cut the bonus pool for its investment bank by about 10 percent to 12 percent, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Individual employee variable pay for 2015 would have dropped more if the London-based bank wasn’t cutting 1,200 jobs worldwide and closing operations across Asia, said the people, who asked not to be identified because ...

Bloomberg Foreign holdings of rupee-denominated debt are falling at the fastest pace since December as losses in Indian bonds deepen and the currency hovers near a record low. The nation’s sovereign notes have turned into Asia’s worst performers in 2016, from the best in the previous two years, amid concern Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Feb. 29 budget will show fiscal ...

Bloomberg Based in a drab office building in Dublin down the road from a pub frequented by Prime Minister Enda Kenny, VPB Funding Ltd. had no employees but one function: selling bonds. In 2013, it issued $225 million of unsecured notes. The proceeds of that sale were funneled to Vneshprombank Ltd., a Moscow lender whose license was revoked last month ...

Bloomberg Standard Bank Group Ltd., Africa’s largest lender by assets, said it expects to report that 2015 profit increased by as much as 35 percent because of reduced losses at its international operations. Earnings per share excluding one-time items will range from 13.52 rand ($0.89) to 14.60 rand a share from 10.81 rand in 2014 when using international financial reporting ...

Bloomberg Curtis Arledge, a vice chairman of Bank of New York Mellon Corp. and chief executive officer of its investment-management unit, is leaving to pursue other opportunities. Mitchell Harris, 61, will replace Arledge in the CEO position, effective immediately, New York-based BNY Mellon said Tuesday in a statement. Harris, who already oversaw the day-to-day management of the company’s investment businesses ...