Banking

JAKARTA / Bloomberg Indonesia’s central bank reduced its main interest rates and reserve ratio for lenders, taking more determined action to boost the economy in the face of political pressure. Governor Agus Martowardojo and his board lowered the benchmark reference rate by 25 basis points to 7 percent, Bank Indonesia said Thursday. That’s in line with the forecasts of 17 ...

Bloomberg Rabobank Groep, the biggest Dutch mortgage lender, recorded a 20 percent rise in full-year profit after loan impairment charges plunged in 2015. Net income jumped to 2.2 billion euros ($2.5 billion) from 1.8 billion euros for 2014, the closely held bank said in a statement on Thursday. Goodwill impairments fell 61 percent to 1 billion euros for the year ...

Bloomberg China’s central bank said it will start conducting open-market operations every business day, strengthening its influence on interest rates. The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) introduced daily auctions from Jan. 29 to manage liquidity around the Lunar New Year holiday, a period in which surging demand for funds has led to cash squeezes in the past, and was due ...

Bloomberg Barclays Plc is considering selling its Egyptian unit after abandoning a plan to fold it into its Africa business, according to people with knowledge of the plan. The unit, whose presence in Egypt dates back to 1864, may be worth more than $500 million, according to one person familiar, who asked not to be identified because the details aren’t ...

Bloombrg Swedish inflation accelerated more than expected last month, easing pressure on the central bank to add to its record stimulus measures. Consumer prices rose an annual 0.8 percent in January, Statistics Sweden said in a statement Thursday. Adjusted for mortgage costs, prices rose an annual 1.6 percent. Analysts in a Bloomberg survey had predicted headline inflation of 0.5 percent ...

Bloombrg Vietnamese government bonds rose, pushing yields to six-month lows, on speculation demand from local banks increased as the cash supply improved after the Lunar New Year holidays. The yield on the five-year notes dropped 10 basis points to 6.5 percent, the lowest since Aug. 12, 2015, according to a daily fixing from lenders compiled by Bloomberg. The three-year yield ...

Bloomberg Chinese lenders are reacting to a regulatory crackdown on shadow financing by increasing activity in their more opaque receivables accounts, a practice Commerzbank AG estimates may result in losses of as much as 1 trillion yuan ($153 billion) over five years. Banks are increasingly using trusts or asset management plans to lend and recording them as funds to be ...

Bloomberg Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. (OCBC) rallied after fourth-quarter profit rose more than analysts anticipated. Shares of its two large Singapore rivals fell. The bank’s stock surged on Wednesday by the most in almost six months following the release of an exchange statement showing net income climbed 21 percent on higher interest and trading income as well as gains from life ...

AMSTERDAM / AP ABN Amro, the Dutch bank that began a phased return to the market last year, says its 2015 net profit soared 70 percent to 1.9 billion euros ($2.1 billion), despite rising regulatory costs. Chairman of the bank’s managing board Gerrit Zalm said Wednesday that “2015 was a good year for the bank.” Operating income rose 5 percent ...

Washington A Federal Reserve regional president called for the dismantlement of big banks whose failure could pose serious risk to the global financial system. Neel Kashkari, who took office as president of the Minneapolis Fed on January 1 and was a top Treasury official during the 2008 financial crisis, said in a speech that “bolder, transformational options” must be considered ...