Banking

China’s central bank Deputy Governor Fan Yifei is under investigation by an anti-graft agency, the latest high-level finance official to be probed as President Xi Jinping cracks down on corruption. Fan is being investigated for “suspected severe violations of discipline and laws,” according to a statement from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Communist Party’s top graft buster. Fan ...

The Czech central bank confirmed a preference for keeping borrowing costs stable, defying its new forecast that called for significant monetary tightening. Policy makers left the benchmark rate at 7%, keeping it unchanged for a third meeting after the bank’s new leadership halted a year of rapid hikes. Officials also reaffirmed their intervention policy of preventing excessive koruna swings, which ...

India’s central bank started a pilot program of its digital currency, allowing select banks to use it for settling secondary-market transactions in government securities. Several lots of bonds were traded, with data from Clearing Corp of India showing 7.38% 2027 debt and 7.26% 2032 bonds were among the first to change hands using new form of currency. Nine banks are ...

ING Groep NV said it will buy back as much as €1.5 billion ($1.47 billion) of shares to reward investors, after a mixed third quarter in which profit missed estimates following charges at its Polish business and in accounting for hedges. Net income of the bank reached €979 million in the three months through September compared with analysts’ expectations for ...

European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde warned that a “mild recession” is possible but that it wouldn’t be sufficient in itself to stem soaring prices. Speaking a week after the ECB’s second straight 75 basis-point hike in borrowing costs, and as fears mount that the energy crisis will drag down output in the 19-nation euro zone, Lagarde said “we ...

The People’s Bank of China’s (PBOC) Governor Yi Gang reaffirmed a pledge to make the yuan exchange rate more flexible, while vowing to improve the monetary policy. The central bank will keep the yuan basically stable at a reasonable equilibrium level, Yi reiterated in a meeting held to study the Communist Party’s twice-a-decade congress, according to a statement published by ...

HSBC Holdings Plc and Standard Chartered Plc raised their main lending rates in Hong Kong again on Thursday, a move that will push borrowing costs higher for property owners as the economy continues to face massive strain. HSBC, the city’s biggest lender, said it is raising its prime rate by 25 basis points to 5.375% after the Hong Kong Monetary ...

Norway’s central bank slowed the pace of interest-rate increases amid signs the economy is cooling, delivering a move forecast by just half the economists surveyed. Norges Bank lifted its key deposit rate on Thursday by 25 basis points to 2.5%, the smallest increase in its benchmark rate since June. The hike brings the rate to its highest level since 2009, ...

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) reported a loss of 142.4 billion francs ($143 billion) for the first nine months as turmoil in global currency markets took a toll on the value of its foreign-exchange portfolio. The central bank’s foreign-currency positions resulted in a loss of 141 billion francs, and it also saw a valuation loss on its gold holdings and ...

US financial institutions reported nearly $1.2 billion on likely ransomware-related payments last year, most commonly in response to breaches originating with Russian criminal groups, according to the Treasury Department. The payments more than doubled from 2020, underscoring the pernicious damage that ransomware continues to wreak on the private sector. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, said its analysis “indicates ...