News

  DUBAI / Emirates Business Onmi-channel banking services and smart-watch banking hogged much of the limelight at the exhibitions section during the first day of Retail Banking Forum and Expo. Apart from regional biggies active in the field of banking technology, foreign exhibitors showcased their products and services at the event, expecting to end up with business deals and making ...

  Tokyo / Bloomberg The death toll from earthquakes that struck southern Japan rose to 42 and the economic impact began to reverberate on Monday as companies surveyed damage and the potential effects on production from supply-chain disruptions. The Topix index slumped 3 percent to 1,320.15 at the close in Tokyo, with all but one of its 33 industry groups ...

  Beijing / Bloomberg China’s economy grew in the first three months of 2016 at its slowest quarter-on-quarter rate since it began releasing the data, the government said, while the real-estate sector rebounded thanks to aggressive stimulus. The world’s second-largest economy expanded 1.1 percent in January-March over the last quarter of 2015, the slowest pace since it started publishing such ...

  Mumbai / Bloomberg Infosys Ltd. surged the most in nine months to a record in Mumbai after forecasting better-than expected sales growth, as India’s second largest software exporter captures new contracts for information technology services. Shares climbed as much as 8.1 percent to a lifetime high of 1,267.90 rupees as of 10.42 a.m., marking its biggest gain since July ...

  New Delhi / Bloomberg The rains are coming, and that’s luring the world to Indian bonds. Overseas holdings of rupee-denominated government and corporate notes rose by 17.4 billion rupees ($261 million) in the holiday-shortened week ended April 13, the most since the period ended March 25, data from National Securities and Depository Ltd. show. The weather department on Tuesday ...

  Seoul / AFP Ratings agency Moody’s on Monday downgraded its outlook for South Korea’s banking system from stable to negative, predicting a deterioration in creditworthiness over the next year. “While our previous stable outlook had anticipated some weakening of profitability and pressure on asset quality, the operating environment for banks is deteriorating amid Korea’s diminished growth outlook and ongoing corporate ...

  Bloomberg Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne outlined the bleakest scenario yet if the U.K. votes to leave the European Union, saying that Britain’s economy would suffer permanent damage hitting the public in the pocket. Quitting the 28-nation EU would leave the U.K. economy 6 percent smaller by 2030, according to a Treasury analysis released on Monday. The forecast ...

  Bloomberg Forget about Greek debt sustainability. Another part of the continent is in need of relief—and this time, it’s a part of the core, not the periphery. That’s how Credit Suisse Group AG analysts led by Peter Foley characterized comments from German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble earlier this month. “The German Finance minister said record low interest rates were ...

  Bloomberg CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd.’s $14.5 billion bid for Telefonica SA’s U.K. mobile-phone business has failed to win over European Union antitrust regulators who are expected within weeks to formally block the deal creating Britain’s biggest operator. The EC wasn’t convinced that Hutchison’s offers to sell space on its network to so-called virtual operators would create enough rivalry to ...

  Bloomberg Google’s antitrust woes in the European Union are growing, as News Corp. filed a new complaint against the legality of the U.S. tech giant’s search and news services at the same time as EU regulators are preparing a formal complaint on its Android mobile-phone operating system. “Our concern is that, by requiring phone makers and operators to pre-load ...