Bloomberg Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. has axed its traditional A$1,000 ($746) share bonus for staff this year, citing the need to cut expenses. In an intranet post seen by Bloomberg News, management told employees that 2016 had been a “challenging year” and that in an “environment of lower growth and lower returns, ANZ needs to reduce …

  London / AFP A petition calling for the Bank of England (BoE) to remove a new banknote from circulation had on Tuesday received more than 70,000 signatures, with critics angry it is produced with animal product. The polymer £5 notes ($6.2, 5.9 euros) were unveiled in September, with the Bank of England extolling the new banknotes for being waterproof …

  London / AFP The Royal Bank of Scotland is the worst prepared among Britain’s lenders for another financial crisis, the Bank of England said on Wednesday, forcing the state-rescued lender to raise more cash. The BoE, revealing its latest stress tests on Britain’s top seven banks, added that two — Barclays and Standard Chartered — also missed key hurdles …