Bloomberg Federal agents surprised an HSBC Holdings Plc executive as he prepared to fly out of New York’s Kennedy airport, arresting him for an alleged front-running scheme involving a US$3.5 billion currency transaction in 2011. Mark Johnson, HSBC’s global head of foreign exchange cash trading in London, appeared in court on Wednesday after being held in a Brooklyn jail …

  AFP Brazil’s central bank left unchanged Wednesday its benchmark interest rate as Latin America’s largest economy remains mired in recession and high inflation. The central bank, as expected, kept the key Selic rate at 14.25 percent, where it has been pegged for a year to support the flailing economy. The meeting of the Central Bank Monetary Policy Committee (Copom) …

  As the U.K.’s new prime minister, Theresa May, met with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany on Wednesday to open informal Brexit talks that European Union leaders insisted would not take place, the key question concerns the strength of the negotiating positions. Both May and Merkel are no-nonsense leaders, and their interaction won’t be driven by emotion: It’ll be about …