Shanghai / Bloomberg China’s central bank will study shadow banking activities at Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. as it tries to ensure a fair environment exists for competition in the industry, Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said. Alibaba engages in activities that fall under the Financial Stability Board’s definition of shadow banking and are subject to different capital requirements than traditional banks, …

  Bloomberg Listen at the doors of two major gatherings of the world’s central bankers in Switzerland and Portugal next week, and one might hear little but the sound of forecasts being shredded. The world’s monetary guardians will gather at the Bank for International Settlements’ annual meeting in Basel over the weekend, and at the European Central Bank’s yearly policy …

  Bloomberg Italian and Spanish lenders were the biggest participants in the European Central Bank’s latest new loan programme, increasing their net borrowings by more than 25 billion euros (US$28 billion). Intesa Sanpaolo SpA said it increased borrowings by about 8 billion euros in the first of four targeted longer-term refinancing operations after paying back loans under a previous program, …