Bloomberg It may well be the lowest interest rate ever set on the riskiest bank debt, and investors wanted seven times as much as was offered. Nordea Bank AB’s issuance of so-called additional Tier 1 notes, which act much like equity if a lender gets into trouble, got a good deal of attention this week as it became clear the …

Bloomberg A new assault by Chinese authorities on the country’s cash micro-lenders threatens to stymie any new listings in New York, as regulators in Beijing escalate their campaign to reduce risks in China’s $40 trillion financial-services sector. According to the International Financial News, China plans to purge the country’s 157 online micro-lenders, leaving only large state-owned companies and the biggest …

Bloomberg Consumer spending is booming. Interest rates are bottoming out. Eastern Europe’s banking sector is on an upswing. After surviving the toxic mix of near-zero borrowing costs, harsh regulatory curbs and damage from foreign-currency mortgages, lenders are benefiting from economic expansion accelerating to the fastest in years across much of the European Union’s east. Polish banks’ combined net income rose …