Bloomberg The Philippines left its benchmark interest rate at a record low as emerging nations brace for a steeper tightening path in the US. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas kept the overnight reverse repurchase rate at 3 percent, it said in Manila on Thursday, as predicted by all 18 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Policy makers increased inflation forecasts for 2017 …

  Bloomberg The biggest Nordic bank just won approval to convert its subsidiaries into branches in a move that gives local regulators less say over their systemically important financial institutions. This week, the governments of Denmark and Norway said Nordea can convert subsidiaries (supervised locally) into branches (overseen from Sweden). The restructuring creates branches across the Nordic region that in …

  Reuters Kuwait’s central bank has issued new governance rules for Islamic banks, including requirements for external sharia audits, as regulators seek more transparency and accountability in the sector. Regulatory scrutiny over Islamic banks has been building as they now hold around a quarter of total banking assets in the Gulf, while in Kuwait that figure stands at around 40 …