Bloomberg A decade ago, the European Central Bank took its first step to becoming the euro area’s firefighter-in-chief. Its $112 billion emergency loan to banks on Aug. 9, 2007, was the initial response to a financial crisis that would force the Frankfurt-based institution to expand its balance sheet by trillions of euros. The ECB — together with international peers such ...

Bloomberg Commonwealth Bank of Australia reported its eighth consecutive year of record profit, driven by growth in mortgage and business lending. Cash profit, which excludes one-time items, rose 4.6 percent to A$9.88 billion ($7.8 billion) in the 12 months ended June 30, from A$9.45 billion a year earlier, the Sydney-based lender said in a filing Wednesday. That compares with the ...

Bloomberg Mizuho Financial Group Inc. wants to grow its business managing overseas corporate money by $100 billion this fiscal year, as it seeks new ways to boost international earnings at a time of negative interest rates at home. “We’re expanding with a focus on the cross-border transactions of non-Japanese corporations doing business in Asia,” Zenichi Tanakamaru, a senior vice president ...