Colombo / Bloomberg Sri Lanka left its benchmark rates unchanged for a third straight month after it agreed a $1.5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund to help improve public finances. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka kept the standing lending facility rate at 8 percent and the standing deposit facility rate at 6.5 percent, it said in ...

Singapore / Bloomberg HSBC’s weight-loss drive in India could leave the country’s banking system feeling a little breathless. But the health benefits will eventually show up. The UK-based lender will close half its branches in the country, which last year accounted for 3.2 percent of the group’s pre-tax profit. Assuming that the bank’s strategy of serving more of its Indian ...

  Japan / AFP British finance minister George Osborne warned on Saturday that the UK would find it “extremely difficult” to conclude trade deals with EU countries if it quit the bloc. Speaking to the BBC at a meeting of G7 finance ministers in Sendai, Japan, Osborne said it would be tough to strike those deals while also trying to ...