Bloomberg Jean-Baptiste Esmenjaud, 26, hasn’t set foot in his bank in over five years. “La Banque Postale lets me do everything online, and I speak over the phone once a year with an adviser,” said the biology student, a decade-long customer of the state-backed bank whose 9,000-plus French branches gives it one of Europe’s biggest such networks. “I’ve been ...

  Bloomberg The Kuwait Investment Authority, which describes itself as the world’s oldest sovereign wealth fund, is targeting global infrastructure projects after taking part in a consortium that bought the London City Airport this year, Chairman Anas Al-Saleh said. The fund has shied away from purchasing trophy assets, focusing on deals that “give us our targeted returns,” Al-Saleh, the country’s ...

  Bloomberg Brigitte Blackman, a real estate agent in inner Sydney, says her property listings have slumped 20 percent from a September peak, and the phones at her Potts Point office are no longer ringing off the hook. As Australia barrels toward elections on July 2, political uncertainty is weighing on the nation’s A$6.4 trillion ($4.7 trillion) housing market. With ...