Bloomberg The Bank of England (BOE) could raise interest rates twice by May to curb a surge in inflation, but that largely depends on how high unemployment rises after the end of the government’s furlough program, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “Furlough-end remains key,” BofA economist Robert Wood said. “If it goes well, or the BOE feels pressured …

Bloomberg Two of the world’s largest Bitcoin exchanges have halted new registrations for Chinese users and one will retire current accounts, taking actions to comply with Beijing’s latest crypto ban. Exchange operators Huobi and Binance have stopped letting traders use mainland China mobile numbers to register new accounts, after the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said all crypto-related transactions will …

Bloomberg Prudential Plc plans to raise as much as $2.4 billion from its Hong Kong share offering after pricing the stock at a slight discount to its last close in Hong Kong. The London-based insurer is selling up to 130.8 million shares at HK$143.80 apiece, it said in a statement. Prudential plans to use proceeds from the offering to redeem …