Bloomberg Australia’s interest-rate cuts failed to gain traction as households’ worries about the economic outlook sent consumer confidence slumping to a two-year low. The sentiment index fell 4.1 percent to 96.5 in July, the weakest reading since August 2017, Westpac Banking Corp said in a statement. The biggest decline was in the sub-index tracking expectations for the economy in the ...

Bloomberg A sprawling Russian banking group run by an ally of President Vladimir Putin is fast becoming one of the most powerful forces in the country’s grains market. Since entering the grain export business last year, Andrey Kostin’s government-backed VTB Group has loaded up on assets including port terminals, a rail-freight operator and a trader. Those investments could be worth ...

Bloomberg The European Court of Auditors (ECA) joined regulators in questioning the value of the EU’s bank stress test, saying last year’s exercise should have been tougher and more consistently applied across the bloc. The scenario simulated by the European Banking Authority, the EU’s top banking regulator, was milder than the 2008 financial crisis, according to an ECA report. The ...