Bloomberg A new assault by Chinese authorities on the country’s cash micro-lenders threatens to stymie any new listings in New York, as regulators in Beijing escalate their campaign to reduce risks in China’s $40 trillion financial-services sector. According to the International Financial News, China plans to purge the country’s 157 online micro-lenders, leaving only large state-owned companies and the biggest ...

Bloomberg Consumer spending is booming. Interest rates are bottoming out. Eastern Europe’s banking sector is on an upswing. After surviving the toxic mix of near-zero borrowing costs, harsh regulatory curbs and damage from foreign-currency mortgages, lenders are benefiting from economic expansion accelerating to the fastest in years across much of the European Union’s east. Polish banks’ combined net income rose ...

Bloomberg Indonesian authorities evacuated some 100,000 people in the island of Bali and shut its airport after Mount Agung volcano erupted, prompting airlines to cancel about 445 flights linking one of the most popular tourist destinations in Asia. Relocation from around Mount Agung’s crater began as volcanologists warned of a “very high likelihood” for a larger eruption, the National Disaster ...