Bloomberg Bank of Ghana has told the country’s lenders that they must seek approval before declaring and paying dividends on 2019 earnings as the regulator moves to guard against banks taking advantage of eased reserve rules due to the coronavirus to boost payouts to investors. After cutting its benchmark interest rate by 150 basis points on March 18 to combat …

Bloomberg Simon Wolfson, chief executive officer of clothing chain Next Plc, said that the coronavirus pandemic presents the global retail industry with its biggest threat in nearly half a century. The oil price shock of 1973 — when Wolfson was five years old — triggered a stock market crash, soaring inflation and high unemployment. The viral contagion could become just …

Bloomberg Hong Kong will extend Covid-19 testing to asymptomatic arrivals after a sharp rise in infections driven mainly by imported cases, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said. The government will take other measures, including postponing university entrance exams and ordering civil servants to return to working from home, Lam told the media. The resumption of schools, which have been closed since …