Bloomberg Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. is considering buying Prudential Plc’s Asia business, people familiar with the matter said, a deal that would reshape Asia’s booming insurance industry and mark the biggest-ever Chinese acquisition. Ping An has sounded out the Chinese government about whether it would be supportive of a deal, according to one of the people. The Shenzhen-based insurer …

Bloomberg China’s central bank said it won’t use the yuan as a tool to cope with trade tensions and other external issues, and that it won’t conduct any “strong” economic stimulus. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) won’t implement stimulus in “flood-irrigation” style, according to the quarterly monetary policy report released in Beijing. Prudent monetary policy should maintain neutrality and …

Bloomberg Greek lenders face higher financing costs after the European Central Bank said it will stop accepting the country’s government debt as collateral from August 21, the day after the nation’s bailout programme ends. The ECB will remove a waiver exempting Greek bonds from a rule that all collateral must be investment grade. The exemption was conditional on Greece being …