Bloomberg The European Union’s bank-failure rules are forcing Austria’s Volksbanken to open up the lending tap, a strategy reminiscent of the one that nearly brought down the cooperative group a few years ago. The irony has arisen because the EU requires banks to have sufficient loss-absorbing liabilities on their books to cover the costs of their restructuring and refinancing in …

Bloomberg China’s banks are being offered cash and given instructions to lend more, as regulators attempt to support a slowing economy. The banking and insurance regulator has asked financial institutions to “earnestly implement” plans to help reduce financing costs for small firms, saying that big lenders should “take the lead”, according to a statement posted on its website. Meanwhile, the …

Bloomberg The economy of South Korea, which is very reliant on China, may see more adverse impact than previously expected from China’s plan for deleveraging, the Bank of Korea said in a report on Sunday. South Korea’s gross domestic product growth could be 0.3 percentage point less than expected in 2018 and maybe 1.2 percentage point less in 2020 because …