Bloomberg China’s cash-strapped small lenders are expanding their pile of the riskiest kind of bank debt to shore up their capital levels, bracing against an economic slowdown, rising loan defaults. A total of 19 banks have sold 339.6 billion yuan ($48.5 billion) perpetual bonds, high-yielding subordinated bonds with no maturity dates this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Smaller ...

Bloomberg Currency intervention is an “essential” policy tool for Switzerland, its central bank chief said, in a riposte to the US which has the country on a watchlist for allegedly manipulating its exchange rate. “Even though we still have scope for further interest-rate cuts, the fact remains that one cannot lower interest rates indefinitely,” Swiss National Bank (SNB) President Thomas ...

Bloomberg After aggressive interest-rate reductions to shore up their economies against the havoc wrought by the coronavirus pandemic, central bankers in most sub-Saharan African countries will ask themselves whether the cutting cycle is over when they meet over the next nine days. South Africa’s monetary policy committee (MPC) may take advantage of the scope to lower its benchmark rate even ...