ShanghaI / AFP Chinese bank lending almost halved month-on-month in October, official data showed, as Beijing moved to rein in credit risks but with national holidays also an issue. New loans extended by banks fell to 651.3 billion yuan ($95.6 billion) last month, compared with 1.22 trillion yuan in September, said the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central …

  Frankfurt / AFP German insurance heavyweight Allianz announced a bumper third-quarter profit, turning around a slump prompted by higher payouts for natural disasters earlier in the year. The group said it increased net profit to 1.95 billion euros ($2.1 billion) between July and September, an increase of 35 percent year-on-year. Its result outdid the expectations of analysts surveyed by …

  Bloomberg European banks may reach faster, less costly settlements with the US Department of Justice as a result of Donald Trump’s unexpected triumph in the US presidential election, according to Barclays Plc analysts. “Some Democrat appointments at the DoJ have only a few weeks left before they are replaced,” London-based analysts Mike Harrison and Jeremy Sigee wrote in a …