Bloomberg Euro-area officials set out to defend their latest monetary-policy action, stressing their package of new long-term loans and revised guidance was an appropriate response to the region’s economic slowdown. “Hard data indicated that a reaction was needed,” Lithuanian Governing Council member Vitas Vasiliauskas told reporters in Vilnius. “It was a natural preemptive move.” Recent data have painted a gloomy ...

Bloomberg Absa Group Ltd. has overhauled the executive management of its corporate and investment banking unit as part of an ongoing group-wide revamp to draw more revenue from operations in Africa. The team of eight, which includes former joint-chief executive officers of the division, Mike Harvey and Temi Ofong, now have a mandate to drive business across the entire African ...

Bloomberg German commercial real estate lender Aareal Bank AG took the hardest hit to date in a far-reaching European Central Bank investigation of how banks gauge risk. Aareal’s key capital ratio dropped by at least 3.5 percentage points as a result of the review, the most among 18 publicly traded banks that have disclosed the impact in statements and conference ...