Bloomberg National Bank of Canada (NBC) is set to become the first North American bank to issue panda bonds, joining international lenders including Standard Chartered Plc and HSBC Holdings Plc in issuing yuan-denominated securities in China’s domestic bond market. National Bank, the nation’s sixth-largest lender by assets, was approved to sell up to 5 billion yuan ($750 million) of …

  Bloomberg A Kenyan lender that transformed from an also-ran into the country’s biggest deposit-taker, mainly through a mobile-phone banking service started four years ago, plans to use the product as a beachhead to expand outside its East African home base. Commercial Bank of Africa Ltd., which also has units in Tanzania and Uganda, is seeking to export its M-Shwari …

  Wayang Windu / AFP Columns of steam shoot from the ground at an Indonesian power plant sitting in the shadow of an active volcano, as energy is tapped from the red-hot underbelly of the archipelago. Pipes zig-zag up rugged mountainsides covered in tea plantations, carrying steam from the Earth’s core to power enormous, electricity-generating turbines at the Wayang Windu …