Bloomberg In the eyes of Visa Inc and Mastercard Inc., consumers are learning to live with the coronavirus pandemic. Both networks said that spending on their cards surged to a record in the final three months of last year, even as the highly contagious Omicron variant disrupted travel and sparked fresh rounds of lockdowns. Spending on Visa’s network soared …

  Bloomberg The Bank of Japan (BOJ) should keep its inflation-targeting stimulus rolling and consider shortening the maturity of its yield target to make its easing framework more sustainable, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said, in comments that contrast with global moves to tighten policy. Given that Japan’s underlying inflation momentum remains weak at around 0.5% and is not currently …

  Bloomberg UniCredit SpA withdrew from a possible deal to take over Russian lender Otkritie Bank FC, with Chief Executive Officer Andrea Orcel signalling that the military build-up in the region was a factor in the decision. “Given the geopolitical environment we decided to withdraw from the data room,” Orcel said in a media call. “The combined bank would have …