Bloomberg Hungarian PM Viktor Orban lost a court fight with the European Union over controversial curbs on foreign-funded non-governmental organisations and groups linked to financier George Soros. The Hungarian law imposed “discriminatory and unjustified restrictions on foreign donations to civil society organisations,” the EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg said in a final ruling on Thursday. The case follows a ...

Bloomberg Japanese prosecutors arrested a former justice minister and his lawmaker wife on vote-buying allegations on Thursday, in a fresh blow for troubled Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Katsuyuki Kawai resigned from the cabinet in October, less than two months after being appointed, following allegations in a magazine that he was linked to illicit payments made to local politicians and potential ...

Bloomberg The Bank of England (BOE) is widely expected to boost its support for the UK economy again amid signs that recovering from the pandemic-induced recession will be harder than hoped. Economists predict the central bank will expand its bond-buying program by 100 billion pounds ($125 billion), taking it to 745 billion pounds, and investors are watching keenly for any ...

Bloomberg UBS Group AG and Credit Suisse Group AG are likely to face worsening credit quality and falling demand for wealth-management and investment-banking services because of the pandemic, according to the Swiss National Bank (SNB). Credit quality is expected to deteriorate both in Switzerland and abroad, the national bank said in its annual Financial Stability Report. A stock market correction ...

Bloomberg Norway’s central bank signalled it might be ready to raise its main interest rate from a crisis low in about two years, as an historic wave of stimulus helps revive the economy. The bank left its benchmark deposit rate at a record low of zero, as expected, after delivering three cuts earlier in the year to steer the richest ...

Bloomberg Indonesia’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate for the first time in three months and lowered its growth outlook for the year, days after the government warned of a severe hit to the economy from the coronavirus pandemic. Bank Indonesia lowered its seven-day reverse repurchase rate by 25 basis points to 4.25% on Thursday, ending a two-month pause. ...

Bloomberg A hiring slowdown at banks in Asia is beginning to thaw, driven by demand for coders. Lenders including DBS Group Holding Ltd., Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. (OCBC) and Citigroup Inc. are adding workers to their tech departments in the region despite the economic downturn. Financial institutions are especially hungry for mobile app designers and data scientists who can build systems ...

Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc has restarted cutting as many as 35,000 jobs, three months after the coronavirus outbreak forced it to pause a long-awaited overhaul to boost profitability. “Since February we have pressed forward with some aspects of our transformation program, but we now need to look to the long term and move ahead with others, including reducing our costs,” ...

Bloomberg Call it the Falciani Principle. A former UBS Group AG employee who’s appealing his conviction for commercial espionage and money laundering skipped his Swiss court appearance, as expected, to avoid likely arrest. The man, only identified as Rene S., was convicted in absentia last year and sentenced to 40 months in prison after fleeing to Germany. That’s similar to ...

Bloomberg Stocks edged lower with US equity futures on Thursday as investors sought fresh catalysts for gains amid a rising numbers of coronavirus infections in some countries. Treasuries advanced. The Stoxx Europe 600 opened in the red, with travel shares and miners leading declines. Contracts on the main US equity benchmarks came off their lows earlier in the session to ...