Bloomberg Negative interest rates are not the main culprit for European banks’ feeble profitability, European Central Bank Executive Board member Benoit Coeure said, signalling the institution is in no rush to bring relief. Sub-zero rates are costing euro zone banks roughly 8 billion euros ($9 billion) annually, which is “really peanuts” in this landscape, Coeure told lawmakers at a French ...

Bloomberg Sweden’s biggest lender, Svenska Handelsbanken AB, is pulling out of the Baltic region arguing that the cost of staying is simply too big. Handelsbanken’s Baltic operations are far smaller than those of its Swedish peers, Swedbank AB and SEB AB. But the decision comes at a sensitive time. Estonia is at the center of a $230 billion money laundering ...

Bloomberg The Philippine central bank will consider reducing the reserve requirement ratio for lenders further if banks don’t misbehave and speculate against the peso, Governor Benjamin Diokno said. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas will “closely look at how banks will use funds freed up by RRR cut,” Diokno told a forum in Ma-nila, a day after announcing a 2 percentage-point reduction ...

Bloomberg Indonesia’s central bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged as the currency comes under renewed pressure from an escalation in trade tensions between the US and China. The seven-day reverse repurchase rate was left at 6%, as predicted by all but one of 30 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Governor Perry Warjiyo and his board raised the rate by a ...

Bloomberg China’s biggest airlines are considering banding together to seek compensation from Boeing Co for the disruption caused by the grounding of the US aircraft manufacturer’s 737 Max, people with knowledge of the matter said. Air China Ltd, China Southern Airlines Co and China Eastern Airlines Corp are exploring their legal options on how to coordinate their claims, according to ...

Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc is leading a $575 million investment in Deliveroo, buying a slice of the fast-growing startup to propel its drive into the European food and groceries business. The US online retail giant will be joined in the Series G funding round by existing backers T Rowe Price, Fidelity Management and Research Co and Greenoaks, Deliveroo said in an ...

Bloomberg Air Canada said it’s in exclusive talks to buy one of the country’s largest travel tour operators, Transat AT, for about $387 million amid a wave of consolidation in the Canadian airline industry. The country’s largest airline said in a statement it was prepared to pay C$13 a share for the Montreal-based company, a 23 percent premium to Transat’s ...

Bloomberg Walmart Inc’s Asda reported its eighth consecutive quarter of growth after the US retail giant said that it was “seriously” considering an initial public offering for the UK grocer in the future. Asda delivered 0.5 percent like-for-like sales growth excluding petrol for the first quarter of 2019. Figures were adjusted to account for the later Easter date compared to ...

Bloomberg Low-cost airlines, the pioneers of brief discomfort at bargain prices, have struggled to master long-haul flights. Now one of the world’s most successful budget carriers is considering cut-price business class seats as a way into the Europe-Asia market. India’s IndiGo is mapping out an ambitious long-distance network. The airline aims to start one-stop trips further into Europe within six ...

Dubai / WAM Majid Al Futtaim on Wednesday rang the market-opening bell at Nasdaq Dubai to mark the listing of the world’s first benchmark corporate green sukuk and the first green sukuk issued by a corporate in the region. Valued at $600 million and with a tenor of 10 years, green sukuk will be used to finance and refinance firm’s ...