Like a lot of his plans, Donald Trump’s proposal for military spending is both abundantly clear and maddeningly vague. He wants to devote a whole lot more money to the Pentagon, as demonstrated by his budget outline and address to Congress. But the president’s plan is too ill-defined and arbitrary to make much sense. More military spending isn’t necessarily ...

  The trial of Jay Y Lee, the vice chairman of Samsung Electronics Co, in the bribery and influence scandal case began on Thursday. The prosecutors tried to prove Lee donated millions of dollars to charitable foundations controlled by Choi Soon Sil, a confidante of impeached South Korean President Park Geun hye, to help secure the control of Samsung Group. ...

  Bloomberg Co-Operative Bank Plc, the British lender that put itself up for sale last month, said it might look to raise as much as 750 million pounds ($912 million) by selling new shares and converting debt to equity if a buyer isn’t found. The bank may seek about 300 million pounds by selling new stock while asking bondholders to ...

  Bloomberg China’s central bank plans to apply a stricter method for assessing banks’ capital as part of efforts to contain financial-sector risks, people with knowledge of the matter said. Under the proposed change to the so-called Macro Prudential Assessment (MPA) framework, the People’s Bank of China will remove an intermediary category in its evaluation of banks’ capital adequacy, the ...

  ABU DHABI / Emirates Business Union National Bank (UNB), 50 percent owned by the Abu Dhabi government, will open its first branch in China next month, its chief executive said, as Gulf banks expand in the world’s second biggest economy. Union National has got approval from China’s central bank to convert its representative office into a branch in Shanghai, ...

  Bloomberg Indonesia’s central bank has cut borrowing costs enough to spur growth in the economy, Senior Deputy Governor Mirza Adityaswara said, giving his clearest signal yet that the bank’s easing policy is over as inflation pressures pick up. Boosting growth is “not about interest rates anymore,” Adityaswara said in an interview in Jakarta on Thursday. “We monitor the external ...

  Bloomberg For Mario Draghi, ‘all talk and no action’ at the European Central Bank may be just fine this week. The ECB president essentially preempted Thursday’s monetary policy decision back in December, when he announced that bond purchases will be extended until at least the end of 2017. With updated inflation forecasts said to be little changed for 2018 ...

  Abu Dhabi / WAM The Emirates NBD Dubai Economy Tracker Index (DET) eased slightly to 56.2 in February from the two-year high reached in January, according to new data released today by the lender. The DET in February was higher than the average reading for 2016, signaling an acceleration in economic growth at the start of this year. Output and ...

  Dubai / WAM Nasdaq Dubai and Bourse de Tunis have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to explore collaboration possibilities, including initiatives regarding existing and future issuers and listings on the two exchanges. Ways to promote Islamic capital markets products and solutions will also be considered under the MoU, together with supporting potential links between central securities depositories in the respective ...

  Dubai / WAM The third edition of the Dubai Canvas Festival concluded following a week-long exhibition of scintillating 3D art created by some of the world’s most innovative exponents of the art form. The public 3D art festival was organised by Brand Dubai, the creative arm of the Government of Dubai Media Office, in partnership with Meraas, one of Dubai’s ...