Bloomberg Spanish lender Banco Popular’s plan to sell about €2.5 billion ($2.8 billion) of new shares has dealt a brutal lesson to investors trusting past efforts by regulators and management to clean up European bank balance sheets. The stock fell to a 26-year low after the offering was announced this week. The fact is that Banco Popular was supposed ...

  EMIRATES BUSINESS Saxo Bank, the online multi-asset trading and investment specialist, has announced a new white label partnership with Lufax, China’s largest internet finance company. The partnership, expected to launch within the next three months, will see Lufax leverage the trading technology that underpins the award-winning SaxoTraderGO — providing Lufax’s considerable client base with a seamless experience across mobile ...

  BLOOMBERG Barclays Plc’s credit-card chief wants his hands on Jes Staley’s freed-up capital. Amer Sajed, promoted to run Barclaycard in April, says he has the backing to expand in markets like Germany and the US from Staley. After joining the executive committee, the advocate for growth has a say in how the bank’s resources will be deployed. “I am ...

  Washington / AFP The hackers behind the $81 million heist from the Bangladesh central bank have likely been involved in a series of attacks on the financial system, a US security firm has concluded. Researchers at the security firm Symantec also found that the malware used in the bank hacks shares code with that used in the massive 2014 ...

  Bloomberg India’s peer-to-peer lenders are pushing back on central bank proposals to regulate the online platforms, arguing the new rules would hamper the development of an industry in its infancy. Firms such as Lendbox and LenDenClub argue that suggested rules in a Reserve Bank of India discussion paper last month treat them like banks with their own loan books, ...

  Kostel / AFP In Slovenia’s southeastern BelaKrajina region, where the crystal-clear Kolpariver marks the border with Croatia, a forlorn barbed wire fence reminds locals of the migrants that never came. Instead of keeping refugees out, the barrier cutting through lush forests and gently swaying fields all along this pristine waterway is now chasing away tourists.Its razor-sharp coil has also ...

  Rome / AFP The works of Ken Domon, an acclaimed photographer whose images of the aftermath of the Hiroshima bomb shocked 1950s Japan, take centre stage in Rome with the opening of the first exhibition of his pictures outside his home country. Domon, who died in 1990, is venerated in Japan as one of the country’s greatest photographers and a ...

  Relaxnews Microsoft is to unveil a plan that would see the Xbox One undergo not one but two revisions in relatively short succession, say reports. With PlayStation tipped to produce a ‘PlayStation 4k,’ it’s clear that console manufacturers are looking to keep up with the pace of innovation in both PC and mobile. Two new versions of the Xbox ...

    Relaxnews Like the big-hitters of Silicon Valley, the Chinese manufacturer whips up a buzz ahead of each new product launch, as rumours of what’s to come get the internet chatting. The firm’s upcoming handset, the OnePlus 3, is no exception. The Chinese manufacturer, OnePlus, released its first smartphone in 2014, making an impression with its minimalist and innovative ...

  Relaxnews HP has unleashed a new line of products, dubbed Omen, in a bid to tackle the gaming world with a range of updated laptops, desktops, and accessories. The line, which launched recently with four key products — two laptops, a tower, and a display —also adheres to an aggressive pricing structure, starting at US$899.99 for the smaller 15.6-inch ...