Bloomberg Morgan Stanley told employees who have to be in the office through the first two weeks of January to wear face coverings when not at their desks and limit large in-person meetings. “This guidance applies to all locations (even those where everyone is fully vaccinated),” the New York-based bank said in a memo to staffers this week. “Masking …

  Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc has said it will buy the investment management unit of India’s L&T Finance Holdings Ltd, the latest push to build up the Asian wealth and investment business that is at the forefront of the bank’s turnaround plans. The London-headquartered lender said it had agreed terms to acquire L&T Investment Management, which had looked destined to …

  Bloomberg UBS Group AG appealed a court verdict that it helped wealthy French clients stash undeclared funds in Swiss accounts, prolonging a period of legal uncertainty in seven-year old case. The Zurich-based bank filed an appeal with the French Supreme Court regarding the ruling, according to a statement. It had five days from the judgement last week to make …

  Bloomberg Kenya’s shilling has depreciated 3.5% to dollar this year after a seven-month losing streak, adding to a 7.8% loss last year. The currency of East Africa’s largest economy reached its weakest closing level of 113.09 per dollar and was trading little changed in Nairobi. The biggest monthly decline was in August when it weakened 1.3%, while July-September was …

  Bloomberg Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc is preparing to launch a fund that provides debt financing to Asian start-ups in an effort to win investment-banking business through subsequent initial public offerings. Japan’s largest lender will start a $300 million fund early next year after upsizing its first joint-venture fund earlier this year, Chief Executive Officer Hironori Kamezawa said in …

  Bloomberg Emerging-market bonds were supposed to be dragged down this year as central banks moved towards withdrawing stimulus. Instead, the best-performing global debt was all from developing nations. Sovereign bonds issued by South Africa, China, Indonesia, India and Croatia topped the rankings of 46 markets around the world in 2021, according to data compiled by Bloomberg through last week. …

  Bloomberg RBL Bank Ltd shares plunged after a decision by India’s central bank to appoint a new director to the board raised concerns about the outlook for small private-sector lender. The stock dropped as much as 25% in Mumbai on Monday, the biggest decline since listing in 2016. It later pared the retreat to about 13% as of 1:15 …

  Bloomberg The world economy is set to surpass $100 trillion for the first time in 2022, two years earlier than previously forecast, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). Global gross domestic product will be lifted by the continued recovery from the pandemic, although if inflation persists it may be hard for policy makers to avoid …

  Bloomberg Saudi Arabia’s exports soared in October as the world’s biggest oil exporter benefited from higher crude prices. The value of exports jumped to 106.2 billion riyals ($28 billion) from 55.9 billion riyals a year ago, according to the kingdom’s General Authority for Statistics. The share of oil in total exports rose to 77.6% in October from 66.1%. Saudi …

  Bloomberg Exxon Mobil Corp says an overnight fire at its Baytown, Texas, refinery that injured four people has been extinguished. The blaze occurred at 1 am local time at the plant, which is the fourth-largest in the US, capable of processing more than half a million barrels of oil a day. Gasoline trading in New York jumped as much …