Bloomberg Virtual currencies are retreating so broadly and sharply, it’s testing the durability of the cryptocurrency boom. The value of more than 7,000 tokens tracked by CoinGecko has shrunk more than $600 billion in the past week to $1.9 trillion. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, slid some 11% on Wednesday to break below $40,000 and is now about $25,000 off its …

Bloomberg Global banks are losing share in the $186 billion lending market for Chinese borrowers offshore, falling behind local rivals boosting their presence just as the nation’s corporate sector recovers from the pandemic. Their portion of such lending has steadily dropped over the past decade, hitting 37% so far this year to May 17, well below the 11-year average of …

Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co, the fourth-largest US bank, is rolling out an initiative to bring more people into the banking system. The firm said it will increase access to affordable products, expand financial-education offerings and launch a National Unbanked Advisory Task Force. Wells Fargo also will set a 10-year goal for reducing the number of people who are unbanked, …

Bloomberg The euro-area faces elevated risks to financial stability as it emerges from the pandemic with high debt burdens and “remarkable exuberance” in markets as bond yields rise, according to the European Central Bank (ECB). The language, echoing former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan’s description of the dot-com bubble in the 1990s as “irrational exuberance,” highlights mounting concerns that the …

Bloomberg Swiss lawmakers will debate whether banking regulations should be tightened when a parliamentary committee sits to discuss the losses suffered by lenders in the collapse of Archegos Capital Management LP, SonntagsZeitung reported. The conduct of Credit Suisse AG, the biggest loser to emerge from the blowup of Archegos, will be among the topics at the meetings, the newspaper reported. …

Bloomberg Bank of America Corp (BofA) will boost its minimum hourly wage to $25 an hour by 2025 from a current $20, according to its Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan. The move follows four years of pay increases that brought the company’s minimum wage to an hourly $20 in 2020 from $15. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender will also require …

Bloomberg JPMorgan Chase & Co, the biggest funder of fossil-fuel companies globally, is pledging a 35% reduction in “operational carbon intensity” for its oil and gas portfolio by the end of this decade. The commitment is among steps announced by the largest US bank, which agreed last year to align its financing activities with the United Nations’ Paris climate agreement. …

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG is rearranging how it sells fixed-income trading products as it seeks to lower costs without sacrificing revenue from the company’s biggest source of income. The new model will divide the coverage team into two groups, one focusing on flow and liquidity and another on client solutions. That’s in an effort to provide purely electronic or voice …

Bloomberg Equity investors in Asia are actively screening hospitalisation rates and watching predictions on virus peaks, as several countries in the region struggle with a fresh jump in cases. The pandemic’s resurgence has already worsened Asian stocks’ underperformance against their global peers this year. With efforts by countries to reopen their economies taking a hit, the severity of restrictions, the …

Bloomberg Stocks fall with US futures on Wednesday as concerns about faster inflation and Covid-19 flare-ups in some nations rattled investors. Oil dropped for a second day. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell the most in a week, with commodity and leisure shares leading the drop. Contracts on all three US benchmarks were lower, led by those on the Nasdaq …