Bloomberg It was once hailed as the future of Chinese banking, a privately run lender that would mint money by outmaneuvering its state-owned rivals. An ill-fated push into property lending has instead turned China Minsheng Banking Corp into one of the biggest casualties of the real estate debt crisis that’s roiling Asia’s largest economy. Battered by mounting losses on ...

  Bloomberg Standard Chartered Plc is closing about half its Nigerian branches in a pivot to digital banking, according to people familiar with the matter, as the finance industry comes under pressure from mobile money providers. The London-listed lender’s local unit has already started to shut some offices and will eventually operate only 13 branches in the West African nation, ...

  Bloomberg The Philippines’ central bank is unlikely to increase policy rates in the first half of this year as it waits for the economic recovery to become entrenched and unemployment to fall, according to central bank Governor Benjamin Diokno. “After the performance in the first two quarters of the year, that’s when we seriously look at whether we will ...

  Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc has hired Omar Siddiq from CIMB Group Holdings Bhd. to head its Malaysian unit, the bank said in a statement on Wednesday The announcement confirmed an earlier report by Bloomberg News, which cited people with knowledge of the matter, that the head of CIMB Group’s wholesale banking division and deputy chief executive officer of CIMB’s ...

  Bloomberg The Indian rupee is likely to weaken after foreign inflows that have helped it appreciate at the start of the year begin to ebb in coming months, a senior official at the nation’s second-largest private sector lender said. “INR will appreciate short term but have no choice but to depreciate long term,” B. Prasanna, group head for global ...

  Bloomberg Romania raised interest rates less than expected, surprising some investors who have expected the central bank to lift borrowing costs faster to tackle decade-high inflation and catch up with more aggressive rate hikes by its regional peers. The central bank raised borrowing costs by 25 basis points to 2%, a move predicted by five out of 11 economists ...

  Bloomberg Bank of America Corp (BofA) said it will eliminate charges for non-sufficient funds in its customers’ accounts and reduce overdraft fees, joining a growing number of US lenders scaling back the costs. The non-sufficient funds fees will be eliminated starting next month, and overdraft fees will be reduced to $10 from $35 beginning in May, the Charlotte, North ...

  Bloomberg A gauge of Chinese technology shares rallied by the most in three months as investors took advantage of attractive valuations in the battered sector and the prospect of looser monetary policy conditions. The Hang Seng Tech Index rose as much as 5% on Wednesday, headed for its highest level in a month with all but one of its ...

  Bloomberg Unfazed by the stock market’s bumpy start to the year, strategists from Goldman Sachs Group Inc to UBS Global Wealth Management reiterated their bullish calls on bets that equities can weather higher interest rates and rising bond yields. “The selloff in some long duration high quality names might be overdone soon,” Goldman strategists led by Cecilia Mariotti wrote ...

  Bloomberg Oil rises as traders looked ahead to clues on US stockpiles, while monitoring China’s efforts to contain the spread of Omicron. West Texas Intermediate added 0.9% after capping a two-day drop. The industry-funded American Petroleum Institute releases its weekly report on US inventories. Nationwide holdings have sunk for the past six weeks to the lowest since September, official ...