Bloomberg Olaf Scholz called on his party to make the fight against the coronavirus the new German government’s foremost task as his party approved the coalition agreement that moves him a step closer to replacing Angela Merkel as chancellor. “It is clear that our first and most important task is to protect the health of the citizens and to fight ...

Bloomberg Venezuela’s recent elections were marked by unfairness and political repression, but in a positive change from recent years, they did allow greater participation for the opposition, Jimmy Carter’s Carter Center wrote in a report. While the opposition got more votes, the ruling party won most of the available positions amid low turnout and voter apathy following years of economic ...

Bloomberg Westpac Banking Corp agreed to pay A$113 million ($80.6 million) in penalties after the Australian regulator alleged the lender had widespread compliance failures that included charging dead people. The case includes a claim that Westpac charged more than A$10 million ($7.01 million) in fees for financial advice to over 11,000 deceased customers over a 10-year period, according to a ...

Bloomberg UniCredit SpA’s German operations are set to take about half group’s planned job cuts as the firm seeks to boost profitability at the underperforming unit. Chief Executive Officer Andrea Orcel plans to eliminate about 1,500 positions at subsidiary HVB as part of his new strategy that’s slated to be unveiled next week, people familiar with the matter said. Those ...

Bloomberg UBS Group AG’s London headquarters will be bought by Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS) and LaSalle Investment Management for about 1.25 billion pounds ($1.7 billion). The silver building’s current owners Hong Kong-based CK Asset Holdings Ltd started initial discussions with a handful of potential buyers earlier this year, Bloomberg reported at the time. NPS, working with LaSalle, was the ...

Bloomberg The European Central Bank (EBC) is weighing curbs on the riskiest part of banks’ lending to indebted companies amid fears of a potential blow-up in the market. Officials on the ECB’s supervisory board have discussed capping newly originated highly-leveraged transactions at a certain share of individual banks’ balance sheets, the people said, asking not to be identified as the ...

Bloomberg Credit Suisse Group AG is reviewing banker pay to better align compensation with shareholder interests, after a tumultuous year in which the firm was buffeted by the Archegos Capital Management and Greensill Capital crises. The Swiss lender should give senior-ranking employees more of their remuneration in shares, with long deferral periods and the ability to take back compensation that’s ...

Bloomberg India’s central bank could start tightening monetary policy from next fiscal year as consumer prices rise, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. “Inflation is going to determine what the RBI does over the course of next year,” Santanu Sengupta, senior India economist at Goldman said in an interview with Juliette Saly and Rishaad Salamat on Bloomberg TV. “Input cost ...

Bloomberg Canada’s biggest banks shelled out 18% more for bonuses, unleashing the biggest increase in data going back nine years as the firms battled for talent to take advantage of a boom time in capital markets. The country’s six largest lenders set aside $14.9 billion for performance-based compensation in their 2021 fiscal year. The increase trounced the 6.3% average for ...

Bloomberg The $410 DeliSofter pot looks much like the rice cookers ubiquitous in Japanese households and it does prepare rice in 24 minutes. But this invention of two Panasonic Corp engineers is designed to do more and help people with swallowing difficulties. The two women led the creation of a spin-off company, Gifmo Co, to sell the specialised steam cooker, ...