Bloomberg China will allow local governments to sell another 848 billion yuan ($122 billion) of debt before March, as authorities seek to offset the economic shock of the coronavirus. The new quota includes 558 billion yuan of local government debt as well as 290 billion yuan of so-called special debt, according to a Ministry of Finance statement on Tuesday. The …

Bloomberg Mastercard Inc won approval to set up a bank card clearing business in China, gaining access to a $27 trillion payments market as part of the nation’s financial opening. The announcement by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) on Tuesday signals the country is moving ahead with the speedier opening of its financial system that was agreed on as …

Bloomberg When a former Yes Bank Ltd executive started selling his stake in September, the Indian lender’s top managers watched for any sign that the resulting drop in share price would trigger a rush to withdraw deposits. The stock sales came as customers of a regional lender — Punjab & Maharashtra Co-operative Bank Ltd — were lining up outside its …

Bloomberg Local Chinese banking regulators are urging lenders to increase their tolerance for bad loans and lower profit targets as the coronavirus hits at businesses across the country. Over the weekend, China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission’s Zhengjiang branch asked banks in the region to be more lenient on bad loans and reduce their profit targets. The local bank watchdog …

Bloomberg UniCredit SpA expects to cut 6,000 jobs and close 450 branches in Italy as Chief Executive Officer Jean Pierre Mustier sets his three year-efficiency plan in motion. The reductions and closures will take place through 2023, according to a letter sent to unions and seen by Bloomberg News. The Italian redundancies are part of a plan announced in December …

Bloomberg Lebanon needs the help of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to draft a rescue plan and decide whether to repay its $1.2 billion Eurobond maturing next month, the Annahar newspaper cited one of the country’s longest-serving politicians and a member of the ruling coalition as saying. With the country facing its worst financial crisis in decades after months of …

Bloomberg Global emissions from energy held steady in 2019 for the first time in three years. But the restraint all came from the US and Europe as developing countries boosted use of the most polluting fossil fuels. The findings from the International Energy Agency (IEA) show energy-related carbon dioxide emissions remained at a record 33.3 billion tons. While industrial countries …

Bloomberg Ghana plans to use as much as $1 billion of the Eurobonds it sold last week to help restructure the country’s obligations to independent power producers, said Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta. The country is in talks to re-negotiate supply deals with the power companies known as IPPs. The currently take-or-pay agreements mean the government is billed even for unused …

Bloomberg US equity futures climbed alongside stocks in Europe and Asia as investors pushed benchmarks to record highs before commentary from Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell. Oil rose and Treasuries slipped. Contracts on the three main American gauges pared earlier gains but remained in the green ahead of Powell’s testimony before Congress, where the Fed chair will likely give hints …

Bloomberg India stocks rose, rebounding from two days of losses, as investors assessed the impact of the federal budget on demand while earnings season for companies enters its last leg. The S&P BSE Sensex advanced 0.6%, the most in nearly a week, to 41,216.14 in Mumbai. It had risen as much as 1.1% on Tuesday. The NSE Nifty 50 Index …