Bloomberg Meet Yona. She loves reading Margaret Atwood and articles about teenage life and sings about loneliness and relationships on her newly released track. If this sounds a bit scripted, that’s because it is: Yona’s not human. Yona has been created by London-based company Auxuman and trained using artificial intelligence (AI), fed on music and literature, and learning from reactions …

Bloomberg After five years of negative rates imposed by the European Central Bank (ECB), German lenders are breaking the last taboo: Charging retail clients for their savings starting with very first euro in the their accounts. While many banks have been passing on negative rates to retail clients for some time, they have typically only done so for deposits of …

Bloomberg The Bank of Thailand said it has many tools left to manage capital inflows to curb the local currency’s strength, which is hurting growth prospects in the Southeast Asian economy. The scope and speed of the baht’s appreciation is out of line with economic fundamentals such as the current-account surplus, Don Nakornthab, a senior director in the central bank’s …

Bloomberg The World Bank sees Tanzania’s economic growth accelerating to 5.6% this year from an estimated 5.4% in 2018, driven by a recovery in exports and growing tourist arrivals. The rate of expansion will also quicken to 5.8% in 2020 and 6.1% in the following year, it said in a report published on Tuesday. “Tanzania was again one of the …

Bloomberg UniCredit SpA’s plan to eliminate 8,000 jobs is pushing cuts announced by banks this year past 73,000, almost all of them in Europe, where negative interest rates and a slowing economy force lenders to slash costs. Chief Executive Officer Jean Pierre Mustier announced the measures as part of the next, four-year chapter in his overhaul of Italy’s largest bank. …

Bloomberg HDFC Bank Ltd, India’s most valuable lender by market capitalisation, sees tentative signs of a revival in rural areas at a time when the wider economy is sputtering. “The recent loan outreach programmes underway in rural areas have given us the sense that the consumption in rural and semi-urban areas is turning more positive,” HDFC Bank Executive Director Kaizad …

Bloomberg Financial regulators are pushing for legal changes in order to avoid the Philippines being placed on a global monitoring list for countries with weak anti-money laundering and terrorism financing controls. The government needs to implement the changes by October or risk being placed on a “grey” list by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force, the Philippines Anti-Money Laundering Council …

Bloomberg China is pursuing a three-year pilot programme, led by five of its biggest utilities, to integrate and cut some coal-fired power capacity to help the debt-saddled industry, state media reported. The pilot, which runs through 2021, will seek to consolidate coal-power assets within five northwestern regions and reduce their capacity by up to one-third, according to a Shanghai Securities …

Bloomberg Repsol SA embarked on the most ambitious attempt yet by an oil major to align itself with the Paris climate goals, saying it will eliminate all greenhouse gas emissions from its own operations and its customers by 2050. The Spanish giant’s exploration and production unit will focus on value instead of output growth, according to a statement from the …

Bloomberg IndiGo has told its pilots to stop pushing engines on its new Airbus SE jets to the limit when the planes are climbing, after India’s aviation regulator said the practice may have contributed to turbines failing in the air. All the budget airline’s A320neo aircraft now use a lower thrust setting following take off, according to a spokeswoman from …