Bloomberg The only thing that might be colder than Toronto in January is the Canadian city’s housing market. While the bleak mid-winter is never the best time to sell a home in Canada, a string of open houses in the country’s largest city were chillingly empty on a recent afternoon. Tougher mortgage rules went into effect on January 1 just …

Bloomberg China’s top banks — the biggest in the world — have typically traded below the value of their assets on concern over rising bad debt and falling profitability. That’s starting to change, and quickly. A recent surge in the Hong Kong-traded shares of China’s Big Four state banks lifted their average price-to-book value ratio to 1. That’s the highest …

Bloomberg Lloyds Banking Group Plc is changing the way it reports some of its key numbers ahead of its annual results next month. The earnings of the consumer finance unit, whose assets increased by 12 percent to 39.2 billion pounds ($54.8 billion) in 2016, will be merged with the retail division, according to a memo sent to investors and seen …

Bloomberg Inflation expectations in Mauritius are contained for now, leaving room for the central bank to stick to its accommodative stance to support economic growth, Governor Yandraduth Googoolye said as he prepares to chair his first Monetary Policy Committee meeting next month. The pick-up in the average rate of price growth in the 12 months through December was due to …

Bloomberg Commonwealth Bank of Australia is being sued by the nation’s securities regulator for allegedly rigging the benchmark bank-bill swap rate, adding to legal problems for the nation’s largest lender. The Australian Securities & Investments Commission said it began legal proceedings on Tuesday in the Federal Court in Melbourne, alleging the bank engaged in “unconscionable conduct and market manipulation” between …

Bloomberg Morocco may need anything from five to 15 years to fully float the dirham, with further currency liberalisation dependent on other reforms including strengthening the country’s export base and reducing the current-account deficit, central bank Governor Abdellatif Jouahri said. Policymakers finally eased their grip on the dirham on January 15, allowing the currency to trade 2.5 percent above or …

Bloomberg JAB Holding Co.’s audacious effort to build a food-and-beverage empire, which already includes Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and Caribou Coffee, has taken a surprise turn into soft drinks. The investment firm’s Keurig Green Mountain Inc. business, known for its single-serve coffee brewers, agreed to take control of Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc. The deal will pay $18.7 billion in cash …

Bloomberg Ryanair Holdings Plc recognised the union representing its UK pilots, reaching its first formal labour agreement in the discount airline’s history. The 600 UK pilots directly employed by the carrier will be represented by the British Airlines’ Pilots Association, Ryanair said in a statement. All 15 of its bases in the market—the company’s biggest—have also voted to accept management’s …

Bloomberg China Eastern Airlines Corp. and Xiamen Airlines Co. cancelled 176 additional flights to Taiwan after failing to gain approval from the island’s authorities amid an escalating dispute between the two governments. The flights are a newest sticking point between China and Taiwan, which Beijing considers a province to be reunited with the mainland. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, whose ruling …

Bloomberg EasyJet Plc’s newly hired chief executive officer is taking a pay cut to match the salary of his predecessor, Carolyn McCall, as the discount airline joins UK-wide efforts to reduce the national gender gap in remuneration. Johan Lundgren’s salary, originally set at 740,000 pounds ($1.04 million), will be reduced 4.6 percent to the 706,000 pounds earned by McCall in …