In a poor, underbanked country, there wouldn’t be anything unusual about imposing a $6.40–a-month penalty on depositors unable to keep at least $640 in their savings accounts. That’s just how financial exclusion works. But in rich Hong Kong, a city that gives banks more than $26 billion in annual earnings, it took a fintech revolution to make HSBC Holdings Plc ...

Among Facebook Inc.’s justifications for introducing a new digital currency, Libra, the company has offered one pious rationale: to connect the 1.7 billion adults who lack bank accounts to the global financial system. That’s certainly one way for the “unbanked” to enjoy the convenience of digital money. Or they could just use a DeathAdder Elite. The DeathAdder is, of course, ...

Bloomberg Many are expecting a relief rally after the world’s largest economies declared a truce in their trade war. In Asia, the sector that just won the biggest reprieve is tech stocks. President Donald Trump’s decision to allow US corporations to resume sales to Huawei Technologies Co, China’s largest telecommunications-equipment maker, will boost semiconductor stocks as concerns surrounding demand for ...

Bloomberg The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is setting up shop to help officials embrace financial technology, who may need to speed up developing their own digital currency. The BIS, which promotes cooperation among the world’s monetary officials, announced it was starting an innovation hub for financial technology. And in an interview with the Financial Times, BIS General Manager Agustin ...

Bloomberg The Philippine peso’s longest run of quarterly gains in six years will be tested this week with a report forecast to show inflation resumed its downtrend in June. Evidence consumer-price gains are cooling raises the prospect the central bank will follow up on its May interest-rate cut to support flagging growth. Technical indicators also suggest the peso may struggle ...

Bloomberg Discount carrier Wizz Air Holdings Plc is considering using a new fleet of long-range narrow-body Airbus SE jets to launch flights from London to Dubai and even central Europe to India in a further challenge to network rivals. The 20 A321 XLR planes ordered will allow Wizz to broaden its footprint and beef up capacity on existing destinations, Chief ...

Bloomberg German Efromovich, the ousted chairman of Bolivian airline Avianca, is eyeing a comeback via Italy. Efromovich wants to buy a stake in the bankrupt Italian flag-carrier Alitalia SpA, financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore reported, citing an interview. “We wrote a letter to Ferrovie dello Stato and the adviser Mediobanca two weeks ago saying we can purchase up to ...

Bloomberg Taiwan’s Eva Airways Corp failed to come to terms with representatives of striking flight attendants, and will renegotiate with workers on Tuesday, a union said. The strike will continue until a collective agreement is signed, the union said in a statement posted on its Facebook page. Among the issues for negotiation that broke down was the carrier’s refusal to ...

Bloomberg Online luxury reseller The RealReal Inc rose 45 percent in its first day of trading after a $300 million initial public offering. The RealReal’s shares, after rising as much as 50percent, closed up at $28.90 in New York trading, giving the company a market value of about $2.39 billion. The RealReal sold 15 million shares for $20 each after ...

Bloomberg A small faction of officials at Forever 21 Inc has asked its biggest landlords if they’d consider taking a stake in the clothing retailer, as the company’s leadership battles internally about how to turn around the struggling store chain. The group, which didn’t have the backing of the company’s co-founder, talked to Simon Property Group Inc and Brookfield Property ...