AFP France said on Tuesday it wanted to halt thorny EU-US trade talks as President Francois Hollande said there would be no deal at least until after President Barack Obama leaves office in January. Junior trade minister Matthias Fekl said there was “no more political support in France” for the talks because US negotiators were offering “nothing or just …

  Bloomberg UK mortgage approvals slumped to an 18-month low in July and consumer borrowing slowed following the decision to leave the European Union. Banks and mutually owned lenders signed off on 60,912 home loans, the fewest since January 2015, the Bank of England said on Tuesday. Unsecured lending rose by 1.2 billion pounds ($1.6 billion), the least in almost …

  Bloomberg Volkswagen AG Chief Executive Officer Matthias Mueller is pushing forward with a technological and organizational revamp of Europe’s largest carmaker despite internal opposition and expects his efforts to begin bearing fruit in two to three years. “Some believe this will pass eventually, that Mueller will only be there for five years, then there’s a new boss and when …

  AFP US industrial snacks giant Mondelez International said Monday it had dropped plans to merge with chocolatier The Hershey Company. The announcement came nearly two months after Hershey, the maker of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Hershey’s Kisses, rejected a $23 billion takeover offer from Mondelez. “Following additional discussions, and taking into account recent shareholder developments at Hershey, we …

  AFP Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom was on Tuesday granted his wish to live-stream his bid to avoid extradition to the United States where he is wanted on online piracy charges. Attempts by the United States to block the live-streaming request were rejected by Judge Murray Gilbert in the Auckland High Court. Lawyers for the US argued live-streaming could pollute …

  Bloomberg Banco Santander SA, Spain’s biggest bank, hired Morgan Stanley as an adviser to help it buy Citigroup Inc.’s retail assets in Brazil for $350 million to $450 million, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. Santander, whose Brazil unit generates about 19 percent of the Madrid-based company’s revenue, also is working with Credit Suisse Group AG, …

  Bloomberg Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., the world’s largest lender by assets, reported the first decline in its bad-loan ratio since 2012 in the second quarter, while eking out 1 percent profit growth. ICBC’s non-performing loans fell 4 percent to 196.3 billion yuan ($29.4 billion) at the end of June from three months earlier, according an earnings …

Bloomberg Former Barclays Plc trader Christopher Ashton, a member of “The Cartel” chat room where bank traders allegedly manipulated foreign-exchange rates, is being fined $1.2 million by the Federal Reserve and permanently banned from U.S. banking. Ashton, previously global head of the FX spot business at Barclays in London, was accused of using electronic chat rooms to manipulate currency pricing …

  Bloomberg Poland is joining the queue of countries aiming to lure financial-services jobs from London as banks look to ensure unfettered access to the European Union’s single market after Britain leaves the bloc. Deputy Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki is traveling to London this week and says he’ll meet “dozens” of banks, hedge funds and investment managers to present Poland …

  Emirates Business Bank of Nova Scotia, Canada’s third-largest lender by assets, said quarterly profit rose 6.1 percent, led by higher earnings in domestic and international operations. The bank raised its dividend 2.8 percent to 74 cents a share. Net income for the fiscal third quarter ended July 31 rose to C$1.96 billion ($1.5 billion), or C$1.54 a share, from …