Vietnamese traffic: locals know it; everyone complains about it. Tourists photograph it and share their experiences back home. But for pedestrians, crossing the streets can be a daunting affair. Vietnam has made great strides economically. But amid the soaring economy and rise in tourism, roads and traffic policing have not kept pace with the increasing number of vehicles on …

  Bloomberg Collector Bank AB plans to add 80 to 90 employees a year to accommodate growth as the Swedish financial services-provider rolls out new technical solutions and products to challenge the largest banks. Most of the recruitment will be at the IT unit, which currently accounts for 100 of Collector’s 350 full-time employees, Chief Executive Officer Stefan Alexandersson said …

  Bloomberg CRDB Bank Plc, the largest bank in Tanzania, expects to reduce its non-performing loan ratio to meet a central bank threshold as it shifts its focus to the retail business, Managing Director Charles Kimei said. The lender’s ratio of non-performing loans will fall to 6 percent this year from 8.1 percent a year earlier, when tobacco marketing groups …

  Bloomberg Brazil’s finance minister nominated Itau Unibanco Holding SA’s chief economist Ilan Goldfajn to head Brazil’s central bank and proposed a constitutional amendment to grant the top monetary authority operational autonomy. Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles also said that Goldfajn, who must still be confirmed by the Senate, would not form part of Acting President Michel Temer’s cabinet and that …

  Bloomberg Bank Pekao SA slumped to a two week low after 50.3-percent owner UniCredit SpA was said to be considering selling a stake in Poland’s second-largest lender among other measures to boost capital. The shares in Pekao fell as much as 3 percent and traded 2.1 percent lower at 148.4 zloty in Warsaw, making the bank the second-biggest loser …

  JAKARTA / Reuters Suriname’s Trust Bank hopes to complete a conversion of its operations to Islamic banking by the end of this year, becoming the first full-fledged Islamic bank in South America, its chief executive said. Last week the bank received approval in principle from the central bank for the transition, as it aims to expand financing to small …

  BLOOMBERG British house prices would take a severe blow in the years immediately after a vote to leave the European Union, according to an analysis by the Treasury. The study concludes that prices would be between 10 percent and 18 percent lower by 2018 relative to their performance inside the EU, according to the Treasury. However, Chancellor of the …

  Bloomberg Japan’s biggest real estate companies are borrowing record amounts of cheap cash to pay for the nation’s tallest skyscrapers yet. Mitsubishi Estate Co. plans to build a 390 meter (1,280 feet) tower with 61 floors above ground in front of Tokyo Station, making it the nation’s biggest building. That and 27 other urban renewal projects in Japan’s capital …

  AFP Nancy Kidwell is a modern-day pioneer of the American desert, a rough-riding frontierswoman who built an entire town amid the lonely Yucca trees and sturdy sagebrush, where nothing existed before. A half-century ago, Kidwell and first husband Slim turned a triangle-shaped gravel airstrip abandoned by the US military into a thriving community that featured a casino, store, camper …

  Bloomberg Shoprite Holdings Ltd. plans to invest $572 million on new supermarkets and business units in Angola, as Africa’s largest food retailer expands in fast-growing sub-Saharan markets. President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has appointed a commission to negotiate potential tax breaks and other incentives for the Cape Town-based company, according to a May 18 statement published in the government …