Bloomberg Loan bankers in Asia are relying on companies’ merger and acquisition activities and China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative to fuel loan growth next year after volumes in the region stagnated in 2016. Asia-Pacific ex-Japan loan volume amounts to $451.5 billion year to date, just shy of the $452.3 billion syndicated and clubbed deals completed in 2015, due ...

  Bloomberg Wells Fargo is facing a multimillion-dollar film-finance fraud lawsuit, capping off a 2016 of legal woes for the banking giant. British financiers Vandermolen Film Co. and Bridgeworks Media Capital claim Wells Fargo employees conned them into funding bridge loans and they’re owed at least $14 million, according to a complaint filed in Florida state court last week. “Upon ...

  Bloomberg China Guangfa Bank Co. said on Monday that documents and seals for a letter claiming to guarantee bond payments by the lender were forged, in the second such incident in the nation this month, raising concern about transparency in the world’s third-biggest bond market. The revelation by the bank based in the southern province of Guangdong comes after ...

  JEDDAH / WAM The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) approved finances worth US$863 million for developmental projects in a number of member countries during its 316th meeting here, Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported. Out of this sum, $208 million goes to road projects in the Republic of Guinea; $170 million for the third phase of a solar generation project in ...

  Bloomberg New York rather than the European Union may be the winner from any exodus of financial services from London unless Brexit negotiators on both sides are pragmatic, UK lawmakers warned. Without early clarity on the future relationship between Britain and the EU, banks and other financial firms may set up subsidiaries and transfer workers abroad, the House of ...

  Valencia i / DPA When winter descends on Europe, Valencia’s famous oranges appear in supermarkets everywhere. While many are cheap, Spaniard Gonzalo Urculo advises orange-lovers to be on their guard. “The really cheap ones don’t taste of anything, they’re neither sweet nor juicy,” he says. Six years ago, together with his older brother Gabriel, the 30-year-old took over his ...

  Boufféré / AFP Electronic spies come in all shapes and sizes, but none is as funny looking as an oyster impersonator called the Flex Spy now infiltrating the waters off western France. Looking for all the world like the bivalves it is protecting, the plastic imposter is fitted with a circuit board that allows it to snitch on thieves. ...

  BEIJING / AP Chinese authorities are clamping down on streaming video over social media amid a proliferation of online-only television content and live-streaming. The State Administration for Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television is requiring social media platforms like WeChat and Weibo to obtain licenses to broadcast video or audio, while also demanding that content distributed over social media ...

  Bloomberg Australian real estate loans are bucking a slump in the syndicated lending market and have nearly quadrupled in 2016 from last year, buoyed by continuing demand for residential and commercial assets. Asian banks are taking notice. Fifteen syndicated loan deals for constructions, land development and property acquisitions worth $3.37 billion were signed so far this year, the highest ...

  Bloomberg Australia’s economy recorded its biggest monthly jobs gain this year, led by full-time employment, while a higher participation rate also signaled a healthier labor market. Employment jumped 39,100 from October, more than double economists’ forecast for a 17,500 gain October jobs gain was upwardly revised to 15,200 from 9,800. Jobless rate rose to 5.7 percent from 5.6 percent; ...