March, 2022

• 24 March

  Air New Zealand to fly directly to NYC

    Bloomberg Air New Zealand has announced plans to fly directly to New York — one of the longest routes in the world — as the country begins to rebuild a tourism industry that’s been decimated by the pandemic. The carrier said it will begin direct flights from Auckland to John F Kennedy Airport in September. At just over 16 …

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• 24 March

  ECB to begin work in 2022 to add climate risk to capital bar

  

    Bloomberg European bank regulators are set to start work later this year on adding climate-change risks to the framework for setting capital requirements, in a shift that would penalise lenders for failing to prepare for losses from extreme weather and the shift to clean energy. Several members of the European Central Bank’s (ECB) supervisory board say they expect to …

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• 24 March

  Citigroup kickstarts sale of Dublin base, seeks new Irish HQ

  

    Bloomberg Citigroup Inc. is putting its waterfront Dublin office on the market, as the lender looks for a new location in the city. The six-storey building at 1 North Wall Quay in Dublin’s docklands is expected to fetch more than 120 million euros ($132 million), Knight Frank said in an emailed statement. The bank has occupied the 230,000 square …

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• 24 March

  Thailand to ban use of digital assets as payments

  

  Bloomberg Thailand will bar the use of cryptocurrencies as a means of payments for goods and services, saying the wider use of digital assets threatens the nation’s financial system and economy. Business operators — including crypto exchanges — must not provide such payment services, and are barred from acting in a manner that promotes the use of digital assets to …

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• 24 March

  French lender BNP Paribas stops new business in Russia

    Bloomberg BNP Paribas is stopping all new business in Russia, joining European peers in winding down their local operations after the country invaded Ukraine. The Paris-based bank has informed its corporate clients that its local unit will no longer be able to process their transactions from the end of March, the bank said in an emailed statement. BNP Paribas …

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• 24 March

  Kuroda doubles down on stimulus commitment even if prices hit 2%

  

    Bloomberg Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda doubled down on his commitment to continue with stimulus even if inflation continues to accelerate, in a rebuttal of the need to join a global wave of central banks normalising policy. “We don’t know what April’s inflation rate may be, but there’s a possibility it’ll be around 2%,” Kuroda said, acknowledging …

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• 23 March

  Deutsche Bank to boost wages by 5.2%

  Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG agreed to boost wages for 8,000 staff by 5.2% in two steps in a nod to accelerating inflation in Germany. The deal with unions representing employees at its Postbank retail unit was signed, the lender said in a statement. The bank will first raise wages for the covered staff by 3.1% in June and then by …

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• 23 March

  Global bond markets lose $2.6tn since peaking last year

  

    Bloomberg Global bond markets have suffered unprecedented losses since peaking last year, as central banks including the Federal Reserve look to tighten policy to combat surging inflation. The Bloomberg Global Aggregate Index, a benchmark for government and corporate debt total returns, has fallen 11% from a high in January 2021. That’s the biggest decline from a peak in data …

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• 23 March

  China tech stocks rise as Xiaomi’s buybacks lift investors’ sentiment

  

    Bloomberg Chinese tech stocks extended a rally into a second day on Wednesday, as share buybacks by Xiaomi Corp. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. spurred hopes that other tech firms may follow suit. The Hang Seng Tech Index ended 2.1% higher, with Xiaomi gaining 4.1% and Bilibili Inc’s 10% advance among the outperforming names. The gauge has climbed nearly …

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• 23 March

  UK government prepares to take over Gazprom retail arm

  

  Bloomberg The UK government is preparing to step in and temporarily run Gazprom PJSC’s British retail supply arm as it comes under increasing pressure from companies turning their backs on Russian business over the war in Ukraine. Gazprom Marketing & Trading Retail Ltd is a prime candidate to be taken into the UK’s special administration regime if it fails, to …

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