July, 2022

• 21 July

  Sri Lanka picks ex-leader’s ally as new president, risking fury

  

  Bloomberg Ranil Wickremesinghe was voted in as Sri Lanka’s president backed by a majority of lawmakers from ousted leader Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s party, a development that could reignite street protests in the bankrupt nation and scuttle bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund. Wickremesinghe, 73, beat Dullas Alahapperuma, an opposition-backed candidate who had the support from a faction within the ruling ...

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• 21 July

  US calls Brazil’s election a ‘model’ as President Bolsonaro alleges fraud

  

  Bloomberg The US embassy in Brasilia described Brazil’s elections as a “model for the world,” one day after President Jair Bolsonaro told foreign ambassadors that the country’s electronic voting system is subject to fraud. Echoing comments made by President Joe Biden during a bilateral meeting with Bolsonaro last month, the embassy said in a statement late Tuesday that the US ...

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• 21 July

  Putin signals gas pipeline will restart, but with conditions

  

  Bloomberg Russian President Vladimir Putin signaled that Europe will start getting gas again through a key pipeline, but warned that unless a spat over sanctioned parts is resolved, flows will be tightly curbed. Europe is on tenterhooks, waiting to see whether gas flows resume on Thursday when maintenance on the Nord Stream pipeline is set to end. Putin gave the ...

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• 21 July

  African Union needs a permanent seat at G-20, ministers say

    Bloomberg The African Union should have a permanent seat at the Group of 20 leading economies to give the continent more say as it struggles with the economic fallout from the war in Ukraine, according to three ministers from the region. Representation at the G-20 will bolster the continent’s engagement with the group at a time when soaring energy ...

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• 21 July

  Bank relief from ECB rate hike spoiled by threat of windfall tax

  

  Bloomberg Europe’s banks waited more than a decade for higher interest rates to make lending more profitable again. Now some governments are threatening to spoil the party. As the European Central Bank (ECB) prepares to raise rates on Thursday, politicians from Madrid to Warsaw are calling for mortgage holidays and bank taxes to shield consumers from higher borrowing costs and ...

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• 21 July

  Santander UK raises pay for 60% of workforce

  

    Bloomberg Santander UK became the latest bank to help staff with the cost of living squeeze, saying it would give more than 11,000 employees a 4% pay rise. All staff earning less than £35,000 ($42,039), representing 60% of the workforce, will be eligible for the raise from August, the company said in a statement. Santander UK will also increase ...

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• 21 July

  Lenders are thwarting digital currency’s adoption in Nigeria

    Bloomberg Nigerian lenders are impeding the use of the nation’s digital currency because they are concerned about losing revenue from traditional banking services, according to central bank Governor Godwin Emefiele. Only about 700,000 customers have created an e-naira wallets since its introduction in October last year, the central bank said early this year. There are about 55 million bank ...

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• 21 July

  IMF agrees $236m for Kenya, urges to keep reform program

  

    Bloomberg The International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved the disbursement of a $235.6 million loan to Kenya as the East African nation met the lender’s targets and made progress in addressing debt vulnerabilities. The approval brings the IMF’s total disbursements to Kenya to $1.21 billion, out of a total of about $2.34 billion available under a 38-month program approved in ...

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• 21 July

  UK audit watchdog slams firms for ‘quality of work’

  

  Bloomberg The UK’s accounting watchdog blasted Mazars and BDO for the “unacceptable” quality of their audits after carrying out an annual review of the industry’s seven largest firms. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said that four of the eight audits reviewed at Mazars and five of the 12 audits reviewed at BDO required more than limited improvements. The regulator added ...

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• 21 July

  ‘New crypto bill unlikely to get Senate vote’

    Bloomberg A sweeping piece of legislation that would overhaul how the cryptocurrency industry is regulated by Washington is unlikely to be voted on this year by the US Senate, according to one of the lawmakers driving the effort. Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis said that the full bill she released last month with Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand would probably not be ...

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