December, 2021

• 6 December

  Former TSB bank CEO backing fintech startup

  

  Bloomberg Paul Pester, former chief executive officer of TSB Bank Plc, is preparing to launch a social network for digital payments, according to Sky News. Loop, as the startup is called, raised a seed round of investment and plans to bring in more money next year, according to the report. Pester’s partners on the project are Anthony Thomson, the founder …

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• 6 December

  Shorter-tenor Indian bonds to bear brunt of hawkish RBI bets

  

  Bloomberg Shorter-maturity Indian bonds are poised to extend losses amid growing expectations the central bank will accelerate its policy normalisation as the economic revival gains traction. Rates on notes with maturities of up to two years climbed in recent weeks as the central bank expanded its efforts to remove excess liquidity from the banking system, with the one-year bill yield …

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• 6 December

  UBS to compensate its HK staff for quarantine costs

  

  Bloomberg UBS Group AG will compensate its Hong Kong employees for quarantine costs, matching similar plans by US rivals, as global financial institutions step up efforts to retain staff weighed down by city’s strict zero-Covid policy. Citadel, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Morgan Stanley are among those to have rolled out compensation plans for Hong Kong staff. Goldman Sachs Group …

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• 6 December

  HKEX plans to open office in New York

  Bloomberg Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd (HKEX) plans to establish a representative office in New York to market its offerings in the US amid increasing doubts over the former British colony’s status as a financial hub. The new office will comprise of only about five staff, people familiar with the plans said, asking not to be identified discussing private …

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• 6 December

  2022 hike unlikely but ECB will act if needed: Lagarde

  

  Bloomberg European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde called the prospect of an interest-rate increase next year unlikely, but said she’d quickly take action to combat elevated inflation should it become necessary. “When the conditions of our forward guidance are satisfied, we will not hesitate to act,” Lagarde told Reuters in a webcast interview. Her remarks come just days after …

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• 6 December

  China tech index on track for record low as rout continues

  

  Bloomberg China tech shares tumbled on Monday, with a key gauge poised to close at its lowest level since launch last year as concerns mount over how many more companies could withdraw from American exchanges. The Hang Seng Tech Index, a gauge of mostly Chinese tech giants traded in Hong Kong, saw losses deepen to as much as 3.6% in …

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• 6 December

  Traders dump Asean stocks on fears omicron will hammer region

  

  Bloomberg Emerging-market traders are taking the once-bitten, twice-shy approach with Southeast Asia and omicron, dumping shares from the region that was most impacted when the delta variant arrived. The MSCI AC Asean Index has fallen about 4% since US Thanksgiving — when omicron first made its presence known in markets — underperforming the near 2% decline in Latin American shares …

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• 6 December

  Ofid extends $80m loan to boost trade in Africa

  

  Vienna / WAM The Opec Fund for International Development (OFID) signed an $80 million loan agreement with the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) to finance international trade directly among corporates or through financial intermediaries. The Opec Fund’s support will assist in boosting Afreximbank’s liquidity to grow its loan portfolio as it finances exports and imports in critical sectors such as agriculture, …

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• 6 December

  After calling China’s crackdown, Strategic Vision goes big on solar

  

  Bloomberg One of the few funds to predict Beijing’s clampdown on education companies is doubling down on its bets on China’s solar companies. Ken Xu, Hong Kong-based chief investment officer at Strategic Vision Investment Ltd, withdrew from tutoring stocks in March after noting that state-backed media outlets and policy makers were echoing angst among parents about the societal impact of …

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• 6 December

  India’s Jet Airways in talks with Boeing, Airbus for $12b order

  

  Bloomberg The new owners of once-bankrupt Jet Airways India Ltd are in talks with Boeing Co and Airbus SE to purchase at least 100 narrowbody jets for the carrier’s fleet in a bid to revive what used to be the biggest private airline in the South Asian nation before it collapsed under a pile of debt. The winning bidders for …

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