December, 2021

• 6 December

  S African prosecutor tempers expectations on corruption arrests

  

  Bloomberg South Africa’s chief prosecutor cautioned that arrests following a three-year judicial inquiry into state corruption will take time, as she announced plans to recruit a replacement for her top investigator who quit last week. A panel led by Acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo is due to complete its graft probe this month, and it will fall to National Director ...

  Read More »
• 6 December

  Olaf Scholz set to become German chancellor

  

  Bloomberg Olaf Scholz cleared the final hurdle on his path to becoming German chancellor when Green Party members overwhelmingly approved the coalition deal with his Social Democrats and the Free Democrats. The Greens said that 86% of some 71,000 members who voted backed the accord, which includes an ambitious climate agenda and plans to upgrade Germany’s technology infrastructure. The SPD ...

  Read More »
• 6 December

  Boris Johnson wins court bid over Patel bullying investigation

  

  Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson won a court ruling over the way he dealt with allegations of bullying made against his Home Secretary Priti Patel. Johnson, the ultimate “arbiter” of the rules governing the behaviour of senior officials, didn’t “misdirect himself,” judges ruled in London. The claim was brought by the FDA trade union, which represents the most senior ...

  Read More »
• 6 December

  Japan is racially profiling foreigners, warns US embassy

  Bloomberg The US Embassy in Tokyo issued a warning about foreigners being stopped and searched by Japanese police in what it said were suspected to be “racial profiling incidents.” The unusual move by the embassy of Tokyo’s only formal ally came after Japan closed its borders to new entries by foreigners amid concern over the omicron variant, just weeks after ...

  Read More »
• 6 December

  Bank of England reaches end of road for quantitative easing

  

  Bloomberg The Bank of England (BOE) is preparing to halt its almost 900 billion-pound ($1.2 trillion) quantitative easing program, leaving the future of what has become a controversial crisis-fighting tool shrouded in doubt. More than decade after buying the first government security as part of an initial 75-billion pound, three-month plan during the global financial crisis, the BOE will next ...

  Read More »
• 6 December

  Vietnam bought $25bn of dollars over past 2 years

  

  Bloomberg Vietnam’s central bank bought about $25 billion worth of US dollars over the past two years, according to a deputy governor. The move helped inject the Vietnamese dong into the banking system and boost the economy, Pham Thanh Ha told an economic forum in Hanoi. The US Treasury last week announced that Vietnam met all the criteria again of ...

  Read More »
• 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 ...

  Read More »
• 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 ...

  Read More »
• 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 ...

  Read More »
• 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 ...

  Read More »