February, 2021

• 8 February

  Myanmar sees biggest protest in years as coup opposition grows

  

  Bloomberg Myanmar saw its biggest protests in more than a decade on Sunday as tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in several cities calling for the release of detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. In Yangon, tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in an area of the city’s downtown known as the staging grounds for prior ...

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• 8 February

  150 workers missing after glacier triggers flood in Indian state

  

  Bloomberg About 150 workers at NTPC Ltd.’s hydropower plant are feared trapped or swept away after a flash flood that destroyed key infrastructure when a Himalayan river burst its banks. The Rishiganga hydropower project near Raini village in Uttarakhand state was damaged, as was NTPC’s under-construction project on river Dhauli Ganga near Tapovan, said Vivek Pandey, spokesman for the Indo-Tibetan ...

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• 8 February

  Trump’s trial brings a reckoning even if acquittal is likely

  

  Bloomberg Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial is almost certain to end in acquittal, yet it will deliver a public reckoning for his presidency and influence whether his populist supporters continue to dominate the Republican Party. The nine House managers prosecuting Trump, arguing their case as much to the American public as to the senators who’ll serve as jurors, will focus ...

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• 8 February

  Putin’s crackdown chills protests that threaten his two-decade rule

  

  Bloomberg Lyudmila Shtein, a 24-year-old Muscovite and municipal deputy, is under house arrest until May and risks a two-year jail term for encouraging people to join a protest last month. She’s among more than 11,000 people rounded up in the past two weeks after the biggest show of defiance towards President Vladimir Putin in years. As social media flooded with ...

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• 8 February

  Election to decide whether Ecuador stays a US ally

  

  Bloomberg Polls are open in Ecuador in an election that will decide whether the country turns its back on the US and restores an alliance with socialist regimes in Cuba and Venezuela. The result of Sunday’s voting has the potential to upend relations with Beijing or Washington, and could even jeopardise Ecuador’s continued use of the US dollar. Long lines ...

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• 8 February

  Taiwan penalises Deutsche Bank, three others for currency trades

  

  Bloomberg Taiwan penalised Deutsche Bank AG and three other foreign lenders after a probe into speculation on the surging local currency last year involving grain companies. Deutsche Bank’s trading approvals for Taiwan dollar deliverable forwards and non-deliverable forwards will be revoked, and it will be banned from engaging in transactions of foreign exchange derivatives for two years, the island’s central ...

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• 8 February

  Talks of UK lenders on shared Covid debt collector stall, says FT

  

  Bloomberg Discussions among UK banks to establish a shared debt collector for unpaid payments on Covid loans have stalled, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the discussions. Lobbying group UK Finance was leading talks on a shared entity but several of the UK’s biggest banks such as HSBC Holdings Plc and Lloyds Banking Group Plc have soured on ...

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• 8 February

  StanChart gives up several floors in Hong Kong offices

  

  Bloomberg Standard Chartered Plc is giving up several floors in its main offices in Hong Kong, as global banks accelerate efforts to cut costs and pandemic upends work styles. The UK lender is relinquishing the lease on eight floors it occupies in its Standard Chartered Bank Building in Central, and will rent out three levels in its Kwun Tong office ...

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• 8 February

  BOE tells banks to get ready for negative rates possibility

  

  Bloomberg The Bank of England (BOE) told banks to start getting ready for negative interest rates, while saying that message shouldn’t be taken as a signal that the policy is imminent. The central bank’s Prudential Regulation Authority said most financial institutions aren’t sufficiently prepared, especially as regards to retail products like rate-tracking mortgages, so they should take at least six ...

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• 8 February

  Nigeria shutting down all cryptocurrency accounts

  Bloomberg Nigeria’s central bank ordered deposit-taking banks and other financial institutions to immediately close accounts transacting in or operating cryptocurrency exchanges, saying such deals are “prohibited.” Failure to comply with the directive will result in “severe regulatory sanctions,” according to a circular sent to financial institutions and published on the central bank’s website. The country’s Securities and Exchange Commission said ...

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