November, 2020

• 4 November

  Ethiopia risks descent into civil war over row

  

  Bloomberg Ethiopia’s leader ordered the military to respond to an alleged attack on an army camp in the restive Tigray region, escalating a standoff between the federal and state governments. Military operations began in Tigray overnight and a six-month state of emergency has been declared in the northern region, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s spokeswoman Billene Seyoum said by phone on ...

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• 4 November

  Protesters spurn reconciliation plan in Thailand

  

  Bloomberg Thai pro-democracy activists rejected a parliament-initiated plan to form a reconciliation committee, calling it a “political ploy to buy time,” and reiterated the demand for the immediate resignation of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha. The Thai parliament is setting up a committee to discuss the demands of the protesters in a bid to ease political tensions and restart the stalled ...

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• 4 November

  UK lockdown all set to pass despite Tory revolt

  Bloomberg Boris Johnson was set to push fresh coronavirus lockdown rules through the UK Parliament on Wednesday, facing down rebels in his own Conservative Party who reject the erosion of civil liberties they entail. The regulations were due to take effect from Wednesday, enforcing the closing of gyms and non-essential shops in England, and restricting social contact between households. The ...

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• 4 November

  RBA slashes rates, announces $700bn bond-buying program

  

  Bloomberg Australia’s central bank cut interest rates and announced purchases of longer-dated bonds to complement its yield curve control program for shorter-length maturities as it seeks to drive a rapid economic recovery. The Reserve Bank of Australia lowered its key interest rate, yield-curve target and bank lending facility rate to 0.10% from 0.25%, as forecast by an overwhelming majority of ...

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• 4 November

  Banks seen raising their German assets by $462bn on Brexit

  

  Bloomberg Germany will take the lion’s share of the assets that lenders are moving out of the UK as a consequence of the Brexit, according to the Bundesbank. Non-German lenders are in the process of moving an additional 397 billion euros ($462 billion) of holdings to the country, taking their combined balance sheet there to 675 billion euros at the ...

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• 4 November

  JPMorgan, Citi sending London staff home on latest lockdown

  

  Bloomberg JPMorgan Chase & Co and Citigroup Inc. joined rivals in asking the vast majority of employees in England to work from home following government rules to stop a surge in coronavirus infections. The Wall Street banks told staff in separate memos Tuesday that most workers will be required to work from home until further notice from Thursday, when a ...

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• 4 November

  Credit Agricole receives boost from bond sales

  

  Bloomberg Credit Agricole SA got a boost from clients selling bonds and set aside less money for expected bad loans, joining peers in taking a benign view of the pandemic as Europe enters a second phase of lockdowns. Revenue from capital markets, the biggest driver of Credit Agricole’s investment bank, surged 25% in the third quarter to beat analysts’ highest ...

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• 4 November

  BNP joins EU peers with trading beat, lower provisions

  

  Bloomberg BNP Paribas SA got a bigger-than-expected boost from trading and painted a relatively optimistic picture of the pandemic’s impact on its loan book, as it joined European peers in signalling an eventual return to dividend payments. Third-quarter revenue from trading fixed income, currencies and commodities surged 36% to 1.25 billion euros ($1.45 billion), the Paris-based bank reported, surpassing the ...

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• 4 November

  SBI beats profit estimates

  Bloomberg State Bank of India (SBI) reported better-than-expected profit as the nation’s largest lender set aside fewer provisions for non-performing loans. The bank’s net income jumped 52% to 45.7 billion rupees ($610 million) for the three months to September, beating the 36.9 billion rupee average estimate of 11 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. SBI set aside 101.2 billion rupees in provisions ...

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• 4 November

  Moody’s raises its outlook for Deutsche Bank

  Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG had the outlook on its credit rating lifted by Moody’s Investors Service, which said Germany’s largest bank may finally be able to execute on a strategic plan after years of setting targets and then missing them. The lender’s “senior management and staff have laid the foundation for a sustainable turnaround,” Moody’s analyst Michael Rohr wrote in ...

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