July, 2020

• 26 July

  Kim locks down city after ‘virus case’

  

  Bloomberg North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered a city near the border with South Korea locked down after officials found a person who may be infected with the coronavirus, state media reported. Kim attended an emergency meeting of the Workers’ Party and took the “preemptive measure” of isolating Kaesong City following the report on the suspected case, the Korean Central ...

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• 26 July

  Vietnam confirms local virus cases since April

  

  Bloomberg Vietnam reported two locally-transmitted coronavirus cases after more than three months of no new infections of such, prompting authorities in the city of Danang to restrict activities to prevent a wider spread of the disease. One patient, a 57-year-old man, had been in Danang city for about a month and hadn’t traveled to other provinces, the government said in ...

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• 26 July

  Hurricane Hanna makes landfall, rakes Texas coast

  

  Bloomberg Hanna, 2020’s first Atlantic hurricane, made landfall on Padre Island Saturday evening, bringing “life-threatening” storm surges, flooding rains and tree-toppling winds to south Texas. The storm came ashore with 90-mile-per-hour (145 kmph) winds, the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory at 6 pm EDT. Hanna is moving west-south-west at about 8 miles per hour. A Category 1 storm, ...

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• 26 July

  India’s bad loan ratio to jump to two-decade high, says RBI

  

  Bloomberg The bad loan ratio in India’s banking sector is forecast to swell to the highest level in more than two decades after a prolonged lockdown hurt businesses and left millions jobless. Soured assets will rise to 12.5% of total advances by March 2021 — highest since the financial year started 1999 — from 8.5% a year earlier, the Reserve ...

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• 26 July

  South Africa relaxes loan-guarantee rules to improve take-up

  

  Bloomberg South Africa is in talks with non-banking lenders to join its 200 billion rand ($12 billion) loan-guarantee measures as it seeks to improve access to finance for businesses hit by the coronavirus pandemic. The government-backed program will have less stringent approval processes and extend repayment periods, the National Treasury, the South African Reserve Bank and the Banking Association of ...

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• 26 July

  Bank of Japan may have a new pattern for when it buys stocks

  

  Bloomberg The Bank of Japan (BOJ) may have adopted a new standard in deciding when to support stocks, according to Seiichi Suzuki, a market analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Institute Co. While market consensus has it that the BOJ purchases ETFs when the Topix index falls at least 0.5%, recent buying patterns have changed, Suzuki said. “The bar for ETF ...

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• 26 July

  Treasury, UK banks make plans for Covid bad debt

  

  Bloomberg The Treasury is in talks with the UK’s largest banks about a plan to tackle billions of pounds of bad debts expected under government’s Coronavirus loans program for small businesses, the Financial Times reported. Part of the discussions centers on a common code of conduct to deal with bounce-back borrowers, which could include guidance on when and how to ...

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• 26 July

  Bankers who profited from Nordic hiring boom in firing line

  

  Bloomberg A few years ago, the biggest banks in one of the richest corners of the globe were adding thousands of jobs to a department that suddenly seemed more important than most others: compliance. But with headcount growing more than 10-fold in some cases, those same jobs are now at risk. This month, Danske Bank A/S warned of “significant” cuts, ...

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• 26 July

  AfDB approves $97.7mn loans, grants to fight virus

  Bloomberg The African Development Bank (AfDB) approved loans and grants for several nations to ward off the Covid-19 pandemic as infections multiplied across the continent. The lender will provide $97.7 million for Rwanda’s budget to help the nation strengthen its health-care system, buttress economic resilience and mitigate the pandemic’s impact on the most vulnerable people. Under the worst-case scenario, Rwanda’s ...

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• 26 July

  Axis Bank picks arrangers for $1.3b share sale

  Bloomberg Axis Bank Ltd., India’s third-largest private sector lender, has picked advisers including BNP Paribas SA and Credit Suisse Group AG to manage its proposed share sale. The Mumbai-based lender has also chosen HSBC Holdings Plc and UBS Group AG for the offering, the people said, asking not to be named as the information is not public. Axis Bank plans ...

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