April, 2020

• 21 April

  India stocks, rupee slide as oil wipe-out signals growth woes

  

  Bloomberg India’s benchmark stock gauge and currency fell, as a plunge in oil prices heightened investor concerns about global growth. The S&P BSE Sensex Index fell 3% to 30,692.12 as of 11:41 am in Mumbai, while rupee drop 0.3% to 76.7450 per US dollar, near a record low touched mid-April. Asia’s third-largest economy is near a standstill amid a prologued ...

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• 21 April

  Banks face rising bad-loan costs, investment losses: BOJ

  

  Bloomberg Japanese lenders must brace for rising bad-loan costs and investment losses even as the financial system shows resilience to the coronavirus-fuelled economic slump, according to the central bank. If the downturn is prolonged, more companies at home at abroad could face solvency problems, raising credit costs, the Bank of Japan said on Tuesday in its semiannual Financial System Report. ...

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• 21 April

  Data of UniCredit staff for sale on cybercrime forums after hacking

  

  Bloomberg Data on about 3,000 UniCredit SpA employees was put up for sale on cybercrime forums after a hacking attack. The data went on sale on April 19 and contained what the hacker said was information on UniCredit workers, including emails, phone numbers, encrypted passwords and names, Telsy, a unit of Telecom Italia SpA, wrote on its website. “The database ...

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• 21 April

  Chinese banks pledge more stimulus

  

  Bloomberg Chinese banks lowered borrowing costs and the government promised to sell another 1 trillion yuan ($141.3 billion) in bonds to pay for stimulus spending after the economy had its first contraction in decades due to the coronavirus outbreak. The one-year loan prime rate was set at 3.85% versus 4.05% in March, according to a statement from the People’s Bank ...

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• 21 April

  Wells Fargo, JPMorgan among banks sued over virus loans

  

  Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co., Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and US Bancorp were sued by small businesses that accused the lenders of prioritising large loans distributed as part of the virus rescue package, shutting out the smallest firms that sought money. The four banks processed applications for the largest loan amounts because they generated the highest ...

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• 21 April

  Deficit funding to rate cuts are India’s options to fight virus

  

  Bloomberg India’s central bank has a number of policy options to draw upon to cushion the economic blow from Covid-19 pandemic. With a limited fiscal response so far, the Reserve Bank of India has taken the lead in providing virus relief to the economy. It’s cut interest rates by 75 basis points, injected more than $50 billion of liquidity into ...

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• 21 April

  Ping An Bank ramps up loans to corporate clients

  Bloomberg Ping An Bank Co., the lending arm of China’s largest insurer, kicked off the earnings season for Chinese banks with better-than-estimated profit growth after ramping up loans to corporates even as the virus outbreak grounded the economy and led to a surge in personal defaults. Net income rose 14.8% to 8.5 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) in the first quarter, ...

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• 21 April

  Virgin Australia collapses as virus wipes out air travel

  

  Bloomberg Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd became Asia’s first airline to fall to the coronavirus after the outbreak deprived the debt-burdened company of almost all income. Administrators at Deloitte, who have taken control of the Brisbane-based carrier, aim to restructure the business and find new owners within months. More than 10 parties have expressed an interest, Deloitte said on Tuesday. Virgin ...

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• 21 April

  Treasury hands out $2.9b to US airlines

  

  Bloomberg The US Treasury Department disbursed $2.9 billion to passenger airlines in the first round of payroll assistance to an industry suffering financially from a pandemic-induced shutdown. The assistance that has been handed out so far went to two “major” airlines and 54 smaller passenger carriers, the department said in a statement. More payments will be sent out on a ...

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• 21 April

  United sinks with $2.1b loss heralding more airline pain

  

  Bloomberg United Airlines Holdings Inc tumbled after the company said it expected to record a $2.1 billion loss in the first quarter as the coronavirus outbreak all but erased air-travel demand in March. The pretax loss, which will be about $1 billion on an adjusted basis, came as revenue dropped 17% from a year earlier to $8 billion, the carrier ...

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