December, 2019

• 21 December

  China adds $280b in open market operations

  

  Bloomberg China’s central bank injected the most liquidity via open-market operations since January, in a push to ensure ample cash supply ahead of seasonal tightness at year-end. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) added 280 billion yuan ($40 billion) into the financial system with 7 and 14-day reverse repurchase agreements , while keeping the interest rates unchanged. That came after ...

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• 21 December

  BOE keeps powder dry as Brexit moves to next stage

  

  Bloomberg The Bank of England (BOE) signalled it will focus on the next phase of Brexit negotiations as two policy makers continued to push for an immediate interest-rate cut. Officials said it was too early to tell whether the clearer path for the UK’s departure from European Union (EU) on the back of Boris Johnson’s election win will improve sentiment. ...

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• 21 December

  Germany to debut $233b green bonds next year

  Bloomberg Germany will join European peers like France and Poland next year in selling green bonds, tapping rising demand and favourable issuance costs for such debt as it boosts investments to cut carbon pollution. Europe’s benchmark issuer will sell about 10 billion euros of the bonds from mid-year via auctions, “twinning” emissions with regular bonds of the same maturity and ...

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• 21 December

  Euro banking union dream rekindles leaders’ animal spirits

  

  Bloomberg With European banking mergers at their lowest on record — and profits slumping — politicians are finally getting more serious about the need for consolidation. German finance minister Olaf Scholz is seeking to persuade European colleagues of the need for a banking union. He called publicly last month for a deposit insurance system that works across the region, a ...

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• 21 December

  Johnson’s Brexit is more slow deal than no deal

  

  The financial markets had a rude awakening on Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s first day back at the office. Instead of using his new parliamentary majority to push for an ambitious trading relationship with Europe post-Brexit, Johnson doubled down on his election pledge to rush ahead and complete trade talks next year, suggesting there will be either a bare-bones deal or ...

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• 21 December

  Dollar is poised to weaken just in time

  

  The days of a strong dollar look as if they’re coming to an end — and not a moment too soon. If the dollar does weaken, we may finally see the kind of durable and robust growth that the US has only had in fits and starts since the financial crisis ended. Let’s tick off a few of the events ...

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• 21 December

  SocGen is in need of a magic wand more than a new CEO

  The clock is ticking for Frederic Oudea. After more than 11 years running Societe Generale SA, the French bank is searching for an eventual successor. A new leader may bring a change of course, but undoing the lender’s strategic missteps will require some fancy footwork. SocGen wants a replacement to succeed the 56-year-old Frenchman once his term expires in three ...

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• 21 December

  The $680mn question of what the boss knew

  Anil Ambani, the younger brother of Asia’s richest man, faces a $680 million legal test to answer one and only one question: Just what did he know about what his employees were doing on his behalf? Other Indian tycoons will take an abiding interest in his defense. The $680 million is the amount Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. ...

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• 21 December

  A global anarchy revival could outdo the 1960s

  

  India has exploded into protests against a citizenship law that explicitly discriminates against its 200 million-strong Muslim population. Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government has responded with police firing on demonstrators and assaults on university campuses. The global wildfire of street protests, from Sudan to Chile, Lebanon to Hong Kong, has finally reached the country whose 1.3 billion population is mostly ...

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• 21 December

  Unilever may be better off out of food business

  

  Unilever NV has made a great deal of “instilling purpose” into its products, trying to flag up the social and environmental credentials of things from Dove shower gel to Magnum ice cream to appeal to millennial consumers. It doesn’t seem to be doing much for its sales. The Anglo-Dutch company surprised the stock market, warning that revenue growth this year ...

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