March, 2019

• 20 March

  Chinese lenders have a hidden wave of bad debt

  

  China’s banks may have a flood of bad loans waiting in the wings. Not that you’d know it from looking at official levels for 2018, which suggest the problem was broadly contained. The reality is that newly soured debt was coming through the front door as fast as banks could shovel it out the back. Authorities worked hard to restrain ...

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• 20 March

  Facebook’s outages reveal its value to society

  

  When Facebook went down for hours this week, the internet was all atwitter (sorry). Most of what I came across was fairly snarky, but a lot of the posts were pretty clever. I saw a variation of this retweeted many times: “News flash! Facebook down! People talk to each other, kids play with toys!” (Actually, they were probably playing Fortnite ...

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• 20 March

  Merkel seeks distance from German bank merger

  

  Bloomberg German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it’s up to Deutsche Bank AG and Commerzbank AG executives to decide if their historic merger plans make sense, exposing divisions in the coalition. The plan to combine Germany’s two biggest lenders is a private business matter, Merkel said at the Global Solutions summit in Berlin, after the lenders announced talks on a deal ...

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• 20 March

  Pakistan central bank to stay cautious on inflation

  

  Bloomberg Pakistan’s central bank sees inflation behaving well in the next financial year beginning July, but will stand ready to use monetary policy tools after the most aggressive interest rate tightening in Asia last year, its governor said. Consumer price growth will be anchored by low food inflation, State Bank of Pakistan Governor Tariq Bajwa said in an interview. While ...

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• 20 March

  Oil wealth set to fuel second Norway interest rate hike

  

  Bloomberg Norway’s central bank is leaving its closest peers behind. Policy makers in Scandinavia’s richest economy are this week expected to raise interest rates to their highest level in almost four years. The step will mark a second hike since September, helping to cap inflation in western Europe’s biggest oil exporter. Backed by oil income that pumps massive amounts of ...

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• 20 March

  Thailand holds rate as election risks mount

  Bloomberg The Bank of Thailand left its benchmark interest rate unchanged on Wednesday, as expected, providing policy stability to investors days before the nation’s first election since a military coup five years ago. The Monetary Policy Committee voted unanimously to hold its policy rate at 1.75 percent, the Bank of Thailand said in a statement on Wednesday, in line with ...

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• 20 March

  UBS fined $37m for reporting errors

  

  Bloomberg UBS Group AG was fined a record 28 million pounds ($37 million) by a UK regulator for failings related to 136 million transaction reports between 2007 and 2017. UBS didn’t provide complete and accurate information in connection with about 87 million reportable transactions, and filed reports on another 49 million that weren’t required, the Financial Conduct Authority said in ...

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• 20 March

  Bank of Italy’s No. 2 to leave amid government tension

  

  Bloomberg The Bank of Italy’s second-highest official is said to have told staff that he won’t be available for a new term, according to two people familiar with the situation, a further development in the tense relations between the central bank and the populist government. Director General Salvatore Rossi told staff in a letter that he will leave as soon ...

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• 20 March

  Boeing 737 crisis risks Norwegian’s US routes

  

  Bloomberg Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA’s reliance on the fuel-saving Boeing Co 737 Max to underpin its ultra low-cost trans-Atlantic strategy has exposed the loss-making carrier as the most vulnerable in Europe to the worldwide grounding of the plane. Norwegian was among the earliest adopters of the new narrow-body, using its extra range to launch services on Europe-US routes traditionally dominated ...

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• 20 March

  Hermes becomes latest victim of casual dress as men shirk ties

  

  Bloomberg Hermes International has become the latest fashion industry victim of men’s casual dress, signalling weakness in its silk business as neckties lose their allure. Revenue from silk and textiles rose 3 percent in 2018, the slowest growth of the French luxury-goods maker’s business units. CEO Axel Dumas said on Wednesday the company has been shifting production to adjust to ...

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