February, 2019

• 20 February

  Syria: US allies won’t help with rebuilding

  

  Bloomberg Syria accused the US of sabotaging improved ties with Arab nations that could be key to rebuilding the war-shattered country. The US has pressured allies to block Syria’s reinstatement into the Arab League, President Bashar Al-Assad’s media adviser, Buthaina Shaaban, said in an interview in Moscow. The restoration of Syria’s suspended membership could be more than symbolic, potentially transforming ...

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• 20 February

  May makes last-ditch bid to save Brexit deal

  Bloomberg Prime Minister Theresa May is making a last-ditch attempt to save her Brexit deal and prevent Parliament seizing control of the UK’s divorce from the European Union. The British government sees May’s meeting on Wednesday with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels as a crucial chance to get legally binding changes to the so-called Irish border backstop, which ...

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• 20 February

  Firebomb, near-death experience expose Serbia’s struggle

  

  Bloomberg Barefoot and in pajamas, Milan Jovanovic watched flames engulf his Belgrade house after a Molotov cocktail crashed through a window in an attack before dawn. He and his wife survived only because she smelled the smoke. “They nearly burned us alive,” said Jovanovic, a 68-year-old investigative journalist who writes about government corruption. Jovanovic is the latest journalist in Serbia ...

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• 20 February

  UK banks getting last-minute lift from EU

  

  Bloomberg The City of London is getting a last-minute break from politicians across the European Union intent on averting chaos in financial markets in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Countries including Germany, the Netherlands, France, Italy and Sweden are readying national legislation that would help bankers continue to service the 18 trillion pounds ($23.4 trillion) of derivatives contracts that ...

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• 20 February

  India to inject $6.8bn into state banks

  

  Bloomberg India will inject 482 billion rupees ($6.8 billion) into government-controlled lenders to help them meet tighter regulatory requirements and to boost credit growth. The fund infusion will ensure that capital ratios for all state-run lenders are above the regulatory requirement and will help Allahabad Bank and Corporation Bank exit a so-called Prompt Corrective Action plan, Rajeev Kumar, secretary at ...

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• 20 February

  PBOC makes first use of tool to boost bank capital

  

  Bloomberg China’s central bank announced the first of a new kind of market operation which aims to encourage financial institutions to issue perpetual bonds to boost their capital. The People’s Bank of China swapped 1.5 billion yuan ($223 million) of 1-year central bank bills for perpetual bonds with a coupon of 2.45 percent, according to a statement on its website ...

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• 20 February

  Danske thrown out of Estonia after nation drawn into laundering probe

  

  Bloomberg It’s not every day that a bank gets thrown out of a country. But, Estonia took the extraordinary step of telling Danske Bank A/S to get out. Within two hours, Danske did the country’s financial watchdog one better: the harassed Danish lender annou- nced a retreat from the entire Baltic region as well as Russia. It’s the latest dramatic ...

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• 20 February

  Deutsche Bank plans to rebuild S Africa staff

  Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG plans to start rebuilding its South African workforce just months after scaling back staff and cutting costs as part of a global restructuring. “The hiring we’re currently pursuing is geared towards enhancing the areas where we have global and local strengths, such as fixed income,” South Africa Chief Executive Officer Muneer Ismail said in an interview. ...

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• 20 February

  Alberta expects $1.7bn profit from giant crude-by-rail plan

  

  Bloomberg Alberta is preparing a giant crude-by-rail operation to help its oil-sands producers cope with a pipeline crunch, and it expects a big profit from the venture. The Canadian province, which holds the world’s third-largest crude reserves, plans to net C$2.2 billion ($1.7 billion) after investing C$3.7 billion to lease tank cars and buy service from rail providers, generating C$5.9 ...

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• 20 February

  US shale boom rolls on despite spending cuts

  

  Bloomberg America’s surging shale oil production shows little sign of abating, despite industrywide spending cuts, as explorers learn to do more with less. Almost all the independent producers have reduced their budgets for 2019, but many still expect to deliver double-digit growth in production this year, fourth-quarter earnings reports show. Growth is slowing but still strong: the US will add ...

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