May, 2016

• 28 May

  Tall buildings are bigger threat to birds than wind power

  

    Bloomberg Donald Trump criticized the wind-power industry this week for killing birds. A far bigger threat is real estate developers and their tall buildings. About 599 million birds are killed annually in the U.S. when they fly into windows, trailing only loss of habitat and cats as the top causes of bird deaths, according to the National Audubon Society. …

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• 28 May

  Pending USA home sales hit highest level since February ’06

  

    Washington / AP Americans signed more contracts to buy homes in April for the third straight month, driving pending home sales to the highest level in more than a decade. The National Association of Realtors said that its seasonally adjusted pending home sales index surged 5.1 percent last month to 116.3, the highest since 117.4 in February 2006. The April …

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• 28 May

  Popular’s unpopular recap on Europe’s bank clean-up

  

    Bloomberg Spanish lender Banco Popular’s plan to sell about €2.5 billion ($2.8 billion) of new shares has dealt a brutal lesson to investors trusting past efforts by regulators and management to clean up European bank balance sheets. The stock fell to a 26-year low after the offering was announced this week. The fact is that Banco Popular was supposed …

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• 28 May

  Saxo, Lufax enter into landmark pact

  

    EMIRATES BUSINESS Saxo Bank, the online multi-asset trading and investment specialist, has announced a new white label partnership with Lufax, China’s largest internet finance company. The partnership, expected to launch within the next three months, will see Lufax leverage the trading technology that underpins the award-winning SaxoTraderGO — providing Lufax’s considerable client base with a seamless experience across mobile …

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• 28 May

  Barclaycard to expand under Staley’s new model

  

    BLOOMBERG Barclays Plc’s credit-card chief wants his hands on Jes Staley’s freed-up capital. Amer Sajed, promoted to run Barclaycard in April, says he has the backing to expand in markets like Germany and the US from Staley. After joining the executive committee, the advocate for growth has a say in how the bank’s resources will be deployed. “I am …

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• 28 May

  B’desh bank hackers linked to wider campaign

  

    Washington / AFP The hackers behind the $81 million heist from the Bangladesh central bank have likely been involved in a series of attacks on the financial system, a US security firm has concluded. Researchers at the security firm Symantec also found that the malware used in the bank hacks shares code with that used in the massive 2014 …

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• 28 May

  India’s P2P lenders push back on proposed rules

  

    Bloomberg India’s peer-to-peer lenders are pushing back on central bank proposals to regulate the online platforms, arguing the new rules would hamper the development of an industry in its infancy. Firms such as Lendbox and LenDenClub argue that suggested rules in a Reserve Bank of India discussion paper last month treat them like banks with their own loan books, …

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• 28 May

  Fencing off a migrant wave that never came

  

    Kostel / AFP In Slovenia’s southeastern BelaKrajina region, where the crystal-clear Kolpariver marks the border with Croatia, a forlorn barbed wire fence reminds locals of the migrants that never came. Instead of keeping refugees out, the barrier cutting through lush forests and gently swaying fields all along this pristine waterway is now chasing away tourists.Its razor-sharp coil has also …

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• 28 May

  A peek into Japan’s ‘realism’ frames

  

    Rome / AFP The works of Ken Domon, an acclaimed photographer whose images of the aftermath of the Hiroshima bomb shocked 1950s Japan, take centre stage in Rome with the opening of the first exhibition of his pictures outside his home country. Domon, who died in 1990, is venerated in Japan as one of the country’s greatest photographers and a …

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• 28 May

  Xbox One keeping up with the pace

  

    Relaxnews Microsoft is to unveil a plan that would see the Xbox One undergo not one but two revisions in relatively short succession, say reports. With PlayStation tipped to produce a ‘PlayStation 4k,’ it’s clear that console manufacturers are looking to keep up with the pace of innovation in both PC and mobile. Two new versions of the Xbox …

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