February, 2018

• 17 February

  Bankers, not bureaucrats, should run India’s banks

  

  Indian banks are being hit with one disaster after another. They are already dealing with a bad-loan problem that’s close to a crisis—and which caused India’s largest bank to declare a quarterly loss for the first time since the beginning of the millennium. Some of the loans that have gone bad—such as those to the flamboyant liquor magnate Vijay Mallya—already ...

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• 17 February

  Smart home of the future

  

  Bloomberg Don’t worry: Technology may come and go, but some things never change. In the not-so-distant future, cars will drive themselves and men may become obsolete (sorry, guys), but home will always be home. It’ll just be a heck of a lot smarter. Granted, some tech is better than other tech. No one needs a Wi-Fi-connected juice press that doesn’t ...

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• 17 February

  Apple’s HomePod speaker has its limits

  

  Bloomberg Apple Inc.’s HomePod, the company’s first foray into speakers in a decade, costs $216 to build and generates thinner profit margins than other products like the Apple Watch and iPhone, according to analysis by TechInsights. Given the HomePod’s $349 price, that $216 cost suggests Apple is generating margins of about 38 percent, according to the product analysis firm. That ...

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• 17 February

  $2mn Cigarette Racing Boat

  

  Bloomberg Mercedes-AMG GmbH debuted its latest collaboration with Cigarette Racing, the 515 Project One. The $2 million superboat has 3,100 total horsepower and can hit a top speed of 140 miles per hour. The look and colour scheme of the boat is based on the Mercedes-AMG Project One hybrid supercar developed from Formula 1; it’s the fastest, most advanced boat ...

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• 17 February

  Tech is modernizing China’s Lunar New Year holiday

  

  Bloomberg In many ways, China’s Lunar New Year holiday is America’s Thanksgiving, Christmas and Independence Day all rolled into one. Millions of Chinese take planes and trains to make the journey home (or abroad) to visit family and friends. Copious amounts of food are shared and gifts are exchanged as people ring in the first days of the moon’s new ...

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• 17 February

  Credit Agricole seeks to sell $7.5bn Italian bad loan sale

  

  Bloomberg Credit Agricole SA is seeking to sell about 6 billion euros ($7.5 billion) of Italian non-performing loans bought from other institutions a decade or more ago, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The French bank is trying to offload its holdings in four different bad-loan securitizations, along with the Luxembourg-based entity that issued them, said the people, ...

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• 17 February

  US Bancorp to pay $600 million over money laundering

  

  Bloomberg US Bancorp agreed to pay about $600 million to settle US allegations that it failed to guard against money laundering, under a deal announced in New York. Prosecutors said the Minneapolis-based bank failed to report suspicious activities of a longtime customer, Scott Tucker, who was using the bank to launder proceeds of a fraudulent payday lending scam. Tucker was ...

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• 17 February

  ‘Central bankers can’t afford another setback’

  

  Bloomberg The world’s central bankers are learning that there’s virtually no room for error as they try to find a way out of a decade of extreme monetary stimulus. That’s the message from Norway’s central bank governor, Oystein Olsen, who also oversees the country’s $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund. “Unexpected things can happen, and the warning, call it a small ...

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• 17 February

  ECB talks on stimulus policy wording soon

  

  Bloomberg European Central Bank policy maker Benoit Coeure signalled that officials are close to starting talks on altering their policy language as they prepare for the eventual end of bond purchases. “Our communication on monetary policy will change” Coeure told reporters on in Skopje, Macedonia. “Certainly the expectation is that this will be discussed in early 2018.” The ECB is ...

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• 17 February

  Banks told they are lagging on response to climate risks

  

  Bloomberg Fewer than half the world’s biggest banks are doing enough to forestall climate change that poses risks to their markets and economies. Most lenders still aren’t producing firm targets for low-carbon financial products that will aid efforts to keep temperatures from rising, according to a survey of 59 banks conducted by Boston Common Asset Management LLC. Even the strongest ...

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