February, 2017

• 22 February

  When firms should, and shouldn’t enter political fray

  

    Even before Donald Trump took office, the calls for boycotts began. “@Amazon we are not shopping with you until u pull all Trump merchandise,” one woman wrote on Twitter in November. Another tweeted: “I’ll NEVER buy @LLBean for my daughter EVER AGAIN. I won’t support any1 that Trump does. Change UR ethics.” These weren’t isolated incidents. For months, a ...

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• 22 February

  Citigroup to pay $5.4 million fine to settle rand collusion

  

    Bloomberg / AP Citigroup Inc. agreed to pay a penalty of almost 70 million rand ($5.4 million) to settle a South African antitrust investigation that said it participated in an alleged cartel to manipulate the value of the rand. Citigroup will make witnesses available to help prosecute other banks that participated in price fixing and market allocation in the ...

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• 22 February

  KSA gets first female commercial bank CEO

  

    Bloomberg Rania Nashar was named chief executive of Samba Financial Group, becoming the first female CEO of a listed Saudi commercial bank in line with the government’s economic and social reforms. Nashar is a board member of Samba’s global markets subsidiary and a Pakistani unit, and has nearly 20 years of experience in banking. Women, banned from driving in ...

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• 22 February

  ‘ECB can renew free loans to banks’

  

    Bloomberg The European Central Bank could consider renewing its offer of free long-term liquidity to lenders though it shouldn’t turn it into a permanent measure, a Governing Council member said. Targeted longer-term refinancing operations are “a very practical and very helpful instrument; I would be very flexible regarding that instrument in the future,” Bank of Lithuania Governor Vitas Vasiliauskas ...

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• 22 February

  Wells Fargo fires managers over account scam

  

    Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co. fired the head of its consumer credit-card business and three other senior managers as the bank’s board examines how abusive sales practices spread through branches before spiraling into a national scandal last year. Shelley Freeman, the former Los Angeles regional president who went on to run consumer-credit solutions, was terminated, along with Arizona lead ...

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• 22 February

  ‘Uncertainty, fear may challenge financial markets’

  

    Emirates Business Saxo Bank, the online multi-asset trading and investment specialist, reports on Wednesday the financial markets have started the year strong with a rally in equities leading to a huge rotation of investors moving from bonds to equities which may bring further demand for equities in the coming weeks. However, at a presentation in Dubai, Saxo Bank’s Head ...

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• 22 February

  Robot traders make a mark in European stock scene

  

    Bloomberg A London-based stock exchange that was on the ropes a year ago is getting a lifeline from algorithmic traders drawn to its efforts to blunt the advantages of raw speed. Though still small, Aquis Exchange Ltd. has seen its share of European trading more than double in the past year. Part of the reason is firms like XTX ...

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• 22 February

  Now, FB Messenger lets you send money with Transferwise

  

    Bloomberg International money transfer service TransferWise Ltd. has announced an integration with Facebook Inc.’s Messenger that will let people set up foreign exchange transactions over the chat service. London-based TransferWise launched the technology as a bot — a piece of automation software that understands natural language — baked within Messenger. The bot, which is free to use and doesn’t ...

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• 22 February

  Investors still skeptical on Snap user growth

    Bloomberg Snap Inc. so far hasn’t been able to tamp down investor concern about user growth. When asked about a slowdown in new users on its Snapchat photo-sharing mobile app in the fourth quarter, the company blamed a product issue with its Android version, according to investors who attended the company’s initial public offering roadshow presentation in New York. ...

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• 22 February

  Can internet-beaming balloons outmaneuver shifting winds?

  

    MOUNTAIN VIEW / AP For its next trick, an internet-beaming balloon factory spun out of Google believes it can outmaneuver the wind. In doing so, the 4-year-old “Project Loon” says it will be able to bring remote parts of the world online more quickly with a smaller fleet of the balloons than it previously thought. Engineers involved in the ...

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