January, 2017

• 30 January

  Citigroup plans to exit mortgage servicing

    Bloomberg Citigroup Inc. plans to exit the mortgage-servicing business by the end of 2018 to focus on making new loans. The bank reached an agreement to sell the servicing rights on Fannie Mae- and Freddie Mac-backed loans with $97 billion of outstanding balances to New Residential Mortgage LLC, New York-based Citigroup said Monday in a statement. The bank also ...

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• 30 January

  Big data experiment tests central banking assumptions in Norway

  

    Bloomberg Central bankers may do well to pay less attention to the bond market and their own forecasts than they do to newspaper articles. That’s the somewhat heretical finding of a new algorithm-based index being tested at Norway’s central bank in Oslo. Researchers fed 26 years of news (or 459,745 news articles) from local business daily Dagens Naringsliv into ...

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• 30 January

  Bank of Montreal’s Downe says female bank CEOs inevitable

  

    Bloomberg The head of Bank of Montreal says Canada’s biggest financial institutions are actively grooming women to become chief executive officers, ending centuries of male rule at the country’s top lenders. “There are five large Canadian banks,” CEO Bill Downe said in an interview. “I think it’s inevitable.” Canada’s biggest banks have never had a female CEO, reflecting the ...

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• 30 January

  Pak dismisses China debt trap concern as GDP rises

  

    Bloomberg Pakistan is confident of managing its rising debt obligations to China as the world’s second-largest economy boosts investment in the South Asia nation by about 20 percent. Pakistan will be able to handle repayments of Chinese soft loans to the government and businesses, which are part of a more than $50 billion of projects under the so-called China-Pakistan ...

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• 30 January

  Sony Corp to write down $1bn on movie business

  

    Bloomberg Sony Corp. said it will take a 112 billion yen ($1 billion) writedown in its movie business after reviewing the future profitability of its operations. The company said it would book the charge in the fiscal third quarter and is examining how that will affect its forecasts. To offset part of the loss, the company also said it ...

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• 30 January

  Japan sees 1st trade surplus on cheaper oil

    Bloomberg Japan posted its first trade surplus in six years in 2016 thanks to a rebound in exports late in the year and persisting low oil prices, though uncertainties over US policy and global growth are overshadowing the recovery. The 4.1 trillion yen ($35.8 billion) surplus in 2016 compared with a 2.8 trillion yen deficit in 2015, the government ...

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• 30 January

  Japan’s ‘unresolved’ disaster sways atomic opposition symbol

    Bloomberg The man blocking the world’s largest nuclear plant says he grew opposed to atomic energy the same way some people fall in love. Previously an advocate for nuclear power in Japan, Ryuichi Yoneyama campaigned against the restart of the facility as part of his successful gubernatorial race last year in Niigata. He attributes his political U-turn to the ...

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• 30 January

  Silicon Valley finds its voice as immigration ban fuels outrage

  

    Bloomberg US immigration restrictions introduced over the weekend are bringing the technology industry together in unified anger like never before. While the clampdown isn’t an immediate threat to businesses, emotions are running high because President Donald Trump’s executive order violates Silicon Valley’s self-image of inclusion and tolerance. More than any other industry, the tech enclave embraces the work and ...

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• 30 January

  Jack Ma’s Ant Financial buys MoneyGram for $880 million

  

    Bloomberg Ant Financial, the financial technology company controlled by billionaire Jack Ma, stepped up its international expansion by buying US money-transfer service MoneyGram International Inc. The $880 million transaction, Ant’s second US deal, will connect MoneyGram’s network of 2.4 billion bank and mobile accounts with Ant’s customers. Ant, which was once part of Alibaba, is seeking to expand abroad ...

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• 30 January

  Experts warn slowdown ahead for UK economy

  

    LONDON / AP British consumers spurred faster-than-expected economic growth in the last three months of 2016, but experts warn a slowdown may be on the way as the country’s plans to leave the European Union curtail spending and investment. The economy grew 0.6 percent in the fourth quarter from the previous three months, according to figures released by the ...

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