August, 2016

• 31 August

  Canada keen to join China-backed AIIB

  

    Beijing / AFP Canada will apply to join the China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Ottawa’s finance department said on Wednesday, in a coup for Beijing after Washington had tried to dissuade US allies from signing up. “Canada is always looking for ways to create hope and opportunity for our middle class as well as for people around the ...

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• 31 August

  Australia to probe big banks’ practices

  

    Bloomberg Australia’s government will probe bank lending to small businesses as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull tries to stave off opposition calls for a broader inquiry into the financial industry. The inquiry, to be conducted by the Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman, comes on top of moves to summon chief executives of the nation’s big four banks to testify ...

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• 31 August

  Japan’s biggest banks to sign agreement with Saudi Aramco

    Bloomberg Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc.’s banking unit and its two biggest Japanese peers plan to sign a non-binding agreement with Saudi Arabian Oil Co. in Tokyo this week to expand lending to the state-run firm as it considers an initial public offering, reports said. Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. President Takashi Oyamada and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. ...

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• 31 August

  NBC posts $365mn net profit in Q3

    Bloomberg National Bank of Canada (NBC) became the sixth Canadian lender to beat analysts’ estimates, posting a 5.5 percent jump in profit on record earnings in personal and commercial banking and gains in wealth management. Net income for the fiscal third quarter ended July 31 rose to C$478mn ($365mn), or C$1.31 a share, from C$453mn, or C$1.28, a year earlier, ...

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• 31 August

  Scotiabank cuts 827 jobs in restructuring

    Bloomberg Bank of Nova Scotia eliminated 827 jobs since the end of April, mostly in its Canadian business, as the lender reorganized to adapt to consumers embracing digital technology. The company had 88,783 workers in the fiscal third quarter, which ended July 31, down from 89,610 in the second quarter, when the bank took a C$278 million ($213 million) ...

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• 31 August

  India’s top woman banker sees cracks in glass ceiling

  

    AFP The first female head at one of India’s biggest banks says a ruling forcing firms to appoint women directors to boards has eased chronically lopsided gender ratios — but warns too many firms are still failing to embrace diversity. State Bank of India (SBI) chairwoman Arundhati Bhattacharya said that the regulator’s moves to get rid of the “old boys’ ...

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• 31 August

  Societe Generale plans to close energy research unit in Paris

  

    Bloomberg Societe Generale SA, France’s second-largest bank, shut its energy and commodities research unit in Paris this week, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Thierry Bros, who covered European gas and LNG, and Paolo Coghe a European power, coal and emissions analyst, were among the people who are leaving, said the people who asked not to be ...

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• 31 August

  Apple to fight record EU tax bill

  

    Brussels / AFP Silicon Valley tech titan Apple will fight an EU demand for a record 13 billion euros in back taxes in Ireland, a move Washington warned could damage transatlantic economic ties. Brussels said Apple, the world’s most valuable company, avoided virtually all tax on its business in the bloc by illegal arrangements with Dublin which gave the ...

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• 31 August

  Prada shares surge as chairman eyes more growth

  

    Bloomberg Prada SpA shares rose as much as 15 percent after Chairman Carlo Mazzi forecast that the Italian luxury-goods maker will return to growth in sales and earnings next year, helped by cost-cutting and online expansion in Asia. This year “is a turning point and we are now firmly on the path to sustainable growth in revenues and earnings ...

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• 31 August

  Boeing skips annual jetliner price hike

  

    Bloomberg Boeing Co. skipped raising airplane prices for the first time in seven years as it contends with demand cooled by economic uncertainty, cheap oil and a glut of twin-aisle aircraft. The US planemaker typically adjusts its catalog prices for commercial aircraft once a year to reflect an internal formula that takes into account increases in the costs of ...

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