Bloomberg A convoy of cars and campervans blocked streets around New Zealand’s parliament in Wellington on Tuesday to protest Covid-19 restrictions, attempting to mimic the truckers who have gridlocked the Canadian city of Ottawa. About 2,000 protesters descended on downtown Wellington from around the country, parking their vehicles in streets around parliament buildings, disrupting traffic and holding speeches on ...
Read More »BNP’s payout pledge falls flat with investors as costs jump
Bloomberg BNP Paribas SA’s joined European peers in pledging higher profitability and bigger shareholder returns, while struggling to contain a surge in costs that’s plaguing the industry. The Paris-based bank on Tuesday set a target for a return on tangible equity — a key measure of profitability — of more than 11% in four years’ time and vowed to ...
Read More »Barclays to take on Credit Suisse wealth clients across Africa
Bloomberg Credit Suisse Group AG will refer its private banking clients to Barclays Plc in nine African markets as the Swiss lender exits most of the sub-Saharan region. “Credit Suisse has signed a private banking client referral agreement with Barclays as part of the plan to exit nine non-core wealth management markets primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa, excluding South Africa,†...
Read More »US has more credit cards than ever as issuance rises in 2021
Bloomberg US lenders issued more credit cards than ever last year, with a growing share of them going to consumers with lower credit scores. A record 196 million Americans held cards at the end of 2021, according to a report by credit-data agency TransUnion. In the third quarter, the latest for which detailed numbers are available, the number of ...
Read More »Santander planning shake-up at US unit
Bloomberg Banco Santander SA is planning to simplify the structure of its US operations by discontinuing businesses such as home loans and focusing on consumer lending. Spain’s biggest bank may also review some of its commercial and industrial business lending, it said in a presentation. Santander has been pivoting towards areas with scope for more profitable growth in the ...
Read More »State Bank of India profit in Q3 up 62%
Bloomberg State Bank of India’s (SBI) profit rose 62% in the third quarter helped by strong lending as the pandemic eased. Net income at the state lender was 84.3 billion rupees ($1.1 billion) in the three months through December, compared with 51.96 billion rupees a year ago, it said in a statement. That beat the average estimate of 82.59 ...
Read More »Malaysia central bank signals patience on rates
Bloomberg Bank Negara Malaysia signalled it’s not yet ready to withdraw policy support as the economy recovers, steering clear of the hawkish pivot undertaken by major central banks. The current policy stance is “appropriate and accommodative†and any adjustment will be data-dependent, Governor Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus said in an email interview. Headline inflation is expected to remain moderate ...
Read More »Treasury yields climb as rate-increase fears mount
Bloomberg Sovereign bonds extended declines on Tuesday, with the 10-year Treasury yield approaching 2% as investors grapple with the implications of global monetary-policy tightening. The US 10-year yield climbed above 1.95%, a level last seen in December 2019, with some investors predicting it could rise as high as 3% this year as the Federal Reserve battles the hottest ...
Read More »Shares of billionaire Adani’s food venture rise in Mumbai debut
Bloomberg Adani Wilmar Ltd, an Indian food company, surged in its stock trading debut following a $482 million initial public offering (IPO), the country’s largest in two months. Shares of the company, an equal joint venture between the business group controlled by Asia’s richest person Gautam Adani and Singapore’s Wilmar International Ltd., rise as much as 16% to 266.8 ...
Read More »UAE shares more scientific data from Mars’ Hope Probe
Dubai / WAM The Emirates Mars Mission (EMM), the first interplanetary mission undertaken by an Arab nation, has released the second tranche of observations to a global audience of scientists, researchers, educationalists and enthusiasts. Over 76 GB of raw data has been uploaded to the EMM Science Data Centre and is available at https://sdc.emiratesmarsmission.ae as part of the second ...
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