Bloomberg Europe’s drugs regulator started an early review of an experimental Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE, potentially speeding the shot’s assessment and reducing its time to market. Called a “rolling review,†the process will allow the European Medicines Agency to look at how the vaccine is performing in real time as data emerges from trials, instead of ...
Read More »Watchdog says nerve agent was used to poison Navalny
Bloomberg Germany said European allies will weigh action against Russia — including possible sanctions — after an international chemical-weapons watchdog confirmed that a nerve agent from the banned Novichok group had been used in the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny. “Any use of chemical weapons is a grave act and cannot go without consequences,†German government spokesman Steffen Seibert ...
Read More »Singapore banks to extend debt relief for hard-hit borrowers
Bloomberg Singapore banks will extend debt relief for individuals and small-to-midsized businesses beyond the end of the year to support borrowers hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. The measures, set to expire on December 31, will now progressively end over 2021, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said in a statement. The extended program will be tiered so those businesses ...
Read More »Axis Bank joins India’s top private lenders in offering pay hikes
Bloomberg India’s third-largest private lender is joining its larger rivals in offering pay hikes to staff even as the economic fall out of the coronavirus pandemic threatens profit growth. Axis Bank Ltd. will increase staff salaries between 4% and 12% based on performance, according to people with knowledge of the plans. The Mumbai-based lender, which has about 76,000 employees, also ...
Read More »RBA keeps policy on hold
Bloomberg Australia’s central bank (RBA) kept monetary policy unchanged on Tuesday, clearing the field for the government to unveil a fiscal blueprint designed to drive the economy’s recovery from a Covid-induced recession. Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe kept both key interest rate and three-year yield target unchanged at 0.25%, as expected. The labour market is a key focus for the bank, ...
Read More »India’s central bank to resume rate meeting with new panel
Bloomberg The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will hold its delayed policy meeting this week after the government belatedly appointed new members to the interest rate-setting committee. The Monetary Policy Committee will meet October 7-9, the RBI said in a statement on Tuesday, more than a week later than originally planned. The RBI’s statement came after the Finance Ministry’s announcement ...
Read More »Deutsche says its traders are keeping pace with Wall Street
Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG said its fixed-income traders are on track to match or beat the performance of their Wall Street peers, racking up a fourth straight quarter of revenue gains as a market rally that started late last year continues. Third-quarter trading revenue is “in line with or better†than the guidance for 12% growth that Wall Street peers ...
Read More »Unicaja begins merger talks with Liberbank
Bloomberg Unicaja Banco SA and Liberbank SA said they have held talks on rekindling a merger abandoned last year as consolidation gathers pace across Europe’s financial industry. Unicaja “confirms preliminary contact with Liberbank, with the knowledge of the board and without for the moment, the participation of external advisers,†the lender said in a regulatory filing. It said no final ...
Read More »European stocks retreat after rally; Treasuries gain
Bloomberg European stocks pulled back from a two-week high and US futures retreated after a rally when on Monday President Donald Trump left the hospital. Tech stocks led losses in the Europe Stoxx 600 Index. Hardware maker Logitech International SA slumped as Apple Inc. plans to launch its own audio products and stop selling rival headphones. Treasuries rise and the ...
Read More »Indian rupee gets lift from stock flows, account surplus
Bloomberg India’s strongest surplus in more than a decade is supporting a currency battered by the worst pandemic outbreak in Asia. The currency has advanced more than 2% in the third quarter, outperforming the Indonesian rupiah, its high-yielding counterpart that has sunk around 4%. The gains come even with an economy ravaged by 6.7 million infections. The support comes from ...
Read More »