India top court to hear plea on stalling bullet train project

Bloomberg India’s top court will hear a group of farmers seeking to halt land acquisition for the South Asian nation’s maiden high-speed rail project, funded by Japan. A two-judge bench headed by Justice Deepak Gupta issued a notice to the government seeking its view on the farmers’ petitions. The nation’s apex court will hear the case on March 20. The ...

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Fed to shift from writing rules to watching banks’ behaviour

Bloomberg The Federal Reserve is shifting its focus from writing and revising rules aimed at limiting risk in the banking system to a concentration on how lenders interpret the restrictions, the agency’s supervision chief said. Having finished the bulk of its work on major rules, the Fed can now devote more attention to behind-the-scenes interactions between bankers and their government ...

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Deutsche Bank cuts bonus pool by 30%

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG is cutting the bonus pool at its investment bank by about 30%, deepening pay reductions after a tumultuous year that saw the lender embark on a huge restructuring. While the figure is an average at the division housing fixed income trading, there’ll be some adjustments for individual performance and units, people with knowledge of the matter ...

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‘Too much finance can make inequality worse’

Bloomberg The expansion of financial services in an economy can reduce income inequality — but beyond a certain point it tends to have the opposite effect, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Better access to banking and credit can help close income gaps by allowing people to save and invest more, the Washington-based fund said in a staff discussion ...

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BOE is fast running out of excuses not to cut interest rates

Bloomberg Add a shocking slump in retail sales to the list of reasons why the Bank of England may cut interest rates in less than two weeks. Instead of showing evidence of a much-anticipated post-election bounce, the release exposed how British shoppers, the mainstay of growth the past few years, reined in spending during the crucial Christmas season. The pound ...

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Ghana banking clean-up cost risks surging to $3.5b

Bloomberg The cost of Ghana’s financial sector clean-up risks escalating to 20 billion cedis ($3.5 billion) as the government weighs increasing the guaranteed payback for some depositors, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta said. The West African nation has approved funding of about 16.4 billion cedis since 2017 to help recapitalise the industry and safeguard depositors’ funds after the central bank revoked ...

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UK economy won’t stay close to EU after Brexit, says Javid

Bloomberg UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid signalled Britain is planning to shift its economy further away from the European Union’s, firing an early salvo in what’s set to be a fractious year to hammer out their future relationship. “There will not be alignment, we will not be a ruletaker, we will not be in the single market and ...

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US job openings fall in Nov to two-year low

Bloomberg US job openings fell in November to the lowest level in almost two years, indicating more employers see headcounts sufficient enough to meet demand. The number of positions waiting to be filled decreased by 561,000 to 6.8 million, the lowest since February 2018, according to the Labour Department’s Job Openings and Labour Turnover Survey, or JOLTS. Openings have steadily ...

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Amazon’s snooping on Alexa spurs EU privacy response

Bloomberg European Union (EU) privacy watchdogs are gearing up to police digital assistants after revelations that Amazon.com Inc workers listened in on people’s conversations with their Alexa digital assistants. Bloomberg first reported in April that Amazon had a team of thousands of workers around the world listening to Alexa audio requests with the goal of improving the software. Similar issues ...

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Spotify in talks to buy Ringer in sports push

Bloomberg Spotify Technology SA has considered an acquisition of the Ringer website and podcast network, according to people familiar with the situation, part of a broader push into sports content. Spotify has held talks about a deal, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. But it’s not clear whether the transaction will happen ...

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