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In Southeast Asia, mobile banking is taking on a whole new meaning. Last week, Grab, one of the region’s top ride-hailing companies, announced that users of its app can start sending credits—used to pay for rides—to each other. By the end of the year, they’ll be able to use those credits at more than 1,000 restaurants and retailers. If all ...

Few doubt that the British economy will be severely hurt if the UK leaves the European Union without a new agreement on trade and regulation. But there are risks for the EU, too. One that’s received too little attention concerns bank resolution. A cliff-edge Brexit could make it much harder for EU authorities to impose losses on investors in the ...

French President Emmanuel Macron has accomplished more in six months than his predecessor managed in five years. Trouble is, that’s a low bar — and Macron will need to keep pushing if France’s economy is to achieve its full potential. Macron’s first phase of reforms addressed the country’s 3,000-plus pages of labor rules. The changes are aimed at lightening the ...

“Supply” is a dirty word in economic policy discussions. That needs to change. Over the past few decades, the word “supply” has come to be associated with pro-market, anti-government policy. That has earned it the scorn of many among the growing number of intellectuals, activists and policymakers who worry about rising inequality and other economic ills that laissez-faire thinkers overlook. ...

What’s Kobe Steel Ltd. waiting for? Executives at the Japanese metal manufacturer accused of falsifying safety data will decide whether to resign only after an independent investigation wraps up at year-end, according to a Reuters report on Monday, citing people familiar with the situation. Come on, now. If you have to ask, you probably already know the answer. And if ...

Whoa, what’s in the water lately? Walt Disney Co. is said to have held talks to buy the majority of 21st Century Fox Inc. The negotiations are currently dead, but to give a sense of how big this partial acquisition could have been, Fox in its entirety has a market value of $50 billion. The size is probably less jarring ...

Bloomberg Stocks fell with the dollar and Treasuries climbed as investors questioned the likelihood of Congress passing President Donald Trump’s fiscal agenda soon, particularly in light of a repudiation in Tuesday’s US elections. Oil slid for a second day. The S&P 500 Index and Dow Jones Industrial Average were lower, dragged down by financial firms. European shares slipped following disappointing ...

Bloomberg After outshining some of Wall Street’s biggest and best this year, trading results at France’s largest banks are crashing back to earth. Leading the declines were Credit Agricole SA and Societe Generale SA, which both posted a revenue slump of about 25 percent, while BNP Paribas SA’s earnings from all trading activities—including bonds, equities and currencies—fell 15 percent. Only ...

Bloomberg For Southeast Asian central banks, monetary policy tightening is coming, but just not yet. Economists predict Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysia will hold interest rates this week, though pressure is rising for policy makers to begin laying the groundwork for rate hikes. The Philippines and Malaysia are seen as among the first in the region to move in the ...

Bloomberg JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s head of global banking, Carlos Hernandez, said companies are only just beginning to “test out the limits of what is possible” for new stock sales and deals, driven by the strength of the world economy. “If economic fundamentals continue as they are now, next year the price of equities will continue to increase, the size ...