Bloomberg The UK’s 50 pound-note is here to stay, at least for now, according to the Bank of England official who signs the nation’s bills. Chief Cashier Victoria Cleland said in an interview that the BOE has no plans to scrap the bill — its largest — and hasn’t ruled out eventually replacing the current paper note with a ...
Read More »Canadian banks push back against taking on more mortgage risk
Bloomberg Canada’s financial industry is urging the federal government to consider alternatives to proposals that could require them to take on a greater share of mortgage defaults through a deductible — calling it one of the biggest shakeups to hit housing finance in 50 years. “This submission has questioned whether a deductible is the most effective way to rebalance ...
Read More »Bank of Japan cuts purchases of shorter-maturity bonds
Bloomberg The Bank of Japan (BOJ) trimmed purchases of shorter-maturity debt in its first bond-buying operation in March, taking advantage of a drop in yields. The central bank offered to buy 320 billion yen ($2.8 billion) of debt due in one-to-three years on Wednesday, down from 400 billion yen for the same maturities in its previous operation on Feb. ...
Read More »Toshiba to seek bids for its chip unit at $13 billion value
Bloomberg Toshiba Corp. is sending letters soliciting offers for its memory chip business this week and seeking bids that value it at about 1.5 trillion yen ($13 billion), according to people familiar with the matter. The Japanese conglomerate is offering a majority stake in the chip unit and would be willing to sell the entire business, said the people, ...
Read More »China’s factory gauge strengthens as producer prices rebound
Bloomberg China’s official factory gauge firmed in February as producer prices rebounded, giving top officials gathering in Beijing a solid economic backdrop as they seek to rein in financial risk. Manufacturing purchasing managers index climbed to 51.6 in February, compared with a median estimate of 51.2 in a Bloomberg survey of economists and 51.3 in January. Non-manufacturing PMI stood ...
Read More »India GDP to slow less than estimated as cash returns to economy
Bloomberg India’s economy is forecast to slow less than estimated as banks work to replace cash sucked out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s shock clampdown in November. Gross domestic product will probably grow 7.1 percent in the year through March after a 7.9 percent expansion the previous year, the Statistics Ministry said in a statement in New Delhi. While ...
Read More »A new play looms for Japan stocks scene
Bloomberg After years of disappointment, a quiet revolution may be underway in the Japanese stock market. Japan’s companies have for years sat on record piles of cash — the equivalent of $2.4 trillion in September, the most in the world. The issue has been deploying those funds for shareholder benefit. A key part of Abenomics has been sharpening the ...
Read More »Can Korea’s chaebol change? Ask confucius
Back in 2006, after Chung Mong-koo, chairman of Hyundai Motor Co. Ltd. and son of its founder, was arrested amid one of South Korea’s recurring corruption scandals, I called a friend in the company’s public relations office. He answered in a breathless panic. Without Chung in the driver’s seat, he assured me, the management of Korea’s largest automaker would ...
Read More »Demand to occupy London offices persist
London’s Cheesegrater building is as close as Britain gets to a memorial to Brexit. Construction of the wedge-shaped skyscraper in the heart of the city’s financial district started in 2011 as things were picking up after the financial crisis. Within three weeks of the European Union referendum, the tower was fully let. At the time, its co-owner, British Land ...
Read More »Will mobile users ditch smartphone for Nokia 3310?
The comeback of the Nokia 3310, the icon of the “dumb phone” industry, is mainly a marketing gimmick by a Finnish startup. But there’s plenty of reasons to embrace it as something more — as an antidote to these digitally toxic times. Unlike the original, which was discontinued more than a decade ago, the rebooted model by HMD offers ...
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