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  Bloomberg Prudential Financial Inc. said the relationship with Wells Fargo & Co. that led to a whistle-blower lawsuit and state probes over suspected sales abuses generated a tiny fraction of the life insurer’s revenue. “We do not gauge the importance of this matter in financial terms, but for purposes of this call, it’s probably useful to put some financial ...

  Bloomberg National Australia Bank Ltd., the country’s fourth-largest lender, has written to 60,000 customers to notify them it erroneously sent details about the establishment of their accounts to an incorrect e-mail address. The e-mail included customer information such as names, e-mail addresses and account numbers, though didn’t include any passwords, Peter Coad, NAB executive general manager for international branches, ...

  Moscow / AFP Russia’s central bank held its key interest rate steady at 10 percent, opting to keep inflation in check rather than help jolt the economy out of recession. Inflation risks have subsided and “our medium-term vision has not changed” since the bank last cut the rate in September by half a percentage point, said central bank chief ...

  Bloomberg After years spent clamping down on risky behaviour at banks and punishing them for past misdeeds, Europe’s regulators have awoken to a new worry: lenders aren’t making enough money. Shrinking profitability has become a “concern for financial stability” because it may reduce banks’ ability to recover from shocks by generating capital or selling stock, Bank of England (BoE) ...

  Bloomberg Super Mario Run, Nintendo Co.’s first full foray into the world of mobile gaming, might be encountering some growing pains. The game was at the top of download rankings in 68 countries, but was the highest grossing game in only 14, according to researcher SensorTower. Nintendo shares closed 4.2 percent lower in Tokyo, wiping out about $1.5 billion ...

  Bloomberg Facebook Inc. built a colossal business based on measuring something older advertising methods cannot: the granular details about people. Two months ago, the company copped to a flaw in that measurement. Then Facebook did it again. And again. On Friday, Facebook revealed faulty metrics with Instant Articles, its mobile publishing system, the fourth disclosure of a measurement error ...

  Tokyo / AFP From a humble smiley face with a box mouth and inverted “V’s” for eyes, crude weather symbols, and a rudimentary heart — emoji have now exploded into the world’s fastest-growing language. There are now about 1,800 emoji characters — and counting. They cover everything from emotions and food to professions, are racially diverse and have become ...

  Relaxnews Instagram has seen 100 million new users sign up over the past six months, pushing its total base to more than 600 million. The image sharing social media platform announced the news on its blog on Thursday, thanking users and adding: “we’re working to make Instagram safer than ever for connection and self-expression.” Recent updates to the platform ...

  Bloomberg Private sector investors are showing new interest in Saudi Arabia’s solar energy market, after the nation’s leadership included plans to add 9.5 GW of renewables to the energy supply as part of Saudi Vision 2030, along with opening the way to greater private sector and international investment. Announced in April, the Vision 2030 strategy sets 9.5 GW as ...

  Bloomberg OPEC’s deal to cut production and boost prices gives oil companies the opportunity to shake off two years of layoffs and slumping profits to start investing again — if they still have the risk appetite. Just ask Patrick Pouyanne, chief executive officer of Total SA. Throughout the downturn he’s consistently warned that tens of billions of dollars of ...