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  Bloomberg Bank of America Corp. doubled the number of internal referrals that advisers in its Merrill Lynch wealth-management unit must make to avoid having their compensation cut. The brokers must refer at least two clients annually for banking services in other parts of the company starting in 2017, up from one, said Susan McCabe, a spokeswoman for the Charlotte, ...

  Rome / AFP The world’s oldest bank, Italy’s Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS), asked the European Central Bank for more time to raise the cash it needs to avoid being wound down. BMPS said it was asking for the extension from the end of December to mid January because the political instability created by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s ...

  Bloomberg PrivateBancorp Inc. postponed a shareholder vote on a takeover by Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) after proxy-advisory firms and some investors called the $3.96 billion cash-and-stock offer insufficient following a post-election rally of U.S. regional lenders. “In view of the significant changes to trading market conditions over the past few weeks, we believe it is in the best ...

  MANAMA / Reuters Al Baraka Banking Group is targeting the sale of capital-boosting sukuk worth $300 million in the first quarter of 2017, the chief executive of the Bahrain-based Islamic lender, with operations in over a dozen countries, said on Tuesday. “You’ll see issuance of sukuk in the first quarter of 2017 around $300 million, and we are talking ...

  Bloomberg Indian sovereign bonds will recover from their biggest loss in more than three years as benign cash conditions in the banking system spur demand for debt and policy makers return to cutting interest rates in early 2017, according to HSBC Holdings Plc. The benchmark 10-year yield jumped 21 basis points to 6.41% on Wednesday, the biggest increase since ...

  Bloomberg Samsung Electronics Co. will create an all-screen front for the Galaxy S8 smartphones coming out next year and scrap the physical home button, people with direct knowledge of the matter said. The bezel-less displays will provide more viewing real estate while a virtual home button will be buried in the glass in the lower section, the people said, ...

  San Francisco / AFP Smartwatch pioneer Pebble announced it was shutting down, with tech wearables giant Fitbit acquiring some of its assets including key personnel. “Due to various factors, Pebble is no longer able to operate as an independent entity. We have made the tough decision to shut down the company and no longer manufacture Pebble devices,” Pebble founder ...

  Sydney / AFP The hidden secrets of Egyptian mummies up to 3,000 years old have been virtually unwrapped and reconstructed for the first time using cutting-edge scanning technology in a joint British-Australian exhibition. Three-dimensional images of six mummies aged between 900BC and 140-180AD from ancient Egypt, which have been held at the British Museum but never physically unwrapped, give ...

  Tokyo / AFP A Japanese city has introduced a novel way to keep track of senior citizens with dementia who are prone to getting lost — tagging their fingers and toes with scan-able barcodes. A company in Iruma, north of Tokyo, developed tiny nail stickers, each of which carries a unique identity number to help concerned families find missing ...

  Paris / AFP The first wave of virtual reality cinemas, heralding what their creators claim will be an entertainment revolution, rolls out across the world this month. The first screening room in France opened and several others are promised for Beijing, Shanghai and Los Angeles in the next few weeks. Like the early days of cinema, virtual reality — ...