SHANGHAI China guided its yuan currency higher on Monday, and offshore it surged against the dollar, spurred by what traders called aggressive intervention by Beijing, although Chinese stocks tumbled again as doubts persisted over policymakers’ intent. Perceiv... More »
SHANGHAI Swiss bank UBS AG plans to more than double the number of staff at its China wealth management teams over the next five years, said Kathryn Shih, Asia pacific president at the bank, in an interview with Reuters on Monday. Shih said market volatility w... More »
NEW YORK Citigroup retained its market-leading position at the top of the US Collateralized Loan Obligation (CLO) arranger league table in 2015 for volume and deal count while issuance fell 20% ahead of looming new regulations. Citigroup increased its share of... More »
CHICAGO The U.S. stock market may give us a rocky ride in 2016, but the year is shaping up to be a good one for retirement savers. At long last, investment advisers may be required to put your best interests ahead of their own. The U.S. Department of Labor is ... More »
BAGHDAD Iraq’s central bank has increased the sale price of U.S. dollars to banks and currency exchange companies by 16 dinars, or 1.37 percent, as the government seeks to compensate a decline in oil revenue, a government official and the central bank said. Th... More »
LONDON One of the Bank of England’s policymakers who is considered most likely to call for higher interest rates believes the need for tighter monetary policy is “slightly less immediate” because of slow pay growth and falling oil prices, a newspaper reported.... More »
FRANKFURT Chinese investment group Fosun has withdrawn its offer for wealth management group BHF Kleinwort Benson, the Belgian stock market regulator said on Friday. Fosun had offered 5.10 euros per share for BHF, but its bid was challenged by French private b... More »
ATHENS Greece faces relatively low debt servicing needs in the coming years and further debt relief is not a matter of urgency, Greek financial daily Naftemporiki quoted European Central Bank Governing Council member Jens Weidmann as saying on Thursday. “In 20... More »
BEIJING The International Monetary Fund’s decision on Ukraine’s debt to Russia did not change anything to Moscow, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak told reporters in Beijing on Thursday. The International Monetary Fund’s Executive Board decided t... More »
NEW YORK In the textbooks Zach Abrams studied to become a certified financial planner 10 years ago, there was talk of a curious strategy called ‘laddering CDs’. Yet since the 31-year-old has been a practicing financial adviser, it has not come up much. Parking... More »
LOS ANGELES For everyone who has been saying interest rates can only go up, well – now is their time. But what does the Federal Reserve’s decision to raise interest rates actually mean for your wallet? Probably not much for the near-term. One small interest ra... More »
LONDON Barclays Plc has sold its benchmark indices and risk analytics business, which includes the widely used Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index, to financial information provider Bloomberg for about 520 million pounds ($781 million). Barclays said on Wednesd... More »
TOKYO Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Monday he saw no need to implement negative deposit rates in Japan as borrowing costs were already very low due to the central bank’s aggressive asset purchases. The European Central Bank has adopted negativ... More »
LONDON James Watt or Alexander Graham Bell? Royal Bank of Scotland is asking the public to choose a Scottish scientist or other innovator to feature on its first plastic 10 pound note. Edinburgh-based RBS said on Monday nominees must be historical figures who ... More »
FRANKFURT Hints by Mario Draghi ahead of last Thursday’s ECB rate meeting that the euro zone may need another big injection of money backfired, stiffening the resolve of more conservative central bankers who criticized him for raising expectations too high, so... More »
BRUSSELS EU antitrust regulators have dropped charges against 13 banks including Citigroup and Deutsche Bank for blocking exchanges from derivatives markets, but will continue their case against data company Markit and trade body ISDA. The European Commission ... More »
FRANKFURT The European Central Bank looks set to continue to support the economy as the euro zone’s upswing broadens and strengthens, Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on Thursday. “The ECB has been accommodative … supportive for the economic recovery a... More »
FRANKFURT European Central Bank President Mario Draghi called on Thursday for euro zone member states to do more to improve the economy. Saying that the ECB’s easy monetary policy has been “a success”, Draghi said there nonetheless needed to be more. “Actions ... More »
LONDON The U.S. Federal Reserve and European Central Bank are expected to deliver sharply contrasting policy decisions next month, reflecting how the world’s two largest economies have moved from the Great Recession to the Great Divide. The U.S. and euro zone ... More »
SAO PAULO The reliance of Brazil’s Grupo BTG Pactual SA on market funding may pose an immediate challenge for new boss Persio Arida, who sought to calm clients on Friday after its shares fell for a third straight day. The São Paulo-based investment bank tapped... More »
A New York-based investment adviser filed a class action lawsuit against Barclays Plc on Friday alleging that rigged foreign exchange trading practices at the bank caused “significant damages” to its trading partners. The suit by Axiom Investment Advisors LLC,... More »
SAO PAULO Clients stepped up withdrawals from Grupo BTG Pactual SA’s money management unit on Thursday, according to a source with knowledge of the bank’s strategy, as Latin America’s largest independent investment bank tries to contain fallout from the arrest... More »
BRASILIA A Brazilian judge on Thursday denied a request for the release of Grupo BTG Pactual SA (BBTG11.SA) top executive, Andre Esteves, who was arrested a day earlier for allegedly obstructing a massive corruption probe at state-run oil company Petrobras. Su... More »
LONDON Britain’s “woefully inadequate” anti-money laundering system has left the country wide open to corrupt money and terrorism funds and needs radical overhaul, a leading anti-corruption group said on Monday. Each year billions of pounds of dirty money flow... More »
ROME Italy will use a new system set up by its central bank to save four small savings banks from failure before stricter rules for winding down lenders come in next year, banking sources told Reuters. The rescue will be conducted by the Bank of Italy at a cos... More »
FRANKFURT The European Central Bank is ready to act quickly to boost anemic inflation in the euro zone, its president said on Friday, offering the strongest hint yet that the bank will unveil fresh stimulus measures at its Dec. 3 meeting. Mario Draghi highligh... More »
LONDON A bumper North American railroad bid and three other big tie-ups announced this week have taken the number of takeover deals worth $5 billion or more to a record 128 this year, according to Thomson Reuters data. Pacific Railway’s bid for rival Norfolk S... More »
AMES, Iowa A top aide to U.S. Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton said on Sunday that criticism of her remarks in Saturday’s debate regarding 9/11 and Wall Street campaign contributions would not resonate with average voters. “They were attacking... More »
BRUSSELS Greece and its euro zone creditors have reached a deal on many, but not all, issues in the program that Athens is implementing in return for loans, the head of euro zone finance ministers Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on Sunday. Greece needs the euro zone ... More »
DES MOINES, Iowa U.S. Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton played defense over her 2003 vote backing the U.S. invasion of Iraq and inched away from President Barack Obama on Syria and the rise of Islamic State militants during a contentious deb... More »
MEXICO CITY Carlos Slim’s brother interrogated leftist rebels for Mexico’s intelligence agency while his eldest son often hands out a biographical novel about Leon Trotsky as a gift, according to a new book on the tycoon who was long the world’s richest man. T... More »
NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO When U.S. prosecutors this week charged two Israelis and an American fugitive with raking in hundreds of millions of dollars in one of the largest and most complex cases of cyber fraud ever exposed, they also provided an unusual look int... More »
BRUSSELS European countries most affected by the refugee crisis may be granted some leeway on fiscal rules for a limited period of time, the head of the euro zone finance ministers said on Monday. “My own opinion is that for a number of countries there are gro... More »
LONDONGlobal regulators set out their “final tools” on Monday for ending the phenomenon of “too big to fail” banks, seeking to draw a line under a period of intensive rule making after a financial crisis that tarnished the sector and weighed heavily on taxpaye... More »
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK/YANGONWestern banks are cutting trade finance in Myanmar after learning that part of the country’s main port is controlled by a man blacklisted by Washington, threatening to stop nascent U.S. economic ties with the Southeast Asian nation in... More »
NEW YORKWells Fargo & Co will likely need to issue an additional $20 billion to $40 billion of long-term debt to comply with new rules designed to help banks better weather a crisis, Chief Financial Officer John Shrewsberry said on Friday. The debt issuance wo... More »
LONDONBanks struggled again to make money trading bonds, currencies and commodities in the third quarter, as regulatory changes squeezed liquidity and intensified the pressure to cut costs, staff and activity. Revenue and profit fell for most of the world’s ma... More »
Banks’ exposure to junk-rated companies and the oil and gas sector remains high, according to an annual report on loan quality by U.S. bank regulators released Thursday. The regulators gave a negative classification to $372.6 billion out of $3.9 trillion in lo... More »
BRUSSELSThe euro zone may need to spend only 10 billion euros or less to help recapitalize Greek banks, a senior EU official said, after an ECB test showed the sector would need an extra 14.4 billion euros of capital if major risks materialized. Euro zone cred... More »
HONG KONG MSCI (MSCI.N) will begin to add overseas-listed Chinese shares to its emerging market indexes this month, drawing billions of dollars into such stocks, which could eventually lead to mainland-listed companies finding their way into global equity port... More »
Six big U.S. banks need to raise an additional $120 billion, most likely in long-term debt, under a rule proposed on Friday by the Federal Reserve. The requirements are aimed at ensuring that some of the biggest and most interconnected banks, which include Gol... More »
NEW YORK Bank of America Corp has reached a $335 million settlement of a federal lawsuit accusing it of misleading shareholders about its exposure to risky mortgage securities and its dependence on an electronic mortgage registry known as MERS. The second-larg... More »
BOSTON Some big U.S. retailers are stepping up efforts to use personal identification numbers, or PINs, with new credit cards embedded with computer chips in a bid to prevent counterfeit card fraud. But they are being resisted by the banking industry, which se... More »
ATHENS They defied a vast Persian army in 480 BC, rejected Italy’s ultimatum during World War Two and told Europe to take a hike when presented with an unpalatable bailout deal in July, risking Greece’s place in the euro zone. Greeks celebrate ‘No’ Day, a uniq... More »
BEIJING/SHANGHAI China’s ruling Communist Party opened a key meeting on Monday that will focus on financial reforms and how to maintain growth of around seven percent and more broadly map out economic and social targets for the next five years. The Central Com... More »
U.S. regulators are expanding their probe into Deutsche Bank AG (DBKGn.DE)(DB.N) as a money laundering investigation of a Moscow unit has widened into possible sanctions violations, the Financial Times reported, citing sources. The U.S. Justice Department and ... More »
LONDON British broadband provider TalkTalk said on Sunday it had hired defense company BAE Systems to investigate a cyber attack that may have led to the theft of personal data from its more than 4 million customers. TalkTalk said on Friday it had received a r... More »
LONDON British broadband provider TalkTalk said on Saturday it did not believe the authors of a cyber attack against it this week would be able to steal money from its customers. The firm said on Friday it had received a ransom demand from an unidentified part... More »
LONDON British business leaders on Saturday urged police to make cyber crime an urgent priority following an attack on broadband provider TalkTalk, saying firms face continual security breaches. TalkTalk said the private data of its more than 4 million custome... More »
MADRID Amancio Ortega, who transformed clothing group Inditex from a tiny family dressmaker into Spain’s biggest company, briefly overtook Bill Gates on Friday to become the world’s richest man. Although a 10 percent surge in the share price of Microsoft later... More »
FRANKFURT Deutsche Bank Chief Executive John Cryan will present details of a deep overhaul of Germany’s biggest lender on Thursday, hoping his changes will please investors after rival Credit Suisse’s plan drew a tepid response. One top 30 institutional shareh... More »
TORONTO Bank of Nova Scotia said on Friday it is creating a digital hub in downtown Toronto to help lure technology talent and drive innovation for Canada’s third-biggest lender. The “digital factory” will have more than 350 employees, including existing staff... More »
ZURICH/LONDON When Tidjane Thiam unveils his plans for Credit Suisse on Wednesday the Swiss bank’s new chief executive will likely rest his case on three Cs: capital, cuts and charm. Thiam will show his hand after taking the reins at Zurich-based Credit Suisse... More »
NEW YORK Wall Street bankers and traders are likely to get smaller bonuses for 2015 as trading revenue plunges. Goldman Sachs said on Thursday that it set aside 16 percent less money for compensation in the third quarter compared with the same period in 2014. ... More »
BRUSSELS European Union leaders have postponed a deeper discussion of the future of the euro zone until December because of divergent views in the biggest countries and because of the more pressing migration issue, diplomats said. EU leaders, who meet on Thurs... More »
BOSTON A rash of hacking attacks on U.S. companies over the past two years has prompted insurers to massively increase cyber premiums for some companies, leaving firms that are perceived to be a high risk scrambling for cover. On top of rate hikes, insurers ar... More »
NEW YORK Two former Rabobank [RABO.UL] traders from Britain are set to become the first defendants to face trial in the United States on charges stemming from a global investigation into whether various banks sought to manipulate the interest rate known as Lib... More »
SHANGHAI Now is not the right time for the United States to raise interest rates, given the global economic situation, China’s Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said in an interview published in the China Business News on Monday. Speaking on the sidelines of the annu... More »
NEW YORK The financial sector, recently a weak performer in the stock market, will garner the majority of investor attention this week as a number of big banks post their quarterly results. Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Bank of America Corp, Wells Fargo & Co, Citig... More »
NEW YORK The financial sector is expected to be a bright spot for U.S. earnings growth in the third quarter, but options traders are playing it safe by snapping up protection against any surprises. Market volatility tends to rise during earnings season, and wi... More »
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON U.S. Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton on Thursday called for the breakup of large banks that take excessive risks as part of a sweeping plan to curb what she says are Wall Street abuses. Under the proposal, large financial fi... More »
ZURICH Swiss bank Credit Suisse plans to tap investors for a “substantial” capital raising to fund a restructuring of the bank under new Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam, the Financial Times said on Thursday. Since taking charge of Credit Suisse in July, Thiam ha... More »
LUXEMBOURG Greece must complete the first review of agreed reforms, including the governance of its financial sector, before European creditors can pump in more money to recapitalize Greek banks, the chairman of euro zone finance ministers said. Jeroen Dijssel... More »
ATHENS Greece will unveil a painful 2016 draft budget on Monday meant to satisfy international creditors, projecting the economy will stay in recession next year before returning to growth in 2017, in line with the estimates by the country’s lenders. After sev... More »
LONDON The world’s nine biggest insurance companies will have to hold more capital under new rules just finalised by global regulators that aim to prevent taxpayer bailouts of the industry in a crisis. Regulators decided to look at the multi-trillion dollar in... More »
WASHINGTON Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said in a newspaper interview published on Sunday that more corporate executives should have been prosecuted for their actions leading up to the 2008 financial crisis. Bernanke told USA Today that the U.S... More »
SYDNEY Australian businesses are turning their backs on bitcoin, as signs grow that the cryptocurrency’s mainstream appeal is fading. Concerns about bitcoin’s potential crime links mean many businesses have stopped accepting it, a trend accelerated by Australi... More »
OTTAWA One of the world’s most famous central bank chiefs, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, briefly became the late American actor Art Carney during a Canadian election debate on Friday. Gilles Duceppe, leader of the separatist Bloc Quebecois party, refer... More »
BRUSSELS Greece is likely to qualify for recapitalization funds for its banks by a Nov. 15 deadline because the payment depends mainly on financial sector reforms that it can implement by then, euro zone officials said on Friday. The euro zone bailout fund has... More »
TORONTO Royal Bank of Canada led a rise in the value of Canadian equity issues for the first nine months of 2015, overcoming a slowdown in the third quarter due to increased choppiness in equity markets. Equity financings rose to C$36 billion ($27.23 billion) ... More »
JPMorgan Chase & Co is set to pay almost a third of a $1.86 billion settlement to resolve claims that a dozen big banks conspired to limit competition in the credit-default swaps market, Bloomberg reported. JPMorgan is paying $595 million, Bloomberg said, citi... More »
ZURICH The Swiss competition regulator has opened an investigation into possible collusion in the precious metals market by several major banks, it said on Monday, the latest in a string of manipulation probes. Switzerland’s WEKO watchdog said its investigatio... More »
HELSINKI Earnings quality at Finland’s banks is at risk of being eroded by a struggling domestic economy and financial market together with low euro zone interest rates, the country’s financial watchdog said on Monday. With borrowing costs at historic lows, th... More »
ATHENS Greece’s third-largest lender Eurobank (EURBr.AT) said on Monday its non-performing loans rose slightly in the second quarter while core income before bad debt provisions grew 1.1 percent from the previous quarter. Providing a performance update before ... More »
MUMBAI The Reserve Bank of India is expected cut its key repo rate to a four-year low on Tuesday to help support the domestic economy at a time when consumer inflation is at a record low, but may express caution about easing further as price risks still loom. ... More »
ATHENS Greek leftist Alexis Tsipras stormed back into office with an unexpectedly decisive election victory on Sunday, claiming a clear mandate to steer Greece’s battered economy to recovery. The vote ensured Europe’s most outspoken leftist leader would remain... More »
ATHENS Greek Prime Minister-elect Alexis Tsipras has reaffirmed his dominance on the political landscape, but now faces the daunting task of building consensus in a fractious society traumatized by years of austerity, local media said on Monday. On the morning... More »
NEW YORK For U.S. banks’ bond trading desks, the Federal Reserve just made a bad quarter even worse, accentuating a longer-term decline in what was once their most lucrative business, executives, analysts and traders told Reuters. Bond trading volume is likely... More »
Former Wells Fargo chairman and chief executive Richard Kovacevich said that Bank of America shareholders are wrong to try to strip Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan of his chairman title. Bank of America’s shareholders vote next week on whether CEO Moynihan ... More »
New York City’s $165 billion pension funds will vote to strip Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan of his chairman title, a spokesman for the funds told Reuters on Thursday. The funds, overseen by New York Comptroller Scott Stringer, hold 25.2 million shares, wh... More »
LONDON A year after Mario Draghi said European Central Bank interest rates had reached bottom, euro zone money markets are discounting a fair chance they could be lowered again – regardless of rising interest rates across the Atlantic. The low bank-to-bank len... More »
NEW YORK Some Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) officials told investors they could lose an upcoming shareholder vote on having Brian Moynihan continue as chairman and chief executive of the company, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. The report, in a stor... More »
LONDON Concerns over the world’s major emerging economies, and in particular China, are growing as financial investors reassess the outlook for global growth, the Bank of International Settlements said on Sunday. After a month of turmoil for stocks and commodi... More »
FRANKFURT The U.S. Federal Reserve takes center stage in the coming week, eclipsing industry data from China, another grim inflation reading from the euro zone and rate decisions in Japan and Switzerland. Guessing whether the Fed hikes rates on Thursday or opt... More »
BOSTON/NEW YORK Big mutual funds are likely to vote later this month to allow Bank of America Corp Chief Executive Brian Moynihan to retain his chairman title, based on their voting history, governance experts said. That support could leave investors seeking t... More »
LONDON Investors pulled another $19 billion from equity funds over the past week as they sought safety in government bond funds, which have enjoyed the longest run of inflows in four years, Bank of America/Merrill Lynch said on Friday. The exodus from emerging... More »
A Manhattan prosecutor on Thursday urged a jury to convict three former executives of Dewey & LeBoeuf for allegedly cooking their law firm’s books to defraud lenders and investors, arguing they ordered the fraud even if they did not personally carry it out. “T... More »
BRUSSELS International creditors expect the first review of Greek reforms under the latest bailout to start in October, bringing changes to a memorandum of understanding signed with Athens and paving the way for debt rescheduling talks, euro zone officials sai... More »
LONDON Britain’s Tesco (TSCO.L) has agreed to sell its South Korean unit to a group led by private equity firm MBK Partners for $6.1 billion, it said on Monday, in its first major disposal since it hit financial difficulties. Seeking to raise funds to revitali... More »
ATHENS Turned down for a 10,000 euro ($11,100) loan, George Sarris is one of hundreds of thousands of small business owners shunned by Greek banks. Pointing to the parliament building overlooking his small cafe in Athens’ Syntagma Square, the 35-year-old blame... More »
CERNOBBIO, Italy U.S. computer company Hewlett-Packard (HPQ.N) is considering increasing investments and hiring new workers in Italy after years of downsizing, because, it says, it has faith, for the first time in a while, that the country is on the mend. “The... More »
BOSTON Proxy adviser Institutional Shareholder Services on Friday recommended Bank of America Corp shareholders vote to strip Chief Executive Brian Moynihan of his additional title of chairman, joining a chorus of critics ahead of a Sept. 22 shareholder meetin... More »
NEW YORK A Latvian man pleaded guilty on Friday to engaging in a scheme to transmit a computer virus that infected more than a million computers worldwide and caused tens of millions of dollars in losses. Deniss Calovskis, 30, pleaded guilty in federal court i... More »
BERLIN German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Tuesday that Spain’s economic development showed that the euro zone was tackling its crisis well. “Spain is the best example that we’ve done a lot of things quite right in Europe,” Schaeuble said at a b... More »
NEW YORK Citigroup plans to rebuild its long-neglected equities franchise seeking to capitalize on a retrenchment by rivals in the face of new rules designed to make the financial system less risky, according people familiar with the bank’s plans. A lack of in... More »
TORONTO Bank of Nova Scotia, which reported a quarterly profit that beat market expectations on Friday, said bad loans in the energy sector climbed as the oil price selloff took a toll. Shares of Scotiabank, Canada’s third-largest bank, were down nearly 1 perc... More »
WARSAW U.S. media group Scripps Networks Interactive (SNI.N) bought nearly all remaining shares in Polish broadcaster TVN TVN.WA, planning to delist the company from the Warsaw bourse GPW.WA, a brokerage running the deal said on Thursday. SNI, which already ow... More »
BERLIN A Greek exit from the euro zone was a possibility and remains a threat if Athens does not fulfill the conditions of its third bailout agreement, the head of the European Stability Mechanism said on Thursday. “This threat as a possibility must always be ... More »
SHANGHAI China’s Bank of Communications Co Ltd, the country’s fifth-largest listed bank by assets, reported a 1.5 percent rise in first half net profit, even as its bad debts continued to rise. BoCom on Thursday posted a net profit of 37.32 billion yuan ($11.0... More »
BEIJING China said it would launch a three-month crackdown on underground banking to curb money-laundering and illegal funds transfers as unstable markets stoke fears of capital flight. Worries over China’s economic slowdown and possible interest rate rises by... More »
