Reuters (March 17)
“Investors held tight to bets that banking jitters would rein in the ECB’s ability to jack up borrowing costs again in the months ahead, as the central bank delivered a large rate hike on Thursday but wouldn’t signal future moves given an uncertain outlook.”
Tags: Banking, Bets, Borrowing costs, Central bank, ECB, Investors, Jitters, Rate hike, Signal, Uncertain outlook
The Economist (October 22)
“House prices are now falling in nine rich economies…. In condo-crazed Canada homes cost 9% less than they did in February. As inflation and recession stalk the world a deepening correction is likely.” Falling home prices are unlikely to lead to a global banking crisis, but “it will intensify the downturn, leave a cohort of people with wrecked finances and start a political storm.”
Tags: Banking, Canada, Condo, Correction, Crisis, Deepening, Downturn, Falling, Finances, House prices, Inflation, Intensify, Political storm, Recession, Rich economies, Wrecked
Globe and Mail (October 6)
In Canada, air and rail passengers will soon need to be vaccinated, as will workers at the nation’s largest employer, the federal Government. “Vaccinations will also be required for the hundreds of thousands of people who work in Canada’s public service, as well as those who work in federally regulated industries, such as banking.” The rules come into effect in October.
Tags: Air, Banking, Canada, Employer, Government, Passengers, Public service, Rail, Regulated industries, Vaccinations, Workers
WARC (December 4)
Fully 45% of Malaysia’s population is made up of Millennials, “many of whom are digital natives.” As a result, “businesses looking to expand in Malaysia need to offer digital wallet payment options, as these cover a much greater proportion of the population than credit cards.” The diverse e-money options are dominated by outsiders, only 5 of the 46 e-money licenses “have gone to players in the traditional banking space.”
Tags: Banking, Credit cards, Digital natives, Digital wallet, E-money, Malaysia, Millennials, Population
LA Times (November 5)
Though the “Trump administration slapped tough U.S. sanctions on Iran’s energy, banking and shipping industries,” there are “gaping holes” as the White House “granted waivers to the six largest importers of Iranian oil.” China, India, South Korea, Turkey, Italy and Japan accounted for “more than 75% of Iran’s oil exports last year.”
Tags: Banking, China, Energy, Exports, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Oil, Sanctions, Shipping, South Korea, Trump, Turkey, U.S., Waivers
Newsweek (September 4)
“September 15 will mark the tenth anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and near meltdown of Wall Street, followed by the Great Recession.” With household debt at “an all-time high of $13.2 trillion,” we’re now close to a repeat. The direct cause will be income imbalance, not a banking crisis. “The U.S. economy crashes when it becomes too top heavy because the economy depends on consumer spending to keep it going…. For a time, the middle class and poor can keep the economy going nonetheless by borrowing. But, as in 1929 and 2008, debt bubbles eventually burst. We’re getting dangerously close.”
Tags: Anniversary, Banking, Collapse, Consumer spending, Crisis, Great Recession, Household debt, Income imbalance, Lehman Brothers, Meltdown, Top heavy, U.S., Wall Street
Financial Times (June 5)
“A clear lesson from last week’s sharp sell-off in Italian bond markets: the ‘doom loop’ that creates a direct link between eurozone countries and their banking systems is still a powerful force.”
Institutional Investor (March 20)
“For years, asset management firms have benefited as the banking industry was dragged down by quantitative easing and increasing regulation. The one-two punch spurred a more than $100 billion divergence in revenues since 2011, with asset managers up $65 billion and wholesale banks down $45 billion at the end of 2016…. But now, with asset managers facing ‘intense’ pressure on fees and with economic policy shifting in favor of banks,” there are growing predictions for “a ‘reversal of fortunes’ for the two sectors.”
Tags: Asset management, Banking, Economic policy, Fees, QE, Regulation, Revenues, Reversal
Wall Street Journal (April 13)
“We need to get used to slower Chinese growth,” writes former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. He adds that “if, as Beijing has promised, the slowdown is accompanied by deep and serious structural reform that opens up new growth opportunities, such as allowing the private sector to compete against state monopolies in service sectors like banking and telecommunications, then China will still grow robustly compared with all other major economies.”
Tags: Banking, Beijing, China, Competition, Growth, Monopolies, Paulson, Private-sector, Slowdown, Structural reform, Telecommunications
Institutional Investor (December 17, 2013)
With the introduction of a new single supervisory mechanism, the European Central Bank (ECB) is positioned to play a integral role. “The coronation of the ECB as banking supervisor will make the central bank an even more powerful institution, along the lines of the Fed, which emerged from the crisis as the dominant U.S. financial regulator.”
Tags: Banking, Central bank, Crisis, ECB, eurozone, Fed, Financial regulator, Supervisory mechanism, U.S.
