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Falling interest rates took a painful toll on third-quarter profits at Bank of America and Wells Fargo, continuing to compress lending margins, overshadowing falling credit costs and improved results from the banks’ fee-based businesses.

On Wednesday, BofA and Wells reported third-quarter net profits of $4.8bn and $2bn, respectively — $1.3bn and $4.4bn higher than in the second quarter. Much of the improvement was down to lower provisions for bad loans, as the outlook for the American economy stabilises. 

Wells Fargo’s mortgage business had a bumper quarter behind a wave of home refinancings, and Bank of America saw fees rise in its credit card business. Investment banking fees were strong at both banks, reflecting a strong environment for public offerings and mergers.

None of this was enough to offset damage done by falling interest rates, however. Net interest income (total revenue from interest-bearing assets, less interest paid for financing) fell 7

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BERLIN (Reuters) – German prosecutors said on Tuesday they were dropping a money-laundering investigation against managers at Deutsche Bank

, over its relations with Danske Bank’s

Estonian subsidiary, citing a lack of evidence.

The economic crimes unit at the Frankfurt Prosecutor’s Office also fined Deutsche Bank 13.5 million euros ($15.9 million) for being slow to report suspected money laundering in more than 600 cases.

The case related to a whistleblower’s claims that Danske had handled 200 billion euros in suspicious payments from Russia and other ex-Soviet republics between 2007 and 2015 – the bulk of which were processed by Deutsche Bank.

Deutsche Bank, which broke off its relationship with Danske in 2015, has consistently denied wrongdoing.

“With the end to proceedings, it is clear that there were no criminal lapses on the part of Deutsche Bank or its staff,” board member Stefan Simon said in a statement.

The fine relates

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LONDON (Reuters) – United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday urged development banks to stop backing fossil fuel projects, after a report found the World Bank had invested $12 billion in the sector since the 2015 Paris Agreement to combat climate change.

Environmental campaigners have for years tried to prevent the oil, coal and natural gas industry from producing dangerous levels of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change by persuading commercial banks to stop lending them money.

But the world’s state-backed development banks, whose support is often crucial in determining whether projects in developing countries go ahead, are also facing growing calls to starve the industry of finance.

Guterres urged a coalition of finance ministers and economic policymakers from dozens of countries to ensure development banks end fossil fuel investments and boost renewable energy.

“We need speed, scale, and decisive leadership,” Guterres said in a video message to a

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(Bloomberg) — Singapore’s central bank is likely to keep monetary policy unchanged Wednesday as it allows fiscal measures to do the heavy lifting in getting the city-state’s economy back on track.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore, which uses the currency as its main policy tool rather than interest rates, probably will refrain from changing any of the three currency band settings, according to all 19 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.



chart: Singapore Monetary Policy History

© Bloomberg
Singapore Monetary Policy History

The MAS — which typically makes policy decisions twice a year, in April and October — took the unprecedented step in its last announcement of lowering the midpoint of the currency band and reducing the slope to zero. That meant it would allow for a weaker exchange rate to head off deflation and support the export-reliant economy.

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Since then, the economy has plunged into recession amid the pandemic and the government has unleashed

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By Matthew Green

LONDON, Oct 12 (Reuters) – United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday urged development banks to stop backing fossil fuel projects, after a report found the World Bank had invested $12 billion in the sector since the 2015 Paris Agreement to combat climate change.

Environmental campaigners have for years tried to prevent the oil, coal and natural gas industry from producing dangerous levels of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change by persuading commercial banks to stop lending them money.

But the world’s state-backed development banks, whose support is often crucial in determining whether projects in developing countries go ahead, are also facing growing calls to starve the industry of finance.

Guterres urged a coalition of finance ministers and economic policymakers from dozens of countries to ensure development banks end fossil fuel investments and boost renewable energy.

“We need speed, scale, and decisive leadership,” Guterres said

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Axis Bank on Monday announced the launch of its ACE Credit Card in India in collaboration with Google Pay and Visa.

The card meant to help with digital payments. From application to issuance, with the entire user journey for the credit card application will be done digitally.

For essential use cases, including mobile recharges and bill payments made via Google Pay, users can earn a cashback.of 5 per cent. The company is also offering 4 per cent-5 per cent cashback for expenses on food ordering, online grocery delivery, cab rides for transactions made on partner merchant platforms such as Swiggy, Zomato, BigBasket, Grofers and Ola.

There is also an unlimited 2 per cent cashback on other transactions (terms and conditions applied).

“Users will be able to get cashback directly into their ACE Credit Card accounts. The tokenization feature enabled in partnership with Visa will allow Google Pay users to use

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(Bloomberg) —

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National Commercial Bank, Saudi Arabia’s largest lender by assets, agreed to buy rival Samba Financial Group for $15 billion in the biggest banking takeover this year.

NCB will pay 28.45 riyals ($7.58) for each Samba share, based on Thurday’s close, valuing the smaller lender at about 55.7 billion riyals. The kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, the biggest single shareholder in the two banks, will have the largest stake in the combined entity with 37.2%.

The new bank will have total assets of more than $220 billion, creating the Gulf region’s third-largest lender. Its $46 billion market capitalization nearly matches that of Qatar National Bank QPSC, which is still the Middle East’s biggest lender with about $268 billion of assets.

NCB shares rose as much as 3.6% on Monday, the most in over three months, before trimming their increase to 1.3% as of 11:56 a.m. in Riyadh. Samba

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General view of the Bank Of England on September 27, 2020 in London, England.

Peter Summers/Getty Images


  • The Bank of England has written to British banks, seeking information on how ready they are for monetary policy that adopts negative interest rates.
  • “We are requesting specific information about your firm’s current readiness to deal with a zero bank rate,” Sam Woods, the central bank’s deputy governor, wrote in Monday’s letter.
  • The bank survey was not marked as mandatory, but the BoE said it would help give officials a broader understanding of risks and potential issues.
  • The central bank is not currently employing a zero, or negative, interest rate. The base rate is 0.1%.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

The Bank of England appears to be moving closer to adopting negative interest rates, after writing to UK commercial lenders on Monday to ask how ready they are for sub-zero

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GENEVA–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Oct 12, 2020–

Temenos (SIX: TEMN), the banking software company, today announced that FlowBank has selected Temenos Transact delivered as SaaS to power its new digital bank in Switzerland. Temenos Transact core banking technology will enable FlowBank to rapidly launch and offer a new investing experience to private and institutional investors in Switzerland and internationally.

FlowBank has recently secured its banking license in July 2020 and is planning to launch the operations by the end of 2020. The bank aims to meet the needs of both sophisticated and new investors, who wish to manage their banking and investments on their own. The bank addresses this growing market segment by offering a simple, reliable investment experience open to all, using an optimized trading platform underpinned by Temenos Transact. The bank is FINMA-regulated and deposits are guaranteed up to CHF 100,000.

With Temenos SaaS, FlowBank will create a hyper-efficient cost model

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Ananthakrishna, former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Karnataka Bank Ltd, died in Mangaluru on Sunday, after a prolonged illness. Ananthakrishna (74) is survived by his wife and a son.

He was the ninth chairman of the bank and had an association of 45 years with the bank in different capacities. After joining the bank in 1971, he rose through the ranks before becoming the Chairman.

Born on October 27, 1946, at Talemogaru village of Bantwal taluk in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka, Ananthakrishna completed his post graduation in Mathematics from Mysore University. He began his career as a teacher at Deepika High School at Modankaup and as lecturer at Manipal Engineering College (later renamed Manipal Institute of Technology). He then worked as a programmer for HAL before beginning his career at Karnataka Bank in 1971.

He was promoted as General Manager of the bank in October 1994, as Chief

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