By Joice Alves LONDON (Reuters) – Europe’s banks, which enjoyed a stellar fourth-quarter that yielded a surge in earnings growth to 15-year highs, are still looking cheap and could have more room to rally. Economic data hasn’t been as bad as many had feared. The euro zone is expected to stagnate rather than contract, while…
By Lawrence White, Iain Withers and Sinead Cruise LONDON (Reuters) – British banks face a tougher battle for mortgage customers and business borrowers in 2023, as rising costs and deposit rates paid to long-suffering savers threaten to outpace flatlining profit margins, senior industry executives and analysts said. The 2022 annual results from the country’s four…
By Huw Jones LONDON (Reuters) -Britain on Tuesday set out draft legislation to regulate “buy now pay later” (BNPL) credit, saying the sector posed potential harm to consumers without thorough affordability checks. BNPL companies are largely unregulated and typically offer on-the-spot interest-free short-term loans that spread payments for retail goods like clothing. The sector nearly…
By Tom Sims and John O’Donnell FRANKFURT (Reuters) – For years, Allianz, one of the world’s biggest investors, piled billions into property, wind farms and even London’s sewage system, but now it is moving to shun such “alternative” investments for plain vanilla bonds, people with knowledge of the matter said. The German company’s new approach…
By Richa Naidu LONDON (Reuters) -This Valentine’s Day is set to look different after a year of record food inflation that has sent up prices of everything from flowers to chocolates and dining in restaurants. COVID-era supply chain logjams and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have meant that Britons paid a record 16.7% more for food…
By Carolina Mandl NEW YORK (Reuters) – Soros Fund Management, the family office of billionaire George Soros, added to its portfolio new shares in financial and healthcare companies and a bonds exchanged-traded fund in the fourth quarter, according to a regulatory filing on Monday. Soros disclosed a $325.3 million stake, or 2.9 million shares, in…
By Nell Mackenzie and Carolina Mandl LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) -Hedge funds betting against stocks globally abandoned those trades last week at the fastest pace since 2015, surpassing the speed of their exodus from the meme stock frenzy two years ago, according to a Goldman Sachs research note. The latest short squeeze, implying that stock prices…
By Marc Jones LONDON (Reuters) – Cryptomarkets have not been killed off by last year’s turmoil, while the new wave of central bank digital currencies will face geopolitical limits, the Bank for International Settlements’ new innovation head has predicted. Dubbed the central bank to the world’s central bank, the BIS has long been critical of…
By Stefania Spezzati and Nell Mackenzie LONDON (Reuters) – Eisler Capital has recruited Damien Bombelli, whose background in commodities could help the hedge fund bolster a less profitable part of its business, according to one source with knowledge of the move and a regulator filing. Bombelli, who has worked at investment firms and banks including…
LONDON (Reuters) -Investors poured a record $12.7 billion into emerging-market debt and equity funds in the week to Wednesday, in response to China’s easing of its COVID-19 restrictions on activity, data on Friday from BofA Global Research showed. The sudden shift in Chinese policy has boosted many different asset classes, from commodities and mining stocks…
