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Central banksi

News about policymaking in the world’s major central banks with a focus on the People’s Bank of China, the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan and the Reserve Bank of Australia.

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  • HSBC’s Asia operations are ‘motoring’ as lender looks to future growth from its biggest revenue driver, CEO Noel Quinn says
  • Bank recently prevailed in a shareholder vote that sought to force its management to split the Asian arm
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CBDCs will disrupt the banking industry, forcing traditional lenders to innovate and helping small businesses access financing, according to a report by Standard Chartered and PwC China.

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Hong Kong stocks are likely to rebound from heavy sell-offs in the second half of the year as a potential easing of monetary policy boosts China’s economic recovery, says Hang Seng Qianhai Fund Management.

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Some 24 Hong Kong-listed companies apply for permission for their shares to be traded in both yuan and Hong Kong dollar currencies, which would spur the yuan internationalisation campaign and consolidate the city’s status as a leading offshore yuan hub.

VTB Bank’s Andrey Kostin warns that ‘it’s very dangerous to rely on America’, after Russia’s second-largest lender lost billions last year upon being cut off from the US dollar and euro.

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has provisionally found that five big banks including HSBC shared “competitively sensitive” information about British government bond trades.

Vice-Premier He Lifeng oversaw the inauguration ceremony of China’s new regulator, the National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA), on Thursday in Beijing.

Some 16 companies – including the three note-issuing banks HSBC, Standard Chartered and BOCHK – will put the e-HKD through its paces, paving the way for a virtual coin the public can use to shop, dine out and make money transfers.

The world’s debt nearly set a record high in the first quarter of 2023, with sharp increases in mature markets such as the US, according to the Institute of International Finance.

Hong Kong will become a hub that drives technological innovation and the yuan’s internationalisation by attracting offshore Chinese currency to support listings of hi-tech companies, bourse operator HKEX says.

With China’s consumer inflation at nearly zero in April, while US inflation continued to rise by 4.9 per cent, the diverging paths are evident, and it has contributed to a fragile global economic recovery.

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China is widening a roll-out of its central bank digital currency with more pilot programmes that could help the country bypass Western sanctions and undercut the US dollar’s dominance in global trade.

Gold’s rally, powered by a combination of economic uncertainty and central banks’ buying to mitigate sanctions, could sustain giving legs to Chinese stocks linked to the precious metal.

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China has long been keen to promote the yuan overseas, as well as reducing its reliance on the US dollar, with the likes of Russia, Brazil and Bangladesh increasing their use of the currency.

China is ramping up efforts to boost the yuan’s appeal as an alternative in trade and as a reserve currency in the face of US dollar hegemony, while countries from South America to the Middle East have got on board with increased yuan use.

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The platform, called Cosmic, is meant to make it easier for financial institutions to share information on risky clients, and detect and deter scams, money laundering and terrorism financing.

Some of Hong Kong’s small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have either had their credit lines trimmed or their collateral asks raised, lawmakers said during a meeting of the city’s Legislative Council on Monday.

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The US Federal Reserve lifted its benchmark lending rate to the highest level since September 2007, but hinted at an imminent pause of its increase cycle, creating an opportunity for China to double down on funding support for its economy.

The quarter of a percentage point increase comes as the US economy faces risks including fallout from recent bank failures and a stand-off over the debt ceiling.

Analysts are unanimous on another US rate increase this week. Most of them say it would likely be the last in the current tightening cycle. They are equally split on whether HSBC and its peers will raise their prime rates.

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