Wall Street climbs as tax reform enters last lap; bank stocks recover

U.S. stocks climbed higher on Thursday, boosted by gains in technology and banking shares and aided by news that the Republicans' tax code overhaul should face final votes in Congress before the year-end.

A final bill could be formally unveiled on Friday, with decisive votes expected next week in both chambers.

On Wednesday, Republicans in the Senate and the House reached a deal on final tax legislation that would slash the corporate tax rate to 21 percent.

"We have a pretty positive background, investors are focused on the tax deal that they are closed to an agreement between the House and the Senate," said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida.

"It will take some time to go through the details, what that means for specific companies but it's consistent with the general positive tone."

At 9:40 a.m. ET (1440 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.29 percent to 24,655.57, on track to post six days of gains in a row.

The S&P 500 was up 3.14 points, or 0.12 percent, at 2,665.99 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 9.26 points, or 0.13 percent, at 6,885.06.

Walt Disney Co struck a deal to buy film, television and international businesses from Rupert Murdoch's Twenty-First Century Fox for $52.4 billion in stock. Disney's shares rose 1.77 percent and Fox shares were up marginally.
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Trump appoints WH budget chief Mick Mulvaney as financial watchdog head

US President Donald Trump on Saturday appointed White House budget director Mick Mulvaney to head a financial watchdog that the administration has sought to overhaul as part of its deregulation push.

Mulvaney, who described the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) as a "sick, sad joke" in a 2014 interview, will serve as acting director until a permanent head is nominated and confirmed, according to a White House statement.

Since the start of his presidency, Trump has decried financial rules and regulations, put in place through the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform legislation, to combat the excesses that led to the 2008 financial crisis.

Richard Cordray, the first director of the CFPB who had long been in the banking industry's crosshairs, announced last week he would step down by the end of the month, several months early.

Trump's Treasury Department has produced three reports calling for a whittling down of rules imposed on mid-size banks, a scaling back of stress tests and a restructuring of the CFPB.

Republicans have long deemed the bureau, which was founded in 2011 under the administration of former president Barack Obama, too far outside political control.

Last month, the US Senate voted to terminate a rule created by the agency that would have allowed class-action suits against banks or credit card companies.

The rule would have addressed fine-print clauses that bank and credit card consumers must agree to which bar them from seeking redress through litigation.

The vote was criticised by many Democrats as a sop to Wall Street.
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Brexit to cost UK 10,000 finance jobs on day-1, 75,000 in all: BoE governor

Job losses totalling 75,000 in banking and insurance because of Brexit are "plausible", Bank of England Deputy Governor Sam Woods said on Wednesday.

Woods told British lawmakers that the 65,000 to 75,000 estimate was drawn up by consultants Oliver Wyman and not the Bank of England, but that it was within a "plausible range of scenarios".

Woods also told a House of Lords committee that it was reasonable to expect that the UK financial sector will have lost about 10,000 jobs on "day one" of Brexit when Britain leaves the European Union in March 2019.

"It's a moving feast," Woods said.

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China's top lenders see growth in Q3 net, tapering of bad loans

Four of China's 'Big Five' state-owned banks reported higher quarterly profits and slower growth in bad loans, helped by a resilient economy and checks on the shadow banking sector.

The improved results from top lenders in the world's second-largest economy come after successive interest rate cuts dented their interest margins - a key gauge of profitability - while loan defaults rose sharply among struggling borrowers.

The improvement has been aided by a cocktail of policy measures, such as debt-for-equity swaps for struggling state borrowers.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the country's top lender by assets, posted a 3.3 per cent rise in third-quarter net profit, versus flat growth a year-ago.

Agricultural Bank of China (AgBank), China Construction Bank (CCB) and Bank of Communications (BoCom) also reported faster quarterly profit growth than a year ago.

ICBC, CCB and AgBank also reported declines in their non-performing loan (NPL) ratios, as they dispose of more of their bad debt. A crackdown on unregulated shadow banking has also helped.

"The market has been talking about a potential Chinese banking crisis caused by NPLs since 2011," said Jiahe Chen, chief strategist at Cinda Securities. "But after seven years and banks' net assets increased by over 100 per cent, it's now one of the most worthwhile investable industries."
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Nepal's central bank issues alert as hackers target major pvt bank

Cybercriminals reportedly hacked into the electronic fund transfer system of a major private sector bank in Nepal, prompting the country's central bank to issue an alert, officials said on Tuesday.

According to the officials of the Nepal Rastra Bank, the country's central bank, hackers tried to make illegal payment worth millions of rupees from the bank accounts of NIC Asia Bank Ltd using the SWIFT electronic money transfer system.

The NRB, they said, has asked foreign central banks not to make any payments sought.

"It has been found that transactions of NIC Asia Bank have been carried out from various banks in six countries by hackers using SWIFT, an international banking network," said Rajendra Pandit, deputy spokesperson of the NRB.

"We have already requested the central banks in those countries to stop processing payments to the parties requested by the hackers. Even payments which have already been made are likely to be retrieved," Pandit said.

The hackers reportedly broke into the SWIFT system of the NIC Asia Bank and siphoned off an undisclosed amount last week during the Diwali holidays.

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Chinese regulators to rein in $3 trillion shadow banking industry

As a flood of unregulated cash swirls through the Chinese economy, Beijing has been taking aim at the trust companies whose unrestrained lending practices are worrying regulators.

The trusts, at the heart of a vast shadow banking industry, are being pressured to step up compliance and background checks, and are being pushed towards greater transparency.

But the fast-growing 20 trillion yuan ($3 trillion) industry, whose lending operations are cloaked behind opaque structures, will be tough to rein in, according to employees at some trusts.

A regulatory sanction against one trust, Shanghai International Trust, and a legal case against another, National Trust, offer rare insights into the industry, and reveals just how hard it will be to police it.

Shanghai Trust was fined 200,000 yuan for selling a product that violated leverage rules, according to a regulator's notice in January. Regulators provided no further details about the case. Under these rules, property developers are only allowed to borrow up to three times their existing net assets.
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US asks Pakistan's Habib Bank to shut shop over terror funding concerns

US banking regulators ordered Pakistan's Habib Bank to shutter its New York office after nearly 40 years, for repeatedly failing to heed concerns over possible terrorist financing and money laundering, officials said today.

Habib, Pakistan's largest private bank, neglected to watch for compliance problems and red flags on transactions that potentially could have promoted terrorism, money laundering or other illicit ends, New York banking officials said.

The state's Department of Financial Services, which regulates foreign banks, also slapped a $225 million fine on the bank, although that is much smaller than the $629.6 million penalty initially proposed.

Habib has operated in the United States since 1978, and in 2006 was ordered to tighten its oversight of potentially illegal transactions but failed to comply.

New York regulators said Habib facilitated billions of dollars of transactions with Saudi private bank, Al Rajhi Bank, which reportedly has links to al Qaeda, and failed to do enough to ensure that the funds were not laundered or used for terrorism.

"DFS will not tolerate inadequate risk and compliance functions that open the door to the financing of terrorist activities that pose a grave threat to the people of this State and the financial system as a whole," DFS Superintendent Maria Vullo said in a news release..

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Morgan Stanley to shift 200 jobs to Frankfurt, prepare for post-Brexit EU

Morgan Stanley has picked Frankfurt as a new temporary hub to operate in the European Union when Brexit takes effect, a person familiar with the situation said.

The New York investment bank will double staff in the German city from 200 to 400 in order to be ready to continue to operate in Europe by the March 2019 deadline for Brexit to take effect, the person said on Wednesday.

"It's a short-term solution," the person said, adding that Morgan Stanley executives continued to consider other cities for its long-term headquarters.

Morgan Stanley currently employs about 5,000 people in London but will relocate some traders as well as marketing and administrative staff to Frankfurt.

The bank also plans to shift a smaller number of banking and trader jobs to Paris, Dublin, Madrid and Milan, the person said.

Morgan Stanley plans to later take a decision on the permanent headquarters for the EU operations. French President Emmanuel Macron, among other European leaders, has been actively trying to lure bankers to Paris for the post-Brexit era.

Frankfurt has already been picked as the EU headquarters by Standard Chartered and Nomura.

JPMorgan Chase has transferred hundreds of jobs to Dublin but has not announced plans for a permanent headquarters for the EU.

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RBI should move towards a lower rate regime: Mayuresh Joshi

Latest News - As transmission of the 175 bps rate cuts done by the RBIRBI so far, is beginning to pick up steam, key data-points are expected to be on RBI's side, says Mayuresh Joshi, Fund Manager, Angel Broking in an interview with Pranati Deva. He also adds that benchmark indices can witness a growth of around 12% in the next 15-18 months. Edited excerpts

Do you believe this budget has created enough space for the RBI to move into a low interest rate regime domain?

The government’s borrowing program seems be suggest that the RBI should have ample room to move on the liquidity front. With Inflation - especially core CPI inflation - expected to remain in the (Read More)