Two years ago, the House of Lords looked into whether the Bank of England should issue digital pounds to be held in electronic wallets. Peers were unconvinced, asking if this wasn’t “a solution in search of a problem”. Last December, MPs on the Treasury select committee said the same thing. The government’s response, however, was to tell the public to prepare for a “Britcoin” to be in use by the end of the decade. Physical money has been around for thousands of years for good reason. Cash is convenient, reliable and…
Tag: Banking
China announces 0.5% cut in banks’ minimum reserves
China’s central bank announced a surprise cut to the amount of cash that banks must hold in reserve on Wednesday, hoping to boost the lending available to households and businesses as policymakers try to steer the economy through a fragile recovery. Pan Gongsheng, the governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), said that the reserve requirement ratio would be cut by 0.5% from 5 February, the deepest cut to the rate since December 2021. The move will allow around 1tn yuan (£110.8bn) to be released in the form of…
Chinese shadow bank admits £30bn shortfall after ‘management ran wild’
One of China’s biggest financial conglomerates with links to the country’s ailing property market has admitted a shortfall of nearly £30bn as it warned investors that it is “severely insolvent”. Zhongzhi, an asset and wealth management company in China’s shadow banking sector, said its total assets amounted to 200bn yuan (£22.5bn) against obligations of up to 460bn yuan, in a letter to shareholders issued on Wednesday. In the letter, the company blamed its brewing insolvency crisis on the departure of several senior executives, which left a situation in which “internal…
Ransomware attack on China’s biggest bank disrupts US Treasury market
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China’s US arm was hit by a ransomware attack that disrupted trades in the US Treasury market on Thursday, the latest in a string of victims ransom-demanding hackers have claimed this year. ICBC Financial Services, the US unit of China’s largest commercial lender by assets, said it was investigating the attack that disrupted some of its systems, and making progress toward recovering from it. China’s foreign ministry said on Friday the lender was striving to minimise risk impact and losses after the attack. “ICBC…
Banks pumped more than $150bn in to companies running ‘carbon bomb’ projects in 2022
Banks pumped more than $150bn last year into companies whose giant “carbon bomb” projects could destroy the last chance of stopping the planet heating to dangerous levels, the Guardian can reveal. The carbon bombs – 425 extraction projects that can each pump more than one gigaton of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere – cumulatively hold enough coal, oil and gas to burn through the rapidly dwindling carbon budget four times over. Between 2016 and 2022, banks mainly in the US, China and Europe gave $1.8tn in financing to the companies…
High interest rates help double HSBC profits
HSBC will hand more than $3bn (£2.5bn) to shareholders, after higher interest rates helped to more than double quarterly profits, despite taking a financial hit on China’s property crisis. The London-headquartered bank said it was launching the share buyback, and pay a dividend worth 10 cents a share, after what its chief executive, Noel Quinn, hailed as “three consecutive quarters of strong financial performance”. The move came as HSBC revealed it had made $7.7bn in pre-tax profits between July and September. While it fell short of average analyst forecasts for…
Former Bank of China boss arrested on corruption charges
China has arrested the former head of one of the country’s largest commercial banks on charges of accepting bribes and illegally granting loans, amid a two-year anti-corruption drive targeting the financial sector. China’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), which is investigating corruption within the ruling Communist party, said on Monday that Liu Liange had been arrested, after announcing the start of the investigation in March. President Xi Jinping has made fighting corruption a key part of his political project as he has cemented his position as paramount leader. A…
HSBC executive apologises for calling UK weak over China
A senior executive at HSBC has apologised after saying the “weak” UK government had caved in to the US in its approach to doing business with China. Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, the bank’s head of public affairs and a former British diplomat, said sorry after “sharing his personal views” on Britain’s policy towards Beijing at a private event, a spokesperson for HSBC said. They added that Cowper-Coles’s comments were made under the Chatham House rule, a longstanding convention that means those in attendance cannot attribute remarks at an event to individual…
How war in Taiwan could mean the wheels come off the UK economy
As the world struggles with the economic fallout from the Ukraine war, fears are mounting about a conflict that would be even more consequential: a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Last week, Taiwan’s foreign minister said he was preparing for the possibility of a conflict with China in 2027, and a leaked memo from a four-star US general said his “gut” told him the US – which is committed to defending Taiwan – would be at war with China in 2025. The UK foreign secretary warned last week that such a…
Missing Chinese billionaire banker Bao Fan assisting authorities in investigation, company says
The Chinese billionaire tech banker Bao Fan, who was reported missing 10 days ago, is cooperating with Chinese authorities conducting an investigation, a China-based boutique bank has said. It is the first time China Renaissance Holdings has given a reason for the disappearance of its founder and chairman, though no details about the investigation were shared. “The board would like to reiterate that the business and operations of the group are continuing normally,” the bank said in the exchange filing on Sunday. Reuters previously reported, citing sources, that authorities took…