Headlines

When central banks in the US, the UK and elsewhere in Europe announced plans to pump trillions of dollars into their economies in the wake of the global financial crisis, their aim was to stave off financial collapse, the Financial Times reported. But quantitative easing, the process in which central banks create new money and use it to buy government debt and other assets from banks to lower interest rates, has had significant unintended consequences for large investors.

Tens of thousands of British coal miners have lost their jobs in recent decades, during the steep decline of an industry that stoked the nation’s industrial rise, sustained it through two world wars and once employed more than one million people. Chris Jamieson will be one of the very last. In December, his job is set to disappear when Kellingley colliery, Britain’s last deep coal mine, is scheduled to close for good. In the mine’s empty parking lot, Mr. Jamieson, 50, is already thinking about the moment in a few weeks’ time when the last group of miners is hauled to the surface.

Japan’s central bank said on Friday that the economic outlook was worsening, but its governor said that the stimulus measures already in place, while slow to take effect, were enough for now. Even with the benchmark interest rate at virtually zero and the bank already buying up trillions of yen of government debt, some economists had expected the bank to ratchet up its efforts in response to a softening Japanese economy. But the Bank of Japan’s rate-setting board voted 8 to 1 to leave its monetary program unchanged.

The Karlsruhe, Germany-based communications business Comsoft has declared itself insolvent. The specialist in air traffic control and air traffic management software is well known as a solution provider in the market and provides air navigation systems and services to civil and military air traffic control authorities. In addition, a satellite communications technology subsidiary – Comsoft Satellite Services – in which Comsoft holds a 60 per cent stake filed for insolvency on the same day – October 23.

The wealth-management products that banks sell at branches across China are often considered as safe as deposits by customers. There are growing reasons to question that faith, Bloomberg News reported. The ability of Chinese lenders’ $2.4 trillion of WMPs to generate the returns they promise is being undermined as monetary easing has pushed corporate bond yields to a five-year low.

Ukraine’s Western allies are preparing to accelerate planned changes to the International Monetary Fund’s lending policies to prevent Russia from stymieing the country’s $25 billion financial rescue package, The Wall Street Journal reported. Ukraine’s economy has suffered drastically over the past year or so, in large part due to a still-simmering conflict with Russia-backed separatists in the east. The Kremlin has rejected Ukraine’s invitation to participate in a debt restructuring, and Kiev has said it won’t be able to pay all of the $3 billion due to Moscow by the end of the year.

Deutsche Bank said on Thursday that it planned to cut as many as 35,000 jobs through internal cuts and the sale of businesses over the next two years as part of an overhaul by John Cryan, the bank’s new co-chief executive, to simplify the lender and improve its returns, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. As part of its revamping, the German bank, which has a big presence on Wall Street, plans to shut its operations in 10 countries, cut the numbers of its investment banking customers in half and modernize its technology.

Barclays said on Thursday that it expected to spend an additional 1 billion pounds, or about $1.5 billion, over the next three years to meet new regulatory requirements intended to shield its retail customers from other parts of the bank during any future financial crisis, the International New York Times reported. The British bank cut its profitability target for 2016, saying that the coming structural changes required by regulators in Britain and in the United States would drag on its results. The changes include the so-called ring-fencing of its retail operations in Britain.

Alberta lost 63,500 jobs in the first eight months of this year, according to government data, showing the toll weak oil prices have had on the western province, The Globe and Mail reported. The losses were the largest since the global economic crisis when the province shed 72,500 jobs over the same period in 2009. Combined with the slump in employment, the average weekly pay in Alberta fell 2.6 per cent to $1,129 in the 12 months ended in August, according to Statistics Canada’s survey of employment, payrolls and hours.

Britain’s ‘bad bank’, which is running down the loans of two bailed out lenders, said it repaid £500 million to the government in the six months ended September, the Irish Times reported. UK Asset Resolution Ltd (UKAR), a state-run ‘zombie bank’ that does not take on new business, said it had now returned £14.6 billion, or 30 per cent of the loan to the government. The bank said it had reduced the size of its balance sheet by £8.5 billion during the period.